11am.  Temp warmed up very well (to 44), though the rise-fall bell curve
turned out to be quite narrow.

Have got my unpack-repack procedures down pretty good now.  Drive to airport,
go to hanger (shared with 2 tail draggers and a gyrocopter), remove PPC and
put front wheel into wheel cup on the back of the car, start PPC engine and
do run-up and pre-flight inspection.

Uh, oh....  Engine off.

Safety wire broken on one of the exhaust manifold springs and both the muffler
bracket springs.  Glad I bought the "safety wire pliers" and the bulk roll
of safety wire (in both sizes).  10 minutes later, engine is on again and
purring.  Warm up done, engine off.

Drive on active runway to clear takeoff location, unhitch PPC from wheel cup
and orient facing into the wind.  Still some snow on the ground.
Remove chute bag from rear seat of PPC and set on ground.  Remove
helmet/headphone unit, intercom, avband radio, power cable, etc, and hook
it all up.

Take chute bag to back of PPC.  Unhook the velcro straps securing the
crochetted chute lines and walk the bag back from the PPC so the left and
right lines undo themselves and lay out on the ground.  I always pack the
chute into the bag from the left-edge-to-right, so laying out the chute is
accomplished right-to-left.  Chute is positioned for takeoff.  Bungee cords
removed from steering tubes and with helmet bag put into chute bag which
is folded over once and secured into back seat of PPC (you always take your
chute bag with you, right! - I learned that here.)  Radio, which as been
on the whole time I've been on the airport proper is connected up to the
intercom/power cable and placed into chute bag which is zippered up.  Auto
removed to safe place off the side of the runway.

Ski goggles on, then Helmet (chin strap secured); call to airport unicom
announcing 'soon-to-depart' intentions.  Secure pants at ankles with
velcro ties, scarf in place around neck to include covering face/nose,
gloves on, sit in seat.  Seat belt on.  Recheck wind direction.

Mags on and she roars to life on first pull.  Total elapsed
from from placing the PPC into the wind 'til now is under 15 minutes.  Turn
on EIS.  Let engine run a minute - EIS numbers look good.  Plug power cable
into jack on pod.  Call unicom and announce immediate departure.

Power eased to max as machine gathers forward speed.  Chute leaps into
air and remains at 45 degree position, power back slightly then forward
to full - chute leaps up overhead, looks good; steer around snowdrift
(consuming more ground than anticipated - now out to 150 feet).  Vehicle
becomes "light", then leaps into the air.  At 50' throttle back, call
unicom and announce departure direction.  Mosey on up to 100' or so.

Haven't been to the Northwest yet (still exploring the countryside).
Aguilar (small town 15 miles NW of the airport) might be a good run today.
Lots of barren countryside - some cows.  See if we (the PPC and I) can scare
up some wildlife.  Pretty warm.  Found some lakes/ponds.  Air is pretty smooth.
Definitely need to get a music box of some sort.  Need to work on remounting
the intercomm / radios so I can adjust them in flight, too.  Found the
interstate (I-25), go over median and follow it north for a while.  Foothills
to Sangre de Cristo Mountains rise 2500' above me and 1 mile away.  No
turbulence (thankfully).  Brrrrrr.  Better give up my long cross country
plans and turn south (back toward town).

Move off I-25 median course over toward the low mountains.  About 4 miles
from town got hit by sudden something (wind gust?) which swings the carriage
waaaaaay out to the side.  Damn!  Then a huge swing the other way.  Instant
nausea (you have to know that I *hate* carnival rides such as roller coasters).
Think quick.  In a GA aircraft you slow way up to make turbulence less
nauseous.  In this PPC, I guess you move away from where the turb is
arising (away from the mountains?) and/or CLIMB! to smooth air.  Being swung
viciously
to/fro now.  Gotta grab the center-of-gravity tubes to hang on (thank goodness
for seat belts (don't use the shoulder harness)).  Make a
grab for the throttle but the tossing is so naseating I just want to close my
eyes, so left rudder and try to move away from the mountains.  Glance at
the VSI (vert speed indicator) and it is indicating 500 up, then 500 down,
then 500 up....  I've got 12 hours in this monster, am 47 and too young to
die this way.

Gad, this sucks.  Looking for a place to put 'er down.  Nah, Bucky.  Rule
#1 - FLY THE PLANE!!!

Swallow hard, let go my death grip, full throttle, work the steering to keep
me pointed away from the mountains.  Ahh, can tell the turb is easing up
already.  Total time of being worried and getting pendulummed was probably
only 5 minutes or less, but it was a trying experience.

Enough for today, time to head back for the airport.  Enough adrenalin to
make my limbs cold, plus the cold - now I'm cold.  Got 10 miles to go....
Gotta remember to bring a barf bag along, just in case.

Pretty smooth air, only little bumps here and there.  A few cars stop to
watch; when I can I do an over-pasture/field spiral down, spiral up to
show off for them.

Back at the airport, the wind has picked up to 9mph, easy landing, 15 foot
roll, power back, mags off, chute lines pulled in.  Chute packed, everything
secured auto
brought over, front wheel of PPC into wheel cup.  PPC fully fueled, oil
topped off (582 with oil injection).  Take PPC back to hanger for another
day.  Total pack 'er up time = 20 minutes.

Got home and ate some food.  Nausea instantly gone.  I should learn to fly
on at least a partially full stomach.

Gotta work for a week (on-call 24/7) so can't fly :(.  Bright side is that
it'll be 1 week closer to Spring when I *can* fly again.

Was quite nauseated by the time I mosied back out onto the plains and got
back down under 300 feet AGL.  Buzzing around at 100-200 feet and
occasionally down to 10-20 feet was a blast, just like you vets have been
telling me it would be.  Chased a jackrabbit through a stand of golden
winter corn.  Ground is still mostly snow covered despite our sunshine
temp hitting 69 today.

Too bad the Coast-to-Coast couldn't have been done here.  Good weather
continues tomorrow and Saturday, though a bit cooler....

Oh, I musta flown near 1000 cows during my travels and not a one did more
than casually look up at me.  One horse of the dozens I saw, bolted the
other day when I went by, so I steer clear of horses.

The usual countless autos stopped and the passengers got out to look.  When
I could, I treated them to a spiral descent to 25-50 feet AGL over open
grazing land, then a full-power climb up a few hundred feet.  Damn, that
582 climbs just like Herb said - a raped ape!

Got back to the airport where I hanger the beast and there were several
folks standing on the tarmac near the GA tie-down area watching me, so I
landed right there next to them.  A good time was had by all and I'm getting
much more comfy with doing low altitude turns.

Tomorrow I'll try working on what I've been too much a coward to try so
far - throttle-at-idle emergency procedures.

Been turning down lots of requests for rides, so the interest is there.

We got 5" of new snow on Tuesday.  We've still got some early November
snow on the ground under it :(.

Brrrrrr, 33 degrees was tops.  Put on my usual winter garb and added a
cover-all ("snowmobile suit" - Walmart, $55) just in case.  Good thing!

I've been experimenting.  When the airport reports the wind as "calm", I've
noticed that I can still feel a breeze on my face.  So I've been just taking
off any direction I want to see what that is about.  Other than a longer
takeoff run, "calm" seems not to dictate a direction being required.

Some gusting when going north (rise in elevation) so I turned south.  At
least I'm assuming it was gusty - the carriage was being tossed to-and-fro
and the canopy was puffing hither/thither.  Going back past the airport,
gave a few GA pilots a sight most haven't seen before.  Continued on toward
a row of bluffs to the southeast (hadn't been that far away in that
direction before).

Saw some coyotes; no - wait!  Coyotes don't herd together.  Gracious it is
a herd of deer; must be near 100 of them.  All with pure white butts.  They
were scattered widely until they saw me coming.  Power back, make like a
huge predator and they all bunched up and headed for the butte 300 yards
north and 500' higher up (up above me).  Scattered around were a lot of
cows - they ignored me completely but watched the deer running for cover.

About that time I noticed an auto on the highway had slowed to watch.  Not
too keen on finding out this was some private herd of deer, I made a
strafing run on the auto....

