the Paratoys 2008 Salton Sea Fly-In.
Plan on being there Next year!
Paratoys Powered Paragliding convention will be held Feb 7th through the 10th 2008 at Salton Sea city California. The location is the same as last year at the Vista Del Mar Estates convention center, Salton Sea city California.
Check out the pictures from last year's event below.
LOCATION
Salton Sea, California
DATE
Thursday Feb. 7th thru Sunday Feb. 10th 2007
DIRECTIONS
from palms spring head south on the 10 freeway turn onto the 86 south & continue for approx 30.5 miles, turn left on Treadwell Street, right on beach club drive and continue until it ends at the clubhouse /fly-in beach location (aprox 1.2 miles). This area is called the vista Del mar estates.
COST
Pre-Registration Cost - $65 until December 31st ($20 pre-registration discount) Afterward cost goes up to $85
Cost for pilot registration after December 31st - $85.00. this can be done with a credit card on www.paratoys.com
Cost for venders- $200.00 per factory, this price includes one pilot registration
Cost for onlookers & PPG wanabees- free
DISPLAY SPACE For convention display space information or show information contact Bob Armond, (805)-375-5055: info@paratoys.com or www.paratoys.com
OTHER AIRCRAFT
all ultralites, trikes and powered parachutes are also welcome at this show. There is plenty of flat hard packed sand to fly from for these aircrafts to land and take off from.
NEAREST AIRPORTS
Palm Springs 45 minutes,
Ontario 1.5 hours away,
San Diego 2 hours away.
MAJOR SPONSORS
ParaToys.com
Red Bull Energy Drinks
World Talk Radio
USPPA.org
Pikes Peak Powered Paragliding Club
Kitchen Cabinet Depot,
Holiday Inn Express - Indio California
760-342-6344 (23 miles away this is the nearest one).
There are a few in Borrego Springs, California as well 26 miles away.
SHIPPING ADDRESS FOR PARAMOTORS
All shipments need to have the shippers name on the boxes - contact Bill Watson to confirm and arrange for his assistance.
Bill Watson: 61150 Esparta Ave., whitewater, ca, 92282;
phone #760-329-1025.
LOCAL RESTAURANTS
Within PPG flying distance and plenty of landing and take off areas
The lions Den
The Marina
The truck stop on HWY 86 has a Subway
Coty's Cafe
Johnsons Landing @ Salton City - which also has R.V spaces as well.
Alamo Restaurant
Superburger, in Salton City
MOTOR HOME RENTALS
El Monte RV 562-483-4930
Cruise America 562-404-9300,
DRY CAMPING - $5.00 per day, plenty of space for tents, RVs, campers etc. no hookups but bathrooms with hot showers are close by.
RV PARKS
Salton City Spa/RV Park- 760-394-4333
Salton city marina/beach 760-395-1066 hot showers, restaurant, several spaces on the water, and two miles from the show.
New RV park 5 miles from show- Fred 760-394-4333
Johnsons Landing at Salton City
has RV space also
DEALERS & VENDORS AT THE EVENT
All dealers and vendors wanting display space need to contact Bob Armond 1-805-375-5055 or 805-231-1103 or bob@paratoys.com
We will have vendors for the following over the weekend
breakfast burritos
coffee
beer
empanadas in the doons
art show in the dome
EVENTS Competition events planned-
foot drag
kiting wars
two man kiting wars race
pylon traversing
spot landing
bomb drop
PPG poker run
PPG capture the flag
plus a few others just for fun.
Mass speed launch planned if the winds are good
Mid day show- remote control helicopter stunt show by Tony Davis.
Schedule Thursday- open flying, registration Friday- cross countries, open flying, clinics, Friday night- Bon fire, movies on the big screen, prop burning, WTR beer bust, Saturday- competition events, clinics, mini Parachute drop Saturday night- barbeque feast,, raffle prize giveaways,
Reserve your spot early.
Hotel & RV spots will go fast. Early registration encouraged.
Call ParaToys for additional information. 1-805-375-5055 or 805-231-1103. See you there!!!!!!
Paratoys Costa Rica Extreme Adventure
tour
Jan 11th - 20th 2005.
