Hi All
Had a
great time at the Fly By Ranch. I forgot my map, but heck, how hard can
it be, right off I-75 as you come off the turnpike, you can see it from
I-75. After seeing it on the right and heading north, not seeing another
ramp for as far as the eye could see, I abruptly did a police turn
around through the grass medium, hit the first ramp I came to, a couple
wrong turns, backtracked, walla, I was there.
Since I slept in the van at the
rest stop not 10 miles from there, I was the first pilot, and the first
to launch. It didn't seem that cold on the ground, but at about 800-1000
ft, wearing those brown cotton gloves I just
happen to have by luck and the jacket, my fingers still turned numb,and
that's only 4 hour drive north. At home in Ft lau, 75 degrees. Must have
been 45 degrees in Wildwood Fl. What beautiful country this place is,
grass is brown, except in a few places. Tall standing groups of trees,
like a five acre patch of trees in a 30 acre farm fields. Perfect for
low level flying and hardly no homes to dodge, miles and miles of open
land and a few lakes.
The school itself is a 146 acer of mostly cleared land. A perfect
setting for a powered paragliding school. They done their homework with
this one folks.
I flew for a
while and landed when I noticed more pilots had arrived, the same bunch
of dedicated pilots I keep meeting at conventions / other get togethers
and getting to know better each time we meet. Plus a
couple of newbies.
Then the fun started, and I was on the ground watching. I wondered what
the PVC poles sticking up and the rubber balls were for along with this
tripole hoop out there in the field. I soon found out. Eric Durfor put
on a
display of flying like I have never seen before, while flying, picking
up the ball with his feet and putting the ball in the tripole hoop.
Bobby Night would have been proud, except his hands were in the gaurd
position when he
shot the ball with his feet, for those of you that know B-ball and Eric
was like the M. Jordan of powered paragliding.
I have flown low, but not with the
precision flying clinic Eric put on. When he was done, I had to try it.
I got close to the ball, then closer to the ball, then I finally kick
the ball, OK, it was breezy out. Up, Down, up, down. I don't do foot
drags because of the foot high grass I fly in around the glades. I might
have picked up a few bad habits, or at least for the price of gas,
learned a lot more about powered paragliding.
All of you have see a plane pull a
banner, well guess what, Eric lowers with a hook, scoops and pulls what
I call a 5 ft round by at least a 10 ft long tube for advertising the
school while flying around. I heard other
instructors saying, I am eating this up, I gotta have one of those. What
an ideal.
Everything is new, Club
house, training room, work shop, and I hate to say it, other instructors
beware, (they built it, the studens will come).
When it warms up, I have to go back
and travel the country some more. I only went a few miles and could see
50 miles. Nice lakes, ponds, and I left the cows alone. Police training
dogs not far off was fun to watch also. I am sure new people to florida
and others traveling I-75 coming down to Florida for their first time
were thinking, did I read that in the Disneyland brochure?
My day ended about 3pm
when my F3 Adventure redrive broke at the top portion at 3 corners. But
Mojo's, don't wait on my order, I will rebuild it back solid like a
rock, like my muffler, so it can't happen again. My last mishap I think
caused this also.
Anyway, Thank you
Paratour family for the hospitallity!!!! and for the learning experience
I picked up. It was all about fun and camaraderie amoung fellow pilots.
Not to mention, the flying.....I will be back.
Eddie Jones
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