new site – Page 3 – Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight

Powered Paragliding Colorado Flight #518

Wow 518…. It seems like just the other day I was working on my first 100. Well this was a new site and it will probably be my new home field. There are challenges… the surface is uniformly bumpy. The launch was an accident looking to happen. I started the roll out and the trike was slow to accelerate. The surface was hard but bumpy and I was popped up by one of those bumps just a little too soon. The machine started to yaw to the left but I didn’t lose any altitude and so I stayed on the throttle and prayed. Sure enough I started climbing and had no problem turning inside of the power lines. I turned north and climbed easily over the hazards which are high power lines on two sides. An e-mail from the owner assures me that as long as I stay within the fences I’ll be fine. So… Next time I’ll explore crossing the ditch and maybe I’ll find a surface that is a little more trike friendly.
This was an exploratory flight, there were balloons off to the north but a little too far to chase down, so I stayed close and explored the area. It is beautiful… there are lakes and orchard and plenty to keep me busy for a long time to come. I stayed up for 40 minutes and took several photos including one of Boulder where my daughter Stefania is living.

New home field

Stefania’s Dorm

Saint Mary’s Church

Bad Helmet

The landing was bumpy … I touched down and was so busy negotiating the bumps that I just barely shut the motor shut down in time to protect the wing. This place needs some work but it is legal… I have the owners permission and its close to home.

Last Powered Paragliding Flight at the Louisville Home Site #515

It was looking a little iffy. There was a light breeze coming from the West. It was just enough that I didn’t want to attempt a downwind launch. I taxied to the other end of the field and looked at the possibility of launching into the hill. The terrain was perfect, freshly mowed and smooth…but the breeze was coming straight off the hill and there were big trees that would have made it tough to turn right after liftoff. It looked doable if I could maintain a good climb rate.

I set-up and launched without a problem. The climbout was exciting because I was just barely able to maintain enough separation from the earth to go between the trees and and climb the hill. There was always the possibility that I would be met with some rotor at the top but the breeze was light and the top was smooth so I figured the worst would be a little sink and I was confident the Falcon could power me up.

What a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky and lots of hot air balloons off to the north. I headed North and caught some low flying balloons. They were just barely skimming the surface and one of them set down in a back yard that wasn’t 50 foot square. After playing with the balloons for 30 minutes I turned back and headed for home. It was a great day to be alive.

The bad news was seeing the police cruiser waiting for me when I came back to land. He hadn’t called to give me the bad news … which was good … at least I was able to get in one last flight. …BUT according to the City lawyer that he had gone out of the way to consult … I was not exempt … and could no longer launch out of the home field. Later I called the devil spawn and… yes … Shakespeare was right. ” The first thing we do is to HANG ALL THE LAWYERS”

The next evening I went for a drive after work looking for a new site. The obvious ones that I had picked out on Google Earth were fenced and posted or were attached to huge estates that did not invite me to knock on their door. After an hour of dead ends I was driving home and feeling low when I spotted a field that was free of weeds, it was right off Boulder Road next to a large Catholic Church ( Saint Mary of Perpetual Motion) and there was a car parked right in the middle of the field so… I pulled in to see if there was anything for me there. I made contact with a caretaker who gave me the number for the the owners son who will ask his father to allow me to launch. LETS HOPE!

Powered Paragliding … Today was a comedy of errors # 509

I was excited to be flying from my new home field which was just a few blocks from home, unfortunately the winds were light from the west, which was exactly the wrong direction. So… I drove 1/4 mile to the mesa above and set-up amid a group of stretching joggers. There were two wonderful runways going in the wrong direction, so I decided to launch through the field. The surface was smooth but the weeds were high, dry and thick. I walked the projected route and tossed the worst of the scrub out of the way.
The wing inflated well and while the run out was rough, it seemed doable until I drove into a large tangle of weeds and branches that I had missed during the preflight. Abort … Abort … Abort…

The mesa just wasn’t going to be suitable unless I had the perfect wind that would let me use the running path as a runway. While loading up and rubbing a sore elbow that had been whacked by a branch, I noticed that the wind was shifting to the south. The sun was being covered nicely by the clouds and so I decided to give the lower LZ another try.