Come
join us...
for Paratoys' wildest adventure tour ever for Powered Paragliding
down in beautiful Costa Rica on Jan 11th 2005 to tour the country
with our PPG's! We have arranged all the hotels, restaurants (breakfast/lunchs),
vans, enclosed trucks for our equipment and expert guides. Each
day will be another amazing adveture as we explore the following
items with expert local guides:
Water river rafting/powered Paragliding
Zip line Cabelling off 100 foot towers/ and Powered paragliding
Repelling down waterfalls
Riding ATV's thru Jungles, rivers, beachs/ And Powered
Paragliding
Hot water waterfalls/ and Powered paragliding
Flying over live volcanos/ and Powered Paragliding
Freeflying the world famous eaglesnest Paragliding site
Snorkeling turtle island and Powered Paragliding
feeding the crockodiles and of course Powered Paragliding
the most incredable beachs you have ever seen - every day!
As you can imagine, the production of a convention of this magnitude
starts many months prior to the actual show, as was the case with this
one. First things first; I needed to decide if we would hold the show
at the same location as last year's venue which was the City of Port
Hueneme, California. After lengthy consideration I felt that the over
whelming urge of many of last year's pilots to take a salt water bath
made me feel that a larger, farther distance from water was a good idea
this year.
One of my students, Bill Watson had been bugging me for many months
to visit him and fly this area called the Salton Sea that was near his
hone of Palm Springs, California. To make his constant whining end,
I agreed to schedule a mini fly-in for this area in September of 2003
(just kidding Bill). There are very few places I would say are the earth's
gift to Powered Paragliding pilots, but this one is definitely the case.
This 40 mile long salt water sea in such a unique place surrounded by
gorgeous mountains and beautiful deserts and it has a near perfect weather/wind
pattern all year long. After the success of this mini Salton Sea fly-in
it was obvious to me that this was the perfect location to hold the
Paratoys 2004 convention. I leased a 50 acre parcel with a small convention
center called the Vista Del Mar Estates right on the water and started
the planning.
One of the biggest problems in planning this event was to guess the
real number of pilots and visitors that will be coming to the show and
order the correct number of catered dinners, t-shirts, forms, gas cans,
etc. the accommodate this imaginary number of people that may show up.
Last year we had about 124 registered pilots and quite a few guests
along with them, so I used this as my number to order the t-shirts and
the dinner tickets for the Saturday night banquet. The distance from
my home to the Salton Sea is about 200 miles, so I wanted to make sure
I had everything I would need for the show in the two trucks and one
van transporting the display units, tents, tables, various paramotors,
paragliders, etc. Then it occurred to me that we had three vehicles
and two drivers; now what do I do??? Just as I was contemplating this,
the phone rings and out of the blue, one of my oldest friends whom I
have not spoken to or seen in over five years says "Hey man, what
are you doing, can I come visit for a few days?" Like a gift from
God, Larry Baker comes to the rescue. Well, like a ragged band of gypsies
we head to the Salton Sea on Wednesday, February 4th, 2004, the day
before the event was to start.
The beauty of Powered Paragliding is that you're outside doing it,
which is where I love to be all the time. As a full time Powered Paraglider
instructor and owner of Paratoys.com, I love the fact that I spend most
every day of my life on the beach. Most of my friends call ma a "Parabum"
and are green with envy that I am able to fly everyday and hang out
with girls in bikinis as a so called job!! What a life!!!!! On the other
hand, the problem with Powered Paragliding is it must be done outside
and this is where the fear comes from in doing one of these shows. As
the great hand of mother nature can come down and slap the *&%#*
out of the weather and ruin a show in ah heart beat.
During this 200 mile ride towards the show, I had way too much time
to think about all the things I should have brought with me. What if
the weather goes bad? With this many pilots coming from all over the
world, they would all be looking at me waving their clinched fists.
My students have a saying about me that they call "BALLS".
This stands for Bob Armond's Lots of Luck as I have an amazing way of
getting the best weather. Even if the weatherman calls for a hurricane,
my guys will always be able to fly if I happen to be there. I should
charge for my presence at fly-ins to guarantee great weather! So here
I am cruising along at 51 mph wondering if "Balls" will hold
up for my own show. With some relief we pulled up to the Salton Sea
at 1pm to find a number of early arrivals and about 12 gliders in the
air already enjoying the California desert air with 72 degree weather,
so far, so good. Two hours of setting up booths unloading vans and trucks,
stopping only to say hi to friends who I have not seen for some time,
something strange started to happen. The wind, which had been a perfect
6mph, was climbing to 8mph, then 12mph then up to 25mph. Oh no, has
"Balls" failed me? Will this be the disaster of all show disasters?
