Summary and Images
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by Bill Wright
Well, we showed up at 5:30, so did the wind. I kited the chute for a while, Mo took to the sky. It was an "interesting" site watching Mo hover when facing into the wind, it must have been 20 knots at altitude because he didn't move at all. Downwind passes were pretty fast though....
Seemed too rough for me, so it was an observation day for me. Hopefully the air will calm out over the upcoming week, I'll try again later.
by Maurice Sheldon
On the way to the field I saw a hitchicker and offered a ride. She was a german tourist headed to Nogales. I told her I was only heading to Casa grande, but she said any closer was better. I offered to take her out to the field to witness our amazing flying contraptions. She agreed. Giving her a ride reminded me of how hitch-hiking should be: interesting folks randomly meeting up on thier journeys.
When I got to McCartney, Bill's wing was clearly visible, steadily hovering over the ground. As I approached the LZ, it Bill was kiting his colorful wing.
Like Bill said, the wind was strong, 6-10 mph, but steady. I was happy since I like to have some wind to do reverse launches. Bill had mentioned that he was apprehensive that the wind was too strong. I decided to give it a try.
After a nice reverse launch, I had a nice take-off, but immediately experienced the sway of soft, strong swirls of air. I figured the inversion layer was low, and I was correct. After about 100' the air became smooth. The air must have been really moving because I noticed at one point I was just hovering, gaining no forward speed.
This made me a bit nervous, so I decided to come down some. As I came lower, the air was more turbulent than before, I decided to do a ground pass for the audience, but was surprised how I was being bumped around. I decided to throttle up and come in for a landing. I was planning a powered landing, but considering how much I was being swayed around, I decided to kill the engine at 20'. Good thing! As I touched down a gust threw me to the right and my knee hit the ground I wasn't injured, but glad to be safely in one piece on solid stuff.
Bill needed to head out, so we packed up and readied to leave. I dropped Maya off at the intersection of I-10 and McCartney.
As I headed home, Bill called me and informed me about the tragic attacks. Amazing to think I was in the air at the time.
