Walsenburg Spanish Peak Airport ... 648

Not a soul except one unhappy old man.  Light breeze out of the SSW.  Launch was slightly rugged due to the portside brake toggle locking up. The forest fire had been knocked down from the high plumes of the day before.  Instead of the dramatic footage I was hoping for there was a faint smokey haze covering the horizon.  I changed plans and checked out the north end of Walsenburg.  Nice flight .... Calm air
Great airstrip

Route 66 and the Wild Horse Canyon

Every 2 years Michelle Daniele Hosts 

Route 66 Flyers Fly-In 

at Paramotor City

This year I did a sprint. Drove down on Friday and drove home on Saturday.... 

It was too windy to fly Friday night (at least for me) but Jim King went for a quick spin in the sunset.  Sue had stopped by the tent announcing that the wind was coming down and that she was thinking of going up.  So..... While Jim and I  walked back to our trucks we debated the value of rigging up for such a short window of flyable air.  Jim was saying it was hardly worth the effort and I said yea , but it might be real good.  Jim looked at me and said , Ya know, You might be right.   Five minutes later Jim is setting up. AND...
It was spectacular!   Jim took off with a beautiful full moon behind him and rode toward the Sunset. After he had tasted the air,  he found it not so sweet, so... he turned back to land. and, "stuck it",  like a gymnast going for the gold.  Jim Doyle and I stood there in awe of Sky King, one of the unsung heroes of  PPG history.

.

A personal highlight was sleeping in the bed of my truck under the stars.
It brought me back to the summers when I "slept out" 6 days a week.  That night we were experiencing what is called the "Super Moon", the brightest moon in 75 years.  About 11:00 somebody foot launched and flew around the field for about 20 minutes.  Very cool.  His wing wasn't light enough to video but it did reflect the moonlight on the turns.  I'm going to have to try it someday.  Tonight was the perfect night and all I can say was good for him.  One of these days .... It's officially on my Bucket List.  Maybe at Lake Jean or Apex in Nevada.   But one of these days I'm going to do a moonlight flight.
Saturday morning I got up at 5:00 and launched with Jim Doyle who was leading the cross country to Wild Horse Canyon.  Great flight .... good air all the way.



After the flight we enjoyed the traditional omelets in a bag breakfast.  My jalapeño bacon was a huge hit, they ate all 5 pounds!
The Route 66 crowd is family and it was so great to see my friends.
Thanks Michelle for having us back.

Endless Foot Drag 623 to 626

Britton Shaw has hosted the "Endless Foot Drag"  for many years.  One look at the field and it is easy to see why people come back over and over again.  Miles of Bermuda Sod bordering the  Mike Bennett and I had driven through heavy weather to Fort Smith Arkansas for an Instructors Clinic that Chad Bastian was giving.  I arrived Tuesday night and rather than pitch a tent on the saturated field I took advantage of Dawn's gernerousity and asked her to book a room for us at the Hilton affiliate.  I had been looking forward to camping but a first class room is wonderful too!  We spent the day with Chad and 6 other pilots in the Hampden Inn board room.  What a group.... I think I was the only one there who wasn't a licensed GA pilot.  Bruce and Terry had been flying for decades, Shawn was a CFI and Apache driver.  Garrett had thousands of sky dives and was a GA pilot.  It was humbling.

We were given the luxurious "Board Room" to have our clinic and spent all day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday morning doing class work.  Chad was great keeping us on track and covering the entire syllabus.

Wednesday and Thursday we broke up at 6:00 and went out to the field.  Wednesday was great!  I got in two flights and way over 2 hours of flight time.  I even turned on the strobes and stayed up well into nautical twilight.  Thursday was at the event site and equally good. Friday afternoon I picked up Dawn and we returned to the field where the event was starting to ramp up.  Vendor booths were being assembled and pilots were arriving.  I was tickled to see so many old friends from Fly Ins past.

Just as Dawn and I were getting ready to walk the field and show off Beau, Britton came over and informed us that dogs were not allowed on the field.  The landowner was concerned because of a dog bite to a child the previous year. What a drag.  We set up the spare tent to keep Beau in but he would have none of it, jumping at the door and biting the fabric.  Dawn eventually sat in the tent and stayed with Beau while Chad walked us through some radio training.  It was too windy for any but the most skilled pilots so we watched until dark.

