Author: The Flying Dutchman

I am a man who loves Christ, loves my wife, loves my family, loves my church, and loves aviation. In that order.

Picking Up The PPC

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Building, Six Chuter P3Leave a comment

I just returned from a 1674 mile round trip to pick up my PPC (powered parachute) in Wenatchee, WA.  They had the airframe done and the trailer ready (or so I thought, more on that later.)  The trip was ultimately an beautiful and as it would turn out, adventurous drive.  I’m not eager to repeat it but one day when I have more time and my love is with me, it would be a great trip.

I began my trip first thing on Thursday morning.  My first day’s travels would take me from Modesto, CA up to Redmon, OR.  This was a pretty unremarkable drive.  I just kicked back, turned on the cruise control and enjoyed the sites.

About 9 hours later I arrived at an unremarkable Motel 6 in Redmond, OR.  I was pretty beat so I didn’t do much other than take a shower, order a pizza, and veg for the rest of the night.  Didn’t get much sleep.  I don’t normally get much sleep when I stay in a motel.  Pretty noisy.

Friday morning I jumped into the truck and started the drive up to Wenatchee, WA.  Lots of interesting sites along the way.

One of the more interesting sites along the way was a scale model of Stonehenge built to honor veterans of WWI.

I finally pulled into  Wenatchee around 2:30pm in the afternoon.  I got directions from Jacky of Six Chuter on how to find them and pulled in front of their hangar.  I finally made it!  Brief introductions were made as Jacky introduced herself, her dogs, and finally Tom, who basically does… whatever needs doing.  They showed me the rolling airframe,

They got the airframe and boxes of assorted goodies loaded up into the trailer and tied down for me.  All set!  Or so I thought.  Later in the day I was bored so I went back up to the airport.  Tom and Jacky had both left already.  I decided to practice hitching up the trailer and making sure the lights and brakes worked.  I hitched up, connected the 6 way plug (uh-oh) using the adapter they gave me.  Lights – check!  Now to raise the landing gear and check the brakes.  I started the truck and let it idle forward.  I moved the manual brake lever on my brake controller and… nothing.  Kept rolling.  Uh oh.

My brake controller was showing an error code; sb.  It looked like the number 56 but eventually I found out it meant battery short.  I did some research and found the number one cause was water in the connector.  I blew into the connector and sure enough water came out.  I finally got all the water out and connected it again.  No error code!  Good!  I checked the brakes again and… no brakes!  Bad!  I suspected my brake controller so I bought a new one at O’Reilly and wired it in.  Another brake test… nothing.

Dang.  I decided to give up for the night and sleep on it.

I drove up to the airport the next day and continued trying to figure out the problem.  Tom showed up shortly after and I explained my problem to him.  Tom was very apologetic and tried to help me test out the plug to the trailer all to no avail.  Tom drove me into town to find an RV repair place.  He knew about where it was but couldn’t remember the name so we just went out looking for it… and found it.    A guy named Buddy seemed to be in charge and told us that the sooner we got the trailer to him the sooner he’d know if he could fix it or not.

Tom and I hightailed it up to the airport and hooked the trailer up to my truck.  Tom told me to send him the bill and he would make it right.  I can’t express how helpful and gracious Tom was.

I got the trailer back down to A’s RV Repair and Buddy dug in with some testers and confirmed the brakes were not working.  He tore into the 6 way plug and found most of the wires had rusted out.  Only two wires were still intact.  “Just like I thought” he said.  He got a brand new 7 way plug and wired it up.  After a few tests he confirmed the brakes and lights were working and then even set up the gain (how much braking power is applied) on my brake controller.  All in all it took 30 minutes and cost just shy of $150.

If you are ever in East Wenatchee, WA and need some RV repairs, I cannot recommend A’s RV Repair highly enough!  Friendly, helpful, and fast!

The drive home was slightly less eventful thank goodness.  I took basically the same route back home.  Just followed US 97 south all the way to I-5.  Here are a few pictures from the trip.

After another overnight in Redmond and a 5 hour drive south I finally got home.  Now let the fun and games begin!

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Foul!

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Humor, OpinionLeave a comment

Saw this exchange on a news article comment feed…

Commentator 1: Homeless people need love too. (offensive comment deleted) when you live on the street and your hygiene is worse than my shih tzu’s?

Commentator 2: (More offensive comment deleted).   Also, apostrophe foul.

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Commentator 1: Ewww! Never! Yuck. But I do let the homeless pet my shi tzu. They love dogs and my dog doesn’t seem to mind them & if it brings them a moment of happiness or escape from their lives, then it’s worth it. Of course, my dog sniffs other dogs butts, so I’m sure my dog is enjoying the interaction 😊
Commentator 2:
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Second apostrophe foul. Keep this up and you and your dog will be ejected from the game.
😀
Don’t know why but the whole punctuation foul thing just really tickled my funny bone.  Have a great weekend y’all.

