Airborne Again

Vulcan 1600 Classic, 2006

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Mon, 14 May 2012 20:20:00 +0000

My new Commuter.

Morgantown Flyability

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 20:46:00 +0000

A look at current conditions for Morgantown.

Little Gap In February

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:31:00 +0000

Woke up this morning and looked out the window to see a beautiful winter morning looking back. The winds were from the North and the temp was on its way up to 40*F. I knew I was either going to go to Church, or fake an illness and go flying. Cough Cough.

Beth's Mom had stayed over with us and they had spent all day painting the bath rooms, Ella, each other, the light switches, mirrow, door, floor, and toilet seat. They still had some more to do and I spent the morning walking around within ear's reach coughing and moaning; it worked. Beth looked at me with knowing eyes and gave me the go-ahead-but-you-are-gonna-pay-for-it-look, and down I ran to the garage to load up my wings, my motor, helmets, and radio's.

First stop Little Gap to paraglide with a PPG (Powered Paragliding) buddy of mine, Vassilis. Both he and I had, within the last 6 months, earned our P2 paragliding rating and were looking to start flying out of Little Gap so we had coordinated for an orientation flight today at noon. After running off the mountain, I'd be heading over to Rob's house in Germansville, PA to Power Paraglide with him and working on his business website: www.skyboltkit.com.

Here is the video from our Paragliding flight off of Little Gap. Vassilis took off approximately 50 feet in front of me but I caught him quickly in my descent to the LZ. Today's flight was a "sledder" (sled ride to the landing area) to the LZ, but I'm not complaining; I still had a ball.

Hope you enjoy the video!

Lil bit of flying this weekend!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Kolb In The Morning = 15 Degrees!

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:50:00 +0000

This morning I got up early and headed to Kolb Field. It snowed in our area recently and I wanted to get up and see the view of Mama Natures white covering. It's too cold to get the Cherokee started without having her preheated, so I took up Shaniqua, my PPG to have a look. It was definitely cold, but I wore 5 layers of thermals and actually ended up soaking wet with sweat by the time I was done. I flew for about 25 minutes before deciding the ride was getting pretty bumpy and trashy. It's supposed to by 60*F tomorrow so the snow will be gone soon enough.

Hope you enjoy the video!

Ya'll Be Particular!

Shane

Corn In My Teeth

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 01:14:00 +0000

Another PERFECT weekend of flying this past weekend. I didn't get through the entire weekend without crashing, but it was a soft crash :-). Ok Ok, not really a crash at all. I was taking off up hill, along a tree line, over fences, bixtweenst horses, and through corn. Everything went find until I got to the "through the corn part". I just couldn't outclimb the terrain and ended up landing in the middle of a large corn field. I spent the next hour untangling my lines and getting my wing and motor back out to open field. No damage! Nice! I love my SkyBolt II Frame built my Mr. Rob Williams of http://www.skyboltkit.com/. I've hit about everything the fields have to offer and I've never damaged it at all - OR ME!

Anyway, Rob and Matt and I had a great weekend of flying and bbqing and swimming and perhaps a beer or 9. We're preparing now to head to Ohio for the annual Flight Junkies Reunion this Thursday through Sunday. Should make for a great time!

Here are two of my video's from this past weekend. I have another one of Rob getting airborne that I have to finish editing. It'll be up soon! Hope you enjoy the video's.

1. Huntin Corn

2. Germansville Ball Diamonds

Back Up At Rob’s, Part Duex

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 23:25:00 +0000

Went back up to Rob’s today to do some more flying in the great Northeast of Pennsylvania. It’s real purty country up there with lots of neat hills and valleys to fly in. We launched about 7:15 pm, but I think we should have waited a bit longer because it was still a bit more turbulent than I love to fly in. Oh well, it builds character, right.

Rob told me it was going to be a “technical” (he called it) departure. I didn’t know he meant we’d be departing towards the mountain, running up hill, in front of the woods, near a 500 kV power line! I got airborne, made a left turn out and began my standard slow climb back to the South. A few minutes later I was up to about 500’ and out of the wires, woods, and wind shear. The rest of the flight went perfect!