The next morning I got up early and was able to get in a short flight in strong and ratty air.  Kurt later told me the wind was 9 mph gusting to 17 when I landed.  It wouldn't have been fair to leave Dawn to sit in the hotel with the dog for the rest of the weekend so I packed up the rig and said my goodbyes.
So I didn't really get to enjoy the Famous Endless footdrag but I did get my Instructor Certification.  Perhaps we could have put Beau in Doggie Day Care but thats water under the bridge now. 

Dawn and I pulled out of Fort Smith at 1:00 pm and power drove back to Colorado.  We were in bed by 1:15 am

Thanks Britton .... You have a great Fly In ... I look forward to flying with you in the future.

Bob Peloquin

Chad Bastian

Flying the single surface glider

Falcon

Andy McAvin

Mike Bennett

Denver to Galveston Pier to do's

From: Denver, CO 80210 US> To: 2502 Harborside Dr, Galveston, TX 77550-1463
US> > DRIVING DIRECTIONS> -------------------------------------------------->
A) Denver, CO 80210 US> -------------------------------------------------->
1. Start out going SOUTH on S RACE ST toward> E EVANS AVE. (go 0.1 miles)>
2. Turn RIGHT onto E EVANS AVE. (go 0.1> miles)>
3. Turn RIGHT onto S HIGH ST. (go 0.1> miles)>
4. Turn RIGHT onto E ASBURY AVE. (go> 0.3 miles)>
5. Turn LEFT onto S UNIVERSITY BLVD. > (go 0.3 miles)>
6. Merge onto I-25 S (Crossing into NEW> MEXICO). (go 214.3 miles)>
7. Take the US-64 E/US-87 E exit, EXIT 451,> toward RATON/CLAYTON. (go 0.2 miles)>
8. Turn LEFT onto CLAYTON RD/US-64/US-87.> Continue to follow US-87 E (Crossing into TEXAS). (go> 127.3 miles)>
9. Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto> US-385/US-87/RAILROAD ST S. Continue to follow US-87> S. (go 38.8 miles)>
10. Turn RIGHT onto US-287/US-87/S DUMAS AVE.> Continue to follow US-287 S/US-87 S. (go 46.4 miles)>
11. Merge onto US-87 S via the exit on the> LEFT toward I-40. (go 2.3 miles)>
12. Merge onto I-40 E/US-287 S toward> OKLAHOMA CITY/FORT WORTH. (go 8.4 miles)>
13. Merge onto US-287 S via EXIT 78 toward> FORT WORTH. (go 288.8 miles)>
14. US-287 S becomes US-81 S. (go 30.9> miles)>
15. Stay STRAIGHT to go onto I-35W S/US-287> S. (go 8.9 miles)>
16. Merge onto US-287 S via EXIT 51. > (go 8.4 miles)>
17. Keep LEFT to take US-287 S via EXIT 34A> toward WAXAHACHIE/DALLAS. (go 1.5 miles)> 18. Keep RIGHT to take US-287 S via EXIT 444> toward LITTLE RD/WAXAHACHIE. (go 50.7 miles)>
19. Merge onto I-45 S toward CORSICANA. > (go 246.4 miles)>
20. Take EXIT 1C toward TX-275/HARBORSIDE> DR/FM-188/TEICHMAN RD. (go 0.3 miles)> 21. Stay STRAIGHT to go onto BROADWAY> ST/AVENUE J. (go 0.5 miles)>
22. Turn LEFT onto HARBORSIDE DR. (go> 4.6 miles)>
23. 2502 HARBORSIDE DR is on the LEFT. > (go 0.0 miles)> -------------------------------------------------->
B) 2502 Harborside Dr, Galveston, TX 77550-1463
TOTAL ESTIMATED TIME: 17 hours 19 minutes > DISTANCE: 1079.46 miles> > >
To view your map, click on the link below or copy and paste> it to your browser: > http://www.mapquest.com/mq/3-hUBEfGzFUoKq



Booking #44J0W7
needed:
1)Velcro for Sat Radio
2)Get Regulator checked
3)Binoculars?
4)

