We had really windy weather today, so there was no flying, but we did practice kiting with the motor on:

The kids continued hanging out with the ranch dogs:

Can you tell that we’re sick of the homeschool whining?

I tried a couple launches tonight, but I was unsuccessful.  Maybe tomorrow.

This morning, I had my first untethered flight.  Since it was past the recommended first three hours of the day to fly in the smoothest skies, Joe had initially said we would just practice running with the motor on, but towards the end of my run he had me go to full throttle and I took off!  In the video, I made fellow student Dave nervous with my slow rate of climb, but from where I was sitting I wasn’t even close to hitting the trees:

The air was a bit bumpy, and I must say this was the most terrifying experience of my life.  Joe was having me practice turns, but after the third time flying over the LZ I yelled down “I want to come down!”, so Joe brought me down.  Hopefully my next flight will be in smoother air.

This afternoon, I took a nap and the kids worked on their North American geography as well as triangle type identification:

I’m looking forward to another great flight tomorrow!

Today we did our first tow launches.  We are attached to a rope that runs to a high speed winch that pulls us into the air, cresting at roughly 50 feet above the ground.

There’s still a lot of running to be done as I generate enough forward motion to inflate 28 square meters of wing:

A little bit of lift:

Unfortunately I didn’t depower the wing on landing so it fell on top of me.  I understand this is called a “gift wrap”:

Flying high!  The first time was terrifying, but the second time was much better:

Touchdown!

The kids loved the ranch dogs, Sassy and Buddy:

Coming back from the tow run with my wing:

The kids worked on tessellations in math class:

As the winds picked up, Mark helped me practice the reverse launch:

Again, towards sunset, the winds died down and I was able to practice the forward launch:

Tomorrow we will practice launches wearing the motor.

We are parked here at the Blackhawk Ranch for the week for my week-long class in Powered Paragliding!  I had researched PPG during high school, but the sport was in its infancy back then, so I let it drop.  After going to a fly-in in February, I knew I wanted to try it myself!

After meeting my classmates, Dave, Glen, and Rhonda, we laid out our wings:

Getting the lines cleared:

Inflating the wing using the A and D risers:

Meanwhile, the kids did their homeschool outside:

We went over to the workshop to try out the motor on the simulator.   Here Glen is simulating a landing:

M rode along with my instructor Joe and Buddy the ranch dog:

More kiting practice:

We got into helmets and harnesses and clipped into the wing:

Classmate Dave and instructor Mark (in the blue helmet) watch my wing:

We had spectators above:

Once the wind died down towards sunset, we practiced our forward launch:

Can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings!