I’m not talking about the Denver Broncos, I’m talking about flying during the Super Bowl. I was the winner! No traffic on the road and thanks to a TFR (Temporary Flight Restriction) that came to within 2 miles of my airport, no traffic in the air either.  Weather was perfect, the airport was quiet, and the sky was calling.

I blew my first launch (takeoff):

But the second launch went much better.

After I got up there, it was beautiful.  Just flying around getting the feel for the controls still.  I’m getting more comfortable with it though.  I also did three touch and goes and kited down the runway for a short way.  Need to practice this more.

This weekend I added a piece of safety equipment to my Cruise Carbon trike.  A SkyFlar strobe purchased from Rodman Gomez of UFO Paramotors.   He also supplied a connector for the Nirvana accessory socket on my Rodeo Paramotor.   The kit went together pretty easily despite the spartan instruction pamphlet.  Rodman had already send me some info via Facebook so I was able to assemble it fairly easily.  I mounted the strobe at the top of my cage.  Other PPG pilots have pointed out that this may cause the lines to snag but really only on landing.  My reply is that the lines snag all over me on landing anyway so what’s one more snag spot?

I took a short video of the install and since a picture is worth a thousand words…

I finally got to try out a new LZ recently.  New Jerusalem is a small strip in the middle of farmland.  There are no services there, no buildings, no tie downs, just a runway in the middle of farmland.  The City of Tracy owns and operates this airport and recently built a fence around it.  I emailed their airport manager and she happily provided me with the code to the lock to get in.  Access to the gate is via a rural dirt road that is unmarked and unnamed.  Google Maps was able to help me find the road.

When I got the the wind was blowing at about 5 MPH almost straight down the runway.  There was a large paved area between the taxi way and the runway that proved to be a perfect place to set up and launch from.  It also allows you to meander onto the runway should you need to.  I pulled in and set up my windsock to start watching the wind.  I used the wind to “build a wall” with my glider and this also showed me how I should orient the glider into the wind.  Once that was set up and rolled my trike up and hooked up.  The wind caught my wing a couple of times but I was able to set it back up quickly.

I waited for a student to stop doing touch and goes before launching.  I almost blew the launch because my wing started oscillating from one side to the other.  I was able to dampen them fairly quickly by steering the trike under the wing and applying a little brake pressure.  Once the wing was stable I went full throttle and was climbing out.

I don’t know how much break in time these engines need so I stayed pretty close to the airport.  The highlight of the flight for me was flying over a house where a small girl saw me and started jumping up and down and waving madly.  I started kicking my legs and waving madly back!  This got mom’s attention who also started waving.  Nice!  I never would have seen that if I had been flying my airplane.

I was short on time and the sun was going down anyway so I turned back toward the runway and made an approach to the same spot I had taken off from.  As I cleared the fence I cut my power and just let it glide in.  I have to admit that’s my favorite part;  that quiet glide.  I did, in fact roll to a stop almost precisely where I started from.  With brakes full down I had only to take a couple of steps to roll my trike forward and have the wing come down behind me.  Most of the lines were in the line guides too!  I could have almost just fired the engine back up again.  The wind had completely stopped by now and just like I used to do in my fixed wing, I just sat and listened to the ambient noise for a few moments before unbuckling and packing up.

Yeah, I think I’ll be back.

So as you know I crashed my airplane.  The insurance company decided to total it when they found out what it would take to repair it.  I have since sold my hangar at Oakdale Airport as well so I have completely divested myself of Part 91 General Aviation.  It’s been a big part of my life until know.  It was not an easy decision.  A fact that is not lost on my wife.  She’s still in disbelief.

I have since used the money to pay off all our debts.  We are completely debt-free.  No mortgage, no car payments, no credit card payments.  No more consumer debt.  I also used the money to begin training and flying a new form of aircraft.  Something that I can put in the back of my mini-van.  I call it an airport-in-a-box.  I have taken up powered paragliding.

I went to Paradrenalin.com just north of Pheonix and trained with Ryan Shaw.  Within two days he had me flying alone.  The next day were touch and goes.  The next day was picking up the equipment I had purchased.

The most rewarding flight so far was the one at Franklin Field because I did everything on my own with no help setting up or judging the wind.  I still made some mistakes but I got into the air very quickly, about 75 feet for the takeoff run.  I’m still hunting for areas to fly (they call them LZs for landing zones).  But I’m sure that more and more will be added to the list!