July 19/10     I am away.

I will be in Europe from July 20 to Aug 21. Please email if you need to get hold of me.

zemanandre@yahoo.com

Mark may be conducting some training for those students using Miniplane paramotors that have credit on their account.. To make arrangements email Mark at mandrews1973@gmail.com

July 17/10     Lawrence and Rene flew first solo today - July 14.

Wind today was perfect for first solo flights. Lawrence and Rene were fine tuning their glider handling skills with motors on their backs. I took off for quick flight to make sure air is not too bumpy. It was good so Rene was first to try. Good inflation, good control. I gave him the "windmill" which is the signal for full power and take off but he sat down before the aircraft took him of the ground. He needed a break so Lawrence got ready. Great inflation, great control, great take off. Just bit too much brake on lift off and at about 20 ft quick off power for split of a second.. But once in the air it w3as plaesure to watch Lawrence carve smooth turns and work power ever so smoothly. He spent most of his time well over 1200 ft. I did not bother to take any pics as he was bit too for high. Meanwhile Rene got ready for another try. Good inflation, good control. I gave him the "windmill" again but he sat down again! OK that takes a special skill! ;-)  Meanwhile Lawrence asked if he could land. Since he was up for good half hour, no problem. We set up for landing and he axecuted almost perfect landing. Well done Lawrence. Congrats on flight number 1.

Lawrence

Ok. Back to Rene. We got ready again. This time Rene inflated, powered up and ran till he was in the air. He spent 30 min cruising around getting used to this new environment. On landing, pulled brakes bit too much on B position and actually climbed back up to about 8 ft or so. He did hit the brakes with the right C position at the right time so it was not big deal. Not perfect landing but good enough. Congrats.

  Rene 

July 16/10     More ground handling with Lawrence - July 13.

I spent couple hours with Lawrence today and he is ready to fly. He can now inflate with motor on his back and control glider very well. As soon as we have 10 - 15 km/h wind he can go for his first solo flight.

July 15/10     PPG course Day 3 - July 12

Rene had to go to work on Monday so I had Curtis and Lawrence at the field. Lawrence progressed very well with is ground handling. All we have to do is to put motor on his back and if he can inflate with the motor he is ready to fly. Curtis managed additional 2 flights in quite tricky conditions. Both executed wery well. There was not much wind at all. Good day.

July 14/10     PPG course Day 2 - July 11

Both students Rene and Curtis progressed nicely with ground handling and at the end of the day Curtis managed to do his first solo flight. Solid take off, pretty good handling in the air. Landing approach was bit rocky but the landing it self was no problem at all. Rene tried a different machine in improvised simulator as the previous one was not fitting quite well. I thought that he would be the one to fly first but something happened in the second half of our Sunday session and Rene's skills started to get worse. Tired perhaps? We are planning to get together on Wednesday and if we have good conditions I am sure Rene will fly.

  Rene in improvised simulator

   Rene and Curtis ground handling

    Curtis in flight

July 10/10     PPG course Day 1

Two students signed up for this course. Rene and Curtis who drove all the way from Alberta to take the training. We completed ground school, park prep and spent 3 hrs ground handling both forward and reverse. Both students need bit more ground handling but there is very good chance they they will both fly on Sunday.

Rene on left, Curtis on right. Note the size of his slurpy mug...

June 28/10     Very busy.

This year is quite different from last. I guess the economy is doing better. Many students are signing up for courses, I am very busy teaching and have very little time to post updates.

I have recently trained with Vasyl and Oleg from TO, Michal and Marius from Ottawa, Mark, Lupo. Lawrence and few others.

June 3/10     PPG course May 8/10 - day three - Tuesday evening

Great forecast for the evening. Juilio and Tyler continued with their training. Tyler managed 22 short flights in a span of 2 hrs and ALL of them perfect. He is done. 32 flights completed. One of the fastest students ever. Congrats Tyler on completing your course. Juilio has improved his ground kiting skills and is getting very close to the flying stage...

May 25/10     PPG course May 8/10 - day two - Monday evening

Great forecast for the evening. Juilio and Tyler continued with their training. Tyler quickly managed 9 short flights in a span of 1.5 hrs all of them pretty much perfect and Juilio has improved his ground kiting skills tremendously. He will fly soon.

May 19/10     PPG course May 8/10 - day two - Monday morning

I got together with Tyler and Juilio at 7 am as forecast for later in the day did not look  promising at all. Juilio was working on his ground handling and Tyler started to ground handle with motor on his back. He had no problem at all. Almost like to motor was not on his back at all. After several perfect inflations I gave him the option to fly. He agreed so we went quickly over all flight theory and emergency procedures such as unplanned engine stop or loss of radio communication. Tyler was ready to go. Good inflation, I gave him OK to increase thrust but he did not quite go to full power, he hesitated so I told him over the radio to gun it. he did, got of the ground but at about 40 ft backed of the power again. He started to descend so again, I told him to go to full power. This time he held it and climbed up to safe altitude. It was quite cold this morning so after about 15 min in the air. I guided Tyler back down for very good landing. He was pretty stoked and we discussed what he could have done better. Wind velocity increased and it started to be too gusty for flying so Tyler left I started to work with Juilio on his ground handling. At 11 am wind was too much to kite so we went for breakfast. Great morning. Congratulations on your first flight Tyler.

