Phoenix Sliding | Friday

It's good to be in Phoenix.

Today was windy even for hiking in the mountains although we did anyway. It was, after all, 75°F. Sitting on top of Silly Mountain (yes, that's its name) we swayed to the gale and pondered how ugly it would be under a paraglider at that particular moment.

It was perfect, however, to get some pictures that illustrate high wind techniques. This time it would be to show how the stabilo line can be used for clearing tip tangles on the ground. You've no doubt had the wing plop down in a heap while kiting. The fabric strangles itself in lines when you go to inflate it even though it was kiting nicely just moments before. The cure is frequently a simple pull of the stabilo line (usually the outer B line). That will pull the fabric by its tip, through other lines, and clean it up nicely.

After pictures it was time for fun. A paraglider is just like a big traction kite so I treated it like one. I'd get the glider leaning one way and let it pull me for a while then tilt it up and over the other way to go sliding in the new direction. Of course I'm also going downwind but it allows probably 45° each way. Great fun and I never got my bottom side dirty.

Alas, it never calmed enough to fly. In fact, it's nighttime and the enterprise is still rockin' and whistling to the howl. That allowed time for some necessary maintenance on the Enterprise and paramotors. There's much more that needs to be done so hopefully we'll get some bad weather to give us sufficient opportunity. Sometimes I don't know how these Phoenix people get anything done. Sunny and nice every day. Sunny and nice. Tough to take.

Friday

Morning arrived with a whimper. None of the forecast wind showed up. Mo Sheldon, located at a site south of town about 20 miles, reported a strong east breeze of 20+ mph while we experienced a steady 2mph west. It gradually increased and turned north then northeast until becoming around 10 mph by noon. Nothing like the 22 mph gusts in the aviation terminal forecast.

The morning's calm enabled more pictures including a series showing the cross-armed reverse, a method of reverse inflating in very light winds. The sun angle required me turning to the right which is opposite my normal direction. It's surprising how weird that feels. Doing inflations repetitively like this certainly makes me better at it but boy it's a lot of work! Thanks to Tim for being an expert photographer. 

We would take a series of shots then go look at them on the computer. Some just didn't work. They didn't tell the story. In fact most are like that and we wind up doing different angles and zoom levels to find the one that worked best. I keep in mind Dennis Pagen's biggest contribution to the book was "this photo series doesn't work" or "I can't figure it out from this descriptions".

By combining our ideas on execution the final product will be much better. These pictures and technique descriptions will likely be used in upcoming UltraFlight issues before becoming part of the eventual 2nd edition PPG Bible.

We're now on the road towards one of Mo's sites and will likely get some more high-wind play this afternoon.

Jeff mimicking brake usage while Tim points to the Superstition mountains behind us. Thankfully the wind didn't blow the camera away.

Tim sliding along in a spray of dust: hands way up and still getting lifted. It was gusting to over 16 mph.

Jeff Going left then right. Back and forth--what a blast. The harness is minimalist, it comes from a mountain climbing shop for around $55.

Tim shows why the V layout is used by pulling tension on the lines. It's a trade-off because a wing laid out this way will tend to have the center cells inflate first but will not inflate quite as fast as one laid out straighter across. The next picture is yours truly during one of a series demonstrating the cross-armed reverse. It's obviously a lot of work. Each inflation we did like this worked as advertised but this one was the clearest because he zoomed in closer to see what was happening with the risers.