Trike has mid air with balloon

I will let the experts analyze this incident.  I was disapointed and revolted by the bashing from all quarters of the paraflying community.  I will say this…. I knew the pilot and flew with him and his son at the “Gathering”.  He was a healthy and mature pilot with a good conservative attitude toward flying.  While at first blush it is easy to assume the accident was the cause of careless or reckless flying, I prefer to believe that it was “just one of those things that could have happened to any one of us.  Of course mistakes were made but flying with other craft in the air adds risk.  If the pilot had more hours it might not have happened but all of us have been in situations that could have ….. should have bit us in the ass.

Thank God no one was killed

More later

The Gathering at Monument Valley 2010

Brief Account of the 3rd Annual Gathering …

Official site for “The Gathering” here    http://flyingtheholygrail.blogspot.com/

Wed
3:00pm Ollie and I leave for the event.  I forgot to pick-up the flight jacket.  We stop at Steve Katers and spent an hour catching up. Steve has been a great friend through thick and thin, we left with fresh vegetables, bike parts and a big smile.
Stopped in Grand Junction had “brenner” at the IHOP and bought a cheap jacket at Wall Mart.  Spent the night at the Travel Lodge.

Thursday
Drove to Moab and toured Arches.  Pulled into Gouldings about 3:00pm.  Olivia held her own playing Texas Hold Em with Sky King, Sean and some other serious players.

Friday
Good flight in the AM. (#440).

At the beginning there was a small problem when one pilot flew too close to the resort at the Navajo Tribal Park.  We had not had a formal briefing and unfortunately he wasn’t aware of the sensitivities of the Navajo about flying around their facilities and habitations.  A good time was had by all when he ascended from the valley floor below up to the Scenic Overlook, the resort guests waved happily and took photographs.  However what appeared to be a good opportunity to showcase our sport turned out to be exactly the opposite.   The Navajo Police promptly visited our landing strip and forbid us from entering the Navajo Tribal Park for the duration of the event.   Since there were still thousands of acres of beautiful country and more monuments than we could fly in a month, we chose not to argue the legalities of who controls the airspace and politely agreed to stay out of the park.   The Gathering continued and everyone was able to get as much airtime as they wanted.  Future pilots should be able to fly the whole area unencumbered provided that they keep 1500 above the desert floor.  It would be  prudent  to fly at least that high anyway to have enough glide to find a safe landing and pick-up if needed.   The moral of the story was … If you find yourself at a Fly-In a day or two early, be sure to READ THE RULES and know the particulars of the area before launching. 

Sat.  Blew the first attempt and noticed the axle rods were cracked.  Spent the morning replacing the rods.
Ollie and I went for a a very short bike ride,  I wanted to take her west behind Goldings Butte but we had to turn back when my Myata Cyclocross bike couldn’t handle the soft sands on one inch knobbys. 

We did see a good sized  tarantula that we watched walk across the road..  After a good downhill to the LZ we watched the Navajo High School Homecoming Parade.  It was sweet … Beautiful children riding all kinds of contraptions throwing candy to the crowd.

At 4:30 we met at the LZ and Olivia went for her first flight with Randy on his beautiful orange PPC.  I wanted to fly with them but by the time I set up they were coming in to land.  My flight was a  short one, the winds were starting to get twitchy and I didn’t see any need to fight it since Olivia was already down. (#441) 

That evening we were treated to some spectacular flying by Dell and some others.  One of the Paradrenalin guys flew well past dark.  Very spooky, there was no moon and the only way to discern the rocks was … there is black and blacker.  I watched him ridge soar on the southern butte and wondered what it must have been like.  The lights rigged to his motor were impressive and I was thinking that he might have had a way to slant them down to use for landing lights but didn’t hang around to see how he managed to land.  Later that year I saw the amazing Nirvana Show at the Salton Sea.  LEDs imbedded into the carbon prop with a graphics program running … very cool.

The banquet at Gouldings was well attended.  The new assistant manager created some problems and asked us to remove the alchol that we had permission to bring in. Barb was off so i had to make peace with the local officer.  Paul Anthem got up and told us of their trials getting to the event and I said a few words.  The night was topped off when  Ryan asked Olivia to pick the raffel winner of a new Paradrenalin Paramotor.  It was good to see new and old friends sharing a meal. 

