Pine Island New Years

Just look at the weather rock. It was stationary only during early mornings or after the wind knocked it's stand over. But importantly, by the time I got there, the super cold (for Florida) weather had moved on and I got to wear shorts and T's. Yeah, now THAT'S why I come all the way down here! The presence of so many cool people is, admittedly, another good reason.

Paul put on a great time for everyone with his PlanetPPG.com year-end celebration off paraflight. He's an exquisite host and made everyone feel at home. Wayne, who owns the airport, helped make everyone enjoy the visit, too. You can almost always see what's going on at Wayne's World by checking out the PlanetPPG.com webcams.

Master Powered Paragliding Videos

Of course my focus is quite heavily on the Master PPG video series, now working on 2 through 4 all at once. In fact, I finished the audio editing meaning that the narration is done for all three. Of course there are always changes and additions but this is a significant point. In support of this effort I got Paul Czarnecki and John Black to each do a tandem while I recorded from different angles. John also did a nose-over spiral for me while I had a camera on the cage. And I got some necessary shots of trike A-Assists. We also shot some comparisons of weight shift with different motors, how to use another style of A-assists on carts and, most importantly, the weather rock. Yes, there is a place in the script, brief though it is, for a weather rock.

I also flew a 2005 pap to get some low hook-in swing-arm footage. This is a popular style of some European competition pilots, especially in Spain since it's made there.

These shots will add to the primary work I did with Eric Dufour a few weeks ago. He'll be featured prominently in all three videos and I appreciate EVERYONE'S help.

Sky Diving

There is now a tandem skydive location and I took advantage of a particularly skilled and aggressive camera pilot, Atos, who did a beautiful swoop for me, right towards and past the camera. That will be in video 4.

Flying

For the days I was there it was a bit windy. Friday wasn't bad but Saturday (New Year's Day) was a blow out. A few of us still flew but I got spanked. Paul and I launched within seconds of each other to bring in the new year under wing but it was pretty rough down low and clearly rippin' up high. With trims fast and hands up I was going backwards at 600 feet or so. But I came back down and did a foot drag in the field. Yes, the field that's surrounded by trees, especially on the Southeast corner. I started to climb, reaching maybe 30 feet when at least 40% of my right wing folded under and started an immediate turn. I reduced power, let it accelerate slightly, then steered, then used some right brake to help it pop out. My attention meter was pegged. That was enough for me. I climbed up enough to come around for a nice, easy, power-on landing in the reduced-rotor air near the hangars.

Flying Long

The Ohio boys (and girl) are an absolutely great bunch. They do xc. Lots of it. And this event was no exeption. On two mornings they would come to the fly-in by, amazingly enough, flying in!  They'd find a beach some miles away but upwind of Pine Island, launch and enjoy the downwind dash to the field. It's frequently bumpy down low on pine island when there's much wind but, up several hundred feet and off the island, it might be completely smooth. That was their experience.

Party

I'm normally pretty dull but, for whatever reason, I stayed up and, oh boy, was THAT interesting. I'll demure here: what happens in Bokeelia, stays in Bokeelia. There WILL be video, though, on Paul's site as soon as I get around to labeling and extracting.

Thanks for the great time, guys!