Have a looksie:

Flyin’ up at Rob’s place again. This is a nice country up here!

Launch Zone for Flight 2

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Cross Country Flying

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 02:28:00 +0000

I finally did it!!! I finally “cut the cord” and flew a good distance away from the field and stepped out of my comfort zone flying PPG’s and went somewhere. Where? 20.02 miles down the way! I departed Morgantown this morning and pointed Bertha East towards Kolb Field in Phoenixville. I immediately began wondering if I made the right decision because it was quite a bit bumpy with early morning lifty / sinky air. I pressed on and 37 minutes later, I landed at Kolb Field.

I thought for a while about calling for a ride back, but figured I’d better at least try the flight back to Morgantown before throwing in the towel. On the way out to Morgantown this morning (at 5:00 am), I stopped by Kolb and left a full gas can and set up a wind sock. I topped off my fuel tank and got airborne again, this time having difficulty gaining altitude due to the “rotor” effect of the wind off the tree line surrounding the field. I did get airborne and high enough to miss the tree and the lines and began my SLOW 6 mph journey back to Morgantown. I was headed in to the wind this time and boy it showed. No longer could I enjoy the 40+mph ground speed that I had experienced on the way over.

I flew about 1/3 of the way back to Morgantown before finally accepting the fact that I wouldn’t have enough fuel at this speed to make it back. I landed in a field across the street from O & J Roberts High School and gave my buddy Matt a call to come get me. He quickly arrived and back to Morgantown we went. I’m really happy that I did the cross country and I can’t wait to redo the return trip with more cooperative winds. Here’s the vid!

My First Real Cross Country PPG Flight. Morgantown to Kolb, 20.02 Miles!

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Campin’ Out In Morgantown

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 01:57:00 +0000

Given most any weekend where the the weather is nice for flying, you’ll find a tent or two set up out in Morgantown PPG Field. It makes it so much easier to fly until 30 minutes past sunset (with a strobe), and then get up and fly again 30 minutes before the sun peaks back on the other side of the whole wide world. This really does happen most weekends!

This weekend we must have had 10 wings up and 5 folks staying over night having a swaller of beer after flying and sitting out by the camp fire in the darkness of a night. Out here in Morgantown, there isn’t any light pollution so you get a GREAT view of the stars so pack a sleeping bag and a tent, and bring a long a telescope; we’ve got the beer.

Hope you enjoy the video!

Lil bit of flying this weekend!

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Miss Maple in the Shade

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 03:01:00 +0000

The last flight of the morning I decided to travel up the way to Shady Maple, which is a humongous buffet joint just West of Morgantown. This place seats about a bazillion folks and has the best breakfast selection that I've ever seen. The food bars are about the length of a football field. You there laughing! I'm serious! Fathead! The place opens up at 5:00 am and you better hurry because I think it closes at 10:00 a.m. and there will be a long line. The Good Folks out in these parts get up about 3:30 every morning to start their work and somebody's gotta feed them. Do yourself a favor, look up Shady Maple and give 'em a taste test; you'll be real proud you did. The flying was fun but a bit bumpy as the sun has been out cooking the ground for a while and the convective currents had already begun. Hope you enjoy the vid.

Flying Rob's Place

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 01:17:00 +0000

Matt and I headed up to Rob's Place today for a bit of flying around New Tripoli. This turned out to be an excellent flight with gorgeous scenery and perfect weather. The area is a bit more technical that I am used to as it's departing uphill, along a tree line, with rapidly rising terrain. I ended up landing near the top of the hill because some power lines were in the near distance and I didn't want to take a chance on getting caught up in the them. I looked around a bit after landing an now know that I did have an "out" to the North that allowed for descending terrain. I'm going back soon so I'll know then! Here's the vid!