May 17/10     PPG course May 8/10 - day one - Sunday afternoon

We have arrived at Fireman's park, nice weather but winds were gusting to 50 km/h. We took shelter behind a building, tied paragliders to parking lot fence and started to learn how to:

• Put on training harness

• Paraglider - unpacking

• Paraglider - clearing lines and untangling lines

• Paragliding/training harness - paraglider attachment for forward inflation

• Paragliding/training harness - paraglider attachment for reverse inflation

• Carrying paraglider

• Paraglider - packing

• Paramotor pre-flight check

• Paramotor start and stop procedure

• Powered simulator

• Powered runs

All students did very well so we drove to one of our fields to practice ground handling. It was very windy and gusty. Tyler has purchased equipment before this course started and with help of his friend, learned how to ground handle and was doing very well given the difficult and windy conditions. Juilio was using our training paraglider designed for ground handling in high winds and Attila was handling the smallest real paraglider we have that is size 24 m. After about 1.5 hour we had enough. It was long day for everyone. Tyler is ready to fly. Both Attila and Juilio need to ground handle more.

May 13/10     PPG and goats do not mix.

As most of you know I have a female black lab called Jazz. Here and there when we travel south and none of our friends can look after her she goes in a kennel near Fort Erie. Last time I was there I have noticed large fields all the way around and thought I should take off and have a flight nice from here as I have never seen this area from the air. I asked the owner, Angie, and suggested that I will take some pictures of her property for her while I am up. That always works like a charm. I was told that I can come any time when weather is good for flying so last week on Friday morning I put one of my machines on the platform at the back of my car and headed towards Fort Erie. I arrived at 9 am , started to unpack my stuff when I feel gentle poking on my elbow. I look over my shoulder and there is a goat. Small, white and perfectly blue eyes. Cute one as far as goats go.

OK, it is friendly, I give her few pets and keep on unpacking. Next I notice, it is chewing on a strap of my paramotor. That is no good. I push it off but not it is tasting canopy of the paraglider. What the heck. Again I push her off and now she latches on my packet cover of my pants. You little bugger. I give her bigger shove and now it is trying to attack me with it's horns. I guess it is not that friendly after all. The horns are small yet sharp. She is after me! I offer her old strap that was at the trunk of my car and she is happy with that. Anyway, I set up. Take off and fly around. Very nice morning, hardly any bumps. I took pictures for couple of farmers, Angie and local church and flew to fort Erie to check out an old runway by Eurocopters.

Very fun time. I will do more flights from various locations this year as I am getting bored flying from our usual sites. Andre

May 12/10     PPG course May 8/10

The weather for Saturday did not look favourable at all so we cancelled and instead started on Sunday May 9. I had three students in class. From left to right Attila, Juilio and Tyler. Mete - a student from way back 2004 - came to say hi. He is in white T-shirt behind everyone.

Ground school was finished at 2 pm and student pilot permits were issued. Next step, Fireman's park to practice hook ups and to go through powered simulator.

May 8/10     To all licensed PPG pilots. Important!

Current aviation license holders should have received in the mail a notice to apply for the new Aviation Document Booklet. All paper licenses are due to expire this year and you must apply soonest for the new Aviation Booklet. This booklet look's similar to a Passport. It does not cost anything other than you require a passport photo attached with the new application.

See this link:  http://www.tc.gc.ca/civilaviation/general/personnel/changes.htm

May 7/10     I will not be available for training from May 21 to May 24.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

April 21/10     Fun flight April 14, 2010.

When Tim realized he could not go on with his training I have decided to go for a flight for my own fun since I was already at the field. It was a beautiful evening, I drove all this way with all my gear so why not. I have fuelled up my Walkerjet, strapped on the camera, dressed up and said goodbye to Tim. Shortly after I took off then headed into the wind that was at about 8 km/h from north west. It took me about 5 min to settle in, set my foot rest bar, set the cruise control, trim glider, zip up my flight suit and so on. I was bit surprised that air was quite bumpy, I did not expect that at all from conditions on the ground. I flew all the way to Short Hills provincial park which is near Font hill about 20 km away. I also under estimated the temperature. I always have gloves in my side bag, but while back I took them out and never put them back. My hands started to get bit chilli so it was time to turn around. On my way back I played low as wind dropped to almost nothing and golden light was guiding me back to our strip. There was dear, fox (or was it a coyote), lots of geese and guys on four wheelers waving hallo...

I did not leave my self a wind sock at the field. The big one was not moving at all. This may be tricky. I did couple of passes but could not tell if there was any wind at all. I came in quite hot, but it was good landing. I could not see exact spot where I would land as sun was right in my eyes and got lucky this time as I missed big wet, muddy spot at the end of the runway. Uhh that was close. Great flight, good beginning of the season!

April 16/10     PPG course April 14, 2010.

Tim has arrived at the field at 3:30 pm, conditions were perfect. Slight breeze from SW. Perfect for forward inflation practice. I figured we will fine tune his ground handling and in couple of hours Tim will go for his first solo. After 1 hr of doing and progressing quite nicely just that Tim was ready for another forward. Upon inflation wind picked up a bit, Tim lost control of the glider overhead and as it was falling down it pushed him backward and in the process Tim pulled muscle at the back of his thigh. He tried to walk it out, stretch it out but no success, It was OK to walk on but he could not rely on it for running or any other strenuous exercise. Bummer. We were so close and conditions were perfect. I have suggested that Tim goes back to his hotel room and ice it, then calls on Thursday morning to let me know if it is back to normal.

Next day in the morning Tim called, his leg was better but still not up to another training session. Too bad. Now we have to wait till Tim's leg is back to normal. We will resume training as soon as it happens.

Good work so far Tim. I wish you speedy recovery.

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