When I was building my airplanes, I always wished that I could somehow use my gifts in aviation for the Lord. I wanted to fly in the missions field. But the guys that do usually have tons of flight hours and sponsorship. I gave up on ever being able to fly for Christ.
However, I got an email this week that really encouraged me. The email was from a missionary who is getting ready to purchase my old Rans S6ES. This plane was badly damaged in a landing accident in the Sierra foothills. I was trying to sell the plane anyway so it wasn’t too much of a disappointment. The missionary was wanting confirmation that the plane he was going to buy really was my old airplane. After sending me a few pictures I was able to positively confirm it was my airplane. The outside looks completely different but the panel is just as I had built it.
Even though I will never fly the mission field it’s good to know that I contributed to Christ’s Kingdom in some small way.
I won’t fly in the missions field but my airplane will! Soli Deo Gloria!
Well, a mere one week after our first Harvest Host stay at Klinker Brick Winery in Lodi we stayed at another winery. This time we stay in Merced at Vista Ranch and Cellars. My brother was going to be staying the night after we did. I would have liked to have stayed the same night but I had work the next day. So we spent a nice afternoon walking around the vineyard and orchards, dodging the bees who where busy doing their jobs, and just enjoying the break from the rain. We stopped by the tasting room but since I don’t drink, I had a bowl of lobster bisque. It was delicious! Cristy tasted some sparkling wine and bought something in the gift shop as a thank you for being able to stay in such a beautiful location.
Most Harvest Host locations are boondocking only, meaning, there are no facilities available. You bring your own power and plumbing. This winery is different in that they provide three spaces that have water and 50 amp electric service. No sewer service or dump station is available. However, having electricity is AWESOME! And if I’d known they have water, I’d never have filled up my fresh water tank to save some weight.
We spent the evening reading and catching up on some TV shows I downloaded to our iPad. We heated up the soup she had brought and enjoyed a nice quiet dinner. Even though there was a high school dance going on at the event center also located on the winery grounds, it was still very peaceful
That is, until a train went by. And they go by very often. There is a very busy stretch of railroad right on the other side of the street. At times during the night it sounded like some of the trains were going to come right through our trailer! But I fell right back asleep each time.
The next day we slept in. I cooked some eggs for breakfast, and then we watched our church live on their website. Just as church was ending my brother and his wife showed up. We caught up a little, gave them the grand tour of our little Lance, and then headed back up to the visitor center to have some lunch together. After some great conversation I had to start packing up. Amazed that three hours could pass so quickly.
It was really nice catching up with my brother and just enjoying a quiet getaway to Vista Ranch. We will definitely be back soon!
Had a fantastic afternoon today. The winds were calm and there was a high overcast layer meaning there would be no thermal activity today. Temperature was about 60 degrees. It was perfect flying weather.
My wife wanted to get out of the house so she tagged along. She packed some water and some snacks and her book and she just chilled in the truck while I flew around. At one point she came out and took some pictures of me while I was flying around. I flew in circles around her a few times and then flew out to look for coyotes and jackrabbits.
“Cristy, you look like an ant from up here!”
Finally here is some video I shot during the flight. Enjoy!
This past Saturday I towed my powered parachute out to Oakdale Municipal Airport for our EAA Chapter 90 meeting. The plan was merely to give the trailer an extensive road test. However, once I arrived at Oakdale the conditions were perfect for a PPC flight. As I had not flown for over 3 months I jumped at the chance to give it a go.
After warming up I taxied down to the blastway on the runway 10 end of the field. This would be the extreme west end. I laid out my chute and strapped in. Moments later as I advanced the throttle and lurched forward I noticed that a small crowd had gathered to watch me fly. I’ve flown out of that field probably more times in 26 years than most of the other club members. Now that I fly out of New Jerusalem so much it’s kind of a rare event to see me flying there. There were plenty of cameras to gather documentary evidence. My friend Les Homan was kind enough to supply the following pictures and video.
First the takeoff…
And the landing…
It felt very good to fly the pattern at Oakdale again. As well as catch up with old friends.
So recently I sold the cargo trailer that I used to haul my powered parachute around. It was nice in that it had lots of storage and was convenient to sleep in when I went to fly-ins but it was a bear to tow. Because of its high profile it was very susceptible to wind and the faster I drove, the worse my gas mileage got due to the wind resistence of the trailer.
To remedy this I purchased and built up a Harbor Freight trailer. I built it pretty much standard as it comes out of the box. I put a 3/4 inch plywood deck on the top of it and then got it registered and licensed. As a side note there was a problem registering Harbor Freight trailers for a short while but that issue has been straightened out. Registration was pretty easy though a little time consuming. The process is basically:
Complete an Application for Title of Registration (Form REG 343). This is available for download from the California DMV website.
