Slow season?!?

So much happening this past week, some highlights include:
Lake City Winterfest was attended by Ken, Mariyan and myself along with a big group of hang gliders, paragliders and paramotor pilots from Minnesota. The Mississippi River was frozen solid where it slows down and spreads out by Lake City so that was our tow road for the day. Simply plow a path through the snow the same direction as the wind and start towing, perfect. Mariyan took the accuracy landing contest seriously and was impressive. I think he’s ready for the international competition in Ecuador this month. We flew all day, made some new friends and overall had a great time.
Wednesday I met Josh in New Glaris with plans to fly past the brewery and Jack’s Links and other local landmarks. Unfortunately, Josh forgot to put his goggles down before launch. So, the propeller decided to eat the goggles on climb out, destroying his goggles and the prop before Josh was even 10’ off the field. Oops! So it was off to the hanger for me to grab a spare prop for Josh. An hour later Josh and I met Matt at the Verona Airport. We slapped the brand new prop on Josh’s miniplane and he was up and flying around the area with Matt.
Matt is also a rated mini wing pilot and has an 18 meter Ozone Firefly. He’s flown this wing many times but never with a motor. He wanted to give it a try but was nervous about how it would behave under power. He asked if I would give it a test flight first. More than a little interested to see how it flew myself I rigged up and gave it a shot. It’s like someone throwing you the keys to their sports car, of course you were going to take it for a spin. Wow, this thing is agile! The short lines and high speed made it very responsive. I could see myself going crazy with this little rocket once I get some more experience with it. Thanks Matt!
Thursday I repaired and balanced a couple props. No, Josh’s was not repairable. That one is headed to the wall of shame.
Friday I met Adam and Sean in Monroe for some midwinter flying. Sean had fun playing with the steam coming out of the stack at the cheese factory. It was super cool to see the clouds spin as his prop and wing created vortices in the mist. Then we all headed west. Low and slow was the theme. The wide open fields and nice headwind made for low flying fun.
Saturday I met Glenn and Shell at a nearby park to begin Glenn’s wing handling lessons. He did great! We covered wing inspection, hooking in forward and reversed, launch forward and reverse and kiting in both directions too. After lunch it was back to the hanger for a couple hours running drills in the simulator. Next up for Glenn is a trip to the sledding hill. This is so much fun!