Continued to the southeast another couple of miles then turned northwest to
follow a river (most rivers in Colorado = a creek to Easterners).  Scared
up a fox with a nice bushy tail.  Chased him into a stand of pinon pine
where I circled as the eagle.  Found a small lake another mile along,
frozen over pretty much.  Was going to skim it, but the dozens of geese
hanging out there wouldn't have liked me much.  Stooopid geese thought this
was far enough south from Canada, I guess.  They shudda asked El Nino, eh?

By now, nearly an hour had elapsed and I'm pretty cold so I mosied back to
the airport 4 miles to the west.  At 3 miles a GA aircraft called final
for 21.  5 minutes later, I was 100' overtop him standing by his plane
on the ramp gassing up.  We exchanged waves and I continued to the
intersection of 21/27 (while there is so much snow around, I use the turf
part of 27, near 21, as my landing area) to give him a show of the 582's
power.  Set up for a landing and made it a touch-and-go, full throttle,
full right rudder and within half a minute was 500' over the intersection.
Straightened out, practiced a touch-and-go on 27, then turned around to
land facing 130 degrees (wind had picked up to 10mph from 130).

Can hardly wait for Spring/Summer/Fall - this winter flying is work.  Guess
I didn't screw up the crankcase oil change the other day, either :).

More stories, please!!!!!

11am.  Temp warmed up very well (to 44), though the rise-fall bell curve
turned out to be quite narrow.

Have got my unpack-repack procedures down pretty good now.  Drive to airport,
go to hanger (shared with 2 tail draggers and a gyrocopter), remove PPC and
put front wheel into wheel cup on the back of the car, start PPC engine and
do run-up and pre-flight inspection.

Uh, oh....  Engine off.

Safety wire broken on one of the exhaust manifold springs and both the muffler
bracket springs.  Glad I bought the "safety wire pliers" and the bulk roll
of safety wire (in both sizes).  10 minutes later, engine is on again and
purring.  Warm up done, engine off.

Drive on active runway to clear takeoff location, unhitch PPC from wheel cup
and orient facing into the wind.  Still some snow on the ground.
Remove chute bag from rear seat of PPC and set on ground.  Remove
helmet/headphone unit, intercom, avband radio, power cable, etc, and hook
it all up.

Take chute bag to back of PPC.  Unhook the velcro straps securing the
crochetted chute lines and walk the bag back from the PPC so the left and
right lines undo themselves and lay out on the ground.  I always pack the
chute into the bag from the left-edge-to-right, so laying out the chute is
accomplished right-to-left.  Chute is positioned for takeoff.  Bungee cords
removed from steering tubes and with helmet bag put into chute bag which
is folded over once and secured into back seat of PPC (you always take your
chute bag with you, right! - I learned that here.)  Radio, which as been
on the whole time I've been on the airport proper is connected up to the
intercom/power cable and placed into chute bag which is zippered up.  Auto
removed to safe place off the side of the runway.

Ski goggles on, then Helmet (chin strap secured); call to airport unicom
announcing 'soon-to-depart' intentions.  Secure pants at ankles with
velcro ties, scarf in place around neck to include covering face/nose,
gloves on, sit in seat.  Seat belt on.  Recheck wind direction.

Mags on and she roars to life on first pull.  Total elapsed
from from placing the PPC into the wind 'til now is under 15 minutes.  Turn
on EIS.  Let engine run a minute - EIS numbers look good.  Plug power cable
into jack on pod.  Call unicom and announce immediate departure.

Power eased to max as machine gathers forward speed.  Chute leaps into
air and remains at 45 degree position, power back slightly then forward
to full - chute leaps up overhead, looks good; steer around snowdrift
(consuming more ground than anticipated - now out to 150 feet).  Vehicle
becomes "light", then leaps into the air.  At 50' throttle back, call
unicom and announce departure direction.  Mosey on up to 100' or so.

Haven't been to the Northwest yet (still exploring the countryside).
Aguilar (small town 15 miles NW of the airport) might be a good run today.
Lots of barren countryside - some cows.  See if we (the PPC and I) can scare
up some wildlife.  Pretty warm.  Found some lakes/ponds.  Air is pretty smooth.
Definitely need to get a music box of some sort.  Need to work on remounting
the intercomm / radios so I can adjust them in flight, too.  Found the
interstate (I-25), go over median and follow it north for a while.  Foothills
to Sangre de Cristo Mountains rise 2500' above me and 1 mile away.  No
turbulence (thankfully).  Brrrrrr.  Better give up my long cross country
plans and turn south (back toward town).

Move off I-25 median course over toward the low mountains.  About 4 miles
from town got hit by sudden something (wind gust?) which swings the carriage
waaaaaay out to the side.  Damn!  Then a huge swing the other way.  Instant
nausea (you have to know that I *hate* carnival rides such as roller coasters).
Think quick.  In a GA aircraft you slow way up to make turbulence less
nauseous.  In this PPC, I guess you move away from where the turb is
arising (away from the mountains?) and/or CLIMB! to smooth air.  Being swung
viciously
to/fro now.  Gotta grab the center-of-gravity tubes to hang on (thank goodness
for seat belts (don't use the shoulder harness)).  Make a
grab for the throttle but the tossing is so naseating I just want to close my
eyes, so left rudder and try to move away from the mountains.  Glance at
the VSI (vert speed indicator) and it is indicating 500 up, then 500 down,
then 500 up....  I've got 12 hours in this monster, am 47 and too young to
die this way.

Gad, this sucks.  Looking for a place to put 'er down.  Nah, Bucky.  Rule
#1 - FLY THE PLANE!!!

Swallow hard, let go my death grip, full throttle, work the steering to keep
me pointed away from the mountains.  Ahh, can tell the turb is easing up
already.  Total time of being worried and getting pendulummed was probably
only 5 minutes or less, but it was a trying experience.

Enough for today, time to head back for the airport.  Enough adrenalin to
make my limbs cold, plus the cold - now I'm cold.  Got 10 miles to go....
Gotta remember to bring a barf bag along, just in case.

Pretty smooth air, only little bumps here and there.  A few cars stop to
watch; when I can I do an over-pasture/field spiral down, spiral up to
show off for them.

Back at the airport, the wind has picked up to 9mph, easy landing, 15 foot
roll, power back, mags off, chute lines pulled in.  Chute packed, everything
secured auto
brought over, front wheel of PPC into wheel cup.  PPC fully fueled, oil
topped off (582 with oil injection).  Take PPC back to hanger for another
day.  Total pack 'er up time = 20 minutes.

Got home and ate some food.  Nausea instantly gone.  I should learn to fly
on at least a partially full stomach.

Gotta work for a week (on-call 24/7) so can't fly :(.  Bright side is that
it'll be 1 week closer to Spring when I *can* fly again.

Temp didn't exceed 43, rats, but that isn't the important part of this.

Back to the "prop pitching" debate.  I dutifully pitched my prop to deliver
the manufacturer's recommendation.  Never really liked that.  Liked Pat's
suggestion to pitch the prop to best rate of climb at maximum throttle.  The
Rotax 582 water cooled manual explicitly states that after the break-in is
accomplished exactly the way they say to do it, you may use the engine in
any fashion you wish, as long as you don't exceed the "maximums" described
in the manual (temps/RPMs/Service Periods).

So I did it, too.  I highly recommend that anyone else who has a Rotax
582 (water cooled) do the same.  Here is what I found.

 Before Repitching                      After Repitching
 -------------------------------------------------------

 Max RPM 6600                                6200
 Level flight RPM 5200                      4700
 Best rate of climb 400 fpm                  600 fpm (40% increase)
 and I'm starting from nearly 6000 MSL!!!!
 Level Flight EGT 1150 (top normal)         1015 (mid-range normal)
 Cylinder head temps didn't change or went down slightly.
 Full throttle EGT 1000                      950

The machine is MUCH MUCH MUCH more controllable with the new prop pitch.
I can goose the throttle slightly without causing the EGT to go red-line.
I can "set" a rate of climb or rate of descent and not have the EGT go
red-line.  Before, I really couldn't set an RPM that would consistently
allow me to cruise across a pasture at 2 feet off the ground.  Now it is
easy to do.

Comments?

Temp 50+, bright sunshine.  Wind 0 - 9 mph.  Terrain = High Plains.

Someone reassure me.  I was so nauseated by today's flying I nearly
dumped my lunch.  What's going on?  Could the thermals this early in
the year be *that* vicious?  I tried low altitude, high altitude, in
between.  Nothing worked.  Even the landing was fraught with being
tossed all around and it was the hardest landing I've made so far -
felt very out-of-control.