Here is where it starts to get interesting. The first launch was successful but I had to set down quickly when I couldn’t shake out a cravat in the wing tip. I could have stayed up and tried to work out the tangle, but since there was a good landing zone ahead of me, I didn’t see any reason to tempt fate. The landing was fine and I gathered up the wing and drove the rig back to my truck. By now the wind had shifted to SSE which was perfect for the field. I quickly layed out the wing, hooked up to the trike and jumped into the seat. The wing came up straight and I was powering down the field when I noticed that I had picked up the wind sock, including the 20 foot pole! This was a first, I’d clipped wind socks on landing but never on a launch. Apparently the right side was a little close or had oscillated to that side because, there it was, hanging from the farthest line and looking like it wanted to go for a ride. I wanted nothing to do with it and aborted once again. One more time, I gathered the wing and drove back to the truck.

I was about to set up for my 4th attempt when I noticed that one of the rear tires had gone completely flat, which had probably happened during the aborted launch in the weeds. Enough was enough, I really wanted to fly but I was going to have to be satisfied by a short hop across a couple of fields for flight number # 509

Marks "Hilltop" at the Arvada RC park #507

Great site. Great flight!

Mark Johnson is moving to Hood River so he invited the flock to his “Hilltop” LZ for a farewell flight.

Great Video by Mike Bennett

It’s off hwy 93 not too far from my soon to be new home in Louisville. Where we took off was behind a recently built housing development. A couple of the homeowners came out to watch and it looks like they are PPG friendly. The area is a flat hilltop with steep drop offs on three sides. The weeds are low but there is a scattering of prickly pear that I’m going to have to watch for. This is probably going to be my new home field and it’s got a lot to offer. Close enough to the foothills for hill flying with several lakes, a gravel pit. RC Park and not to far to do a cross country to Golden or Louisville.

Mike Bennett, Ty, Mark Johnson and I all took off on the first attempt and landed on our feet and wheels without incident.

Flat Irons

RC Park

Guest of Paratour

Dawn and I got up at 4:45 and amazingly were on the road by 5:10. It is a 50 minute drive from the Orlando World Center to Christmas Florida where Eric Dufour and Elisabeth Guerin have established Paramotor City East and Paratour. I was concerned that there would be no flying due to the ground fog, but when we arrived everybody was confident that it would burn off before they arrived at the field. Eric was training two new pilots and retraining an instructor who had started his career with Dell but seen the light.

Flight #482 &; #483 was at the training field with Eric Dufour and his students. Elisabeth was very generous and allowed me to fly her new Kangook trike with polini motor. Eric gave me a quick briefing on the machine. … How it started and to be aware of the left hand torque which, by the way was very mild and not really an issue. The wind was almost non existent but I would have to launch from a position that faced some tall pines. Not something I would be able to do with the Falcon but Eric didn’t make a big deal out of it so I took it on faith.
Then… Eric was gone to get his class together and I was alone on the foggy field. I taxied the Kangook at speed to get a feel for how it accelerated and around the corner to see what my options were for turning to gain altitude, just in case I couldn’t clear the pine trees at the get go. Ten minutes after Eric had pulled out, I was set-up and ready to launch. I waited another five, soaking in the quiet and thanking the gods. Life is good.

local mascot

The Eden III came up clean and I was in the air very quickly. Climbing at 350ft/min I was able to clear the trees with ease and found the highway without problems. The terrain was thick pines all the way to the wetlands where Eric was training so I climbed to 1300 feet to give me lots of room in case of a motor out and then I headed East looking for the gang.

Where is the Training Field?

The sky was a beautiful pale orange softened by ground mist. Small lakes were scattered in the pines, off to the east I could see where the trees abruptly stopped and the wetlands began. Ten minutes into the flight I saw a mowed field 300 yards off the highway and a wing laid out ready for launch. In the top corner of the field I could just barely make out the word PARATOUR cut into the grass.