Looking for reassurance, I called Bill Watson, my friend and student
and asked him to look up the weather forecast for today and the weekend.
He simply stated: "You're screwed, 20-40 mph winds predicted for
the next three days. I would run and hide if I were you." It looks
more like a kick in the "balls" this time! At this time, the
other venders all over the country started showing up with very unhappy
faces. They came from Florida, Ohio, Utah, Arizona, South Carolina,
Colorado and New Mexico. The wind got so bad, some of them had sand
blasted vans (boy, that sand cam be brutal!). The near hurricane winds
continued through the night rocking the motor homes stretching the tents
and generally causing havoc right up until 6am when the miracle of "Balls"
kicked in and the winds came right down to a nice 6mph to kick off the
show right! Whew!!!!!
That morning the various venders continued to stream in and set up
booths along with dozens of pilots picking their camping sites. The
people from CBS news had called and were going to stop by for an interview
with me. I was nervous enough already and then there they were with
a full camera crew ready to film both me and the event. I had arranged
for Armon Lufti from Isreal to do my tandems during the convention,
as I know better than to think that I would have time to fly at my own
show. So we strapped this beautiful report, Andreanna Costa from CBS
to the Skycruiser Simonini tandem set up and off she went, screaming
with joy while her camera crew recorded the action. After she had landed
they were interviewing me. The reporter asked me, " Do you have
any slang terms for your sport?" I replied, "Sure, the paraglider
is called my wing, my chute, my glider and so on when just then, a pilot
was landing and the camera crew turned to film his arrival. The pilot
did not quite make his turn to reverse and went straight on his back.
I then of course stated "And that is called a full turtle".
(Thanks Bill Walsh for the demonstration of the turtle) and we continued
the interview!
The next station to arrive was the NBC guys. We were chatting about
the sport and what was going on at the show when I noticed just beyond
the cameraman was Michael Purdy and Jeff Goin (my World Talk Radio co-hosts)
were in the process of dropping their pants and mooning my while I was
doing the interview. I had never seen anything quite so ugly and it
was with great reserve that I was able to keep a straight face and continue
the taping to the finish. Believe me guys, I will get you back for that
one!!
The day continued with more and more pilots showing up and my daughter
Kristy coming to me with reports of 80 registered pilots, then 90, then
125. The final count of 166 registered pilots was reached on Sunday
morning with the arrival of the four pilots who had flown in from Japan
just for the show. One of these pilots was the original inventor and
owner of the DK whisper line of paramotors (new defunct) and was here
to observe the US paramotor market up close and fly the beautiful Salton
Sea terrain.
On Friday, the weather held up with constant smooth laminar winds
of 4-8mph off the lake leaving near perfect all day flying for the visiting
pilots. Friday night, World Talk Radio sponsored a beer bust with two
kegs of beer. We all watched the paragliding videos The Paratoys Celebration
and Try Hard, the bloopers tape on the 15 foot projection screen on
the side of my step van. The moon was completely full and bright and
the nighttime temperature was warm and inviting as well all huddled
around the campfire telling stories of our last great flight.
Saturday began with the assembly of the competition pilots meeting
and the comps were started with 16 pilots competing for the $1,000.00
in prizes. They competed in several events including the foot drag,
spot landing, bomb drop (plastic chicken drop actually) and the crowd
pleaser, the cloverleaf. The cloverleaf consists of 5 poles placed equally
apart with only one pole in the center. The pilots must touch the center
pole and then fly around one of the outside poles consecutively, the
faster they do it the better their score. The problem with this event
is several of the turns are down wind making this comp a little precarious
for all contestants and we did have a few broken props due to this event,
but no injuries. The first place winner was Arnon Lufti, flying a Skycruiser
SC 100. The second place winner was Jeff Goin flying a Skycruiser Top
80 and the third place winner was Turbo Bob Ryan also flying a Skycruiser
SC 100.
