Daryl and I drove to Queen Creek on Friday afternoon after flying Friday morning at Post Ranch. We set up camp, kited while we waited for the winds to die down, and then flew Friday evening. Maurice came by after Daryl and I were on the ground and were packing up at dusk. Maurice went to dinner with us at a little Mexican restaraunt in Queen Creek, and then came back to our camp site with his camping gear. This is a view of the ultralight runway as seen at the door step of our camp site. Maurice took this picture the previous weekend.

The camp site is just to the left and behind the green vegetation at the left center of the picture, just out of view. Maurice also took this picture the previous weekend. Saturday morning about 5am, a powered parachute arrived. It was unpacked from its trailer in a few minutes and was in the air just after daybreak. We didn't meet the pilot and his passenger because he got in the air and on the ground before we were stirring very much. Gary showed up with his homebuilt Saturday morning as well. This is the runway he used all morning to fly from and to make low passes over.

The Queen Creek site is an abandon military air base. Here is a shot of an old asphalt runway. Daryl and I both took flights right off the deck over this runway on Friday night. Thanks to Maurice for this picture.

Here is a shot of the old asphalt runway from the air that I took Friday evening.

Crummy picture, but this is a shot of the various dirt runways that intersect right at our campsite. We are camped just to the left of where all the runways come together. The asphalt runways are to the left out of the picture. Note the Central Arizona Project canal at the right of the picture.

Here is the last picture I took on Friday night. The campsight and airfield are behind me to the right. I'm making my way around to an 800 ft. tall radio tower to fly over it. It is to the right out of the picture. I had in mind to fly above the tower by several hundred feet and take some pictures. However, while above the tower but still some distance from it, I entered some nasty sink which had me descending with full throttle. I decided to try to fly through it for a little distance, but to no avail. I finally decided to turn 90 degrees after descending to around 400 feet under full throttle. I began to worry as I continued to lose altitude at an alarming rate. At around 50 feet off the ground it was apparent that landing was imminent, so I killed the engine, took a big wrap on the brakes, and did what I could to make the best of a hard landing. I hit going way too fast and hard to run it out so I sat down with my feet braking out in front. I quickly came to a stop without injury, other than a strawberry on my right calf (wearing shorts). The bottom of my cage, however was bent and a small chip was out of my prop. As I was taking inventory, Mike and Todd, (complete strangers at that point, but very friendly and helpful) came up on their ATV's to offer assistance. Since it was a very long hike back to the camp site, I took them up on the offer. Mike helped me fold up the glider while Todd went for Daryl and acted as guide for Daryl to bring the truck around. After packing up, and while we were still shooting the breeze, we saw Maurice driving in the distance toward the campsite with his camping equipment. We had left our windsock, so Maurice knew we were around somewhere. We caught up with him and then had dinner. Stopped at Albertson's on the way back from dinner to get some cyanoacrylate (super glue), baking soda, and sand paper to fix the prop. Saturday morning I fixed and balanced the prop and we straightened the cage so I was back in the air in no time. (Clear packing tape stuck in strategic places works wonders to balance a prop).

My little "mishap" wasn't the only excitement we had. Saturday morning Daryl decided to fly down over the CAP canal for a closer look. I was 300 or 400 feet above him when I saw him down in the canal near the water. I remember thinking "I hope his motor doesn't quit". About that time, Daryl's prop belt came off. I believe Gary got this picture just after Daryl's motor quit. Daryl was able to use "energy management" as he describes it to convert his kenetic energy into enough potential energy to climb out of the canal with just enough left to land successfully on the bank. I flew down close enough to ask a few questions before I discovered that he wasn't making a recreational landing. I flew back to the camp site to get the truck. Mike and Todd, once again saved the day with their ATV's. They drove over and got the keys from Daryl and met me at the truck. Daryl was inside an 8 foot fence with another two feet of barbwire on top. We had to lift his equipment over the fence to get it to the truck. All ended well.

Gary got a couple of air-to-air shots of me. I think this is proably a 30 degree banked turn. I didn't get any pictures myself on Saturday because, as I took my camera out of my harness pocket, the battery compartment came open and all the batteries dropped to the ground 400 feet below. I hate it when that happens!

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One last air-to-air picture courtesy of Gary. Sorry about not getting any pictures of Maurice, Bill (who both flew), Mike, Todd, and Gary (who obviously flew). No batteries -- no pictures!