This is the best time of the year to fly, and the most anticipated. Soft north winds enter the island, allowing coastal flights of tens and even hundreds of miles. This was the situation in Villa Pesquera of Isabela today. And we took advantage of it. The Instructor Luis Ruiz with the students Thaddeus Gala, Ted Sowinski and José Casillas goes there to practice with the paraglider until gets fatigue. Also pilots Robert Rodriguez and Noel Vale joined us there.
We started with the inflation practices and the possibility of Thaddeus and Ted flights. Luis Ruiz had arrived early and had left everything ready for them to try their flights. The wind is low intensity so this flight, despite being a very pleasant one, had to be earn in the takeoff race. Thaddeus for having flown last weekend had an advantage. And so it was, and with greater confidence, he turned and went flying at once.
Ted did not have the same luck. Despite having made several attempts, the wind or his run-off, or both, were not enough for him to go flying. But as Luis noted, this is one more practice in the process of achieving its realization as a pilot. José Casillas, on the other hand, is resuming his practices in the sport. He began about 2 years ago doing a passenger flight with Luis and at that time begun to take classes. And here he was, returning, eager to accompany us on our flights.
Thaddeus, had gasoline estimated for two hours in the tank of his new SkyMax EOS150, but once past an hour and a half. Luis began to worry because Thaddeus had gone to fly East, and the last view from him was when he was flying over PR2 in Guajataca of Quebradillas. (In just his third flight🤔). Decision time…, Luis left the students practicing and launched with the paramotor of Ted, a SkyMax Moster Plus, and went towards Quebradillas. He was thinking for sure that Thaddeus, with 1 hour and 45 minutes had to have landed in another place.
Once Luis passed the Guajataca Tunnel and arriving at the PR2, with an estimated height of 1,000 ft, he managed to spot Thaddeus. But not on the ground as expected, but at 2,000 ft. High and coming back from Hatillo. After the landing, and Luis relieved of the “scare”, Thaddeus commented that he had arrived flying to the Parque del Norte de Hatillo. He arrived with his gas tank empty … Now, we know how good the economy of the EOS 150 is. It takes around a consumption of 3 gallons for 2 hours of flight.
We continued the afternoon with the practices of Ted and José. With the arrival of Robert and Noel there were more flights in the area. We spotted the pilots Fernan Lassalle and Iván Torres at the top of the Farallón. They took advantage of the north winds for fly without motor in the area. Robert, in his fly, took good height and made an spectacular video of the area. Noel continues with his problems of the manual start of his paramotor and needed to land kind of far from the launching area 🤨 …
https://www.facebook.com/100000961630656/videos/2737738026268225/
We ended the afternoon with another “cross” flight from Thaddeus, this time accompanied by Luis along the Isabela coast. This time the flight from Thaddeus only lasted an hour, and he is demonstrating a great skill flying his new paraglider BGD Luna 22. Congratulations!
https://www.facebook.com/thad.gala/videos/2187654094624742/
