It was a wonderful passage with Ron and Nancy from St Thomas to Bonaire. 430 nm on a broad reach the whole way. The boat was wonderful the weather was on our side and the company was great. Dawn and I arrived at Benner Bay at noon where Ron met us at the dingy dock. The firsr thing I did after loading our bags into the dingy was to drop my glasses over the side. I was ready to forget about it until Ron pointed out that we were in 6 inches of water. Abashed I reached down and retrieved the wayward specs. We motored out to Always Saturday and the adventure began.
After stowing our gear and getting a quick boat tour we piled back on the dingy and went ashore where we caught a bus to the mall, we purchased the last of our provisions and wandered to the “Food Court” for a street dinner of ribs and egg rolls. The ride back was up and around the Island giving us a great view. On the way in we went by American Bay where we sawMaxi Boats practicing for the Rolex Reggata and on the way back to the boat we got a good look at Red Hook.
Dawn and I spent the first night on the starboard birth rocked to sleep by the yacht.
Up at 6:00, pulling our hook at 7:00, we were around the Buck Islands before 8:00 and on our way to Bonaire.
It was 42 degrees at home when I left for Vance Brand Airport. At Vance Brand it was 32 degrees. Damn ,I hadn’t prepared for flying in weather this cold. The weather prediction was for high winds but right now the wind was very light and running perfectly to use the road as a runway. The take off was smooth, the wing came up so clean and straight and I had to check to make sure that it was really stable and overhead ….I did pop up and touch down but there was no torque, so I guess moving the right hang point forward was the right thing to do. Once up… it was smooth but blowing much harder than at the surface. I stayed below 1000 feet and practiced carving turns with the trimmers in. It was amazing how much higher the wind was just above the surface. I was looking at the wind sock just barely lifting the tell tails while at 200 ft AGL it was topping 40 mph on the gps. During the 40 minute flight it shifted 180 degrees and I felt several “bangs” where the convergence was happening. The landing was picture perfect I could hardly feel when I touched down. Nice flight… WhenI got back to Boulder the winds had picked up close to 20 mph.
We left Johns house at 10:30am and arrived at the Salton Sea 4:45am. Unlike previous years we had chosen to “Power Drive”, to the Event rather than spend a night in Las Vegas. It was partly budget and part timing but it was quick and fairly painless for us to take turns and keep moving. As soon as we arrived, John set right out to build his campsite, while I stretched out on the front seat and napped till dawn. We set-up in my favorite spot behind the swimming pool. I was happy to see that we were the first ones but sad that the area wasn’t the grassy park that I remembered. They had stopped watering and the grass and it had all died, but…. there was shade and it was better than pitchin a tent on a dusty desert road adjacent to the field.
At 8 am it was a beautiful morning with light winds coming from the lake. John and I loaded the truck with our paramotors and drove to the field. The first thing I noticed as we walked up to the Registration tent was a life size cutout of Bob Armond standing by the entrance with his arms spread and a sign saying “Free Beer Tomorrow”. Some people were offended, but I just smiled and said “Yeah Bob”. We paid our fees, collected our Bob Armond Memorial T-Shirts and moved out the field to fly.
Michelle Danielle…Joe Onofrio…Jorden Danielle BOB ARMOND in SPIRIT
My first flight was special. I cruised the area and visited places I had fond memories of. There…. was the spot where I distroyed the Simonini Trike Buggy after launching with a huge tumble weed caught in the lines and there… was the old dome where my first Paratoys was held, I came here with Brian Smith all those years ago. I worked on trimming the wing that wanted to turn to the left regardless the wind direction. After some experimentation I was able to fly straight with the right trimmer out two stops. I was flying straight and feeling good about it but something was out of balance and it would take some time before I discovered the problem. I was not sure if it was the wing or the hang points.
The afternoon was marred when Phil Russman and Mike Robinson had a mid-air collision about 30 feet up over the LZ. I don’t know who was at fault but words were exchanged and Phil was asked to leave. At 6:00pm Mike called a pilot briefing and chewed the bunch of us out for a litany of wrongs. We had all received a page of rules but, as usual, the day before the fly-in, nobody was paying attention to the rules. I was no angel…, when the landing area was full of wings and I was out of gas, I decided to hell with it and landed in the launch area. We were all guilty. Bob was gone and this “new boss” just didn’t have our attention.
