UltraFlight Magazine |
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November 2002 |
By Elisabeth Guerin |
PPG Fly-InBasse-Ham 2002 |
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Every other year, the Grand Air Association puts on a PPG
(Powered Paraglider) gathering held in Basse-Ham, France. This
year's second time event proved to be another great success with 125
registered paramotorists, including one woman pilot (Angela
Ciuffoletti, from Italy). Other countries presented were France,
Belgium, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Italy, Lithuania, Mexico, Spain,
United States, Canada, Germany, England, Wales, Poland and Sweden.
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Flying Legally During the Fly-in
In France alone, there
are an estimated number of 1200
paramotorists. Ludwig had to move and change structures
and work with bureaucracy in order to regulate most of the foreign pilots in
the French aviation system for this fly-in.
Unfortunately, for this year's event, he was not able to help the paramotorists from Belgium. This country does not legally recognize the paramotor, but tolerates it. Officials of Spain, Poland, Lithuania and Holland simply did not answer to the French civil aviation's request about their position toward the legality of the PPG activity in their country. Therefore, an estimated amount of 60 pilots could not fly legally at this event. Many didn't come, but some did. Anyway, there was a nice little field close to the site. American pilots had no problem since Part 103 allows them to legally fly a PPG without certification. Canadian pilots also had no problem since they are recognized by their ministry of transport.
Dominique Mereuze, president of the French Gliders & ULM
Federation (FFPLUM) stated that members of this official
organization had tried their best
to find a solution, and during the future months, they will continue
to work on this. Hopefully, in the future these pilots will
be allowed to fly legally.
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The French Hospitality
At registration, all pilots received documentation
in a wallet, including rules and tourist information along
with a few little presents. The registration fees (about $75.00
US) covered most of the meals. Camping on site was free.
As
a good table is part of the French culture, we ate well, with
breakfasts featuring croissants, jam, coffee, etc. and we
had delicious meals with wine at lunch and dinner. Saturday night's dinner was more
elaborate with a
show by local dancers. Meals were taken in the municipal
hall. Smiling volunteers made
sure everyone enjoyed the warm hospitality all weekend. There were English,
German, Spanish and Russian translators. The most spoken
languages were French and English. Even the weather
smiled on the PPGers, with exception of scattered
showers on Sunday afternoon. The pilots were able to fly every day.
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The Place
In the Lorraine area, Basse-Ham is a little town by the Mosel
river. It is embellished by some castles, including
the famous Malbrouck castle which you can visit and fly over. The
site is about 15 kilometers from Luxembourg and Germany
and about 3 hours driving time from Paris. At this time of
the year (June), darkness comes around 10:00 PM.
At the entrance of the site were some flags from different countries. Not all were represented by their flag, but we hope to have more for 2004's fly-in. Right on the Mosel river was a huge site with different assigned areas for launching, landing and for the stands. A big tent offered a place to sit and relax with soft drinks, wine, beer and good things to eat. Camping was near by for tents, RVs and trailers.
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During the weekend, we witnessed some broken propellers
and a para-blender (chute
in the propeller). Unfortunately on Sunday morning, an
accident due to pilot error required the services of an
ambulance.
Record Attempt Before Basse-Ham 2002, many European PPGers
were apprehensive about being in the air with a large number of pilots
at the same time.
With good weather and a safety briefing on Saturday night, an attempt was made for the record. Those who were tentative now know it can be done safely. The nice American flag gliders of Jack and Michael Kimble kept the attention of many. After input from Eric Dufour, the Grand Air association decided to go with more precise
parameters and counting the number of pilots the same way
it is done in North America: counting each take-off,
subtracting each landing and adding take-off again. This year's official
count was 58. It is not a record, but it was a great
show to watch from the sky and from the ground.
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Meets and Reunions What a good start we had at the lovely restaurant called
Auberge du Creve-Coeur, owned by Mr. Speck who warmly welcomed
us with a pleasant atmosphere, excellent food and good wine.
