Waltm
09-21-2004, 08:01 PM
There's been enough talk about my little incident - which was only one of at least 6 offsite landings that I know of.
The sixth annual Powrachute Extravaganza was held this past Thursday thru Sunday in the same field just east of Columbus, KS. Powrachute is on the bleeding edge with some of their offerings, folks. There was a Harley Davidson powered Pegasus that sounded BAAAAAD! The jet chute was there making it's incredibly LOUD noises. And Eddie Johnson unveiled the prototype of their new concept PPC (it doesn't have a name yet that I know). It was a very interesting machine. Completely enclosed. From what I understand, they're even going to have HEAT in it ported back from the engine. That'll make flying in those cold northern winter climates more comfortable.
It was a nice drive until I got to the Oklahoma/Kansas border - when the rain POURED down. I had endured a heavy rainshower the previous year but this year I was prepared with my new 30' Admiral motorhome! I arrived about 8:30pm on Wednesday evening to find a couple of the list regulars already set up. Nail, Ed Neff and John Wilson had already homesteaded their sites and I pulled up alongside their rigs. I called Nail on the phone as I was going through Columbus and got informed that he was at dinner at Crestline (just down the road) in an open bed truck with about 8 other people. Someone was going to have to ride in the back of the truck in the rain...
Got there, set up and walked around meeting old friends. There had been a little flying done that day but everything was winding down for the evening because of the rain.
Thursday morning was cold and breezy. I woke up early (5ish) and wandered out into the main tent to find Jay Gill from Arkansas. Jay is one of the Sho-Me chute members out at Ernie Baugh's field, although he lives a couple hours south of the field. He's always been the safety marshal at Ernie's Sho-Me Chute flyin and it's always had an exemplary safety record.
The first morning's crowd filled many of the seats in the tent but seemed to be a little lighter than the year before. Because of the storm and accompanying front that had come through the night before, it was very cool and the winds were a bit high. They opened the field for fun flying, however, and a few brave and hardy souls ventured forth.
Three of those souls were Morris Yoder, myself and Bobby <Sorry, Bobby. Can't remember your last name>. Morris was in charge of the mass launch and Bobby and I were group leaders from the previous year. We went out to map out the pattern that we were going to fly this year for the mass launch.
It was a good but breezy flight. Bobby flies a square chute and was quickly left behind by Morris and myself. Morris also flies a square chute but his 912-equipped Pegasus had more than enough weight to keep pace with my Thunderbolt. The wind was brisk. We were looking at only 10-15 mph speed into the wind and Bobby was barely able to move. We mapped out a good route with some very visible landmarks that would be easy to spot, however.
When we returned, the field had already been redflagged because of the increasing wind. That put us all on the ground for most of the day. I wandered around and listened in on a couple of the seminars. Jim Sweeney was talking about Sport Pilot - which seemed to be the major topic on everyone's thoughts. There were more talks about SP than any other topic. Jim Sweeney gave one, Jim Stephenson of the ASC also talked about it, we had TWO different reps. from the FAA give us MORE information and, to top it off, John and Martha King also had a VERY good chat with us about the new rule on Saturday. I was Sport Piloted out!!!
I spent the day browsing through the vendor tents, chatting with friends and buying more stuff from Bear Perkins than I needed. As I rode around the Extravaganza site on my motorcycle, I came across a rather smallish fellow unloading his equipment from what appeared to be an old delivery van. I stopped to help him. It turned out to be Rockin' John Carr - who had just made the trip from the Far East (New York or somewhere like that) with his new Rascal and
The field was opened again in the afternoon for fun flying and I took off and made a quick solo flight to Big Brutus. The Extravaganza would not be complete without a flight to Big B. I wandered around the countryside and enjoyed a great 1 hour flight.
Friday morning's briefing was much better attended. It was a whole heck of a lot warmer than Thursday, too! The pilots had started arriving in force and the field was filling rapidly. There STILL didn't look like there were as many attendees as last year but it was still a good turnout. The Harley Pegasus was making it's awesome growl and Bear was doing a brisk business. The air was calm and the competition flying got started early on the left side of the field. I flew my competition routine and then headed out to experience a new feature of the Extravaganza - the AEROBATIC BOX that had been set aside for us foolhardy souls. Ed Neff and I made full use of it, too. :-)
As you're all probably aware by now, I've figured out how to get a powered parachute cart in a completely unnatural position in relation to its chute. The crowd was watching and I was at my most foolhardy. If I'd had a microphone attached to Vernon Peckham's loudspeakers, I'd have done a good redneck rendition of "Hey, y'all. Watch this!!" (What's the last thing that a redneck says before he removes himself from the gene pool?)
