After completing Rhode Island I followed Ron over to Falmouth Massachusetts where he had arranged for me to park in the overflow parking of a local church just a five-minute walk from his home.
The next day Ron brought over his new battery operated hammer wrench which made some quick work of adjusting and tightening my weight distribution bars for the camper. I also finally drilled the holes and added the bolts for the rack so that it will be easier to get off for refilling the LP gas tanks.
Last but not least adjusted canopy shell door so that it properly closed and locks as it did when I first got it. Like the Paramotor with all the vibration and bumps in the road after 15,000 miles things need tightening and adjusting. It’s amazing what a few good tools can do to help some minor problems.
Over the next several days the weather was blustery and cold and delivered some of the winter’s last temperatures. Unfortunately, my furnace stopped working and wouldn’t light, but I have an electrical one too which I was able to warm the camper from the Generator a few times a day and before going to sleep for the night. I have plenty of blankets so remained warm for the nights.
Ron also provided me a tour of the local town and show me all the restaurants I might have been able to enjoy had they been open. To my joy, his wife was kind enough to cook meals which he and I ate in their “Love Shack” and camper 6 feet apart. I really was most grateful for some home-cooked meals – I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had a real home-cooked meal and my camper generated meals mostly consisted of noodles, soup, a baked potato or some other ‘quick’ meal thing.
Sunday finally rolled through with the break in the weather we were expecting to be able to fly. Johnson Qu arrived as planned and once again keeping a safe distance worked out our plan to launch off the beach which was VERY SHORT. We all successfully pulled it off in 20-35 feet with about 1-2 mile winds over the water and proceeded to tour down to the lighthouse.
I initially stayed high so that I could take the necessary pictures to capture me in the air with some identifiable points of interest on the ground. After that, I got to do the low and slow along the coastline and got to enjoy the waves and smiles from all the people out social distancing and getting some exercise.
My second flight was even better. I had launched first and done a number of low passes along the beach to the glee of many with their cameras and phones. I finally gave up waiting on the rest of the crew and chased the shoreline before I finally really realized I’d traveled more than 10 miles and was about to head into the wildlife sanctuary. Turning back I notice JQ catching me up real fast in his 16M Freeride. We did a wing bump and then each spent some time footdragging before I decided I should start heading back as I monitored fuel.
Bump & Sanitize
The trip back was fast, but I had once again had a couple of times on the flight as I stowed my left toggle that the engine threatened to shut off as it had actually done in Rhode Island causing me to land at a mansion.
I knew I had a short but it had been a while since this had happened and I couldn’t reproduce the problem on a previous attempt. This time when I landed I pulled and twisted the throttle handle and sure enough I got a little hesitation on the motor. This time I pulled the show hand assembly apart to and found that the wires for the starter and kill switch were sitting tightly in the grove of the aluminian cylinder but has just a very small amount of wear on the insulation. Just enough that when the throttle is in the right position with enough tension the wires twist and touch causing the short. An easy fix with some insulation tape and heat shrink and some additional rubber tape for good measure and I should hopefully be good for another 100 hours without incident.
Six feet apart and the use of a huge amount of hand sanitizer we did a quick group photo.
