A text message from Jeff Goin? …, That’s how the adventure began yesterday, Tuesday, June 04, 2019 … Jeff’s text asked Luis Ruiz about the possibility of coordinating paramotor flights in Puerto Rico for next day… today.
But who is Jeff? … We can tell a lot about Jeff Goin, but basically we are going to indicate that Jeff is one of the great ambassadors of the sport of Paramotor worldwide. President of the “United States Powered Paraglider Association” (USPPA). He has written several very famous sports books such as the “Paramotor Bible” in various versions and also writes monthly columns for the most prestigious aerial sports magazines. And mos important he is an excellent pilot and great human being.
It turns out that Jeff was on vacation sailing on a Cruise through the Caribbean islands, and for today the Cruise embark in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Jeff’s previous visit to Puerto Rico had not been able to materialize due to work commitments. In several occasions, he had come to the island as a pilot of an Airline at the Luis Muñoz Marín Airport, but he had not been able to enjoy the Puerto Rican taste. All this time he needs for his work to depart again.
This time, it was difficult but there was an opportunity. It turns out that the Cruise opened the doors at 8 AM and Jeff had just until 2 PM. Just six (6) hours, to return to the Cruise to depart to another destination. The weather forecast, however, was in our favor. It looks great all morning to fly, so why not try🤔 …
The paramotor flight location needs to be the in Levittown area, near the San Juan pier. So, Jeff could have a good Paramotor flight and be near the Cruise. This is an area with limited takeoff and landing space. Not very good for novice pilots, but for some of us it is not a big deal.
Luis Ruiz, since yesterday, prepared the flight equipment and notified the Kamikaze pilots in case they could attend. So, this morning he went looking for Jeff at the Cruise Terminal and at about 9 AM, they were on their way to Levittown where they arrived, as planned at 9:30 AM.
The Kamikazes pilots, Antonio Aria, Eduardo Pabon and Rafa Guerrero arrived there. By the time we arrived, Eduardo and Antonio were already in the air. While Rafa was dressed ready to go to his medical office, but not without first greeting his old friend Jeff.
Once there, we prepare the flight equipment. Jeff would use a modern Fly Products Atom 80 paramotor with Apco NRG PRO 18.5 m paraglider, while Luis used his SkyMax Moster with BGD Luna 22 m paraglider. In the meantime of preparations Antonio and Eduardo arrived from their flights. They had flown to Dorado about 13 miles away and they were back.
Before public that came to see the activities, everybody launch, Jeff, Eduardo, Antonio and Luis were in the air in some minutes.
https://www.facebook.com/LuisRuizParapentePR/videos/10157562481660229/
The initial flight route was in the East direction, to the Bacardi distillery, and later all went together towards Dorado to the West. The winds entered from the NE at about 8 mph, which gradually increased in intensity. It was an excellent flight where we cover around 27 miles in more or less an hour of flying. Jeff was amazed by the flight experience on the island, and the existing buildings, mostly in Dorado.
At about 11:30 AM we decided to land due the proximity of some clouds with over development. Besides, also, it was for Jeff to go back to the Cruise.
We hope that this adventure gets beneficial to increase the popularity of the sport in the island. So, more international pilots gets encouraged to know our island and comes to share and fly with our great family of Team Kamikazes.
As always we thank God and here we leave some photos and videos of today’s adventure. I hope you like it.