Flying Circus Wrap Up

The drive home was good. I had a massive cold front following off my left shoulder all the way from Albuquerque. At one point the shadow from the leading edge was playing tag with the truck and we were doing 80 mph! Fortunately it stalled at Raton and I never had to deal with icy roads.
The Arizona Flying Circus was great....frustrating but great. Lots of vendors including ParaToys who would never have been welcome or inclined to attend under Bob's ownership. Nirvana and Paradrenaline were there and their "factory Pilots" put on a great demonstration of flying in ratty air and high winds.
I spent most of my time dealing with equipment issues. The first morning was the most heart breaking because I walked off the field when the battery died. It was two days later that I realized that all I had to do was use the pull start. Doh !
The new cage arrived on Friday afternoon and I spent the afternoon working with Bob Pelloquin to get it assembled and mounted on the frame. As fate would have it there was a crowd of luminaries standing around when it was time to fire it up. Sure Nuff there was a prop strike and one of the tips was damaged. That evening after dinner with Jim King and a couple of other pilots I sat in the hotel room and replaced the blade with one that Johnny Fetz had repaired while at the Salton Sea.
The IVO Prop is an amazing design that enables you to adjust the pitch of all three blades simultaneously by turning a bolt in the hub. Counterclockwise to increase pitch and clockwise to reduce pitch. I had to take it apart and assemble it twice before I got it right but that seems par for the course for me at this fly-in.
The next morning I attempted a launch but the wind picked up and I didn't react fast enough when the wing pulled me backwards. The buggy rolled to the left and I was forced to kill the engine and abort. Jeff Goin was filming so he was able to brief me on what the wing did. I'm going to have to increase the tension on the steering bungees so that it rolls straight. While I was out there a pilot asked me to start the machine so that he could hear it. Right away it was obvious that the prop was badly out of balance.
The rest of the day I spent working on the machine. Bob and I did some creative bending to increase the clearance and Kent helped me out with shortening the blades by 2 inches. I was wary of making the cut but Kent dug in and they are looking good and well balanced now.
Saturday afternoon was the Bowling Ball Cannon and later the Banquet. It's all Good.

#259 and Carnage at the Sea

hLast flight of the Simo

It was a normal launch in every way...Until... I looked up to check the lines and sure enough there was a great big twig twisted into the A lines. It was deforming the leading edge near the center of the wing and I decided right then to get down so I flew over the field and the scrub that borders the north edge and set down in the first sandy patch available. Up to this point it was a non event, I had plenty of clear space ahead and the surface was soft but not too soft... so I set up for another launch. The wing inflated and the taxi was going fine until the sand got allot softer and the buggy sunk in to the mixture of sand and shells. Instead of killing the engine and aborting I added power and a split second later heard a loud crack.

Some lines were cut, the prop was broken, both of the top pieces of the cage were bent and the frame broke at the top motor mount. It's hard to believe that a line in the hub could do so much damage.

I was hugely bummed to say the least. Grounded and there was still 6 days of flying ahead!

#243 #244 El Mirage #245 Salton Sea

2 flights in the morning then packing for Salton Sea

One at the sea

El Mirage #239 #240 #241 #242

2 Solo before Chad showed up
2 With Bob Palaquin and Chad

El Mirage The Flying J Ranch

#238

After visiting with Saundra Painter in Santa Barbara I drove out to El Mirage and waited for the wind to die. I'm camping at a small private airstrip that caters to ultra light Delta Trikes. They have a Quonset hut hanger with 6 trikes and several shipping containers where guys like Chad are storing their equipment. To the south east there is another facility where they are assembling and test flying the Predator unmanned vehicles for the military. All afternoon while I set up my camp there was a predator circling over the field. Its a very strange looking plane with the bulbous nose and lots of junk hanging down. The landing gear are on long sticks and the twin rudders are mounted below the fuselage. At the right angle when you cannot see the wings it looks like an insect...more like a grasshopper that a plane flying at 800 feet.

About 40 minutes before sundown the wind dropped and I went up for a test flight. Beautiful smooth air ! While I had the chance I practiced spot landings and several times I was able to touch down within a few feet of my wing bag.

