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New Smyrna Beach fly-in
Florida, USA
December 9th &
10th 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 |
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It all started out when Scott Alan,
a paramotor instructor from Paraborn in Florida,
Scott Fisher
from Florida and Terry
Cohen, from Georgia, decided to get together
in December and fly the beach of New Smyrna Beach.
This "get together" ended up to become a small fly-in with American,
Canadian and English pilots.
As I live now in New Smyrna Beach with my
family for all winter, I couldn't miss it. |
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On Thursday, Danny
Kriseler from Maryland, came to knock
at my door, ready to enjoy the beach. So we went to fly together.
Terry Cohen and Sam Pelligra from Georgia, arrived in town
on the evening.On Friday, the day before the fly-in,
we all flew the beach. Dan had 15 flights and Terry and Sam about
10. Dan probably has the most flights during this weekend.
I always said that there is nothing
like flying the beach with this nice steady breeze. Although
it is almost cheating from the regular field flying conditions
(almost too easy).
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Terry Cohen
with Boots who is barking at his master. |
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Dany Krieseler came with Boots, his dog. Every time Dan took
off, Boots was barking at him - and at nobody else but Dan -
he desperately wanted to fly tandem with his master. And it was
the same thing every single time Dan flew close to his dog. Dan is looking for a harness for Boots.
Anybody know where he could find it? |
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Terry Cohen
did not only take care of Boots. With his black Seal
glider and black flight suit, he flew a lot too. Saturday was the big day.
Some members of the Parastars
joined us and Scott Alan was also there with few pilots too.
All together, we ended up to be about
25 paramotorists. |
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Jasmin Dion (no relation), one of my French Canadian student,
who lives now in Alabama, came to the fly-in, with his wife Francoise.As he had not flown after his training,
which was in last May, he refreshed his ground handling. When
he was ready, he took off, on radio contact with me, so he felt
secure.
Jasmin had a blast flying the beach
and seeing dolphins from the air and he was pretty happy to go
back in Alabama with 9 more flights from the beach. |
At the end of this beautiful Saturday,
some of the pilots left, but we still were a nice group and we
gathered for a good beer at a friendly bar located right on the
beach. The atmosphere was great and we decided to eat there.Boots (Dan's dog) was with us at the
bar, where he behaved very well, sitting on a stood, sipping
water and a few sips of Dan's beer. Like master, like dog.
Scott Alan decided the evening was his treat and the 4
pilot's wives received a rose from him. So Scott received many
kisses in return. Wise guy.
On Sunday, there were less pilots,
but we still were a fun group flying together. In the morning,
we had to take a break, as there was a fog from the ocean that
was coming with some wind. But in the afternoon, it cleared up
and we could be back in the air. |
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Scott let me try the medium Seal. I found it easy to inflate, responsive
and solid. It was fast and fun to fly. Another good glider on
the market. |
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The gliders we saw there were the Silex,
Prima, Ranger, Seal, Symphony, Reflex, Elle, Salsa, Stromboli
and a few other that I can not remember.The motor there, were the SD, Fresh
Breeze, Skycruiser, DK, Fly, Radne and Adventure. |
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During the weekend, I
did a few tandem rides and Nancy, Scott's wife, Poppy, Sean's girlfriend,
and Francoise, Jasmin
Dion's wife, were among my passengers. They all really enjoyed their ride
and since her flight, Francoise is considering taking paramotor
training to fly solo. Jasmin being the good husband that he is,
bought her a new wing. |
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Me, Nancy
and Scott Alan. |
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I went for another tandem pick-up with
John Good as my passenger. He had a fun ride, despite
a funny landing as he landed reverse and could not stand up while
I dragged him on the sand. He reassured everyone that he had nothing
but a few scratches were the souvenir
of his stunt flight. On my side, I had to reassure his wife, that these
were not carpet burns ;-) |
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All together, the weather was on our
side and we flew and flew and flew... I enjoyed this fly-in on the beach
very much.
We were all big boys playing with our
flying toys and it was fun to be all together. |
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Me, Jasmin
Dion, Scott
Fisher and Danny
Kriseler. |
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