God made Days off for days like today!
The season is changing and it's happening all too fast. Now days, when I get to the field at 6:00am, it's O'Dark Thirty. Plenty of time to finish that Rock Star and let the caffeine get into the blood stream. It had been partly clouding all night and this morning was hazy and 55 degrees
The wind was SSW variable 4 to 7 which meant I had a slight uphill grade and rotor from the "Club House". The wing came up fast and the buggy had stopped rolling after the first two feet, I was able to add a little "foot power", but the wing stalled and fell to the left, by now, I was starting to roll, so I added right brake and watched the wing swing to the right until the tip was about 6 feet above the ground. Now some left brake and this time it centered and was rock solid over head. Small wing Heavy trike... The Eden III is easy to muscle around because it's smaller, lighter material and more responsive than the Power Play. I don't think this would have tipped the Trike Buggy Basic but I'm sure that I would have felt the trike start to lift on one side. Because of the extended wheelbase and low and heavy CG, the Thumper is incredibly forgiving. When the wing was about 40 percent loaded the "side pull "was just discernible.
The wind was SSW variable 4 to 7 which meant I had a slight uphill grade and rotor from the "Club House". The wing came up fast and the buggy had stopped rolling after the first two feet, I was able to add a little "foot power", but the wing stalled and fell to the left, by now, I was starting to roll, so I added right brake and watched the wing swing to the right until the tip was about 6 feet above the ground. Now some left brake and this time it centered and was rock solid over head. Small wing Heavy trike... The Eden III is easy to muscle around because it's smaller, lighter material and more responsive than the Power Play. I don't think this would have tipped the Trike Buggy Basic but I'm sure that I would have felt the trike start to lift on one side. Because of the extended wheelbase and low and heavy CG, the Thumper is incredibly forgiving. When the wing was about 40 percent loaded the "side pull "was just discernible.
When the wing is oscillating like that it's a good time to be looking up at the glider. :) The mirror is great for some pilots, but it tends to take up too much of my attention and I lose the big picture. The climb out was slow, which was made worse because the surface was sloping upward. Once up, it was mostly smooth air. The winds were flowing in a circle, clockwise around the area. I could fly downwind along the western edge of the park and still be downwind on the east side of the park coming home. The neat thing was that the area around the Balloon Port was calm, because it is inside the circle. I watched two balloons go up and hang right over the Port, they didn't move 20 feet except vertically the whole time they were in the air.
I took some shots of the Marina, landed power on and practiced the low and slow. Then took a brake and did it again. The overcast had damped any thermal activity...I could have flown for two more hours it was that good!
Chad...Please bring some different length hang straps and help me dial in these wings for the Thumper Bullet.
1. Measure the current straps and Riser position in relationship to the hang point rings
I took some shots of the Marina, landed power on and practiced the low and slow. Then took a brake and did it again. The overcast had damped any thermal activity...I could have flown for two more hours it was that good!
Chad...Please bring some different length hang straps and help me dial in these wings for the Thumper Bullet.
1. Measure the current straps and Riser position in relationship to the hang point rings
No comments:
Post a Comment