Airframe Done

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Building, Six Chuter P3Leave a comment

When I purchased my powered parachute it was purchased as a rolling airframe, meaning, it was completely assembled and on wheels except for the engine and instruments.  When I ordered it I asked for a few changes like thicker (turf) tires, and a front wheel brake.  Well the factory is finally done with the additions I asked for and it is ready for pickup.  Here are a few pictures that were posted in the company’s Facebook group…

I’ll be driving up to the factory to pick it up at the end of the month.  Stay tuned for more photos and the completion log.

 

Starter Install

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Building, Six Chuter P3Leave a comment

When I build aircraft I like to do one small thing a day.  This is what got me through the RV-4 build and the Rans S6 build.  So that’s what I did today.  Today’s task was to install the starter.  It’s not the final installation but just to plug the hole in the engine.

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Ultra-Prop Propeller Assembly

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Building, Six Chuter P3Leave a comment

I guess yesterday was really the start of the build log for the Six Chuter P3 Lite PPC but today was the first day I put something together.  I ordered a 4-bladed prop to provide a little more thrust to help offset the bigger tires and the weight they will add.  When the prop arrives it needs assembly.  The four blades have to be installed to the prop hub along with the blocks that set the pitch of the propeller.

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IMG_20170312_182700Assembly is super easy.  Put 8 bolts (with washers) through one of the prop hub halves, lay the pitch blocks in, lay the prop blades in, more pitch blocks, and then the other prop hub half.  Add 8 nylock nuts and washers and torque to 120 inch lbs.  Done!

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PPC Engine Unboxing

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Building, Six Chuter P3Leave a comment

I finally got around to unboxing the engine I received on Friday.  It was a pleasant distraction given the bad news I received this morning.  It is exciting in that I can see tangible proof that my powered parachute is almost ready for me to pick up and start assembling.  Luckly the folks at Six Chuter have already built the airframe up and it’s already on wheels.  So they’ve saved me a ton of work.

Here is the airframe… MY airfame. 🙂  It still has the small tires on it.  I’ve ordered turf tires for it which will be larger and make it safer to roll across rougher ground.  I’ll be driving up to the Six Chuter factory to pick it up in a few weeks.

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The two boxes I received contained the engine, the propeller, the muffler, and assorted engine doo-dads like the starter, starter solenoid, and assorted engine gauges.

I did a quick inventory and everything seems to be there.  I’ll have to do a more thorough inventory in the coming days.  Still it was fun seeing the first pieces of my new aircraft on my workbench.

Blue Skies and Light Winds

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Faith, Opinion1 Comment

This is not the post I wanted to write today.  I lost a very good friend today.  Leon was a huge part of our airport community and a very dear friend.  He always had a way of looking for the positives in a negative situation.  He has helped or offered to help me numerous times and was always there at the airport to talk to about my flying, life, and above all, Christ.

Leon was out flying his Challenger II airplane this morning when he collided with his own pickup truck upon landing and, tragically, died.  I would like to say that he died doing what he loved, but that would be overly trite and cliche.  What I will say instead is that he lived a full life.  A life of adventure and love and fellowship.  I take great comfort knowing that he is now more alive than he has ever been.

Our loss is Christ’s gain.  Blue skies, Leon.

PCC vs PPG What’s The Difference?

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Six Chuter P3Leave a comment

I’ve had a couple people ask me what’s the difference between what I’m flying now (PPG) and the new flying machine (PPC).  The major difference is the type of parachute used.  The powered parachute (PPC) has larger air inlets and has a shorter wing span.  The parachute is more square.   The trike that you ride in is also heavier.  The powered paraglider (PPG) has a longer, more elliptical shaped wing.  The trike is much lighter.  So why would I want something with a smaller wing and heavier?  The short answer is stability.  The heavier weight and stockier wing give the craft more stability in the air.  It is also less maneuverable but I’m okay with that.   The other features of the PPC that I am looking forward to is being able to steer with my feet rather than my hands.  Steering with rudders is something pilots are more used to.  And one of the features I’ll really like is the throttle; on a PPC it is a standard aircraft throttle.  On the PPG it is a hand throttle that must be held closed for the duration of your flight.  The PPC you just move the throttle to the desired position and leave it there.  This leaves your hands completely free.

Here’s a video of the exact model of PPC that I have purchased.

Powered Parachute Progress

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Six Chuter P3Leave a comment

I am told that my PPC will be ready some time around the middle of March.  I’ve made arrangements to drive up there at the end of March to pick it up.  Since it won’t fit on the trailer I have I bought another trailer.  The PPC manufacturer just happened to have one that belonged to a customer that the were trying to sell.  I went ahead and bought an enclosed cargo trailer.  It will not only serve as a hangar for my PPC but will also make a decent camper.

I’ll keep a portable heater and fold up bed on board to make it a mini-toy-hauler.  I’ll also need to add a battery so I can run the lights when it’s not connected to my truck.  I’ll eventually add solar charging for the batter at some point too.

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This will come in handy when flying from other fields.  There is a very active PPC group about an hour and a half north of where I live.  It doesn’t make sense to wake up really early and drive two hours just to fly.  This way I’ll be able to drive up the night before and camp in the trailer.