Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight

This is what will have to do for my 57th birthday flight.

57 Degrees … 7mph at the surface 20mph at 100 feet.  Easy quick launches.  Motor off landings.
Crabbed over to the High School and Elementary school.  Winds were switching and turned 120 degrees by the time I had landed for the next launch.  No set up required for the second launch because the wing came down perfectly to re inflate.

Nice but challenging flights

Two short flights.  mildly bumpy air and cold!

low and slow

582 —- 586
Great Video By DC Bateman

What a nice Surprise.  Dawn and I were planning to go to the CSYC board meeting but after speaking with Bill I decided that it was not a necessity, saving us 2 hours on the road.  When I text ed Dawn the news she suggested that we go flying instead.  How nice…
So she came home early and we were at the airstrip by 5:30. The wind was brisk from the East which was a good thing.  Instead of launching at the East end where the weeds had been snagging my lines, I could move to the west side of the field where there was real grass.  I’d launched there before but it was rare.  I parked the truck on the North end and walked the wing out to the middle of the field giving me plenty of room to launch and clear the buildings and rotor on the East end.  Dawn and I did a radio check and she settled into the truck to get some  work done while I played.   Nice Lady ….

Nice air except for a ratty layer at 200 feet.  I flew over to the High school and doodled around for 30 minutes.  The wind was 15 mph from the East.  When I dropped down to 100 feet I was able to penetrate much better and made my way back to Vance Brand. 

Through the whole thing I hadn’t been able to hear Dawn on the radio and was getting pretty frustrated.  We had done several radio checks which checked out fine.  Eventually I was getting her transmissions but weak.  I think the plug into the radio is the problem and will work on it.  Some kind of a guard that keeps the plug from being disturbed.

When the air started getting trashy I flew west of the field and practiced touch and gos adjacent to the runway.  On one of them I saw a GA lining up for final,  I stayed south of the runway and we came in together.  VERY COOL.

I arrived later than normal and was in a hurry to get set-up and launched before it got thermal.  The field was wet with dew and there was a thick haze to the east.  I was frustrated by the tough low weeds that kept hooking my lines during set-up and spent several minutes working to get them ready to fly free during inflation.
It didn’t work…. The first launch was aborted when the wing came up high on the right .  Probably some lines on the left were snagged.  I tried to recover the launch but was wasn’t worth the risk.
The second attempt was flawless.  I climbed to 1000 feet with smooth air all through the accent.  Returning to the field 40 minutes later I encountered some bumps at 400 feet as it was beginning to get thermal.
When I landed I took a wrap on the brakes and had enough flair authority to fly along the surface for several hundred yards under power.  Flying such a heavy unit makes this kind of fine control much harder.  It will be interesting to try it with the Eden III.

Yesterday was a no fly day.  I got to the field at 5 and set up at the west end.  The winds were light and I wasn’t in a hurry.  By the time I had put on my gear the winds had shifted to the north west which would have me launching over the runway.  Not a good idea.  Rather than drive the trike to the other end of the field I decided to wait and see what was going to happen.  The winds continued to shift north and I could see virga forming.  So … I laid down on the wing bag and waited some more.  10 minutes later a wind front came through that would have been horrible, had I been flying.  The wind was bouncing between 20 and 30 mph and bouncing between North and West.  I quickly bagged the wing and got it in the cab just as a short rain squall came through.  Who would have figured?  It looked so mild when I arrived. 

This morning was beautiful.  I set up by the skydiver tent and launched on the apron.  I was surprised to see that the wing was slightly wet … guess I didn’t get it bagged as quickly as I thought.  It came up slow and wanted to hang back but I stayed on the “A’s” and managed to get into the air.  It took about twice the distance I had expected but with plenty of room to clear the swoop pond.  Nice flight.

Wow !  This was exciting.  The first launch was to the East with mild winds.  I quickly saw that two of the lines were tangled and so I turned back to the field.  No big deal but I didn’t want to fly with the wing out of balance.  I landed without mishap and noticed that the skydivers had set up an extra tent for spectators.  
After clearing the lines I launched 180 degrees from the first flight.  Funky winds.
I headed toward the fishing lake and encountered some very turbulent air.  The trike was swinging big time and the wing was being pulled hard to the side.  I gently eased it around and headed back to the field.  It is an often over used term but I felt like a puppet on a string .  Bounced to the left and right.  Being lifted at over 400 feet per minute and dropped accordingly.  I don’t have a good reason but I was not freaked out like I have been the last few times that I’ve been in ratty air.  I was swinging but … ok … I was hanging under the wing but it was well loaded and even though it wanted to fly in a different direction … it was flying.  Perhaps I’m finally getting a little bump tolerance.  When I got back to the field the winds had increased dramatically.   they were coming from the west and I was barely penetrating.  With the trimmers full out I began to move forward and set up to land by the truck.  As I was descending the gust passed and I landed 100 feet beyond my mark. 
I waited a few minutes and re set.  the second launch was fine but after flying over the windsock I think it was 60 degrees cross wind.  The wing did come up high on one side but I was able to bring it overhead with some hard brake input.  It was a great flight.  Lots of bounce but I was good. 
When I landed the second stick of skydivers were landing.  It’s all good

back to the power play… So easy to inflate and launch ….