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The article below is courtesy of the
WashingtonPost.com.
Taking Flight With a Back-Packed Motor
By Lisa Ulmer
Photos by Reginald A. Pearman Jr.
Washingtonpost.com Staff
Wednesday, July 1, 1998
As a child, Carlton Hoskins would look to the sky and dream of
flying, planning to become a commercial aviator or a fighter jet pilot.
As an adult, he joined the U.S. Air Force, but was denied entrance to
the pilot program because of a low blood sugar condition. Only this year
did the 27-year-old Army officer finally realize his dream of piloting
his own machine: He became a powered paraglider, and the child in him
got what he wanted.
"The sport is the closest thing to actually being a bird," Hoskins
said of powered paragliding, which allows enthusiasts to fly with a
motor strapped to their backs and a banana-shaped canopy billowing above
them.
Hoskins, a D.C. resident, is one of 30 members of the
South-Mid-Atlantic Pilot's Club, a newly formed group of local powered
paragliding enthusiasts. The club meets at the Baltimore Brewing Co. for
beer and "fly chat" and assembles for group flying sessions at Oregon
Ridge Park in Hunt Valley, Md. The club is so much in its infancy that
no monthly dues have been set and a monthly meeting schedule has yet to
be established. The sport itself is so new that it isn't even listed in
a revised Webster's dictionary.
"The worst thing about being a PPG pilot is the dearth of useful
information," said Chris Wolf, a 47-year-old Seattle resident who is a
member of the International Pilot's Club. "Unpowered PG pilots and PPC
[powered parachuting] pilots all have strong support groups. Except for
the Pilot's Club, American PPG pilots have almost nothing."
The Pilot's Club was launched in 1996 as an international e-mail list
serv, or electronic bulletin board. More than 700 members – living
anywhere from Tampa, Fla., to Cape Town, South Africa – have posted
notes and questions, exchanging paragliding advice, instruction and
experiences.
"It has been a great help for me to connect with these guys," said
list serv member Ben Fleming, 48, a researcher for the University of
Arkansas Department of Mechanical Engineering in Fayetteville.
The list server was established and run by 27-year-old Eric Marzewski,
a computer-engineer-turned-Internet-entrepreneur. Marzewski is founder
and president of Green Mountain Unlimited, an online supplier of an odd
collection of "lifestyle products": pewter flasks, yards of ale glasses,
wine goblets, cigars and cigar accessories, mahogany humidors and
gourmet beef jerky.
When the company's biggest sales began to ring in for powered
paragliding equipment ordered by local pilots, Marzewski had a
brainstorm: Why not muster up a group of local enthusiasts to meet, chat
about flying experiences and fly together?
"The best way to promote a sport is to be active in it and hook up
with other enthusiasts," Marzewski said. "Flying alone is fine, but
flying with other people is much more fun."
Hoskins agreed, citing the nature of the sport as reason enough to
connect with a group. "With paragliding, you need a buddy system," he
said. "It can be intimidating to go up there alone." And so the local
Pilot's Club was born in the spring of 1998.
With a large fanlike motor strapped to his back and a multi-colored
canopy trailing behind him, Marzewski tugs on a hand pull, dashes across
a grassy field and takes off toward the clouds, gaining altitude in just
a few steps. In the air, he would look little like a feather-winged
creature and more like an unusual superhero attached to a runaway air
conditioning fan.
"It actually looks like you have a lawn mower on your back with a
zip-lock bag shaped like a banana above you," Marzewski said. "People
are always stopping their cars to look up in the sky at you."
The equipment may look strange, but, according to pilots, flying it
provides an intense rush and a lot of stress relief.
"I fly anytime the weather and wife permit," Fleming said.
The term paragliding can conjure up images of extreme sports athletes
or daredevils hurling themselves off cliffs for a natural high. But,
Marzewski said: "I'm not an adrenaline pumper or a thrill seeker. I just
like the idea of flying like a bird. It's complete freedom; you're under
your own control."
Control is the term most often used to differentiate powered
paragliding from other parachute- or glider-dependent sports, such as
parasailing or hang gliding. Parasailing is what you do at the beach in
a quasi-parachute-tied-to-a-boat contraption – sometimes in the Virgin
Islands after one too many piña coladas. The parasailor is dragged
around the harbor, like a sack of beach pebbles. (If you want to offend
a paragliding pilot, just refer to his or her sport as parasailing.)
Hang gliding is a "committed" sport, meaning once you jump, there's
no going back.
[ed note: the website and group is no
longer active, the currently most active discussion group is
PPGBigList]
ABOUT THE GROUP Club: The South-Mid-Atlantic Pilot's Club
Address: Green Mountain Unlimited, 1463 Graham Farm, Severn, Md.
21144-1086, Telephone: 888/629-6742
Web site:
http://www.gmountain.com/clubs.htm, Membership Cost: None.
How to Join: Contact Eric Marzewski at Green Mountain Unlimited. You
must have powered paragliding training before flying, if you have
never flown before. Green Mountain Unlimited provides training for
$250 a person a day. Training is free if you purchase equipment.
Prices of equipment range from $5,000/minimally equipped to
$10,000/fully equipped. Upcoming events: Aug. 4, noon: Powered
Paragliding Festival, Oregon Ridge Park, Hunt Valley, Md.
Powered paragliding allows for a change of mind; if you want to stop
your launch, you just turn off your motor, stop running and let the
canopy float down behind you. The motor in powered paragliding also can
be turned off once the pilot is in the air to allow for free-fall. At
any point, it can be turned on again.
The main component parts of a paraglider are a canopy, or the wing;
risers, or the cords by which the pilot is suspended below the canopy; a
harness; and the hand controls, which provide speed and directional
control. The equipment itself is very easy to transport, an important
advantage powered paragliding has over other air sports.
"It's cheaper than hang gliding and portable – the equipment folds
and fits in the back of my Explorer," said Chad Houck, 27, president of
Christopher Ryan Designs Inc. in Baltimore. "Once you fly, you're
hooked," he said. "I used to go skydiving, but this is much better."
The National Transportation Safety Board reported fewer than 10
accidents since 1985 for professionally built ultralights, the
classification for powered paragliders. Up to 1997, reports from a
Powered Parachuting (a similar ultralight) Incident Database recorded
fewer than six fatalities, a dozen minor incidents and one "messed
pants" incident.
The novelty of the sport prevents an accurate reading on how many
pilots fly powered paragliders. Jim Stephenson, president and CEO of
Aerosports Connection – a national association for ultralights –
estimates that there are 2,000 to 5,000 pilots in the United States.
An additional reason for the lack of statistics is that because
powered paragliders are classified as ultralights by the Federal
Aviation Administration, no license is needed to operate one. Proper
training is highly recommended and takes one to two days, depending on
the student's ability.
"When the initial training is over, a PPG pilot is usually on his
own," said Seattle pilot Wolf. Flying alone can be intimidating. And
that's where the Pilot's Club comes in. "I wanted to have a bunch of
guys to fly and swap stories with," said Leonard Wallace, a Beltsville
real estate agent, on one reason why he joined the club.
Marzewski is eager to draw attention to the club and the sport. "The
sport is so new and the market is small," he said. "Right now, we're
trying to promote powered paragliding, make them aware of how easy and
enjoyable it is."
There are no women in the local club, but "we're working on it,"
Marzewski said.
A majority of the men in the club are like Hoskins: guys who have
dreamed of taking flight since they were young. "My father was a pilot,
so I've been flying in small planes since I was 2," said Houck. "Powered
paragliding feels like the closest thing to having a pilot's license for
me. I'm actually trained to fly a machine."
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