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In the beginning was the prop. Made of wood, and fashioned after its own
kind, it was was good. Loud, but good. It was attached to my Fly 75 (a
modified Fly 70) which noisily pushed me around the country with about
80 pounds of screaming thrust. The Enterprise
wasn't even a sparkle in my eye.
Working on the history project has spurred me to get some of my early
pictures up that have never been posted anywhere. I'll include pictures
by others whenever possible and appreciate contributions from those who
have already done so.
In 1999 everything was new. It was exciting. I devoured all I could
about the sport and soon started writing about my observations and
experiences on the OneList PilotsPPGClub list. That eventually led to
contributing content to the always needy magazines, thanks to the
encouragement of local pilot, Alex Varv.
A knowledgeable and happy-to-help Keith Pickersgill offered advice
without attitude. Others did, too, of course but Keith's sticks out for
its wisdom and delivery.
My day job as airline captain even took on new dimensions as I searched
the terrain below for new sites that would be cool to paramotor.
There were many. They were varied, and being a paramotor pilot opened up
a new outlook on life and the planet. I anticipated many hours of
exploring from my newfound perch.
I had already made some extremely good friends and that was the tip of
an iceberg.
Life was good. And it was about to get better. |
I was enamored with free flight from the start and explored many sites,
usually with Nick Scholtes and Alan Chuculate. His wife, Mary Hobson, is
pictured hiking up the hill at Horse, a popular launch site, west of San
Diego. It provided many hours of hang time on numerous visits.
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