Winds were forecast to be calm(ish) on Friday morning so I decided to try to get in a little flying before work.  I didn’t have much gas and I didn’t have much time but there was just enough of both for me to get in 4 circuits around the runway.  I was a little dubious about the visibility but again there was enough to fly safely.

I was up at 5am without the alarm.  I took that as a sign that I should go ahead and hitch up the trailer and head out to New Jerusalem.  I headed west out of town on a dark country road.  Then pulled into Friday commuter traffic on a dark country highway.  They are all driving to the San Francisco Bay Area.  I’m only driving to New Jerusalem.  No hurry.  They can all cut each other off and drive like lunatics.  I take my time.  Turned right onto another country road.  A short time later I turn on the the dirt farm road that leads to the gates of New Jerusalem.  No literally.  There is a fence around the New Jerusalem airport.  Luckily the good folks at the City of Tracy shared the combination to the lock so we can get in and enjoy this little gem of an airport.

I parked, put up the wind sock, unloaded the P3 and started the engine so it could warm up.  It was really chilly this morning.  It felt and looked more like winter than August.  I got into my ski pants while the engine warmed up.  I could just make out the sun as it started to rise.  The haze was really thing this morning.  A combination of smoke and fog.

After warming up the engine and doing a run-up I taxied the P3 about halfway down the taxiway and setup for takeoff.  There was  a light wind blowing but it was straight down the taxiway.  I started the take off roll, waited for the parachute to settle down, and then applied full throttle and gently started climbing skyward.

I flew about 4 circuits and the landed to pack up and head to work.  The rest of the story is pretty boring so I’ll just leave with a short video of a portion of today’s flight.

I took my P3 up for a quick flight this past Sunday morning.  Turned out to be a perfect morning and if I didn’t have to go to church I would have flown longer.  The smoke from all the wildfires we have here this year had backed off to the north and east and the air was crystal clear over New Jerusalem.  Just flew around for a bit to stretch my wings and set back down so that I could make it to church in time with my wife.  Made it home with 15 minutes to spare!

Here are a few photos and a video from the flight.

It’s official!  My Six Chuter P3 Lite is for sale.  The machine is running great.  I’ve really enjoyed flying it.  However, I’ve really been wanting a travel trailer to take my wife camping.  Now if I were made of money, I would just buy a travel trailer, no problem.  Since I am not, I will have to sell something to buy something.  This absolutely will NOT be the end of my flying career.  I will probably go back to a powered paraglider at some point.  But for now, in this season of life, we’re really looking to travel and camp.  And we don’t want to wait for “someday”.   You can check out my last blog post for that.

So all that out of the way here are the details:

Six Chuter P3 Lite and Continental Cargo trailer offered as a package: $13,000

I’ll link to the For Sale flyer here

Just so you know, I’m going to keep flying this little beastie until it sells.  It ain’t going to be sitting around collecting dust!

Lastly I just want to say what a great team Six Chuter is.  They have bent over backwards to help me with any issue that has cropped up.  Even if that issue was only in my head.  They provide EXCELLENT factory support and you couldn’t find a better bunch of guys and gals to deal with.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.