Maybe I misjudged the puny Low Pressure Area's moving southward and what
I was clipped by was a trailing "front" but there weren't other symptoms
of that.

Forecast winds were 10 - 15 mph.

Also, the takeoff roll consumed about 500 feet!!!  So I let out 2" of
steering line on both sides - probably had 'em too tight and the chute
was having a great deal of trouble popping up overhead.

If this wild ride is what I have to look forward to during Spring, Summer
and Fall, it is time to sell the beast and take up spelunking.

Thoughts?

I managed only 30 minutes before enough was enough.  Was entirely too
much "800' up, 800' down" to stay too close to the ground.  Flew out
around the new prison site (the big city has too many criminals and wants
to farm some of them out here).  I'm sure they figure I'm scoping out the
escape routes.

Couldn't even fly a straight path, what with the chute dancing all around
and swinging the carriage to/fro.  Enough - headed back to the airport.
Waited for several GA aircraft to land, was so nauseated didn't care
which way the wind was blowing and landed as near to my auto as I
would chance.  Throttle back to idle and the VSI indicated 200' up.  Nutsy
ride...  Got off the beast and lay on the ground for a while.

For those who don't know, living in the Rocky Mountain West is unique in
the USA.  It is akin to living on the moon and not just for the relative
lack of people crowded together.  It can be 50 degrees in the sunshine
and 20 degrees in the shade.  Commonly, when Spring arrives folks
around here can be making their first lawn cutting right up to the
still-melting pile of snow lying on the north side of the house, out of
touch of the sun.

Snowed about 6" on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Almost all of it was melted
by Friday, except where the sun didn't get to it.  Decided to take a
chance that it wasn't too snowy at the airport.  Lucky me, the morning
sun isn't strong enough on the East side of the hanger so I had to drag
the beast out through the 6" of snow/slush/mud.  Yetch.

But it has been a week since my last near-barfing flying and I needed a
fix really bad.  Despite it being Saturday, no one else was flying -
weird.  Winds, from all I could discern, were steady and consistent from
the East, about 10 mph.

Got up with ease - 15-20 foot run, max.  When the wind is blowing pretty
good, I like to head off into it as my day's ride (makes the trip
back faster, when I'm likely colder and eager to quit).  Some swinging
of the carriage to/fro, but nothing I couldn't deal with.  A bit too
much up/downdraft to fly too close to the ground, so I practiced holding
about 30 feet up as best I could.  Went off looking for the "prairie
goat" herd (antelope?) I mistook for deer last month.  Never found 'em.

I dislike it when it is under 50 degrees - gotta bundle up so much I can
barely move.  Haven't bought a GPS yet, so can't tell you how fast I
was really travelling, but the trip back was FAST.  Saw lots of cows,
some horses and a prairie dog, but nothing else.  Didn't even scare up
a coyote or jackrabbit like I usually do.

Landing took two tries.  First was a practice "emergency" - gotta land
now - that failed cuz my auto was in the way when a gust pushed me over.
Next was regular, set-up-proper-glide approach.

Tomorrow forecast for 55.  Since I'm likely going to have to be on-call
nearly all of March, starting Monday, I best run my gas down to some
low amount as the best octane we can get here is 90 anyway.

Super unleaded here is expensive - $1.27/gal.  That is the lowest it has
been in a couple of years.  What's it like elsewhere?  100 miles north
of here it is $1.12/gal for super.

Finally, temps 55-60, winds here in town from the East; winds at the
airport from the ESE, both at 8 mph.

Auto loaded up with tool box, gas cans, oil and other sundries "just in
case".  Dash to the airport; it's now 1130am.

Unhanger the beast, check with airport manager about my position on the
'next available hanger waiting list' (sharing one now with 2 planes and
a gyrocopter).  Been 3 weeks since I've flown last so it takes a bit of
cranking and dorking with the choke to get the monster fired up; finally
starting to idle normally...  Doing my walk around, looking for weirdness.

Lo!!!

The bracket holding the oil and coolant overflow reserviors is literally
flapping in the breeze.  Makes a good case for doing a POST flight
inspection, too.  Musta happened during my last flight.  Man, am I lucky
it didn't completely fail in flight and go into the prop or break loose
and stop oiling the 582.  Man, am I fortunate... on the one hand.

On the other, I don't have what I need to fix this, so B-A-C-K to the town
(10 miles, each way).  The bracket failed cuz I used some wimpy-ass screws
instead of the wimpy-ass rivets which were suggested by the 6C manual.  No
more....  At the hardware store I actually find some aircraft-grade, 1/4"
hex bolts/nuts.  1.5 hours later I've fixed the problem "forevermore".

Off to the takeoff place...  It is now 3pm, the latest I've flown one of
these.  Check the wind direction; now ENE (was ESE several hours ago).  Get
everything set and notice the wind seems to have changed - now it is N.
Sigh.  Called the airport office and asked what they show for wind direction.
"Yes, Sir, winds are 145 at 7".  I shudda heeded that but I need the
practice in bizarre wind situations, so I reset the machine to point N.  By
the time I'm done, the wind has shifted back to ENE, despite what the
advisory said.  Groan, reset machine/chute to ENE.

Power up, roll, chute up and airborne....  Almost immediately I'm blown
vigorously to the NW (proving the 145 degree winds the advisory was
showing - they read their wind direction/speed from a site about .5 miles
from where I take off.)  Great fun - wind shear between surface and
20 feet up (where the chute goes :).

Bounce, Bounce, Bounce, Sway, Swing.  Like breaking a new horse.

Guess I'm just gonna have to get used to this Springtime flyin' in the
Rockies.  Didn't do anything exciting or extraordinary.  Was so late in
the day, I knew the temp would be falling.  Tomorrow is forecast to be
warmer....

BTW, if you haven't, take a look at the gallery page, specifically the
photos under "Leon's" name.  One of the pictures apparently shows
a PPC having been swung horizontally.  Frightening.

Finally, temps 55-60, winds here in town from the East; winds at the
airport from the ESE, both at 8 mph.

Auto loaded up with tool box, gas cans, oil and other sundries "just in
case".  Dash to the airport; it's now 1130am.

Unhanger the beast, check with airport manager about my position on the
'next available hanger waiting list' (sharing one now with 2 planes and
a gyrocopter).  Been 3 weeks since I've flown last so it takes a bit of
cranking and dorking with the choke to get the monster fired up; finally
starting to idle normally...  Doing my walk around, looking for weirdness.

Lo!!!

The bracket holding the oil and coolant overflow reserviors is literally
flapping in the breeze.  Makes a good case for doing a POST flight
inspection, too.  Musta happened during my last flight.  Man, am I lucky
it didn't completely fail in flight and go into the prop or break loose
and stop oiling the 582.  Man, am I fortunate... on the one hand.

On the other, I don't have what I need to fix this, so B-A-C-K to the town
(10 miles, each way).  The bracket failed cuz I used some wimpy-ass screws
instead of the wimpy-ass rivets which were suggested by the 6C manual.  No
more....  At the hardware store I actually find some aircraft-grade, 1/4"
hex bolts/nuts.  1.5 hours later I've fixed the problem "forevermore".

Off to the takeoff place...  It is now 3pm, the latest I've flown one of
these.  Check the wind direction; now ENE (was ESE several hours ago).  Get
everything set and notice the wind seems to have changed - now it is N.
Sigh.  Called the airport office and asked what they show for wind direction.
"Yes, Sir, winds are 145 at 7".  I shudda heeded that but I need the
practice in bizarre wind situations, so I reset the machine to point N.  By
the time I'm done, the wind has shifted back to ENE, despite what the
advisory said.  Groan, reset machine/chute to ENE.

Power up, roll, chute up and airborne....  Almost immediately I'm blown
vigorously to the NW (proving the 145 degree winds the advisory was
showing - they read their wind direction/speed from a site about .5 miles
from where I take off.)  Great fun - wind shear between surface and
20 feet up (where the chute goes :).

Bounce, Bounce, Bounce, Sway, Swing.  Like breaking a new horse.

Guess I'm just gonna have to get used to this Springtime flyin' in the
Rockies.  Didn't do anything exciting or extraordinary.  Was so late in
the day, I knew the temp would be falling.  Tomorrow is forecast to be
warmer....