Sunday Nice flight in the morning. (#442) The Trim cam jammed in the hang point loop but I was able to free it with a few hard smacks.  Dell, Russ and Sean put on a great show.  Olivia packed her stuff and I took a shower with a scorpion… poor guy couldn’t take the hot water.  On the road by noon.  Went home through Pagosa Springs and Salida.  Beautiful drive.  Home by 10pm

#439 Titan

It was 54 degrees when I left the house but cool air flowing down from the hills reduced the temp at Titan to 41 degrees!  I left the cold weather gear at the house thinking the temp was the temp…wrong.  Lesson learned.  The launch was great, it sure helps to have a nice smooth surface and plenty of room.  I inflated and taxied for a long way before I powered up and committed to launch.  At 1000 feet it warmed up considerably so I flew over to the marina and took pictures.  Not much going on over there. 

My friend here is landing on just a spit of land with water on three sides … Good Job !

The “Ol Balloon Man” was launching 30 minutes into the flight, I was thinking about landing but the opportunity to fly with balloons comes far to seldom so I turned back and played tag for awhile.  I circled him a few times and then passed over the top to catch his thermal.  What a rolercoaster that is!  On the last pass he opened the vents to decend and I shot up like a bubble of champane in a long stem glass.  It’s a very small but intence thermal and wanted to see if I could hold a power on climbing spiral and stay in but …no joy.  What a rush. Looking back I should have taken some pictures but flying around those massive things spooks me and I stayed “hands on”  the whole time we were together”  He had a hell of a day and was still flying after I had packed up and drove back into the park.   I caught up with his wife and asked if they needed any help packing up, she said that they had a ton of crew, but thanks.  We stood around and watched while he thrilled his passengers by landing on a little tongue of land sticking out of the SCUBA pond.

Chatfield



Low Water
calm day



near the end of the season



#437 Aurora Reservoir

Aurora Reservoir
Beautiful Day!  85 degrees with a light SSE breeze.  

The last flight convinced me that the back pain was caused by flying with my hands positioned too high  The Eden III hooks in with the trim tabs just above the hangpoint loops.  I could reach the brakes with but when flying, I wasn;t able to get my shoulder muscles into play, putting stress on my sterum and upper back. This caused the cartilage in my rib cage to be inflamed which hurt like hell when I took a deep breath and also caused a chronic pain right between my shoulder blades. 

Removed the 12 lb weight from the nose
Moved hangpoints back

Everything was working fine including me.  This was an extremely satisfying flight.  I was able to spend the time enjoying the flight instead of trying to find out why I was hurting.  Now I’ll be able to get to know this machine and what I can do.  The 28m wing is fine.  I’m fast so I need a good runway but it turns hard and with the trimmers out it is very sporty.

What a Difference a Day Can Make

Bronco Sunday Sailing with John Sieb then a great flight from Titan.  The Eden III 28m  was fast but fine.  Finally got to try brake extensions and it felt much better.  I’m still sore but I think I’ve found ou what was causing the problem.  Good advice from John Fetz…”You’re flying in the Jesus Position … use brake extensions and a bungee to keep them out of the Prop”  thanks John! You were spot on.
T-Shirt Weather… Notice the arm position much better
2010 Botanic Garden Corn Maze

The CSYC race was a floater but the flying was wonderful

Whats Freakin Wrong with Me?

It seems like ever since the troubles began it has affected my ability to focus.  I have made one rookie mistake after another and while I have avoided hurting myself… it has been expensive.
This morning was another expensive and disapointing day. 

I allowed my left brake line to catch the prop.  It was a couple of seconds after I started the motor so I’m assuming that I had rolled the maching back too far after layout and the prop wash drew it in..  Listening to World PPG talking about trikes I remembered Jeff saying it was a good idea to give it some slack so the machine could get rolling before the wing started to inflate.   Bob Armond’s position is to have no slack and I have seen other pilots actually build a wall and get into the machine with the wing holding the trike back with the prop wash.  Possibly because of the huge cage and prop, slack lines might not be a good idea with the Falcon.  During layout I made it a point to position the lines out and away.  Something must have changed.

