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.
Images below are from my first paraglider training sessions with Jeff Williams near Los Angeles, CA. The last one is a couple who I would eventually spend many, many happy hours with. Alan Chuculate and his wife Mary Hobson. We were introduced by Nick Scholtes.
