Two days ago we had in Puerto Rico the proximity of a tropical depression out of season. This resulted in windy conditions during the weekend. Looking for the best flight alternative, we decided to take our weekend activity to Loiza.
Team “Kamikazes” family that arrived…
Deron Freeman and his wife Carla
Ariel Rodríguez and her grandson and pilot Derick Castro
Eric Harthman
Omar Colon
Luis Ruiz
Dave Hargett
Eric Betancourt
Gabriel Martinez
David Silva
Gregory Santiago
José Rodríguez and his wife Vilma (Possible student)
Santos Santos and his fiancee Camille (Possible student)
A reconnaissance flight by Instructor Luis Ruiz was enough to determine that the flight zone in Loiza was not safe for the pilots / students of the school. The wind was strong and most importantly, the take-off and landing area was very compromised by the sea in the shore.
We could not stay there if we wanted to have an activity typical of the number of people who were coming to us. Plan B, Machos Beach in Ceiba. A call to the local area pilot, Robert González, confirmed that this was the way to go. So we packed up our equipment and headed to Ceiba in a caravan of cars.
At around 11 AM we were in Ceiba, the grass was kind of slippery due to rain that passed in previous hours. Everybody started to prepare equipment to fly. At least, the climate was much better than in Loiza and obviously with much more space. Again Luis Ruiz take off on a reconnaissance flight and this time he gave the green light to the rest of the pilots to fly.
One by one, Omar Colon (debuting his new Ozone Speedster 3 paraglider), Derick, Gabriel, David, Deron gets prepared. Also, for his second flight of his career Dave gets ready. Eventually, everyone manage to launch and have a great time flying around and in some occasions reaching the “Puerto Del Rey” marina. The landings were challenging as the terrain in Ceiba as indicated, was very wet and landslides were frequent.
Omar and Derick flew all the way to “Isleta Marina”, Omar was very happy with his first experiences in the “Speedster 3”.
Meanwhile David and Gabriel decided to go a little further. They go all the way to fly over the Hotel “El Conquistador” in Fajardo and the Icacos key !!! on the way back they passed over “Isleta Marina”. It was the first time that Gabriel flew this area, and he flew it in what way !!!, as reflected in this video !!!.
When it was their turn to return to Ceiba, they had to wait, together with Deron who was also in the air at the time, for a cloud of rain and wind to move away from Ceiba. Once this happened, they proceeded to land.
Another who also flew very well was Dave Hargett. In just his second flight, he achieved excellent takeoff and landing. Learning a lot in each fly. Congratulations!!!.
In the meantime, Eric Harthman and Eric Betancourt were practicing the control of the paraglider in ground. We expect that they soon could join the other pilots in the air.
While José Rodríguez and Santos Santos were present in the process of take knowledge of Training in order to start it start it soon. Even José’s wife, Vilma, went up to fly as passenger with Luis Ruiz, and she liked that so much that she jokingly commented that if her husband didn’t take the classes, she would, 🙂.
We had a visit from Gregory in the afternoon to bring some shirts with designed logo of Team Kamikazes to Luis. These are from his creation of a new company that he is forming. They turned out to be great, and we will surely order more in the future. We wish Grego success and blessings in this new adventure.
At sunset Ariel take off for a fly together with Luis, Omar and Gabriel. With these flights we ended the activity. All exhausted after a day of pure flights and adventure.
Deron returns to the USA tomorrow but was very happy with his adventures over the weekend, as were the rest of the pilots who came to the activity.
Tomorrow, Sunday, there will be an obligatory rest to recharge energy… As always, we thank God for these opportunities that he allows us to live 🙏.
