Pat and Michael’s First Flights! Joe Graduates!

Still super busy at Madcity Paragliding. Lots of milestones achieved the past few days.
Pat made his first solo flight last Sunday. He’s only available Sundays so it’s taking a large part of the summer to get him to this point. With all his ground school completed and a tandem flight under his belt he was ready. We met at the Bigfoot airport by Lake Geneva and the conditions were perfect. After Glenn made his second flight it was Pat’s turn. He did not disappoint. Pat launched cleanly, flew the pre rehearsed flight pattern and landed perfectly on his feet. Way to go Pat!
Michael made his first flight the following Sunday evening. Having started training with another instructor in Indiana a long while ago he was already a skilled wing handler when he arrived at Madcity Paragliding with his dad, Michael is just 17. He spent Saturday with me and another student getting him caught up on ground school as well as spending time in the simulator practicing for the big day. Sunday morning I felt was too gusty for a first time pilot so we postponed until that evening. The wind was perfect, about 6 mph straight up the runway. After donning the Top80 Miniplane he clipped into his 20m wing and was off successfully getting aloft on his first attempt. After smoothly executing three laps around the field he landed in the middle of the runway on his feet, impressive. Congratulations Michael!! Having traveled from three states away we took full advantage of the remaining day. He went on to make three more flights that evening before packing up and heading back to Indiana with his family.
Joe along with his wife Teressa were out Wednesday evening to make his 25th and final training flight. Happy graduation Joe!
Lots of new gear arrived this week. Among the shipments was Jade’s new Macpara Charger and her Dual start Parajet Maverick. We assembled and broke in the motor Friday then waited on the weather to test it. Sunday morning was great. After I took her rig up for a test flight I handed it over to her and she easily added three more flights to her logbook.
Alex’s Atom80 miniplane arrived too. We broke that in and he took that for a nice long solo flight.
Chris’ new Ozone Triax wing arrived via UPS as well. I again put on my test pilot helmet and took it for its first flight to ensure everything was good to go. After that Chris was kind enough to let me use the wing to take Michael from Milwaukee on a tandem flight. Thanks Chris!
It was Steph’s birthday Wednesday so I towed her and Mariyan up to a record 3500’ for a fun birthday flight. Happy birthday Steph!
The wind finally turned north for a few hours Monday. Many students have been waiting for a day at the sledding hill. Kory, John, Steve and Mark were all present and try their best to get into the air with mixed results.
The free flight crew has been busy as well traveling around the area and flying as much as possible.
So much more fun as well!