BTW, if you haven't, take a look at the gallery page, specifically the
photos under "Leon's" name.  One of the pictures apparently shows
a PPC having been swung horizontally.  Frightening.

I guess I'm destined to learn something important *every* time I go flying.

Usual prelims...  Airborne; bouncy and the beast requires 4 inches of
continous right steering line pull to go in a straight line, else I
twirl 'round and 'round to the left.  Put up with it yesterday, but now
it is time to do something about that.

Experimentation seems to show that about 2" pulled in on the right
line would be about right.  Back to the airport, gusty winds...

Landed and untied the umpteen knots securing the right steering line to the
steering tube.  Carefully pull in 2" and carelessly (!!!!!!) re-tie the
20ish knots.  Quick preflight, run up, roll out and airborne.

INSTANT right turn, very sharp; can't seem to straighten 'er out.  Eeeeeek!
Maintain full power to gain altitude...  Sharp climbing right turn.

What the hell....

Ahhhhhhh I know what I did wrong - stupid.  Swirl around and land.

The lesson!

When I retied the knots on the right steering line I failed to notice that
I was pulling in more-and-more line in order to make the knots.  Probably
ended up actually pulling in 5-6" of line and I already had the steering
pretty tight.

Untied all the knots except the first throw and, holding maximum pull on
the steering line from the steering tube, I made *all* the
knots with the loose end of the line so that the actual steering line
length is not further adjusted.  Merely a series of granny knots rather
than the square knots I was doing.

Run up, roll out, airborne....  Much, much better.

This has undoubtedly been a reason that I was having so much trouble trimming
the chute in the first place.  My precise line adjustments were being
compromised by haphazard knot tying.

Back on-call for a couple of weeks, so no flying for a while...

Flying Saturday (NorthEast Wyoming) -

Went to Gillette, Wyoming, over the weekend to do the requisite work for
the BFI.  The ride from Trinidad, Colorado, to the Wyoming state line was
HORRIBLE.  Near zero-zero fog for the first 100 miles.  Snow and sleet
for 40 miles between Colorado Springs and Denver (Damn!  June 5), with
visibility still near zero-zero.  Accidents and bumper-to-bumper traffic
on the interstate.  Though I thought about turning back many times, when
I reach the Wyoming state line (and only 250 miles to go), the weather
cleared enough...  Got into Gillette about 5pm.

Started first thing Saturday morning in the classroom.  After 1.5 hours,
the instructors decided that the winds were such we should take advantage
of what might be a nice day, and do the flying practical.  We did that
in about 2 hours, then finished up the classwork for the day by 3pm.

The lead instructor had an introductory flying lesson he'd previously
agreed to do, for a fellow who lives over near Devil's Tower ("Close
Encounters of the Third Kind").  We all
pondered the incredible day that was developing and called a bunch of
other PPCers in Gillette and next we knew, we were all off to Devil's
Tower, Wyoming (about 50 miles away), with trailers in tow.  We arranged
to meet the rest of the PPC group at Keyhole Lake, near Moorcroft, Wyoming.

At 5pm we launched an SR7/582 with an AFI at the helm and a student on
his first flight.  We were just outside Devil's Tower National Monument
but were unable to get the camcorder to work properly to catch some
incredible shots of the bird flying back and forth across the visual
field with the Tower in the background.  The SR7 turned off towards the
lake some 20 miles to the west.

Next, we launched an SR2/503 with a lady BFI at the controls and her
student along with her.  This was an SR2 recently rebuilt following
a rollover.  It had been tested for an hour previously and we wanted
to do a good flight before returning it to its owner in Northern Colorado.

With both machines in the air and moseying back toward the rendevous site,
we closed up our trailer and lit out after them via the road.  As you
might imagine, the road was cluttered with looky-loos and their cameras.
The first PPC beat us to the rendevous site and the second one was only
a minute or two behind us.

At the lake, we met up with the other PPCers and decided that we would
put 5 PPCs in the air - the 3 BFIs present would all take along a student
and the remaining two would fly single place units.  It was further decided
that since the wind had completely abated and it was warm, that we would
fly back to Gillette, 31 miles to the west.  We all thanked the local
rancher who allowed us to congregate on one of his pastures and proceeded
to launch all aircraft, er, vehicles.  After the last one was airborne,
we ceased circling and formed up to blast off across the prairie.

Swooping, spiraling, sailing....  It was too wonderful to imagine.  The
air was largely glass and except for the occasional turn into a leading
propwash, not a hiccough was felt.  The heavier two place units left the
two of us singles in the dust - no surprise, but kept circling back to
encourage we laggards.  After about an hour, the
sun moved behind a LARGE cloud.  Those of you who know about the West,
know that it is like living on the moon - warm in the sun and cool in the
shade, so with the sun gone, the temp dropped quite a bit.  The lead machine
had departed with 1/2 fuel, so it was decided to land at the CamPlex instead
of the normal landing place 5 miles further on.

It was beautiful (730pm) watching the machines all fly the same pattern
and land one-after-the-other within a minute or following.  I got to
taxi with the chute overhead - something I'd not done before.

What a blast and it was essentially all spontaneous, too.

Sunday was cold, windy and rainy all day, so it is good that we got the
flying in when we had the chance.

I'm back in Southern Colorado now, and the wind is blowing.  Dang it.

Nice of El Nino to quit rearing his ugly, young head.  Almost every day has
been good flying weather.  Rained yesterday, though - about an inch all
totalled.

This morning was cool, crisp and high humidity (80%).  Overcast was breaking
up as I got to the airport.  Winds were light (2 knots), but were constantly
changing all around the compass.  Set up on the turf runway number 27.

Run up, takeoff smooth and easy.  Cruised over the new prison site 5 miles
NE of the airport.  Very light gusting made the cart swing about gently, but
still allowed some cruising along at 50 feet above the ground.  Back around
to the airport for an overflight at 100 feet, then off to the NW to overfly
the town of Hoehne (5 miles away).  I notice a freight train stopped on
the tracks.  Movement to the NE catches my eye.  Another freight train heading
toward the first one.

Cool; I'm going to get to see a horrible train wreck (Discovery Channel had
a segment on train crashes the other night).  In my head I wonder if I can
somehow warn the approaching train that there is something in the way.  Visions
of "Blue Thunder" parade in my head - I can set the PPC down on the tracks
ahead of the oncoming train....

On the off chance I could be wrong about the future (who, me?) I overfly the
stalled train and notice for the first time that there are parallel tracks.

I pace the oncoming train for a while, but his 30 mph gradually outruns me.

Back to the airport across plowed fields, cut fields, a lake, and hay fields
I don't notice any one causing more thermals than any others.  Thermal
activity is building, but I want to get another 20 minutes in for today.
Thunderstorm clouds which have been building along the 12k-14k mountains
to the west are starting their march out onto the plains in my dirction,
so I decide to haul it in after a quick jaunt to the South, down low across
the plains.  Whoaaaaaa, that was a big gust.  Time to reel it in.

High approach to runway 27, cut power and fall earthward despite a thermal.
Aim for the spot I want to hit the ground and only miss by a few feet.  Mags
off, chute in.  Nice mild, crosswind landing.

Got the exact size measurements of the SR7 and stopped by my local trailer
sales location.  Owner said I can probably get a HIGH quality 7'wide x 12'
long x 7' high enclosed trailer with 14" or 15" tires, a ramp door on the
back and door on the side for about $2500 from his supplier in Indiana.  I
said to call me with a price and perhaps we'll do business.  Told him that
it has to weigh in at about 600 pounds, tops, too.  I'll let you all know
what he says.

Tomorrow is another day.

Well, since you begged for more...  Hope you virgins get to fly before
long!

Flying Today - Friday  (in rural Southern Colorado)
 

Once again the Wind Ghods cooperate and I'm off to the airport at 0735.

Turn on the airband radio during the trip, so I can get in the mood.
Navaho 234XX is at the NDB practicing approaches.  Cherokee 1456L is
7 miles out on long final for Runway 3.  They chat with each other to
promise plenty of space.

Get to the airport and both planes are on the ground.  The Navaho is
unloading its cargo into a UPS truck (he is the overnight UPS delivery
aircraft, from Denver).  The Cherokee turns out to be the fellow from
the hanger next to mine, a Southwest Airlines captain who lives here
and commutes to work in Phoenix via his own plane.  We chitchat and I help
him put the Cherokee away.

