Part 2: Paul Plack's X-Country flights
Part 2: Paul Plack's X-Country flights
1. Taken from the ground of Paul lifting off out of Nephi on one of his X-C legs. I pretty sure Jay took this photo, using Mike's camera, because of the clarity of it as well as the vivid colors. It beats my cheapy digital camera by miles in quality photos.
Paul flew about 114 miles to add his solo XC to his list of credits toward his PP-Gyro rating. He started at Spanish Fork, then flew to Provo, and then on to Nephi and back to SF, re-fueling at each time he arrived.
2. Fuzzy, but shows the beauty of the towering mountains on the east fringe of the valleys.
3. Jay caught Mike Burton piloting the SparrowHawk w/ me in the passenger seat trying to get some good photos air-to-air of Paul's event, while Paul pre-rotates and starts his take-off roll. The Rotax 503 seems to lift him off nicely, in spite of the airport's elevation of 5,000'.
4. A little gnat in the distance, but still climbing up. Paul likes to fly some several thousand feet AGL, for emergency options, he cites. This photo shows the vast distances they enjoy to fly in Utah.
I took many more photos of Paul air-to-air, but what I see in the camera's viewfinder, and what the digital pixies end up taking was usually two different things, causing just about all of them to be blurry. I try to follow the moving gyro, but I guess filming from another moving aircraft is harder than I thought...
I'd never been south of the Provo area before this trip. The valley that Paul flew over several times between Spanish Fork and Nephi is pretty to drive through, but more scenic from the air, especially w/ the mountain tops dusted w/ snow.
I got in several flights in my gyro that week over the Spanish Fork/Utah Lake area, but the climb rate was less than desirable for me. If I had tried to completely fill the 8 3/4 gallon tank, I knew I could only fly at first light, and had better plan on using the entire runway.
At my current weight, I cannot hold the nosewheel and tailwheel off the ground, balancing on the mains, at full throttle, and expect to lift off at Utah elevations, using a Rotax 503 engine. I had re-jetted for the altitude. I have to put the nose wheel back down on the runway, and wait for some airspeed build up before it lifts me off.
It took me quite awhile to lift off and climb out there with only a bit over 5 gallons of fuel. Paul weighs almost 40 pounds less than me, so he experienced shorter lift-offs and better climb rates using my machine.