Category: Uncategorized

901 Yorkshire

Met up with Mike and Bob at the Yorkshire LZ at 6:30.  Bob wasted no time getting up and I followed shortly after.  The plan was to fly out to the Arcadia Airport and back but I hitched my horse to the wrong wagon.  I stayed with Bob after takeoff and we climbed to 2000 feet but instead of turning North Bob stayed within a 5 mile radius of our launch.  Mike on the other hand stayed low and made a beeline toward Arcadia.  

So….Bob and I played around the patch for 90 minutes in calm air.  Turns out he was having trouble with is motor and opted to stay close and practice maneuvers.  Mike completed his round trip including a pit stop at the airport in about 110 minutes.  All in all , a good way to start the day.

899 Shell Creek

Nice flight.  Surface breeze 7 at 100 feet it was 20.  Nothing dramatic.  It was a little like yesterday with the storms rolling in but the air wasn’t as turbulent.  I flew for 45 minutes and landed when the winds started to build.  Back on the surface it was very mellow.  I almost went back up but decided to save 

# 900 for a trophy flight.

898 Shell Creek

Don’t ya just hate it…..
When you launch into a perfectly beautiful sunrise, and discover,
its flyable, but its no…….. fun.

That was the 898 experience.  I set the alarm early so that I could get a chance at a trophy shot of the sunrise.  The weather report was for calm air at sunrise with winds and storms building rapidly after sun up.  It was blowing 8 at Placida and about that, at the house.  I figured it was coastal breeze and would be greatly diminished at Shell Creek.  Conditions at the field were 5 with an occasional puff from the West.  I set up for a crosswind launch heading South.   Nice inflation, good turn down the runway.  I launched in the wind shadow of the last tree bordering the runway.  When I passed the tree and flew into clear air, the wing moved aft and I climbed 300 plus ft/min, for about 3 seconds. Then I was in sink and back and forth all the way to 400 feet, where the wind was blowing 20 + mph steadily.  The bumps were down to a 2, on a scale of 5 and the wing was rock steady.   I wasn’t worried about collapse but if I wanted to avoid the bumps I had to stay above 300 feet where penetration was poor and predicted to get worse.
So…. I landed
Its all good.

894 – 897. Shell Creek

June 15, 2016 6:30am

894   Mike Lange and I flew out to the Wall Mart Distribution Center and parts North of the patch.

Cruising altitude 350 ft.
Time 58 minutes
Clear sky calm air

June 16,
Three flights

…. One long , two short

Low altitude
Watching the storm build to the south, I decided to stay close to the patch.  Conditions on the field were calm so when I landed I decided to do a little take off practice. 
It was raining and stormy the rest of the day

#893 Shell Creek

Dawn flight after several days of heavy weather.  The new area that Frank mowed for us has a canal (almost) between the runway and our staging area.  I tried to back the truck up to the runway to avoid pushing the trike through the high grass and ended up with the back end with water half way up the tires.  I was able to back on to the runway and left a nasty looking skid mark driving back across.

The flight was without drama avg. elevation 400 ft.  Duration 55 minutes.
Later I attempted an evening flight but had to call it off when the front wheel disassembled.

Two Days Two Flights

Yesterday, after stopping at Mike L’s to get the cage welded I met up with Bob, Mike and Bill at Placida.  We tried to fly there last Sunday but ended up sitting in our vehicles while 3 inches of rain dumped on us.  Anyway….. I arrived about 6:30 and Bill was boating overhead.  The other two were out of sight somewhere on Gasparilla Island.  I took my time getting ready and committed take-off sometime shortly after 7.  It was a bad launch.  I had to turn shortly after inflation and was perhaps a little to abrupt with the wing during the turn.  Never the less, I got pointed in the right direction and applied power.  The field was bumpy and the breeze was gusty and I experienced a pre-mature takeoff.  I touched back down again, briefly, and staggered into the sky.  The air was mixing, not terribly bumpy but not a lot of fun.  I landed after probably 20 minutes.

Second attempt was aborted after I broke a brake line during inflation.  Easy fix replacing less than 10 feet to first cascade.

# 889 High Flight

The perfect morning.  I noticed the last time that I’d flown here that somebody had mowed the grass and made a turn around at the end of partly hidden track to the runway..  There is a DC-2 carcass that is begging to be converted into a club house.  There is enough room to park 4 vehicles and room for more if it were mowed.  It’s not a project to jump into solo, but if we ever organize a club it would make  a kick ass hangout.  A couple of shipping containers for hanger space and it would be perfect for twelve year olds and middle aged PPG pilots.

The launch and landing were fine.  I did two touch n goes from either end of the runway and finally landed with a very faint tailwind.   Maximum altitude was slightly over 6000 AGL.  Mellow climb and mellow decent.  50 minutes. 
On another note: Rex got his initial 4 flights at Dorr Michigan with Terry Lutke.  He is on his way back to Denver to finish his instruction with the Rocky Mountain Flock.  Terry has been talking about getting out of training for a couple of years and this afternoon he posted that he had happily finished training his last beginner.  Thanks for your service Terry.  And thanks for taking on Rex … It meant a lot to him and me.

Incident during the Summer Series

Incident Report of collision during May 22, 2016 Race


Last Sunday, I was party to a collision between two yachts, Diva Gorda and Adagio, during the Second race of the summer series.
This was my first time aboard the Diva Gorda.  I was assigned the position of main trim. The skipper gave me a safety tour and explained my position.  He made it a point to tell me, “be ready to dump the main”, because of specific characteristics of the boat.  I felt comfortable with his instruction and told him that I was clear.  
Prior to the start we made a few practice turns.  At this time my performance with the main was slow and the Skipper warned me about dumping the main.   During the start, the skipper changed course to duck below Adagio, I ease the main at  the traveler but did not ease the main sheet, until it was too late to avoid a collision.  I believe, that,  had I dumped the main shortly after the turn had been initiated, we would have avoided the collision.  
The overall cause of this incident was my inexperience with the boat and crew.  The team had obviously worked together and were quick and knowledgeable of their positions, the boat and communications.    I cannot claim ignorance of main sail trim, only inexperience at the position, on a boat this size.  I expect that given a little more time, I would have learned the boat, crew and position.
A contributing factor to the incident was poor situational awareness.    I was focused on the main sheet and traveler while “staying low”,  to avoid obscuring the skippers field of view. As a result, I did not have a mental picture of the start and did not anticipate the skipper’s intentions.   If I had looked around”, I would have understood where the skipper was going and would have known how far the main needed to be released.  Not keeping an eye on the race was a fatal mistake.
I believe hindsight is valuable.   Used correctly, it will prevent future accidents.  Unfortunately, it cannot change the past.
I apologize to the skipper and crew of both boats for my part in this incident.

888 Shell Creek

Nice.  Clear sky, light wind, no glitches. 

One hour 5290 ft. MSL
900 ft/min vertical decent
280 /min vertical ascent
30 miles
Music credits:(first records revived from my vinyl collection)
Jazz in the Troc Live     Elitch Gardens 1967
(I was in attendance with my Great Aunt Rose, age 12 and feeling very grown up.  I believe this was my first Gibson Concert, if not, then it was the inspiration for Dick Gibson’s lifetime work.  I had the pleasure and misfortune of working with Mr. Gibson during the 90’s until his death in

Leon Redbone 

A god time was had by me. 🙂