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Just about a picture-perfect flight. Smooth take-off (despite the camera vibration) and a good climb-out. Up around 400AGL at the turn and maybe half a mile out.
A nice calm day so only a 2 or 3 MPH tailwind on the approach. Good vertical speed on the descent and good alignment with the 400 feet of upper runway, though that dog-leg can be tricky. Not much flare on the landing but then again you don't need much with an ultralight. You really just need to be sure to kiss the ground gently, then idle the engine and put the nose down.
On the other side of the coin is this nail-biter of a landing. A fairly steady and moderate 4-6 MPH westerly breeze on departure had picked up and gotten gusty only 40 minutes later for my return. Nevertheless, I opted for the standard west-east approach even though that gave me a fair tailwind, not a good thing for landing as groundspeed goes up and vertical speed control goes down.
I say the area was clear, but as I was climbing out two seaplanes appeared just above me, one from the west and another from the east. I ID'd myself on 122.8 but got no response. They both headed north towards Sebasticook Lake in Newport.
Here's a clip from my flight around the wind project in Freedom Maine. Good views of the windmills plus a decent study of Freedom Pond (aka Sandy Pond).
The turn at 2:23 shows the surrounding area pretty well, albeit kinda quickly and at an angle (going for a tight turn to avoid overflying that southern turbine). I think you can see Lake George and perhaps China Lake as well as Lovejoy Pond in Albion, all in the extreme distance. Quick view of Freedom village over the pond too.
I do need to work on my camera technique some. Haven't quite integrated that with control of the aircraft, watching for traffic, keeping a fix on emergency landing fields and checking on my instruments while enjoying the flight and scenery my own self! Plenty to do up there ...
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Result? I dropped in hard moving too fast, and with a crosswind kicker right at touchdown. I took a bad bounce and ended up hitting some small firs hard enough to crack two tubes and put some good rips in the sails. Repairs are easy on ultralights though, so I was back in the air a few days later, a somewhat humbler and much wiser pilot.
The other low pass was over a field still being built. Lots of trees all around, not much clearway on a northern approach. The land slopes up to the south so go-arounds might be tough, well, for a lightly powered U/L anyway! A 140 would be fine taking another shot but I'd be scramblin' to stay out of the trees while clearing that rise.
Here's a couple low passes over airstrips in the Plymouth Maine area. The first is just south of the eastern end of Plymouth Pond. A northern approach takes you right over the water and some swampy areas, a little nerve-wracking as you're in the drink or worse if something fails. I did a right-hand pattern 'cause the area was clear and I don't get much practice with those.
Sadly, my flying days have been placed on hold.
Mid-air engine failures can have that effect!