Saturday afternoon, we assembled all registered pilots out to the
LZ to participate in the grand prize giveaway of a new Skycruiser paramotor
that was donated by my company, Paratoys.com and Jim Jackson of Paraliteusa.com.
The giveaway was to be done like this; Wayne Mitchler was going to take
125 mini toy parachute men and drop them from the sky and only one of
them had the winning ticket on it. As many of my students know most
of the time, it's really all about my amusement, and this was going
to be great fun to watch 166 people fight over little tiny toys falling
out of the sky all at once hoping to win a $5,000.00 paramotor. The
only rule was there were no rules. You could catch and keep as many
of them as was possible to win! As you can imagine, the first three
or four mini parachute guys dropped (to see where the wind would take
them) already had these guys tackling each other to grab them. The final
batch was dropped by Wayne; after stretching out the time to the point
of tears (I live for suspense). All of the paratroopers were falling.
Some were in clumps falling faster than the ones that actually opened
up. One large clump fell right into Michael Purdy's arms. Then the fun
started as 20 guys pounced on him grabbing the toys from his arms and
crashing him to the ground under their body weight. All the while, he
is screaming like al little girl. It was delicious to watch! After all
the paratroopers had landed, including many on the top of motor homes,
no one had found the winning one. As we all looked at each other, Mike
Willet walks up and says, "Hey, what are you guys doing?"
and I told him we had just thrown out the mini parachute guys for the
contest. He then states "I saw one of these guys floating by and
grabbed it as I was working on my paramotor on the other side of the
convention. Can I keep it, and by the way, what is this card attached
to it?" I told him "Wow Mike, you just won the grand prize".
He says "Oh really, what is that?" I told him it was a new
Skycruiser worth $5,000.00. With all the people killing each other out
in the field, Mike had not even known the contest was going on or what
the prize was. He had just seen this little guy floating by and he reached
into the sky to grab! Now that is what I call fun!!!
Saturday night I arranged for a catered banquet at the nice convention
center of the Vista Del Mar estates. As we all enjoyed the dinner, I
started the raffle prize giveaway of the dozens of gifts donated by
Mojosgear.com, Kitchencabinetdepot.com, Redbull energy drinks, litetouchfilms.com,
Paraliteusa and my company Paratoys.com. The gag gifts are always the
most fun with the ugliest paraglider given to John Philips. The sexiest
powered paragliding pilot, Rochelle from San Diego. The most likely
to crash from doing low crazy maneuvers over crowds, Dell Schanze of
Utah, and of course the pilot who can out Spandex the spandex king himself,
Mr. Alan Chucalate was won by Mr. Johnny Rotten of Lake Havasu, Arizona.
Special thanks were given to Mojosgear.com for their never ending support
of the Paratoys convention as they were the very first sponsor five
years ago with only 25 pilots attending at that time.
The banquet ended and we all headed to the campfire for the now famous
Burning of the Props ceremony. A new prop king is crowned each year.
This is always the guy who breaks the most props in one year and is
always self-trained. This year's unanimous winner was non-other than
Johnny Rotten, who was our Spandex king this year as well. Johnny, as
well as last year's prop king, Mike Pusheck, is a self-trained PPG pilot
who felt that the cost of instruction was not necessary for him. He
has since learned that the one dozen props at $200.00 each ($2,400.00
for 12 of them) he broke so far, exceeds the $800.00 price of a beginners
PPB class. (Live and learn Johnny.) The prop kings prayer was then spoken:
"Oh, prop Gods, please release Johnny from your terrible bonds
and pass the torch to another newbie with more money than I. We give
you this offering of broken props so that you may take mercy on my pocket
book and bless me with clean PPG, not PG take offs and landings."
The gasoline soaked broken props were then lit on fire by Johnny Rotten,
the 2004 Paratoys prop king.
The evening continued with more movies and a spectacular full blown
out fireworks display provided by Bob and Jeanie Peters of kitchencabinetdepot.com.
It was awesome to see against the full moon and the reflection off the
calm Salton Sea. The next morning I was told that a few pilots flew
in the middle of the night with the bright full moon, but I know this
cannot be possible as we all know this would have been illegal and not
done by our law abiding PPG pilots.
