Author: JoeO

Powered Paraglider pilot since 2005

#290 & 291 Last day of Paramotor City Fly-In

Lots of flights
The first flight was with the Eden III and it was absolutely the longest take off I’ve ever had. I rolled almost the whole length of the field at what should have been a sufficient take off speed, eventually pulling some brake when it looked like I might run out of field. The climb was slow but “It’s All Good”.

Second flight I used the Power Play and the take off was faster. I concentrated on keeping a little more brake pressure and sure enough the turns were much better and I felt much more in command of the wing. I remember Eric Dufore telling me once. The wing does not fly you…YOU FLY THE WING. I’ve decided to keep it because the problem wasn’t with the Power Play…just the way I was flying it.

Keven Kelsey and I flew side by side for awhile but I was considerably faster so it didn’t last long. This flight I made it a point to fly the Rio and stay low enough to take in the detail. It’s dry right now but you could see that when its running, it goes fast and is chewing away at the sides. There were huge land falls where thousands of tons of earth had fallen this spring.

The air was so still that the only place you would notice a bump was near the LZ and that was from other pilots stirring up the air.

X-Country & Luau

Wild Horse Canyon Cross Country
#289

Virga on three sides

Up early to a beautiful but scary sky. There was virga popping out on three sides. The local guys were advising to launch but be ready to turn back or set down if it started to get rowdy. I launched and went high quickly. There were two groups of three below and I would overshoot them circled around and stay on their 6. I can hardly wait till I’ve a little more time on the Thumper because I missed the boat as far as scenery goes. From 200 feet it was spectacular but from 2000 feet It’s not that impressive. I could tell Bubba’s group was in the weeds from the way they were turning around every feature. I was a little concerned that I would not have enough gas and flew the plan which was get high and if I ran out I would be able to glide to a place where I could be easily picked up. As it turned out I didn’t burn as much as I thought but when I looked at the tank it was damn low. My mistake was not realizing that since the buggy was at an angle the gas tank was tilted to the back making it look lower than it was.

When I got back to the field I was still way up there

Lava Canyon

John Black surprised me by taking his girl friend for a mid afternoon tandem ride. After his speech at the Salton Sea I thought he would mellow out. Oh Well He is the pilot in command and a very talented one at that. Good Luck to you John.

The afternoon was Debbie’s famous Amazing Competitions. We had a water balloon fight and the highlight was the Spam toss. I got pegged by a balloon right in the camera pouch which ended the great life of my little Cannon…oh well?

That evening was the big Luau dinner, Michelle and CC went all out. There was a traditional pork dish, potatoes, shrimp, and a chocolate & fruit fountain. The band played and Michelle gave a short but emotional speech that had an underlying message that I’m not sure that I caught. I hope there are no major changes in the air for Paramotor City! It was a great evening These people are family and I’m proud to be “one of the cousins”.

#287 & #288

Good long Flight. I climbed 2000 feet and had a great time carving with the Eden. The 4 stroke is doing well and as long as I’m patient it will get me as high as I care to go. The climb rate with the Eden is just a tad better than the Power Play and I can feel a difference being 1000 feet lower than when I fly at Springs East.

The second flight was sweet, I stayed up until it started to get active and really noticed it on landing.
The afternoon was spent getting a shower at the Casino Truck Stop and hanging around the Pavilion catching up with Jim King…Jim Doyle…Ike and the gang. Jim D. helped me out with my two meter and ended up lending me a FRS and headset for the X-Country tomorrow. It was blowing hard all afternoon so I chilled in the tent reading and watching the windsock.

We had a great Pizza Dinner and listened to the Route 66 band …I would have stayed longer because they were playing all my favorites from the “bad ol days” …songs like Mustang Sally but I need to get some sleep if I was going to be able to wake up for the X-Country.

Paramotor City Fly-In #286

Kevin on the edge of the Rio Puerco

I was out of the house by 4:30am and heading south with gloomy skies and a similar mindset. Massive losses and fraud have certainly proved that you cannot count on the future being as expected. BUT…As I cleared Raton Pass the clouds lifted and so did my spirits. I made great and was at Paramotor City by early afternoon. Keven Kelsey has staked me out a great tent site between two box trailers right on the flight line. Thanks Man ! First thing I did was give a big hug to Michelle who took my Eden and replaced the frayed “C” line. She told me to kite it and check that everything was alright. Good advice because the “C” was crossed under one of the “D’s” and had to be restrung.

After walking the field and checking out the “Rio” Kevin and I hooked up with ?Doug? and went to the casino for an early dinner at Johnny Rockets. Doug is a aircraft accident investigator with many decades of experience and Keven has been around aviation most of his life so they had lots in common and plenty of good stories. I was more than happy to sit and soak it up.

