Smith Mountain Lake by PPC

Yesterday we were working on the machines getting them ready for the N-number inspection when the wind seemed to come to a halt. I believe that this inspection is not going to be as bad as first thought, but until it is done I will have to just wait. Kiwi and I flew yesterday over Smith Mountain Lake for about an hour. It was a little hazy in the air, but still a beautiful day to fly. I started doing some studying for the written test and I found out quickly how little I know. Their is a lot more to this Sport Pilot than I imagined, but I guess I don't have a choice and will have to start hitting the books.

Short Flight

I took a short flight the other morning to get a couple pictures of the land we are planning on putting a house on. I was hoping to get some shots to help us figure out where would be the best building spot. Unfortuanetly the camera died after only a couple shots so that plan went out the window. I still was able to get a couple before I returned back down to earth. It wasn't ideal flying weather either even though on the ground was perfectly still. Once I got up around 600' I started getting bumped around more than I like so I called it a day, and headed back to the field.
We are all still working toward getting our Sport Pilot right now, and I think our next step will be to get signed off to take the written test. I have the study materials now, and just need to take the time to start reading.

New Pilot Picture

Here is a picture of John, who flies around the Bedford area in an Outlaw Powered Parachute. This is the UFPPC that I saw one day flying over Bedford. The other picture is a beautiful shot he got while flying over Smith Mountain Lake. I haven't been able to fly w/ John, but hopefully this summer we will be able to get up in the air together. It is always nice to hear from other pilots and especially when they are in the area. I hope we will start to get more pilots close by and maybe the Sport Pilot coming out will open the doors for some people. John is lucky since he flies a single seat machine so he doesn't have to worry about jumping thru all the hoops to get his machine N-Numbered and inspected. Sometimes I wonder if it would just be simpliar to just buy a single place machine, but for now we are looking into going to TN to get our training done this summer. Thanks for the pictures John, and look forward to meeting up w/ you this summer.

1st meeting on the N-Number transition

We finally got together yesterday to start working on the N-Number process. I believe we got a lot of the paperwork done, but their is still a lot of work to be done. We checked out each others machines and tried to get a head start on what we need to order to get our air worthiness certificates. It seems like a lot of detail work, but after looking at our machines it seems to me that it might not be as bad as first thought. Unfortunately the wind was up yesterday so nobody was able to fly.

Great videos on PPCs

I found a couple really nice videos on PPCs on YOUTUBE. I believe both videos were made from a flying club in Michigan called the Eagles Nest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvDl3WABRyU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLKmCDJ4X0M

Finally up in the air again

Kiwi and I finally got to fly again late yesterday afternoon. It was a great flight and the wind was perfect for flying. We only stayed up for around 30 minutes due to this being the first time up in a while and I have to say it felt great. I definitely had some rust on my landings, but I know that will come back after we get a couple more flights in. I hope this will be the beginning of some nice weather so we can start getting up a little more often. I didn't get to many pictures since it was getting dark and the camera doesn't work so well in the late afternoon. We are all getting started on our N-Number process and after looking at what we need to do I do not think it will be all that bad. The one shot I got was of Stanton River High School soccer field as we flew by yesterday.

N Number Time

I just received my conversion kit last week for changing the old powered parachute into a brand new N-number flying machine. I have to admit I have not been putting much effort into getting myself or the machine switched over to the new specs. I guess it is time to buckle down and get started on this and hopefully not have a really nice piece of yard art before it is all said and done. This whole idea of getting your machine N numbered and getting your sport pilot is a kind of tricky ordeal. It is like you are shooting yourself in the foot with either you do first, because once you have either or , you are illegal to use the other until you have both. As of right now I wish they would have just left the powered parachutes alone, so we would not have to jump thru all the same hoops that a regular pilot does. I am about to send off for my N-number registration and that does not seem that bad, but I am dreading getting the aircraft passed, and also myself passing the sport pilot test. I will try to keep the blog updated as I go thru this process but be ready for some head-banging, cussing, and probably a lot of complaining.

