I graduated from intermediate back to novice yesterday. I accepted this demotion of rank after being stranded for almost 4 hours due to heavy cross-winds....and nearly crashing my Weedhopper.
I spent all morning in the air yesterday having a great time strafing several golf courses and exploring the hills and towns north-east of the airport. It was a beautiful day and my Hopper was working great.
I could not find anybody to fly with but somebody suggested that I fly over to a private air strip about 7 miles north of my home airport...called Fraser Lake Airpark. I was promised friendly people and best of all a _grass_ airstrip. The only one in the area. Sounded just great to me....so off I went.
As I flew over I realized why I had never noticed it before...the hangers look like greenhouses and the "lake" is more of a mud-puddle ;) I keyed my radio to request ultralight landing procedure. "Right turns landing from east to west"...."be advised that there is a good right crosswind". "Okay, thanks" I responded. "Ultralight on downwind..." I announced and proceeded around the pattern. As I came in on final I was crabbing like crazy. "Neet" I thought "that guy sure was right about the cross-wind...no problem I simply keep this angle until I am ready to set down and then I straighten things up as I touch down." So I did. Not too bad.....until a gust of wind hit and nearly blew me over! "Woah!" I thought as I turned into the wind and headed for the taxi-way.
I taxied back to the beginning of the runway and announced my intention to depart. Full throttle and I was rolling. Another gust of wind and my right wing is up....but not the left. I felt myself tipping over....forward and to the left! Instantly I brought my left foot down hard on the ground and pushed back...while quickly backing the throttle off to idle. I have one still-frame image of the event burned into my mind - just a touch of grass and dirt frozen in mid-air....thrown up by the prop. Turning into the wind I recovered my balance and taxied off the runway. A quick look at the prop, rotax, engine mount, etc... found only minor scratches at the last 1/4inch of my prop. I think I got that lesson mostly for free.
As I sat there in my hopper for the next 2.5 hours (could not get out even to walk around in fear that the wind would have blown my hopper over) waiting for the wind to die down I made a mental list of my mistakes...Here are a few:
I did not even once think "can my hopper do this?". I only thought "I know how to do this"...obviously I did not.
I did not even look at the windsock...it was being blown straight out the entire time I sat there.
I realized that clouds can give some indication of wind....as I watched all of the nice fluffy "round at the edges" clouds blow into thin ill-defined "haze". I decided that I should study these different types of clouds so I will know better next time.
I probably should have hit the kill switch rather than simply decreasing throttle to idle the instant I realized I was in trouble.
I should have tie-downs, a first-aid kit, water, a cell phone, etc... with me when I fly.
Finally as the sun started to drop behind the mountains to the west I decided to give it another try...my last chance before dark. Maybe I should have tried to borrow tie-downs and left my Hopper there for the night? Maybe I should have called a friend and tore it down to trailer out of there? However, I had almost 3 hours to decide on my best chance at escape and come up with a plan: I would try to take off at a 70degree angle to the runway - so that the wind was mostly head-on. In addition, I positioned myself as far back as I could without running over the sprinkelers....and so that I would cross the paved taxi way at its widest point. Immediately after the taxi-way was a freshly plowed field....I needed to be in the air before I hit that soft dirt. I dug my heels into the break and increased throttle to full open. As soon as the break started to slip I let off and started to roll.
It worked.
It was dark by the time I got back to my hanger....I did not have time to do a full check....but I think the only damage was to the last 1/4inch of my prop tape.