The wind is calm on the ground.  Hook up the PPC to the wheel cup trailer
hitch on the back of the car and I'm off to Runway 27, the 5000' turf
runway that I've sort of taken over (since no one else uses it).  The
airport manager calls me on the radio to ask me to overfly the admin building
after takeoff - there are guests who want to look me over.

Runup the engine while still autoconnected, assimilate the helmet and look
the beast over.  Engine off, chute layout (better look for bugs/birds, since
Scott and Ray say a lot of such can accumulate - nothing whatsoever found).
Bungee cords off the steering tubes, helmet out of its bag - those items
go into the chute bag which gets strapped into the read seat.

Move auto off to the side of the field (leave keys inside, in case I don't
return and the airport folks need to move it :().

Nippy still, but I want to wear my shorts.  Radio sling around my neck,
sunglasses on, helmet connected.  Get into seat, hook everything electronic
up, seatbelt on.  Total time consumed from arriving at the takeoff site =
13 minutes.

Call my intentions to the airport unicom.  Manager updates the winds/altimeter.

Startup, warmup to 500+ degrees and start my forward roll.  Chute up to 45
degrees, end cells closed; steering tube fiddling, cells open and chute
gradually moves to 70 degrees, full power and the machine reaches takeoff
speed.... Used about 150 feet.  Up, up, up.  At 50 feet turn sharply to the
right while throttling
back; overfly the admin building and only the manager comes out to watch.

Heh, heh.  So *he* is the observer.  Must be getting the itch despite his
previous declarations "that it is a death trap".  Guess since he hasn't
had to use the giant spatula I got them just in case, that he maybe thinks
it is safe.

Do several spirals around then light off to the West.  Decide to follow
the RR tracks to the north of the river, today.  Smooth, almost glassy
air, so I can stay kinda close to the ground.  Settle into a 100' AGL level
flight scenario - looks like 5100 RPMs will keep me there.  Overfly hundreds
of cows, but steer clear of horses.  Scared up a deer.  Not much traffic over
this way, so not many looky-loos to wave at.

No GPS with me, so can't tell for sure, but my shadow over the ground is
moving slowly.  Visibility today really sucks - hazy, can't be more than 50
miles (usually we have 100 miles).  High cirrus, partly cloudiness makes
for cool travel when not in the sunlight.  Just cold enough to be on the
edge of uncomfy, but I want to do this cross-country today.

100' AGL is too high with this smooth air.  Beast seems willing to climb
at 400 fps if I need to, so drop down to 50' AGL.  Picking my way between
trees and hopping over power lines winding back and forth across the
secondary road, I work my way over toward I-25 which runs north-south (duh)
along the Colorado Front Range.

Hey, there are a couple of folks walking along the road.  Oddly they only
pay me passing attention.  Okay, so you've seen lots of PPCs...

Eh, flashing lights along the interstate.  Gendarme got one.  I mosey over
and circle them for a while.  Whatcha doin' copper - tryin' to hurt the
tourist trade?  Ooops, got a Coloradoan.  Sorry - I wave.  He doesn't wave
back.  Am about 4 miles north of Trinidad now, might as well boogie on
Southward.

BUMP!

Whoa.  Guess the smooth wind is getting distorted a bit over here near the
8000' foothills.  Smoothed out again, but best climb for manuevering room.
On up to about 300' AGL.  Follow the interstate and transition over to
the railway yard staging area.  This is where the trains that will
ultimately be going over Raton Pass pick up their extra engines.  Had a
train a few years ago that tried to make the pass with only 4 engines.
Near the top, one of the engines blew and the train had to coast back down
the track.  So the rules changed.

Gee, never been out over the lake (never fly over anything you wouldn't
land on!), so I head over that way.  My shadow is CRAWLING now - wind must
be blasting along over here.  Time on this flight is now 57 minutes.  I
press on, heading west directly toward the 13,000' hills.

BUMP, BUMP, BUMP.

Okay, okay - turning southward.  I'm pointing south but my ground track is
due east.  Correct my heading and decide to take a gander at the new Super
Walmart which is due to open in 6 weeks.  Overfly it pretty quick.

BUMP.

Ugh.  Losing the fun on this flight.  Decide it is time to head for the
airport, so go fly around my neighborhood on the way.  Wave to the district
judge's wife (lives across the street from me - she thought I was building
a toy to take on the frozen lake in Winter).

Too much bumping now - got to get away from these hills, so I lite off
directly across the hills to the airport I can see about 14 miles to the
east.  Man am I travelling slow.  Bet the wind direction out here is from
the East.  Great, two different wind directions.

At about 5 miles from the airport I'm not flying very fast at all.  Time
to descend and see if I can pick up some speed.

Throttle back to 4600, then 4000, then 3600, then 3000 RPMs.  Vertical speed
still shows going UP at 200 fpm.  Guess I shoulda started earlier - thermal
activity is pretty significant.  Looking over my shoulder to the West I
can see the cumulus building over the mountain range and just starting to
move out onto the plains.  Gonna be early afternoon thunderstorms today.

Finally the beast begins a very slow descent.  Almost the entire remaining
4 miles to the airport was accomplished at under 4000 RPMs.  My sense was
that the wind was coming from the East now, though the windsock was dead
still as was the flagpole flag.  Took a turn around the AWOS and it wasn't
turning at all.  Thermals are bugging me good now and I'm getting a bit
nauseated, so best put it down.  Time in air is just over 1.5 hours.

When I replaced my jury rigged CG tube with the real thing yesterday after
flying, I miscalculated the length needed, so today's flying had also been
somewhat nose high and that nauseates me, too.

Brought her around for a landing on Runway 27 ("my" runway).  No other
traffic.  Didn't feel good enough to land near the car this time, so settled
on putting down to the East of the paved runway (3/21).  Nice approach,
but a bit fast it seemed.  Squirrelly handling all the way down, not like
the last two days with smooth air all the way down.

Got it made, pulled the power back and flaired out.  Engine off, pull in
the chute and that was that!

It is about 10am.

Another fun flying day.  A little food at home and the nausea was gone.

Have company for the weekend so may not be flying again until Tuesday.

Hey, this flying is getting boring.

Yawn.  Ho Hum.

"Wind 230 @ 12.  Twin Cessna about 10 miles out, landing."

"Thank you, Sire.  I'll be gone before he gets here."

12 is pretty quick for wind.  Only runway choices are 21 and 27.  Guess
I'll do a catty-corner 27 takeoff.  With wind like that I oughta be
airborne in under 50 feet.

I can't wait.  Been 3 days and I need a flying fix somethin' awful.  Started
raining Saturday and rained off/on straight through to late Monday.  Got
5" all together, but love this Colorado - mostly dried out by this morning.

"Powered Parachute winding up and departing 27."  Off I go.  Airborne
in about 50 feet, sure enough.  Climb to 50 feet and overfly the airport
admin office.  No looky-loos, so turn SW since that is where the wind is
coming from.  Also where the city is...

Lazy cruisin'.  Few bumps so its down to the deck, skimming across fields
at 5'-10' AGL.  Avoid the cows.  Really avoid the horses.

You know the scene in "Blue Thunder" where the cops stop the girlfriend on
the bridge and the next scene is the helicopter appearing to rise like a
Phoenix in the background?  Well, I picked a direction to approach the
pipeline crew I knew would be working today over and down in an arroyo to
get the same effect.

Stealthily, as the cat, I maneuver below the mesa to west of the ravine.
Doing a tight circling climb, the beast rises to just above the mesa, then
we scream out across it due east, planning on catching the entire crew by
surprise.

It worked!  The mesa dropped away steeply beneath me, so I chopped power
and began my straffing run.  All eyes rose to meet the plummeting threat.
Circling to avoid any incoming, we descend to 25 feet above the activity.

Waves exchanged and I move up the arroyo to next terrorize some cows.

On the way back from the city, we (me and my PPC = we) join a group of
hawks/falcons soaring
and looking for food.  Come on guys, just acknowledge that I'm the big
cheese here and we'll get along just fine.  Birds are fun.

What, down there, by that swimming pool!  My favorite kind of bird -
the double-breasted, mattress thrasher.  Is she, oops - there's daddy;
best beat it outta here.  She at least waved.

