2nd Kodak Albuquerque
International
Balloon Fiesta Paramotor
Fly-in
New Mexico, USA October 6th to 9th
2000
Special thanks to Sandy Good
who corrected this English version.
** "The following is not an
official report, but my personal view of this event."
Eric Dufour
This year was the 28th annual Albuquerque International
Balloon Fiesta and the first year that paramotor pilots were
invited to participate. More than 1.5 million spectators
visited over the nine days period.
The paramotor pilots briefing began
at 7:00 AM each morning, with coffee, donuts and muffins
provided.
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There was something special in going
back to Albuquerque. Recently, I spent 5 months there with my
family. The people were warmly welcoming and we made many new
friends. Since I taught to many of the local
pilots, I felt there was a little of me there.
It was great for us to meet again with
my students and other pilot friends, and to see some new faces.
Elisabeth likes wide open spaces and
she felt good to be back in the desert with hot air balloons
and everyone flying.
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| This year, the Balloon Fiesta fly-in
was mostly Michelle Daniele's organization, since Jerry, her
husband, was pretty busy running for the state senate seat. But being also a passionate paramotorist,
Jerry couldn't miss any little moment and he just had to join
us.
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| <<== Richard Good, my assistant
instructor, particularely enjoyed flying with the hot air balloons.
<<== (left) Boris
Mayforth, a local paramotorist,
flying with the hot air balloons.
<<== We were all happy campers
with the paramotor and powered parachutes pilots and some hot
air balloons taking of from our site, on 19th Avenue, in Rio
Rancho. |
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Paul and Loretta
Hamilton, a couple of professional
videographers from Adventures
Productions, in Nevada, came especially
to the event to do some footage for their next paramotor video,
which should be released by the end of this year.
Paul
Hamilton at work.
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Paul and Loretta mounted a camera on
my paramotor frame for interesting video shots in flight. Jeff Goin, an experienced pilot from Chicago, flew with
a mounted camera helmet for the Hamilton's next video.
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| Flying over the badlands
with the mounted camera. |
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| While I had the camera mounted on my
paramotor, I joined some pilots who took off from 19th Avenue
and went for a nice flight over the Bad Lands, an awesome canyon
located just 30 minutes driving from Albuquerque down town. We were there for sunset, which is
surely the best time to fly there, when the colors turn very
special. |
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John Good was there too, and as he
does every time he participates at these events, he was filming
everything that moved.At John
and Sandy Good's motorhome, we enjoyed
looking at the Hamilton's and John Good's footage. I liked what
I saw and Paul and Loretta seemed satisfied with all the film
they acquired.
Since I personally appreciate the Adventure Productions videos and CD, I can't wait for the release
of this new paramotor video.
 We all gathered at 19th Avenue.
We could enjoy the nice view of the
Sandia mountain from our site on 19th Avenue.
The first day was warm and sunny, but
the weather changed right after and the rest of the fly-in was
cloudy with some rain and it was colder than normal for this
time of the year.
But we could fly every day and the
simple fact of being 20 pilots gathered was something great and
we could also enjoy the atmosphere of the Balloon Fiesta in town.
 The spectacular hot air balloons
glow.
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At the meet, we saw the Silex, Elle,
Atlas, Arcus, Ozone gliders, as well as the Ranger that Scott Fisher, a paramotorist
from Florida had with him. I did a flight test with this glider;
it is very easy to launch, stable and performs well.
Jeff Goin tested the small Silex and said he liked it
a lot.
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I had fun flying the Parawing with a
trike.
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I had brought a new Parawing from Trecking,
to demo. It is a good wing with a leading edge made of Mylar.
It inflates well and is very stable. It is strong in turbulence
and smooth on the steering. I have tried different maneuvers
like full stall, big ears, asymmetric, collapse and in all cases
it reinflates well, no problem.
I also flew it a few times with a trike
and each time I was impressed with the easy inflation. It flew
very well at 5600' ASL, with Michelle
Daniele on the trike.
Overall the Parawing is a good beginner
glider, fun to fly, with good speed and glide ratio and its low
price is attractive too. |
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The paramotors we saw were the SD,
Fresh Breeze, DK, Miniplane, Fly, Paramotor and Chris Roger's
Adventure with adjustable J-bars. |
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Wayne Mitchler
and I doing some "air kisses" with our Silex gliders
and SD paramotors. ====>> |
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With Wayne
Mitchler on his Powrachute. One of
the rare times I was flying as a passenger. |
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As a passenger, I went for a nice ride
with Wayne Mitchler,
a paramotor and powered parachute instructor in Alberta, Canada. During the event, Wayne flew his SD
122 tuned pipe paramotor and his Powrachute powered parachute.
There were also some other powered
parachutes: The Sixchuter, Buckeye and Viking.
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One of my last year's students, Chris Rogers,
a 59 year old grand mother did her 50th paramotor flight during
this fly-in. On Sunday night, she invited all of
us for a delightful pizza dinner at her place, to celebrate with
her. Of course, as the tradition requires, she ofered the beer.
Four women paramotor pilots had participate
to the fly-in: Chris
Rogers, Lorrie Loomis and Michelle Daniele from Albuquerque and Susan
Mitchler (Wayne's wife) from Alberta,
Canada.
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With her biggest supporter beside her
(husband Mike), Chris
Rogers, preparing her Adventure F2
with adjustable J-bars. |
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At the Saturday night dinner, we all
gathered for Kentucky Fried Chicken, potatoes, coleslaw and cakes
for desert. We didn't mind the rain and had a good time chatting
all together under the big tent, with propane heaters. The ambiance
was there and many of us had stories to tell about flights sometimes
special. |
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All together, even if the weather wasn't
at it's best this year, we had a great time. Most of us flew every day and we enjoyed
to meet with each other.
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