I climbed to 100o feet and chased the sun. The dry lake is partly full but even so there was only a couple of inches of water. It's less than a mile from the airstrip and a wonderful place to practice the low and slow, there are miles in all directions without a post or obstruction of any kind. 8/10 of a mile to the south west is a small uprising (probably 1000 elevation climb)called Grey Mountain. I climbed until I was even with the top and watched the sun set. When the shadows disappeared I cut power and descended to the LZ.

It got cold quickly and rather than try to heat up a can of soup I drove to the edge of the closest town and had a burger. Back at the tent I listened to the IPod and spent a very cold night in the desert.

I

Salton Sea 2009

#236 & #237

My brother in law picked me up at the Tucson airport and I was off to the coast! The wind was forecast to blow in Maracopa and Glamis so I drove straight through to the Salton Sea. Depending on if I got a call back from Michael Purdy I was planning to fly either San Diego or the Sea. The only place to stay near Salton City was a very rundown fishing camp full of illegals...I backed the truck up to the door and hoped for the best. The next morning I was at the new site as the sun was coming up ready to fly. There were already 5 or 6 vehicles in the dry camping area, looks like I'm not the only one want to get there early. I met Jim who is Michael Purdy's brother in law.

I got in a couple of flights to test the air. Radical changes in air temp with some minor bumps. The field isn't very well groomed with lots of twigs and medium to large rocks. It's a little early to start criticising but I have the feeling that this site is not going to be the paradise that the "Dome Site" was. The coast to the right of the LZ is clear for about half a mile and to the left there are some abandoned buildings and wires to watch for.

Tucson #230 #231 Wheeley Casters

The left side is lifting sooner than the right

Marana LZ
Higher winds gave me the excuse to try out the wheeley casters. I put the trimmers out and the wing came up quickly without pulling me back. It probably also helped that the surface was hard and smooth. One thing I noticed from viewing the video was that the left wheel lifted before the front.. I never felt like I was in danger of rolling but it is something to be aware of and possibly corrected before launching with the trimmers out. At the least I should hang the tool bag back on the left side. So while I wasn't able to see how the casters worked on launch I did get the impression that they were touching during the run out. On landing I felt them again but no problem.

First flight was about 30 minutes, I stayed in the general vicinity of the LZ and tried to get the feel of the area. Mostly farm flying but to the west there is a river that goes north. Scott Nicoles took that route and I wish I had gone with him. I was not able to be there when he returned because Mike Levine and I had to get back for dinner with the whole family.

The second flight was a quickie, I had to abort the first launch because the left brake line was twisted and I could feel the pulley wasn't rolling free....landing was sweet with the motor off...I flared at the last second and bled off the energy at just a couple of inches AGL.

2009 Road Trip Prep

Winter Fly In Prep

Coordinate with Ray NAMM DONE
Coordinate with Mo Service day process
Coordinate with Chad Santa Barbara Flying process
Coordinate with Saundra Santa Barbara process
Coordinate with Michelle Wing Inspection DONE
Coordinate with Mike Levin Truck storage DONE

Order Parts from Southern Skies DONE

Coordinate with Michael Purdy process

Airline tix DONE

Service / maintenance / Parts
Problems
1. Alternator does not seem to be charging the battery.
2. Electric Starter (Bendix) chews up the Starter Sprocket
3. No master kill switch
4. Seems hard to start with the pull cord
5. Tiny Tach does not read accuratly at low RPMs

Service Jobs...
1. New Rings
2. Install Temp Gauges

Parts...
New Starter Sprocket
rings and any other parts need to rebuild the Simonini
kill switch parts
cht & egt gauge

all bearings that are recomended for replacement by 400
get additional jets for high low and mid ranges
inspect wings
new belt
new plug
broken spade connection


Airline tickets
PPG sites around Tucson


Fly-in registrations

Flight #182 & #183 Saint George Utah

Saint George Utah

Mark Lanthum hosted my flights. We met in front of the Motel district a little after 5am and I followed him out to the field. We had to take the back way (lots of country back roads) because they are working on the main water line. Thanks to GPS tracks I'll be able to find it again because I was blindly following his tail lights most of the time.

