Last Powered Paragliding Flight at the Louisville Home Site #515

It was looking a little iffy.  There was a light breeze coming from the West.  It was just enough that I didn't want to attempt a downwind launch.  I taxied to the other end of the field and looked at the possibility of launching into the hill.  The terrain was perfect, freshly mowed and smooth...but the breeze was coming straight off the hill and there were big trees that would have made it tough to turn right after liftoff.  It looked doable if I could maintain a good climb rate. 

I set-up and launched without a problem.  The climbout was exciting because I was just barely able to maintain enough separation from the earth to go between the trees and and climb the hill.  There was always the possibility that I would be met with some rotor at the top but the breeze was light and the top was smooth so I figured the worst would be a little sink and I was confident the Falcon could power me up.

What a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky and lots of hot air balloons off to the north.  I headed North and caught some low flying balloons.  They were just barely skimming the surface and one of them set down in a back yard that wasn't 50 foot square.  After playing with the balloons for 30 minutes I turned back and headed for home.  It was a great day to be alive.

The bad news was seeing the police cruiser waiting for me when I came back to land.  He hadn't called to give me the bad news ... which was good ... at least I was able to get in one last flight.  ...BUT according to the City lawyer that he had gone out of the way to consult ... I was not exempt ... and could no longer launch out of the home field.  Later I called the devil spawn and... yes ... Shakespeare was right.  " The first thing we do is to HANG ALL THE LAWYERS"

The next evening I went for a drive after work looking for a new site.  The obvious ones that I had picked out on Google Earth were fenced and posted or were attached to huge estates that did not invite me to knock on their door.  After an hour of dead ends I was driving home and feeling low when I spotted a field that was free of weeds, it was right off Boulder Road next to a large Catholic Church ( Saint Mary of Perpetual Motion) and there was a car parked right in the middle of the field so...  I pulled in to see if there was anything for me there.  I made contact with a caretaker who gave me the number for the the owners son who will ask his father to allow me to launch.  LETS  HOPE!