My Day Off

I had Monday off for Labor day so I decided to use a couple of vacation days to make a mini-vacation. I dragged my butt out of bed this morning to go for a flight. Since we flew to Rockdale on Monday, I thought it would be cool to fly from there. It's about 45 minutes from my house, so I left around 5:30. I kept seeing lightening off in the distance as I was driving, but it appeared to be far off and it was clear above me. I decided it was worth the drive; I would evaluate the weather when I arrived.

As the sun was coming up, it was clear except near the horizon and the wind was barely moving at all. I was off!

I've been bragging to my PPG buddies that I never have a blown launch, so of course I did! My wing went all the way to the left and stayed there. I pushed a little right steering bar and it came up, but went right back down. I repeated this a few times, but I had used 1/3 of the runway, so I just shut down and setup again. I don't know what was wrong the first time, but the second launch was perfect.

I decided to fly around Alcoa, which is a large plant that makes Aluminum Powder and mines lignite. It was very smooth flying, but I was only getting around 17mph on the way out. That became 36 when I was coming back! When I landed, some guys who work for the city came out to greet me. They had never seen a powered parachute so I showed it to them and answered all of their questions.

As I was driving back home, the skies got ugly! It still hasn't rained, but they say it's on the way.

The skies looked nice as the sun was rising.



ALCOA

I learned today this is called Lignite or brown coal. It's the lowest form of coal.

I wasn't sure how this would come out. I like it.

Here's a shot of the Rockdale Train Museum. This one's for my little buddy Andrew. He likes trains, especially the caboose.

A closer shot. I didn't see these guys watching me when I was taking the photo!

Till next time... Jack