Happy Independence Day

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 23:57:00 +0000

We're headed down to Hilton Head this Saturday, so I wanted to get a flight in this afternoon so I could feed my airborne craving just before leaving on Holiday. The picture to the left is Morgantown Airport, in Morgantown PA. This is about 3 miles East of where we fly paragliders out of. We (PPG) fly in the early morning and late afternoon and the Gliders fly in the middle of the day so we happy co-exist without getting in each other's way. My flight was fairly early in the morning and I had radio's with me to check on any air traffic in the area before doing my fly over. Plus I got to see da Walmart from above!

Scramble Scramble Unknown Rider

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 03:49:00 +0000

This afternoon I was sittin' there minding my own business when the scramble alarm went off. Seems someone thought we were being invaded from another PPG club and I was sent out to investigate. Lucky for us, I wasn't the last line of defense cuz I'm always liable to crash before I get airborne, just after getting airborne, or blowing a gasket and just barely reaching the (my) crash site. I got airborne and searched for the boagie and finally spotted him down low. When I caught him in my new fast wing, I recognized him as one of our own, Rick. Rick flys KingAir's so he's definitely one of the good guys. We flew around together for a bit and then I came back to do a planned engine out approach followed later by a real engine out approach. Enjoy!

A bit of the hair of the dog that bit me!

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 01:39:00 +0000

Oh what a night! Last night, we went out for a birthday drink and ended up having one more, 10 times. Ugh! I started with a little tiny sampler of various microbrews and then got a birthday drink, then another one, and then I couldn't spell anymore and next thing I knew it was 1:00 a.m. and I had to get up inaminute. I had a ball though and thanks Beth and Joy and Matt for a happy birthday celebration!
I got a new Reflex Wing for my birthday and wanted to try it out. Kevin, my instructor, was at the field and I decided to give it a try. Later, Matt and Jeff played around kiting it for a while while Mike got ready to fly. Thanks guys for allowing me to bust on ya'll - you're good peeps! Hope ya'll enjoy this silly video.

Flying Time Again

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 01:28:00 +0000

I wanted to make sure I got out again this week before my Birthday in case we go busy doing stuff and I wasn't able to get airborne. I heard of air-sickness before, but I get ground-sickness from not being able to fly every few days. lol
I'm happy ya'll stop by and look at the video's; I figure when I celebrate a few more birthdays and my teeth start falling out, I'll be able to look back at these and remember what I used to do as a younger chap. Of course, they do have quads and trikes that can be connected below the wings, so hopefully I'll still be flying when I'm 102. Wouldn't that be scary; forget who and where I am at a thousand feet about the ground and not having a clue where to land. If ya'll find me in your back yard, can you send me home?
Hope you like the vid!

Bugs In My Teeth

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 17:42:00 +0000

The sun just started its morning climb, get dressed and out of them ‘jama’s,

Brush your teeth and comb your hair, you look like Bigfoot’s Mama.

Grab your motor, grab your wing, and get on out to the field,

There’s sites to see, for you and me, it’s gonna be a thrill.

My wing spread wide, the lines all straight, my beeners secure at the clip,

The grass is wet, must watch my step, so I don’t start sliding and slip.

Bertha is purring, she’s ready to go, just waiting on a squeeze of the trigger,

I pick out my spot and start running a lot, my grin it couldn’t be bigger.

It takes me a while, but in under a mile, I finally have air just below me,

Slowly at first, cuz gas she does thirst, but soon she starts climbing more quickly.

We fly over here, and we fly over there, to see all the sites there below us,

The chickens, potatoes, the corn maze, tomatoes, the cows that look at us in chorus.

And sometimes it’s fun, to fly way down low, to watch all the sites at our feet,

The perspective of speed is all that I need, when flying in fields of tall wheat.

A wake I do leave, or sometimes a hole, if I don’t judge my airspeed correctly,

I’ve crashed once or twice, or maybe its thrice, where they’ve had to send someone to get me.

But usually I launch and return on my own, to gas up and go for another,

It may be up high, right up in the sky or maybe down here in ground cover.

I’m grinning for sure just zoom in and look at my wing where I’m sitting beneath,

I know this is true, It may have happened to you, cuz I’m grinning with bugs in my teeth.

