Miles in May

May 22 Vulcan to High River to Nanton to Vulcan

The day was forecast to be light south east wind so we called a triangle that should be challenging in those conditions. It was much more challenging than we imagined. The wind was 3 times faster than forecast and just about straight south. The first leg of the triangle was east north east heading. I decided to not get excited about getting starting early and waited around waiting for something to change with the conditions. What that did for me was wait till the day turned on a little more and I was not fighting light lift and getting blown off course. No one made it to the first turn point. I made a fatal mistake and didn't trust my GPS. I headed for town instead of the way point causing me to get downwind of the way point and getting second for the day. I originally thought I had won the day but at scoring the next morning I found out I had lost by a very small amount and would have easily won had I trusted my gps. Another lesson learned.




May 23 Last day, Short task to Strathmore (75k?)

Forecast was for the same as yesterday, learning our lesson on that we called a mostly down wind task to Strathmore. I towed my entire team up (twice) and after they were all gone, got a tow from Brett on Leif's rig. I pinned off into lift at around 1000' and never looked back. I climbed out like a rocket to 9000' and met up with Dave at cloud base where we went on glide. I followed him for a kilometer or so before I realized I was taking the wrong approach to gaggle flying and moved over a few hundred yards to take advantage of the separation. Soon after a long glide Dave started turning to my left and I pulled in under him. We climbed to base and I lead on ahead. I tried to stay on course while Dave pulled to the left. I was soon on the ground after a long glide and Dave picked a better line and continued on. I made it 20K or so and landed right beside Rob G. He had a ride on route so I lucked out there.


Final Notes.... After attending Miles in May for three years, This was by far the best one yet. Comp headquarters was a bar that we never left, except to fly. The drive to launch was minimal inconvenience and access to internet was much more convenient then years past. I did my best placing at second place (novice) and my winch performed beautiful with the highest tows and consistent performance. Best of all the only incident was one perturbed farmer.

Miles in May

May 21 Goal: Formost = 100 miles

We decided to go long. All the forecast models showed an awesome day. We called the task to Formost for around 170 Km. Everyone made it away from the tow roads, Ross and Fiona made goal, I made it 20 km or so. I made some fatal errors in judgment that put me on the ground early. The day was rough with some wire twanging and getting dumped many times. I was disapointed in my performance but not too sad I was on the ground.

Miles in May

May 19 Day called

After a delayed pilots meeting and sky watching the safety committee ordered beer. Gusting to 70K. A group of us went fishing at chain lakes. Cost me a fishing license to catch one 8" rainbow, but at was an afternoon doing something different. Cal is like a 12 year old fanatic when it comes to fishing.




May 20 Day will be called

Awoke to an odd sounding rain, if that wasn't enough to piss a guy off, when I finally crawled out of my tent, that odd rain was actually snow. Forecast says crap for today but tomorrow will be awesome. This whole group is going to snap if we don't fly soon.

Miles In May

May 16 Practice Day
The forecast was for a great day, possibly the best of the week so there was allot of gliders/pilots set up when I got to the tow site. So many in fact that it was going to be impossible to get any consistent tow time. I rounded up my crew for the meet and asked if they wanted to head to a different road. We headed over to a different road and set up. It was getting late by the time I towed the first glider up. I went with a soft tow for the fist one and I wasn't sure how far the road went so Loren got a 1600' tow but didn't stick. Next was Ken. He broke the record for height of tow off my winch with 3200' which was broken soon after by Glen with a tow to 3600'. But apparently high tows don't come with luck and after a couple tows each, they never got away. There was a few others that were dotted along the countryside all the way to just north of brooks. (actually a paraglider pilot of all things!) About 120K or so.

May 17 Goal: Brooks-100k
At the pilot meeting, some rules were layed down, classes were sorted out, and I was elected to the task committee. The classes are Novice (never over 50 miles) Intermediate (never over 120 miles) and Advanced (anything over 120 miles flown) That put me into the novice class. Myself, Loren, Ken, and Cal make up the novices which I feel is pretty fair. The intermediates have some pretty extreme ranges of pilots, and the advanced looks pretty fair too. I like the splitting of the classes and hope it works out well.

With the forecast "gusting to 50K" winds we decided on a straight downwind task to Brooks. We drew the long straw and got the long road with Dougs crew. The wind started south and we towed a few south but again it was proving tough to get away. One by one Dougs crew towed and left the site. We had a trainee driver I was teaching for a few tows. He did well but small problems kept popping up that made life difficult. Loren had the chute pop out on tow and somehow ripped the bridles off it when he got released. That sent the chute floating in the wind down the field (thank you Karen) After that crisis the line was all pulled off the winch on the next tow and had to be found and rewound. On my tow my release line got tangled with the chute and upon release, cut the chute bridle again. I had the chute still in the sock so I had to go and land to give back the chute. On the second round of tows we went away one by one. It was very windy and with the bar out to min sink I was traveling a 75 kph The order of the day was drift with what you could. I got farthest of my crew, at around 20 K. Ken was a K or 2 short of that, and Loren was around 10 K. Glen never got away. Ross and Rob made goal, Gary was 20 k away. In my class Cal beat me by a long ways flying to Bow City for around 75K and will be tough to catch without some luck on my side, or bad luck on his, but it's still early.

May 18 Weather day.
It started to rain on our parade shortly after breakfast. There was a few people that headed out last night and I was going to but a few beer later and it was too late to hit the road. I am at home now and the forecast is looking alright for tomorrow so I'll be driving back tomorrow morning.

First Winch Test 2009

Jason and I went out on Sunday the 19. I found a prospect for a driver and brought him and his girlfriend out too. The day looked explosive so I took the first tow. It was fairly rough on tow, I didn't dress for it nor did I take my gps. All indicators it would be an awesome flight.