Dreaming of Flying

Here is a video of a guy skydiving from a powered parachute I found on YouTube. I have still not been up flying, but hopefully the weather will turn around and we will get some nice flying weather. I did have a dream the other night that I was taking off in the Buckeye when the parachute snagged on a house and made me flip over. Than a Trike slammed into a fence, but nobody was hurt. I guess it was more of a nightmare than a dream. So I guess even in my dreams I can't get back up in the air.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuCKuauFIvo

To busy for flying

I have actually no new stories of flying since I it seems like forever since I have been up in the air. Between the weather, work, and family I have not had much time for flying. I guess the main thing that I have to do now is get ready for the new sport pilot that is coming in this year. I guess we all have to have it by the end of the year no questions asked if we want to keep flying powered parachutes. I am not looking forward to getting this sport pilot right now, but maybe once we get going it want be so bad.

I put a couple links of Kiwi flying that we took over the summer flying over Bedford.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-FF94ptH1Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRI_9-wdwhI

Future PPC Pilot

Here is our future pilot in the family. Noah got this flight jacket for xmas and when he puts it on he thinks it is time to fly. I hope when he gets old enough he will have the passion to fly, but I guess we will just wait and see. I have not been up myself in a quite a while, but maybe w/ the holdays over and everything starting to settle down I will be able to get back up.

New Post, Old Photos

I haven't posted anything new lately because I haven't been able to fly. I was going through some of my old photos and found some that I do not believe I have posted so I pulled them up. If I have posted these, than I will try to find some new ones for next time. Both of these are of Kiwi(John) flying out at the Funny Farm. Kiwi has been doing the most flying of all of us latetly, but even he has not been flying enough. We are all looking into the Sport Pilot coming up, and I guess w/ the new year approaching quickly we will have to get on the ball and get this thing done. I will try to keep our attempts to get our Sport Pilot posted on here so everyone will know the pains and benefits of this new law.

Another cold flight

We got to go up today for about an hour and it was some really nice flying weather. Kiwi and I went up the first time, but bumpy winds and radio problems brought us down after only about 5 minutes of flying. After the radio problem was fixed we went back up and, by than the wind had almost vanished. We both flew out of Joes Funny Farm and had a very smooth flight. I just buzzed around near the house and made one touch and go at Jerry Claytors house. He came out and while I was on approach and we talked for a bit by radio and than it was time for me to head back before it got to dark to fly. Kiwi got some neat video of him flying over his brother-in-laws house while his brother-in-law filmed him from the ground. I will try to post some of his videos, but for some reason I am still having problems being able to get them to post on the blog. I have to go back to work tomorrow, but I believe everyone else is going to take advantage of the weather and try to get some more flying in.

Cold day for flying

We were able to fly yesterday at Joe's, but it was a little chilly after getting up. I was fine all over except for one place, and that was my little toes. I forgot my boots and only had on thin tennis shoes and let me tell you by the time I landed my feet were froze like a block of ice. Kiwi(John) and Chris also came over to fly and we had a very smooth flight. We all flew around an hour yesterday afternoon even though it was opening day for rifle season. I stayed up pretty high so I wouldnt tempt any angry hunters to shoot me out of the sky. I even set a new personel height record by going just above 4000 feet. Hopefully we will be able to get up in the air a little more often due to the weather finally starting to cooperate w/ us.

Finally new pics

Sorry it has been so long since I put a new post up, but haven't had much time lately for flying. These were taken a couple months ago by John(Kiwi) flying out of Rowell International. The one of the chute coming in is me shooting a touch and go at Joes. The other one is of Hales Ford Bridge Kiwi got at Smith Mountain Lake. We are all itching to get back up and maybe the weather will cooperate w/ us and give us some good flying weather. I will try to get a some new pics soon and keep the blog updated as soon as I get some new shots.

