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Two days … Two Flights 842 & 843

SYesterday was a shorty.  Mike Lange and I met at Placida.  There was heavy ground fog covering the whole area but two weeks of heavy wind had us jonesing for a flight and we were both hopefull that it would be thin enough to launch.  

Well, yes and no…. Yes….We both launched but … in the blind.  I climbed out of the fog quickly but there was a thick white blanket below as far as I could see.  If I had been pleased with the Paramotor I might have kept climbing and waited out the fog but I had changed the prop to a coarser pitch hoping to increase thrust.  It had the opposite effect on my climb, the Paramotor felt rough and the prop sound was a terrible roar.  I poked down into the fog to see if I could get a glimpse of the LZ and decided to land.  Two quick circles and I set down 100 yards from the truck.  Mike didn’t fair any better. He had a motor out shortly after taking off and landed 1000 yards to the south.  Any farther and he could have had problems with canals and wires. As it was he had a long damp walk back to the vehicle.  

I wished that I had pictures but I wasn’t exactly feeling good about the flight and didn’t want to go hands free for even a second.  Never the less….It was beautiful.  My shadow on the top of the fog created the perfect rainbow halo.  I’d been hoping to get that shot for ten years but I’ll have will have to wait a little longer. My only impression from the flight was that I was all alone … Blue Sky above and cotton candy below, it was a vast two color universe.  
Max RPM 3400
Max Climb rate 180
Flight 2 (today) SCA   
50 minutes 3500 agl.  Changed prop to slightly less course pitch …. 
Max RPM 3600 but settled at 3540 most of the time.
Climb rate 200 – 250.  Prop noise was smoother.   
Finally met Frank Moss.

Sailing on Paradiso

The winds have been strong, dawn and dusk, for the last two weeks making it impossible to fly.  

It’s frustrating because I’ve changed the pitch on the props so that max RPM is 3500, 200 below norm.  Hopefully this will increase my thrust and climb rate.  My friend John Fetz who has over 10,000 logged hours isn’t as optimistic, he expects higher vibration and decreased thrust.  He is thinking that this course pitch would be helpful after gaining altitude but useless during climb out.  We will see.
It’s too windy to fly, So…. Dawn and I rounded up the SW Florida contingent of Colorado Sail and Yacht and went for a sail yesterday afternoon.  Best weather and best sail since we sailed the boat back from Burnt Store Marina with Bill and Katie last spring. Everything fell right into place.  Steady 14 mph winds out of the North East made for an easy broad reach out and back.  The repairs to the diesel and electronics all seemed to be holding together and we had a high high tide.  There was a ton of food left over from the SCA meetings earlier in the week and Dawn did me proud making by making sandwiches and finger foods for all to share.

A good time was had by all.

839 SCA. Dawn Launch

Nice flight climbed to 4800 feet where the cold stopped me.  First experience with the selfie stick in flight.  Very light northerly breeze clear sky.  Dead stick from 500 feet.

  Last night I got out too late.   Almost funny, the weatherbug said sunset at 7:30 but it was way too dark by 7:15.  Winds were building and storm clouds were approaching.  Aborted launch and settled for some kiting.

836 & 837 Shell Creek and Placida

To thing spectacular to report.  Nice flight with a dead stick landing.  The kill switch was found to be inoperable during preflight.  I killed the engine at 200 feet with the key and enjoyed a quiet landing.

Two days later I drove up to Placida because I found myself awake at 5:00am and didn’t see any reason to go back to sleep.  It was dead calm at the house but there was a steady 10 mph wind at the LZ.  Since I was there before sun up I got the rig ready and waited.  About 15 minutes after sunrise the winds started to abate.  When  I got out of the truck to check conditions, I heard before I saw, a rain shower.  It was really quiet strange to hear the rain smacking into the earth but not seeing the shower.  I pulled the wing into the cab and waited, the rain only lasted a couple of minutes.  I wiped off the seat set up the wing (three times due to shifting winds) and eventually launched down the road in nill wind conditions.  It may have been calm on the surface but it was anything but at 350 feet.  Strong turbulence began at 300 and worsened the higher I got.  At 400 feet I was doing the puppet on a string thing and decended back down to 300.  It was lumpy but manageable.  If it had been just a little calmer I would have tried out the new selfie stick but no sense in that.
After 20 minutes of loitering at 300 feet I went back up to 350 to see if it had mellowed but the air was still unstable so I landed.  The repair to the kill switch was done before leaving so i field tested it by killing the motor at 50 feet and just for fun greased the landing.
Over Shell Creek

New Selfie stick.

