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Thursday, July 23, 2009

318 Simms

New Camera Canon SX200IS
This was a strange one. I got up early so I could launch before the sun only to find that I'd left the ignition on and the battery was dead. I pulled on the starter cord until I was sweating like a dog. This was different: every other time I've pull started the 4 stroke, it was a piece of cake. I don't know if I was just weak or perhaps a circut was switched off .... whatever. I couldn't pull start it. Two hard inspections didn't turn up the cause. Eventually I decided to try jump starting from the truck and it fired right up. The motor idled while I set up the wing and when it was time to launch it started on the first pull. Huh? Is there something special about a dead battery that prevents the motor from firing?
The air was good except for a layer at 250 feet that bounced me pretty good during the final approach. The lift off the dam was more turbulant than most mornings. Breeze was coming from the west so I stayed away from Red Rocks and did a lazy loop around the golf course and over by Marston Lake. There was virga in the east and the light was more yellow than usual. Very vivid in the yellows. 45 minutes after launch the wind had shifted from WEST to WSW.


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