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.

Towing again

Went out on Sunday and got some more tow practice. Jason was first up and got a great tow but couldn't stay up. I suited up and was soon pointed for the sun. The tow was going well when all of a sudden I went from a 1500 fpm up to a down in the blink of an eye. First time I've gone negative on tow. It was a little unnerving but after flying Golden, a non issue. The thermals were big and slow but between thermals was rough. I hadn't planned on going anywhere and after an hour was bored of fighting the wind and not getting too high. On my way down I did few high wing overs and told Jason I was aiming for the road as a spot. Into ground effect I didn't think I would make it, but soon it was time to flare and the road was right under me. Dead on spot landing in my books. Jason was soon on the line and it was his turn to go cross country. His first one. He did well and I picked him up 15 K down the road.

Home!

I made it home, holidays over, grass is cut and watered, back to work. The willi was a wet one, again (the wet willi is catching on). I didn't get any distance on any of the days of the willi comp. I managed first place in the intermediate king post division though, I was the only contestant in that class! This was only because the week before, I flew a great distance and jumped a class. I told the organizers to keep the prize money, but I wanted the trophy. My first first place in hang gliding but I feel like I stole it. I took a little footage of the two weeks I spent in Golden and will post it as soon as I get around to editing it. Edit, done and posted

When the forecast went to the crapper I went to Creston for some visiting and flying. I finally got to fly down to just about the border on Mount Thompson and got some wonderful views of "home". I would post them but my camera died midpic and I got squat. Trust me though, it was awesome!

July 25

Task was an out and return at 100km. I had no plans to make goal so I launched first and planned to leave as soon as I got up. I scratched along the ridge and the bowl till I hooked into a great thermal near the top. It was smooth lift at 600fpm and gained strength with every turn. At 1200 fpm I was making huge turns and thinking “something’s wrong. This is never this easy.” Then it clued in I was in cloud suck. I was 500’ below the cloud and racing for the edge. I was at 11000 feet and headed for Paglearo. I found little sink and was in a great position. Just as I was happy with my situation I hit a hole in the air. I was slammed back into my harness and my heart raced. A few seconds later it happened again with more force. Now I was having second thoughts about continuing this flight. A few seconds after that I was swung into a wing over ninety degrees. Now I have had enough and headed back to land. I was the first to land. No one else felt the violent air that I dealt with.

July 26

Task was called off do to impending storms. I was all set up and flew down between them. The Willi also starts today so I got my flying and landing points.

nats

July 23

Day called off do to weather

July 24

Task: parsons and back, twice, 123 Km! I was in a good position to take the last start time of four o’clock. Wasn’t too high but this was racing. I flew the course to the first turn point very fast never topping ten thousand feet. I passed a few people along the way and was very impressed. After tagging my turn point(first time ever) I fought my way back upwind. It was a long time to get back. I stayed low but had to stop more often to find lift. After reaching the second turn point (Mt 7) I struggled to tag it as I was too low. My goal was to tag it and land as I was exhausted. But it never happened. I mad it to within 800 m but the cylinder was 400. I flew for 2.5 hours. The toplesses finished in 3.5 hours or so and the only kingpost to finish (Dave) took over 5 hours.

Nats

July 21

Windy in the Lz prompted us to delay pilot meetings a few times and then call one late up on the mountain. It was no better there and the day was called. A few diehards flew and I wanted to get Cal his first thermal flight. We waited till the wind died and soon he was in the air. I quickly got suited up and followed to try and guide him. To my surprise he was thermaling up the spine and higher than launch when I launched. I climbed up over the peak to see him, Tim, Leaf, and Rob all sharing the sky at the top of the mountain. Your first high flight is great but there’s nothing like your first thermaling flight. I flew for an hour and landed early to catch his landing on video. He flew for an hour and a half and was ecstatic when he arrived on the ground.

July 22

The day was forecasted to blow in ugly stuff from the north so we called a task to Invermere. While setting up we could see the dark clouds advancing and were all trying to get off fast but the pilots in the air were not finding any lift. I was all suited up and jockeying for position when I heard over the radio that the LZ was very windy and turbulent. The gust front had arrived and with no lift it was likely to land there. I bagged it and drove down. We got hit by thunder storms soon after.

Nationals start

July 19

Practice day

I broke a few personal bests on Saturday. I flew just about Edgwater, and 2.75 hrs in the air. It was a very rough day but as soon as you were above the peaks the thermals smoothed off and became coherent. I had no problems the entire way. Doug and John made it to Invermere and rob was a few Km farther than me.