The LZ is a big open area with lots of hard pack earth. Off to the NW about a half mile is an old landing strip that has been taken over by the local RC club. I did a short flight to check the 155 jet. After 15 minutes I landed and checked the plug. Thinking it was a little hot I tried the 160 and 165 which made the motor run terribly. So back to the 155 and it ran great for the 45 minute flight that followed. This is a great place. beautiful vistas and a huge area to practice the "low and slow.

147th Monument Valley First Time

To Awesome for words

The Desert Turtle

Drove straight through to Monument because it was blowing like hell in Glenwood ... Grand Junction... and Moab.

Gouldings Village is a wonderful place to base a fly in. Everything you might need Hotel...Campground ... RV Park...Gas Station Grocery Store Restaurant Hotel. And...Best of all the is a private airstrip with the only traffic being a couple of tourist flights mid morning.

#147 May 29th 2008

Blew first launch...Second was fine, flew an exploratory flight until I got cold and landed on the strip. 45 minutes

#148 May 30th 2008

My first and I hope my last turtle. I watched it blow most of the day. Not bad , about 10 kts and gusty. At 4pm I gave John Fetz a call and talked about the best way to fly this area. What to watch out for and how to avoid the dirty air on the lee side of the monuments. He told me of the time he landed on a monument and flew off. "one of the proudest days of his life". He didn't say anything new but it was good to talk it out with an experienced guy. Stay away from the lee side or stay 100 feet over the tops. He advised me to wait till the "magic Hour"...one hour prior to sunset and the fly till you just have enough light to land.

I didn't...2 hours before sunset I was out there with a photographer who is camping close by. The wind was up ... I kited a bit and decided to go for it. Big mistake... The wing came up hard and fast. I damped the surge and when it fell back it pulled me right over. Luckily I was able to kill the motor and there was no damage other than a few scratches on the prop.

I flew for 50 minutes and returned to the field. I did a couple of touch and go landings because it was so nice I really didn't want to quit.

#150

May 31st 2008

Best Flight So Far !

Stayed in bed a little longer and noticed the photographer dude had already gone. It was a Nil wind launch so I lined up on the runway and tried to see how fast I could go before lifting off. Wow ! It's easy to be spoiled by a smooth surface. I could feel the wing loading up and the pressure on the brakes was a nice firm touch. I could go into a hard clean turn as soon as my wheels left the ground.

I flew out past the welcome center and into the valley itself. Since I had taken a jeep ride the day before with a Navajo kid I knew where I was going and ...Well....the pictures tell the story.

Lake Havasu

We drove 3 hours north to Lake Havasue City and the next morning, hooked-up with Johnny Fetz at the LHC Airport. John Fetz is legend in the PPG community, 65 years old, and a lifelong pilot he is a hard man to miss, over six foot and barrel chested with his long silver blond hair tied in a pony tail that goes well down his back. This year during the Alan Chuculate Style Competition at Paratoys, John was decked out in a blue lycra skin suit topped of with a 4-color ball cap complete with a propeller. His flying skills are unmatched and he is welcome anywhere pilots gather. In addition to being an aviation expert, John is famous for being able to repair badly damaged propellers of all kinds and he has a good side business fixing props for pilots all over the country.

John cruising Lake Havasue shore

London Bridge

There were seven of us who had come up from the Paratoys Fly-in; all were seasoned pilots except me. The air was light, no more than 2 knots, but it was shifting on an 180˚ arc, forcing us to either wait for it to cycle back around or reset our wings. Flying his trike, Doug was the first to go up, quickly followed by everybody else. Johnny was amazing, when he was ready to go, the wind had shifted 90˚ away from his take off heading, instead of unhooking and resetting the wing, he simply took several steps to the right and blew the wing into position with his motor. I, on the other hand, was having trouble with my motor, it was either the change in altitude or problems with the carburetor but in order to stand up after getting into the harness I had to bend forward and that’s when the motor would die. Finally, after climbing into and out of my harness three times to restart the motor I was able to stand without killing it. However the wind had shifted during my struggles, and when I started my run it was with a tail wind and the wing collapsed immediately. I stood on the runway hugely frustrated and wishing I had 200 flights under my belt and the ability to take off as easily as my mates. I decided that enough was enough and with great disappointment proceeded to put my equipment away.