Anyway, the weather was perfect and I proceeded to do a good show of barrel rolls, a loop or two and some decent Ed Neff-style death spirals. From what I understand, the watching crowd was awed and amazed ("Look at that fool. He's gonna kill himself!").
I got back to the ground to be greeted by the videographer and photographer who were filming and documenting the flyin for the Extravaganza video. They asked to mount a camera on my plane and film my "airshow" the next time that I went flying. Cool! Paul mounted the small camera on my machine and placed the recorder and power supply into my ditty bag.
We agreed to go back up that afternoon so that he could shoot me from a separate camera ship. About 3:30pm, with camera ppc close behind, I climbed back into the sky and headed over to the aerobatic box. We shot a little over 30 minutes of video. Paul had a digital camcorder and was nice enough to let me download the tape onto my laptop's hard drive. I have posted two examples of some of the maneuvers (a series of barrel rolls and a death spiral) to the "Files" section of the Yahoo! newsgroup.
Saturday morning's mass launch was once again a successful event - it almost didn't happen, though. Once again, those dreaded winds were blowing hard. The pilot briefing was at 6:00am and, by 6:30am, the winds were very brisk. Morris Yoder went up and checked the winds. They were out of the south which dismayed us greatly because the route that we had planned took us north of the field. It was with a little trepidation that we heard Morris over the radio say that, at 1000 ft, he was almost sitting stationary and only making 5 mph against the wind. At 500 ft, it was a bit better, however, and Eddie made the decision to launch.
We talked it over and decided to take a southern route instead of a northern route. This was completely opposite from what was planned.
Some changes to the mass launch were made this year. Eddie noted that, so far, every mass launch had been successful with no injuries. Last year's launch had made the insurance company very nervous, however. There were a LOT of ppcs flying continuously by the center field with no form or fashion. I was amazed that we didn't have any collisions last year. This year, it was decided that there would be no flyby. Each pilot would make one trip around the pattern and then land. Although it wasn't as much fun, it really made sense to me safetywise.
I was given the task of being the lead pilot to launch. I had to launch first and lead the other pilots in a pattern that would make a loop big enough so that the first pilot to take off would land after the last pilot departed. Over a route that I'd never been to before... without having any idea of what land area was down there... yeah, right!
The launch went off perfectly. There was one pilot that managed to somehow get his riser attacked by his prop on take off (I won't mention any names, Kurt) but, otherwise, it went off without a hitch. I kept in touch with Morris over the radio and was on a 1/2 mile final as I watched the last pilot depart from the flyin field. The winds had died down by the time that we finally started the Saturday morning launch and was flyable for the rest of the day.
After the mass launch, Eddie debutted the prototype of a new Powrachute. It's just a concept vehicle right now, but it looks like something that will get the attention of pilots who live in the frozen North (anywhere north of Texas is the frozen North to me). John Michael Montgomery had arrived for the evening's show and he got into the new vehicle for some photos.
Nail's flag was brought out, once again, for the obligatory photo shoot of all planes gathered around the Powrachute logo. I don't know WHERE Nail got that monster flag, but it's become a required part of the event. :-)
After the photos were taken, I was sitting on the field chatting when I saw the demise of the Harley Pegasus. Somehow, Ron Johnson managed to fly it into the ground and did some substantial damage to it. I think that he was following in the smoke trail left by Linnus Campbell. Linnus' machine makes more smoke than ANY that I've ever seen. Too bad about the Harley Pegasus. I really liked listening to that machine go...
The rest of the afternoon was spent doing a favor for a friend. Many of you know Josh Wooding - the firefighter from Little Rock, Arkansas. Josh had contacted me a few weeks prior to the Extravaganza and informed me that he wanted to propose to his girlfriend, Stephanie, at the flyin. I had four banners made - "Will", "You", "Marry" and "Me?". :-)
Scott Hughes and I spent the afternoon attaching weights and line to the banners. The idea was that, at a predetermined time, Vern Peckham would call Stephanie to the stage, we'd fly by with the banners and Josh would fall down on his knees and beg to be her slave forever. :-) We were going to tie weights to the bottom of the banners, with the top end tied to our machines, and throw them over the side and below us where they could be easily viewed by people on the ground.