Sigh.

Back to the airport by my usual route, only with the wind now having changed
to the ESE but still smooth, it is swooping between trees and hopping over
fences we go...

Gotta get some other folks down here to buy some PPCs so we can go flying
together.

At the airport a young lady named Roxanne (forget it, guys - too young for
me) was departing
in a C-150 to practice various T&Gs.  No radio, so I buzz about for a while
and watch her, calling the turns on the radio for her, then land and do the
post-flight stuff I do.  Back to the hanger just ahead of her and help her
put her plane away (she's a skinny girl).  She comments that her
sister flies PPCs.

Eh?  You mean Jessica?  Yep.

Well, well.  It was Jessica's machine that I saw by the side of the road
on a trailer August 28, 1997, that caused me to run home and purchase one
for myself.

I offer Roxanne an introductory flight anytime she'd like.

PS - my machine is finally 100% legal.  Put the "To Be Used For Instruction
Only" stickers on it today.

Tomorrow morning is another day.  Can't fly in the evenings here yet.  Too
much thunderstorm activity every afternoon.  That should abate by mid-August.
 
 

Flying today (7-29-98) in rural Southern Colorado

Ho hum - this daily flying is becoming a *job* (wink).  Decided to do
something different and fly a direction that I'd never gone before.

Routine takeoff scenario on Runway 27, then swung back to the East.  Wind
is really blasting along up here and I'm outrunning some vehicles on the
highway (speed limit down there is 65!).

Want to take a run over to the Pinon (pronounced Pinion) Canyon MOA (military
operations area) and see if I can get in a little air-to-ground combat
experience (anyone who knows me, knows I'm anti-war).  The 17 mile trip
ought to take a bit over 30 minutes, but it takes about 15.  Oops - way
too much wind.  Better turn and head for the barn lest I run out fuel
trying to get back.

Ground speed did look a little fast going East.

Turning back West it looks like my shadow is nearly standing still, so I
turn South and buzz over a small lake.  Turning back to the West, my forward
speed essentially stops.  Hmmmm - how'm I ever gonna get home?

Decide that I might as well chill out, so I bait a hook and drop a
line over the side and fish for a while.  Within 5 minutes a severe bite
on the line occurs and I start losing altitude.  Advancing the throttle
to max, I'm barely able to sustain my place in the air.  I just gotta
drag this big baby to the shore.  Turning South again, the on-line fish
leaps out of the water; prettiest marlin I've ever seen - at least 10
feet long.  Turning its head sharply, the line tightens, then snaps.

I'm free to continue my trip back to the airport.  Wind gusting is evident
and I'm glad to be back on the ground after 1.25 hours in the air.  Perhaps
tomorrow the wind will be blowing a bit less up there.  At least I was
able to get down low enough to make some forward progress.
 

PS - some of the above is true.  "The one that got away" is what my father
said a fisherman ought to always tell about.  I've never actually seen a
marlin.  Neither have any marlin ever seen Colorado.

When you guys get tired of reading these, let me know...
 

Awaken at 540am...  Squinting I can see that there is NO MOVEMENT of the
trees outside the window!

Off to the airport at 730a after confirming that the wind is light and
uniform both here and at the airport.  No trees fluttering.  Wind sock
hanging straight down, lastly pointing to the West.  Power up, chute up,
PPC up, up and away.  Swing back to overfly the airport ramp area (this
gives the beast a chance to fail if it is going to and I can still land
on the field).  Wave to the UPS contract pilot who just brought in the
"Next Day Air" packages from Denver.

Smooth flying.  Wonderful.  Decide not to have a destination in mind
today.  Just gonna play (as if the other days this week I've been
delivering the mail, eh?)  Kinda cool, probably just 65 degrees so the
beast performs pretty good (relative to a 6000' MSL starting altitude) so
it is down to skim the fields.

Winter is obviously approaching.  Only takes 5050 RPMs to keep straight
and level.

Lots of hay growing.  There is a field of corn about 4 feet deep.  Moseying
over I hop a fence and take on the cornfield at 5 feet above.  Whoa - what's
with all the birds flying up.  Better gain a bit of altitude.

A hawk or falcon joins me in formation as we move on over toward the RR tracks.
Make a spiralling climb to hop over a power line.  Just so happens I'm also
showing off for a rancher who's stopped to look.  Climb up above the mesa
where the other day I swooped down and cornered a bunch of pipeline riggers.
No surprise today.  A lone cow looks at me and my accompanying falcon, safe
in the knowledge that she is too big to be carried off by a flying critter
even as big as I.

Make a dash over the highway and notice some cumulus moving in from the
NorthEast.  Odd.  Must be foretelling some serious thunderboomers later
today.  Spiral down to cruise over a pond created by the recent 5" of rain.
The wind is moving along pretty quick up about 150 feet, but is barely
moving down here at 25' AGL.

Best mosey back toward the airport.  Now out about 25 minutes.  The fair
weather cumulus moving in from the NE doesn't seem to be accompanied by
bumpy air, so I guess I don't need to fret too much.  PPC is occasionally
swinging, but since I adjusted the nose down, it doesn't nauseate me.

This cumulus is quite low to the ground, probably only 2,000 AGL.  Would
be fun to go up and play around with the clouds, but despite being illegal,
the clouds represent visible moisture and I'd have to deal with the wet
wing and the performance degradation that it would cause.

But something more fun is developing.  This cumulus coming in is providing
a partly-to-mostly cloudy transition.  I love playing tag, so decide to
wind my way between the shadows the cum casts on the ground.  The goal:
let not shade touch me (besides, it is warmer in the sun).

It takes quite a bit of creativity to stay in the sun and I wind my way
toward the NDB (non-directional beacon) that is NE of the airport.

"Army Chopper 23Xray ready for taxi and departure."  "Roger Army Chopper,
winds 320 @ 5, altimeter 3029.  Be advised there is that Power Chute out
there somewhere."  Click, click.

"Army Chopper this is Powered Parachute.  I'm at the NDB and will stay
clear of you."  "Powered Parachute, this is Mooney 221Papa, I'll be
following the Chopper."  "Roger, I'll watch for you, too, then shoot the
approach."  [sound of chuckling from the chopper, Mooney and the airport
manager]   "You guys be nice or I'll have to chase after you!"  [Army
Chopper]  "I'll go load my guns."

Both aircraft depart Eastbound.  I circle the NDB for a while then head
back for the airport vicinity, staying mostly low, winding between trees
along the river bank.  Fly over an ostrich farm - they run for cover.

Back to the airport.  Some thermal activity building, but close to the
ground the air is smooth...  5 T&Gs on Runway 27.  27 is about a mile long,
so starting at one end I'm able to get in 3 T&Gs without turning away.
Squirrelly on the way down, but smooths out about 50 feet AGL.

Last touchdown, engine off, chute in and we are done for another day.
Post-flight checkout, refuel and put the beast away in the hanger.

Take the oil cap off (SR7/582) so I can get an O ring to do at least part
of Q's leaky oil cap fix.

And that is it for another day's flying.  Gonna try to go flying again
tomorrow morning.  On the weekend I have a girlfriend, er, student coming
down for some instruction.

My local trailer dealer is ready to order a trailer made to my specs but
without obligation that I buy it unless I like it.  These are gorgeous
trailers - much better looking than the 6C and Buckeye models I've seen,
but the down side is that they are also bigger, though the dealer says
they aren't any heavier.  Will let you guys know what I think.  The one
example I examined 2 weeks ago is a Cadillac.

Will need the trailer.  Fly-in scheduled in Gillette, Wyoming, over Labor
day.  Also a girlfriend, er, student, will be coming for a visit in late
September and wants to go flying and gawk at the Aspen trees during their
change.

Gotta talk with Larry.  He had 6 girlfriends and I can only muster 3 for
now.

Two "firsts", today - first full-fledged evening flight and first time I
took along the camcorder.  Using a camcorder while flying takes some
practice.

I'm getting pretty good with evaluating the weather.  Was pretty clear
by 1pm today that there was insufficient vertical cloud development over the
mountains to the west to spawn thunderstorms today.  That means the thermal
activity was less than usual for now and that the evening air should be
smooth, even if brisk.

After getting airborne I did my usual swing-back to the airport admin
bldg, and started recording.  Mosied over across the highway toward town
and did some more recording.