Installed new fuel tank

John came over the other day and helped put the other fuel tank that he fixed on the machine. The older tank might have flown its last time due to stress on the spot where the leak is when it is mounted on the machine. John has fixed it twice and even though we thought it was fixed it keeps pulling the weld apart after minor usage. The other tank is also repaired ,but the leak in it was at the top of the tank and in a different spot so I do not believe it will give me any more trouble. We flew the other afternoon and it was a beautiful day to be up and about. The haze of summer was gone and we could see everything. This picture here was taken a while back in the summer. Unfortunately I forgot my camera the other afternoon, but John took a bunch so I will try to get some of those for the site soon.

We were flying around Joe's house when out of sky came another PPC pilot and we were quite shocked to see another pilot in the area. After attempting to contact them on radio w/ no luck the plane landed at Joes. I landed also and found out it was Jerry Claytor also of Bedford and him and his wife were out also enjoying the afternoon. He said he lent out his patch cord so that was the reason he was not able to talk to us while we were flying. They came over and visited for a while and than headed back home.

John, Joe, and I have also all been talking about this new Sport Pilot making its way into PPCing and we all seem to have very mixed feeling about it and the verdict is still out on our approval yet. It seems w/ the list of good things it will bring to powered parachuting their is a much longer one for bad things. We are all still trying to learn more about it so we can make a better decision with all the facts, but until than we will keep flying and enjoying our sport.

John taking off

PPC takeoff
This was taken a while back on a nice afternoon to fly. Kiwi(John) has really been logging in some flying hours until this nasty weather moved in. It looks like most of the hot flying days are gone, and now it is getting close to flight suit time. We will fly year round just alll depends on the wind for us. We are also getting very close to getting a class set up for us to all go on and get our BFI(basic flight instructor). I hope we will all have this before to long so it will be easier to transition into sport pilot. We have also been looking into Sport Pilot and this seems like it could get pretty aggravating trying to get us and our planes registered. I know the whole idea of Sport Pilot is to make things simple and easy, but I will believe it when I see it. It seems everything is still in the making and nobody really knows for sure how it will all work.

Old Photos

Here is some shots of a house I got a while back I found as I was going through some older pictures of us flying. This house is a lady I know from the gym I goto and she lives just down the road from Joe's house. It is a beautiful house and everytime I seemed to take its picture it was just before dark and the pictures weren't that clear. As you can see from the one picture she lives on the side of mountain and that would be one heck of a backyard to have.

Grounded Again

It was a beatiful afternoon today and I was over Joes and decided to try to get an hour in before it got dark. Their was no breeze and everything seemed perfect for a smooth flight, until I started filling the machine up w/ gas. I was filling it up and all of sudden I looked down at the tank and I noticed a small stream running down the side of the tank. Before I could even turn the pump off to stop filling the machine their was a steady stream of gas running down the side of the tank. Unfortunately where Kiwi had fixed my tank a while back it sprung a new leak. I guess it was just not meant to be w/ this tank. I still have the other tank that Kiwi also fixed and I am crossing my fingers that it want leak and I will be back flying soon and then I will have pictures of us flying.

Corn maze at Layman Farms

I was flying the other afternoon when I flew over this maze and I snapped a couple shots of it real quick. I found out later it is a corn maze at Layman Farm in Montvale off of 460. I was just flying around when it caught my eye and couldn't believe the detail they are able to put in it.
I think I might have to go try it out because it looks like fun, but I will have a copy of this picture to help me from getting lost. I might try to get back over their the next time I go up so I can get some better shots of it, but the weather lately has been pretty windy.

Flying over the house

Here are a couple more shots from the other afternoon when Kiwi and I flew over Smith Mountain Lake. The one of the house that you can barely see due to all the trees is mine. It was hard to even get a shot at all of it from it being hidden in the trees. The other house is a friends that both Kiwi and I work with. He wasn't home when we flew over but his mother-in-law was there babysitting, and she came out to wave to us. He was my first captain when I came out of the academy at the fire department, but now he has moved on to another station, and left Kiwi and me to hold the fort down.