Joe & Joe & The Morgantown Creek

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:01:00 +0000

This weekend Joe and Joe came up from Delaware and Maryland to see what all this PAPPG (Pennsylvania Powered Paragliding) stuff was all about. We (PAPPG) think we have a pretty good spot and are always happy to share the air with our friends and neighbors out of state. So much so, in fact, that seldom do we have a week of flying go by that we don't have several different states represented and you betcha that we consider them PAPPG'ers. They're good folks and always welcome.
Both Joes have been flying for approx 10 years and it was obvious as soon as they got their gear out. It takes me about 30 minutes to get set up whilst it took them about 2, plus they launch with Tea & Crumpets in their hands and I don't think took more than 2 steps to get airborne. One day I'll be able to match the number of my takeoff's to good landings. :-) This video shows a bit of the creek that runs down Morgantown and some footage of J2 (Joe & Joe) flying with me. Hope you enjoy it!

Post Weather Hold Playtime

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:14:00 +0000

After striking out twice with the weather days earlier, I was finally able to get back in the air for a fun ride this evening. A few of us headed back out to Morgantown for some evening flying and Matt and I did some airborne surveillance of the area prior to the sun going down. With the addition of strobes on our Paramotors, the regs allow us to fly up to 30 minutes past sunset - so we do. :-) Landing is sometimes, uhm, fun when I forget to take my sunglasses off (which I use for eye (bugs) protection). Perhaps some shooters glasses or something would work out better. We'll see. Hah! Here's a short vid from today's flying! Hope you enjoy it!

Mother Nature: 2 Me: 0

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:19:00 +0000

Man-O-Man was Mother Nature a wench this weekend. First, We all drove up to New Tripoli Pennsyvlania to visit with Rob and fly at one of his fields. Matt & Ginger had gone up to rebuild the carb on Matt's paramotor, and Beth and I showed up an hour later to install some camera mounts on Bertha so I could add some more camera angles to my flights. After everything was all put back together, we loaded up and drove up the road to do some flying in the fields. The wind was howling a lil bit but it felt steady, and therefore predictable. I launched and immediately wished I hadn't. I landed about 30 seconds later. That was Saturday. On Sunday, I flew out at Kolb while Beth ran the perimeter of the runway a few times. I got airborne and the ride wasn't bad but clouds began to quickly build and I was afraid that a thunderstorm was developing and didn't want to get launched over to North Dakota - so I landed, loaded up, and will wait for next weekend. I hate it when I can't fly long. :-( Po Me.

Here's the vid:

Lil Ole Ride In The Sky

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 20:41:00 +0000

Did some camping out this weekend with Ella. I went flying for a bit then Ella and I played frisbee and she taught me how to chase bugs. She was such a lil "ham" out there getting scratchin's from everyone and quickly identifying snack opportunities. Its funny to watch her "in action" as she wiggles up to someone and gives them a big ole smile and then promptly rolls over on her back for a belly run, and oh yea - a snack too. If she wasn't so good at it, I'd have to stop her from doing it, little baconator!

She loves camping out and is a great tent mate; she doesn't snore (too loudly) and only toots occasionally! She IS a Bulldog after all. :-) Hope you enjoy the video.

Wheat! It's what's for Dinner

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Mon, 23 May 2011 03:31:00 +0000

The weather has been getting nicer and we're starting to notice more and more of the 2010 crowd come back out to fly with us. It's really nice to see the PAPPG (Pennsylvania Powered Paragliders, http://www.pappg.com/) gang back out again. We're already starting to plan some weekend campouts, cross country flights, and perhaps poker runs and flight competitions. It's really a fun time. You can contact the instructor via the logo on the wing there (see picture) and schedule a tandem ride to see if you like it and if this is something you may like to learn to do. It's really an amazing ride!

Parajets and Rollercoasters

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Sat, 14 May 2011 14:47:00 +0000

The weatherman said "Good To Go" but Mother Nature chuckled silently as she watched me putting my gear together to go flying.

