Steve Thomas/Part 103 Ultralight PPC flight across America

Update March 16, 2005

This is the end of the flight at this time. You cannot win them all, and this time I just could not make it. This morning started off with conflicting wind forecasts, but nothing like what I encountered.

At takeoff from Marana, just outside of Tucson, the wind was variable on the ground and going from calm to about 10 mph up and down. I made a nice takeoff and when I turned toward San Manuel I caught a good tail wind and was making 30 mph ground speed.

I climbed up and over the first mountain and got over the rising ground of the high desert. There the ground speed picked up to just under 35 mph and I was feeling really good. I had flown about 45 minutes and the GPS indicated less than 30 minutes to go.

As I got to Oracle Junction on the west side of Mt. Lemmon my ground speed began to slow. Then as I got to the Biosphere station the plane began to get tossed around pretty good, and my SW tailwind had turned into a NE head wind. By the time I got close to Oracle on the north side of the mountain my ground speed had slowed to 3-5 mph and I was starting to question whether I would make it or not, even though I had less than 10 miles to go and a half tank of fuel.

I tried swinging out and around the town to the west to get away from the mountain a little, but it was no better. I was looking for an alternate landing site as I very slowly made it from one end of town to the other. It took 30 minutes to fly those couple of miles. Then I found that I was stuck and could not go forward any longer as my GPS was indicating 2-3 mph ground speed, but it was East for a second then West, back and forth. For me to get pushed backwards at 3 mph the winds were at least 30 mph. At times the GPS indicated over 18 hrs to go to make the remaining 8 miles!

Trying to get some forward speed to make it the last 8 miles to San Manuel, I dropped down to about 100' above the ground. Then I got into what could have been really bad. The 30 mph winds were pushing me to the ground! I went throttle up and I was still going down. All I could do was keep the nose pointed into the wind and ride it out. Finally, about 20-30' from the ground it leveled out and slowly gained altitude. When I got it up to about 100' again, I turned back for the middle of Oracle along the highway where I had scoped a possible landing site earlier.

The site was a fairly level area probably 500' square in front of a Circle K store. It was rough and had cactus growing on it, but they were small and it looked like it had been bushogged in the past few years sometime. I came in and was rocking and rolling in the strong winds. I considered killing the engine in case I rolled over, but decided to keep the power on to maintain control. The landing was great! I was down right in the middle of the field. I shut down and got out and was about to bag the wing, when all at once the wind hit strong and instantly inflated it. I will always remember the dragging that I got in San Manuel 4 years ago from this same scenario, so I did not try to stop it and it pulled the Pup over. It is so lightweight that it just went right over and bent a rudder tube. It also loosened up my instrument mount, but other than that it was fine.

After wrestling the wing into submission and packing it up, I fired up the engine and made my way to the highway. Then I taxied down the highway to a Market where I could park the plane next to the road. I was hoping that John would see it when he drove by. Of course, as my luck has been going, he drove right by and did not see it! :) He really had no reason to be looking for it though.

I stuck my thumb out and finally after about 30 minutes I got a ride right to the San Manuel Airport where John was waiting for me. We went back to Oracle and retrieved the Pup from the Market where I had left it parked with the store clerk watching over it.

As much as I hate it, I have had enough. This was the last straw for me at this time. I could easily fix the plane up with little effort, but I think that my window of opportunity for favorable winds to get through those mountains has passed. I needed to get through them last week or earlier, but now it is mid March and I fear it is too late. After the windy time of March the temps will get hot creating more winds, thermals and dust devils.

I must also admit that I got scared today in those high winds. The forecast was for a 5 mph NE wind up there, not 30 mph! Then when it was sending me to the ground at full throttle, it was frightening. The little 28 hp engine simply is not enough power to get out of a situation like I found myself in today. Add to that, all of the vibration problems that I have had, and everything else, and I an done. I no longer have a good feeling about it and think that it would be dangerous to continue.

This does not mean however, that I will not try it again. I will be working with another plane this summer with a 2 cylinder 40 hp engine. If it works out, I may very well start over again sometime during the Fall or Winter when the desert and mountains are in a cooling down mode instead of warming. The 40 hp along with the Thunderbolt 310 should do very well. Without the elliptical wing it would be about impossible to make it from airport to airport on the longer stretches, and it was one of the few things that I had no trouble with.

I figure that it is better to quit today and live to try again, than to keep on pushing until something really bad happens. :) We drove to El Paso this afternoon and John will be catching a flight home tomorrow.

I cannot thank everyone enough that helped me along the way with this adventure and I look forward to flying with Y'all on the next try!

Have a good one!
Steve Thomas

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Steve Thomas/Part 103 Ultralight PPC flight across America

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