#233 #234 #235 Marana AZ

Three Flights …Two blown..Forgot to disengage the choke.
Strike one… I was feeling pretty good about things. The motor was starting on the first pull and I was so busy patting myself on the back that I missed the fact that I was having a hard time getting up to 6000 RPM and I also missed the way it was stuttering when I backed off the throttle. It speaks well for the bing that I could have the choke on and fly so well.
Two of the five attempted launches were aborted the first because the wing overshot and even though I was using brake and rolling forward …it would not load up. Maybe if I shortened the brake lines a bit I would have a little better control during the launch.
** NEXT FLIGHT **SEE HOW MUCH SLACK THERE IS IN THE BRAKES AT FULL TRIM AND TRIMMERS OUT. See how much pull will bring the brake lines to the point of moving the trailing edge.
The next abort was because the wing came up crooked after I had aborted stopped and brought the down it tried to pull me over in a slow roll. **NEXT TIME***TAKE A WRAP ON ONE BRAKE LINE AND HAUL IT IN.
The good launches were a mixed bag, during the highest wind I was pleased that I was able to take my time and kite the wing and taxi for awhile before I committed to the launch. The other two were not noteworthy.
All of the landings were the same, I killed the motor and flared late to bleed off speed. Nice soft touchdowns every time. It’s nice to know that I’m finally getting a little of that muscle memory that Brian Smith used to talk about. 🙂
The wheeley casters work great, but I’m going to have to practice with the trimmers at different positions because at full out the wing comes up too fast to give the buggy time to start tipping.

#232 Mo’s training field Maricopa AZ

Dec. 30th 2008

It was a two hour drive to Maricopa where Mo Sheldon lives. I arrived at 11:30 and waited at the storage units until 12:30 when I gave him a call. He apologized and said that he was in the middle of something at that it would be about 20 minutes. It was after 2:00 when he finally arrived. My mistake was not calling as soon as I got into town he probably wouldn’t have started whatever the project on his laptop that delayed him. Anyway two hours were lost and instead of doing a rebuild we safety checked the motor and did a hang test. The buggy is fine… it hung straight and about the only thing we found that needed attention was a loose exhaust mount at the midpoint. The reason the motor was hard to start turned out to be the end of the plug was loose. I didn’t know that the tip threaded into the body of the plug. That little bit of information was worth the price of admission.

I did load up the little tool bag with some more weight and remounted it behind the reserve. The buggy was probably was riding high on the right because the wing was off to the side but the torque of the motor was also probably a factor. Later when we went for a flight I was pleased to notice that the risers were close to the same height so it must have helped.

We discussed the possibility of going to Mo Town but the time was getting tight and opted for the training field.
At 4:30 Mo and I drove out to the field which is about 5 miles east of his shop. It’s near a small regional airpark and about as flat and smooth as you could ask for. He took the buggy up and declared it a good machine after a quick lap around the field. Then we rigged his dog into his trike and the three of us went for a nice little flight. There was a small hill rising 200 feet from the desert floor a couple of miles away…just another bump in the desert…that I flew to and explored a bit. After landing Mo and I chatted while we put our gear away. I’m going to send him my schedule and with a little luck I’ll be able to hook up with him and go to Mo Town on the way out to NAMM. He is still bugged by Martins death but recognizes that it was nothing that he contributed to. His theory is that Martin had “Get There-itus and ignored the conditions to “get there and be photographed” buy his family. I doubt that I’ll be seeing Mo at the next Gathering but glad that he isn’t carrying around a bunch of guilt over Martin.
The drive back to Tucson went better than expected and fortunately the Hacienda Del Sol is on the near side of town so I was able to meet Paula and the others in time for dinner. The Hacienda has been developed since I was their horse wrangler but the food is just as gourmet as when Otto was cooking for me 32 years ago!

Tucson #230 #231 Wheeley Casters

The left side is lifting sooner than the right

Marana LZ
Higher winds gave me the excuse to try out the wheeley casters. I put the trimmers out and the wing came up quickly without pulling me back. It probably also helped that the surface was hard and smooth. One thing I noticed from viewing the video was that the left wheel lifted before the front.. I never felt like I was in danger of rolling but it is something to be aware of and possibly corrected before launching with the trimmers out. At the least I should hang the tool bag back on the left side. So while I wasn’t able to see how the casters worked on launch I did get the impression that they were touching during the run out. On landing I felt them again but no problem.