Olivier Symoens instructor in Belgium, couldn't resist to come to the fly-in. Thierry Declemy, a French instructor, did the same coming with his family in their RV. There was the funny Jean-Luc Thuin who made us laugh a lot. Fly Castelluccio products were represented by Eric & Jane Classen from Belgium. There were so many European instructors that I can't unfortunately mention them all. |
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The PAP team has Pierre Aubert, a kind French
pilot living in Spain for 17 years, at its head. Though
a seasoned instructor, he is now so busy with
his
PAP PPG construction that he has no more time to teach. With excellent
pilots, the Spanish PAP team won the World PPG
Competitions Cup in 2001. World champion and one of
the team members, Dany Martinez did
an improvised little show while flying on Sunday morning. Other very good pilots and instructors at the booth included Marco Guillermo Bouschpie (Mexico), Andy Geraud (France) and Michel Touitou, French champion in 1992 and runner up at the European championships in 1993. Having the longest career as a competition pilot (since 1992), Touitou has been on the podium many times in different national and international events. At the event was Jose
Ortega (
France), who has been coach for the Tcheck, Polish and English
PPG teams, and now coaches the Spanish one. Ortega is the author of
"Powered Paragliding" an excellent book, published
in English, French and Spanish. |
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| Our plate was full meeting many other people such as Pierangelo Mezzapeza
(French pilot), dedicated to ultralight arena for more than 25 years and
who authored "The Solo Engine Manual";
Jean-Francois Guilbaud, chief editor for Vol Moteur
magazine; Eric Ripoll,
French instructor and editor of Ailes Magazine; and Francois Lagarde,
who flies PPG over different
countries and ends up with nice articles and footage for
magazines (such as Geo and his 1997 feature in Nigeria for National
Geographic).
There was the French PPG globe trotter Frank Lechenet (a published professional photographer), who flies with a custom- made PPG frame that breaks down into numerous parts so that it is easy to engage in some of his exotic travels. Still other interesting persons we met were Renaud Fulconis, a French free- lance writer who travels all over the world, speaks four languages and does aerial photography; Michel Ruel, a Belgian pilot, who moderates the English European PPG forum and Philippe Philippe Floc'h and his adorable 11 year old daughter, Alexandra, who flies tandem with him (as since age of four) and is now more than a passenger - a pilot- in- command under daddy's supervision. Philippe was instrumental in Basse-Ham organization , promotion and taking care of hotel reservations. |
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| In 1989 he did the first
world stunt of crossing the Mediterranean sea with air
refueling from a boat.
With second place in the French PPG
competitions in 1990 and fifth place in the world championship in 1992,
he was the first PPG instructor in France. He has
participated in over 50 TV programs from different countries
since then.
Eymin's first instructor was Philippe Georjeaguet, another well-known French "PPG ancestor" called "Gaz a fond", which means "full power". At that time (1980's) Georjeaguet was one of first PPG pilots and constructors in the world. Following his father, Jerome Pommier (now 26) placed first in the French championship in 2001 and 2002. His good flying buddy, Ronan Cholou (17 years old) took second place in 2001 and 2002. Ronan has flown PG since age 7 and is a PPG tandem pilot since last year. His father, Dominique Cholou, is a French instructor and the Reflex PPG constructor. With them was Bruno Gourcerol, called "The Survivor" because of the many accidents he had during the PPG competitions he attended.
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The motor wrapped in a resistant plastic bag and taped hermetically, was put (along with the glider and a two-piece propeller) into a hockey bag. He wrapped the four parts of the cage with bubble-wrap and taped many "Fragile" stickers on it. Without any problems, we were able to bring all
our luggage on the plane and get it back without damage.
At check-in, Eric mentioned that we had paragliding
equipment ( which implies sport equipment and allowed us up
to 50 kilos of luggage per person
without additional charge).
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| Their next shipment will be
cheaper, now that they have learned about another option. Peter Wolfe, an American PPG pilot living in Sweden, drove all the way down with his PPG in a case placed on his motorcycle - for a total of 1900 miles in three days each way. Though he experienced rain for 300 miles on the way and 800 miles on the return. Peter enjoyed the scenery and meeting cordial people along the way. Next Time The next edition of this event will occur in 2004. Plan now for a refreshing vacation and some good flying fun with fellow PPGers.
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