Bring the form along with the trailer’s title California DMV office. Harbor Freight will give you a title when they sell the trailer kit to you.
Bring documentation of sale price of the trailer (the receipt from Harbor Freight)
I suggest making a reservation at the DMV office rather than just showing up. You’ll still have to wait but it won’t be as long a wait. Once it was my turn, they checked out the trailer (mostly just making sure the VIN number matched what was on the paperwork) and then handed me the license plates before I even left the office. The official registration was mailed to me later.
Since the trailer is too narrow for the wheelbase of the PPC, I added some outriggers on the rear of the trailer and cut a section from a loading ramp and bolted it across the outriggers. This became the platform for the rear wheels. I mounted it upside down to keep the wheels from sliding off the edges. I also placed a heavy duty floor mat on this platform to keep the metal from cutting into the PPC’s tires. The remainder of the cut up loading ramps were used as… you guessed it… loading ramps. They will be finished off with ATV straps (not shown in these photos) that will hold the tires down on the platforms.
My PPC isn’t all that heavy but pulling it up the ramps has to be done slowly and carefully so that the wheels don’t fall off the sides of the ramps. To make that a more precise operation I mounted a winch in the front of the trailer. It is remotely operated so I can stand in front of the PPC and guide it carefully onto the trailer while the winch does the pulling. I also added a battery to operate the winch rather than run it off my truck power. I’ll just put the battery on a charger every month or so and it should be fine.
Now I just have to wait for the weather to clear up so I can give the trailer a test and drive it out to New Jerusalem and do some flying!
Here’s a bonus video of me describing the trailer.
I finally got to return to the High Sierra Fly-in this year after missing last year due to having my parachute repaired and inspected. The High Sierra Fly-in or HSF was started by a group of guys who liked to land their airplanes at off airport airstrips and in out of the way places. I joined them a few years in my Rans S6ES. That was why I built it in the first place. Even after I had exchanged my fixed wing for my powered paraglider I still went to HSF. This year will probably be my last but I’ll get to that later.
HSF is held on Flanagan Dry Lake which we call Dead Cow Lake. That’s because the first time our organizer, Kevin Quinn, landed there he came across a dead cow and so the place was called that. Dead Cow is roughly 2 miles wide by 4 miles long. It has lots of room to maneuver and park airplanes. Lots of camping space too. A few of our group purchased property on the northwest shoreline of the dry lake and this is where we camp. The rest of the lakebed is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is open to the public for recreational use.
I left on Thursday morning and made the 5 hour drive to Dead Cow. I took the long way which is on mostly paved roads. There is a shorter route that is pretty heavily washboarded and rutted. I elected to spare my trailer this abuse. It was only about 30 minutes longer to drive the northern route anyway.
The last part of the drive was across deeply rutted roads piled almost a foot deep of fine dust the consistency of talcum powder. I was really nervous about this last portion of the drive even though it’s only two miles or so. My truck doesn’t have 4 wheel drive so I was a little concerned about getting stuck but the truck, even pulling a cargo trailer, did just fine and I made it out on the the playa of the lakebed. The lakebed itself is as hard as concrete and almost as smooth.
I drove around a while looking for familiar faces or a good place to camp. I finally ran across some other PPC’ers at the extreme southern end of the camping area. There was a small “bay” in the dry lake that was a perfect place to launch PPCs. I pulled in next to them and set up camp.
I got done just as the sun was about to set. My windsock indicated that there was ZERO wind and it was 73 degrees. Perfect time to go fly. So the evening I arrived I got to take my first flight at HSF 2018. It was about as perfect a flight as you can get. The only problem I had was I had to run full throttle to stay airborne. After landing I realized I hadn’t changed the mixture in the carburetor but I was now operating at 4000 feet above sea level. I changed to a leaner jet in the carburetor and this seemed to solve my problem.
I flew for a short time with one of the guys I was camped next to, Ryan. He has the exact same PPC as I do, a Six Chuter P3 Lite. (sorry for the blurry photo)
After landing and putting my parachute away I broke out an MRE, heated it up, and had a nice dinner under the stars. There were no clouds and only a half moon so the stars were pretty bright. I had my propane heater on the ground in front of me keeping me warm since temperatures in the desert drop rapidly after the sun goes down. That’s no joke. It was 73 degrees at sunset, by sunrise the next morning it was only 23 degrees!