Didn't quite work out as planned... What does? Scott, myself, Roger Bailey and Keith Storrs got into our machines and I took off. I heard over the radio that Scott had aborted his takeoff. Seems that the doofus had managed to lose his banner during takeoff and he wisely aborted and had to re-layout his chute. No problem. I'd use the time as an opportunity to throw mine over the side and make sure that it unfurled correctly. It dropped over the side just perfectly and started to unfurl. Unfortunately, as soon as it unfurled it headed STRAIGHT for my prop. The weight that Scott had used was waaaaay too light. I could see myself crashing with the banner wrapped around the nubs of my props. I fought hard with the banner to reel it back in. Luckily, just the very ends of the banner got caught in my prop blades and did not do any damage. I quickly called the other pilots and told them to NOT throw their banners over the side. This wasn't going to work! A new plan was quickly hatched.
It was decided that the four banner carriers would fly in formation straight to the grandstand. We'd land in front of the grandstand, jump out and hold up the banners. This worked perfectly. Vernon called Stephanie onto the stage, Josh walked up with her, we flew in formation and landed straight in front of the grandstand, Josh proposed, Stephanie said "Yes". Ed Neff flew by and smoked everyone in the audience. Mission accomplished!
The evening's festivities were just getting started. At dusk, "Pyro" Bill Amyx did his pyrotechnical show with fireworks being shot off of his plane, off of the ground, etc... That's always a good show.
One of the highlights of the event was the concert by John Michael Montgomery. I like his type of country music and the flyin field was packed with fans. After the concert, JMM drew out the name of the winner of the Pegasus - John Lorkin (sp?) from Utah. Congratulations, John!
I was going to head out early on Sunday morning but the weather was pretty. The videographer and photographer asked me to fly along so that they could shoot some more finishing shots and, since I had promised another flight to Becky Leedhoff (daughter of some friends), I agreed. We headed up and shot a few photos before I went back to the field to let Becky out. That was when I decided to go up "one last time" before breaking down and heading for the house. The event that occurred after that is pretty well known by now - I lost 1/3rd of my chute and had to make an aborted landing in a cow pasture.
Other than the last hour or so (for me), it was an awesome flyin. I don't think that there were as many attendees as last year, but it wasn't by much. The flying was definitely better than last year. We got to fly almost all day on Friday and Saturday.
Hope to see ya there next year!
Walt...
The sixth annual Powrachute Extravaganza was held this past Thursday thru Sunday in the same field just east of Columbus, KS. Powrachute is on the bleeding edge with some of their offerings, folks. There was a Harley Davidson powered Pegasus that sounded BAAAAAD! The jet chute was there making it's incredibly LOUD noises. And Eddie Johnson unveiled the prototype of their new concept PPC (it doesn't have a name yet that I know). It was a very interesting machine. Completely enclosed. From what I understand, they're even going to have HEAT in it ported back from the engine. That'll make flying in those cold northern winter climates more comfortable.
It was a nice drive until I got to the Oklahoma/Kansas border - when the rain POURED down. I had endured a heavy rainshower the previous year but this year I was prepared with my new 30' Admiral motorhome! I arrived about 8:30pm on Wednesday evening to find a couple of the list regulars already set up. Nail, Ed Neff and John Wilson had already homesteaded their sites and I pulled up alongside their rigs. I called Nail on the phone as I was going through Columbus and got informed that he was at dinner at Crestline (just down the road) in an open bed truck with about 8 other people. Someone was going to have to ride in the back of the truck in the rain...
Got there, set up and walked around meeting old friends. There had been a little flying done that day but everything was winding down for the evening because of the rain.
Thursday morning was cold and breezy. I woke up early (5ish) and wandered out into the main tent to find Jay Gill from Arkansas. Jay is one of the Sho-Me chute members out at Ernie Baugh's field, although he lives a couple hours south of the field. He's always been the safety marshal at Ernie's Sho-Me Chute flyin and it's always had an exemplary safety record.
The first morning's crowd filled many of the seats in the tent but seemed to be a little lighter than the year before. Because of the storm and accompanying front that had come through the night before, it was very cool and the winds were a bit high. They opened the field for fun flying, however, and a few brave and hardy souls ventured forth.
Three of those souls were Morris Yoder, myself and Bobby <Sorry, Bobby. Can't remember your last name>. Morris was in charge of the mass launch and Bobby and I were group leaders from the previous year. We went out to map out the pattern that we were going to fly this year for the mass launch.