Placida Sunset

LFlight 835

I was doubtful about flying tonight.  The weather pattern has been pretty consistently late afternoon thunderstorms and tonight was no different.   BUT…. After this mornings flight there were four of us watching the sky …. peer pressure is a powerful thing.  At 5:30 I left the house and 20 minutes later I was parked under an abandoned car wash waiting out the rain.  Bob and Mike Otten were already at the field and as soon as the rain stopped so were Mile Lange and I.  

The weather gods answered Bob’s prayer.  The rain had moved off and the skies were mellowing nicely.  Mike Otten didn’t wait long, while the breeze was still a little twitchy he pulled up his wing and was gone.   As soon as Bob had cleared the runway I set up and launched.  Only glitch was realizing  I’d forgotten to put in the ear plugs.  Fortunately they were in my camera bag and I quickly put them in and took off after Otten.  When we got to the Gasparilla Marina, Mike  took off for the beach and I loitered over the golf course to shoot the sunset.  Making slow turns I climbed to 1100 feet and enjoyed the scenery.  

The landing at 7:30 was without drama 

Yorkshire …. 834

Bob Harrison wrote this one up for FaceBook and so I’ll let his words say it all.
“Enjoyable flight once I got up. The wind was light an changing 180deg. As I learned from my previous failed launch don’t run faster then u can taxi unless the wing is ready. It wasn’t and I aborted. 
Had to take my Moster off twice to get it started and clear it out before I got it started on my back. Electric start is without a doubt worth the weight. 
Joe Onofrio and David Muench had flawless launches. The ease at which David’s wing rose overhead with a very short launch flying a GTR 20 makes me want one bad. 
Mike Lange and I overcame our struggles and flew off with Joe on a big loop with a little water foot-dragging. 
Above the low scud clouds was smooth air though I’m not much into altitude so back on the deck I went. 
If the weather Gods allow we’ll be flying this evening, I think Placida.”

I don’t have much to add except that the winds were fluky.  Switching 180 degrees up and down the corridor we were launching from.  I was set up on the road when it changed from a nice gentle up wind launch to a puffy downwind.   I waited for a lull but was still over 30 mph when the wheels left the ground.  The air was mostly smooth above 300 feet but pretty bumpy down low and around the scud.

Return to Gaspirilla Island Flight 831

This was a good one.  Bob and I launched just after sunrise in calm air.   I flew out to the Gasparilla causeway climbing to about 1000 feet.  Once across I turned north but only for about 1/4 mile because I wanted to stay with Bob who had turned South toward Boca Grande.  We went to the end of Gasparilla Island, played around a bit at the end and turned back.  I stayed high because the last time I was here it was really bumpy near the surface but looking back I wish I’d gone down to the beach where the surface winds were probably very manageable.  If I get another chance, I’ll go for it.

The return trip was beautiful.  Both of us stayed high and I got some decent pictures.  Not close enough for a trophy shot but nice never the less.  As I came back across the causeway I noticed that the scud was moving in from the North. It was starting to cover the jet port and would be over the LZ by the time I got there.  I had to decide if I was going to stay high and drop down to the LZ or go low, and get under the scud and hope there was enough altitude to stay above the lines.  I dropped down while still in clear air and decided to fly the scud.  It turned out to be pretty patchy and I had no trouble finding the truck.  The wind had picked up from the north making for an easy landing on the road.

Bob did pretty much the same thing except that he decided to land upwind of the vehicles. The wind died on final and he just barely touched down before hitting his car.

Weather permitting I’ll do it again tomorrow.
If your sitting inside watching the snow, click the link below for Bob’s video of the flight.

CHECK WING LAYOUT FROM THE SIDE! 829 … 830

First launch was textbook except that my right brake line was wrapped around the riser.  I’m sure I could have flown that way.  There was no fear of it locking or changing wing shape in any significant way but because it was wrong I circled and landed.  The second launch was also clean.  This morning after I’d set up I stood behind the wing and checked that the center A lines were even.  Ordinarily I would have mounted up and launched but I decided to check it from the side and was shocked to see that while the center was properly aligned the wing in general was tilted a couple of feet to one side.  I occasionally make this check but not religiously and expect that on those times that the wing is launching crooked for no apparent reason.   The reason was apparent.  Note to self.  

The air was bumpy until 250 feet where it settled down to a smooth 15 mph easterly breeze.  I flew out to the Redneck Yacht Club and in full reflex and took a few pics.  My plan to drop down and do a few touch and goes was aborted when I decended to 500 feet and encountered moderate turbulence.
On landing I had to change my plan and land on the runway rather than gliding up to the truck.  The wind was gusting and what started out as a very steep decent turned into an overshoot during a brief lull on final approach.
Outbound speed 14mph, inbound 51mph