The guys had been up for 30 minutes and were on undoubtedly the most scenic flight of the trip. By now they would have flown over The London Bridge and would be exploring the shores of Lake Havasu. At forty-five minutes the wind started to get gusty. It was blowing strong from the north when Doug landed and the gusts were increasing with each cycle. Doug and I searched the horizon and saw no sign of the others. At fifty minutes I spotted a couple of wings approaching from the lake. They were both at about 1000ft AGL but began to descend immediately. In no time at all they were down behind the horizon, we assumed on the ground. Only two others got back to the LZ that day. The first was Johnny Fetz who came in flying around, over and sometimes in between the cactus. The fifteen knot headwind didn’t seem to faze him at all. Once he was alongside us, he popped over the airport fence dropped back down and crabbed sideways over to his truck. I was afraid the wind would turtle him on landing but he dropped the wing to one side and quickly gathered it in. Joel also did a great job landing. He kept his trimmers out and approached low to the ground. When he got close he hovered 5 feet up with the motor running at probably ½ throttle. It’s not often you get to see a pilots face while in flight but he hung there for probably 10 seconds and it was obvious from his look that he was focused on keeping it all together. Modulating the throttle and brakes to keep from flying backwards, he was able to set down and collapse the wing without being pulled over. It was very active piloting at its best …up close and personal.
Brian said that the gust fronts came up very quickly and he was alternating between tremendous lift and sinking at 250 feet per minute. He and the others dropped into the desert where ever they were, as fast as they could. It took an hour or so to round everybody up but once again no harm to man or machine. We laughed and joked about the dramatic change in the weather and got back on the road.
Looking back it was probably a good thing I wasn’t able to launch. More than likely, I would have been at a much higher altitude than the others when the wind front came through and who knows if I would have been able to get back down safely with my limited experience. It’s true when they say, “it’s better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground”.

First Salton Sea Fly-In

Salton Sea

I’m told the Salton Sea is the largest inland body of water in California. It’s certainly one of the most toxic. They say it will eat the gel coat off a boat hull in a week and I believe it. Not good for boating or fishing, no seaside sunbathers or palatial summer homes. There is only one thing the Salton Sea is good for and that’s …Flying.

Smooth laminar off shore breezes make it one of the premiere PPG sites in America and every February, pilots from all over the world come together to attend the Paratoys Fly-In. With four flights under my belt I figured I was ready and joined up with Brian, Doug and John Sieb to convoy down for the “Big Fly-in”. I was excited to meet all the guys I’d been listening to on the Internet podcasts and looking forward to the easy takeoffs we would have in the thick air two hundred feet below sea level. The plan was to drive to Albuquerque, fly that evening, campout and fly again in the morning. Then go southwest to the meteor crater in Arizona and fly it the second night. The next day we would push on to the Salton Sea hoping to get there in time for an evening flight.

Somewhere by Pueblo we hooked up with Ranger Bo. Ranger Bo is a hoot. Six-foot plus with a perpetual grin. He wears a ‘ZZ Top’ styled beard has unruly long hair and wild man eyes. Bo radiates good will, he is the kind of guy that the first minute you meet, you just know, here is guy who will give you the shirt off his back and be a friend for life. Bo had hung up his spurs after twenty years as an army paratrooper and later as a member of the elite group called rangers. He moved to Colorado with his German bride and was planning to live the rest of his life spending his pension and enjoying himself. I liked the guy immediately.
Bo flew the Airfer which was a beautiful paramotor with lots of chrome and anodized blue aluminum and he kept it clean and polished just as you expect an ex-ranger to do. He was the first pilot I’d met with a logoed wing, his said,’ RANGER BO’, in big block letters across the bottom. Gotta love it!


The Albuquerque site was on the top of a small ridge overlooking the high desert plain with a midsize Butte about 3 miles west. When we got there Brian and Bo immediately suited up and went for a flight. The terrain was very rocky with lots of scrub, but I’d seen how Brian was able to run around or jump most of the obstructions and I figured that if I was careful so could I. Wrong…After three attempts in the light air, I had only succeeded in twisting my knee and tangling my lines. Either I stumbled and dropped to one knee or failed to get a good inflation. Try as I might, I could not get enough forward speed for take-off. I knew that if I really torqued the knee, I would be grounded for the rest of the trip, so I decided to quit and save myself for an easier launch site. My knee seemed ok but it was starting to swell and I knew I would be limping in the morning. I put on the knee brace and hoped for the best.

