Author: JoeO

Powered Paraglider pilot since 2005

#187 Monument Valley Quick Abort

The drive from Saint George to Monument was a little over 5 hours. I decided to let the GPS pick the fastest route which ended up taking me through Zion National Park. Beautiful drive and amazing terrain but on Sat in August it was a bit of a traffic jam. I made the mistake of stopping at a tourist Rock shop and buying gifts for the family and store. Very cool stuff but almost non of it came from the area. I’ve seen the same inventory in gift shops and mineral shops all over the world. Ah Well. I did need the petrified shark teeth for awards durning the Commodores Ball. I finally got thru the park and arrived at Gouldings Trading Post about 5:30pm. After making arrangements I drove down to the airstrip and pulled out a wing.

The wind was blowing so I kited for 70 minutes before it came down enough to attempt a launch. Sometimes the wing would come up and hang there like an obedient puppy and other times one side would collapse and the wing might or might not be recovered. So…

I launched and decided almost immediately that it was time to land. The wind was popping me up and down slewing me to the right so I continued the turn and set down almost right where I has started. The Google image (dark Blue Line) shows very clearly the track bouncing around. I might have been able to climb into smoother air but I had not sent up any test balloons because I didn’t think the Navajo would appreciate it…so I really didn’t know if the air was going to get better or worse at altitude.

That night, I had dinner in the Lodge and said hello to a group of Italian families. It made me smile to think it had just been two months earler that Vivi and her family were doing the same thing with us in Riminni.

#185 & #186 Back to Saint George

Great Fun!

I got into Saint George about 5pm and it was blowing like hell. I decided it wasn’t going to be flyable and got into the Motel routine. Sure as heck by the time I’d had something to eat and was crawling into the hot tub…the wind had come down the clouds had parted and it was beautiful calm air. I smiled got into the tub and enjoyed a Utah classic sunset.

The road work is complete so we were able to get started 30 minutes earlier. This time we flew from the old airstrip that had been taken over by the RC club. Mark and I flew together for about 45 minutes. We come from the same school of Flying because we kept in touch but kept our distance. The air was calm and except for the one time I flew thru my own prop wash there wasn’t a bump. I ranged in a rectangle about 5 miles by 3 miles checking out the edge of the city a river and alfalfa field. The air strip is supposed to be reactivated sometime in the next couple of years but I have a feeling that they will let us keep flying if Mark plays his cards right.

During the second flight I did several touch and goes and practiced my low and slow, using lots of power and brakes. Very nice morning….

Flight #184 Las Vegas

Awesome Flight that I wasn’t sure I was going to get to take…

I found a housing development that had been put on hold by the housing crisis. The area was graded and there were fist sized rocks and some construction material to avoid but certainly not a show stopper. The dawn wind was a showstopper… there was no way I was going to be able to fly in this wind. So… I decided to go back and was ready to leave when the wind died to nothing. I don’t know why I was amazed, it’s pretty common for there to be a fresh breeze right at dawn. I think I had resolved to not fly and I was having a hard time getting psyched all over again. After launching 4 balloons and convincing myself there weren’t any crazy rotors coming off the tops …I turned back to the South end of the site.
I was confronted by the security guard but he was an ex PPC pilot and after pulling my chain a bit, said go for it, and chatted me up while I set the wing. The first take off was aborted when my wingtip got a little cravat and the second was entertaining because I had to pop the brakes to miss getting corn holed by a 24 inch piece of re bar sticking out of the earth.

I flew along the ridge line climbing along the way. There were some cool red rock formations that looked like some kind giant fungus …growing on the mountain.
The kicker was having a small private jet cross my path about 1000 feet in front and 200 feet below me. It happened so fast that I didn’t have time to be spooked. I turned away and climbed to avoid any chance of getting into his jet wash. Looking at the GPS track is apparent that he was following the slope of the foothills on a glide into LV International. I think we were both legal but he was sure flying low and fast. Next time I fly a major market …I’ll get and read the sectional.

Flight #182 & #183 Saint George Utah

Saint George Utah

Mark Lanthum hosted my flights. We met in front of the Motel district a little after 5am and I followed him out to the field. We had to take the back way (lots of country back roads) because they are working on the main water line. Thanks to GPS tracks I’ll be able to find it again because I was blindly following his tail lights most of the time.

The LZ is a big open area with lots of hard pack earth. Off to the NW about a half mile is an old landing strip that has been taken over by the local RC club. I did a short flight to check the 155 jet. After 15 minutes I landed and checked the plug. Thinking it was a little hot I tried the 160 and 165 which made the motor run terribly. So back to the 155 and it ran great for the 45 minute flight that followed. This is a great place. beautiful vistas and a huge area to practice the “low and slow.

# 181 UNGROUNDED !


Stefania was quick to jump out of bed at 5 am and we were at the field before 6. It was dead calm when we pulled in and 2 minutes later it was 10 mph from the west! Eventually the wind came down and I set-up …looking good with the new cage and the oh so sexy new simitar prop.

When I was reassembling the trike I set the thrust line a little higher than it was and it caused the wing to catch in the prop wash at the 10 O’Clock position. I didn’t reset but let the prop fill the wing and restarted without getting out of my seat. It looked bad but I was able to recover from the wing falling off to the right …so far that the tip almost touched the ground. Finally it stablized and I got in a nice 40 minute flight.

Very smooth and even flew with the foot steering while I took a few pictures. There is a big sign up that the property is available so it won’t be long before I’m looking for a new site.

Rollover !




Sunday July 27, 2008

I screwed up…Basically… before getting to all the gory details I attempted a flight in high winds and tried to save the launch when I should have aborted. At first I thought it was curtains for the trike buggy but I think I’m going to get away with buying a new cage and prop. It’s a good thing too, because I’m leaving for Los Vegas in a week and it would be a real expensive push to build up a new machine with all new parts in just a week.

