Category: Aviation

On “Not Waiting Until Someday”

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Opinion, RV Life, Six Chuter P32 Comments

One of the discussions my wife and I have from time to time is that we don’t want to wait until “someday” to do things.  Mainly travel and seeing the country.  I remember my parents having the same discussions except someday never came for my mother.  Mom and Dad got to travel a bit but didn’t get to see the country like they wanted.  I’m making plans for an early retirement but again, that’s someday.

To help bring someday a little closer I have come to a decision.  It’s not an easy one for me to make.  If you know me or have read this blog much you KNOW how big a part of my life aviation is.  For over 25 years aviation has been a part of who I am.  But it’s not a part of who my wife is.  And she’s an even bigger part of who I am.  I have decided to sell my powered parachute and trailer and begin the process of buying a smaller travel trailer that I can tow with my truck.  As much as I enjoy flying, I think I would enjoy weekend trips and camping with her even more.

I used to feel sorry for the pilots I knew that seemingly one day decided to just sell their airplane and buy a motorhome.  I couldn’t understand their motivations.  I remember declaring “I’ll never do that!”  Well… I’m ready to do that.  Now, this doesn’t mean we’ve given up our dream of big truck, big 5th wheel trailer to travel in full-time.  That will still happen… someday.  But for the here and now, we’ll settle for a somewhat smaller dream.

I just have to figure out how to break it to the guys at Six Chuter.  They have been wonderful at helping me through every issue I’ve encountered and all issues appear to be ironed out now.  Someone is going be buying themselves a wonderful machine!  I’ll be coming up with a “For Sale” post on this blog soon.

Powered Parachute Setup and Teardown

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

A friend has expressed interest in flying powered parachutes.  To help him understand the setup and tear down process I’ve created a couple of videos that illustrate this process.

In the above video, I made reference to deferring the flight until later.  Here is that flight, which I flew the next morning.

 

And here is the pack up procedure for the Six Chuter P3 Lite.

 

Wednesday Morning Pattern Work

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

I don’t have to report to work until 11am today so I decided to use my time wisely by getting in some pattern work this morning out at New Jerusalem.  I just spent a bunch of time going around and around the airport it was still a very relaxing break from work.  Enjoy!

Friday Update

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

Nothing much to report.  I snuck in a quick flight before work on Friday.  The winds for the weekend were forecast to be pretty stiff so Friday was my last chance.  Here is an unedited video of the flight if you’re interested.

 

On Saturday I just spent some time working on the PPC cart itself.  The strobe had stopped working so I repaired that.  It seems the wires came loose from the strobe switch.  That was a quick repair.  I also replaced a faulty CHT probe.  Another quick repair.  Now I just have to wait for another flyable day.

Memorial Day Flight

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

It’s been windy in the valley for weeks.  After enjoying a weekend flying at Red Hills I drove out to New Jerusalem on Memorial Day.  Conditions were PERFECT!  It was warm, there were no winds, and the air was buttery smooth.  I took off and flew up the San Joaquin River over the confluence of the Stanislaus.  Just enjoyed the morning.  No tweaking the engine, no working on technical skills, just enjoying the view.  I hope your Memorial Day was just as memorable.

And never, ever forget those who gave their lives for our country.

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Red Hills Fly-In 2018

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Six Chuter P3, TravelLeave a comment

I can’t believe another year has come and gone and we’ve had another Red Hills Fly-In!  The Red Hills Fly-In is held at Jack and Myrna Moyle’s Ranch, nicknamed Back To The Future Two Ranch because numerous scenes from the movie were filmed there.  When I had my airplane I would load it up with my camping gear and fly in.  Now that I have my powered parachute I load all my camping gear into my trailer and basically camp in the trailer.  The Moyles’ ranch is located in prime territory; completely surrounded by the Red Hills BLM Area of Critical Environmental Concern.  As such, no hunting or motorized vehicles are allowed in the area.  Other than the sawmill on the other side of highway 120 it is completely serene and peaceful… except for the airplane noise!

Most people fly in.

But others like me have to take the winding dirt road through the BLM land to get to the Moyles’ ranch.  But that’s really not a problem as it’s such a scenic drive.

