What a great week! Several days in a row of low winds and grey skies meant lots of flying.
​Tuesday morning started with a pre-work flight for Curt and myself. His wingovers are getting pretty impressive.
Then it was a quick refresher for Sarah before we took to the skies to explore the area. She was nervous that she wouldn’t remember how to fly since it had been a couple months since her graduation flight. She did awesome and after landing said “it’s like riding a bike, your body remembers what to do”.
When we landed TJ and Reon were there waiting for us. TJ has been absent for a couple months as well. The holidays were a very busy time for him and he finally was able to return to training. He started the day with eight flights under his belt and added another four Tuesday. We worked on trimming the wing and experimenting with the tip steering. It was great to see both of them again after such a long break.
​Wednesday I met Reon, Josh K, and Robert at the Lake Farm Park boat launch on Lake Waubesa. Nick also dropped in to visit during his lunch break. The ice surface was pretty messed up by all the ice fishermen’s ATV tracks but once airborne the sky was great. We all had a blast!
While we were packing up a news crew pulled up and asked if everyone was ok. Apparently someone driving by on the Beltline saw me doing some acro and thought I was a skydiver crashing into the marsh, so they called 911. The news crew was the first to find us and they wanted to capture the incident and were disappointed when I told them everyone was fine, bloodsuckers! About five minutes later the cops show up and ask the same questions. They were more relieved than the news people. Funny thing is, one is the policemen is an acquaintance of Reon’s which immediately changed the mood from concern to more of a “I should have know it was you” vibe.
Then we all drove over to the next frozen lake, Monona, to meet Angelo and Matt. Matt actually flew to work that morning across Lake Monona and stopped to play with us during his flight home after work. The ice was much nicer there, no ATV ruts to deal with. We all worked on footdrags. For a couple guys it was their first try. Some were more successful than others but we all enjoyed the great open ice as long as possible and only stopped because of the dark.
Thursday I met Nick F and Jake at Lake Puckaway. I was returning Nick’s paramotor to him after tweaking a few things on it and test flying it for him. Conditions were awesome, fully clouded over (no thermals) with a nice steady breeze coming right down the lake. We drove out to the middle of the lake to set up because we could. How often do you you get to drive on a lake? Take off was easy with the smooth breeze and dense air. We played in the sky as long as we could then got a nice meal at the restaurant overlooking the lake and called it a day.
The lakes are only frozen for a couple months a year so you got to make the most of them when they are.

This week at Madcity Paragliding:
Matt, Dimitry and I celebrated MLK day by playing on the southern half of Lake Monona. Our max altitude was limited to 1450’ AGL by the upper tier of the Madison Airport’s airspace but that left plenty of room to explore. Several bigger passenger jets flew just a few hundred feet overhead while we were dragging our feet through the snow covering the lake, so cool! Curt dropped in to take a few photos too.
More night kiting with Stuart in the field outside of Epic. He’s doing great and is ready for a trip to the sledding hill. If his schedule cooperates he will be flying down the hill this week!
I traveled north to help Nick diagnose a motor issue he was having. We had access his dad’s awesome shop. Not only was it well lit and heated but it housed a nice collection of vintage snowmobiles and motorcycles. He even had an old Kawasaki 500 triple like I did in high school, nice! The paramotor was presenting itself like a fuel starvation problem so we checked all the usual items, carb rebuild, fuel filter change, change the fuel for some fresh fuel, ensure the lines we clear, adjust the metering lever...everything we could think of and everything that Hadly suggested on his Southwest Airsports website. We found a few minor things but nothing major so I took it home to work on it some more. A few minor adjustments of a couple small things followed by a long test flight (my favorite part) and it’s working flawlessly again. I plan to deliver it back to Nick Thursday and we will again take it on a long test flight to ensure everything is perfect, somebody has to do it, luckily it’s me. ;)
Sunday was going to be a day of ice climbing at the Winona, MN Ice Park with Matt but the weather changed and it was going to be a perfect day for towing in Sauk City. So I took all the ice climbing gear out of the Jeep and loaded up the winch and all the towing equipment. The ceiling was just 1200’ above the road meaning every tow put the guys at cloud base. Ken got the last four tows he needed to complete his P2 training. Congratulations Ken! He also operated the winch for one of Dimitry’s flights as he continues to train for his tow operators certificate. Charles worked on his wing skills. Curt hammed out 10 flights! He accidentally put the edge of his wing in the creek on his first landing filling it with Duckweed, oops. It stunk like crazy for a little while but soon dried and the plants fell off. Josh was there with his paramotor making an hour plus flight around the area too.
Preparations for the Ecuador paragliding trip continue. The itinerary is established with appropriate leeway for weather changes. Lenin has something like 6 locations planned already. This is going to be a blast! There is still room to join us on this epic adventure. Round trip air can be had for less then $400 and lodging should be inexpensive too. Get ahold of Mariyan or myself if you are interested in coming along.
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Madcity Paragliding along with our partner Compass Airsports will be traveling to Ecuador February 17th-25th and you should come with! Lenin, an Ecuadorian native and graduate of Madcity Paragliding/Compass Airsports will be our local guide for this trip. We will explore this amazing country both in the sky as well as on the ground. We will be hitting as many launch sites as possible and visiting cultural and natural wonders along the way.
Round trip airfare is surprisingly inexpensive, I paid just $366 for seat with luggage! Lodging will not be 5-star as we are adventurers not tourists, so that should be cheap too. Get ahold of me or Mariyan if you want join in this epic adventure!

