Great flight! I wasn’t sure that I was going to be able to get out of bed after staying up past midnight but when the alarm rang I was up and raring to go. It was 72 degrees and dead calm.
I launched without a plan but ended up flying all the way to Crossroads Academy home for boys. Once I got past the Redneck Yacht Club I figured what the heck and was rewarded by buzzing the campus and making some kids smile.
Eleven Seventy two was at Shell Creek with Jay spectating
Eleven Seventy Three was at Placida with Paul Czarnecki . Beautiful weather.
Beautiful day … Great Flight
Two mornings at Shell Creek. No Drama
There is story that came from the second flight. In a nutshell… I spent an hour chasing my air pods. I thought they had been carried away by a critter and according to the “find My” app … the critter was staying 10 meters ahead of me. I followed the app and wandered around the runway with growing frustration until finding the lost air pod was lodged in a crease in my hat.
I wish I was greatly inspired to write because todays flight had all the elements. Yesterday I stopped at Shell Creek to see if I could resume flying there. I’d seen that the SW Florida Sky Diving Club had changed hands and was hoping that I might be welcomed back.
I was! Richard, who I had thought was dead, told me he was indeed the manager and the Skydiving Club had no right to run me off. Frank said basically the same thing. I’m back!
It looked to be a beautiful morning. There were patches of ground fog and the sky was clear. BUT … when I turned back to the airfield, it was completely socked in. I was able to see the Airpark on the FlySkyHi app but it wasn’t until I had descended to 300 feet that I was able to see enough of the surface to locate the runway.
Very nice morning. Flew out to Gasparilla Lighthouse because today it is being returned to service.
Takeoff and landing were very pretty. The air was calm at the surface and 10 mph above 200 feet. Radical temperature variations.
This was my first flight in a month and the first since my friend Matt Bell was killed when he augered in at The Meadows. I kept it simple and boated around the patch for 30 minutes. Screw up of the day was flying with my emergency stuff bag unsecured. (Non event).
The winds aloft were 10 to 15 and light n twitchy at the surface. Nice and easy. No Drama.
The video below is not verified. Production value is far too good, including three cameras including POV drone.
Matt Bell was an experienced pilot. He wasn’t the kind of guy who slalomed around the palms or practiced wing tip drags. He was just a regular guy who showed up whenever the weather allowed and who attended every Fly-In within a two day drive.
A couple of weeks ago he got a new 18 meter Gin Carve that is described as a “responsive and dynamic wing”, it was small and spicy. This morning this morning shortly after takeoff at about 200 ft that wing unexpectedly entered diving spiral that ended after one and a half turns. Matt was killed instantly.
The accident was witnessed by Joe Taylor who contacted the authorities and initiated a search. When they found Matt the only clue to the cause of the crash was that his trimmers were … one out and one in. How they got wildly out of balance is not known. Perhaps he launched with the trim in and when he tried to “let them out”, one cam released freely while the other didn’t. New risers can be stiff. My Colorado certainly was and MacPara exchanged them for another set with modified cams that were easer to use.
We will never know if this was equipment error or pilot error.
RIP Matt.
Thank You Officer Kaufman for standing up for the PPG community.
Keith and Angie had been visiting but this morning they were boarding the Key West Express so I looked at the weather and …. Golly ….it looks beautiful.
It’s new into daylight saving so dawn wasn’t until 7:30.am. The winds were down to 0 at launch and built over the 3/4 hour to 7 from the east . The thermal layer was dramatic around 600ft.
Major mistake of the year was launching without the seat belt fastened. It was buckled on the seat and not hanging down so I had to reach behind with one hand and release the buckle. That clunky old thumb lever is genius! It was a non event.
I basically doodled around the patch and checked out the boat yards. The highlight of the day was an amazing new fountain at one of the mansions in the west corner of the meadows. There is an underwater element that look like the pedals of a flower. The effect is a wonderful 3D kinetic marvel that changes as you move around it.
There were two other Pilots all launching solo. The fellow closest to me was a newbie. He has a bit to much confidence due to a private GA License but I think he will do ok. The other was Steve , he chastised me for flying to close to the mansions. MEA CULPA.
It was nice to get back into the air.
Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight 
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