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.

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.