April 12/08      Airshow at Sodom Road field June 13, 14 and 15.

  There will be no flying or training at Sodom Rd. field.

April 13/08      Course April 10, 2008  - day six Thursday

This morning David purchased paraglider and training harness and is planning to ground handle at home to bring his skills to perfection. We met at the filed at 2 pm along with Kim and wind had slight thermal cycle. I assumed that Kim will be ripping flight after flight and I will mostly work with David but Kim basically lost most of his skills during the rest day. It was almost like he was on day two. The frustrating part of was that he knew exactly what mistakes he was making and how to avoid them but it simply was not working. I have focused on David as he was very well and I knew that we may get a chance for him to go on his first solo flight. In couple of hours his skill were at the level were I consider allowing student to take off. We have agreed that David will do three inflations. One with motor on his back. One with motor on his back and helmet on and one with motor on his back, helmet on and motor idling. All three went well and David was in control. I gave him the option to fly and he agreed. We started the motor again and he inflated, turned, controlled and proceeded to his take off run. He was very calm and collected unlike at the beginning of the course where he seemed panicky and rushing things too much. David had very nice, but cold, 15 min flight  and great landing. Congrats David on your first foot launch. We know who is buying beer tonight. At 4 pm Doron showed up with is Xcitor and proceeded to 3 flights with numerous touch and goes. 

That machine scares me the way it climbs so steep. On one flight the secondary (passenger gas pedal) got stuck and Doron find him self flying without the ability to decrease power to idle. He thought he may have to shut down the machine and land power off but luckily he was calm enough to look around, discover the source of problem and was able to fix it in flight. Good for you Doron. After that Kim hooked up and managed 2 good flight and very good landings. I have let him to prep all gear and be pretty much independent and he did very good job. On one flight Jazz my dog, got right in front of him on take off and luckily he was able to proceed and basically run right over her. This is bit dangerous and I think I will have to tie Jazz down any time someone is taking off or landing. After that it was to Europlates for beer and later on for chasing Jazz around Europlates again! What a stubborn and disobedient dog! Grrr.

    Kim thinking how did I forget it all.

  David ready to fly.

Doron with his Xcitor

April 12/08      Course April 9, 2008  - day five Wednesday

Rest day. Weather is crap.

April 11/08      Course April 8, 2008  - day four Tuesday

Initially the wind was from the south. Nice and warm. Dave C and Jason had to return to work so it was just me, Kim and Dave B. Conditions were good for ground handling so we did and after an hour or so air was flyable even for students. Kim quickly managed another foot launch flight meanwhile David B had paraglider ground handling epiphany. This is where things will simply start to work without student thinking about them. The wind switched around and all of a sudden we were getting cold north wind that started to gradually increase. David started to ground handle with machine on his back and was doing very well. I knew that we were supposed to get some rain and crappy weather on Wednesday so I called flight services in St. Catharines to ask if the forecast for this evening changed. I was reassured that nothing changed so Kim got ready for another flight. All went well till just after take off at altitude of 6 ft or so the wind had dropped Kim back near ground. He was cool enough to remember to keep running and take off again. The only problem was that during this correction he lost sense or direction and was now flying fast  perpendicular to wind not gaining any altitude and making very slight turn down wind. I knew if he was to turn more down wind he would descend again and this time he would be going so fast that he could not run and would most likely fall. So I got on radio and yelled "right break", Kim responded and started to turn against wind, he quickly gained altitude and the rest of the flight went according to plan. When he landed he said oh boy is it ever bumpy out there. So I took off to test the air and Kim was right it was messy. The cold air from north was mixing with the warm south air and things were quite turbulent. We packed and went for pint. Good day. David will fly next time. I am positive!

April 10/08      Course April 7, 2008  - day three Monday

Very nice day. Initially the wind had a normal thermal cycles but after about 30 min it died completely. It was time to take out the paramotors and learn how to start them, strap them on and learn how to run with them using power of the engine for forward speed and use legs as wheels. Jason was running bit late so David C, David B and Kim (Roy is from Hamilton which is close by, only planned to train on Sat and Sunday) all took turns with the TOP 80 and WJ XC unit and raced around making very nice "baby steps". The wind has picked up again but this time the thermals were gone and we had very smooth fan like wind. Just perfect strength. Students started to ground handle with motors on their backs and shortly after Kim was ready to fly. I jumped in to test the air. All was good so Kim was ready to go. Good flawless flight. We decided to take a break and talk engines a bit. After that David was ready to roll. good inflation, good control but unfortunately sat down too early. Kim managed another flight and we were off for beer to celebrate. Before I got a chance to have a cold pint my dog took off on me when I opened my car door at Europlates  and I spent 30 min chasing her around the restaurant. Finally she came like nothing happened. Grrr stupid dog! 

April 9/08      Course April 6, 2008  - day two Sunday

The forecast for Sunday was for winds coming from east at 15 - 20 km/h. Crap! When we see any east winds at the Sodom Rd. field the air is always quite messy and turbulent. Almost every time this is a signal that major change in weather pattern is about to happen. One of the most common would be cold or warm front approaching often associated with rain. So as soon as I saw the east wind in forecast a thought bummer. It will not be flyable at all and it will probably rain later on. I have checked the long range forecast but there was nothing bad. Hmmm that is strange. There was few people from out of town that were planning to come from far and fly so it was hard call. After long deliberation I told them to come but mentioned that it may not be flyable as east winds are often mess. When we got to the field, conditions were gusty. Good for ground handling but too strong for flying. We spent several hours working on reverse inflations while Don was ground handling on his own and Leroy was reviing up his new baby Simon XC. We have also completed riding around in trike and learning how to use throttle control and start and kill switch. I hopped in the air around 4:30 but it was real bad. Super turbulent and gusty conditions. I asked Mark to hop in to test the air as well and he declined. That tells you how bad the gusts were! Around 6 pm I called FSS to see if the wind will die and the answer was no. We packed up and went to Europlates for beer. 

April 6/08      Course April 5, 2008  - day one Saturday

Ground school in the morning as usual then out to the field. Amazing conditions. Nice steady wind from one direction. Started with reverses and then finished with forwards. ALL students managed inflations on their own and most accomplished long runs with paraglider inflated. Leroy showed up to fly his new Sky Paraglider Atis and Simon XC - nice take off dude. We wrapped up and  went for cold beer at Europlates with Mike the field/airport manager.

March 31/08      How to rebuilt your carburetor.

  http://www.madscientist1.com/rebuild_walbro/rebuild.html

March 30/08      How to adjust idle on Simonini Mini 2, F 200 or Black Devil engine.

  Video by Dave Howell

_____________________________________________________________________________

Older news 78 77 76 75 74 73 72 71 70 69 68 67 66 65 64 63 62 61 60 59 58 57 56 55 54 53 52 51 50 49 48 47 46 45 44 43 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1