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!

3 past students, 2 current students and 3 probable future students visited the hanger this past weekend. Matt W, Jake and Dimitri met at the airport to fly together. I believe they would have flown all day. The only thing that stopped them was the sun setting. Jake even brought his brother Max along to try his hand at paramotoring.
​Matt A spent Sunday morning perfecting his forward launches. When we get a little bit more breeze we will polish  up his reverse skills. Rick and I worked on his trike kiting skill, unfortunately the winds weren't  very cooperative but we still manage to get some training in. 
Cole, John and Dennis stopped out for an orientation on PPG. All left with the desire to pursue the sport further.
Everyone agreed that we are tired of waiting for spring to get here. Come on SPRING!!

Friday Nick began his journey to the sky. Too windy to get the wings out but we were able to complete the pre-solo motor training and most of the simulator drills. We are off to a great start! 

Matt was planning to wait for the warm spring weather before he started lessons. So, we scheduled an April start date. Both of us thought April would be warm and all the snow would be gone, no such luck. No worries, we were able to get a lot of motor training and a bunch of simulator drills completed. Hang in there Matt, the warm days will be here soon!

I met Paul at the park in Oconomowoc Thursday and worked on improving his kiting skills. Paul travels over from Milwaukee to meet with me. We had a productive morning and Paul was able to keep the wing kiting over his head for well over 30 seconds a few times, which is one of the requirements prior to taking your first solo flight. Nice work Paul!

Rick, Scott and Kaden stopped over and  watched Risk and Reward or what I like to call " The Scary Movie" on  Monday. This is mandatory viewing for any paramotor pilot in training.  The video is filled with loads of useful and practical information and new pilots gain tremendous insight into the real world of powered paragliding. The DVD is not just the spectacular images you see on YouTube but real world situations where not everything goes as planned along with simple and effective ways to deal with any unexpected abnormalities one may encounter during flight.  This is best watched with an instructor that can help explain what the pilots in the video are experiencing. 

I picked up my dream winch while on vacation in Colorado last week. It's an Airtime Solutions winch with the electro-particle clutch! It is both a pay in and pay out winch so it's super versatile and can be used in any situation.  No hydraulic fluid to leak or overheat, Honda electric start engine, extra long control cable and 5,000' of spectra line (soon to be 6,000 feet as soon as I add the 1,000' from the Tow Hog).  This sweet machine is capable of hauling motorless paragliders to about 3,000' AGL. There they should be able to catch thermals and soar for hours without using any fuel. This is going to be fun!!