Sunday's weather was again perfect and we had a little fun with launching
helium balloons for the pilots to catch or pop with their props. The
only incidents that occurred while at this show seemed to be plaguing
Casey Cadwell (another World Talk Radio co-host). He had loaned his
Volare ultralite trike to a friend of his so this friend could take
his girlfriend up to do a parachute jump from the trike. On their take
off they hit some soft sand which put them nose first into the dirt
causing some damage to the machine, but no injuries to the pilot or
the passenger. The second incident was during the competitions. Casey
was going around the clover leaf when another pilot pulled up his glider
straight into Casey's path causing the two gliders to collide and dropping
Casey down to the ground from around 10 feet. The end result was $300-$400.00
of damage to Casey's Flyproducts machine which the ground handling pilot
took care of immediately. Again, no injuries were incurred to anyone.
Due to this incident, we will no longer hold the competitions during
the conventions, only before them or after them to avoid this problem
ever happening again.
As you all know, putting on one of these shows is a tremendous job.
I couldn't have done this without a lot of support and assistance from
a vast array of people. Some of the most important ones were my safety
directors, which I would like to give special thanks: Larry Baker, Ken
Ward, Ed Summers, Cal Schlotzhauer and Burt Hall. You all did such a
great job that I actually enjoyed my own show this year. Thanks again
guys, I hope I can count on you again in the future! But most of all,
this wouldn't happen without the hundreds of pilots and their families
that traveled from all over the country to attend. This is an incredible
group of people, which I am proud to be a part of. Powered Paragliding
enthusiasts are a rare breed of individual who enjoy life to it's fullest.
The vendors and others continue to astound me at their support and encouragement.
Thank you all for helping to make the 2004 Paratoys convention the most
successful one in history. I look forward to seeing you all at some
of the mini fly-ins we have scheduled throughout the year in Palm Springs,
Death Valley, La Salina,Mexico, Pismo Beach and again at the Salton
Sea. Until then….
Bob Armond
Paratoys.com
Location:
Salton Sea, California Date: Thursday Feb 5th thru Sunday Feb 8th 2004 Directions- from Palms Spring head south on the 10 freeway turn
onto the 86 South & continue for approx 30.5 miles, turn left on
Treadwell street, right on Beach Club Drive and continue until it ends
at the clubhouse /Fly-in beach location (aprox 1.2 miles). This area
is called the Vista Del Mar Estates. Cost for
Pilot registration - $45.00 prior to Jan 1st, $65.00 after Jan 1st
2004. This can be done with a credit card on www.paratoys.com Cost for
Venders- $100.00 per factory, this price includes two pilot registrations Cost for
onlookers & PPG wanabees- None
Person
to contact for convention display space information or show information-
Bob Armond, 805-496-5122: info@paratoys.com or www.paratoys.com
All Ultralites,
Trikes and Powered Parachutes are also welcome at this show. There is
plenty of flat hard packed sand to fly from for these aircrafts to land
and take off from.
Nearest
airports- Palm Springs 45 minutes, Ontario 1.5 hours away, San Diego
2 hours away.
Major sponsors-
Paralite Skycruisers, Paratoys.com,Red Bull energy drinks, World Talk
Radio, Smitty beef Jerky, USPPA.org, Pikes Peak Powered Paragliding
club & Kitchen cabinet depot, For a pictures of prizes being donated
by them see :www.kitchencabinetdepot.com/PPG_Sponsor_Givaways.html,
Mojosgear.com
Hotels- Holiday Inn express, Indio California 760-342-6344 (23 miles
away this is the nearest one). There are a few in Borrego Springs, California
as well 26 miles away.
Shipping
address for Paramotors- Bill Watson : 61150 Esparta Ave, Whitewater,
CA, 92282; phone #760-329-1025. All shipments need to have the shippers
name on the boxes - contact Bill Watson to confirm and arrange for his
assistance.
Local Restaurants
within PPG flying distance and plenty of landing and take off areas-
Firehouse cafi- 760-395-3663,
Motorhome
rentals- El Monte RV 562-483-4930, Cruise America 562-404-9300,
Dry camping-
No charge, plenty of space for tents, RVs, campers etc. No
hookups but bathrooms with showers are close by.
