Flight # 1195

Short but sweet. Forecast was for 7 mph at dawn building to 9 mph at 9am. The reality was , calm at the surface with a steady 20+mph that held above 1000 ft. I was downwind the entire flight and was barely able to make headway in full reflex. When it became apparent that I wouldn’t be able to penetrate at a safe altitude I descended to 200 ft , pulled in trims and landed hot.

The videos were good on all three cameras. The selfie stick was the most interesting because it was apparent from the look on my face that I was somewhat concerned about getting back to the field. I was happy to see that once I’d committed my countenance appeared competent and focused.

Cheated death again!

Skip’s first flight, my incident and Flight #1191

Skip and I met Paul and Bruce at Lake Suzy . It was clear with light breeze. There were occasional puffs. We put Skipper in Paul’s rig and they took off. The grass was a bit long and really wet. The spray behind Paul as he was running up was very impressive.

Wanting to catch up and start shooting video…. I was in a hurry. The wing came up fast and I went to full power right away. Big mistake… I got some lift from a puff and (as she’s apt to do) the rig turned to the left. I came down out of line and rolled the rig. The cage was bent and one blade was broken.

It was very disappointing but seeing the huge grin on Skipper’s face as they came in to land took care of that.

Over the next three weeks I replaced the blades and had the rig welded.

This morning I got redemption.

Flight # 1190

Very nice morning at Lake Suzy with Paul Czarnecki. We didn’t launch until 8:20. The winds were very light and swinging 180 degrees. Paul launched into the wind and I launched with it abaft the beam. We climbed to 1500ft and danced for 30 minutes. The video wasn’t worth messing with because we were too far away from each other.

I routed my braked lines through the second pulley which shortened them and made the 2-d steering much better.

Flight #1189

Another beautiful Summer morning. Warm with light ground fog.

I’m contemplating shortening the brake lines because I’m seeing quiet a bit of slack compared to the WST line. I cannot really activate the brakes without also pulling the WST and I think they should active by pushing my arms out horizontally. I might give the current importer a call to talk about it after a little research. I think I’ll start with 3 inches and possibly end up shortening them by as much as 8 inches.

This is the first time I’ve seen wildlife (both deer and wild hogsj since the hurricane. I’m sure it’s mostly because I’ve been flying lower but it could be that there are more animals around.

Flight #1186

Awoke at 4:45 and decided to fly.

This morning I laid out the wing with a slight Chevron which seemed to help it inflate from the center first and fill in the tips as it passed through the prop wash. The air was very smooth right up to the end. Florida is experiencing Saharan dust in addition to our heat wave, it made for an interesting sunrise.

There was no drama .