I skied out till everyone was specks on the ground and struggled to get down after I couldn't feel my fingers.

The first tow was just a test for the winch and the day but I must admit that if I was prepared I would have headed out. The winch performed beautiful. The new pulleys worked great. The new 8 sq ft flow form flying kite works great but might still be a touch small. I'm going to speed up the rewind sometime soon to counteract that.

Jason discovered something wrong with his mark 4 and decided it was time to fly the predator. He wanted smooth conditions as it was his first flight of the year, the first flight in a while on that wing, and the first time towing it. (3 wrongs is usually a no no) I took another tow when the sky filled with high cloud and it was smooth, no lift/turbulence. Jason got on the rig and had little trouble towing/flying the high performance wing. Landing however, discouraged him from trying again. Wind was dead calm till he set up final and then it went tail. With a weak flare, there was a dust cloud and a wing upside down. To me it looked like a nasty whack but he should have faired well. I resisted the urge to yell WHACK!!! Glad I did, he was pretty beat up. Looked like he was on the loosing side of a bar fight. Probably made for a good story at work the next day. Bleeding from various places on his face and a mouth full of dirt, I enthusiastically asked when he wanted to go again. I'm an asshole...... We packed up and went home. I'll probably never see my drivers again either. Was a little longer than the hour or two I think they were expecting, but I'm glad they got these videos.

Airtime at last

Finally received some much needed airtime. First time out this year and I flew for just short of an hour. Tow was uneventful.

The plan was not to go out Saturday but to go out on Sunday locally. After numerous emails, phone calls and texts I built up the courage to ask my loving wife and the answer was no. I expected that. Saturday rolled around and the forecast looked great, I cried a little. She asked if I was going to mope around the house all day. When I replied yes she kicked me out. I have a very understanding wife. No idea why she sticks around.

Pulling out my winch and headed out today for the first time this year. Looks great today too.

Winter blahs

As this winter drags on my focus has switched to flying planning. I have plan to take in the Nationals and the Willi with 2 weeks in between to take in some Kooteney sites. I have also rebuilt some components of my winch. I ordered a new flying chute here, The first one I bought was too small and never provided enough tension on rewind. This new one is twice the size. I had no problem using a round drogue chute except they don't last too long dragging them through the stubble fields, and the occational fence post/well head was murder.Spring flying should kick off in the next month or two and by then I should have the winch working well. The first competition will be Miles In May but I have not heard of where or when it will be. I'm hoping my new harness will be here before then but I doubt it. Winter is almost over and the excitement for the upcoming flying season is building. This year has been terrible for wind strength and direction at the ridge. It hasn't been right all winter. Last year I had multiple flights at the ridge by February and thus far there has been nothing. Hopefully the next blog entry will be my first flight of the year, at this point it doesn't matter where or how long.

bored

I'm not a winter guy. All projects go on hold and I can barely get out of depression to go to work. Winter here is cold. I thought I would get used to it but this year was record snow with record cold for most of December and we are currently heading into another cold snap. On the up side work has treated me well and I will soon be the proud new owner of a Rotor harness. I'm living vicariously through the internet/blogs and am getting excited for the new season ahead. Along with the new harness I'm keeping an eye out for a topless glider. Before the cold set in I redid some stuff on the winch. there is only one spring now and I've gotten rid of the small pulley in favor of a larger one with larger bearings. This should get rid of the self destruct mode once and for all I hope. It seams there will always be ways to make something better when you take on a project like that. I will likely be using it be April. We'll see then.

Do you smell hair burning?

I spent some time last weekend trying to test out my gasifier. It didn't take much work to get it fired up and running but it was not running all that well. I had a major tar issue and not enough vacuum from the furnace inducer motor I tried. After fifteen minutes or so the temperature spiked and the flame went out. I knew it was bridged up but wasn't too sure how to go about breaking it. I turned off the motor and opened the top. With a three foot stick I started to jab at the wood. About the fourth jab she let loose with a mushroom cloud of flame and I had my arm and face right in there.
It's not the the first time I've had things blow up in my face but it has been a long time since the last time. I thought I was getting smarter but I guess it was just luck. "play with fire and you'll get burned" is what my mother would say when I came home with no eye brows/hair. After contemplating what I had done and a little thinking I lit it back up and had a flare for an hour but found I needed to do some more work before I could test it some more.



The flame should be almost invisible during the day, not orange like this. I'm producing too much tar do the fire not being hot enough. I'll need to find a better fan and make a couple modifications before another test. I'll do my best to keep the rest of my hair.

wood gasifier

For the last month I have been building a wood gasifier for my truck. The technology has been around for over a hundred years. With gasoline prices going through the roof, I figured I could build one in my spare time, out of junk and drive for next to free if it all works out. So far it is almost ready for a test fire but I have yet to build the secondary fine filter. Wood gasification was enhanced during the second world war when the fuel embargos/shortages were in Europe. Thousands of vehicles were switched over and the design is generally the same as today. There are very few people running wood in north america.

The process is simple. Control the air to a hot fire, pipe the incomplete combustion gasses to the motor and control the air mixture as it enters. The gasses produced for the purpose of combustion are hydrogen, carbon monoxide and some methane. The power of the motor is cut to 75% or so do to the lower btu content compared to gasoline but the price is right. Its all experimental build your own at this point. My gasifier should be able to burn any biomass with some modifications but the design is for small wood chunks/chips.

If your interested in the design/concept. Google "woodgas" "holzgas" or "gengas" and check it out. There is a large group of experimenters on Yahoo groups they post trials and tribulations of thier work.

You will see more posting of my work on this as the flying season ends.