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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.

Flight #278 & #279 Meadow Lake Air Park

Meadow Lake Air Park Colorado Springs, Colorado

Up at 4:30 am and on the road by 4:50. It was a beautiful morning without a cloud in the sky. The night winds were blowing at 15 kts but I was confident that it would come down with the sunrise and I was right. I had no trouble finding Meadow Lake Airpark which is located 20 minutes east of Colorado Springs. The LZ is a nice grass field east of the runways. Matt was laying out his wing as I bumped across the field and while we caught up I saw Kevin crawling out of the bed of his pick-up where he had spent the night. While we were setting up Jerry Kerr arrived and everybody took off.

I had a hard time getting off. The wing was coming up very fast and falling to one side or the other, once it overshot and tucked. I tried using the ramps but it didn’t seem to make any difference. Finally after 3 aborted launches Jerry gave me a little pull and I had enough forward speed to keep the wing inflated. I think the problem wasn’t so much the altitude (6800msl) as it was that the wing was in a wall and the lines were tight before I started to power up. If I had layed out the wing in a V so that I could start building some momentum before the wing started to inflate it probably would have worked out better. The climb out was slow but smooth. I flew south to the pond and then turned East around the housing development and into the huge open area where there are no altitude restrictions.

I stayed at 800 to 1000 feet while Alex played below. Watching him I was very aware that I missed the power to weight that I had with the Simonini. The hardest bank I could achieve was pitiful compared to compared to a good two stroke. Maybe a different wing will help but I don’t think so. After 20 minutes the whole gang was in the same area. I danced with Jerry on his trike and eventually followed him back to the LZ to land.

The second flight was short because it was starting to get thermal. It came on fairly quickly it was smooth at 500 feet and when I dropped to 300 there was lots of sink and lift. It wasn’t abrupt and shocking but more like riding a river with gentle transitions from lift to sink and back to lift. I had to do a couple of approaches because I got lifted causing me to overshoot.

Good Group…Alex, Jerry, Matt, Kevin, and Mike Bennett

Marek Crashes !

Last night I spoke with Marek…Seems that he got his throttle cable caught (I’m not sure on what) during take off and threw himself in a spiral. I think the throttle hand was pulling massive brake. Anyway…He is ok except for a sore leg…but his rig is reduced to motor having destroyed the cage and frame. I told him that John Black has some Walker Jet stuff that cost him nothing so hopefully he will be able to get back in the air soon.

#246 #247 #248 #249 #250

Lots of airtimeSalton Sea! I started at 9am. 5 good launches and 5 good landings. Lots of the low and slow. Flying with the birds. Great day of flying!

Hooked up with Robert K, Ben M, Johnny F. and Terry L at the new resturant on the Hwy. Talking 4 stroke…props….wings.

Bad day for the Thumpers …both Ben and Terry took damage from getting lines in the prop.

El Mirage The Flying J Ranch

#238

After visiting with Saundra Painter in Santa Barbara I drove out to El Mirage and waited for the wind to die. I’m camping at a small private airstrip that caters to ultra light Delta Trikes. They have a Quonset hut hanger with 6 trikes and several shipping containers where guys like Chad are storing their equipment. To the south east there is another facility where they are assembling and test flying the Predator unmanned vehicles for the military. All afternoon while I set up my camp there was a predator circling over the field. Its a very strange looking plane with the bulbous nose and lots of junk hanging down. The landing gear are on long sticks and the twin rudders are mounted below the fuselage. At the right angle when you cannot see the wings it looks like an insect…more like a grasshopper that a plane flying at 800 feet.

About 40 minutes before sundown the wind dropped and I went up for a test flight. Beautiful smooth air ! While I had the chance I practiced spot landings and several times I was able to touch down within a few feet of my wing bag.

I climbed to 100o feet and chased the sun. The dry lake is partly full but even so there was only a couple of inches of water. It’s less than a mile from the airstrip and a wonderful place to practice the low and slow, there are miles in all directions without a post or obstruction of any kind. 8/10 of a mile to the south west is a small uprising (probably 1000 elevation climb)called Grey Mountain. I climbed until I was even with the top and watched the sun set. When the shadows disappeared I cut power and descended to the LZ.

It got cold quickly and rather than try to heat up a can of soup I drove to the edge of the closest town and had a burger. Back at the tent I listened to the IPod and spent a very cold night in the desert.