Looked up just in time to make a near-panic right turn away from some power
lines.  Darn.  Right handed recording doesn't permit adjusting the throttle,
so I start practicing recording with BOTH eyes open.

Pretty smooth air, but it is really barrelling along when more than 150'
AGL.  So I have to pick my way along.  Sun settling to the West is
making for gorgeous shadows and the PPC shadow is very captivating.  More
than it ever has been on my morning flights.

Make the usual approach to the City of Trinidad, but being nestled right
in the rising foothills makes for some turbulence down close, so I get
in a little recording (cemetery, my friend the trailer dealer (guy works
7 days-a-week), shot of the inactive drive-in movie) and begin my swing
back to the airport.  Get shots of the RR tracks I've told you about,
the Purgatoire River (pronounced Purgatory) - a stream to you Easterners,
the pipelines they are laying, etc.

On the way I try to hang close to the highway and lots of folks stop to
look.  When I get within 5 miles of the airport, we settle down to about
50' AGL and bring the camcorder lens back to normal view (not telescopic)
and basically point it in the direction I'm going as I wind between tall
tress and over short ones.  Get some shots of cows ignoring me and a ton
of video of my shadow.  Keep the corder on through the landing sequence,
too.
 

Back home I review my taping and definitely the normal view (not telescopic)
is *much* better as it doesn't show the exaggerated shaking.  The last 10
minutes of the flying is the best.  The color is excellent and the shots
of the PPC shadow is eerie.  Many of the shots look more like another PPC
is flying along with me and if not for the shadow being completely black,
I would have wondered.  The landing sequence is curious and sort of fun,
but I can do better in recording.

I can count on one hand the number of direct, into-the-wind landings I've
made and today was no different.  Wind from 120 and runway is 090, so I
crab down the runway (clearly visible on the video) and notice some stuff
on the video that I hadn't noticed when doing the actual landing, like the
rattlesnake off to one side, catching what remains of the sun.  And the
many sunflowers that I flew over and avoided by steering on the ground.
The prop guard was essential and I'm glad I did it.  Straightened out the
cart at the last minute and flared properly... dropped the camcorder -
glad it was clipped around my neck.

Pretty neat.  Packed up the machine; languished in the sinking sun and
headed for the hanger.  Turning a corner on the taxiway, I was confronted
by a rattlesnake, so I stopped to get out and make him rattle.  Easy to
do by stamping feet near him.  Coiled right up - tasting the air to keep
track of me.  He isn't very big - probably only a couple of years old.
I move on.  Rattlers are much more frightened of humans than we are of
them.

Great day.

On-call for the next week, so no flying until next Monday.

Actually I've been flying all week, every day, but have been too lazy
to write about it (and bore you all).

Just wanted to comment upon a few things I've been noticing. I've put
about 25 hours on the machine in the last 1.5 months.  Where I'm located
is a form of high, semi-arrid climate.  With the average elevation here
about 6000 feet and up, we don't get Death Valley type temps, but it can
get into the 90s most days.

I'm becoming the king of the cross-wind takeoff and landing.  As everyone
has noticed, the stronger the wind the shorter your takeoff distance and if
the cross-wind is strong enough I will takeoff across the runway, knowing
I'll be in the air in under 75 feet, even at this altitude.  Landing
yesterday, for example, with a 90 degree cross wind of 14 knots or so,
was accomplished in about 5 feet or less, directly across the runway.
Settled in as a bird.

Today, the gusting didn't cease until about 11am, so that is when I went
to the airport.  Density Altitude was reported by the AWOS to be just
under 9000 feet!  My guess is that *MOST* of you have never taken your
PPCs up to 9000 feet so you don't know just how poor the performance of
the machine is up there.  It really sucks, believe me, and absent the
thermals, gaining altitude is a slow process.  Today's takeoff run,
into a 5 knot wind, consumed 500+ feet with just me on board (200+ pounds
in a SR7/582).  I wouldn't dream of trying to get a student + me off the
ground under these conditions and I have a 5000+ foot runway, if I want
it.

I'm learning to use the wind direction to my absolute advantage at these
density altitudes.  Since the climb rate is putrid, essential climbs *must*
be accomplished into the wind.  For example, I have lots of power lines to
hop over when cruising the farm/ranchland around here.  When it is cool,
no sweat - beast climbs great.  The 45 degree angle approach rule is more
of a guideline here.

Another important consideration is PATIENCE!!!!  With lots of thermal
activity, landing can be quite a challenge.  Today's approach at 50' AGL
actually brought me to 300' AGL with the engine almost to idle.  Just go
around and try it again avoiding the thermal boil if possible.

Also, thermals are worse higher up in the air than near the ground.  A
thermal seems to mushroom or grow like an upside down pyramid as it rises.
But one has to be careful.  Staying too close to the ground on a very
thermally day, can be frightening if you aren't right on the descents
with LOTS of power.

The vertical buildup of cumulus to the west petered out pretty well today,
so I'll go back to the airport this evening and see how flying is then.

I was commenting to my instructor (even BFIs have instructors :) yesterday
that there isn't as much interest in the flying machine as I was hoping to
have.  I'd sure like to get at least one other person to buy down here so
we can fly together.  The instructor's observation is that the first one
frequently takes a while, but once there are two or more buzzing around,
it takes off from there.  He has sold something like 8 PPCs since June 3,
and a whole bunch of trailers, too.

Q, have you sold a machine yet?  Larry, have you?

Have fun!

"When is this meeting gonna end!?"  Morning was consumed making airline
reservations and now THIS....

Finally, 330pm, meeting over.  Rush home for an errand, check weather
channel.  Call AWOS.  Looks too good to be true (yesterday the wind
howled all day.)

Race to the airport (crowding the speed limit the whole way).  Get there
at 430p, scoop up the machine and off to turf Runway 9.

15 minutes later I'm airborne.  Man-O-Man is it ever smoooooooth up here.
I need this.  Been bumpy the last few times I've been up.  Forgot my
sunglasses; hope it won't matter [visions of my eyeballs drying until they
squeak in their sockets].

Fall is here in spades insofar as the trees changing colors.  Off to the
Purgatoire River as that is where most of the trees are in this arid
Southwest state.  It is soooo smooth I can afford to fly at 10 feet above
the trees as I wind around following the river.

Man, this *is* the life.  Sit back.  Air temp is 80 and sun is lightly
hidden behind lots of high cirrus.  Steady, smooth wind from the East at
about 10 mph.  Haven't exercised the beast in quite a while, so settle in
for a couple of hours as I wend my way toward the city (population = 10k).
Lots of wildlife down there, getting their late afternoon sips.  Bunch of
deer go running.  A few rabbits here and there and LOTS of hawks and a few
owls.

At each hayfield large enough, I cut power and swoop down to skim the grass-
tops.  Practice turns-around-a-point.  Easier to do in a GA aircraft cuz
you are higher off the ground.  In a PPC ya gotta really account for the
wind and add sufficient power to maintain altitude.  Back up to 75 feet
or so.  Trip towards town takes 18 minutes (13 miles!)  Smooth like this,
no need to go up to several hundred feet as I usually do around town.

Fly around some guys I know (welding shop owner).  Mosey on over to the
railroad tracks that run through town (so I'm not flying "over" a
congested area) and make my way closer to the foothills (looming 1500 feet
above me); still smooth.

Haha - look down there.  The guy who stopped his car right in the middle of
the street to get out and look at me.  Traffic jam.

Lazily cross the interstate (I-25) and allow the rising terrain to bring
me closer to the ground.  The tree colors are amazing.  The Aspen is
the state tree and it is all ablaze right now - brilliantly golden yellow.
Fall usually comes in its splendor here on the straddle of September/October.

The incredible beauty of it, the mountainsides largely covered in evergreens,
then splashed with swaths of yellow looking like veins of gold ripe for the
mining.  Definitely my favorite time of year.

Aiming the beast southward now, along I-25 as it snakes up toward Raton Pass,
I push for more RPMs to match the inclination.  Weaving between two hills,
we come up behind the new Wal*Mart Supercenter, open not quite a month.
With lotsa power enough altitude is gained to fly some circles over the
parking lot.  Waving to everyone and they back to me.

