The Launch

2006-08-26 Max Ugliness Getting Airborne

Yesterday was a blow-out but oh this morning was an adventure!

I've been flying a snap 100 and top 80 lately. The top 80 is a marvel of power to weight, putting out nearly 100 pounds of thrust from it's paltry 45 pounds. So here I am at 5500' elevation launching my black devil powered machine which weighs 15 pounds more. Some surprising differences made it challenging. First off, the Black Devil has wonderful thrust. This high elevation flying is exactly why I have the machine (I only weigh just under 150 lbs). Strangely, it's running very nice and I've not touched the carb. Go figure, it should be quite rich. My last flight was from Sea Level.

Anyway, I inflated down the road, the wing came up, I accelerated and got it fully under control but didn't feel any lift. I'm normally feeling the weight of the motor lift off me by this speed and knew that I wouldn't be able to run much faster with all that weight. So I aborted. When I stopped, the motor's weight pulled me back and I just sat down on the frame, slightly tweaking my ankle in the process. 

Another attempt finally got me airborne in what has to be the world's ugliest launch. This time, the wind was seeping nearly straight down an intersecting dirt road so I laid out in that direction. There was barbed wire on both sides. There was a cattle guard (1-inch strips of metal 4 inches apart for about 3 feet) 100 feet in front of me. It was uphill. No, this was pretty-much guaranteed to be ugly. 

The wing came up slightly crooked to the left and I accelerated to get some control. But I could only pay scant attention to the wing because I had to step carefully over the cattle guard. I looked back at the wing--still good but falling right. Turn right, goose it for a bit of jogging speed. Look at the ground since I'm now going through scrub. Path good, wing overhead but to the left, goose it again to get some speed. Look down to make sure the ground path was still viable. Goose it again, a bit more, wing straightening out, path good, more throttle, wing good, path acceptable, FULL POWER! 

Lift never felt so good. 

Poor Tim, standing there wondering when it would all end in a flail of dust and nylon and wood and line. I wasn't going to commit to flight until the wing was lifting and I had a decent path. But getting to that point was most gyrational.

A couple minutes later, I had the music on and enjoyed a short flight in the mountains west of Salt Lake City, near Deeth--just south of Interstate 80. 

What an interesting morning!

This afternoon, if all goes well, we'll take on the salt flats. We've called some of the Salt Lake boys but it's pretty short notice.

The saga continues... (See the afternoon's adventure)

(Above) Tim prepares for his launch and I bump on by in the 3 level turbulence.

Notice the building in the background. We immediately recognized the unique "T-hangar" shape and, sure enough, there was an Aeronca Citabria airplane in there. What was missing was a runway of any sort. We suspect the road was dual purpose.

The second shot was from the previous day's drive. Some amazingly colors pass before our eyes on these trips and this scene, captured by Tim,  warranted recording.

You can see the cattle guard on the intersecting dirt road. That's what I had to run over before curving right, into the scrub. Tim chose to launch down the wider and non cattle-guarded road.

I kept my distance but close with the camera's zoom lens. The lead horse did notice me but promptly went back to doing what horses seem to do all day. Eat. Must not be many calories in that grass given how much of it they consume!

This is what occupied the peculiar T-shaped building out in the nothingness. Ahaa, another air nut!