Hot Air Balloons and No-Shows!

There's a field near my house where they fly PPG's. These are a lot like the Powered Parachute, except you wear the motor on your back, and take off and land from your feet. I was told they would be out flying Saturday morning, possibly with some Hot Air Balloons also. I showed up early, but nobody else did. It was predicted to be foggy, but that couldn't have been further from the weather we had. No wind, no cloud, nice and cool.... wish I was flying!!

After waiting for over an hour (the weather's so nice somebody has to show up!) I finally gave up. I saw some Hot Air Balloons off in the distance and decided to chase them down. One landed before I got any photos, but like a storm chaser trying to get into the path of a tornado, I stalked down the other one. He flew right over me and even said hello!!

I think the winds are supposed to pick up, and I'm going the University of Texas vs. Nebraska game, so I probably won't get any pics of the PPG's today, but I'll try again Sunday.



The camera makes them look higher than they were. I easily heard them say hello!!




By the way, I didn't take this photo, but these are PPGs. They're very portable, so I could fly anywhere I go. Like on the beach for instance....

Flying with Hubert

Chris and I headed out to Hubert's place on Friday afternoon. Hubert is new to the PPC, so I wanted him to get a chance to fly with Chris. First they went up in Chris's PPC with Chris flying and did a few touch-n-goes. Then they took up Hubert's PPC. Hubert looks good flying this machine, which is completely new to him. Chris says he's doing great. Chris and I went up for a few minutes, but it was getting cool and the sun was heading down. I had a great time. It's time for me to sell the Airbike and head the direction of my friends. Either a PPC (Powered Parachute) or PPG (Powered Paraglider) is in my future!

Taking Off


Hubert's New Toy


Coming in for a landing.


Hubert's Patriotic Chute


Hubert will learn not to fly that close to the sun.


Sun's down, Moon's up, we're headed home.

Friday Afternoon Flying

It was so nice on Friday I had to leave work early and go fly with Chris. We flew out to Hubert's place and he drove out to meet us. Hubert now has a Powered Parachute, so I guess I'm getting outnumbered. I'm leaning toward buying one of these!!

Breakaway Park 2007

I've still yet to fly in to this fly-in! It's been too windy almost every year, this year was no exception. I know the GA guys can't understand, but anything over 10 mph takes the fun out of flying the Airbike. It was a great fly-in this year.

Flying PPCs

Yesterday, I got a chance to go work on my plane. It was too windy to fly, but I did a few crow hops and it feels good. Hopefully, I'll get to fly next weekend.

Today, I took Chris up on an offer to go fly with his friend Bill in Buda. We flew from Bill's field to Lockhart. I rode with Chris and Bill took his friend Terry with him. Chris and I did a touch-n-go at Lockhart and then headed back. After we got back, Bill let me play with the parachute from his PPG, a smaller version of the PPC. It was fun to pull the parachute up into the air and then try to control it, but it showed me how out of shape I am.

Bill flying. There was some ground fog early.


Our shadow.




Our Touch -n- Go at Lockhart


Bill spiraling down!


Perfect Landing

LSU vs. VT

Last weekend, my friend Jeff offered to take me and another friend, Frank, to the LSU vs. VT game in his V-Tail Bonanza. It shortened a 6 hour drive from Austin to Baton Rouge to 2 hours. It is nice to be able to climb above the clouds and cruise near 200 mph.

Frank with the plane.


It was cloudy, but we were quickly on top.


Frank, Jeff, and me. (No of course Frank wasn't drunk!!)


This is blurry, but it is Shaq.


Final Score.


Mississippi River?


There were big storms near Houston.


Small Airport

Not Flying....

Well, I haven't posted anything lately. That's because I haven't been flying.

My last flight didn't go so well, and with work and weather, I haven't had a chance to get back into the air.

I last flew a few weeks ago, and the flight lasted a little over 5 minutes. My friend Jack flew to my field in his Quicksilver Sprint and we were going to fly out to Stillhouse Lake. He took off and shortly thereafter, I followed. I think several things went wrong. I wasn't thinking of a little Sprint causing so much turbulence. Now I realize, with as much drag as it has, it probably produces more of a wake than most planes. Second, it was hotter and windier than the conditions I normally fly in. Last, I was over a freshly plowed field.

I was flying along, checking my instruments to make sure the engine was running well and the next thing I knew, my right wing fell down like it had an anchor on it. Due to the openness of the Airbike, I was looking directly at the ground and it was coming up fast. I was trying to put in left rudder and stick to get out of it, but that's hard to do when you're leaning out of the right side of the plane. I finally mustered enough strength to recover and found myself about 5 feet above the ground looking at a tree. As soon as I pulled up and got over the tree, the left wing fell, although not as dramatically.

I radioed my friend that I was going back and did a very gental 180. After landing, I got out and sat on the ground for awhile, wondering if I should be a pilot at all. In all my years flying, this is the only time I've been this rattled. I swore I'd never fly this plane again.

After calming down a little, I looked over the plane and found nothing wrong. I will fly it again, but probably won't be too comfortable for awhile. I think I took some pictures, but I really can't remember. I will check the camera and post them later if there are any.

I will probably fly this weekend, so I'll let you know how it goes.

Stillhouse Lake - More Flooding

I went to the field today, half expecting it to be too wet for me to fly. The grass was damp, but there were no puddles, so I decided to go for it. After fueling the plane and a quick preflight, I was off. I turned North and headed for Stillhouse Lake. The weather man was calling for 50% chance of rain, but it looked fairly clear and the wind was barely blowing.

This area is usually dry. You can see the trees sticking out of the water.



Debris



It amazes me how clear and smooth the lakes are when boats are banned.



This is the bridge today.


This is a photo of the bridge I took about a year ago.


This usually isn't an island. Notice the road in the middle.


Road under water.





Bell County Expo Center


Skydive Temple. I normally wouldn't fly this close, but I forgot it was here. I had my radio on their frequency though. It was too cloudy for them to be jumping.