OK. So you see all these videos of students flying and ground handling and you may wonder, does the instructor even know how to fly?
Here is a short video of one of the many demonstrations and “air checks” I do for students. Note the sophisticated paragliding boots… ha ha
Gorgeous day at the field. 19 Celsious and almost no wind. Mark worked on his kiting skills and Aaron came to do more flights.
Mark got very close to flying in fact we have tried several times but wind has died and we have decided that it will be better to wait till next time as taking off for the first time with no wind at all is very tricky. Wiond makes it much easier.
Aaron though proceeded to add 5 more flights to his log book. Well done!
Mark
Aaron
Both Sergei and Andrew needed to ground handle so we started at 2 pm. Winds were nice SW 15 to 20 km/h. Sergei was using the very small but fast training glider and Andrew had the Fides 2 size 24. Both did quite well and Sergei is ready to fly.
Andrew
Sergei
Andrew with his Cima K 2
At 4 pm Darren showed up eager to fly. He ground handled for 1 hour then winds came down.
All 3 students have it up….chi chi
Darren quickly managed 7 solo flights tonight. Congrats!
Did the usual first day stuff. My ground school is getting better and better. Big screen TV and pretty nice Keynote presentation. Definitely more sophisticated then sheets of paper hanging on the wall by clips…
I just want to share with you what a purchase of used PPG gear on line can turn out to be. This kind of thing happens more often then you think.
Recent student, David, had no PPG experience when he purchased his gear on internet from some folks in Texas. This was supposed to be well maintained paramotor with 25 hrs on the engine “ready to go” He has negotiated the price including shipping, paid and then the boxes arrived. The shipping company requested that shipping was to be paid on delivery even though David has already paid seller for shipping. OK, David paid the shipper thinking that he will sort it out later basically paying for shipping twice.
The equipment then sat for couple of months till David came back from his job in Africa. He then loaded the gear up and brought it over to use it through out his PPG course. When he showed it to me, I right the way noticed many issues that needed immediate attention:
David sent several emails to the seller about the above but to this day received no response…
What it all comes down to is this:
You can buy used car on line because you can call nearby car repair shop and have them to look at the car and tell you what shape it is in. They will be unbiased and work on your behalf.
You can’t do that with PPG gear because there are typically no repair shops or professionals near by that would verify that you are getting what you are paying for. You are completely on the mercy of the seller. And even if you buy used gear locally, you may get “screwed” because you do not even know what to look for. David is a great example of this and I feel bad for him…
Greg started with his paramotor training late November and managed first flight early December. Greg got nausea so bad the another flight was out of question that day. Then I put my gear away for the winter so today was the day when we will see if the nausea was a fluke or whether that will be an on going problem.
Greg was bit nervous because it was pretty much 4 months since his first and last flight. He had couple of nice forward inflations but was hesitant to add power. After about 3 tries he finally went for it only to stop running… He had a stumble and nicked the prop. We did not actually noticed it, so his first flight today was on a damaged prop.
Unfortunately Greg got sick again, not perhaps as bad as last time. We changed the prop then Greg did two more flights but very very short. Pretty much take off, large circle and lading. This did not seem to bother him too much so there is a hope after all.
This afternoon Darren came back for his second training day. Started at 2:30 pm and by 6 pm Darren had it down.
We have strapped the motor on at 6:15 and by 6:30 Darren was flying for the first time. Great take off and even better landing.
Congrats Darren!
David did not get his carburetor fixed – it is worn out. He needs new WB 37c. So he was using my gear and added another 5 flights to his log.
At 7 am it was bit warmer at the field – 2 celsius. Still cold though. We had slight wind from SE for the first 3 flights. All nice forward take offs and landings. The last flight was reverse then it got too bumpy to continue. Good job, David, on adding g 4 more paramotor flights to your logbook.
David at the end of the session.
The evening session did not turned out so well. We have discovered that on David’s motor, fuel is leaking from carburetor onto muffler – not good. Did not want to turn David to Katniss from Hunger Games. We waited for wind to come down but it did not! Damn – forecast was good. Crap! We will try again tomorrow early morning.
Just before we packed it in.
So weather finally started to co-operate. This morning we started at 7 am. No wind – 5 Celsius. Brrr. Where is spring? By the time we set up very very slight breeze. I was hoping that David did not forget anything in the 2.5 days that we could not do any flying due to high winds. And he did not. ALL his forwards were flawless and take off good as well. In short time David managed 6 flights. CONGRATULATIONS!
David landing into “thermal hole”
David after 6 sucesful flights.