First flight was about 30 minutes, I stayed in the general vicinity of the LZ and tried to get the feel of the area. Mostly farm flying but to the west there is a river that goes north. Scott Nicoles took that route and I wish I had gone with him. I was not able to be there when he returned because Mike Levine and I had to get back for dinner with the whole family.

The second flight was a quickie, I had to abort the first launch because the left brake line was twisted and I could feel the pulley wasn’t rolling free….landing was sweet with the motor off…I flared at the last second and bled off the energy at just a couple of inches AGL.

2009 Road Trip Prep

Winter Fly In Prep

Coordinate with Ray NAMM DONE
Coordinate with Mo Service day process
Coordinate with Chad Santa Barbara Flying process
Coordinate with Saundra Santa Barbara process
Coordinate with Michelle Wing Inspection DONE
Coordinate with Mike Levin Truck storage DONE

Order Parts from Southern Skies DONE

Coordinate with Michael Purdy process

Airline tix DONE



Service / maintenance / Parts
Problems
1. Alternator does not seem to be charging the battery.
2. Electric Starter (Bendix) chews up the Starter Sprocket
3. No master kill switch
4. Seems hard to start with the pull cord
5. Tiny Tach does not read accuratly at low RPMs

Service Jobs…
1. New Rings
2. Install Temp Gauges

Parts…
New Starter Sprocket
rings and any other parts need to rebuild the Simonini
kill switch parts
cht & egt gauge

all bearings that are recomended for replacement by 400
get additional jets for high low and mid ranges
inspect wings
new belt
new plug
broken spade connection

Airline tickets
PPG sites around Tucson

Fly-in registrations

#229 Rowdy Air Shortens Flight Simms

Salton Sea campsight 2007
Two days ago it snowed leaving 4 inches on the grass….but…

this afternoon looked beautiful. Even if the field was going little wet I thought it worth going out there to see if I had a shot at flying. I arrived at 3 (1 1/2 hours before sunset). Set-up and launched quickly.

The 3 inches of wet snow slowed the taxi and from the nice way the wing came up and settled overhead …It got me thinking that I’m a little heavy on the throttle and should practice short bursts of power to keep the speed down before committing to take-off.

Within seconds of leaving the ground I flew into some very powerful lift. and it was also clear that there was a strong breeze just above the surface. I decided to get down immediately, the only problem was that if I was going to land upwind and still be by the truck I would have to do some tricky flying. What I would have to do is fly clockwise around the trees and turn for final with enough room to avoid the wires. With all the bumps and mixing air I opted to come in fast and land downwind. There was almost no wind at the surface and even though I was technically downwind I was able to keep the wing up and taxi for over 150 feet back to the truck. Good thing too because the mud was sticky thick and I was wearing 2 inches of mud on the bottom of my boots by the time I loaded the rig back into the truck.

I think if I’d waited 30 minutes longer to launch it would have been allot better. I thought about it but decided not to because of the mud. I also wish I had launched a pilot balloon… even after landing it would have been instructive. I hope to remember this the next time the opportunity presents itself.

Before leaving the house I did change the jet to 155 and the motor started better and was more responsive. It even sounded better…deeper…more throaty.

#228 Simms

I’m thinking that the motor is running lean.

Still hard to start…

Didn’t burn much gas…

Throttle is not as responsive …

it’s not lagging just seems a little slow…

I’ve been flying a 150 jet all through the summer and fall at this altitude and higher…

The air is a little cooler but not as cool a it was this spring (during the AM flights). I’ll change to the 155 if I fly again before leaving to Tucson.

Nice flight ,Nill wind on the surface but mixing at 600 feet. Tracy the RC pilot who is considering getting into PPG was at the field. He took some shots and I hope he has something good enough that he will send me a copy. I pretty much stayed over the field and practiced a few touch and go s. I really like flying the 24 m it comes up easier and because it is loaded heaver its firm and seems more stable I going to consider selling the 26 m and trading for a 24. Marek wanted to have me try the velvet 23 but I declined. Chicken I guess. But I really should see how the smaller wing feels.

227 Quick Fix Simms

I got my fix, it was short but sweet. The wind was shifting on 220 degrees, not much but enough to blow a launch. I was flying the 26 meter and it fell back on the first attempt. Instead of re-setting I just stopped, grabbed the A’s and tried again. Nice launch I got some decent taxi time before rotating. I’ve got to hold the A’s longer with this wing, probably because the wing is getting older.
The 28m is on the way to Para Motor City for inspection. I’ll pick it up on the way to Tucson and drop this one off.
The air was less than ideal, not bumpy but the wind was shifting and there was lots of sink and lift. When I went to idle and noticed that my decent was only 25 fps I decided to land. The sink had me at 450 fps at 1/3 throttle. The landing was sweet despite the weird air at 500 feet.

