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Albuquerque, New Mexico, December
18th:
Another a good day of flights. Michele
flew twice with her trike. She constantly improving her skills
and performs touch and goes like only an expert can do. Ray happily
flew again, as it had been two weeks in travel (without paramotor!),
I did two tandem flights; One of them was a birthday gift given
to a man by his wife.
At 5:00 PM, we all reunited at Chris'
home for a Christmas party she hosted for our group of paramotor
pilots. She surely worked for hours, preparing such delightful
dinner that included four different meat dishes, a large variety
of side dishes and so many different desserts. Mike, her husband,
was in charge of the drinks, and there again, we had a large
choice. It was an enjoyable evening for all. When we left, our
gracious hostess presented all her guests with a beautiful embroidery
Christmas decoration that she made herself.
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December 22nd:
The moon was going to be full tonight and
would appear to be larger and brighter because today was the winter
solstice. This has not occurred in 133 years and all we needed was
an other excuse to fly. So we gathered at the field mid afternoon to
fly sunset, have dinner there and maybe fly again.
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Once again, everybody flew, then gathered
around a nice fire to warm up, since the weather was a little cold, but
nothing compared to Quebec this time of the year.
The moon came up really nice and bright,
but we decided to wait for it to get a little higher to light
the ground even better. We were getting ready to fly, but the
wind stopped most of us because it was blowing too strong. I
decided to attempt a short flight for the crowd and after fighting
with the glider a bit for control, I took off. While having fun
chatting and joking around the fire, we ate good New Mexican
chili, with soda, beer, cakes and coffee. This was another beautiful
time in Albuquerque, with wonderful people.
| December 24th: This afternoon, Chris had a nice
# 7 flight. Good take-off. While she was in the air, Mike arrived
at the field and a little while after, could see how happy his
dear wife was, after a nice flight and a good landing.
Also, I flew under another identity
today: Santa Claus. Two journalists came to see Santa on a paramotor. On the 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00 PM TV news, the people of Albuquerque
could watch Santa fly in, using his updated mode of transportation
to begin his mission of good will. |
A TV cameraman, filming Santa doing
touch and go.
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| At sunset, we headed over to friends
house, in an area of town where every house is decorated with
Luminarios, a traditional New Mexican decoration. |
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Luminarios
are brown paper lunch bags filled with several inches of sand,
with a candle in the middle. They are placed a foot apart and
lined the sidewalks, roof tops, fences, etc... At dark, the candles
lighted and they look like thousands of lanterns. |
| As we
walked the neighborhood, we were treated to tethered hot air
balloons that glowed like giant light bulbs and a chorus
group signing Christmas songs under street lamps.
Afterward, we came back to house
and had pizza, soda and beer. The kids could no longer contain
themselves and so we "turned them loose" and the gift
wrapping began to fly everywhere and kisses on the cheeks didn't
stop. This evening, adults were no different then children. What
fun we had! |
December 25th:
When we arrived at the Daniele's for
a nice festive brunch, The Journal (Albuquerque's major newspaper)
displayed a nice big picture of Santa flying a paramotor. This
was just the beginning of a great day. After brunch, we all went at Michelle
Daniele's parents house, for their annual Christmas party. Michelle
is from a large and warm Latin family and the house was full
of people. Everyone was very nice and made us feel at home. Delicious
Mexican food, games, dancing and so much fun for everyone. The
biggest and the most important impression they made on Elisabeth
and I, was how much love was in this very united family.
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Jerry enjoying flying the SD 44 with
the small Silex. |
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December 27th: Again, Michelle, Jerry, Tony and I
had nice flights today. Jerry and Tony really enjoying flying
with the SD and the Silex. Michelle continues to do well on her trike and I can see that she is now in control when she flies.
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I can see that Michelle is now in control
when she flies her trike. |
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It was a special day for her today, since she is
having her knee surgery tomorrow and will be grounded for a while, so we
made sure she flew twice. Tonight we had a pleasant visit with
visiting paramotor pilot, Phil Carlos, from Louisiana. As it
is whenever pilots get together, we enjoyed looking at aerial
photographs of his beautiful property and the area that he and
Steve Webre fly together.
December 31st :
This morning Jerry and I went a few
miles out of town to the Alamo Ranch, where we
flew to a mesa that has a small Indian pueblo ruin on top of
it, called Sky Village. While in flight, just before arriving
at the mesa, we intercepted a herd of about 20 Mustang horses. The scenery was breath taking with a backdrop of volcanoes, mesa,
and canyons surrounding the wild horses. We flew over Sky Village
and I videoed the entire flight. It was like National Geographic. I think it's hard to get any better than this.
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Right after, we headed straight for the
training site to meet with other pilots.
We had plenty of time for more flying, even a couple of trike
flights for me.
Ron Greenwood, Tony and Chris (with the new adjustable J-bars on her F2),
were with us to finish out the last day of this century, doing what
we like best: Flying with friends.
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Chris Rogers with the new adjustable J-bars
on her F2. |
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Tonight, we were all invited to
Michelle's brother's house for a New Year's Eve party.
Ron and Della Greenwood joined us for a nice crowd of about (at
least) 50 people.
A large buffet with many delightful
dishes "a la Southwest" was waiting for us. It was
great to see Michelle's family members again and meet many new
ones. There was good conversation, jokes, games and dancing.
I also had a great time at the pool table.
The ambiance was festive and of course,
we had the classical countdown just before
midnight. With the jute box blaring, I started the "Paramotor
dance" ....."inflate, full power, run and fly!"
or "reverse, inflate, turn around, full power and run!".
Michelle's surgery went so well that she even danced with her
crutches.
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Click
here to see the article in The Journal