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Saturday morning 10-13-07:

I wasn’t in too much of a rush to get to the field this morning. After all, it was only 40 degrees outside! Maybe if I was a little late it might not be too cold…

There was only a faint hint of wind this morning, and the grass was covered in dew so my wing was wet…. I was ready for a challenging launch. At 8:50 am, I started forward, hit the gas, and before I knew it, I was stepping into the air… That was FAST!!! It was like taking off into a really good wind, but there wasn’t any wind to speak of. I guess it must be the cold, dense air.

I won’t deny… it was a bit chilly. This was by far the coldest weather I’ve flown in. I was pretty well prepared, though… long johns under my camo pants, my Gore-Tex boots, a standard thermal shirt, my fleece jacket w/ Gore-Tex shell, and some thin mechanic’s gloves. I have really warm ski gloves, but I wasn’t about to attempt to launch and fly with those big things on. All in all, I was pretty comfortable. When I climbed to a few hundred feet, it got noticeably warmer. I stayed high and it was all good, except for some cold fingers. But hey, I’ll take cold fingers for this buttah-smooth air. It was awesome!

I call this photo “The End of Suburbia”:

This lone tree caught my eye for a photo opp, so I headed down into the cold for a few:

Then I saw another tree:

Man it’s cold down there!!! Time to go back up and warm up for a while…

I’d hang out up high and warm up for a while, then I’d always see something down low that I wanted to check out. If I see something I want to explore closer when I’m flying, I almost always do it. When I’m flying, I have complete freedom, and I always make sure I follow my every whim. A tractor caught my eye. It took quite a while to get back down there, but I wanted to play! I got down low and timed my entrance for when he was going to be going straight for a while, then I got down right beside him at eye level. He gave me a friendly wave, so I guess it didn’t piss him off too much. No picture of the close fly-by because I was busy flying, but I got this one right as I was about to depart his field and leave him be:

After flying around for an hour and 20 minutes, I figured I was probably getting low on gas…. I didn’t take off with a full tank because of the nil-wind situation. I got back to the field and the PPC guys from last week were there. I BS’ed with them for a few, then Phil showed up. It was a lot warmer now, and Phil started donning his cold gear… a little overkill in my book!

One of the PPC guys said that there was some sort of open house at the airport. That would explain the extra air traffic - it was busy again this morning. One guy thought there was a TFR because of the event, but Phil said he had checked and there was nothing. I decided I’d just stay low and away from the airport.

Phil got set up for where the wind WAS blowing from, but it changed. Phil thought it was going to change back, and he waited for it…. But I wasn’t waiting. I went ahead and went to the other side of the field and launched again. Phil finally gave up and moved to the other end of the field and then joined me for some more fun. It was almost 11:00 already.

Our 2nd field, aka the “Big Field” is really torn up now. It’s a write-off. I have fond memories of that field… it’s where I had my 2nd flight. Here are the monsters all lined up and ready to start tearing it up more on Monday:

Phil and I flew for about 20 minutes then came down. I was convinced to come down by the plane that buzzed our field at about 200 feet AGL. Fine. You’re bigger… it’s your air…. you win… I’ll land and go home. Grrr…..

After Phil and I landed, the PPC guys and Phil went home. I packed up my gear and headed into the field to photograph some bugs. After quite a bit of shooting, I looked up and saw someone parked near my car. Then I saw someone snooping around my car. So I headed over there to see what was up. It was a reporter for the newspaper! She really wanted to do a story on me right there on the spot. So I answered the standard questions… blah, blah. She wanted me to put on the motor for a picture…. no problem. I could tell she still didn’t understand how it all worked, so I got my glider out to show her. She was thinking you flew with just the motor. LOL… that would be tough! So I got the glider out and kited it for her.

Now this is where I started getting dumb…. I really wanted her to get to see some flying…. There still wasn’t all that much wind, and it had gotten really cloudy (not cumulus clouds, though). I figured the early clouds probably kept the thermal activity at bay… Hmmm…..

What was that I had just told the reporter about how we ONLY fly early mornings and evening, because mid-day is so dangerous??? What time was it?? Almost 1:00 pm. The next thing I know, I’m strapped in, motor running, telling her where to stand for the best photo opp. DEE-TEE-DEE…

I set up for a reverse, but the wind died off and it was no longer reversible. So I re-set for a forward. The wind kept shifting so I had to wait for it. I finally went for it and blew the attempt. She kept telling me “oh don’t worry about flying… I got pictures already… are you sure it’s safe anyway??”. “Oh no”, I said, “I’ve already got my gear out and my motor warmed up… I’m flying!”. Now the wind had picked up a again, but man it all over the place…. It was never strong, though. If it was gusting up to double-digits I would have just packed it up without flying… but it was going from calm to just barely reversible, with a lot of direction changes. At 1:00 I made a 2nd attempt, this time in reverse, and this time with success. I got a few feet off the ground and then ELEVATOR UP! I may have even gone backwards…. but I shot up to probably around 50+ AGL in an INSTANT. Whoa, I didn’t expect that!! Then I got hit with a gust and I got blown hard to the side… I could barely keep the wing over my head. I’ve never been in conditions this wild. This was NOT FUN, and it was scary. I fought the wing around for a couple minutes and then I was lined back up to come back in. The wind didn’t want to let me come down. Shit, this sucks!!! I was overshooting the LZ. I still had the motor running so I could power back up and go around, but the thought of climbing back up into that mess was not a pleasant one. So I looked both ways for traffic on the little industrial park road at the end of the field… no traffic… I touched down right in the middle of the road, dropped the wing on the side of the road in the grass, and thanked God I was down safely. That was really stupid. The reporter almost got a much bigger story than she had bargained for. A lot of accidents happen when people are showing off for non-PPG people. I need to keep that shit in check and follow the rules I was taught. I got lucky on this one. Flight 87 could have been my last. I’m glad it was only 2 or 3 minutes long!

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