From high, I watched Eric coach one of the new guys into the air. It was a picture perfect launch and when he got to altitude I headed in his direction to ” go play”. Passing at 200 yards I swung behind and started to descend to the field. At the field Eric was gesturing strongly for me to move out of the area. The pilot was doing his first flight and he didn’t want me anywhere near his rookie. After 20 minutes I came in for a nice soft landing. Dawn and I chatted a bit and Eric explained where he was going to be working the new guys so that I wouldn’t be a concern. Then I reset and launched again.

training field

Dawn McLane looking good on the Kangook

After my second flight, Dawn and I watched Eric train his students and later he put on a motor and treated us to a few minutes of the Dufour Magic…Foot Drags… wing overs … etc … the master of fine wing control. It was….a

Great day …

Thanks to Eric and Elisabeth of Paratour for making it happen.

Bubba’s High Altitude Fly-In

I’ve been home from Bubba’s Event for almost a month but for a number of personal reasons I haven’t posted my report. In a nutshell I had two good flights and one spectacular crash with minor equipment damage and no injuries. For a complete report on the Fly-In, see Mike Bennetts Blog. He picked up the ball and has written a very comprehensive post. http://mbppg.com/info/bubba.html

After two successful albeit fast launches I rolled the Falcon.

The irony is within this You Tube Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zuqa31ZDaI

As with most incidents there were several things that contributed to the mishap. Here is the way I remember it. The first two launches with Mike’s 30 meter Eden III were fast. In both cases I took off and touched down again before getting off. In both cases I floated for a couple hundred yards before starting to climb. Once up, the flight and landing was pretty standard. Flight speed was around 32mph and my climb was about 125 feet/min.

On my last launch I touched twice and on the second touch I came down crooked with the trike contacting the ground with the front and right rear wheel. The trike flipped and rolled once landing on the wheels, I was then ejected to the right in the opposite direction of the roll.  I immediately turned off the motor but not before it damaged the wing. Here are some of the things I did wrong:
1) I did not fasten the seat belt.   This is not a common mistake for me but I have done it twice… both times with witnesses. It was fortunate that I was able to stay with the machine during the roll… One effect of not being belted in was that when I hit a bump and got bounced, I lost contact with the right steering peg. It could have caused the cart to turn so that when I did get lifted the thrust was out of alignment with the wing.
2) Once the wing came up and stabilized I didn’t check it again.   After the first touch the wing started an oscillation, which unknown to me, got progressively worse as I accelerated. I lost situational awareness as to what my wing was doing relative to the trike.   HUGE MISTAKE !
3) I did not abort or reduce throttle after the first touch. Despite the fact that the launch was obviously going bad I stayed on the throttle when I should have aborted or reduced power and stabilized. The first thing Bubba asked me was … “Did your throttle get stuck. It is very telling that I thought I could salvage the launch right up until the trike started to roll. Looking back I my head wasn’t in it. The weather wasn’t expected to be flyable and going out to the field was a last minute decision. I rushed to get ready and like my last post “Rush and Pay the Piper”, BOY DID I !
4) The front wheel on the Falcon was bent and not appropriate for the terrain and speed required for lift-off. The guys pointed out my bent front wheel when I first arrived. It must have suffered from some of my lurching launches at Simms when the trike is rolling full speed over a bumpy surface. This might have also contributed to the reason I didn’t abort. The Falcon does not handle high speed taxiing as well as the Trike Buggy did … it was a little like trying to foot launch in no wind or down wind … It felt too fast to abort, and if that were the case I shouldn’t have tried to launch..
Looking back … I was an accident looking for a place to happen. I was rushing to get up and in the wrong frame of mind to be flying. My previous two flights were successful but my head was not in the game and it was dumb luck that prevented serious injury.

Time to take a break from flying.

Here are a series of pictures that Shelia Boulten took … See if you can follow the sequence.