This week at Madcity Paragliding...
Night kiting with Stuart. Since he is stuck in an office all day, I met Stuart just outside his office last night to start his wing handling training. Fortunately, there is a nice field next to some lights and that worked well. He did great, lots of progress was made. Weather permitting we will be back at it again Wednesday evening.
​Ben came over from Debuque to investigate PPG training. He’s in, just needs to set aside a few more bucks and he’ll be back to start training in a month or so.
​Ken, Adam, Charles, Steph, Pie, Mariyan and I spent all day Sunday towing in Sauk City. The boys all made a bunch of flights and really improved their tow skills. Everyone’s launch, climb and landings were all looking better at the end of the day. Ken and Adam have nearly completed the P2 training. Ken also took control of the winch once and helped pull Mariyan up. We are working on getting him tow certified too.
​While we were towing, Greg, Matt, Dimitry and Victor were on Lake Waubesa playing with paramotors. Dimitry was ripping it up with his new Macpara Colorado. Thanks Victor for the photos!
Jake finished up the flying requirements of his training with a fun cross country flight with Robert and I. He just needs to pass the written test to earn his PPG2 rating. Good luck Jake!
I visited welder Tom for a quick repair to Moster 185’s frame. If you ever need anything welded, he’s the man! Aluminum, titanium, steel...he does it all and his work is outstanding!
​Jeff is one step closer to flying PPG. As soon as he returns from Utah we will get him in the sky.
All in all another fun and productive week. Thanks everyone!

So much has happened in the last week, here’s a few highlights-

Little 8 year old Pie took his first paraglider flight and loved it! His mom, Steph, is a skydiver and Pie has caught the flying bug from her. With Pie weighing so little, the tandem wing was very lightly loaded and we were able tow Mariyan and him to about 3,000’ before they released. This made for a nice long flight for them. Pie was so excited and his mom was so proud.
Ken and Matt W added several more tows to their flight logs. Both are working on earning their P2 free flying ratings. They earned their Cliff Launch endorsements earlier this week with a trip to the Hager City flying site that overlooks the Mississippi River. Keep it up guys!
Jake made a bunch of PPG flights on Friday. The sky was completely clouded over so we didn’t need to worry about the typical midday thermals stopping us. We began at 8:30 in the morning and other than a short lunch break, didn’t stop until nearly 3 that afternoon. We even made a short cross country flight together and turned around only after our hands got to cold to continue. Jake is doing great and has only the PPG2 written test and 5 flights left to complete his requirements.
Dimity picked up his new Macpara Colorado. The manufacturer says the dealer should make the first flight with the new wing to ensure everything is in working order, I was more than happy to oblige. The wing is a more aggressive design and requires more wind speed to launch. However, once airborne it is amazingly stable in bumpy air and just punches through turbulence. It’s much snappier than his previous wing but he took to it naturally. Upon landing Dimity commented on the responsiveness and the longer glide. I believe he is really going to enjoy his new ride.
I helped Greg and Curt fix an electric starter issue on Greg’s machine. A small crimp from a pliers and some dielectric grease took care of the problem. As is often the case, finding the problem proved to be the hardest part of the repair.
In other news, Mariyan has nearly completed assembly of his new Pay-in winch. He actually managed to squeeze a full 5,500’ of tow line onto the spool. Initial testing of the winch will happen as soon as weather permits.