Time Flies Blog

For years I've had a love of aviation. I was fortunate that my father was a flight instructor and owned an airplane. Because of this I was able to obtain my private pilot's license and had an airplane at my disposal to use whenever I wanted. We spent a lot of time flying around the state eating $100 hamburgers. If you don't know, they call it that because by the time you gassed up the airplane flew somewhere and ate lunch it was about $100. Nowadays is probably more like the $300 hamburger due to cost of fuel, airplane maintenance, hanger, landing fees, etc.

Like so many others I had seen Tucker's flight to McDonald's and I was intrigued. What really got me was seeing the guys from Flite Test go through training at Aviator paramotor. At that point I knew I had to do this and my journey began.

After spending countless hours on YouTube I decided to train with a local guy. I was always taught if you don't have something nice to say don't say anything at all so we will just leave it at that

Okay, I'm not in the business of bad mouthing people but this needs to be shared. I just met another guy that went through the same thing here.

I somehow survived my training. My buddy that started with me however did not. While he did survive he was injured during short dangerous tows on his 3rd day. He was not able to return or finish his training.

The training field and equipment was in my opinion inadequate and unsafe. I decided to continue on my own at this point. I have since talked to numerous students who had the same or similar experiences.

After training I worked really hard to make all the money I could. I was an HVAC technition at the time. I scoured the internet looking at all of the available brands. I live reasonably close to Aviator Paramotor in Lake Wales Florida. Those guys have always treated me great so I put a deposit down on an Air conception Tornado 280. This was a pre-order because it was a new model. I started to get a little bit antsy and tired of waiting so I asked and they graciously refunded my deposit. I ended up purchasing a Power2fly RS from Kyle Matula in Texas.

I started making videos of my progression as soon as I got my wing and started training. I really enjoy sharing the experience and it's a creative outlet for me as well. Through these videos I have met some awesome folks within the community. I've made contacts and connections that allowed me to progress quickly. For the first 4 years I immersed myself in the paramotor world. Always training, practicing, and learning new skills. I never really had any intention of becoming an instructor, I just had a thirst for knowledge and knew I loved this form of flight and everything that goes with it. I was flying every chance I had and building skills. During this time I got to train with and apprentice under some of the best in the industry.

When I signed up for paramotor training I had the desire to learn foot launch. My instructor tried to push me towards wheeled launch. Later I found out he did not have equipment for my size to foot launch. After several days of abuse I still did'nt have kiting skills and agreed to trike launch. Once I got away from his outdated equipment and purchased my first Power2fly trike I was in love with wheels. Why would I risk a botched launch or landing and risk damaging myself or my expensive equipment? I have some back and knee issues and it only made sense. I soon found that I could do anything that my foot launch freinds could. I was able to launch and land in the same feilds and share all of the adventures.

I was very happy flying my wheel launch paramotors. However, I always wondered what it would be like to foot launch a paramotor. I was very fortunate to continue my training under Mike Cotter of FlyMiPpg and Travis Burns of One Up Adventures. These guys worked to refine my kiting and foot launch skills. After that I purchased a Skymax paramotor with a Vittorazzi Moster 185 engine. While I am able to foot launch, most of the time I'd rather ride my trike. The Skymax with Retracta Trike lets me have all of the benifits of flying a foot launch motor. Once the wheel is back I enjoy full weight shift and flying in a paramotor harness.

Soon the people I idolized on Youtube were my friends and fellow pilots. I had the opportunity to work as an apprentice and shadow Travis Burns and Kyle Mooney as they taught a new pilot. It was Josh Bixler from Flite Test's Son! I learned a lot that week.