With the proximity of July 4 this Saturday. We started today, Thursday, our activities in Villa Pesquera Isabela. Today was mostly students day, and although the weather forecasts showed an ideal climate to fly and practice, the reality is that it was windy all day. This greatly limits our activities.
Luis Ruiz arrived early to prepare the equipment, and little by little students and pilots came from different parts of the island.
Eric Harthman – Condado
Danis Rodríguez – Añasco
Ariel Rodríguez and his grandson Derick Castro – Bayamon
Eric López and his family – Cabo Rojo
Omar Colon – Bayamon
Ian Darrell González and his family – Aguada
The wind intensity since 8 AM were at about 15 mph, and did not drop for the rest of the day. Near noon the numbers for the nearby weather station were 17 mph with gusts of 22 mph. So in the morning we resume the practices of Eric Harthman who was visiting Isabela for the first time. Eric spent about 2 hours practicing and mastering the training paraglider BGD Seed quite well.
A little later, Eric López and Omar Colon arrived to formally begin training. Luis Ruiz spent part of the morning giving them the theoretical course, in which the young student Derick Castro joined. Once enough theoretical material was covered and some doubts were clarified, we went to the practice area to start with the inflation practices of the paraglider.
As practices began, pilots Danis Rodríguez and Ian Darrell were flying. Both demonstrating great control of takeoff and landings as well as flying in winds that sometimes touched 20 mph+. Incidentally, with these executions and those of the past weekend, Danis has gradually become an ambassador of the sport, making him deserving of his fourth star in pilot level. Congratulations!!!!.
Returning to the students, Derick kept practicing being assisted by Ariel, who also took the opportunity to practice himself a little. As for Eric López, he began to practice assisted by Luis Ruiz, but the practice did not last long. Despite his great motivation, Eric has work to do with his physique, as he recovers from some injuries. He has homework to do in his rehabilitation so we didn’t want to speed up the process. We will surely have it back in practice in the near future.
Then we came to Omar, he came with great humility to start the course, and to the surprise of all those present, he turned out to be a student of great ability. And not only that, but it also came well prepared physically. After a few minutes of practice, he began to master the kiting of the paraglider in reverse, to the point that Luis limited himself to observing as Omar became increasingly comfortable with the paraglider. He also spent a long time practicing inflation in strong winds. Omar confessed that he is already a pilot and an aviation mechanic. Things that definitely help his fast progress. We will surely have more news from Omar and his progress soon.
Omar Colon in a good first day of practice…
As for Ian Darrell, he not only came to fly, but he had coordinated with Luis, the beginning of his lessons to fly students…, for this purpose he had come accompanied by his father Darrell González, his cousin Brian and his girlfriend Paola, who were pending their progress and why not? If everything went well, go flying with Ian under Luis’ supervision. This had to be postponed for another day given the strong winds during the day.
At about 3 PM, we picked up. Here some photos of the activity. We plan to return tomorrow for more adventures…
