Category: Hairy Flight

Monument Valley 09 Friday

Friday Johnny Fetz & his “Junk Buggy”

The “Epic Flight”

The first take-off was difficult. I set-up at the North East part of the runway by the hanger. It was an uphill take off and my climb was just barely enough to overcome the the grade of the runway. I cleared the fence at the end of the runway by two feet and turned North where I skimmed the surface for 100 yards before starting to climb. The go…no go point came after lift-off when I was climbing ok, then I hit some sink and and my climb went to hell. Aborting would have been “absolutely bad”, I was committed and had to fly it out, even if I was just going to fly to the crash site. I felt sure that I that I would clear the fence but the terrain West was not a good place to touch down and I was “puckered” to the buggy for awhile. At 1200 ft. the air calmed down and I set off for the Monuments. When I arrived at “lookout point” I turned to Sentinel Mesa and made a slow turn to take some pictures. Absolutely beautiful! I could look into the Valley of the Gods to the South, across to Brigham’s Tomb to the North and back to Gouldings in the West. Later when I was back over the field I resisted landing and loitered over the field for a long time watching the activity below.
That morning and through the afternoon the whole gang showed, Jeff Goin had the top RV spot and Carlos Segnini with his crew were down the hill just south of us. Luc and the Russians were on top and Ola and Faith were in a cabin on the edge. We spent the afternoon hanging around the campsite talking PPG. It was all about Jeff’s upcoming video on Mastering PPG and John Fetz new kevlar prop, where we had flown and where we would like to go. I sat there by my tent, taking it all in and watched my wind indicator as it danced to all four points of the compass. The sky was filled with big puffy clouds that were tinged red on the bottom, reflecting the color of the earth below. It was a great relaxing afternoon.
The evening flights were bumpy but good. I launched during a calm moment between the puffs and only flew for a short time staying close to the LZ. Anyway, it was much more entertaining at the airstrip. Chad was demonstrating the his new ultralite wing, it weighs 5 pounds and kites like nothing I’ve ever seen. Chad was playing it up big, strolling around and occasionally reaching out to tug on a riser making like he wasn’t paying any attention to the wing at all. The hook-in is designed low and the risers are very different, like braided kevlar lines rather than conventional webbing with mallions. I would have loved to fly it but it’s far too small for my rig.


Toward the end we had some excitement, one trike was flipped launching in a puff and another fellow got dumped when he was whacked coming in on final with power off landing. The last part of the video was Beery getting dumped by a rotor at the same place I had a hard time climbing out.

//www.youtube.com/get_player

Video by Fait Wesstrom

Other pilots showed considerable skill and patience waiting for the right moment to set down. I was really impressed by Perry Molter who made several passes before he committed and landed on the runway with an amazingly clean and swift flare. There was other carnage that I didn’t see, but heard about later. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt for which I’m thankful. Much like last year, the LZ was a free for all, but everybody seemed to be a bit more aware of the conditions and respected the site.


That evening Johnny and I shared dinner, his shredded pork and my Italian sausage, it was “wolf camping” at its best. Several of us sat around the campfire talking propeller design. Csaba Lemak of Electric PPG fame joined us and talked about some new products he is working on including a high quality composite prop that could be produced for a fraction of current manufacturing costs. Ivan kept things light trading jabs with Stann Honey and Mark Latham. Mark seems to be a much happier and healthier guy than the last time I saw him. I enjoyed his story of flying a glider up to 24,000ft riding the mountain wave.

I saw God Today #350 & #351 Chatfield

Lucky guy

Intermediate syndrome is an affliction that usually affects a pilot after 40 or 50 flights, or whenever they first start to feel good about their abilities.

It’s characterized by over confidence in both man and machine and it usually leads to a blunder that endangers life. It could present itself in any number of ways… an error in judgement, or a bad reaction to Mother Nature. It might be technique or a mechanical issue. Whatever the cause, if the pilot survives the incident…he should think real hard about either quitting or redoubling his efforts to improve.

It might be time to go to a maneuvers clinic or have some quality radio time with a good coach. It’s absolutely a good day to go over the machine and wing with a fine tooth comb.

Optimistically, there is an epiphany that stays with the pilot for the rest of their career, because on that day… the bag of luck is now half empty and the bag of experience is not yet full.

