Saturday, August 31, 2013

Motor XC Saturday

I hit EKY early this morning for a little motor XC.  Flew out to the west to check out the strip mines east of the I-20/I459 interchange.


Check out either the XComp GPS track or the Leonardo track.








Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Motocross & Paragliders

Jeff, Cuv and I were back in SoCal this weekend.  I was in LA for meetings Thursday & Friday and was able to get some flying in at Torrey Pines in late Friday afternoon before picking up the other two from the airport.

We crashed at Ron's Friday night and then headed to Elsinore on Saturday for the final MX race of the season.   It was hot and dry but the race was exciting (despite having to walk over a mile to a different Will-Call for our pit passes).  We got to hang out with Christina and the Rock River team and stayed hydrated with Bud Lites.

After the race, we decided Ron needed a new grill, so it was off to Lowes.  Jeff promised it would fit in the back of the rental.  It didn't.   We got lucky as an older guy was leaving and asked if he could help.  He had a truck and was headed right past Ron's, but his small truck bed was filled with an old grill he had just acquired for 5 bucks.  We were able to fit this grill into the trunk, put the new one for Ron in the bed of the truck and we were off!


The forecast for the local soaring sites wasn't great on Sunday, so we ended up back at Torrey, along with Ron and his visiting fraternity brother, Smith, from Birmingham. Good flying in very light conditions and Smith got a long tandem.


The main purpose of this trip (other than the motocross) was to test out Jeff's new LM5 and Cuv's new Delta 2.  The LM5 is a beautiful glider, handles great and glides like crazy.  Of course we weren't able to test it in thermic conditions so I'm still hesitant about flying it in big air.

I also liked the handling of the D2, even thought I was under the weight range.  Of course it was easy to stay up in the light conditions when you are light on the glider. 

Oh, Jeff's motor student, Joe, was out at Torrey working with Phil Russman on his P2, so we got to see both Joe and Phil and share a post flight beverage.

Thanks again Ron for the place to crash!

Next up in 2 weeks - our Alps trip!  This year the destination is Saint Andre in the French Alps!




Brief wing testing video:





Saturday, August 17, 2013

More EKY Fun

Hooked up with Curtis and Mark at EKY this morning.  The light breeze and high overcast made the air smooth as silk.  Easy launches and landings as we chased each other around the airport.  I'm so glad the management at EKY is ultralight friendly!

Saturday, August 03, 2013

Chasing Greg (Paramotor Style)

Meet up with the rest of the 'Bama gang at Cleveland today to burn some premix.  Greg and I got up first and I had a blast chasing him around the area.  He's pretty fast all loaded up on that trike.