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This is another planet. There
is air here so that our wings still work but mostly there is sand. Rising
600 feet into the western sky is an incredible formation that blends the
coolest shapes a guy could ever hope to contour.
Sunday around noon a largish
group of friends left the Salton Sea, headed for Glamis, California with
an intent to commit aviation.
Monday
This is what the Enterprise was
launched for—being out in the middle of relative nowhere (a sandy desert
here) with paramotors perched just outside the door and a few feet from
launch.
This is the best part: it's
warm. While temps claw their way into single digits over much of the
country, Glamis basks is the 70's.
Our caravan includes pilots
from all over the country who are mostly on the way to Phoenix. It's nice
too, that we're actually able to fly here as long as we can mind a few
simple rules about where launch is allowed.
Mike Britt is incredible. One
pilot's motor broke an exhaust bracket. Mike welded it back together. yes,
in a tent, far from any repair shop, he welded an aluminum exhaust back to
life. He's gonna weld a soon-to-be broken piece on my muffler, too. Thanks
man!
We got here about 2pm and, just
after setting up camp, got ready for flight. Chad Bastian was the first to
go, followed by yours truly. The midday roughness was manageable.
The cool flight came when most
of us launched for a sunset flight to the big dune west of here. Phil got
his camera rolling to record the meandering flight paths amidst incredible
scenery.
Greg Bouten had a
motor-out and the recovery effort was quite interesting. Having aerial
cover during the process proved quite handy.
Marty Hathaway is going to set
up a cloverleaf so we can play around with some competition flying just
for fun. Eric Dufour has some strangeness planned for the next day as
well. This promises to be very interesting!
In the meantime, here were some
of our sights.
     
1. The caravan.
We're all hanging out near Glamis, CA for a couple days. 2. Phil Russman
wanks it around after filming for an hour or so. 3. Greg Bouten made made
an unplanned landing after his carburetor fell off. Ooops. 4. Stefan
Obenauer zips by me and the colors impress from behind. 5. Phil closes in
for the camera, 6. This is the sick part: after flying all afternoon, we
sit around at night watching video of the afternoon's flying.
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