I

#233 #234 #235 Marana AZ

Three Flights …Two blown..Forgot to disengage the choke.
Strike one… I was feeling pretty good about things. The motor was starting on the first pull and I was so busy patting myself on the back that I missed the fact that I was having a hard time getting up to 6000 RPM and I also missed the way it was stuttering when I backed off the throttle. It speaks well for the bing that I could have the choke on and fly so well.
Two of the five attempted launches were aborted the first because the wing overshot and even though I was using brake and rolling forward …it would not load up. Maybe if I shortened the brake lines a bit I would have a little better control during the launch.
** NEXT FLIGHT **SEE HOW MUCH SLACK THERE IS IN THE BRAKES AT FULL TRIM AND TRIMMERS OUT. See how much pull will bring the brake lines to the point of moving the trailing edge.
The next abort was because the wing came up crooked after I had aborted stopped and brought the down it tried to pull me over in a slow roll. **NEXT TIME***TAKE A WRAP ON ONE BRAKE LINE AND HAUL IT IN.
The good launches were a mixed bag, during the highest wind I was pleased that I was able to take my time and kite the wing and taxi for awhile before I committed to the launch. The other two were not noteworthy.
All of the landings were the same, I killed the motor and flared late to bleed off speed. Nice soft touchdowns every time. It’s nice to know that I’m finally getting a little of that muscle memory that Brian Smith used to talk about. 🙂
The wheeley casters work great, but I’m going to have to practice with the trimmers at different positions because at full out the wing comes up too fast to give the buggy time to start tipping.

#232 Mo’s training field Maricopa AZ

Dec. 30th 2008

It was a two hour drive to Maricopa where Mo Sheldon lives. I arrived at 11:30 and waited at the storage units until 12:30 when I gave him a call. He apologized and said that he was in the middle of something at that it would be about 20 minutes. It was after 2:00 when he finally arrived. My mistake was not calling as soon as I got into town he probably wouldn’t have started whatever the project on his laptop that delayed him. Anyway two hours were lost and instead of doing a rebuild we safety checked the motor and did a hang test. The buggy is fine… it hung straight and about the only thing we found that needed attention was a loose exhaust mount at the midpoint. The reason the motor was hard to start turned out to be the end of the plug was loose. I didn’t know that the tip threaded into the body of the plug. That little bit of information was worth the price of admission.

I did load up the little tool bag with some more weight and remounted it behind the reserve. The buggy was probably was riding high on the right because the wing was off to the side but the torque of the motor was also probably a factor. Later when we went for a flight I was pleased to notice that the risers were close to the same height so it must have helped.

We discussed the possibility of going to Mo Town but the time was getting tight and opted for the training field.
At 4:30 Mo and I drove out to the field which is about 5 miles east of his shop. It’s near a small regional airpark and about as flat and smooth as you could ask for. He took the buggy up and declared it a good machine after a quick lap around the field. Then we rigged his dog into his trike and the three of us went for a nice little flight. There was a small hill rising 200 feet from the desert floor a couple of miles away…just another bump in the desert…that I flew to and explored a bit. After landing Mo and I chatted while we put our gear away. I’m going to send him my schedule and with a little luck I’ll be able to hook up with him and go to Mo Town on the way out to NAMM. He is still bugged by Martins death but recognizes that it was nothing that he contributed to. His theory is that Martin had “Get There-itus and ignored the conditions to “get there and be photographed” buy his family. I doubt that I’ll be seeing Mo at the next Gathering but glad that he isn’t carrying around a bunch of guilt over Martin.
The drive back to Tucson went better than expected and fortunately the Hacienda Del Sol is on the near side of town so I was able to meet Paula and the others in time for dinner. The Hacienda has been developed since I was their horse wrangler but the food is just as gourmet as when Otto was cooking for me 32 years ago!

Galveston Texas WingNuts 1st Annual Fly-In

213…214…215…216…217…218…219
After spending Thursday night with Walt Burchfield and his bride in Dallas I headed south toward Houston. Just past the city I started seeing signs of damage from hurricane Ike. The first thing I noticed was the big McDonalds arches on posts high above the highway were missing parts. Then when I got to Galveston it was all beat up, there were blue tarps on the majority of roofs and lots of storefronts were closed. By the time I crossed over to the island it was total devastation, all the homes left standing were on stilts with the 1st floor blown away. Maybe one in 50 houses showed signs of people living there and the rest were either being worked on or waiting destruction. There were debris piles 6 feet high piled up[ along the Hwy. waiting for the trucks to come and haul it away. It’s 18 miles from the center of the island to the west end where we were camping and 8 miles to the nearest convenience store.

When I got there the wind was blowing too hard for me to launch but the texas wingnuts are primarily foot launchers and several of the guys were in the air. I decided to wait till sunset and used the time to set up camp. Jeff Goin had arrived the day before, he greeted me warmly and at his suggestion we went out to the beach to practice reverse kiting with the trike. It took him a couple of times to get a feel for the risers being attached to the power loops but in 45 minutes he had it figured and with me behind the prop to provide thrust he was doing successful reverses no sweat. Later I shared some leftover ribs with Jeff in the Enterprise and we had a great time. No topic was left out (except politics) from pianos to particle physics.