Now for the details…at 6 am the wind was 7 to 10 mph so I pulled out the 26 meter glider and kited. After adjusting the harness that I’d just got back from Tim Goldstein I was flying the wing like old times. Better in fact, when Marek pulled up at 7:00 I had the wing up and flew it for a good five minutes. I was getting it to recover from oscillations that would have been impossible a couple of years ago. The 26 seems very easy to muscle around and after today I’ve decided that it would be a good idea to have Michelle inspect it. It may be bagged out and I wonder about it’s porosity. Well, Marek went up and landed almost immediately complaining that the combination of wind and the loaner Spice he was flying were “no fun at all”. I should have taken the hint but the wind was coming down and it looked flyable. I set up and blew the first launch. So I tried again and never did get the wing under control. I had the trimmers out about an inch on each side but the wing still came up like a rocket. It overshot so I pulled brake and added throttle, the ground was pretty bumpy and sometimes it takes a kick to get the buggy rolling.
This time the buggy took off just fine…probably a little to fast. The wing did a little jog to the left I corrected with some brake and maybe some turn …then it did a big jog to the right and just kept going. I felt the left wheel start to lift and thought I would be able to stop it with my foot but before I could get my foot out it was too far over so I stayed in the machine and we rolled about 160 degrees. I’m sure that I could have aborted and saved the rig because the roll was very slow…but…I think I forgot the difference between muscling the wing while on foot compared with trying to launch a trike in 5+mph winds. I’m sure it would have been easer on a nice smooth surface. At least I could have had a little more control of the speed of the buggy.

I climbed out, checked myself over and was feeling pretty good about having escaped without any injuries. Marek ran over and we looked appraised the damage to the trike . I thought the whole frame was tweaked and it looked like nothing short of a new frame and cage was going to work. The power loops were all akimbo and the prop was sticking through the webbing on the top cage. When I got back to the house I pulled the cage and looked it over again, after talking to Chad I decided to order the parts and get the buggy working rather than build a whole new trike. The prop has a bad crack straight across the blade which I’ll send to John Fetz for repair.

To add insult to injury the right top side of the wing was perforated by dozens of needle like pins from some kind of weed. It wasn’t a cactus and they were very fragile but stiff enough to penetrate the fabric.

179 & 180

#179 & 180 July 26th 2008
Simms
Two flights. It was nice to have the GPS and tach back. The air was humid and light fog was on the hills. As expected the take off run was longer than usual but it was very smooth once in the air. The screw-up of the day was when I took of without my helmet. About 20 minutes into the flight I felt my hat fly off. I immediately started a turn but I was never able to see the cap or where it went down. The funning thing was that I remembered saying to myself …”Damn you forgot to put on your sunglasses” …No I didn’t they were on the top of my favorite Mount Gay Hat. I dropped down and looked but no JOY.
The landing was great! I used more power and got deep into the brakes. I’m going to practice and learn the low and slow!
The second flight was short and mostly to practice the landings…It was ok but not as good as the first.

#178

Nice long flight! I think I have all my electrical issues resolved. First the new (used) Garmin 176-c arrived, second I installed the tiny tac that Matt gave me and last the starter battery took a charge when I remembered to open the circuit on the master panel.
The wind was light and variable…so variable that when I tried to launch it had shifted 180 degrees and I aborted after draging the wing downwind for half the field. Second attempt was fine and after a long runoutIwas up and cruising.
Nothing really to note except that I came in really hot…I glanced at the GPS and was doing 26 mph when I flared for touchdown.

#177 South Park ! over flight of home


I noticed that they have finally mowed South Park. So..last night, I went out and kited the 26 meter waiting for the wind to come down…it didn’t.

This morning I woke without the alarm and was at the field by 6. Light wind from the SW and an easy launch. It was a bit disconcerting because there are so many structures and so few emergency landing sites…and wires everywhere! I circled the field until I was at 1000 feet and then flew east to my house. The wind was definitely stronger aloft but since I was going cross wind it went fairly fast. I took a couple of pictures of the house and turned back to the field.

I was planning to fly over to Vivien’s but there were two white vehicles blocking my truck at the field and from a distance they sure looked official! I spiraled down and took two passes at the LZ before I was in a good glide slope and then landed in the middle of the field. The vehicles turned out to be a couple of guys wanting to learn more which was a relief but it did cut the flight short.

Fagawie 2008


The fifth annual Fagawie went of without a hitch. Beautiful moon with just enough clouds to make it interesting. Five boats rafted up prior to the race and shared a potluck dinner. The start was very light windsa and I was 3 minutes late getting to the line…after a sail change to the new drifter I took off and had caught up with the fleet at the first mark. From 2 to 4 I was feeling good about my choice of sails but by the time I rounded 5 it was building to the limit of it’s rating. After the downwind run back to 2 I decided it was way too much and doused sails to return to the marina and pick up Joe Aiello and Tom. For whatever reason they didn’t show so I changed into long pants, reefed the main a put up the jib.

Good choice! The rest of ther night went fast! Strong winds and a beautiful night. Every once in awhile a cold breeze would come thru followed by a warm one. I chased Bruce Budy for about two hours before finally catching him at mark 5. It was perfect, I ran south as far as I could when he decided to tack to the mark, he ended up tacking three times and I only tacked once. When we got to the mark he was going slow and pinching and I was on a beam reach and hauling. As he rounded I cut inside and blew by. Bruce called, “out well done!” and we raced back to 2. Later he passes me on a reach but I coasted by at the finish…so I won before the handicap which was of course reversed by the PHRF. The real winner was Joe and Denise Chinburg who really raced well and didn’t miss a stroke. We celebrated after the race with a breakfast at IHOP.