Mark’s First Flight! And so much more...

Mark has been working towards this day for a while and Thursday we finally had a break in the weather. We rigged up, quickly reviewed the flight plan and set up to launch into the moderate Southwest breeze. A couple of trial runs with all the gear on and then success! Getting into the seat a bit early is a common rookie move. Fortunately Mark pulled it off and just skimmed the field with the motor as he was being lifted. We got him fully in the seat then began the preplanned inflight maneuvers, mild turns, break control, climbing and descending. After a few laps around the airport he set it down safely. Congratulations Mark!!
Jim passed the PPG2 written test and made his last remaining flights to complete training. His gear is on the way. When it gets here he will be able to fly from his backyard. He has a north/south runway as well as an east/west, lucky!
​Matt and his son Pat began training last weekend. Being a fairly windy day we were only able to get the small training wing out for a little bit. Just enough to give the guys a good taste of what’s to come. We also started ground school and worked with the motors a bit. Welcome Guys!
Bill also started training this week. He actually learned to paraglide in Chile back in the early 2000s. Though it was years ago and only for a couple weeks his body remembered how to control a wing. Admittedly his brain didn’t recall much from the training he received from his Spanish speaking instructor all those years ago. He used his 1999 Swing glider at first to warm up and dust the cobwebs off. Then I hooked him up to a wing that was made earlier this year and he was blown away by the difference. He said it was cheating. The new Macpara Charger kites so much easier, practically effortless by comparison. Bill was quickly bringing the wing up forward and reversed, changing directions from forward to backwards and back again with ease. Welcome back Bill!
Kory and I remedied his binding clutch. Unfortunately rust had taken hold of some of the internal parts while it sat dormant in the hanger for months before he acquired it and brought it back to life.
Two new Gravity Defiants arrived with much anticipation. These things are awesome! It’s a new frameless design which reduces cost by saving on materials and labor. The engineering that went into the machine is impressive. The first one will be a school machine that we will use for training. The second is for Steve. There are three more on order. Jim, Eric and Michael are all waiting anxiously for their machines to arrive.