After my engine failure yesterday, both of the student 125cc paramotors were out of commission. I assumed they'd fix them before morning, but when we arrived for class around 6AM, neither had been repaired. While this made for a pretty frustrating start to the day, we made the best of it. Tara wound up learning how to fly one of the quads while I took out the heavier/more powerful AirMax 220.
The added thrust of the larger paramotor made for some pretty thrilling takeoffs! My landings, on the other hand, left much to be desired. I'm not flaring fully before touchdown, and I keep forgetting to run after touch down for some reason. On two separate occasions I immediately fell to my knees when my feet reached the ground. Ouch!
I really ought to be wearing jeans, but I didn't pack any for the trip, and it's so flipping hot out here I can barely stand the thought of it anyway.
After a few flights I put my equipment away and focused instead on helping Tara get ready to fly. More than anything, I wanted her to be comfortable and happy and ready to be in the sky. This looked like running around the the field, following her quad to pick up and reposition the wing as she practiced taxiing down the field over and over again. It was awesome watching her get the hang of it!
When our evening session got underway, the class paramotors were finally running. My flights weren't much to write home about—bound and determined to get the hang of takeoff and landing, I'd launch, circle the field once, land, and repeat. By the tenth go around things really started to click. I was pretty tired so I took a break for the rest of the day to help/document Tara's first flight!
Tomorrow is already our last day here at Blackhawk Ranch—the end has come WAY too quickly. Even so, I'll be glad to get out of this infernal heat. The central valley of California is not for me.