Vassilis was also out today in Morgantown and had brought along his new Wing and ParaJet paramotor. Very nice setup indeed!

My launch ended up being a comedy act as I was pulled left and started running towards the bean fields. Rather than harvest the crops I killed the motor and straightened out my wing to go again. Vassilis' was ready to go so away he went with his new motor - which is very quiet and VERY powerful. Once he got airborne he began a quick climb and then powered way back to avoid a self-induced airshow. I launched next and immediately decided I wasn't loving the ride today. Very lifty/sinky today and I elected to land and fly again later - when it would be much more enjoyable. The only problem was, dispite how hard I tried, I couldn't lose altitude on short final and kept going around for another go. Lot's of convective activity on the hill today and finally after a bunch of low apporaches, I was able to land. Vassilis did the smart thing and killed his engine 1/4 mile final and rode the roallercoaster back to the field.

Watching the video at YouTube in HD gives you the best picture.

Playin' In Poo, Mount Parapoo That Is

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Mon, 09 May 2011 00:18:00 +0000

Woke up early this morning and headed out to Morgantown. Winds were forecast to come from the South so I chose Morgantown instead of Kolb, however the wind was actually as calm as could be. Wasn't too bad though, as I was able to point down hill and run like a crazy woman ata hair spray sale and got airborne headed South.
With only a couple of exceptions, I hadn't yet "cut the cord" and stayed fairly close to the field. I did recently venture to Cow Mountain and a couple of other areas, but today I wanted to climb Mount Parapoo. I'd heard others talk about it but was still a little too cautious to go that far. I did today and loved it!

After visiting Parapoo, I headed towards the cows again to check on them, then flew East towards the windmill cafe'. The conditions were absolutely smooth as glass all morning and I never once got bounced around and enter lifty-sinky air. It was the best air yet this year. I'm sure there is more to come, but up until now it had been the smoothest in 2011.

Welcome to Mount Parapoo!

Blown Up Over Phoenixville

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Sun, 01 May 2011 19:30:00 +0000

Got up early this morning to depart from Kolb Field and head West to join up with Matt who would be flying in from Morgantown. I figured I'd get in a warm up flight in the area, then land and refuel before heading out to meet him. I never made it.

I had been hanging out over the golf course watching the morning golfers head to their golfcarts to load up their clubs. There were a couple of hackers already out but not many. I'd just finished a light 360 overhead and began heading over to the East to overfly my house - didn't make that either. Bertha's exhaust blew up and actually cracked completely in half. Luckily, the muffler was well attached and no pieces flew off. After landing and putting Bertha away, Matt arrived at Kolb Field after a 22 miles cross country journey! Great Job Dude. The rest of us will be doing that soon!

Enjoy the vid:

Walkin' My Way Back Home

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Sun, 01 May 2011 01:20:00 +0000

Matt and I went flying from Morgantown this afternoon as the conditions were settling and the flying conditions promised to be about perfect!

Matt's planning to stay out in Morgantown tonight and fly out to Kolb Field (departing from Morgantown) in the morning.

Tonights flight did prove in great conditions and I was feeling like I wanted to do some foot draggin', which is when you drag your foot along the ground to practive control of your climb/descent/speed/drag management all in one. I soon discovered that my drag and descent were good but my climb and speed would need a little work. Soon, I'd be walkin' my way back home.

Cow Mountain - Heffers In Battle

noreply@blogger.com (OtisAir) — Sun, 01 May 2011 01:07:00 +0000

Woke up early this morning to go flying but soon discovered that the winds were blowing much faster than I could run. For the 30 seconds I did get airborne, I felt like a 3 foot tall person stuck inside of a packed elevator - the situation stank and I was getting hit from all sides!

Later on this afternoon, however, I was able to get in a great flight and finally got down to see Cow Mountain - which is a name we (PPGers) gave this large hill in the middle of a pasture that the cows love to climb up and play King, er Queen of the hill. As I was flying over I saw one large Heffer biotch slap another one tryin to take her spot. Honest!

Here, take a look: