New Smyrna Beach, Florida, March
12th:
This afternoon, we arrived at New Smyrna Beach for a couple of
days of flying with a gathering of paramotor pilots coming in
from many different States and from Canada. |
| Elisabeth and I were very pleased to
see again Bill "Wild Flyer" Walsh, from Massachusetts, Bruce Erion, from Georgia, David Frawley from New Hampshire, Ed Shikatani
and Mike Springer from Ontario, Canada, the brothers Jose and
Javier Casaudoumeck from Florida and other pilots that we have
met before or had the pleasure of meeting for the first time. Unfortunately when I arrived it was too windy to fly but our
daughters are having a great time playing on the beach. |
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March 13th:
Today was a beautiful day and with the nice steady breeze from
the sea, just about everyone flew. Reverse launching was the
order of the day. We counted 20 pilots in the morning and others
came later.Ian Panton, a local paramotorist, demonstrated
good skills doing repetitive wing overs with his reflex wing. A little more and it's a complete barrel roll.
I flew the Monster
with a medium Silex, to demo the power of this unit.
At the end of the day, it was Tandem
time. I went for a tandem with Terry Cohen, so he could take
some video shots from the air. Once we landed, Bill Walsh asked
for a turn, so he could feel what it is like to be the passenger. Once again, everybody on the ground could see how quiet and powerful
this unit is.
As usual, the atmosphere is always
so friendly when paramotor pilots gather together. Bruce Erion
and Terry Cohen had special T-shirts made for this event.
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First line: Tammy & Chris Bowles et Bill
Walsh. Second line: Terry Cohen, Mike Springer, Bruce Erion,
David Frawley, Ed Shikatani, John Madgik, me and my daughter Emie. |
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March 14th:
We arrived at the beach this afternoon. Later, we were invited
to join David, Bruce, Bill and Ed at the luxurious condo on the
beach they rented for the week. We had a great view from the
fifth floor and it was good to hear the relaxing sound of the
waves, while talking, joking and watching some paramotor videos and some great
videos filmed on Bruce's houseboat. A few other pilots joined us
for dinner that included a delicious clam chowder and a tasty
chicken dish prepared by David Frawley. Add cooking to the long
list of David's talents.
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March 15th:
This afternoon, the wind was perfect for flying. Being my last
day of this fly-in made me realize again how much fun it is flying
with the guys on the beach.After packing our gear, some of us
gathered at Mike Springer's RV buss, for a refreshing cold beer,
before joining some others at a good seafood restaurant. Not
only did we talk about paramotor, but we also learned interesting
things about the political problems in South Africa from Terry
Cohen, who is from this country. So many interesting and pleasing
people in the paramotor world.
Parrish, Florida, March 22nd:
Another good training day at the Parastars, field. Among the students, were three couples who live
exclusively in their motor home, as I do with my family: John
& Sandy, who recently came from England and share their RV
with their 17 year old son, Richard, as well as
Jack & Jo, and Rusty & Montine.
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Rusty, weighing in at 215, was just
like a kid (like we all are) with his brand new SD Monster this
morning. With a little more ground handling
and towing, he was able to fly solo for the first time at the
end of the day. He took off in three steps (not bad for a first
flight) and landed just fine.
Once he was back on the ground he told
us how he liked the power, strongness and the quietness of his
unit.
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Rusty, after his flight with
his SD Monster. |
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| Elisabeth helping Sandy ground
handling. |
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March 24th:
While students were busy training,
Elisabeth and Sandy joined in at the field and had fun ground
handling together.
It was good practice but most of all, fun
for both of them.
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March 25th:
Early this morning, many of the Parastars
members
came and flew all day. We had a nice breakfast on the field,
using the 5 big motorhomes parked on the site.
This group of paramotorists
is very active and whenever the weekends promise good weather,
they gather at their field. Lots of activity in the air;
it looks like a small fly-in.
In the afternoon, our good friend
Bruce Erion arrived from Atlanta for a short flight with us.
To compliment the festive atmosphere
one of the students, Jason, soloed at the end of the day.
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Saturday, at the Parastars field, with members.
(Special thanks to William J. Corbett
who provided this picture) |
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March 26th:
Another nice flying day at the Parastars' field. Less pilots than yesterday, but still plenty
of activity. Rusty had his fourth flight on his SD Monster today.
It seems we are often meeting interesting
people in the paramotor world. One of them, David Robichaux, a triathilon athlete, bike
racer and bicycle expert, was one of our students today. It just
happens that Jack, another student races motorcycles.
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David Robichaux, flying his
Miniplane paramotor. |
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After only a day and a half of training,
David soloed. He was a natural at ground handling and did excellent
on towing.
After a very good first flight, he was ready for a
second. His second flight, he experienced a scary situation:
As a racer, David is used to pushing the envelope and when he
pushed the glider a little too much while making a turn in a
Reflex glider, he went into a flat spin and created a few twists
in his lines. On the radio, Francesco told him what to
do and after a few scary seconds, everything came back to normal.
That was enough to start a conversation about paramotor safety
and David, and everybody else that was there, learned a good
lesson. |
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We ended the day with a few of
the pilots, at a good buffet country style restaurant, going
over the days flying. Of course Jack and David had a good chat
on motorcycle racing too.
April 7 th:
This morning, Francesco, Guy Leon-Dufour
(the French Adventure owner), the Good and I, had breakfast together,
just before leaving to get our booth ready for Sun'n Fun. With
the great weather, preparing the booth was an easy job.
It was also a day of reunions as Jerry
and Michelle Daniele, Tony Olmi and Bill and Lillian Werntz (all from Albuquerque and with whom we spent many good times with
over the last few months) arrived to help us at the booth. David,
my assistant also arrived from New Mexico with Mike Gonzales,
a Viking PPC pilot, also from Albuquerque.
 Click
here to see the repost on Sun 'n Fun 2000
April 16th:
We spent the entire day at the Parastars'
field. Tom, a new SD 48 owner, who started his training today,
is doing quite well. Jerry and Michelle Daniele, from New
Mexico, and Wayne and Susan Mitchler, from Alberta, Canada, joined
us. I did also paramotor extraction with David Robichaux, who
enjoyed it.
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Also taking advantage of the nice field
and flying, were Clarence and Robert of the Sea Bow Powered Parachutes. |
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Eleonaure and I, ready to take off with
the Sea Bow. |
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Wayne gave Michelle a ride in the Sea
Bow and then I flew it with my daughter Eleonaure.
Towards the end of the day, Neil, a
paramotor pilot form Florida, invited me and my friends to his
home in Sarasota. We had a great time chatting and playing with
the traction kites on the beach. We ended this pleasant day at
a very popular restaurant in town, where the food and the ambiance
were equally great. Also, I was fortunate to meet Neil, as he
being on orthodontist, took care of my daughter Eleonaure during
our stay in Florida.
19avril:
Yves Dallaires, my long-time friend
from Quebec, lives not too far from the campground where we parked
this afternoon. Yves has lived in Florida for almost 15 years
now. He and his wife Cindy have two children, about the same
age as our daughters, so our family went to visit. The facilities
included a yard, where the children played, a trampoline and
a pool. This was a gorgeous day, punctuated with the almost constant
buzz of animated conversations, and topped with good pizza and
good cold beer for dinner.
Tom’s new record, April 20th:
This morning, I had three students
to take care of. One of them, Tom, coming from Colorado, had
only a few days to train before he had to leave, so I decided
to give him as many short flights as possible this morning. A
total of 6 nice flights were achieved and Tom was happy and doing
very well.
Rusty, an SD Monster owner, continued
his training and now has 16 flights. John, from Manitoba, Canada,
who started his course today, is doing just fine.
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At the end of the afternoon, we all
met again at the field and I asked Tom if he still had some energy
left for some more flights. He was anxious to keep going, so
when I mentioned that the record number of flights by a student
at Paratour was 9 in a single day, he was all for trying to break
this record.
We waited for the wind to subside because
it was still just a little too windy for him. He still had this
record in mind, but because he was tired, we all agreed to stop
for the day, mostly because of the wind.
Then, at about 7:30 pm, the wind was
just right and all the pilots asked Tom if he was ready for more
short flights. "Yes!," he said, and everyone helped
him set up and I took him up for 3 short ones leading to his
10th for the day, where he relaxed for a leisurely 15 minutes
flight, climbing to about 1500 feet and then shutting off his
engine for a nice quite glide down to a great landing and a nice
cold beer waiting for him.
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Tom, with his bran new SD
48. |
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Tom has now the new record for a the
most flights in one day by a student and finished his training
with a total of 16 flights for the week. Being in good shape
and having a good attitude contributed to this rather exceptionally
successful training.
He now returns to Colorado with enough
confidence to keep flying safely and continue perfecting his
skills. Tom Swezey is only a beginner pilot in the sport, but
a good one. We all wish him success and happy flying.
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Easter day, at the Parastars' field, with
some members of the club. |
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Easter, April 23rd:
Another day at the Parasdtars' field, where as usual, many members
of this very active club of paramotorists in Florida. The
weather was good again, so many of us flew.
Montine & Rusty came with an Easter buffet
for all of us.
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Brandon, Florida, April 27th:
We have spent the three last days with
Neil, a local paramotor pilot, who is also my daughter's
orthodontist when we are in Florida. He warmly invited us to
park in his big yard, and the girls enjoyed his nice swimming pool
with a beautiful fountain.
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During those nice days, we sang with
the Karaoke; Neil shoed us his collection of tamtams from different
countries and plaid some to entertain us; he taught the Salsa
to Elisabeth; and we went to different nice restaurants, including
Japanese, where we enjoyed Sushi for the first time.
Of course,
we also joined by members of the Parastars for a nice
evening flight. |
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We have to go back to Quebec now, and
plan to leave Florida tomorrow. We will however, be making more
short stops, along the way, to meet some other people.
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