Nick and Dennis met me at the sledding hill to practice their flying skills. Both were able to make several short flights down the slope working on their turns and flaring. Next up for them is the real thing! 

Dmitry, David and I headed up to Sauk City Monday evening to try towing on a road Mariyan located on Google Maps. We were very pleased with what we found, 1.5 miles of empty dirt road surrounded by wide open fields. Best of all we discovered that as soon as you are about 200' up you can see the Wisconsin River! Which, as it turns out it just over the surrounding trees. So cool! Moments after Dmitry landed from the first flight one of the neighbors rolled up on his ATV with a big smile. As luck would have it, Joel is a ultra light pilot and he invited us to use his runway when we wanted to do some powered flying. Thanks, we will take you up on that soon! The boys were able to complete 7 tows last night to about 1,500' AGL (above ground level) with he conditions we had. When the wind lines up with the road more, last night was about 45 degrees off, we should easily be able to get over 2,500'. 

Before, during and after shots of Matt A on his first paramotor flight. He successfully made three flights Friday evening at the airport. This was far from his first solo flight as Matt was a helicopter pilot in the National Guard and actively flies other small aircraft on a recreational basis.  Congrats Matt!!

The weather has finally broken and we were able to train the last four days in a row! Thursday was gliding down the sledding hill with Scott. Friday Matt A. made his first flights! Saturday morning I met Cole at the airport for a ton of wing handling training, including time with the non-running motor on his back. Brian stopped by with his lovely wife to brave the cold and check out the sport in person, he's already shopping for a motor! If all goes well they both will be flying sometime this summer. Saturday evening, past student Alex stopped by the hanger and a we took a nice cross country flight from the airport together. Sunday morning I met Dennis at Elver park and we worked on his forward and reverse launch skills, significant improvement was made. Sunday afternoon I drove the Madcity Paragliding rig to the park south of Oconomowoc to meet Paul where we also worked on his kiting skills. Paul also made great strides that day in the stiff breeze. Preston and his better half visited with us in Oconomowoc. There Matt W. and I treated them to their own private air show. We even gave them an encore per her excited request. Preston tried his hand at kiting and decided it's not as easy as it looks. To cap off the busy weekend Matt W and I made a short cross country flight to explore the area north of the park. I love my job!!

Nick progressed rapidly yesterday, starting the day with no experience kiting a wing to catching some short flights while running down the sledding hill about 4 hours later. Conditions were great for learning, a relatively steady breeze headed right up the hill at about 8 mph. The heavy wet snow provided a bit of a challenge but nothing we couldn't handle. 

Despite the unseasonably cold temperatures and raging snow storm Cole began his training this weekend. We stayed indoors of course and worked on ground school stuff and simulated some flying while the hanger rattled and shook in the 50+ mph  gusts. Hang in there Cole, spring is coming!

We had a great evening at the Elver Park Sledding hill! Current, past and future students came out to play with the north wind. Jake, David, Matt A and I all had some nice sled runs down the hill. Dennis walked over from his place to get some wing training in too. No flying yet for Dennis but I'm sure he will be up there soon!

Matt A. shows off his reverse kiting skills! The wind yesterday was strong enough to kite the wing without moving. Lighter winds require us to walk or even run to keep the wing overhead. This was not a concern last night as the winds were steadily over 8 mph as the warm front rolled in to the area. Matt says his helicopter training helped him anticipate what the wing would do and allowed him to react before it got out of control. Nice work Matt, you will be flying very soon!

We even managed to get a little tow training in Sunday afternoon. This is a shot of Dimitri being pulled aloft by the payout winch on the back of the Jeep. We made 9 tows Sunday. All we need now is a longer road!