Once there we pretty much just chill, relax, and catch up with old friends.  Many of us only see each other once a year but when we get together it’s as if no time has passed.  We talk and eat late into the evening and when the chill hits we keep talking and eating around the campfire.

This year was notable for me as it was the first time I had the confidence in my skills and ENGINE to fly my powered parachute from the field.  Well, and the wind was cooperating this year too.  My flights weren’t long because I’m still tweaking on the engine and learning to trust it.  But they were beautiful.  I’ve flown my fixed wing through the area for years but there’s something about seeing it from an open cockpit 300 feet up.  You can smell the smells and really see what you’re flying over.

Jordan Langley caught my take-off and landing on video.  He also got a great shot of Joey Meyers and I flying by in (very) loose formation.

All in all a VERY enjoyable weekend and I can’t wait to go back next year!

All Dialed In

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

I went for a quick flight this morning before work.  I have to say it was a really pleasant flight.   On my last flight the P3 was pulling to the right fairly strongly.  This morning’s flight was to try to figure out what was happening.  However, the right turning tendency was gone this morning.  I have to assume that the issue was either a stick stuck in a line or something wonky with one of my risers.  I laid the chute out slowly and carefully this morning and double-checked everything for tangles.  The air was calm, the engine was just purring, I made a few touch and goes and decided to call everything good.

My next opportunity to fly will be this weekend.  However, the weather doesn’t look as though it will be cooperating.  I might get to sneak a flight in on Sunday morning at a new location.  More about that when/if it actually happens.  For now, here is a short video from this morning’s flight.

P3 Light Final Tweaks

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

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My last flight on the P3 had me setting down early due to high cylinder head temperatures on my engine.  I called J-Bird and they made some suggestions.  This morning was the first non-windy day I had to go on a test flight so I headed out to New Jerusalem Airport just before church.

Happy to report that all went well.  CHT’s were well below where they were on the last flight.  I made several changes to the P3 to achieve this:

  • Change the prop pitch bocks to 13 degrees (they were at 12 degrees before)
  • Change the carburetor jet needle position.  The retainer clip is now 1 slot down from the top of the needle.  This causes the carb to run richer at midrange throttle settings.
  • Change the carburetor high jet to 360 from 370.

All these worked together to reduce the engine temps.  I also change the CG of my P3 by moving the retaining clips on the lift tubes from the bottom most position to the second set of holes up.  This allowed the P3 to ride closer to level and has also eliminated the left turning tendancy the cart had in flight.

Here is an abbreviated clip from this morning’s flight:

 

And here is a quick rundown of the P3’s status at this point:

 

CG Adjustments Part 1

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Six Chuter P32 Comments

I’m happy to report that I’ve lost enough weight that it is time to adjust the CG (Center of Gravity) on my Six Chuter P3 Lite Powered Parachute.   It was adjusted for max pilot weight.  I am nowhere near that weight.  Also, when I take off I noticed that the carriage swings on the pitch axis (nose to tail) on lift off.  Kind of like a teeter-totter effect.

So after checking the manual I adjusted the lift tubes for my current weight + 10 lbs.  The lift tubes are what the parachute risers are connected to.  If you extend them, you move the CG forward, if you retract them, you move the CG rearward; the lighter the pilot, the more forward you have to adjust the CG.  Six Chuter made this fairly easy by pre-drilling holes in the lift tubes through which you insert a pin.  The lift tubes are designed in a telescoping manner and you extend or reduce them to the proper measurement as called out in the manual for pilot weight.  Then insert a locking pin through the hole and the CG has been set.  The adjustment I made to the lift tubes ended up being extended them such that the pin was moved two holes in each tube.

This morning I drove out to New Jerusalem and gave it a test flight.  What I found was that the cart lifted off rear wheels first and the nose wheel was rolling on the ground.  Not by much but enough that I noticed it.  I immediately cut the power and landed again.  I had extended the tubes by too much.  Apparently I had underestimated the weight of all the gear I fly with, it’s obviously more than 10 lbs worth.

