Shortly after sunrise I met Adam for an early morning flight. Despite the calm conditions on the ground, the sky proved to be unexpectedly bumpy. So we switched to ground school stuff. Both Adam and Ben finished the book work portion of the training, leaving just the fun airborne skills to be completed. Nice work guys!
Late in the day Ben and I took to the skies again and made several laps around the field. Mike also continued his quest for flight. Very soon he will be flying too!

Today I met Ben, Dane and Jeff at the Elver Park sledding
hill for some free flying. The cool breeze from the north made for some great flying. They all did great, in fact, I believe Jeff set a new Elver Park altitude record on one of his runs.
Then it was off to the airport for some motorized flying. Ben tried a new motor tonight. He took the Blackhawk up for couple flights. At first the machine was a bit awkward. We made a few small adjustments to the harness after he landed and his second flight was much more comfortable. Ben was gifted with a beautiful sunset during his last flight of the day.

Sumday I met Dane and Andriew at the hanger for more training. First we worked on wing handling and then we watched Risk and Reward together. Next step for these two is a day at the sledding hill.
After that Ken stopped by with his better half to check things out. He’s trying to decide between foot launch and wheel launch. We put a paramotor on his back and let him feel the power and weight to see if he can be comfortable while foot launching. Whatever he decides I’m sure he will love it!
The next two days were spent in the garage doing needed maintenance on the machines. The downside of a power sport I guess.

Early Saturday morning I met Adam at the airfield for some additional flying time. The grass was drenched so we laid a tarp down to set his wing on in an effort to keep it dry enough to launch. It worked. He easily got airborne with his new BGD Wing with the help of the 185cc motor on the Fly Products machine even though the breeze was directly across the runway. Nice job Adam!
Then Dane and Mariyan join us for some ground school training and wing handling practice. Todd also stopped by later to join the fun.
We ended the day with a little towing demonstration with me pulling Mariyan a couple hundred feet up above the runway just for fun. Another great day at Madcity Paragliding!

Wednesday Paul and Matt from the Milwaukee area stopped over in hopes of getting Paul airborne for the first time but the conditions didn’t cooperate. So the both did a bit of kiting instead.
Nick was also there and he pulled off 5 perfect flights! Nailed every launch and land on his feet every time. Way to go Nick!!
Thursday afternoon Mike met me at the field with plans to make his first flight. Unfortunately the weather let us down again and he was stuck on the ground practicing kiting just like Paul the previous night.
I’m certain both of these guys will be airborne soon. Best of luck guys!

Kevin braved Monday’s rain storm to come and learn more about PPG. It was oftentimes very loud in the hanger when hard rains fell. We found ourselves yelling at each other to be heard above the raindrops pounding on the metal roof. Nevertheless we did get him a real good idea of what to expect during training. He tried on a couple different motors, hung in the simulator and we even fired the Fly Products Moster 185+ and let it push him around a bit. Kevin was impressed with the thrust and could see how this relatively light machine would easily take him skyward.

Chuck made his graduation flight tonight, one year to the day from his first lesson! It’s not that he needed extra time or training to learn the needed skills, it’s just that sometimes life gets in the way of fun and so was the case with Chuck.
We finally got the perfect weather we’ve been waiting for tonight, a nice light breeze down the runway. He pulled off 12 perfect take offs and landings to complete his needed 25 flights. We even turned on the strobe light to get us a few extra minutes of flying time so we could complete his goal.
Congratulations Chuck!!

Busy days...Mike from Duluth finished up his training and is now free to fly on his own (just waiting on his Ozone Roadster 3 to arrive). Mike C is ready for his first flight. Dane and Kaden spent a day kite training, next for these two us a trip to the sledding hill. Finally, right before departing for Colorado Mariyan and I met Madcity Paragliding alumni, Captain Scott, and took his new wife Nicolette on a tandem flight so she could experience her husband’s activity first hand. Seeing her smile and hearing her talk about the flight afterwards it was obvious that she now understands her husband’s obsession.

Adam drove up from Illinois to meet me at the hanger and do some flying. The forecast was for a blanket of clouds for the day which means we can fly all day. Normally we are limited to the first and last 3 hours of the day because of thermals. No such problems on a grey day.
Adam made the most of the conditions. 5 flights before lunch and another in the afternoon. Way to go Adam’

Dane and Andriew met me the hanger this morning for a hands on introduction to the awesome sport of powered paragliding. Dane was soon convinced PPG was for him and decided to sign up right then and there. We spent the rest of the day training.
Andriew and his better half needed to crunch numbers before committing to training. Apparently the numbers worked out because I received a message from him later saying he was in.
Awesome!! You guys are going to love this!!