Anyway the wing was sucked into the machine and before it wound down I cut the wing in three places, severed the brake line and by some fluke popped a plug on the gas tank and doused a portion of the wing in in gas.

It sucks to be me this morning…

#435 Snowflake at Dawn


There were two things going on today. 
First was the weather front moving up from the South West and
some serious ergonomic issues that are messing with my fun.

Bad stuff first.  The pain has moved from by sternum area to my back between the shoulder blades.  Moving the hangpoints forward wasn’t the cure.  I spoke with Chad and he suggested that I lower the brake lines or attach another set of handles and see how having my hands lower felt.  I hope it works.

The air was twitchy from the South South West.  I set up into the wind and planned to turn onto the runway after inflation.  The wing turned nicely and I taxied for a bit before committing to launch.  It was a nice morning and I practiced the yank and bank till it hurt which was  ALL TOO SOON. 
Landing… I stayed on the power and touched down lightly it was was surprising when the machine lifted as I added some brake to bring the wing down.  I guess I’d   forgotton how the Eden likes to bleed off energy and should plan on floating above the surface for a ways.  I’m also going to have to practice carting with the wing up and must do a few dead stick landings to get the feel for this wing.

After a quick break I set up for a second flight.  The wind indicator was showing some the breeze bumping up and down between 3 and 8 mph and twitching on a 30 degree arc.  I decided not to go and while I was packing it shifted 180 degrees to the NNW.  The front was showing a bunch of grey clouds moving in from the SSW. 
Until I took it down, the telltail wouldn’t settle down and it was good to be on the ground. 

Snowflake at Dawn #432 #433 #434 Test Filghts

Mike Bennett and & arrived at 6:30.  It was much better than yesterdays rain/mist, there was a fresh 7mph breeze from the SSW and clear blue skies. 

Trying to solve the chest pain I have made some modifications and this was the first time to try them out.  In order to position my arms farther forward I have moved the hangpoints 1 inch and to rebalance the rig, Mike and I mounted a 12 pound weight over the front wheel.  The brake lines have been lenghtened 3 inches and the brake pulley was lowered by the same amount and drawn in closer to the riser. 
I will have to heal before I know if the problem has been fixed but I think I’m on the right track.  It was definitely more comfortable and the pain is no worse.  The next step will be to remount the battery forward of the seat this will not ad weight to the rig but allow the hang points to be moved another inch forward.  Then I’ll play with the seat mount to get it dialed in.

Mike and I flew into the wind SSW and overflew the old ICBM Missile Silos.  The wind speed increased dramatically with altitude.  Mike flew low and I flew 400 feet higher at a much lower speed.  For the first time I flew with the trimmers out and enjoyed the Eden III ‘s much crisper response.  On the return leg downwind I exceeded 50 mph.
After a short break I went up again.  The last several flights have all been higher wind and its been a good experience.  The Eden comes up fast and sometimes pulls the trike back a couple of feet in the process but with a smooth surface it feels natural.  The wing comes overhead … I ad throttle, start the roll and usually rotate within 50 feet.  On soft terrain (sand) or worse…. bumpy (pasture) it may not be so easy.  On this flight I stayed close to the patch and worked on steering.  It is still not as comfortable as the trike buggy because I do not have the same range of motion.  I don’t seem to have the power and it feels like I’m using different muscles.  I can’t quite put my finger on the difference but I’ll work on it.
Paul M arrived just before I finished the second flight, so I decided to go for three.  It was starting to get thermic and was most bumpy over by the farm houses so I flew out to the gun range and crabbed back to the LZ.  The winds at the surface were twitchy as hell and I had to go around twice before I felt good to land.  Two of the three landings I popped a wheeley after touch down.  Next time I’m NOT going to kill the engine at two feet but will either go in dead stick or under power and taxi.  It was a good day.

431 Snowflke at Sunset

Snowflake at sunset.

Tonight I added a back pad to see if it would solve the chest pain.  Nope… I was more upright but it also moved me closer to the risers which moved my arms back even farther.  It was a beautiful flight anyway, the winds were about the same as yesterday.  Nice smooth laminer air.

This is the problem …my arms are being pulled back