RV parks
- Salton City Spa/RV park- 760-394-4333 & Salton City Marina/beach
760-395-1066 hot showers, restaurant, several spaces on
the water, two miles from the show. I have reserved 9 RV spaces at the
convention center that are available with full hook ups, contact me
directly on these.
Factories
on display- Paralite Skycruisers, Macpara Paragliders, Fresh Breeze
Paramotors, Silex paragliders, Flyproducts Paramotors, Apco Paragliders,
SD Paramotors, Wills wing Paragliders, plus others to be announced
All dealers
and vendors wanting display space need to contact Bob Armond 1-805-496-5122
or bob@paratoys.com
Competition
Events planned- Foot drag, Kiting wars, Two man kiting wars race, pylon
traversing, Spot landing, Bomb drop, All USPPA comp events will be done
at this event, plus a few others just for fun.
Four Cross
country flights are planned- Breakfast at the firehouse cafi, Ocotillo
Wells off road madness and back, golf course run, Copper Mountain.
Mass speed
launch planned if the winds are good
Mid day
show- Remote Control helicopter stunt show by Tony.
Clinics-
Alan Chuculate-reserves, Bob Armond secrets to winning at
kiting wars, David Cook thermaling with a paramotor, Dave Beres Prop
balancing; others to be announced
Video/DVD-
Phil Russman will once again apply his magic to produce a Great Paratoys
2004 dvd/video, advance sales prior to the show $25.00, $39.95 there
after
Powered
winch towing for free flight pilots will be available on request
Thursday-
open flying, registration Friday-
cross countries, open flying, Competition events, Clinics, Saturday-
Competition events, clinics, Saturdaynight- Barbeque feast, Prop burning ceremony, Raffle prize giveaways,
beer bust & this years prop king award Sunday-
1pm 100 man mini parachute drop, grand prize drop from the sky scramble
to win.
Reserve your
spot early. Hotel & RV spots will go fast. Early registration encouraged.
Call Paratoys for additional information. 1-805-495-5122. See you there!!!!!!
Produced
by Phil Russman The
first two videos were produced by Phil Russman Productions. DVD
$34.95 + shipping Order Now!
Paratoys
"the movie"
With every sport there eventually comes a film that defines it's
shear essence, that shows the passion that only people within
that sport can appreciate, For surfing it was the Endless summer
and for motorcross it was "On
Any Sunday" and now for Powered Paragliding it is "PARATOYS
the movie".
This
movie shows the many reasons that we fell in love with this sport
and are willing to travel from as far away as China to just fly
with a few other pilots. Whether you are a PPG pilot now, or are
just lurking in the shadows dreaming, this film will intrigue
you, make you laugh and convince you that Powered Paragliding
is truly the sport of the gods.
Just listen
to the reviews had these people actually
seen it:
Siegfried
and Roy- It was magical! Martin and Lewis- funnier then anything we ever did! Eddie Murphy- Where are all the black pilots? Arnold Swartznegger- This sport is not for sissies. James Cameron -I knew I should have hired that Phil Russman Rodgers and Ebert- The sexual tension in this movie is
almost over the top! George Bush- I cried, I laugh, for just a moment all was
well in the world. Gloria Steinman- This sport and film is a fine example
of what is wrong with this world, woman carrying the paramotors,
and men drinking beer! Chevy Chase- This movie was my last chance at a career,
I knew I should have answered that email from Phil.
Paratoys
2003 PPG Convention -
About the event
The actual
work began 5 months ago with approaching several different cities to
see if they would entertain the idea of 100 plus nuts using bed sheets
and lawn mowers on their backs to fly in their city. As you can imagine,
many of them simply closed the doors as fast as they could and gave
me the bums rush. Slowly two cities started to come around, Temecula
and the City of Port Hueneme California. Both of them have some experience
with aviation as Temecula holds a rather large Balloon festival each
year and Port Hueneme sits next to a Military base. After much negotiation
with both of them, I settled on the City of Port Hueneme as the beach
would allow flying all day long with no thermals to deal with and beautiful
beach air to fly in. This was touch and go as they wanted assurances
that no liability would befall the city during the convention. This
required me to track down the only insurance company in the U.S. that
would be crazy enough to cover this convention and do it within my budget.
Well $4200.00 dollars later and the help of expert negotiator and great
friend, Steven Leitch, we had the insurance for the show.
