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It's another fly-in here!
Timing is, indeed everything and boy have we lucked out. After
arriving Sunday night we had perfect conditions Monday morning and
evening.
I'll have more but, for now, this little note will do.
Filmer Phil Russman put his magic helmet cam to work while I flew
with a frame mounted GoPro that would show hand movements for various
shots required of Master PPG #2, Inflight Precision. There is too much
vibration but the framing is beautiful. Phil took a turn at flying with
the GoPro camera while another budding helmetcam guru, Mark MacWhirter,
captured Phil. And what a show Phil put on!
While wailing around the dunes, up and over, down, around, up
and...wham! Phil plowed into the top of a dune, spraying sand everywhere
but, amazingly, continuing. He managed to keep his wits, keep the wing
up, keep the power up, and truck right on through, running back into
flight. Having given the sand so much of his airspeed, though, he sunk
down and had to run it out again, even at full power. It was quite
spectacular. Both the GoPro and Mark captured the whole thing.
Evening flying started early since a thin overcast mellowed the sun's
normal mid-day tempest.
Trains are not to be trifled with. While Paul and I were trying to
get a shot along the road, a train went by, parallel to us, about 100
feet away. It through up an amazing amount of turbulence even well after
the engine went by.
We also went out and did a bunch of carving around the dunes with
Russ Batemen who just bought the Rotron rotary engine ParaJet. Now my
Blackhawk 172 is running perfectly but not like that monster.
At one point we were headed for the main east face of the biggest
dunes. It's pretty steep, certainly nothing I would try to outclimb
while heading towards it. So imagine my surprise when Russ did just
that. I'm behind filming as we approached the hill head-on. "he's
not..." I thought. But he did, Throttled that thing up and rocketed
right up the face of that thing. Downwind. OK, I'm impressed. Don't
think it that dangerous, even if it quit he had room plus the sand is
relatively forgiving.
Alas Paul Lundquist and I are going to try again tomorrow along with
trying to capture a little stunt by the Paul of PPG for Moron's fame.
Ought to be interesting. We've got to iron out the excessive vibration
in this footage, though, since it's not acceptable the way it is.
Our weather charm does seem to be tarnishing as the forecast suggests
that tomorrow evening is supposed to get gooey. Then many of us are
going to Mo Sheldon's for his event.
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1. Flying along a dune top.
2. Flying through a dune top. Anything for the camera!
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