After a slow start in the Spring Series, Paradiso is making a good show during the first races of the Summer Series. Moderate winds 5 to 7 . Final results are not posted but we finished 3 minutes over 2nd to cross.
Flew to Red Rocks and tried but failed in getting a good shot of the Rocks from west to east. Huge lift over the hogbacks but lots of sink beyond them. I made two passes over the “humps” to get high enough to get up and behind the Theater. 
I noticed that the development NE of the rocks looks like a possible temp LZ at least until they start building. The roads are in and a few houses but I doubt (hope) that they are occupied yet. If the wind is south or sw it looks like a nice down grade paved runway.I got up early to see if the Lucent site would be a good replacement for South Park. Unfortunately not, it looks great but the slope is to the north and the prevailing winds are from the south. If it is coming from the north it might work as long as the winds are nil to light but trees on the north end could create some rotor. An easterly wind would also work but that almost never happens. At the same time I was appraising the site, John Sieb called and I gave him the good and bad news…Great for foot launch bad for trikes. We decided to meet at Simms
He beat me by a few minutes and was setting up by the road. The weeds have grown to waist height over most of the field. John couldn’t drive on the field and was planning to walk out to find a place to set-up, I drove out and found a place where the vegetation was lower at the North end of the field. The wind was light from the South East which was perfect because I could roll down the grade and stay in the short weeds. John took off while I was setting up and the wind shifted 180 degrees pinning me to the earth.
So…I sat in the buggy and watched John while he carved up the sky. At one point he flew over and made a gesture to say….What are you doing? The wind continued to build from the North West and I was resigned to a No Fly Day. Just as I was ready to give up the wind came down and I bit the bullet and started the 4 stroke. Amazing…I don’t know if it could be considered a down wind launch, but in the time it took to get up and turn back, the wind had returned as strong as ever.
John and I stayed up 45 minutes and had a great flight. The air was a 3 on the bump scale so I didn’t attempt to go all the way to Red Rocks but I did go to the far end of Bear Creek Park and only turned back when I started getting tossed by the air flowing over the hump backs. Landing was strange, every time I set a final approach for the truck, the buggy would catch some lift and I had to go around again. Finally I said the hell with it and landed long in the tall weeds.
The cloud cover and rising sun made for some great light on Longs Peak
It has been awhile since I was here and the grass has grown allot. I was luck to find this personal runway heading just 10 degrees off the wind. On landing I overflew “my spot” by 30 feet but greased the “runway nicely.
Just as I was returning home Marek called and said there was somebody flying over by Lucent and C-470. We were both curious because it was now after 11 and thermic as hell. I drove down there and caught the landing. The guy’s name is Bruce, he has been flying for 7 or 8 years and is free flight trained. He had flown over to the South Park site to take pictures of the ground breaking for the new church. We will be able to fly out of there for a couple more weeks but there goes another good site.
Simms … Two ten minute flights. Equipment was without issue. 65 degrees.
Climb is good but the takeoff was much longer. Reading last weeks log,… I notice all the same things. I’m still tentative on the wing and missing the old throttle.
The first flight, I climbed to 400 feet and landed. The run out was very long with the trimmers out but the wing came up very fast. Very ratty air all the way to the ground. I was more than happy to use the entire runway and make a long straight approach. There were puffs I flew threw that would slow me down and change the glide. Not dangerous but not the best place to be making tight turns either.
By the time I had walked the entire width of the field the wind was starting to mellow. A 15 year old kid was tagging along…nice kid I’ll try to give him a little more attention next time. 🙂
Second flight came 10 minutes after the sun had set behind the foothill. I kept it short and enjoyed a little better air. Trimmers in, wing came up slower, but takeoff was quicker. Climb out was sluggish at first but came up nicely. Landing was perfect …power on dragged the back wheels for a long time before I felt the front wheel touch.
Getting used to the Thumper/Powerplay Sting… It’s bigger, heaver, and slower to react. I miss the Simo’s snap but the trade off’s of the 4 stroke are still worth investigating. The place where it will really shine are long x-country flights. And…I have not had a good opportunity to do that this year. Guess I’ll have to get up early and put on my Michelin Suit to do it right.
The motor wasn’t starting so I swapped spark plugs and it started on the first pull…Yea ! I have to note that the plug that I took out looked good but it wasn’t very tight so that might have been the problem. No IPod this time, I used ear plugs and it was easer to listen to the motor. I feel alot better about the motor, it’s running well and I think it was just paranoia that had me hearing something other than normal.
Better luck tomorrow!
It’s been a week since my Knee was repaired with Arthroscopic surgery but I’ve healed enough to get in another birthday flight. Not the prettiest take off. The wing came up as cockeyed as the last time and I’m beginning to wonder what I’m doing or if it’s the equipment. It would probably be a good idea to send them down to Michelle for inspection. I think it might help if I got on the brakes a little sooner. Any way nice flight… trimmers out …59 degrees…almost no breeze. One spectator…same guy that was out the last flight. He sent me an e-mail interested in finding a used trike. I told him about Mo and Robert and promised to reply to his e-mail with some links.
The motor sounded different again and I noticed the rpms were 150 higher than normal. I kept it down to 5500. I’ll feel allot better when Mo has done a ring job and “Pimped out the ride” with EGT and CHT gauges.
Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight 
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