Good inflation

Still good gaining speed

Bumpy ground

foot off peg

Emergency take off

Back down …foot off peg

Emergency take off

two point touch down

Trike is 100 degrees off course

Trike is 180 degrees off course and rolling

back on wheels / pilot is ejected

Turns off motor

Here is a link to Mike’s photos of the repair

http://mbppg.com/media/photoalbums/joe_trike/index.html

Mike Bennetts’s Video

#373 Falcon Walmart

This was an off day. I met with Kevin on the corner of Woodman & Markscheffel, it was too wet and muddy so we went to his 2nd choice which they call Falcon Walmart. I’m sure it was a better site a year ago but the construction has continued and the field we selected wasn’t that big. No problem for foot launch but a little tight for me. The field has recently been cut but the cuttings were still there and perfect little chunks of tangle weed.

The wind was fresh from the South and while we set up it shifted slightly to the east. My first launch was aborted when the throttle cable snagged a line and I couldn’t get it free…even with the wing mostly loaded. There wasn’t alot of room to fool around so I aborted before I got too far down the runway. While I reset Kevin took off and soon I was ready for

#2 This was a mess…The wing came up fine but my acceleration was poor and it fell back. I tried to save the launch. Big mistake… The PPS will not come back up unless you have control of the A’s. I’ve been thinking of reinstalling the A assists and this would have been the perfect time to have them. I would have probably got the wing back overhead but what happened instead was …the wing fell back and caught in the propwash, it pulled the buggy back and turtled. Fortunately I was able to kill the engine quickly. The cage was tweaked a bit but the spinner and soft damp earth saved the prop.

Kevin landed and encouraged me to try again. I wasn’t too keen after two bad launches but the air was good. So…I started the motor to be sure the prop was still balanced and tracking clear of the cage. The motor came up to 3600 but I couldn’t get any more.

#3…The wing came up clean and started to overshoot but I added some brake and accelerated. The run out was long and I barely had enough room but eventually I got up and started circling the field.

Climb rate was lousy and I noticed that the RPM’s had dropped to 3400. After several laps I started to get some altitude. The air was good with just the slightest currents. After 10 or 15 minutes I did a fly-by and landed. It was a nice landing, with a low & slow turn just before final and a 3/4 throttle gentle landing.

Kevin…thanks for the ear plugs!

Today I dressed for cold weather but didn’t need to. The gloves I selected were not nearly as supple as I thought, it hard to handle the lines and when I had to reset twice I was clumsy and hot in the “snow suit”. Next time …set up the wing ….test fill it … then put on the heavy clothes.

To Dos…

1)Add washers to the cruise control nob. DONE

2)Check the PPS for snags and debris…check the mallions on both wings

3)See about pulling the cage back into round.

4) Rig the A assists for winter flying

5)Check pitch of the props

#338 Simms & #339 South of Dicks

Two Flight Two Site Day

It was dead calm at 6am while I drove circles in the field trying to find the spot where the grass was low and the tumble weeds were scarce. The moon was setting behind the mountains and the cross on the hill was beautiful! As the sun got closer to the horizon the wind came up and I waited in the truck for 40 minutes till it came down enough for a good safe launch.

I had to use the small American Flags for wind socks because I had forgotten my big one. Not to easy to spot when I’m trying to land but they worked well as long as I was sitting.

The launch was normal and the air was fairly smooth. The wind was switching from west to nil to East so there were patches of turbulence that moved around rather than hanging over a particular spot on the Earth. The temp dropped 3 degrees after the wind came up and didn’t start to warm until 7:15. I was starting to get chilled and headed back to the field where I saw an unknown SUV with a paramotor pull in next to my truck. I came in surprisingly hot when what I thought was no wind turned out to be a tail wind. No Worries.

The other pilot was John Sieb and if it had been a little earlier I would have gone back up with him. There was a balloon flying over by the Hog Backs that I had missed and lucky John was going up to play with him. I packed up after he made the longest take off run of his life….:)

Unfortunately the 2 stroke demon bit and he landed after 5 minutes with a loss of power.

The second flight was at a new site a mile north of Dicks. We were asked to leave by the local police at Dicks…They sent us ( Dan, Paul, Paul, Ramon and Me) to the other site where we were met by the Security of the adjacent Mall. We tapped danced and were given permission to get a flight in. The winds were NNW between 5 and 8. I literally Popped up when the wind picked up during the run out. The air was not allot of fun but I did several laps before doing a touch and go and landing. On final I was having a difficult time holding a smooth glide. I would drop 10 feet return to normal glide and drop again. I was still able to set down where I wanted but it was more challenging. beautiful sly with the skyline of Denver in the sunset and a huge full moon rising in the East.

