When I arrived at Vance Brand there was a light breeze from the south so I flew around the hangers and did a short final to land by the truck. At the last minute I decided to make it a touch and go where I experienced a very long run and very slow climb out. The belt was screaming and I barely had the power to clear the southern fence. This has to change!
The morning flight was a combination of screw ups.
A combination of events made for a a crosswind launch. First I made the mistake of leaving the key in the on position and had to jump start the Falcon. When I got it started I noticed that the wind had picked up and was coming from the south which was exactly the wrong way for me to get a decent run out. I didn’t want to shut down the motor and start all over with the jumping the truck so I looked things over and decided it was probably light enough to go for it. Inflating the wing 90 degrees off the wind should have been challenge enough, what I didn’t notice was that in the rush to get unhooked from the truck the port side riser had slipped leaving the cam below the hang point loop. During the inflation this mistake worked in my favour because the wing started turning into the wind right away with very little brake input I was a little surprised that the strange crosswind launch was going so smooth and didn’t realize the reason why until I was up. With the port riser riding low the wing naturally turned to the left The safety strap had been pulled into the hang point loop and the cam was bound inside of the strap. I stayed on the throttle and climbed to 250 ft and used both hands to pull on the strap. When it finally pulled loose the cam was still jammed and I had to worry it until it slipped through the loop.
Once that little bit of drama was over the rest of the flight was SOP.
That evening I met up with Ion who took me up for a flight in the Easy Long. There were big thunder heads with the classic anvil shape to the east and west. We flew out to Lake Granby slaloming between the clouds.
It was a great flight! We topped of at 18,000 feet and were in and around the clouds. Returning to the front range Ion flew level with the hogbacks and pointed out old Indian animal traps. Places where they would drive the animals to a dead end where they would be taken by the hunters. These were developed over the thousands of years prior to the “Indian Horse Renaissance”, when they had to do all of their hunting by foot.
//player.vimeo.com/video/72941075
Flying the EZ LONG with Ion from Joe Onofrio on Vimeo.
Very Cool…Flying the fast and low. Air Time 1 hour and 20 minutes, cost 30 bucks.
The air was interesting on landing. There was a cool downslope from the west on the surface and 10 degrees warmer from the East. I had a hard time deciding which way to land. Was the inversion so low that I would be downwind even after I touched down? It turns out not and at about 5 feet I slowed down cones rabble as the wind passed through the layer suddenly going into the wind.
Two mornings at Vance Brand
Yesterday was good except that I melted a hole in the wing with the muffler. I did a long low approach in nil wind on landing and the wing took a little downwind puff at the last moment I saw it change direction during deflation and tried to scoot the trike forward but just wasn’t fast enough.
Bummer !
I did have some repair tape and a nice large patch so it was no problem to repair it.
Aug 15th
This morning was also a nil wind day. At least until I got to 500 feet where there was a 10 mph breeze from the NNE. I tried to catch the balloons and followed them all the way to Louisville before I turned back. Outbound leg was 40 mph … home leg was 20 mph. It was 8:30 when I got back to the field and the thermals were starting to pop. By the time I’d folded the wing and loaded the trike it was blowing hard from the NNE. Long flight!
So far we have had 5 dives including a night dive. The conditions are OK. Certainly not the best diving but, like some things in life, even the worst of it is wonderful. Visibility is about 30 feet the water temp varies between 75 and 95 and the Marine life is abundant. We have seen the typical assortment of angle fish, puffers, needle fish, stars and urchins. There are also moray eels and last night we saw sea cucumbers and an unusual bottom fish called a guitar fish (Rhinobatidae). It looks like a cross between a ray and a shark. The one we spotted was about two feet long and grey in color.
Dawn was a little spooked before the dive but she had suited up and did great. We stayed down 54 minutes and went to 55.
This was the shallowest dive of the trip. It’s interesting how much deeper we dive these days. On both of the two tank dives we hit 100+ feet and it was no big deal. Twenty years ago that would have been huge. All of our dives have been off Corinado Island North West of Loretto.
The most notable thing about diving here is the dramatic changes in temp. There must be a serious upwelling from deep water. The current has been consistently 2 to 4 knots and its like going from a warm bath to an ice chest in the blink of an eye. Certainly it was warmer near the surface but even at 50 feet you could go around a rock and find the water 20 degrees warmer or colder.
The sea lions were found in groups of 10 or 20. They were on there backs with their flippers in the air. I didn’t know what I was looking when I saw what appeared to be clumps of black bird wings sticking above the surface.
There is only one serious PADI Dive Shop in Loreto (Dolphin Dice Center) and even they use a panga instead of a big expensive dive boat. The pricing is about the same as anywhere else. $120 for a two tank dive and lunch and $65 for a night dive.
Sail from Joe Onofrio on Vimeo.
This is not commercial and I claim no right to the audio track
Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight 
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