May 18/16 pm – PPG course day 4
Another great day at the field. Kevin nailed it 15 flights! Congrats Kevin on first solo and 14 more flights!
Kevin will fly tomorrow morning.
Archive for month: May, 2016
May 18/16 am – PPG course day 4
Good wind this morning. Kited with traning harnesses and then both students kited with motor on their back. Ryan is slowly getting it but its real struggle. Kevin on the other hand is “catching up”. His kiting with motor on is about as good as Ryan’s. Packed it up at 11:30 as wind started to gust over 20 km/h. One of these guys will solo tonight. Fingers crossed.
May 17/16 pm – PPG course day 3
Nice afternoon at the field. Started at 3 pm with bit more kiting. Wind was gusting a bit till about 4:30. At this point Ryan was ready for the motor as his kiting was very good. Kevin still makes small mistake here and there but that will go away soon. Ryan started to ground handle with his paramotor but seem to have real issue with the weight and awkwardness of the unit. He worked hard but could not nail it. There is much less feel when you have the motor on your back and it is easy to over-brake. Kevin improved to the point that he has started to ground handle with the motor as well. Finished at 8 pm as both students were exhausted.I was tired too. Three 14 hr days in the row are hard. No first solo tonight – lets hope it will happen tomorrow.
May 17/16 am – PPG course day 3
Overcast and chilli morning with relatively steady wind because of the startus layer preventin sun from starting the thermal mess. We have kited from 7 am till 11:30 when wind started to go all over the place. Ryan’s kiting was excellent and he tried with the motor on his back. This is what I call entering the “hell”. Any PPG student can testify to the fact that this is the hardest part of the training physically. Kevin is progressing as well just not as fast as Ryan. I think Ryan will fly tonight.
May 16/16 pm – cancelled to windy
After lunch we went back to the field. With winds gusting up to 56 km/h there was no chance for any kiting at all. Not even with the small gliders. We waited till 5:30 and then it was time to make a decision weather to wait more or call it quits. The forecast was calling for 30 km/h at 8 pm which would give us 1 more hour of kiting with the tiny training gliders – we decided to call it quits and have early start next day.
May 16/16 – PPG course day 2 – am
Started at 8 am kiting regular size paragliders. Both students picked up reverse ground handling super quickly. Especially Ryan who I constantly call Kevin. Its embarrassing but I can’t seem to control it. Not sure why I do that. I told Kevin at lunch break then I feel really bad because I keep calling Ryan Kevin. He said don’t worry about it I want to pull right brake but I keep pulling left… Okay, that makes me feel bit better. ;-) We did about 2.5 hours of ground handling with big gliders and eventually switched to the small training paragliders. These are tiny, for ground handling only. Eventually wind picked up to 40 km/h so we spent about half an hour breaking in their new paramotors. Then it was off for lunch at Tim Hortons.
May 15./16 – PPG course day 1
2 students Kevin and Ryan. Just another typical first PPG course day. We have completed the ground school, student pilot permit was issued – we even had time to get the engines out, get them started and practice running under power. Even though it was super windy outside we also managed to learn how to untangle lines put the training harness on and hook up for forward and reverse inflation inside of my climbing gym. Good but very long day. Did not finish till 8 PM. Very tired.
May 14/16 – PPG course – close but no cigar
This PPG course was supposed to start on Saturday May 14 but the forecast for both Saturday and Sunday called for very high winds with some possible rain too. The first day of the course is mostly indoor and we have other stuff to do if winds are too high for kiting so iyt does not matter what the weather is like first day. Since forecast for Sunday was bad too we decided to skip Saturday and start this course on Sunday. No reason to start Sat, do all the indoor stuff and then sit in hotel room all Sunday with nothing to do.
Apr 27/16 – Had a great flight in Cherokee
Off the runway 06 then fly over Niagara Falls then to Fort Erie, turn right go to Port Colborn then follow Welland canal back. Busy on the approach, wanted to join right base for 06 but was told by tower to turn left and join long final for 06 to give two other aircraft time to land. Did one touch and go then full stop. That flight had two smoothest landings ever. Its nice to hear those wheels squeak…