When I realized that my life was being supported by a glorified key

chain and some thin 1/2 inch webbing…

I thanked the Creator that I was still alive.

Then I looked for the best way,

to proceed to earth…

as directly as possible.

I’m still shaking my head trying to figure out how it happened.I attached the riser on the left side to the cheap plastic beaner that I use for the foot steering instead of connecting to the heavy stainless beaner that ties the wing to the buggy. I didn’t realize my mistake until I noticed that the foot steering cable was pressing against my left side. When I saw that the rig was being supported by a glorified key chain and thin 1/2 inch webbing…I couldn’t believe that I was still alive. Not only was the beaner unrated and not designed to carry a load, the loop it was attached to was loaded against the stitching. There were two places where a failure was imminent. Looking at the materials it should have failed when I loaded the wing before take-off …and… I wish it had. It would have been more dramatic and made a bigger impression but it wouldn’t have killed me. As it was a non-incident, I hope that the magnitude of the error sticks with me.

I had to get down …right now! I was 400 feet AGL and about the correct distance to glide back to the field, so I did a slow flat turn toward the field and landed without incident.

What were the causes that lead to this huge goof ?

1. I had switched to the Eden III which does not require the extra loop of webbing to get the hangpoint right. When it is configured this way the hangpoint loops are not long enough to reach the normal keeper on the bullet bars. So…I end up attaching the beaner to a loop on the foot steering for transport.

2. I must not have had enough coffee because it is almost impossible to imagine an alert mind attaching a plastic carabiner to the riser. It is so much more difficult to thread the correct carabiner that it should have set off alarms when that slim plastic beaner tip slipped through the loop so easily. The length was about right and when I pulled on the riser to take out any slack, it pulled the hangpoint loop just as if it were correctly attached.

I thought perhaps I should move the foot steering forward on the bullet bars to get them away from the hang point straps, but I don’t think I’ll do that. Having the webbing behind my shoulders is cleaner and I doubt I’ll ever look at the foot steering again without remembering the day I hung from a cheap 2 inch plastic carabiner.

This is the first real stupid mistake I’ve made in PPG and certainly the first one that endangered my life! I was deeply affected by the experience, and it was heavy on my mind for several days. I will strive to learn from this and be a more responsible pilot.

I vote for better pilot.

#348 & #349 Chatfield

This was an evening that just didn’t gel.

Conditions were good, light winds warm temp. It looked to be a perfect evening but I wasn’t comfortable in the air. My first launch looked like hell. As soon as I left the earth, the wing ( 28m Eden III ), was pulled hard to the left and then to the right. As I gained altitude it got bumpier and after a few laps around the field I landed. The second flight was a repeat of the first. I got the impression that no matter where I went …it was going to be turbulent.
Greg and Marek on the other hand stayed below 100 feet and they found the air to be just fine. I watched Greg yank and bank, practice swoops and dives and I just couldn’t figure why I found it to be so ratty.
The gradient had me beat.

#328 Simms

The low pressure is gone and we are enjoying a couple of days of “High Pressure System” Bliss. At 6:00am the wind was too high to fly but it came down nicely while I set up. Simms has dried out and there are patches where the grass/weeds are low enough to launch the trike.

The launch was allot like last night, I got up to speed and used a little brake to get me out of the weeds. Of course, when I do this I’m going to float at 5 feet for awhile before I start climbing. This time was no different except that I felt an obvious pull to the left. When I looked up there was a fairly large tumble weed caught in the lines, up high, near the left tip. I have no idea where it came from. I’d policed the area and relocated several large twigs during set up but somehow it found it’s way into my flight. I couldn’t tell for sure but it looked like it was distorting the lines and possibly drawing a few together. I noticed a slight pucker in the airfoil and that was enough to convince me to abort the flight.

The air was moderately bumpy, but I still took two laps before landing. The landings are getting better. I just have to really muscle the brake during the final flare.

