Hubert's on a Saturday

Chris, Travis, Bill, Scott and I headed to Hubert's for a Saturday night flight. Scott, Bill and Travis had never met Hubert, so they met a new flying friend and got to try a new field out. Thanks again Hubert!

I got there first, so I got into the air as they were setting up. This was some of the smoothest flying I've had in a long time. We had some storms off in the distance, so they made a nice backdrop for photos.

I got another 1.5 hours. This is one night I could have stayed up another 2 hours if I'd had the time, but the big fire ball in the sky was sinking fast.

What a day! Our friend Chip got married in the morning and by evening we were flying over 100 miles away!

On a seperate note... My friend Robert Laird, http://blogs.chron.com/lightflight/, loves to get tractor shots. I've tried to figure out what my "thing' is. I think it's shadows of me or other PPCs. I got a few on this flight.

I've also included some neat corn fields. I've been flying for most of my life and I'm still fascinated by fields. It's nice to see the patterns they create to avoid an object. Sometimes they just follow the contours, which I recently found out the government created this style of plowing after the Dust Bowl.

Hubert is setup and ready to go, Travis is warming up, Chris, Scott and Bill coming out.


Left to right, Travis, Chris, Hubert, Bill, Scott


Nice place for a picnic. (Shadow #1)


Hubert in the air as the rest are laying out below.

Hubert flying next to me. I was confused at first, Hubert and Travis both have a blue Powrachute Pegasus, with a Red, White, and Blue parachute, even striped the same! Notice the wingtip on Hubert's PPC here, it is white. Travis' is red.

Scott, Bill, Travis, & Chris, ready to go.

Chris has a long shadow this late in the day. (Shadow #2)

Hubert flying low. (Shadow #3)

Interesting Field

Chris flying over another cool field.

Chris dancing in front of the clouds.

There was a lot of radio work and hand signals for this one. Go down, no not that far down...

Notice the red wingtips.

Travis climbing with a minature Chris trying to catch up!

Travis going up.

Chris smoking it up.

Bill posing with the clouds. Can you feel how peaceful it was?

Bill flying over some nice fields.

Bill, it's a long and winding road ahead!

My shadow on some tall corn. (Shadow #4)

Scott flying along side of me. I didn't fly near Scott much, so not to many photos of him this time :-(

Plowing around the house!

Plowing around the phone poles.

My Shadow (Shadow #5)

A Robert Laird shot!

Hubert as the sun was setting.

Well, that was a lot of photos. Hopefully the weather holds out and I'll have more soon.

Jack

Memorial Day Flight

The weather has been good! I've been busy flying and not so much on blogging. Sorry!

Chris, Travis and I went to Bill's and met up with him and Chip. This was Travis' first time flying his new Powrachute Pegasus since we brought it back. It turned out when it was packed, the parachute had a twist. Chip, Bill and Chris were already in the air, and I quickly admitted I was no help for Travis, so I too was off and flying. Chip had high EGTs and had to land. Seems like deja vue... on my Blog for August 31, 2008, "Chip had to return as he was uncomfortable with his EGTs."

Anyway, Chip went over to help Travis and pretty soon Chris and Bill landed too and they got it all worked out. Travis got about 30 minutes of flight time after over an hour working on the wing. I flew 1.5 hours!

Bill flying low.

Friends! Travis, Bill, Chip, and Chris

My Shadow.

You can't see this from the ground!

Travis finally in the air.

Cabellas wasn't very crowed.

Travis dong T-N-Gs

Jack

Travis Got a New Toy!

Like many good plans, ours needed a revision, maybe even a few! Travis found a Powrachute Pegasus for sale in Illinois. Luckily the guy selling it, Dennis, agreed to meet us halfway, which ended up being Lamar, Missouri. The original plan was to drive there Friday, spend the night, meet with Dennis Saturday morning and head back, maybe stopping at Future Flight near Dallas, where Travis was trained. As Friday got closer, the plan became to drive there on Friday and immediately head back. The weather wasn't looking good and we were carry the plane on an open trailer.

We had a fairly quick, painless drive there. Dennis called and said he'd been stuck in traffic and we had to wait for a couple of hours. No big deal, we would check out the town! There wasn't much to see, but we did see the birthplace of Harry S. Truman.

When Dennis showed up, he unloaded the PPC and we check it out closely. Travis and Dennis did some taxi tests and then Travis wanted to get in a quick flight. The sun was setting fast, but he got the flight in and we got it loaded onto his trailer and we were off! How is it that the return trip takes so much longer?? We were exhausted. We made many more stops on the way back to get coffee.

We were both glad to be back home. We left Friday morning at 6:30 and got back home Saturday at 9:30..... What a ride!! It wasn't too bad and hopefully tomorrow the weather will be as good as predicted so he can fly it a little more!

Barton County Court House - Notice the monument and see the photo below.




This road-grader was at the airport.


Travis checking out his new ride with Dennis.



Dennis demonstrating for Travis.


Now it's Travis' turn.

This Cessna was being used for instruction.

Nice Rans Coyote based at the field.

Travis on his first flight.

Landing after his first flight.

Hopefully I'll get some more pics tomorrow.

Jack

Nice Long Flight

I met Travis and Chris at the field Monday and we went for a nice long flight.

It started off rough as the winds were from the North, then the East, then the NorthEast... It was fun trying to setup. Travis took off first, heading to the NorthEast, but the wind was out of the East, so his parachute was going one way and his PPC the other! He handled well as usual and was soon climbing rapidly.

I was layed out to go next but my wing got blown around when I started up, so I waived for Chris to go and he too had an interesting takeoff. I got setup again and was soon off. I was also whipped around but after taking off directly toward the runway I was able to turn North and avoid the Cessna doing touch-n-goes.

It started off rough, but not too bad. We headed toward Grainger Lake and while Chris and Travis were down low, I headed up to 5K and shut off my engine. It's always so calming to hear nothing but the wind.

Chris's passenger got a little sick due to Chris making the world spin, so we all headed back. Chris and Travis landed, but I decided to stay up for awhile. It was some of the smoothest flying I've had in awhile. I was circling low over corn fields and having a blast!

So this will be the third time I didn't get any photos. The first time was by choice, the second time I had my wife's camera and it didn't work, this time I left the camera in my truck by mistake... Luckily Travis and Chris had their cameras out!

It's me. A rare site on this Blog!


Lake Granger

Me again!

Not sure why Chris' passenger got sick!

The Cessna doing T-N-Gs.

Jack