After landing I was still rolling and decided to try something.  I was about 1 quarter of the way down the runway and slowly pulled off to the extreme right of the runway, keeping my parachute centered overhead.  Then I slowly fed in left rudder bar and the chute started to sway to the left.  I entered an easy left turn and the chute returned overhead while I was still turning.  I steepened the turn and fed in more left rudder bar until I had done a 180 turn.  I relaxed the rudder input and as the parachute started to veer right I straightened out the turn and the chute returned overhead.  I was able to drive all the way back to my trailer like this.

Long time PPC guys will say “So what?  I do that all the time!!”

I say, “Good for you PPC guys!”  This was my first time being able to do a 180 on the runway and taxi back.  It felt pretty good to me.

After getting back to the trailer and putting the chute away I set about RE-adjusting the CG.  I shortened the riser tubes by one hole which SHOULD put the CG back about where I wanted it to be.  So the net effect will be that I only lengthened the tubes by 1 hole.  I’ll give it a test flight tomorrow morning and report back.

Here’s a short video from my POV…

Blackhawk Fly-In 2018

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Six Chuter P3, Travel2 Comments

This past weekend I attended the Blackhawk Flyin up in Valley Springs, CA.  The fly-in is put on by Blackhawk Paramotors.  They offer training and sales of powered paramotor equipment.  Normally the field is only open to their customers but once or twice a year they open it up to everyone.  This past weekend was their Spring fly-in.  I towed my PPC to work with me on Friday so that I could drive directly to the fly-in after work.

After work on Friday I drove up Highway 26 to Linden where I tanked up my truck and mixed up some fuel for my PPC.  I continued up to Blackhawk Ranch located on the south end of New Hogan Reservoir.  I pulled onto the field and found a spot on the northwest side of the field.  After parking I pulled my PPC out into the sun and started walking the field checking out all the other flying machines.  It was also fun to pause and watch the takeoffs and landings.  Some of them showed some very interesting…um… techniques.

 

I ran into some friends that I fly with at New Jerusalem and talked with them for a while.  Then I decided to cook dinner.

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Yes, I had a heaping helping of MRE’s for dinner.  If you don’t know what that means it’s “Meals, Ready To Eat.”  You either love them or hate them.  I think they are just fine.  You can store them for years, they don’t need refrigeration, and come with water-activated heater to heat the food up.  After dinner I watched the evening flights and after dark listened to the coyotes calling to each other around the valley.

The next morning I put on my thermal layers under my clothes and started warming up my PPC.  It was cold and dewy outside as taxied over to my selected launch spot.  I laid out my wing in the driest spot I could find.  There was no wind as I launched into the air.  The ground run was longer than I was used to  I was coming up on the end of the field so I kicked my rudder bars a couple of times to get off the ground.  When I relaxed my feet the PPC sunk back toward the ground.  So I held a little rudder in until I was climbing and then slowly let it out.  Climb rate was not stellar, I was just above the tree tops as I climbed out of the small valley.  After a few nerve wracking moments I was comfortably above the trees and climbing over the hills.

I tried to relax and just enjoy the scenery.  I’ve flown over this area for over 25 years but something about flying slow in a PPC give you time to notice details you’ve never seen before.  I spent about 45 minutes flying over the lake and rolling hills.

Given all the activity at the field I was a little nervous about the landing.  However, there really was no problem landing.  I just picked an area that no one was in and set down there.  I folded and stowed my parachute, put the PPC back at the trailer and then went to socialize some more.   I also took the opportunity to change my main carburetor jet to one size leaner.  I was hoping that this would give me a little better engine performance.  Given that the engine temps were so cool, my RPMs were so low (only 5900 rpm on climbout)  and my climb was so poor, I thought maybe the engine is running too rich.

After changing my main jet afternoon slowed down quiet a bit.  Kind of a lazy warm Spring day.  Spent the rest of the day napping, socializing, and then having dinner with the other pilots.  The fly-in organizers put on a dinner.   After dark I went back to my trailer and called it a night.

The next morning (Sunday) it was just as dewy as the previous morning.  Since I really didn’t feel good about my climb-out performance the previous day I decided to sit out the morning flight and just pack up.  I’d rather do my engine testing in friendlier terrain.  I said my goodbyes to everyone and headed for home.  Even though I only got one flight in I really enjoyed the weekend.  It was great to get off the grid, fly, and do nothing at all.