The event was not starting off well. The biggest problem was stolen equipment. One pilot had a wing stolen when he landed out and had to leave it behind while he carried his motor back to the field, other stuff was stolen from the Vendor booths and there was some money missing. Now…., I’ve been to many fly-ins and theft had never been a problem, so this was something new and not a good sign, for this fly in or future ones. It is no secret that Mike doesn’t love doing the Paratoys event and was planning to make it every other year instead of annually. So standing there in the twilight, listening to the ass chewing, I wondered if this might not be the last Paratoys Fly-In, at least the last one at the Salton Sea.
Day 2
Great day! Four long flights in T-Shirt weather. After dinner I hung with Chad and Greg until it was time to meet Dawn and show her the way to the Fly-In.
Day 3
Nice casual breakfast then out to the field to walk the line and introduce Dawn to the community. While Dawn and I were chatting with Michael Purdy we heard that there were 35 mph gusts west of us at the gas station … 10 minutes later it hit. A huge wind front blasted through the flight line. It was strong enough to rip the windsock from it’s mast at the center of the field. There were about a dozen pilots in the air and it was clear they were in trouble. All but one were able to get down, with only minor injuries and equipment damages. The last pilot was blown off shore. Dawn and I watched him work his way back to the beach only to be blown back out over the water every time he descended to land. Finally he went for altitude and was blown out of sight. I remember thinking that we were watching a man flying to his death.
(This is an excellent interview with Jeff Goin and Lance Marzack discussing the wind front that could have been a disaster.
The wind didn’t look like it was going to moderate so Dawn and I jumped into the truck and drove to the other side of the Salton Sea. I wanted to show her Salvation Mountain and I thought that if the lost pilot had been blown across the Sea we would at least be on the east side to offer him a ride. I caled Paratoys and told Brian where we were just in case he wanted us to do a recovery.
Salvation Mountain
The winds were light when we got to the East shore but twenty minutes after we arrived at Salvation Mountain the wind picked up and continued to build. It was not as strong and didn’t on as abruptly as it did at the field, but it was steady and it was clearly not going to be flyable, probably for the rest of the day.
Salvation Mountain, …one mans mission to praise the lord with nothing but a bunch of paint and desert sand. Apparently “Old Lenard”, had been sick because we found “Get Well” letters tucked in little alcoves for him to find when he returned. After wandering around and taking pictures we went in search of Slab City. Last year I drove around for an hour and got hopelessly lost trying to find “The Last Free Place in America”. Slab City was made famous by the movie, “Into the Wild”, it is a squatters camp situated on the site of George Patton’s WW II training base. I was expecting a happy hippie commune but instead found only abject poverty, there were several dozen decaying RVs and makeshift shelters scattered across the desert. Some had the appearance of something out of the “Burning Man Festival” others spoke of refugees or counter culture fugitives. Needless to say Dawn and I were underwhelmed and only to happy to turn the truck into the wind and head back to the east shore to get ready for the big banquet.
ParaToys
This year it was a celebration. Our lost pilot had been found. We started the Banquet by having the lucky pilot telling his story.
Rich Kennedy “The Lost Pilot”
Rich Valentine had been in the air for 20 minutes when the gust front arrived. He was on the beach and quickly blown off shore. The winds were higher at the surface and so he found himself flying a box. At 1000 feet he was able to penetrate the gust and fly toward the shoreline only to be blown back over the water when he descended to land. After three or four cycles he looked at his gas and decided that his best chance was to run with the wind and make for the far shore 12 miles west. With a 40 MPH tailwind he arrived at Bombay beach in less than 15 minutes and landed in relatively calm air where he was met by a couple on their way to church. Since he had neglected to bring a cell phone there was no way for him to contact the fly in. He had no idea that we had called in the big guns and that there were two helicopters and dozens of people looking for him.
Jeff Goin…Joe Onofrio…Chad Bastian…Mo Shelton
John Fetz John Sieb Dawn McLane
After dinner the competition winners were announced and Michelle Danielle presided over the Bob Armond Memorial portion of the evening. She put her words to song and brought many to tears. The evening was capped off with the return of Phil Russman who had prepared a video tribute to Bob.