#319 & #320 Simms

Two very short flights
I’m still trying to get a flight before the sun comes up. Yesterday it was the motor that delayed the launch and today it was the weather. When I got to the field the eastern horizon was just begging to show some color. I had 20-30 minutes before I could see enough to launch and it looked perfect, 65 degrees with calm air. While I was unloading the buggy, the wind started to build. I thought it was going to be the typical little gust front we get so often at sunrise, but it continued to build over the next half hour enough that I couldn’t even kite the wing without being lifted off my feet.So…I sat in the truck and listened to Jazz until 6:30 when it finally started to come down.
Now in full daylight, I launched to the west. The wing came up and the buggy didn’t move. I did the Fred Flintstone / toddler thing and got rolling. By now the wing had fallen off to the left but with some right brake and throttle I was able to recover even though the wingtip was touching the ground. It swung to the right 30 degrees, came back and stabilized. After that the take off was a breeze. Until…I got to 50 feet and encountered very strong turbulence. I could barely penetrate, maybe 5 mph forward and I was being bounced at about a 5 on the bump scale. So I crabbed around to the N. E. corner and landed by the truck. There was definitely a layer because as I descended the buggy started to pick up speed and the air smoothed out. The landing was clean and soft.
The second flight was no different except that the wind on the surface had dropped to 2 mph or less. I thought it had mellowed out but it was still too ratty for my taste. Perhaps I would have found good air at altitude but more likely I would have encountered increasingly higher winds. So… figuring discretion is the better part of valor I called it a day.

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.

265 266 Vance Brand Airport

Biggest gathering of Denver area Pilots in a couple of years.
Paul Meyer Paul Crazy Ivan Marek Dan Robert Kitilla His son Mark Bennet Some spectators and maybe one or two who’s names I cannot recall.
Plus that’s not all…Wait there is MORE. Three flights of Scoop Divers.

I should have expected some weirdness when the temp dropped from 57 in Denver to 45 at Vance Brand. there were light winds from the North at 3:00. The first flight was ok …a little bumpy but ok.

I had to taxi for longer than usual to get off and the climb out seemed slow. First thing I noticed was that the left Brake line was bound in the risers. I was able to free it without problem since

nothing was crossed …just friction locked.

Max climb was 170 ft / min. I noticed that several of the guys were setting down so I did too. The landing was a bit hard. I killed the motor to0 soon or late and swung under the wing. No damage just didn’t look good. If I’m going to come in dead stick I should decide sooner than 10 feet.
Second Flight was a real pucker. After I set-up, the wind shifted. Rather than re-set I waited and launched when the cycle came around to me. The wing came up much better without the “A” Assists. This time I climbed at 180ft/min When I got to 1200 feet it started to get bumpy and I was climbing at 300ft/min! Even at idle I was still climbing over 100ft/min.
What a ride! The wing was alternately surging and falling back and a couple of times I found myself in a hard bank and starting to get weightless. It was one of those times that you can feel the wind shifting by the way it feels on your face. I was no longer flying in a stable mass of air..It was a good thing that I didn’t have the full height of pad behind me because the extra visibility came in handy to be able to watch the wing. There were several forward surges and while I never saw the trailing edge …it was hairy enough. I think that I was perhaps a little timid on the brakes because I couldn’t feel the wing and the forces working on it. I was contemplating Big Ears when I finally started to descend. I think I was in the worst of it for 3 or 4 minutes and I made the mistake of turning back into it again before I figured out that it was the west end of the box that was being pulled into the clouds…..NO FUN!
The good news is that the landing was better, I left the motor running and came in at idle.
I’ve found a better position to hold the throttle but it is still hard get fine control of the RPM’s. I look forward to using an FB throttle again!
The next time I see lenticular clouds I’m going to think twice. The didn’t seem to be moving but were hanging there sucking up the warmth.
Looking at the profile I was just getting into the nasty stuff when I decided to land on the first flight. It’s probably why I took one look at everybody landing and decided to do the same. The guys that stayed below 300 feet had very little turbulence but there were high winds aloft and the clouds were sucking the warm air from below…Big time…Maybe it was a clue when it got warm about 4:20. (from 45 to 50 plus in about 10 minutes. Be Aware when the temp is fluctuating…And watch out when there are lenticular clouds and signs of high winds aloft !
Later on the ground we stood around and it was so obvious to all of us, that it was ugly at altitude.

Today’s lessons…
1. Watch out when the temp is bouncing around especially if there are lenticular clouds.
2. To Hell with A Assists!
3. Ease the throttle cable
4. Don’t kill the motor at low altitude just to have the prop stopped when you land… come in under power and grease it.

#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.

#176 Caught in a gust !