At sunrise I got up and took care of business. I saw Ryan getting his P3 ready so I decided to go fly too. It was around 8:00am by this time and it had warmed up to about 35 degrees. I had my thermal layer on, a thick fleece, my North Face jacket, and some ski pants on and they were just enough to keep me warm while flying. My nose was freezing though! 35 degrees air temperature and a 35 MPH wind equals about 20 degrees with the wind chill factor. Still it was another great flight. So great that I flew 3 more times that morning! I made several passes over the main part of the camping area to the north. Even though the even did not begin until Saturday, it’s amazing how many planes and campers were already there Friday morning!
All in all on Friday I flew 5 times, two more times in the evening plus the three flights that morning. Here’s a short clip of me flying over the campsites.
I didn’t stay for the entire event however. As Saturday morning progressed more and more airplanes arrived and there was more and more activity over the lakebed. I didn’t feel safe flying my parachute in the area any longer. There were a few other guys there with PPCs but they tended not to wait around for me. I didn’t want to fly alone away from the lakebed very far and I didn’t feel safe flying in the lakebed so I decided to pack it up and head home.
The most worrisome part of getting home was the access road to the lakebed. It was full of that deep powder only this time I was driving uphill to get out. I was afraid my two-wheel drive pickup and cargo trailer would get stuck. However, they did just fine and I was soon out on the main road. Four hours later I was pulling in front of my house.
I really enjoyed this year’s High Sierra Fly in, however, I think this will be the last year I attend. For a few reasons. First and foremost, it is DUSTY! The alkali dust doesn’t bother me too much but I worry about what it does to my machine and parachute. I intend to clean both but still… it’s not good for the machine. The second reason I’m not returning is the same thing that makes the event so awesome… the sheer number of aircraft attending. It’s a crazy awesome mix of Oshkosh and Burning Man. I know a lot of pilots bristle when I say that but that’s exactly what it is. The more aircraft that attend the more chance we have of attracting those who don’t operate their aircraft as safely as we do. If I had a fixed wing airplane still I wouldn’t hesitate to go, however, my slow plodding PPC just doesn’t mix well with the other aircraft. Could it be done safely? Yes. Is it worth the risk? Not to me. Not at this point in my life.
We finish old chapters and start new chapters in life. Doors close. Doors open. It’s not like I’m giving up flying. There are still some really nice (and smaller) fly ins closer to home that are more conducive to my type of flying. I’ll stick to these from now on. I wish the organizers of the High Sierra Fly in all the best and sincerely hope everyone operates as safely as possible.
I’ve taken the latter part of this week off from work. I definitely need it. The pas few days I’ve been doing my best to practice for retirement. Though as you can see from my countdown ticker it’s still several years away. I got up before the sun each morning, hitch up my trailer and drove out to New Jerusalem Airport. Both days the air was smooth and nice. I guess the wind thought I was at work. The P3 performed flawlessly, the engine never stuttered or skipped a beat. Two days in a row I flew past a local elementary school and got the kids all excited. They were jumping up and down and waving. I waved back of course.
It’s a wonderful feeling to be just sitting up in the air in a comfortable chair watching all the commuters rush to work, watching food being harvested, watching life from above.
Yesterday I a local balloonist was out as well. It’s always fun to watch them set up and launch. It’s the only aircraft that is more trouble to set up than my own.
I’ll leave you with a few more photos of the past few days.
I’ve been flying my P3 more now that I have it up for sale. Or is it for sale? I was going to take it off the market and keep it but there has been a sudden interest in it from a few different parties. In fact, this caused some confusion on the part of the good folks at Six Chuter but all is well now. So if the sale falls through with these new folks, then I will OFFICIALLY take it off the market in every way shape and form and just sell the trailer. But know this potential buyers; it’s not going to sit and collect dust!
Here’s a video of this past Saturday’s flight. What a great morning!
It’s Labor Day weekend here in the USA. I’ve been blessed to be able to fly this morning and a wonderful flight it was! The air was cool and calm. I flew “feet off” meaning I didn’t have to do much steering; just point it in the direction I wanted to go and then rest my feet on the bars. Here is a quick video clip recapping this morning’s flight.
I’ll be back at it again tomorrow morning! Happy Labor Day!
Well, a mere one week after our first Harvest Host stay at 
So recently I sold the cargo trailer that I used to haul my powered parachute around. It was nice in that it had lots of storage and was convenient to sleep in when I went to fly-ins but it was a bear to tow. Because of its high profile it was very susceptible to wind and the faster I drove, the worse my gas mileage got due to the wind resistence of the trailer.
Air Prayer 