It was a good but breezy flight. Bobby flies a square chute and was quickly left behind by Morris and myself. Morris also flies a square chute but his 912-equipped Pegasus had more than enough weight to keep pace with my Thunderbolt. The wind was brisk. We were looking at only 10-15 mph speed into the wind and Bobby was barely able to move. We mapped out a good route with some very visible landmarks that would be easy to spot, however.
When we returned, the field had already been redflagged because of the increasing wind. That put us all on the ground for most of the day. I wandered around and listened in on a couple of the seminars. Jim Sweeney was talking about Sport Pilot - which seemed to be the major topic on everyone's thoughts. There were more talks about SP than any other topic. Jim Sweeney gave one, Jim Stephenson of the ASC also talked about it, we had TWO different reps. from the FAA give us MORE information and, to top it off, John and Martha King also had a VERY good chat with us about the new rule on Saturday. I was Sport Piloted out!!!
I spent the day browsing through the vendor tents, chatting with friends and buying more stuff from Bear Perkins than I needed. As I rode around the Extravaganza site on my motorcycle, I came across a rather smallish fellow unloading his equipment from what appeared to be an old delivery van. I stopped to help him. It turned out to be Rockin' John Carr - who had just made the trip from the Far East (New York or somewhere like that) with his new Rascal and
The field was opened again in the afternoon for fun flying and I took off and made a quick solo flight to Big Brutus. The Extravaganza would not be complete without a flight to Big B. I wandered around the countryside and enjoyed a great 1 hour flight.
Friday morning's briefing was much better attended. It was a whole heck of a lot warmer than Thursday, too! The pilots had started arriving in force and the field was filling rapidly. There STILL didn't look like there were as many attendees as last year but it was still a good turnout. The Harley Pegasus was making it's awesome growl and Bear was doing a brisk business. The air was calm and the competition flying got started early on the left side of the field. I flew my competition routine and then headed out to experience a new feature of the Extravaganza - the AEROBATIC BOX that had been set aside for us foolhardy souls. Ed Neff and I made full use of it, too. :-)
As you're all probably aware by now, I've figured out how to get a powered parachute cart in a completely unnatural position in relation to its chute. The crowd was watching and I was at my most foolhardy. If I'd had a microphone attached to Vernon Peckham's loudspeakers, I'd have done a good redneck rendition of "Hey, y'all. Watch this!!" (What's the last thing that a redneck says before he removes himself from the gene pool?)
Anyway, the weather was perfect and I proceeded to do a good show of barrel rolls, a loop or two and some decent Ed Neff-style death spirals. From what I understand, the watching crowd was awed and amazed ("Look at that fool. He's gonna kill himself!").
I got back to the ground to be greeted by the videographer and photographer who were filming and documenting the flyin for the Extravaganza video. They asked to mount a camera on my plane and film my "airshow" the next time that I went flying. Cool! Paul mounted the small camera on my machine and placed the recorder and power supply into my ditty bag.
We agreed to go back up that afternoon so that he could shoot me from a separate camera ship. About 3:30pm, with camera ppc close behind, I climbed back into the sky and headed over to the aerobatic box. We shot a little over 30 minutes of video. Paul had a digital camcorder and was nice enough to let me download the tape onto my laptop's hard drive. I have posted two examples of some of the maneuvers (a series of barrel rolls and a death spiral) to the "Files" section of the Yahoo! newsgroup.
Saturday morning's mass launch was once again a successful event - it almost didn't happen, though. Once again, those dreaded winds were blowing hard. The pilot briefing was at 6:00am and, by 6:30am, the winds were very brisk. Morris Yoder went up and checked the winds. They were out of the south which dismayed us greatly because the route that we had planned took us north of the field. It was with a little trepidation that we heard Morris over the radio say that, at 1000 ft, he was almost sitting stationary and only making 5 mph against the wind. At 500 ft, it was a bit better, however, and Eddie made the decision to launch.
We talked it over and decided to take a southern route instead of a northern route. This was completely opposite from what was planned.
Some changes to the mass launch were made this year. Eddie noted that, so far, every mass launch had been successful with no injuries. Last year's launch had made the insurance company very nervous, however. There were a LOT of ppcs flying continuously by the center field with no form or fashion. I was amazed that we didn't have any collisions last year. This year, it was decided that there would be no flyby. Each pilot would make one trip around the pattern and then land. Although it wasn't as much fun, it really made sense to me safetywise.