The next morning I got up early and took 2 long flights. The wind was about 8 mph and no problem since I had some experienced guys who knew how to hold the trike so that I wouldn’t turtle during inflation. Once up it was wonderful flat air near the sea I flew at about 700 feet parallel to the beach. Then when I flew over the scrub on the other side of the Hwy it started to get a little bouncy. The locals told me this is what to expect but I was thinking BUMPS and really it never got over about a two on the bump scale. I went about 5 miles up the beach and basically enjoyed the view.

Chris Page spotted a sea yak in the no mans land north of the residences so he and “Cowboy” went on a salvage mission. They got the kayak but I guess it was harder than dragging a bull elk through dense undergrowth. After Lunch I had three more flights. Two to figure out that I had left the choke on again and a nice long one. When it was time for the xc I had to stay behind because the wind had come up and “Cowboy” insisted that I would be asking for trouble. I still think if he had held the trike I could have gone for it but I wasn’t going to argue with a local instructor…so I licked my wounds and wished I was with the guys going out to Woody’s Bar.

The XCountry was a long flight and several of the guys ran out of gas and had to be picked up. In fact, had I gone ,I would have been walking too because we were told that it was about 12 miles each way and it was more like 20.

Later that evening Beery broke out the boudin, Sonny built a huge campfire and we had a damn good campfire. Lon even brought out a couple of busted props for us to sacrifice to the gods of PPG. I hung at the fire till about 9pm and went to bed early.

The next morning I was up before dawn the wind was 6mph and I took off without assistance. It was a great flight. After more than an hour in the air I landed and had something to eat. Jeff had just landed so I took a couple of Monster coffee drinks over to the Enterprise and as usual he was more than happy to stop whatever he was doing to spend time with a fellow pilot.

Ever since the Monument Valley Fly-In when this log was used by various people and the address was given out during the PPG Radio show I’ve been a little self conscious about what I write. So… even though Jeff might read this someday, I’m going to put down my thoughts about this guy. Jeff Goin is a genuine person with a remarkable history and an amazing set of credentials. He is passionate about the sport and truly one of the finest PPG Pilots in the world. There wasn’t a minute of the weekend that he wasn’t flying … kiting …working on the equipment…or just talking flying with the guys. His knowledge of aviation is encyclopedic and his curiosity is without end. I watched him work on a reverse with my trike, he was having trouble getting the wing to come up straight and when one guy would have been cussing, Jeff was fascinated and said “Wow! Now why is it behaving like this”. Then he proceed to work with the wing like a horse trainer with an unruly charge until eventually he figured it out and had the wing “behaving” as it should. He is selfless and tolerant and gracious about his notoriety. I’m honored to know the man and consider him a friend.

After a break I went up again and spent the better part of the flight flying as low as I could west along the beach. Most of the time I was at 6 to 10 feet but for huge chunks I was within two feet or less. Every once in a while the wind would pick up and I’d feel it pull me a little off to the side. It was a great opportunity to practice subtle wing control. I landed into much stronger winds and that was the end. I could have probably had someone hold the trike for me to get one more flight but it was time to pack it in.

Wichita at the Glider Port #

Wichita Glider Port
The Mosquito helicopter

When I arrived in Wichita I was hoping to hook up with Bob Holliday, we had not seen each other for over twenty years but our lives have followed similar tracks having both transitioned from bicycles to aviation. Anyway Bob had flown down to Lake Texoma for a little fishing, so his wife Ruth gave me directions to the glider port.

When I got there the wind was a little strong, so I wandered around and checked out the gliders in the hanger. I met a mosquito (helicopter) pilot named Doug Bryant who had the most amazing little machine. It’s a Far 103 legal helicopter. He stays pretty close to the ground and close to the field because he is new but it’s got enough range to do some mild XC flights. I couldn’t help thinking that this was an expensive toy because it didn’t have the range of my PPG and the pilot was shy of leaving the confines of the airpark.

Last hour of light the wind came down and I went for a nice exploratory flight. I had to abort the first launch but it was a non event. The second launch was fine and I climbed to 100 feet to get the lay of the land. I noticed that the motor was sounding weird more throaty and the power was lacking. I had test run it earler when I put in the larger jets and it seemed ok but there was deffinitly something different now. I thought that perhaps I needed to try another jet but later, aftr landing, I discovered that I had left the choke on. No damage but I’m beginning to think the clip to hold the cable may not be such a great idea.

Here is a link to the Glider Port http://members.cox.net/motorgliders/WichitaGliderport.htm