The winds were strong but came down nicely about 30 minutes before sunset. I launched without trouble and did a nice 45 minute exploratory flight. Amazing that I had flown here two years ago with the Simonini Buggy and didn’t get the lay of the land. The Rio Puerco twists North to South through the basin on either side of Paramotor City. There is a great RC airport North West which is off limits and a housing development to stay clear of but other than that it’s pretty much free air. The light was great so I took a few pictures and landed.


After packing up I discovered that the Route 66 guys had put together a pot luck with Pizza and various goodies. I regretted the earlier burger because they were certainly eating better than we did.

Vance Brand #285

The Weatherman got part of it right.
At 5:30am the air was barely moving from the W.N.W. but instead of a cloud base of 12,000 it was more like 6,500. I turned on the strobes and launched at a quarter till 6. The air was mixing but not terrible. I went south and west for about 45 minutes and returned when it started to get rowdy.
The cloud cover and rising sun made for some great light on Longs Peak

It has been awhile since I was here and the grass has grown allot. I was luck to find this personal runway heading just 10 degrees off the wind. On landing I overflew “my spot” by 30 feet but greased the “runway nicely.

Marek…Robert…and his new student Norm arrived about 7. They all got in several short flights lasting till 9am when we packed up to leave. Nobody stayed up long because the wind was building and while it wasn’t bumpy … it wasn’t butter either. Norm had his second flight and launched the first time with a very nice reverse. Tracy was with Marek and he is starting ground handling.


Just as I was returning home Marek called and said there was somebody flying over by Lucent and C-470. We were both curious because it was now after 11 and thermic as hell. I drove down there and caught the landing. The guy’s name is Bruce, he has been flying for 7 or 8 years and is free flight trained. He had flown over to the South Park site to take pictures of the ground breaking for the new church. We will be able to fly out of there for a couple more weeks but there goes another good site.

East Springs Airport *** Flight #283 & #284

East Springs Airport

Is a little farther east than Meadow Lake or the Soccer LZ but it’s a nice place to fly. There is one long North West runway with a dirt taxi way. The only people flying were us…no ultralights and no GA, just Matt…Kevin…Jerry…Alex…John…Shad and I with a half a dozen spectators thrown in for spice.


There was a fresh 5 to 8 mph breeze from the north, I set-up and was off the ground 5 minutes after arriving. I’ve been looking forward to flying here because I wanted to try the Eden III 28m at altitude and knew that I would need a long smooth place with lots of room for the climb-out and this was perfect. Even with a nice headwind the climb was poor. Never over 1oo ft/min and on the second launch I was only 25 ft/ min for a long time.

But …the Eden III was wonderful!
I could feel the wing so much better and the turns were smooth and much tighter. I didn’t try any hard carving but was able to get into nice banking turns with moderate brake. I expected that I would have to use a huge amount of brake pressure …thats what I remembered from the last flight at the Salton Sea, but it wasn’t much different than flying the Simonini. It just felt good and I’m going to hurry and get a new high altitude wing.


If I’m going to fly the Eden I’m going to need to lengthen the hang straps enough for the trimmers to be above the hang point. I wasn’t able to let them out today because they were friction locked on the safety webbing.

I spent an hour flying a right hand pattern around the airport… running south at 45 mph and then doing a low and slow into the wind above the taxiway. I never got really low because of ground turbulence but it was good practice. For a little while I chased a pronghorn and two coyotes but the real excitement came after the flying was over.

The second flight was short and sweet. I launched with Kevin’s help into 8 to 10 mph wind. The Eden came up clean and after clearing the north end of the runway I hauled ass back to the south end. It was blowing much stronger a couple of hundred feet up and it looked like it was going to continue to build so I turned for final. The landing was great, not exactly vertical but I was modulating the throttle and activly flying the wing to keep into the wind and under the wing. After I killed the motor I sat in the buggy and kited for awhile. Unfortunently I was paying so much attention to the wing that I didn’t notice that I was rolling backward. The next thing I knew the buggy was being hauled to the right by Kevin and the wing was pulling to the right.

the wing won…and I rolled over.

I should have killed the wing as soon as possible but I don’t think I realized how strong the wind was and it’s probable that I would have experienced a real incident if I’d yanked on the brakes. I hate to think what would have happened if I’d been flying the PowerPlay. I remember a couple of times that when I went to delate the wing the brakes would go so far and then no amount of pressure would buy me more imput.

Thanks Kevin…I didn’t realize the situation I’d put myself in … your quick action turned it into a so-mo roll instead of serious damage.

Terry…Your cage is stronger than I thought…it wasn’t misshapen at all!