I was given the task of being the lead pilot to launch. I had to launch first and lead the other pilots in a pattern that would make a loop big enough so that the first pilot to take off would land after the last pilot departed. Over a route that I'd never been to before... without having any idea of what land area was down there... yeah, right!
The launch went off perfectly. There was one pilot that managed to somehow get his riser attacked by his prop on take off (I won't mention any names, Kurt) but, otherwise, it went off without a hitch. I kept in touch with Morris over the radio and was on a 1/2 mile final as I watched the last pilot depart from the flyin field. The winds had died down by the time that we finally started the Saturday morning launch and was flyable for the rest of the day.
After the mass launch, Eddie debutted the prototype of a new Powrachute. It's just a concept vehicle right now, but it looks like something that will get the attention of pilots who live in the frozen North (anywhere north of Texas is the frozen North to me). John Michael Montgomery had arrived for the evening's show and he got into the new vehicle for some photos.
Nail's flag was brought out, once again, for the obligatory photo shoot of all planes gathered around the Powrachute logo. I don't know WHERE Nail got that monster flag, but it's become a required part of the event. :-)
After the photos were taken, I was sitting on the field chatting when I saw the demise of the Harley Pegasus. Somehow, Ron Johnson managed to fly it into the ground and did some substantial damage to it. I think that he was following in the smoke trail left by Linnus Campbell. Linnus' machine makes more smoke than ANY that I've ever seen. Too bad about the Harley Pegasus. I really liked listening to that machine go...
The rest of the afternoon was spent doing a favor for a friend. Many of you know Josh Wooding - the firefighter from Little Rock, Arkansas. Josh had contacted me a few weeks prior to the Extravaganza and informed me that he wanted to propose to his girlfriend, Stephanie, at the flyin. I had four banners made - "Will", "You", "Marry" and "Me?". :-)
Scott Hughes and I spent the afternoon attaching weights and line to the banners. The idea was that, at a predetermined time, Vern Peckham would call Stephanie to the stage, we'd fly by with the banners and Josh would fall down on his knees and beg to be her slave forever. :-) We were going to tie weights to the bottom of the banners, with the top end tied to our machines, and throw them over the side and below us where they could be easily viewed by people on the ground.
Didn't quite work out as planned... What does? Scott, myself, Roger Bailey and Keith Storrs got into our machines and I took off. I heard over the radio that Scott had aborted his takeoff. Seems that the doofus had managed to lose his banner during takeoff and he wisely aborted and had to re-layout his chute. No problem. I'd use the time as an opportunity to throw mine over the side and make sure that it unfurled correctly. It dropped over the side just perfectly and started to unfurl. Unfortunately, as soon as it unfurled it headed STRAIGHT for my prop. The weight that Scott had used was waaaaay too light. I could see myself crashing with the banner wrapped around the nubs of my props. I fought hard with the banner to reel it back in. Luckily, just the very ends of the banner got caught in my prop blades and did not do any damage. I quickly called the other pilots and told them to NOT throw their banners over the side. This wasn't going to work! A new plan was quickly hatched.
It was decided that the four banner carriers would fly in formation straight to the grandstand. We'd land in front of the grandstand, jump out and hold up the banners. This worked perfectly. Vernon called Stephanie onto the stage, Josh walked up with her, we flew in formation and landed straight in front of the grandstand, Josh proposed, Stephanie said "Yes". Ed Neff flew by and smoked everyone in the audience. Mission accomplished!
The evening's festivities were just getting started. At dusk, "Pyro" Bill Amyx did his pyrotechnical show with fireworks being shot off of his plane, off of the ground, etc... That's always a good show.
One of the highlights of the event was the concert by John Michael Montgomery. I like his type of country music and the flyin field was packed with fans. After the concert, JMM drew out the name of the winner of the Pegasus - John Lorkin (sp?) from Utah. Congratulations, John!
I was going to head out early on Sunday morning but the weather was pretty. The videographer and photographer asked me to fly along so that they could shoot some more finishing shots and, since I had promised another flight to Becky Leedhoff (daughter of some friends), I agreed. We headed up and shot a few photos before I went back to the field to let Becky out. That was when I decided to go up "one last time" before breaking down and heading for the house. The event that occurred after that is pretty well known by now - I lost 1/3rd of my chute and had to make an aborted landing in a cow pasture.
Other than the last hour or so (for me), it was an awesome flyin. I don't think that there were as many attendees as last year, but it wasn't by much. The flying was definitely better than last year. We got to fly almost all day on Friday and Saturday.
Hope to see ya there next year!
Walt...