Two days
prior to the convention on Feb 12, California experienced the highest
rainfall in the history of our county and this was projected to continue
thru the weekend and ruin the show. (Could the famous Bob Armond luck
have run out?). This was on my mind when the city called and said they
thought with the amount of people coming, the police chief would like
two officers on hand throughout the three days at a sizable additional
cost to me. What could I say? OK, I will bring another check (along
with conditional use permit fees, special use fees, parking fee’s.
etc).
On Thursday
the Rental trucks, rental tables & chairs, fire pit and dozens of
other items were picked up and gotten ready. On Friday at 4 am I slowly
made my way to Port Hueneme beach not knowing what to expect of the
weather or the venders whom may have given up on the idea with such
bad weather predicted. As I pulled into the beach parking lot, a whisper
of sun was coming thru the clouds and then a full suntan burning a glorious
sky of sun. The venders arrived one by one and were placed in a large
wagon wheel circling the huge Red Bull tent and blow up Arch. The light
breeze beckoned all who arrived, to think about getting up in the air,
but we waited for all to assemble to hold a safety briefing given by
safety director Steve Tustison. After much warning about not flying
to close to the military base and staying out of the water, the fun
began. Well, within less than 5 minutes the first two pilots were ready
to get in the air and as I watched the first launch, he climbed out
did a hard sharp turn down wind, stalled his wing and plowed into the
sand with more force then I have ever seen any other pilot do in a bad
landing, tumbling head over heals twice. I was sure this pilot would
be dead or at least hurt very bad by the looks of it, yet when we rushed
to him he was fine with no injuries; just a badly bruised ego and really
bent up DK Whisper cage. Now I am wondering is this going to be the
mood of this show, are we going to need that $4200.00 worth of $1,000,000
insurance or should I call and up it to $10,000,000? Now 3 minutes go
by and I hear “man in the water” I look at the ocean and start
running towards the guy who was down at the water/sand line and scream
at the top of my lungs “unhook, unhook your risers” as I reached
him it turned out to be an experienced pilot who knew to unhook and
had already done just that. It turned out that the engine had died and
the pilot did not have enough altitude to clear the water line. I have
been training PPG students at the beach for years, with hundreds of
students and have never had a single student get near the water and
here we have one in the water the first five minutes of the show! Now
I am at a fever pitch, thinking this was the worst idea of my life putting
on this show, but what do I do? Fortunately, the rest of the day with
the exception of a few bad take off’s and landings no more accidents
occurred.
As the
day progressed we enjoyed seminars by experts in their fields: Alan
Chuculate (reserves), Dave Beres (props), Nick Sholtes (radios), Chris
Bowles (engine repairs) and Jeff Goin (part 103 and charts). The pilot
numbers kept growing throughout the day reaching nearly 100 by Friday
afternoon (now I am really worried) and looked to reach many more as
Saturday came. All the pilots were wearing the numbered Paratoys registered
t-shirts and munching on the amazing www.smittysjerky.com beef jerky
that was provided by Mike Smitherman, the owner of this great company
to all the pilots. The weather continued with full sun and nice wind
from 4 mph to upwards of 15 by late afternoon. I made the major mistake
of drinking a few cans of the free Red Bull late in the evening and
would not sleep much that night, with all the things going through my
mind that may still happen. Saturday 5 am came way too soon, but up
I went, thinking what will this show provide in the way of a new heart
attack for me today?
KITE
WARS
The
rest of the day was free flying and talking to all the factories
about the new items on the market, like the Paralite Skycruiser
with the 100 lite engine, has 125lbs of thrust, yet only weighs
48lbs total without gas. It also has a super strong new cage/frame
that you can now do power on forwards with, but still fits in a
standard samsonite suit case for traveling. The folks from Red Bull
handed out dozens of cans of liquid go go juice and played music
on the 50 thousand watt speaker system.
Today was
to be the competition day with bomb drop, cone kick down, log walk,
foot drag, kiting wars, two man forward kiting race and spot landing.