Its Better to be on the ground…”Wishing”
This morning started out beautifully calm. When I got out of bed a little before 5am it looked to be the perfect morning for a long flight. Expecting just that, I mixed an extra gallon of AV Gas and headed out to Hampden & Simms. In the beginning it was a steady 1 or 2 mph but after setting up it had increased to 5.
When I started to launched I saw that my heading was dangerously close to clipping a metal fence post but… before I had rolled 20 feet and a long way from the post, a gust blew in and picked me up. I was pulling brake to the level between my shoulder and ear. The wing was barely penetrating. When I eased the brake input, I aaccelerated and climbed to 50 feet where I did a slow roll and landed by the truck. I’m not sure when I started to pull brake, I may have added a little pressure when I noticed the fence post but it’s more probable that I was in the air and was just reacting to the wing.
The wind front continued to build over the next 20 minutes and when I left it was a steady 20 mph. The lesson to be learned is that a trend tends to persist and wishing it will go down…”don’t necessarily make it so”
Equipment Notes:
The Garmin 176-c is dead..I’ve located and purchased a used unit for $260 on E-Bay.
The Fortrex battery is not holding a charge for very long at all.
The new FB battery lost it’s charge so there are doubts that the alternator is charging the battery.

Collapse
March 12, 2008
I hurried and arrived at the field 30 minutes earlier than yesterday. The winds were light and from east. The forecast was for West by Southwest which put me on alert that it might be sketchy. The skies were partly cloudy, but it looked mellow enough so I set up for launch. It was not my prettiest take off, more of a lurch into the sky. I had to add a bit of brake to keep from drifting back down and touching a wheel. Once the climb was established I let the torque of the Simonini ease me into a right hand turn and climbed to 500 feet. After a couple of laps around the field with moderate bumps I decided to land. It wasn’t so bumpy that I was spooked but it was enough that I thought it would be a good idea to let the air settle a bit.
I waited 15 minutes on the ground and decided to try again. ….Maybe I rushed or was laying out the wing slightly off the wind but there were two bad inflations and…I tried to recover long after I should have aborted…Once, I got tipped on 2 wheels and was doing the Fred Flintstone before I decided to give it up I think the wing tip was low enough to touch ground.
A couple of days ago I watched a video of Chad taxiing in circles and maybe I was inspired to push it. And… I might have been able to pull it off if it were dry lake bed instead of a bumpy hay field. Feeling a little bit humbled I set up for the 4th time that afternoon launched and cruised around the field feeling the air. It was noticeably smother so I headed into the park, I wanted to take some pictures of the ice melt. The eastern side of the lake is clear but the entire western leg is iced over. There is a fracture from the seadoo beach across to mark #6 which widens when the wind blows from the south. I loitered around the marina at 1000 feet and then turned south to the RC Airport. After taking a few pictures of the “Tiny Airport’ I headed to the west arm of the reservoir. When I got near the south west inlet it started getting really bumpy. The wing was acting jerky with short quick oscillations from side to side. A couple of times the wing surged forward and I tentatively added some brake to get it back overhead. I flew another 20 seconds and the wing pitched aft far enough to put feet were level with my head. That got my attention big time… for the next few minutes I was getting the puppet treatment the front wheel of the trike seems to be my reference point and I watched it and the mirror as I bounced around doing what ballast does best. After a few seconds I worked on flying with a few pounds of brake pressure and tried to actively keep the wing centered overhead.


About half way out of the park I was watching the mirror and gently flying the wing when the left side collapsed. I was surprised how slowly it seemed to happen. The tip went limp and the leading edge folded forward. It seemed like several seconds but I suspect it was over very quickly. It re-inflated quicly after touching the brakes followed by hands up. As soon as the wing re-inflated and flying, I changed course to the east, thinking that the turbulence was caused by the cool air following the river, almost immediately, I was in smooth air. Ten minutes later I was back at the field and landed without incident.
All in all I think I handled it pretty well, it could be argued that I shouldn’t have gone up at all, but the conditions were acceptable I knew there was a chance it was going to be bumpy so I didn’t waste any time getting to altitude. When it did get rowdy I focused on the wing and while I probably should have been more aggressive with the brakes, I didn’t overdo it and managed the situation ok. The important thing was that I didn’t panic, it was a little like being 80 feet below the surface of the ocean and having your face mask ripped off your face. Keep your head and deal with the situation. It was an ‘atta boy’ moment. I think I ready to start practicing simple maneuvers and learning to more actively fly the wing.