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Saturday, April 12, 2014

Back from surgery ... Flight # 701

Finally....!   It's been a long long winter.  The surgery went well, my shoulder has a new ball joint and I've recovered 100% of the Range of Motion.  I'm working on regaining the strength I lost sitting on my ass for the last 5 months.  The only real problem is what I think is bursitis that was caused by the fall I took last year at Carter Lake.

This morning was perfect.   The temp was 45 degrees and the winds were nill from the south west.
I had to "jump start the paramotor because I had left the key in the last time I test ran it in Jan.  The launch was less than perfect.  The wing fell off to the left and it took 50 feet of runway to get it up and stable.  Right after takeoff ,I discovered that the trim cam had slipped below the power loops, causing the wing to turn a slow right.  I climbed to 300 feet circling the field and then went to work getting the cam sorted out.  It seemed much harder to move than the other times this has happened but that was probably more due to my lack of strength than anything else.
Eventually I worked the cam into position and climbed to 900 feet where I set off to the south.  There was a dramatic change in temperature at 500 feet where it was at least 20 degrees warmer.  I played around for 30 minutes and returned to the field where Robert Kittila was setting up.  Rather than hassle with jumping the Paramotor again I orbited the field and waited for Robert to launch.  A motorcyclist rode in and he and Robert started chatting.  It looked like it was going to be a long talk so I practiced wing overs for awhile and landed.
Upon landing I noticed a break in the cage tubing inside of the prior repairs. It looks very flyable with a little duct tape but I think I'll get it welded ASAP instead.
Robert took off and I chatted with a new pilot .... Don, who has Delta and paragliding experience.
Beautiful rig ....Kangook with a Moster engine.  He has just finished training with Mike Robenson and was not 100%  happy with the experience.  Unfortunently he didn't get off after 3 attempts and I had to leave so I don't know if he ever did.  It's not easy training at sea level and going home to 5500 feet.
It's nice to be back in the air.

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