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Mike Hay of http://ppgprops.com made me another beautiful prop. I had him make me a 46″ so I had a little extra clearance while I was learning (and falling on my butt a lot) but now that I’ve got that handled, its time for more thrust

This is an experimental prop that he thinks he’s got dialed in so as soon as this wind drops off a bit, i’ll be testing it and posting results here.

Brian

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I just got back from ParaToy’s Salton Sea Fly-in. Here are some of my photos. I write about it soon…

You can view them here

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Today I was doubly blessed with a 1/2 day of work and upper 40’s temps with 4 mph wind.  As REO Speedwagon once said, “I believe it’s time for me to fly!!”.I got to the field a little before 4:00 and started setting up.  I got my wing all laid out and started my motor.  The motor hasn’t been running really great the last few times I’ve flown… it’s been getting increasingly worse, but I decided not to mess with it until I retired it for the winter, then I was going to troubleshoot it.  Well, today I ran out of luck.  The motor was running, but it just wasn’t hitting the full power band.  I messed with the carburetor settings, but that didn’t help.  I decided I’d try to fly anyway.  Ha ha!!   I ran the whole length of the field with the throttle mashed and it just couldn’t lift me.  Time for a tune up.  I got packed up and ready to leave when my buddy Matt landed.

Matt’s a great guy.  He saw the look of disappointment on my face and quickly offered me to fly his Fresh Breeze machine.  Hmmm….  I’ve flown 6 or 7 different wings now, but I’ve never flown a different motor.  I tried to fly my friend Jeremy’s Black Hawk Black Devil one day this summer and I failed to launch three times in a row.  I’m standing there thinking about it…  I haven’t flown in a month, so I might be a bit rusty…  I failed miserably last time I tried to launch with a different machine…  How much does that Fresh Breeze weigh?  Hmmm….. that’s a lot heavier than mine….  What side is the throttle on?  The right?!!!  Well, okay, I’ll try it!!!

By the time I convinced myself to try to fly this other machine, everyone else was on the ground and tuned in.  I don’t think my old instructor Dave thought I would pull it off.  He told Jeremy to grab his camera.  I think everyone expected a great fall….

I needed some help getting strapped in to the Fresh Breeze.  This one had the soft comfort bars with the harness that comes off the motor easily.  (The one you can jettison the motor in the air).  Getting strapped in is a lot different than my hard J-bar machine.  I got strapped in and hoisted it up.  It’s a lot heavier, but not that bad.  I was warned about the power of the Simonini.  One of Matt’s friends who is around my weight has torqued himself 180 degrees on the same unit on more than one occasion.  For those non-PPGers reading, when you have major motor torque that twists you around 180 degrees, you end up facing the wrong way and you quickly fall out of the sky and crash… which is what happened to this guy a few times.  OK… I’ve been warned… I’ll respect full throttle and try not to bury it.

I pulled up the wing and gently got into the throttle.  The wing came up nicely and I started my run.  The throttle handle is a lot stiffer and more touchy on this machine than mine.  It probably sounded funny when I revved it up and down a few times during my run.  I had a problem getting into full stride because the seat board was hitting me in the back of the legs and almost forcing me to sit.  Still avoiding full throttle, I got tired of half-trotting this thing and I started to run out of runway…  So I just committed to flying and nailed the gas, which I knew would pretty much force me to sit down with the way the seat board was into my legs.  The power of the Simonini ripped me up off the ground immediately.

Flying with that much power was a ton of fun!!!  Also, it was neat to have so much weight shift ability with the soft comfort bar system.  I didn’t find the harness to be very comfortable, but I think there was an issue with the seat board, because Matt said it’s almost too deep for him, and when I was in it I felt like my butt was stuck on the lip of the seat (imagine sitting on a 6″ plank of wood, I felt like that’s all the seat I had).   Also, the risers were up MUCH higher than on my Sky Cruiser, and one time when I let go of my left brake I struggled for about a half a minute to grab it again.  It was a little sketchy for a minute there.  The brakes were way up there.  It was a stretch to get to them.

I only flew for about 10 minutes before deciding to come in.  It was getting dark and I figured Matt was probably ready to go.  Getting out of the seat was difficult.  I think the seat board was stuck under the back pad the whole time and that was my issue with launch also.  Anyway, I finally was able to finagle the seat board behind me so I could manage a good landing.  I cut the motor early to insure that expensive carbon fiber prop was going to survive if I tanked it…

At the correct moment I started my flare and… OH WOW!!!   I had a ton of flare authority!!  I guess it wasn’t my wing that sucked all this time, it was just that the brakes are too long.  With the wing mounted that much higher, I was probably pulling the brakes an extra 6″, which made all the difference in the world.

I’m going to get my motor fixed and continue to fly it… but I now know that when it’s time to get a different motor I won’t hesitate to add 10 or more pounds to get that much more thrust.  More power is more fun!!! 

No pictures today… I wasn’t about to add the camera to the mix on a strange machine.

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I flew at the Athens launch site today. I had been there once but this was my first flight from there. I caught a little rotor off a tree line but was able to climb out of it with no problems.

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Today I Flew my 42nd flight with my Dad on his 2nd flight.

I’m so proud of you Dad! I look forward to many more.

More photos to come.

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