New Strobe

Now that its warmed up I’ve been flying later and later in the day and really should be using a strobe. But…I only need it when I need it and I hate to have equipment hanging on the rig “just for show”I found a strobe thats priced right ($20) and installs in 10seconds. On my FB cage it can be clipped right into the netting andwith a couple of zip ties it could go just about anywhere. I’ve flownit two hours with no visable wear on the netting.Made by Leland, USCG approved and sold at West Marine its designed tobe attached to life vest with a very clean stainless steel clip. Ituses one “D” cell battery.It is visable for slightly more than a 180 degree arc so to get maximum visability you might want to use one on each side up and down.
Here is the link
http://www.chiefsupply.com/Flashlights/Specialty/60610#features
Photos to follow

172

Huntmaster! light variable breezes at the surface but mixing air and wild swings shortened this flight. Yesterday I switched back to the 150 and after changing the position on the needle jet I find the best setting is where it was despite the color of the plug.
It was nice to launch from pavement and nobody hassled me including the workers on the unfinished house but I sure didn’t like the air. Right after I took off there was some seriously sinking air that I believe came from the nearby lake. The land sloped down toward the lake and before I started to climb out I was probable 5 or 10 feet lower than where I took off. In the air there were lots of cross currents that kept turning the glider in directions I didn’t want to go. I was also a little concerned about landing but had no trouble setting down on the pavement just a little past the truck. So I didn’t stay up long but it was an OK flight.
After landing I went over to the Park and helped out with the balloons. I met Jim Hill who is going to be the assistant safety officer and Gary (?) who owns the Rocky Mountain Balloon Festival. They are having issues with the FAA and others about security during the Democratic convention.

171

The jet was 155 and the motor was bogging down. If felt ok in the driveway but I could tell during lift off that I didn’t have the power. So it’s back to the 150.
First sunset flight in Colorado this year! I didn’t stay up long because of the motor but the air was good. I did one touch and go before calling it quits. I just didn’t feel right with the motor missing.

#170

What a day
Blew first two launches. I was trying to use the prop wash to build a wall and it absolutly wasn’t working for me. The wing came up hard to the left both times and I was unable to react near fast enough to get under it. If I had tried to turn hard enough to follow the wing I would have been 30 degrees …or more…off the wind. On the second muffed launch I managed to do a slow mo tip over. (NO DAMAGE).
Third try I walked the wing back and re-set properly. I went back to giving myself a couple of feet of slack and this time when I started the roll the wing came up easy and I was able to stableize it with just a little brake input.
House Keeping:
1. change jet back to the 155 and see if the plug changes to the right color of brown.
With out bogging down at the top end…
2. install garmin antenna.
Race number 1 of the summer series is going to be my throwout race.
I blew it at the start starting with the B fleet. John Sieb was helm and I don’t think I helped him enough. Very high winds steady from the North gusting to 20+knots. Two boats capsized and the new Freedom 24 went down with one man missing for 20 minutes. It’s resting on it’s keel /dagger board with the top 20 inches of mast above the surface. Everyone is ok and the paramedics delt with the guy who was swimming….So all is well.

#166 to 169

June 30th # 166 Simms ….Short flight very windly aloft

July 1st # 167 Simms …Short flight very windy with mixing air…BUMPY

July 2nd Simms …No Fly Day …Too Windy

July 3rd #168 & 169 Beautiful ! Smooth as butter. Marek and I.

Practiced landing under power and was able to cruise about 1 foot above for as long as there was room to fly.

No issues what so ever

#165 Flying with the Balloons

Ballons fly with us !


Simms 6 am. Shortly after I took off I could see John driving into the field and when I came back 40 minutes later Paul and Marek were setting up. I followed John from above while he cruised the golf courses from about 100 feet. Paul was having a hard time getting up but finally slowed down and made a great launch.
I changed the jet to 150 ,it seems to have corrected the problem and the motor is running up much faster.

On the second flight I watched a balloon fight to land in our field. He wasn’t able to get over to us so he set down in the field to the West and relaunched after a few minutes and landed in the park to the west and a tad bid south. I guess he did that to avoid cutting the fence to get his crew into the first field.

#163 $ 164

Simms 6 am

Much better. Same conditions same wing but this time I used some power on landing and it was much better. There were some issues. First the motor is bogging at full throttle, it runs fine up to 5900 rpm but anything over that causes the motor to stutter and lose thrust. The left side brake toggle has a half twist which looks to have been there since it was last tied. I don’t know how I’ve flown it this long with out noticing, it’s not really a problem as long as I’m careful when I’m setting up..

Flights 151 to 154

All at Simms.

The 153rd was special because I finally made it all the way to Red Rocks Park without getting blown out or beat up. On the way back I flew into a bank of low cluds and finally got my shadow picture.

The last day when I spent 50 minutes flying against the wind to get back to the field. Ten minutes after landing a balloon came in for an emergency high wind landing in the field to the north.