The motor wasn’t starting so I swapped spark plugs and it started on the first pull…Yea ! I have to note that the plug that I took out looked good but it wasn’t very tight so that might have been the problem. No IPod this time, I used ear plugs and it was easer to listen to the motor. I feel alot better about the motor, it’s running well and I think it was just paranoia that had me hearing something other than normal.
Better luck tomorrow!

#226 4th Annual Birthday Flight at Chatfield!

It’s been a week since my Knee was repaired with Arthroscopic surgery but I’ve healed enough to get in another birthday flight. Not the prettiest take off. The wing came up as cockeyed as the last time and I’m beginning to wonder what I’m doing or if it’s the equipment. It would probably be a good idea to send them down to Michelle for inspection. I think it might help if I got on the brakes a little sooner. Any way nice flight… trimmers out …59 degrees…almost no breeze. One spectator…same guy that was out the last flight. He sent me an e-mail interested in finding a used trike. I told him about Mo and Robert and promised to reply to his e-mail with some links.
The motor sounded different again and I noticed the rpms were 150 higher than normal. I kept it down to 5500. I’ll feel allot better when Mo has done a ring job and “Pimped out the ride” with EGT and CHT gauges.

Flight 225 Simms

A small milestone

It’s looking allot like the end of the season and in a couple of days I’m going to have my knee repaired…So…I REALLY WANTED TO FLY TODAY. Weather Underground was predicting 15 mph NE and later NW winds. Away from the foothills and out on the plains it look better with 4 to 5 mph. I was looking for places in Aurora and trying to find the old Aurora Air Park on google and map quest and decided to drive out east and take my chances. On the way home I noticed that the wind was considerably less than predicted. I decided to try Simms and sure enough there was a very light breeze 1 to 3 mph from the ENE. Perfect !

I set up and launched at 290 degrees. The wing came up wanting to turn left and it changed my intended bearing so that I was pointing right at the truck when I took off. Fortunately it was a non event because I had marched far enough out into the field so that I would be able to clear or turn once in the air. Later I realized that I had let one trimmer out an inch before taking off which explains the cockeyed launch. Some thing must have distracted me because I know to do things like that in pairs to keep things symmetrical. Anyway, I flew trimmers out as well and in this flight I really like the firmness of the wing with the trimmers out but the mixing air got me to thinking it was better to play it safe.

The air was smooth except for a few spots. I’ve noticed that when I get into rowdy air, I have a tendency to turn away and seek clear air instead of plowing through and getting to the other side of whatever is mixing the air. It really wasn’t that bouncy but I was leery of the cut in the mountain and what could be flowing down the hill. So I turned and ran toward the home field. What I should have done was to turn 90 degrees and then when the air was good turn back to the direction I wanted.

When I was back over the field I did some low passes and apparently scared a dog who ran away from it’s owners. I didn’t know about it until I landed and met the family. Their little boy who was probably 13, approached me right away and asked if I’d seen their dog. I felt terrible when I met his mother and she said my PPG is what spooked him. I remembered flying right over the lady at maybe 30 feet. She was concealed by her truck until I was within 100 feet. I remember thinking, “That’s not Cool”, but I don’t make a practice of flying over people, it was just one of those things” …I wished it hadn’t happened and apologized sincerely. She was very cool about it and said there was no way to know that the dog was going to react that way. I think she had more warning of me than I had of her and probably would have been able to secure her dog if she had thought it was necessary. At least I hope so …

So I offered to go back up and look which she was all in favor of. The wind had shifted to the WSW and for some reason the wing hung back and came up crooked. I aborted when I started to feel it pulling.

Huh…maybe I’m finally starting to get a feel for the wing.

A breakthrough at 225 flights!

Anyway… I aborted the first attempt and when I was collecting the wing …What should come on to the IPOD that was playing random songs? ….John Blacks near fatal accident. It was just the audio but that got my attention.

I could hear the paramotor clearly in the background and the camera man was saying oh o…oh shit…. John? Well it caused me to pause and when I set up the second time Damn if the wing didn’t do the same thing coming up off to the side. I probably had room for one more attempt but the sun was getting low and I decided to call it quits. The lady still hadn’t found her dog when I pulled out. I’ll give her a call tomorrow to see what happened.

It was a nice long flight ! Over 50 minutes and if I hadn’t heard some strange sounds from the motor I would have stayed longer.
I spoke with the owner the next day and…they found the dog!