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

Ryan was so determined to learn to fly paramotors that he actually changed careers to pursue this dream. After switching jobs and talking endlessly about PPG to his new coworkers Ryan signed up. He also convinced his friend and new coworker Brad to join in the adventure. Unfortunately, soon after training began he found himself in the Emergency Room requiring surgery to correct an issue with his guts. The surgery put his quest for flight on hold for a bit. While he healed his friend Brad continued training and has since made several flights.
Saturday Ryan was feeling strong enough to return to training. We hoisted him up with the simulator a few times to be sure flying wouldn’t bother his surgery site. Having no issues getting into and out of the harness we headed to the field to have him try kiting the wing again. That also went well. Both of us were confident that he was ready to give it a try. We reviewed his flight plan and rigged him up.
It didn’t take long for him to be successful. A couple practice runs to be sure all was good and then we fired up the motor. Moments later he was in the seat of the airborne paramotor flying around the airport just as he had dreamed of doing for a very long time. Congratulations Ryan!!
John made the trip down from Fond du Lac several times these past few months to get his training in. Saturday he made the final few flights required. We also prepared for the written test which will be his final task for earning his PPG2 rating. He did manage to get himself turtled after one of his landings. Most embarrassing.
Guy, Pat, Matt and Bill continued their training. Bill was making short flights down the hill at the end of the runway. Next up for these two is a trip to the sledding hill to get those magical first motorless flights in.
​Steve was back to fly his new Gravity Defiant. He was all smiles. That thing is awesome!
​Mark, Jae, Andy, Orhun and Pat all made more flights this week as well.