Doug also tried to launch but crashed his trike when he caught a line in a bush just as he started to lift off. Luckily he wasn’t hurt but; he did break a prop, cut one of the glider’s lines and shattered his airbox. He was able to splice the broken line with some scrap Bo had and get the wing flyable. The propeller wasn’t a problem because we all carried an extra prop but the airbox was totaled and his only hope was to find a replacement at the fly-in. While Doug and I were struggling on the ground Brian, John and Bo were exploring the territory and generally doing what every 12 year old boy dreams about. I’ll never forget Brian’s landing. He wanted to get in close but misjudged his approach and was about to crash into the trucks. Only by pulling some early brake and extreme athleticism at touch down was he able to pull off a two-point landing that flew him over one truck and dropped him between the two other vehicles. Of course he laughed off the whole thing but we both knew he had dodged a bullet. That night we sat in Brian’s pop up camper ate, drank and told hanger stories until it was time for bed.

High altitude and clear skies made for a very cold sunrise. Since I wasn’t going to try another launch at this site, I decided to sleep in. When I finally crawled out of the sleeping bag and went outside I was treated to a great view of a really spectacular flight. John Sieb was making an aerial assault on the Butte. Because we had camped up high on the ridge, the terrain between us and the butte was several hundred feet down and John was flying close to the ground. You could see him weaving through the sparse trees on the plain below. Sometimes he would swing around a clump of trees other times he would pop over them. I watched with envy as he approached the Butte and climbed until he was able to circle the top. What a sport, able to navigate in three dimensions, without going swimming! He had been in the air for a couple of hours when he returned and you could tell from his demeanor, that it had been a special flight. Sometimes when a pilot lands he is so excited that he can barely contain himself, often hooping and hollering is the norm. This time was a little different because John quietly gathered up his wing and packed his motor in the truck. When I asked him about it later, he looked off in the distance and just smiled. I guess you just had to be there.



The drive from Albuquerque to Meteor City Arizona took us most of the day. Meteor City itself is nothing special, a trailer park and gas station with genuine imitation Indian handicrafts made in China. The crater is not part of the State or Federal Park system so we were not allowed to approach unless we wanted to join a tour and follow their guides around. We had arrived in plenty of time for a flight so John and Brian took off and explored the area. Doug’s motor was out of commission and my knee had stiffened up so we had to content ourselves with watching and wishing. The crater is a couple of miles south of the highway, from a distance it looks like a ridge, once again nothing special. I do want to come back here and try again because the pictures John brought back were pretty cool and there is a ruin on the way out that I would like to investigate. John misjudged his fuel landing short and out of gas. I was impressed though because he recognized the problem early and while he was still out by the crater climbed to a high enough altitude that he was able to glide most of the way back toward the LZ.


It was blowing pretty hard the next morning so we didn’t waste anytime getting on the road. Several hours later we were on the final leg, approaching the Salton Sea when for no obvious reason, Doug’s truck broke down. We called for a tow and left Doug at the truck to wait, while the rest of us jumped into Brian’s rig and drove the last couple of miles to the Fly-in.
I saw the gliders off in the distance, there were dozens of them in the air, all going nowhere slowly. As soon as we had checked in, John and Brian carried their machines down to the beach and took off. I was limping pretty badly and opted to rest my knee until the next morning. That night Brian introduced me around and I wandered up to the “clubhouse” where I met Tim Russman, the photographer/videographer emeritus for Powered Paragliding. Tim is responsible for ninety percent of the PPG movies available. I had seen just about everything he had done so we had plenty to talk about. I also met Bob Peters, (a.k.a. Bubba), who had come out with his wife and a large group from the Pikes Peak PPG Club. I declined to join their sing-a-along but stayed around to enjoy the music. It was early to bed and early to rise because I was determined that the next day I would be flying!