new site – Page 6 – Powered Paragliding. A most Personal form of Flight

80 Lake Jean Nevada

Great Place! Thanks Pierre!

Natural Dry Lake Bed Protected on 3 sides from the wind

4 touch and go’s

Aug 28th 2006
19 was a tandem flight with Casey Cadwell Aerothrust paramotor and a Pasha Tandem wing. First experience with the “Low and Slow”. I spent a couple of hours training with Michael Purdy and learned a new way to hold the risers …Top hand on “A’s” and the bottom on the “D’s”, Bottom hand moves left to right and forward and back to provide brake input. I also tried the Blackhawk but it was too heavy. I had a hard time with the Aerothrust motor because my helmet was hitting the top of the frame and I couldn’t see the wing overhead. After several failed launch attempts I got an assist from Michael and Casey and launched like a rocket. Casey chewed me out for using to much thrust and gave me a lecture about a power on stall. It was good to be flying over the sea again there just isn’t anything like that thick air and sea breeze. The Baja Seasons resort is a bit pricey for 2nd class accommodations but the restaurants were great with wonderful music.

Review for the Big list:
Hey Gents,You asked for a report on Michael Purdy’s new venture Baja PPG andI’m just back.Wow ! This place could be the PPG Mecca of the world in a few years! It’s almost exactly 50 miles inside the border so you can drive a rental car in without paying huge additional insurance fees. The entry to Mexico is a piece of cake and it’s a clean highway all the way down…no worries about dealing with Mexican traffic. On the way out you have to give time for the border crossing and it can be hairy jostling for position…but hey were fearless PPG pilots RIGHT?Baja Seasons Resort is between Rosarito and Ensenada about 5 klicks south of a rocking surfer’s beach. It’s a nice gated and guarded resort with what appears to be 4 levels of accommodations…Standard hotel…Deluxe Hotel, (probably means air conditioning and nicer furniture), private beach front Villas and Full RV accommodations.The pool is beautiful, it’s the perfect place to be at the end of the day sipping margaritas and critiquing the day’s flights. There are a couple of nice restaurants and spas within 20 minutes drive upor down the beach and not much else. I’m not hip on the tourist seasons there, but on a Monday at the end of August it was deserted. Perhaps the weekends are packed but we had the place to ourselves. The beach is at least 250 yards wide and miles long.Wonderful flying conditions with smooth laminar air all day long.Baja Seasons Resort is the perfect location for an intensive training site. Beautiful location, all day flying conditions, anice resort, and not allot of people or things to get in the way.There is a big screen media room to watch videos of your launches and landings and beautifully appointed lounges for classroom work.One thing I really liked about this operation is that Michael is taking a little more comprehensive approach to PPG training which will go beyond basic instruction and coaching … it’s going to be top to bottom training with extensive classroom instruction including understanding the machine and basic maintenance. And he didn’t say as much but I expect the PPG Bible with be the text if not the curriculum. He has a couple of different training packages for new pilots including full equipment packages from the Paratoys inventory. And for pilots that have been flying for awhile who want to take it to the next level…He has an intermediate level course that will do exactly that.One of the nicest things about training at Baja PPG is that he has helpers to act as kiting coaches or to just hang by to keep your wing properly laid out after an aborted launch or kiting goof.After my last flight Juan trotted out …unhooked my wing, carefully pulled it together and carried it up to the shade to be folded for return to the airport. All I needed for perfection was a beautiful Mexican Princess to hand me a frosted mug as I shrugged off the motor! Baja PPG will be fully up and running by fall and I expect we will be hearing allot about this “Most Excellent Venture”AND …For experienced pilots it looks to be a great place for a flying vacation, I look forward to my next trip, I’m might bring the whole family and let them play in the surf and pool while I alternate between kiting, flying and swimming. When my wife starts to look like she has had enough I’ll send her to the Spa for the whole treatment. That usually mellows her out for a day or two.Hey Michael I know your out there! I can hardly wait for the first big Baja Seasons Fly-in. Sign me up NOW!( NOT A PAID ENDORSEMENT )If you want to know more it is…www.bajappg.com

Lake Havasu

We drove 3 hours north to Lake Havasue City and the next morning, hooked-up with Johnny Fetz at the LHC Airport. John Fetz is legend in the PPG community, 65 years old, and a lifelong pilot he is a hard man to miss, over six foot and barrel chested with his long silver blond hair tied in a pony tail that goes well down his back. This year during the Alan Chuculate Style Competition at Paratoys, John was decked out in a blue lycra skin suit topped of with a 4-color ball cap complete with a propeller. His flying skills are unmatched and he is welcome anywhere pilots gather. In addition to being an aviation expert, John is famous for being able to repair badly damaged propellers of all kinds and he has a good side business fixing props for pilots all over the country.

John cruising Lake Havasue shore

London Bridge

There were seven of us who had come up from the Paratoys Fly-in; all were seasoned pilots except me. The air was light, no more than 2 knots, but it was shifting on an 180˚ arc, forcing us to either wait for it to cycle back around or reset our wings. Flying his trike, Doug was the first to go up, quickly followed by everybody else. Johnny was amazing, when he was ready to go, the wind had shifted 90˚ away from his take off heading, instead of unhooking and resetting the wing, he simply took several steps to the right and blew the wing into position with his motor. I, on the other hand, was having trouble with my motor, it was either the change in altitude or problems with the carburetor but in order to stand up after getting into the harness I had to bend forward and that’s when the motor would die. Finally, after climbing into and out of my harness three times to restart the motor I was able to stand without killing it. However the wind had shifted during my struggles, and when I started my run it was with a tail wind and the wing collapsed immediately. I stood on the runway hugely frustrated and wishing I had 200 flights under my belt and the ability to take off as easily as my mates. I decided that enough was enough and with great disappointment proceeded to put my equipment away.

The guys had been up for 30 minutes and were on undoubtedly the most scenic flight of the trip. By now they would have flown over The London Bridge and would be exploring the shores of Lake Havasu. At forty-five minutes the wind started to get gusty. It was blowing strong from the north when Doug landed and the gusts were increasing with each cycle. Doug and I searched the horizon and saw no sign of the others. At fifty minutes I spotted a couple of wings approaching from the lake. They were both at about 1000ft AGL but began to descend immediately. In no time at all they were down behind the horizon, we assumed on the ground. Only two others got back to the LZ that day. The first was Johnny Fetz who came in flying around, over and sometimes in between the cactus. The fifteen knot headwind didn’t seem to faze him at all. Once he was alongside us, he popped over the airport fence dropped back down and crabbed sideways over to his truck. I was afraid the wind would turtle him on landing but he dropped the wing to one side and quickly gathered it in. Joel also did a great job landing. He kept his trimmers out and approached low to the ground. When he got close he hovered 5 feet up with the motor running at probably ½ throttle. It’s not often you get to see a pilots face while in flight but he hung there for probably 10 seconds and it was obvious from his look that he was focused on keeping it all together. Modulating the throttle and brakes to keep from flying backwards, he was able to set down and collapse the wing without being pulled over. It was very active piloting at its best …up close and personal.
Brian said that the gust fronts came up very quickly and he was alternating between tremendous lift and sinking at 250 feet per minute. He and the others dropped into the desert where ever they were, as fast as they could. It took an hour or so to round everybody up but once again no harm to man or machine. We laughed and joked about the dramatic change in the weather and got back on the road.
Looking back it was probably a good thing I wasn’t able to launch. More than likely, I would have been at a much higher altitude than the others when the wind front came through and who knows if I would have been able to get back down safely with my limited experience. It’s true when they say, “it’s better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground”.