I would have loved to take some pictures but it was active flying and I didn’t feel comfortable going no hands.

I was glad we were moved because the goat head thorns were at their dry worst over at Dicks but the new field was clear with just some 1 foot weeds scattered about. They are grading the area so it won’t be flyable for long. Interesting that the graded area is 6 inches of really fine powder. I hope it gets packed before the next big rain.

#333 Snowflake

Snowflake LZ

When I first arrive it was magic. Absolutely calm and the sun was just beginning to turn the eastern horizon pale orange. Mike and Craig arrived at 6:30 and we threaded our way around the buildings to the ultra lite area. There is a wide North South runway and a very narrow East West, that was made narrower by some recent grading.

No Worries…I kicked the worst of the clods out of the way and took off easily. It’s a little like flying down at the Springs. Very flat and not a lot of scenery. But i have to say… “that’s all right by me”, just getting up is good and the lack of elevation changes makes for smoother air. When I took off there was a light breeze from the West, after flying 50 minutes it had picked up considerably and the air was downright ratty. I don’t know what was causing the bumps…it was too early for thermals…we were way too far from the Rockies for them to cause a problem, but whatever it was, all three of us decided it was no fun anymore. That didn’t stop Mike from going up for a second flight :0 (No sweat…it didn’t seem dangerous…just bumpy.)

There is allot of air traffic in the area. At 3000+ are the big boys, I think they are coming out of centennial or possibly the air force base. Mike credits them for stirring up the air..I don’t know but they are right over us. There is also another ultra lite park around here. I saw a delta and a fixed wing ultra and on the way out there was a biplane tooling around. If I understand the rules, we have to stay below 700 feet to the West and South but can climb high to the East and possibly the North.

Snowflake has a couple of things that will bring me back, there is an old Titan Missile silo 5 miles east that I’m looking forward to exploring and it’s a pleasure to have a nice smooth runway.

#322 & #323 Dicks Soccer Fields

It has been a long wet spell

So… I was raring to go and up at 4:30 on the second bell. When I got to the field the wind wasn’t noticeable but as soon as I put up the refurbished windsock i could tell there was a strong southerly aloft. This isn’t technically a new site because I’ve flown Dick’s before but this time I’m on the south end instead of the north end of the complex and it is much better. The surface is sand with short and sparse weeds and even though it rained last night the sand was plenty solid enough to walk and fly from. Mike Bennett showed 15 minutes after me and set up closer to the parking area and I’ll do the same next time I’m here.

The first launch was a surprise. I popped up quicker than expected and started to float down but with a little brake I got climbing and started to circle the field while Mike got ready to launch. About 5 minutes into the flight at 1000 feet, I thought, “Did I open the fuel lines?” I had spent longer than normal warming it up and I taxied out to the launch site…AND…I’d been flying for at least 5 minutes. There was no reason to expect that it would still be running but it was and I knew I’d made a big mistake without even looking. When I got twisted around enough to get to the fuel I opened the vent and before I could open the flow valve the motor died.

Now What? I had some altitude, I could try to open the fuel line and restart. I had my doubts though because couldn’t prime the carb. I would’ve had to unbuckle and hang halfway out of the seat to blow into the vent hose, one bump and I’d be swimming. I was in a good place to get back to the LZ and if I fooled around and wasn’t able to restart the motor, it would have been a long push back to where I could re-launch. So…prudence being the better part of valor, I choose to go in “dead stick”. The rest of the story was a non event. I turned downwind, got in position and did a gentle S-turn to bleed off altitude. The landing was smooth but it would have been better if I had taken a wrap to get a little more brake input. It seems like there is a point in the flare where I cannot muscle any more brake. It might be fixable by shortening the brakes.

The second flight was great! Nothing to report.

(Old Stapleton Airport Tower)