Went to see my dentist the other day for a cleaning and two of his
employees sought me out to ask if I'm the guy with the flying machine :).
Guess everyone "knows" about me.  Still haven't been able to connect with
the newspaper lady who wants to do a story.  Maybe this weekend.

Back to the air...  Airborne time is now about 40 minutes.  My sense is that
the wind has shifted to more northeasterly.  Since I'm about 2 miles from a
10,000 foot mountain peak, I'm a bit leary of surprise winds and had risen
some 500 feet AGL.  Very high up for me.  Back across the interstate toward
the east - time to go buzz my neighborhood...

Power back to set up a gentle 200 fpm descent.  Large grazing pasture behind
my house, so spiralling down is easy.  Hey, there is Kathy, the judge's
wife; and the kids from across the street.  All waving.  Kathy, who when she
first heard about my flying machine called me, "Stupid", has since changed
her tune and has been hinting that she'd like an introductory flight sometime.
Maybe tomorrow.

Back and forth putting on a show for the neighborhood kids.  Brrrrr.  Almost
6pm now and the sun, still mostly obscured, is sinking fast.  Gettin' pretty
chilly up here now.  Time to head back to the airport.  Ground speed
directly into the wind looks like about 10 mph.

Pushing the nose in the airport direction, I let her settle down to 100 feet
AGL or less.  Absolutely no turbulence and I hug the side of hills rising
several hundred feet over me.  At the highway leading back to the airport,
I decide to do something I haven't tried before and that is to fly over the
shoulder area at about power pole height so only some climb is required
to hop over them as needed.  Pretty cool.  Everyone in autos below waves
as they go past.  The crawal toward the airport takes 30 minutes.

It is now 630p and the gooseflesh on my arms looks alarming.  But I just
have to overfly that field of Autumn corn, beautifully honey colored, like
my girlfriend's hair :) (wish she were here riding with me).  I set up a
level flight power setting a few feet above the corn and with some power
adjustments manage to fly several circles.  Lots of cars slow down to
watch.  The sun is touching the 13,000 footers to the West now - sunset
is not far away.  The remaining cloud cover promises to offer up another
of Colorado's famous Autumn colorshows as Mother Earth consumes the fireball.

Time to head for the barn.

Power up a few hundred RPMs and hop over a powerline; down to skim the field
on the other side.  This has been one of my best flights in terms of smooth.

Weaving between isolated trees, one last hop over the highway/powerlines
and I'm lined up for Runway 9.  Quick call to the airport Unicom freq shows
all to be quiet.  Hey, there goes the UPS truck; must be gettin' ready with
the "Next Day Air" shipment going out.  Down to the deck (5-10 feet AGL)
we cross the airport grounds for a spin around the windsock.  Wave to the
UPS pilot loading his twin.  Sun is mostly gone now and man is it gettin'
cold (I didn't wear a coat, of course).  Time to play with the strobe - ON.

Not much effect; you know how the twilight seems to swallow everything up.

Let's so some of Clyde's suggested landing practice techniques. Set
up a constant rate descent...  At 1-2 feet add just enough power to keep
the beast hovering just off the ground and light steering adjustments to keep
the centerline right under the nosewheel.  So smooth.

Around and around - do that several times.  Damn I don't want to quit with
this excellent air, however my butt is starting to freeze and my teeth
chattering.  Two more approaches and this one is for landing.

The twilight sky is gorgeous like nothing else imaginable.  Cloud colors
as brilliant as those of their rivals, the trees.

Life is good.

Settle 'er in like a bird.  Wrap 'er up and put her away.  Ya know, I
didn't name my SR7 but it is high time.  I think I'll call her Bonnie
for two reasons: 1) it means beautiful and 2) it is my ladyfriend's name,
too.

As the hanger door closes... "'nite nite, Bonnie.  Sleep well."

My girlfriend in Virginia came for a weeklong visit.  She'd been talking
about flying in the beast for months on end (ever since she saw the 6
Chuter video a year ago).  Her name is Bonnie (same name that I recently
gave to my PPC :).

The day dawned windy (darn), so Bonnie and I went to visit an extinct
volcano over in New Mexico, returning at 3pm.  Some wind now, but not bad
so we left for the airport, skies mostly cloudy.  Bonnie was giddy as
a kid.  Temperature was 76.  Glad Bonnie is slim; density altitude was
over 8000 feet.

Approaching the airport (13 miles NE of town) we could see that the
windsock is indicating East at 5 knots.  We gather up the SR-7 from
the hanger and head out to Runway 9.  In teaching mode, I show Bonnie
the pre-flight procedure (she specifically asked, too; has a friend in
Virginia who was a fighter jock).  Run-up complete, we lay out the canopy
in good, inverted fashion (as recommended by the fine folks on this List).
PPC disconnected from the wheel cup on the back of the car and the auto
is moved off to the side of the Runway.

Radio around my neck, helmets on we strap Bonnie in the back.  She brought
along her Walkman and I already had the music cord for the Commtronics
intercom, so we hook that up as well.  Strap myself in and start the
engine.

Instructions to the student:  Once we are rolling, we must allow the chute
to rise overhead and become steady, then apply full power and surge for
liftoff.  DO NOT put your feet on the ground during the takeoff roll, lest
your legs/ankles be immediately broken.

I look up at the thick clouds comprising the "mostly cloudy" sky.  They
are sort of dark and a bit worrisome as to how much energy it took to
make them.  Call our intentions on the Unicom freq and power forward.
Chute jumps off the ground, oscillates right, then left, then rises
overhead and stablizes.  Full power and we lift off - beast climbs like
a pig with 340 pounds on board and this effective altitude - but climb
we do.  At about 100 feet AGL, I start to wish we'd skipped this flying
day.  First order of business is the electronics fail (again) and the
EIS is rendered useless.  Glad I wore a watch.  EIS off.

LOTS of thermal activity is about (of course, stupid - where do you think
all those puffy, thunderstorm-looking clouds came from?).

We make a run for a patch of sunlight (want to stay away from the cloud
bases.)  Suddenly, it is UP, UP, UP we go.  I'm muttering, "Ugh".  Bonnie
is squealing with delight.

"Do you like roller coasters?", I ask.

"Absolutely!!!!"

Glug.  We fly over to the river.  Unfortuntely, the leaves are not yet
changing.  Ugh, there goes my stomach into my mouth.  Bonnie goes, "Yea!".
Five more minutes of this and I've had it and point the nose of the PPC
back toward the airport.  "Bonnie, we need to avoid getting too close to
the cloud bases, so we're gonna make a run for the clear spot 5 miles
over there."  A minute later she responds, "Way cool, Carr!"

Then she turns on her Walkman - LOUD.  I can't hear anything anymore.  The
racket isn't even music, it is so loud.  Impossible to think and controlling
the PPC in the thrashing we are getting is worrisome to me.  Bonnie thinks
it is the best ride of her life.  Ugh.  I'm wishing we had individual
parachutes and could bail out.

I can't seem to find a volume that is low enough.  Unplugging the Walkman
I ask her to tone it back a bit.  That done I express my concern about
being bashed to pieces by the [now] gusty wind and the torturous thermals.
She says, "You better do whatever your guts tell you."

Wisest advice I've heard in years.

Time to get toward landing.  Bonnie is rubbing my shoulders and it feels
great.  Wish we could ride this out, but I have a nasty feeling something
awful is coming.  Bringing the beast around we line up on Runway 9 and
begin the descent.  Fifty feet AGL and we are thermalled up 200 feet.

Darn.

Power up for a go-around.  Bonnie laughs.  Gotta avoid that spot on the
Runway, so we extend the downwind leg a bit, losing altitude and set up
for another landing.  This one looks really good.  I'm talking to Student
Bonnie as I gradually power back to allow 'er to settle in.  At 10 feet
I apply 1/4 flare, then 1/2 flare followed by full flare at 2 feet AGL.
The gull becomes an ostrich and we roll to a stop in under 10 feet.  Power
off, chute lines in.

Once Bonnie is free, she is gleeful as a child proclaiming it more fun
than she expected.  I start the chute securing process, but Bonnie has
too much exuberance to help, so I send her to fetch the auto about 1/4
mile down the runway.

Everything secure, we head back for the hanger and hope we can have
another day this week to fly.  Unfortunately, such was not the case.
While Mother Nature provided Summer-warm temps, she also provided
abundant wind.

Maybe next year when Bonnie comes back again.