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887 Placida

Short Flight.  The wind was blowing just over my comfort zone so I put Beau on 50 feet of line and set up the wind sock.  My  phone rang and I spent the next 45 minutes talking while the wind and sun came down.  By the time I hung up, the sun was almost touching the horizon, there was just a hint of wind blowing from the West which fortunately, was right down the runway.  There was no time for the GoPro, iTunes, Earbuds, FlySkyHi or anything else that I liked to play with prior to flying.   
I grabbed the ear-cups, strapped in and launched.    I flew west toward the sun and tried to climb fast enough to keep the sun above the horizon.  Its possible, but not at 14 mph ascending at 250 ft/min.  I did however,slow it down a bit.
The landing was sweet.

884 Gasparilla Island

Mike was ate the field when I arrived.  I followed him up by 5 minutes.  It would have been quicker except that my battery had gone bad and I was forced to jump it with the baby booster.

There was Smooth air coming from the SE.  Mike and I flew over the causeway and partly down the island.  There were plenty of bumps over the island and I choose to go back to the mainland.  Over the gold course there was lift so I stayed there and played while waiting for Mike.
No drama.  I expect ally liked landing on the road and greasing it for a long way and taxiing over to the truck.

882 & 883

So …. It’s been a good week for flying.  


Sunday night and Monday morning with Tommy, in his WST.


Then that evening and the next two mornings back in the Falcon.  
Yesterday AM I went to 3000ish feet mostly because there was a strong breeze and I didn’t want to get caught downwind.  Nice flight.  

                         Building a dragon

The battery was acting up, it had barely enough power to do a cold start, even after spending the night on the charger.  I stopped at Batteries plus, where they checked the battery.  It’s good and it’s getting a charge from the motor.  So, it’s possible that my old charger has failed.  I was going to say “shit the bed” but there might be children reading this some day. :)….. Anyway … I picked up a new charger.

This morning I launched into nill wind and didn’t start feeling the SSE breeze until 100 feet up.   I crabbed over to the Track and Trail with the wing in full reflex and then went “all closed” for the return flight.  Acending to 2500 ft where I stayed until I got over the field.  It should be noted that I exceeded 300 ft/min climb at 3500rpm this morning.  The ground was warmer than it has been and there wasn’t a thermal layer as a result.  It was a nice change, flying low.  I did spot a large house that looked like either fire or the hurricane had totaled it. 

Tech note… The new Beat Studio Wireless headphones are not appropriate for aviation.

The airstrip is low.  My toe is touching the northern edge.



879, 880, 881 Shell Creek and Tom Spiers visit

This was a lot of fun!   Tom Speirs stopped by on his way to Beach Blast.  Splitting his time between family in Naples and Punta Gorda worked out well.  In just a few days he managed to get in several flights and a day on Paradiso with the whole family.  I flew with him twice and even got in the pilot seat and taxied up and down the runway.  I never seriously considered learning to fly a Delta WST but this has certainly wet my appetite.  There  are FAR 103 Deltas so ….Who Knows?

My flight this evening was one for the Dumb Chute File.  …..I noticed that the reserve container had partially opened when I was flying over the field at 500 feet.  Tom and I had been talking about repacking the reserve last night and I guess I didn’t put it back together properly after we opened it up to check the safety pins.  Dumb Sh*t …. The reserve is going back on my pre-flight check list!
I almost didn’t fly.  The first burp was that the key had been left on, draining the starter battery….. I had the emergency battery.  Then the winds were strong from the WSW, making for a sharp cross wind take off.  After 15 minutes and some kiting the breeze started to moderate so I laid out and launched without drama.  The air was pretty bumpy but above 150 feet it was warm and the sky was beautiful.  A couple of times I got into some good lift and was able to climb with the Generac at idle.  
The spell was broken when I glanced down and saw the reserve flapping in the breeze.   Even though the Velcro grabbed right away I immediately turned back and landed.  Total airtime was 30 minutes and it should have been over an hour.

Shell Creek #878

Got out early. Launched from South end of runway.  Climbed to 6100 and flew to Tracks and Trails.

Landing was exciting. When I got back to the LZ, it was starting to pop. At 300 ft I was being tossed around pretty good and had to go around twice before I could get on final at an appropriate altitude.  Seems like I kept getting lifted just as I was finishing the base turn and was too high for final.  Then I encountered sink on the runway and to flare very quickly to avoid a hard landing.

Tom Spiers arrived from Colorado yesterday.  We were lucky to hook up with Richard at Shell Creek because he was happy to let Tom hanger his WST in his hanger.

No Fly Day

Yesterday was a bust.  I had to be at Burnt Store Marinia at first light to drop off a fisherman so I figured that I should make the best of it and try and get in a flight.  So… I posted on Facebook to see if anyone had an LZ close by.  Sure enough, within 5 minutes I had a suggestion and after checking it on Google Maps, I was sure it would be appropriate for me and the Falcon.  It’s all good.

I dropped off my buddy and arrived at the field just as the sun was breaking the horizon.  There was a light breeze and a nice field that would allow me to launch into the wind and still avoid the wires.  So, I unloaded and set up for take off and just as I was about to launch, a rather irate fellow walked up with his dog and demanded to know why I though I could fly from there.  He had obviously had run ins with us before and was on a mission to stop PPG flights near his home.  He proceeded to tell me that there had been 5 or 6 guys out there who were tearing it up and making themselves a nuisance.  The cops had been called and if I were to launch …. They would be called again.  I really didn’t want to escalate the situation, this wasn’t my field, I probably wouldn’t be flying here very often, if ever, and I hadn’t been involved with stirring up the natives in the first place.  So I did what I could to calm the guy down and loaded back up.  I had received another address a few blocks east, closer to the Harbor so I drove down there to check it out.  It was marginal,  there were wires on all four sides and no place for an emergency landing once I crossed the wires.  It would have had to have been, one of those launches where you start a turn as soon as you get off and corkscrew for awhile until you have cleared the wires and have enough altitude to venture off.  There was also a work crew in the field, shortening the runway even more.  I decided to save it for another day.  Perhaps when Paul or some of the other guys want to come here.

Flight 876 … Playing in the Clouds

The breeze was diagonal to the runway so I set up with the wing almost inside of Frank’s hanger.  If the breeze picked up I could have theoretically launched before rolling over Anne’s imaginary line.

I was in a bit of a rush and noticed, only after starting the motor, that I had neglected to attach the A assists.  My shoulders were feeling good so I decided to do it the old fashioned way and launch using my hands to pull the A’s.  I always hold them anyway so the only difference would be that I would be responsible for the inflation.  
Video of Launch

So…. It might have been a crooked layout or bad line control, but the wing came up radically to the right and it took 3 ossolations before I was finally able to apply power and launch.  So much for good intentions.  I’m sorry Anne, I will try to avoid touching your land but when it affects safety I’ll do what’s safe.

There were scattered cumulus between 3000 and 5000 moving at 20mph from the WNW.  I  pulled in the trim and spent 15 minutes climbing to 5300.  It was pretty cold so I decided to fly around the clouds rather than getting into them, no sense getting wet as well.  Lovely morning, I watched the morning flights leave Punta Gorda Airport and experimented with the trim.  It was a 10 mph difference from full out to full in and a 85 ft/min difference in the climb or decent.
Landing was spot on.
Video of landing…