(The link above is Will Jones interviewing Jeff Goin and Lance Marzack about the near disaster caused by the tremendous wind front that hit Sat. morning)
Sunday morning I flew with the new com helmet and radio for the first time. Once again my luck with communication equipment is poor. The PTT button was only working intermittently but I could hear the other pilots just fine. If putting a new battery in the ear cup does not correct it, I will send the helmet back for repair. The conditions were very thermic. When I felt the left wingtip get lifted I turned into it and was climbing at 300 fpm (at idle). After climbing to 1500 feet I lost the thermal and so I turned north and enjoyed a leisurely flight to say goodbye to the Salton Sea. The winds had built to 10mph when it was time to come down and so the landing was almost vertical, I love it when I run out of altitude and energy at the same time. 🙂
Dawn kissed me goodbye and headed off to San Diego where she was going to catch a flight back home. It was fun to have her at the event and I was glad to have been able to introduce her to some great friends. The high winds ruined her shot at a tandem foot launch with Chad but she was a good sport, swallowed her disappointment and made the best out of it. What a trooper! I will do my best to get her some airtime soon.
The winds were predicted to be bad at Glamas Dunes so John and I decided to try for Las Vegas. Traffic was terrible but we arrived in Jean Nevada with plenty of time to hit the buffet and get a good nights sleep. The next morning we got up early and drove out to Lake Jean. The winds were 10 mph and gusting. What a bummer, I had forgotten how nice this place is. A perfect place to launch in all directions with some great elevation changes to fly around. Ah well, maybe next year….
An unusually warm winter day and glassy air was just to good to pass up. I stopped at St Marys LZ in hopes of an early lauch, but the field was still wet and muddy so I went North to Vance Brand Airfield. No wind takeoff was smooth and so was the air. Last weeks shop time payed off handsomely, there was no belt slap and the vibrations were reduced significantly. There were a couple of small GA guys practising touch and goes and one overflew me a bit close for comfort. I didn’t think his vortex was going to be terrible but I banked and dove just to be sure. When it hit I had a one third collapse that popped out quickly. I was at least 150 feet away from his flight path and 200 feet below so it was surprising that I felt any turbulence. The wing wanted to turn to the right so I will remeasure and move the Riser loops again. Terry’s suggestion was probably right but I over did it when I moved the left loop forward.
I toured the area away fron the pattern, did a few touch and goes and landed after 70 minutes.
Daylight Savings changed to winter mode weekend so…. I was a little off when planning what time to leave the house. I could have tried the Saint Mary’s site, its only a mile away, but I wanted a long runway with a smooth surface. The rows of bumpy ruts and high tension wires at Saint Mary’s just didn’t suit me tonight… I needed a nice easy LZ. Vance Brand was looking good, I arrived at 4:00 pm and wasted no time putting up the wind sock and and unloading the Falcon. It was 40 degrees, not quite cold enough to warrant the Electric G gloves but I wanted to try them out so that this winter, when it really got cold, I would be familiar with all the hook ins and where they went.. By the time I was ready to launch it was 30 minutes till sundown.
The wind was light from the south, not unusual for this time of day but it was the first time I’d launched to the south at Vance Brand. I layed the wing on my lap and powered to the north end of the LZ about 50 feet from the General Aviation runway. There was plenty of room but with the Eden III lots of runway is a good thing. The G-gloves were bulky but manageable when I was positioning my hands to hold the the A mallions for inflation. The wing came up quickly … I added some brake to allow time for the trike to catch up and started my run out. The takeoff was sluggish and I found myself turning to the right. Even at full power I wasn’t gaining altitude and a couple of times I considered. aborting but I had turned 180 degrees and was flying toward the runway.
The correct thing would have been to go with the turn but I decided to fight it and kept adding left brake until I was able to fly straight. Eventually I was pointed at the west end of the runway and then turning back toward the truck. The wing was climbing but slowly. I looked and knew there was something wrong that was causing the turn but I didn’t catch it until I landed.