July 19

Nats start

It was rough. Didn’t matter where you were in the sky. The task was to Brisco and back. Lots of people bombed out early. I struggled in a gaggle over launch, not getting very high, till I got tired and ventured to the spine. I was rewarded with a good climb and was soon over the mountain with enough height to cross the gap. I was fighting a head wind and knew I would not make the peak, luckily I found a good strong thermal half way through the gap and just when I thought it was good smooth lift I went negative by a foot and was slammed back down. I screamed like a school girl and then looked around to make sure no one heard me. I was alone. Made the next peak easy but nobody was following me. I wasn’t feeling too good from the night before and long flight, so I turned around and headed for the landing field. Flew for an hour and a half. Scott won the day with John just behind. Everyone landed at the LZ either making goal or bombing out.

weekend warrior

I've been getting out every weekend (except 2) since the miles in may. The weekend of the fifth I got Terry, a coworker to come out and tow Jason and I up. He learned quick but it was to no avail for me. I got four tows and could not make any stick. Last weekend was windy but I still managed a short flight to the other side of rattle snake lake. Slow drifting lift was the order of the day. I'm pleased with my flying and practice so far and now I'm getting excited to go to the Nationals next weekend. The Willi is the weekend following so it will be two full weeks of flying. I'll try to post here as much as possible.

Also stay tuned for my next project in the making.... I'm going to convert my truck to run on wood! I'll start on this when I get back hopefully.

finaly linked thermals and went somewhere

The wind was forecasted to be light out of a southerly direction, with great lift to 9000' and a blue sky. Jason and I headed to the north south road and set up. Jason got 3 uneventful tows but couldn't stick. Said it was all sink. I suited up and gave it a try. My first tow I found nothing but heavy sink all the way back to the launch. An 8 minute flight. I loaded back up on the trailer and went for try number two. Right off the truck I was going up like a rocket. I was much to low to try it out so I stayed on. sink most of the rest of the tow till the very end when I stumbled into something good. Pinned off and started turning. I was going up fast. (for the prairies) Averaging 800 fpm till I hit 6500' then it went to 100 up with some down and was rough till 7500' where I was bouncing off the top of the haze. I didn't pack anything with me as I was just checking the air so I boated around the road for a half hour and came down and landed. Jason loaded up and and found little to play in. Soon he was on the ground again. I talked him into another tow. he was planning on packing it in but I stated the obvious, he was all suited up and ready. Soon he was in the air again but this time he pinned off early. He found something and spun it up to 6500'. Played for a half hour and came in to land. I had my wing loaded on the trailer and suited up. This time I was packed and ready to go somewhere. I pinned off into light lift and drifted with it till I was over rattle snake lake. I decided to make retrieve quick and easy and not cross the river. But I didn't expect to have such an easy flight. There was lift everywhere although light. So I headed for Medicine Hat. There airport there has airspace that I'm not supposed to go into. It can get busy on a nice day so I was keeping a look out when I thought I saw something quite close and near my level. Slightly anxious I scanned the sky till I saw it again. It was a Pelican circling in what must have been a thermal right next to mine. I moved over to his thermal and tried to get my camera out. By the time I did I couldn't find him anymore. So I snapped a few shots and moved on.

This is a shot of the campground from around 5000'I was getting to the point I had to either land or cross the river. Jason radioed me and said he was on the road. I let him know where I was and where I would be landing. I got into one more thermal and crossed the river and came back and landed. I'm sure I could have gone a lot farther but as soon as you cross the river you add quite a bit to the retrieve. My flights are posted here

This is a shot of Medicine Hat with the airport in clear view

Fathers Day is a day to do what father want

Jason and I headed out for another day of towing on this fathers day. The forecast all looked good but wind was forcasted to be every direction depending on the model you looked at but light. It very light when we got there so we set up at the east side. We flipped a quarter to see who would go first and I won. I loaded up and was soon towed up. I flew through some light lift but nothing worth releasing for. On the way back to launch I found a good little thermal and took it up. I have no idea how far because I forgot my gps at home. The picture below is of rattle snake lake from I'm guessing 6 to 7000'

I flew around for a while then thought I'd give Jason a chance at the good flying. With the wind so twitchy I wanted a good look at the sock before committing to my approach. I delayed much to long and did a turn much to low and slow. As I picked up speed on final I was not level and too low. This is the picture entering final.

Between worried about that and watching the sock I misjudged the hight I had and grazed the dirt with a wheel at a high rate of speed. This is a picture of impact.

I quickly gained some hight but that had my heart beating. We call it intermediate syndrome when you think you are better than you actually are. I'm right in the middle of it and these little lessons humble me and bring me back to reality.


Jason got a really good thermal flight and had a blast. Took two tows do to the wind switching out of the east and he got a downwind low tow. With his second tow he released at 1000' over in good lift. He made it to just shy of 6000' and was up a half hour or so. Here he is showing the safe approach...



I got a second tow downwind and couldn't make it stick. Landed at teh other end of the road and got another tow into teh wind. I thought I was in a boomer and released. I was low and it was not a boomer. I drifted in 50 up untill I figured I could make it bach to launch. I was short by 100' but a much better landing. All in all a great day.