It was a red sunrise as I taxied toward alpha. I called ground and I could barely hear them and could not understand them. I had a little challenge with the radio the last time I flew and oddly enough, it got worse. I was getting some kind of noise in sync with the engine. I turned off the alternator with the mystery switch and it did not help. I tried my hand held and it worked fine with the engine running. I removed the radio from its tray, re-installed it and after that it worked great????
Back to Alpha I went, the winds were starting to come and I was afraid it would be like yesterday with too much wind. It is supposed to rain tomorrow, so I was particularly anxious to fly.
Terry has me beginning my pre-rotation before I pull onto the runway up to about 75 rpm. This makes for a shorter delay on the runway and has not caused any problems so far.
I continue to expand my grasp of the environment. When I cut back to 1,800 rpm abeam the numbers I am at 600 feet agl. I turn at the lights and I am descending at 500 feet per minute from 400 feet above ground level. If I reduce the engine to 1200 rpm I descend at 900 feet per minute. I climb out at 1100 feet per minute. At 2450 rpm I am level at 75 miles per hour.
I feel like I am getting to know her and just starting to caress her.
Today I flew for 2.3 hours and every landing, every take off and every tower communication but the first one was lovely. When I made the first tower call I was still on the ground frequency, ooops!
I had several landings that looked like they weren’t going to work out. They ended up being very smooth. I believe that I am developing a feel for it.
There were a lot of commercial jets today and I was cautioned about wake turbulence. I was careful to land further down the runway than they touched down. I followed a Fed Ex jet that landed late and it felt like stairs as I descended. I don’t know if the is wake turbulence or not. It started getting bumpy about eight feet up. Any opinions?
I now have 31.4 hours in the Predator with 25 hours at Santa Maria. I have 127
landings. I am pleased with my progress.
I had my camera with me but when I took my gloves off to take a picture I nearly dropped the camera because my hands were completely numb. I was not successful. The view at sunrise was stunning with the red clouds, the white sand dunes and the deep blue water.
I have not figured out where it would be safe to climb until she runs out of steam, there is a lot of commercial traffic around here headed for San Louis Obispo and Santa Maria. They are moving faster than I am and even with my strobe lights on the other aircraft are reporting they have trouble finding me even when they are told where I am. I don’t want to get up into their flight path.
A pilot in a Citation said to the tower, "I have the Gyrocopter and he looks like Fred Flintstone." I landed in a most elegant way as he was preparing to take off. I suspect that I was having more fun than he was.
I had so much fun I could hardly get out of her today. I could not feel anything below my knees and I missed the step. It could have been trouble. Can you imagine! “What ever happened to old Vance? Why he landed on his head while he was exiting his aircraft.”
Thank you, Vance