Despite being aware of keeping the trimmer cams above the hang point loops while setting up, the right side had somehow slipped down, hanging the trike from the hang point loop and the cam. This has happened to me before and a couple of times I was able to free the cam but for some reason perhaps the bad light and dark sunglasses I didn’t see the problem. It is not a good thing, the hang point loop isn’t designed to take a load and when the cam is caught below the steel ring it causes the risers to be off center by more than an inch. The wing will naturally cause a turn forcing me to used brakes and lose energy to maintain a straight line. Perhaps it happened when I was adjusting the wing or positioning the lines…. whatever the cause, I was having to use lots of left brake to fly straight and when it was time to land I was using a huge amount of brake on the left side to maintain. It is a small wing and needs speed to fly so I was a a distinct disadvantage, being forced warp the wing into an inefficient configuration to remain aloft. The Eden riser is different from the PowerPlay, it is more apt to do this and so I’m going to have to make it one of the last checks before starting the motor, expecially when I fly the Eden.
The second flight was just to prove I could.
Take off was fine but the climb out was slow. When flying the Eden I’ll have to allow for more room to gain take off speed. The place where I had set up was adequate but there wasn’t a lot of room for error, I found myself using brakes to get off and then I had to stay on them to avoid dropping down. Eventually I was stable I let up the brakes which allowed the wing to climb and the climb was good. I circled up to 400 feet and pulled a couple of wing overs, circled over the hangers and landed. It was all good and the landing was clean.
Dawn and I arrived at the field about 7:30, the was just the hint of a breeze coming from the west which lined up with the jeep track nicely. I took my time, set-up and launched without fanfare.
The air was smooth and clear. I made a few climbing circles and flew off to the south where there were 6 or 8 balloons in the distance. I would have flown out to meet them but I wanted to see when Robert arrived so I turned back and played around the field.
Longs Peak
About 20 minutes later two vehicles pulled in next to my truck, it was Robert and Peter with his PG wings. I set-up to land but after touching down decided it was too soon to quit and relaunched in an extended touch and go. When I did come down Robert Peter and I shot the bull and talked about the options for Peter to get into PPG.
The first stick of Swoop divers came in and I took the opportunity to reset. I wanted to get some air while it was still good the sun was getting high and I knew it wouldn’t be long before the thermals started popping.. From 400 feet I watched Robert blow a launch and when it looked like he was going to wait for some breeze I turned south again to catch the sights. The ballooons had all dropped to the nap and were playing chase the rabbit. There were several Light sport aircraft in the area and just a great day to fly.
There was a new pilot at the field … Chris … who had a new Flat Top with the new ultra light trike. He was a PG guy with some experience but had never flown motor before. Robert and I spotted while he set up and launched in an amazingly short distance. Impressive machine. I wish it’s dealer was a little more mainstream. I was concerned because the pilot had no formal training and his landing was a bit scary … but he got down fine and it was all good.
The only down side of the whole morning was when a light sport fixed wing ultralight crashed on takeoff. I didn’t see the whole thing but it looked like he bounced on landing (or takeoff) and cartwheeled. Within 10 minutes the fire and EMTs were on site. It didn’t look like to bad a crash but I’m sure it was expensive.
After pulling up the sectional and being totally confused, I called Rocky Mountain Airport and was told I had a 2000 ft ceiling. and could overfly as long as I stayed above 500 feet. The municipal code clearly exempts non-fixed wing.
So… I called the police station and spoke with the officer. He said that he would check with the code inforcement officer and get back with me. If I didn’t hear anything … I’m good to go.
No News is Good News
Sec. 8.60.010. Intent.
In order to protect the public health, safety and general welfare, it is the purpose of this chapter to restrict the operation of aircraft within the city limits, except in the case of emergencies or where the city has given prior approval. (Code 1977, § 8.60.010; Ord. No. 966-1988) Sec. 8.60.020. Definitions. For purposes of this chapter, “aircraft” means any fixed-wing device or structure, whether motorized or not, designed for or capable of carrying persons or cargo in sustained flight at some elevation above the ground. Helicopters and balloons are not considered aircraft for purposes of this chapter. (Code 1977, § 8.60.020; Ord. No. 1049-1991, § 1) Sec. 8.60.030. Prohibitions. No aircraft may land on, take off from, taxi on or overfly land within the municipal boundaries of the city at an altitude less than 500 feet above the ground surface (unless any such lesser altitude is specifically allowed by the Federal Aviation Administration or unless the aircraft is regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration), except: A. In the event of an emergency, which emergency must be demonstrated by the operator of the aircraft; or B. If such landing, take off, taxiing or other operation of aircraft has been previously approved in writing by the city council or its designee after application by the proposed operator.
Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight 
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