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Flight #223 Simms

Just a quick 30 minute fix

Light to Nil Wind at launch. Lots of sand in the right wing tip.
50 degrees F and hands still got cold in winter grade gloves.
Flew into possible mountain cool air draining from Floyd Hill.
It was nice to get into the air. I didn’t stay up for more than 30 minutes for a couple of reasons. First i was in such a hurry to get out that I forgot the earplugs. I used the Bose NR headphones but the seal was bad and the noise level was way to high. Second the sun was almost behind the mountain when I arrived and I had to fly to 1000 feet before I was back in the sun. and cold hands of course.

Flight #205 and #206 Simms

Light wind from North East
Dan Kamasar and Paul Dillon plus one spectator
Glass off was great. Played at pushing a coyote around from 20 feet.

Added Power in turn at low altitude. and made a beautiful hard turn to long final….flew the Nap of the field for the entire span and set down softly at the truck.
Engine is starting very well…It must have helped to clean out the decompression hole at Monument Valley.
It’s interesting how comfortable the “Home Field” is after returning from the Monuments.
I was dismayed to read Dell’s ugly rant after the Maxwell Incident.
This was a good confidence builder after the tragedy

#192

192 was a morning flight Aug 20th. Chip was going to meet me but had some issue with his reserve and didn’t make it. I put more air in the tires and the buggy accelerated much better, it was rough and the landing was really rough but it helps to reduce the rolling resistance when the field is bumpy. I let the trimmers out and enjoyed the performance of the 28m Eden III. This time I practiced flying lower and after twice getting into bumps to the west at 6300ft went back to the field and areas east. The surprise if the day was broken line on the starboard top cage. I do not think it was a prop strike. The string just broke, maybe I weakened it when I was trying to thread another line to mount the strobe. This afternoon after work before the race I restrung it with 1000lb deep sea line. Much better than factory.

# 181 UNGROUNDED !


Stefania was quick to jump out of bed at 5 am and we were at the field before 6. It was dead calm when we pulled in and 2 minutes later it was 10 mph from the west! Eventually the wind came down and I set-up …looking good with the new cage and the oh so sexy new simitar prop.

When I was reassembling the trike I set the thrust line a little higher than it was and it caused the wing to catch in the prop wash at the 10 O’Clock position. I didn’t reset but let the prop fill the wing and restarted without getting out of my seat. It looked bad but I was able to recover from the wing falling off to the right …so far that the tip almost touched the ground. Finally it stablized and I got in a nice 40 minute flight.

Very smooth and even flew with the foot steering while I took a few pictures. There is a big sign up that the property is available so it won’t be long before I’m looking for a new site.

179 & 180

#179 & 180 July 26th 2008
Simms
Two flights. It was nice to have the GPS and tach back. The air was humid and light fog was on the hills. As expected the take off run was longer than usual but it was very smooth once in the air. The screw-up of the day was when I took of without my helmet. About 20 minutes into the flight I felt my hat fly off. I immediately started a turn but I was never able to see the cap or where it went down. The funning thing was that I remembered saying to myself …”Damn you forgot to put on your sunglasses” …No I didn’t they were on the top of my favorite Mount Gay Hat. I dropped down and looked but no JOY.
The landing was great! I used more power and got deep into the brakes. I’m going to practice and learn the low and slow!
The second flight was short and mostly to practice the landings…It was ok but not as good as the first.

#178

Nice long flight! I think I have all my electrical issues resolved. First the new (used) Garmin 176-c arrived, second I installed the tiny tac that Matt gave me and last the starter battery took a charge when I remembered to open the circuit on the master panel.
The wind was light and variable…so variable that when I tried to launch it had shifted 180 degrees and I aborted after draging the wing downwind for half the field. Second attempt was fine and after a long runoutIwas up and cruising.
Nothing really to note except that I came in really hot…I glanced at the GPS and was doing 26 mph when I flared for touchdown.

Fagawie 2008


The fifth annual Fagawie went of without a hitch. Beautiful moon with just enough clouds to make it interesting. Five boats rafted up prior to the race and shared a potluck dinner. The start was very light windsa and I was 3 minutes late getting to the line…after a sail change to the new drifter I took off and had caught up with the fleet at the first mark. From 2 to 4 I was feeling good about my choice of sails but by the time I rounded 5 it was building to the limit of it’s rating. After the downwind run back to 2 I decided it was way too much and doused sails to return to the marina and pick up Joe Aiello and Tom. For whatever reason they didn’t show so I changed into long pants, reefed the main a put up the jib.

Good choice! The rest of ther night went fast! Strong winds and a beautiful night. Every once in awhile a cold breeze would come thru followed by a warm one. I chased Bruce Budy for about two hours before finally catching him at mark 5. It was perfect, I ran south as far as I could when he decided to tack to the mark, he ended up tacking three times and I only tacked once. When we got to the mark he was going slow and pinching and I was on a beam reach and hauling. As he rounded I cut inside and blew by. Bruce called, “out well done!” and we raced back to 2. Later he passes me on a reach but I coasted by at the finish…so I won before the handicap which was of course reversed by the PHRF. The real winner was Joe and Denise Chinburg who really raced well and didn’t miss a stroke. We celebrated after the race with a breakfast at IHOP.

CSYC Race # 2 Summer series

We made up for the disaster of last week and won clean including the Barn Door!
The course was 6 … 3 x2. Crew was John Sieb, Ollie,Stefania, Michella and myself. We had a good start and stayed with the J boats all the way. Even managed to squeeze past a pair of C Fleet boats on the last rounding of 6 with no wind …just our inertia. The big light wind genoa was the trick. Lil Bus got their spinnaker in an hourglass and finished last so I guess they won’t be the boat to beat this series like I thought. Robert & Marsha Kline cleaned everybodys clock on the combined fleet…Good for them! Roy and Mark caught up with me toward the end but I had 50 boat lenghts on em for awhile. Good Race