Flight 282 South Park

South Park
This is a difficult field. There are tall power lines to the west and buildings to the north. The weeds are getting high and if you do not get off quickly the field drops off dramatically at the south end. The first launch was a bust when the wing over shot and the second was ugly when I had to recover the wing from wild swings with both tips touching the ground.
I’m going to take a wrap next time and see if the problem is the brake lines are too long. the landing was similar to the fiasco at the Salton Sea, I bounced and did a wheelie. The problem was that the field is short and I was trying to land as close to the front edge as possible unfortunately there isn’t allot of room to make a shallow approach. I came in steep at idle and looking back I should have added power during the final. When I pulled brake it felt very hard and I would have like another 6 inches of travel.
John Sieb was also out …he got off a few minutes before me and took off to the foothills. I flew back to the house and landed fairly quickly. The winds were picking up and it was not comfortable around the LZ. My climb was 100 ft / minute and when I was circling the field looking to land I didn’t like the fact that I didn’t have a good alternative if things went bad.This place is best flown by getting high and getting away. And only when the winds are out of the south. It sure is close to the house and I’d love to fly here more often but I’m going to have to be really careful.

Colorado Springs PPG Sites

This is a list of sites in the Colorado Springs area. Thanks to the PPPPG Club

Calhan Airport Northeast side of landing strip. Camping is OK.
Springs East Airport Southeast side of landing strip. Camping is OK.
Meadow Lake Airport Southeast side of airport. Camping is OK.
Falcon Wal-Mart 1/2 mile south of Wal-Mart, in Falcon.
Jimmy Creek 5 miles east of Hwy 24, on Hwy 94. North side.
Marksheffel North North side of Woodmen and Marksheffel intersection.
Marksheffel South 1/2 mile south of Woodmen on Marksheffel. West side of road.
St Francis Hospital Southeast side of hospital in fields.
Cowpoke 1/2 mile west of Black Forest on Cowpoke Rd. Enter from Tutt Road off of Wooden Rd.
Flea Market 1 mile west of Power on the Platte. South side of the road. West of the flea market.
Centennial & Fillmore 100 yards south of Fillmore on Centennial. East side of road.
Baptist Rd & I25 1/2 mile west of I-25 in Baptist Rd. South side of road.
Garden of the Gods Open field on front of Rock Ledge Ranch. West of 30th, south of GOG’s east entrance.

Flight #281 Falcon Colo.

Good Morning !

Light Winds 47 degrees Blue Skies
I left Denver at 5:30 and drove down to the Soccer LZ by Falcon on the North East side of Colorado Springs. John Black passed me with a big smile just before I arrived. It’s a pretty good LZ but there are a few challenges: tall power lines to the south and the road and lines to the north. The field is great with hard pack and astro turf. There is a cut in the fence to the left of the locked gate but it is a bear getting the Thumper over the berm. As luck would have it as soon as John Kevin and I finished lugging the Thumper, a lady came along and unlocked the gate for us. The winds were light from the South West. Kevin and John took off quickly and I blew my first attempt.

BUT… It was a good thing because I have finally discovered why I’ve been blowing so many launches. My A lines are getting caught on the bottom of the line guides. It is going to be easy to fix by using the guides or taping the bottom so that they will not catch the lines. I climbed to 1000 feet and watched John carve it up. Lots of open area for low and slow with a great view of Pikes Peak. I stayed up 35 to 40 minutes and landed when my hands started to get really cold. The wind had picked up some and was more from the South but the landing was smooth.

Great Air and a beautiful morning. Kevin landed and went up again to mark his 300th flight. John also launched for a quickie but it was a strange launch because one of his trimmers was out and the wing was giving him fits. I thought he was trying to do a cross wind take-off and it took a long time for him to get off the ground. He figured it out after running halfway down the soccer field and adjusted with more left brake.

Congratulations Kevin ! …

We talked about the Rocky Mountain Balloon Festival and he thought it was still on but after checking the web site I confirmed that it is definitely cancelled this year. The site says that they will return next year in partnership with another Festival Promoter…Big Words…I hope they can do it.

The ride home took an extra 30 minutes because VP Joe Biden was speaking to the Air Force Academy Graduation and they were stopping traffic until he passed.

# 280 Simms

Beautiful Morning…
65 degrees at 5:30 with light westerly breeze.

I didn’t plan on it but I woke early and it looked good so I went for it.
The launch was better because I found a nice smooth area on the North East end of the field. It makes all the difference when I can get a little momentum built up. The wing had a hard time getting fully inflated perhaps I was a little cross to the wind or it was different 20 feet above the buggy but eventually the right wingtip snapped out and all was good.
I’m going to talk to Terry today and discuss the hard left turns and general sluggishness of the PP Sting. I think there may be some torque issues and I’ll ask what kind of tests I can do to figure out whats going on.
The new leash isn’t secure enough to hold the throttle by the cruise knob so I’ll swap it for a beaner or clip of some kind.