Andre Zeman

May 20/16 pm – PPG course day 6

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Started at 4:30 pm as all students are flying at this point.

Ryan just flew for pleasure.

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Kevin added 3 more flights to his log. All reverse inflations. Kevin is much better at the reverse. I think it was 3 flights out of 5 tries. Thats is pretty good. I still owe Kevin 2 training sessions so hopefully he can manage the remaining 21 flights as he has 9 in his log book now.

Kevin S also came and completed one more flight. He is really under powered – its hard to watch his marginal take offs. His flying is very good and and so are his landings.

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Very hard but very rewarding week.

Andre Zeman

May 20/16 am – PPG course day 6

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Started at 7:30am as both students are flying at this point. Ryan added 3 more flights to his log book to total 30 which is Transport Canada requirement to apply for ultralight pilot license. Congratulations Ryan on completing course practical requirements. I still owe Ryan one training session so he will be coming back one day to tweak his PPG flying.

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Kevin added 3 more flights to his log. We tried at least 20 forwards though so we have to improve efficiency.

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Andre Zeman

May 19/16 pm – PPG course day 5

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3 guys tonight.

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Kevin, Kevin S who was in April course and Ryan.

Wind was strong till 7 andf thgen the mayham started. # guys is a lot of work. Ke4vin did 6 more flight using his nerw Kangook paramotor. Kevin took off andf got real engine out – the fuel filter cracked and started to leak fuel. Kevin S added 4 more flights to his collections. This time much better with lot more stability on take off. Busy night!

Andre Zeman

May 19/16 am – PPG course day 5

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Started at 7:30 am. Kevin managed hist first solo and another flight to total 2. Congrats Kevin on amazing achievement of turning into a bird… Ryan added 6 more flights to his log for total of 21.

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Andre Zeman

May 18/16 pm – PPG course day 4

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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.

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Andre Zeman

May 18/16 am – PPG course day 4

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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.

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Andre Zeman

May 17/16 pm – PPG course day 3

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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.

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Andre Zeman

May 17/16 am – PPG course day 3

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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.

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Andre Zeman

May 16/16 pm – cancelled to windy

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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.

Andre Zeman

May 16/16 – PPG course day 2 – am

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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.

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