I awoke at 4 am and couldn't for the life of me get back to sleep so I packed up the rig and was at Vance Brand by 5:30. It was perfectly calm and 60 degrees. The first take off was perfect. The wing came up fast, I pulled some brake, slowed down and got everything stable then added power and launched. The climb was about 250 ft/min and the air was smooth as butter. After a couple of laps I noticed that I had neglected to put on the Fortrex and since there was somebody pulling into the field I cut power and set up for a landing. It was a horrible landing. I don't know if my skills have degraded from not flying or I was not paying attention but I didn't use enough brake and landed hard bouncing back up and moving way to fast.
Robert Kitilla was there with a wanna be, we chatted about the virtue of buying a new wing and or motor vs. used. I of course was on the side of buying new since a two stroke is going to fail sooner than later and Robert was pitching a new wing .... because ... well because he sells new wings. :)
A few minutes later Marek arrived. We embraced and spent a few minutes catching up. His wife is leaving the work force to study radiology so he is going to be on a short financial leash for the next couple of years. We both joked about flying wings that wouldn't pass an inspection.
The second flight was a long cross country out toward Boulder Res. I wasn't proud of the launch because I touched down twice having let the wing oscillate. If I had been patient and slowed down allowing the wing to steady up ... it would have been a much prettier and safer launch.
Once up Marek and I flew south to where there were 5 balloons flying. We both picked the closest one and did a fly by. They waved back in a friendly manner so I do not think they were concerned to have us in their airspace.
Marek is going to send some video ...
All in all ... it was good to be back in the air after such a long dry spell.
Robert Kitilla was there with a wanna be, we chatted about the virtue of buying a new wing and or motor vs. used. I of course was on the side of buying new since a two stroke is going to fail sooner than later and Robert was pitching a new wing .... because ... well because he sells new wings. :)
A few minutes later Marek arrived. We embraced and spent a few minutes catching up. His wife is leaving the work force to study radiology so he is going to be on a short financial leash for the next couple of years. We both joked about flying wings that wouldn't pass an inspection.
The second flight was a long cross country out toward Boulder Res. I wasn't proud of the launch because I touched down twice having let the wing oscillate. If I had been patient and slowed down allowing the wing to steady up ... it would have been a much prettier and safer launch.
Once up Marek and I flew south to where there were 5 balloons flying. We both picked the closest one and did a fly by. They waved back in a friendly manner so I do not think they were concerned to have us in their airspace.
Marek is going to send some video ...
All in all ... it was good to be back in the air after such a long dry spell.
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