Day 886: Farewell, Quartzsite

Posted on January 10, 2016 by Ben

Today I went for flight #61:

The wind was from the east, so I took off just west of the RV. Our RV is on the right:

Miles to the east, I found this grouping of RVs:

Circling around to land, I skirted this RV park on the edge of town:

This video shows last Friday’s flight as well as today’s flight:

The kids played frisbee:

I spotted a mouse running around in the bathroom. I had already sealed access from the basement to the main level with spray foam, so we did a bit of investigating and discovered some mouse droppings in the heating ducts. We cleaned the ducts out and I installed steel mesh in the ducts to stop mice from coming in that way again:

After finishing the mouse proofing, we drove west and south to overnight at an abandoned campground in Salton City on the Salton Sea. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 884: Flying and Rockhounding in Quartzsite

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Ben

This morning I wanted to get in a PPG flight. The wind was coming from the south, so I drove over to the southern side of the power lines so I would have an unobstructed launch:

Solo flight #60 over Quartzsite. There aren’t many RVs here yet, either due to warm weather in the East or the weak Canadian dollar:

Although I’m nowhere near the power lines, this made Trish nervous as seen from the RV:

This video shows today’s flight as well as the flight from the following Sunday (day 886):

We next went to one of the other rock and mineral shows in town. Thankfully this bulk water loader no longer works:

There were lots of great cabochons to choose from:

Trish bought a few cabochons and we returned to the RV. In the afternoon, the Goodyear Blimp motored by:

Trish completed a beaded necklace built around a vintage button:

Good Shabbos from Quartzsite, Arizona:

Day 873: Balloons and PPG

Posted on December 28, 2015 by Ben

Today after homeschool we said goodbye to Shoshana and Barak and their kids. Thanks for hosting us this past week! We drove northwest to Pleasant Valley Airport to get in an afternoon PPG flight. As I was setting up, a pair of balloons did a low flyby over the airport:

Kiting the wing to make sure all the lines are untangled:

Liftoff of solo flight #59:

After landing and stowing the PPG, we drove northwest, dumping tanks and getting gas before arriving in Boulder City, Nevada to overnight at the Hoover Dam Lodge and Casino.

See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 865: Horses and Flying with Hot Air Balloons

Posted on December 20, 2015 by Ben

Shabbos in Scottsdale was nice. We got to see our new friends from our last couple of visits, as well as catch up with Barak and Shoshana and their kids. We walked the neighborhood in the afternoon to get a feel for what housing is like. You know, just in case.

This morning, B went with Barak and Shoshana’s girls to the local stable to visit the horses:

I installed this new, longer exhaust coupling, released by Blackhawk to address an RPM gap in the paramotor’s power curve. This new part seems to have largely fixed the problem:

This afternoon, I drove out to Pleasant Valley Airport to meet local PPG pilots. A Paradrenalin student was taking off for the first time:

I did two flights, checking out some hot air balloons in the process:

From the ground, fellow pilot Deanna photographed me:

Great sunset:

While I was flying, our kids went to the park with Barak and Shoshana’s kids to play some games:

I was on my way home after dark, so I missed the backyard campfire:

Day 860: Flying at the Field Lab

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Ben

I decided to fly this morning here at the Southwest Texas Alternative Energy and Sustainable Living Field Laboratory. Launch of solo flight #56:

John captured these moments (see his blog):

Winds aloft were much stronger and coming from a different direction than on the surface, so there was significant shearing at altitude. I didn’t stay up long: