#415 And I forgot my camera !

It had been cloudy and threatening to rain all day but at 6 pm the skies started to clear and the conditions mellowed. While I was watching, Marek called and we both agreed that it was probably going to be flyable. Marek could not go but it looked good and was certainly better than sitting around feeling sorry for myself so I jumped in the MR-2 and raced over to Chips house. In record time I was at Simms and launched quickly without incident.

As predicted ... it was glass. I flew straight toward Red Rocks and as I came over the hogback I could see that there was a concert tonight. I flew the perimeter of the Amphitheater about 800 feet above the crowd being careful not to overfly the congestion.

Damn I forgot the camera! BUT from all the flashbulbs going off I knew that there were hundreds of photos being taken so the flight was documented (if not by me). From the west I could look right over the seating into the stage where they were doing light and sound checks. Perhaps 2/3's of the seats were filled with lots more coming.

After a couple of circuits around the park I headed east, as I was halfway to the hogback I noticed a strange craft to the south. At first I thought it was a balloon but within 10 seconds I could tell it was moving toward me and no balloon. It was coming straight at me and at about 3000 yards I decided to wag my wings and turn back to the Amphitheater. I did a small wingover and just as I began to turn west it must have seen me because it made a hard turn to the east and descended rapidly to 500 feet below me. When it turned and I could see the profile, I was surprised to see that it was Chinook cargo copter. I'm glad he saw me when he did ... I'm sure they throw a monster propwash... not something I ever want to experience.

The return was uneventful, I descended to 300 feet after crossing I-70 and overflew Soda Lake and the campgrounds which were mostly empty. The landing was easy, the wind had picked up and I was able to land on the dirt road and taxi right to the truck. Good Fight! Almost Epic but no pictures :(

#414 Red Rocks

Photos by Mike Bennett


It was a beautiful morning
...Sunny 40 degrees...3 to 4 mph out of the West.

Marek ... Mike Bennett ... and myself. Mike and I launched after Marek and flew to the Red Rock Ampitheater. I stayed high and got bumped around pretty good, Mike stayed low and found nice smooth air. We made the day for a bunch of scouts that were camping at Bear Creek. I did some hard banking turns at 150 feet for them and I think they would have followed me all the way to Red Rocks if they could have.

Mike Bennett got some good photos and video. This was the first time he flew to the Ampitheater and his discription of the flight is wonderful.

His Blog Post...
http://mbppg.com/info/blog2010.html

# 410 Sunday at Red Rocks 2010

Good to get back to Red Rocks. Nothing special to report, air was calm except at the drainage from the Hwy 285 cut.

After work it was back to the Paradiso ...

Flying Easter Sunrise Service at Red Rocks

Flight 399 and the Big number 400

It was 27 degrees at 0600 hours. The skies were clear with no discernible breeze. I’d left the Falcon in the truck so it was just a matter of pulling on my cold weather gear and getting on the road. One of the best things about living with Chip is that Simms is only 5 minutes away. The field is looking better than it has in a couple of years. The heavy wet snows have packed the weeds down and other than a general bumpiness I’ve no complaints.
The first attempt was botched when the wing came up crooked. The breeze had picked up a bit and I missed the shift. When I set-up the second time I adjusted and took off without problem to the West. Looking at the wing I thought the brake lines looked wrong. One line (left inside) seemed unusually slack. I couldn’t see a problem and when I tried some input it reacted ok, but… it didn’t feel right so I turned back and landed by the truck. On the ground I still could not find a problem, so I re-set and launched. The air was good and did not feel as cold as I knew it was.
It was more comfortable with the seat positioned more upright but the brake lines are still too far aft. It pulls my arms back and stresses my shoulders. I’m not sure what the fix is…move the seat back… put some kind of line guide on the hang point rails. Maybe I just need to work on upper body strength. It’s better but there are still a few tweaks to get it right.
The Falcon was climbing great. At 3400 RPM I had 290 ft/min and when I adjust the prop a little more I’m sure that will improve. Considering that I was 300 RPM below optimum 375 ft/min should be attainable.
As I traversed Bear Creek Park it started to get bumpy. I had a clear view of Red Rocks, there were lots of cars in the parking lot but it didn’t look like a full house because the top 2/3rds of the seats were empty. It looked like the wind was going to pick up, there was a bank of hard blown clouds to the North. Concerned that I would get into a wind storm or strong turbulence from the up slope meeting the down slope…I decided to turn back so that I would be over home field if I needed to get down in a hurry. It would have been nice to buzz the amphitheater but no sense pushing it.
The landing was good; the wind had come up considerably with a gust that popped me up on final. Fortunately I had plenty of room and landed close to the truck.
This was a good thing to do. Getting ready yesterday and climbing out of bed before dawn occupied my mind giving me a little respite from the troubles that have been consuming my attention the past several months.

#295 Simms...Red Rocks

Most excellent day!

It was drizzling while I loaded the truck at 5:15am. There was a low cloud cover 0n the North and Eastern horizon and patches of virga over Lakewood. I checked out the Lucent site and was just about to unload when a puff came out of the south and spoiled the moment. One morning it's going to be coming out of the east or north and I'm going to try this place out!


So...I headed off to Simms and repeated yesterdays trick of setting up in the short grass and running hell bent for leather into the taller grass. Today I learned another reason for wearing the flight suit...it would have kept the grass seed from embedding itself in my fleece top and pants :)

Today I didn't have any GPS so I couldn't tell what the climb rate was ...but it felt just fine...I might be making a fuss over nothing but I think it would be a safer machine if I could levitate a little faster.

There was very little wind and the clouds had mostly moved to the East so I took the opportunity to fly over to Red Rocks Amptheather. It was a beautiful flight, clear and light in the west and cloudy and dark behind me. The sun had just started to peak thru as I was approaching the hogbacks ...great light for photography...and lots of lift. After circling the theater and taking a few pictures I flew back toward the golf course and used the lift band at the dam to get a bounce. Probably the best air I've experienced in a long long time. The descent took a good long while and I worked hard to position the buggy for a long final approach. Finally I was able to run 500 yards to the truck just a few feet up and touch down light as a feather exactly where I wanted. It was nice to get a little fine control I'm even getting a better feel for the throttle. If I have the room to maneuver this machine puts out plenty of power, it's only where I'm working in tight quarters that I get puckered up.

Later I took the crew for a dinner sail. It's all good

#146 Simms

Today I used the 26 meter wing and boy ... it took forever to run it up to take-off speed...I almost took out Chip's wind sock !

I flew to Red rocks but chickened out when it started to get bumpy...Sound familiar? I wasn't able to climb nearly as fast as the other day probably because of the smaller wing but there were also areas of sinking and lifting air which spooked me.

Looking North to Golden

These fins run South below the ampitheater and they look like fun!