The spot landing is always fun to watch but can place pilots in harms
way if they push their limits to win by flaring too soon. The bomb drop
was the first comp to start with and the crowd loved it, the first pilots
came very close dropping from 50 feet or greater to make the center
drop. The advanced pilot winner was Alan Chuculate of San Diego with
a close to one foot drop of the center, the intermediate winner was
Jeff Wilson of Port Hueneme California (one of my students), and the
beginner winner was Mark Berger of Missouri (also one of my students).
The second competition was the spot landing with all pilots climbing
to 500 feet and killing their engines at exactly above the LZ and then
setting up their glides to land. The advanced Winner again was Alan
Chuculate with a perfect dead on spot landing, the intermediate winner
was Jeff Wilson, and the beginner winner was Mark Berger. These two
competitions guaranteed these guys would be in the money with $500.00
in prize monies each as the other pilots would need to win more than
two competitions to catch them. The next event was a fantastic crowd
pleaser called kiting wars in which all pilots in a small area pull
up their gliders at the same time and the last glider standing wins.
The competition was fierce with a kiting master Chad Bastian, Mo Sheldon
and my student Steve Clayatt fighting it out to the very end and Steve
Clayatt was the ultimate winner (Kudos to Mo and Chad). The two man
kiting race was next with one pilot kiting and another pushing from
behind and the pilot not being able to touch the ground after passing
the starting line. Tetherball Terry did a nearly horizontal to the ground
flight with his man engine pushing against Terry’s feet; it was
a crowd pleaser for sure. Michele Daniele was the overall winner with
her great ground handling skills.
On
Saturday night
we started the evening with a pizza party and then the “Burning
of the Prop Ceremony” with this year’s prop breaking King
Mike Pusheck. We spoke of the grand history of the first paramotor
pilot, Leonardo De Vinchi and his numerous prop breakings prior
to taking lessons. The prayer was then spoken: “O prop God,
please release Mike from your terrible bonds and pass the torch
to another newbie with more money then he. We give you this offering
of broken props so that you might take mercy on our pocket books
and bless us with clean PPG, not PG, take off’s and on our
feet landings.” Mike doused the props with gas & lit the
inferno ablaze. The fun continued with all the dealers and factories
providing dozens of raffle gifts and prizes to all the registered
pilots on hand. The final giveaways were the grand prize winners
of the competitions with $2000.00 given to the winners.
On Sunday the day was just for free flying but low and behold the Alan
Chuculate/ Turbo bob/ tetherball Terry show was on with foot drags,
spirals, low and loud, and tandems galore. The day progressed with very
safe competent pilots showing the crowds what our fantastic machines
could do. The only incident was a SD monster pilot doing a rather strange
riser twist and took a little ocean bath for fun, no harm done and he
continue to fly the rest of the day..
All and
all a great fly-in with excellent weather, fun people, and another one
for the record books! See you next year!
Paratoys
winter fly-in will beheld at Port Hueneme Beach, Ventura County
California, on Feb 14th thru the 16th 2003. This beach community is
45 miles north of LAX airport (Los Angeles international). The show
this year will be different as generally the flying can be done all
day long at a beach site (no thermals). We will have several clinics
including: Alan Chucalate- reserves, Jeff Goin –maps and charts,
Nick Scholtz- radios, and a few others. The competitions will include
:Spot landing, Cone knock down, helium balloon catch, fastest to 1500
ft and slowest down from 1500 ft, foot drags, log walk, bomb drop, mound
hopping, and of course kiting wars. We have planned a handicap system
so that the first day beginner pilots may win as well as the experts.
Red Bull energy drinks will be one of the sponsors at this years show
and has provided $1000.00 in cash for the comp prizes and Paratoys is
matching this amount for a $2000.00 cash purse. Red Bull will also be
providing a tent, loads of Red bull drinks and the Red bull aerobatic
team, for a variety of stunts. Full details of the schedule
and rules are posted here.
I have
received many inquires as to whether we will have that amazing Smittys
beef jerky available to all pilots at the show like last year. Well
the answer is Yes, Mike Smithermans company www.Smittysjerky.com,
has donated a ton of that incredible, fantastic jerky to all pilots
at the show this year. As a major sponsor of the convention, we would
like to thank Mike for his generous support of the Paragliding/Paramotor
community.
Factories
on display will be Apco paragliders, Fly products Paramotors, Aerolight
PPG school, Fresh Breeze Paramotors, Silex paragliders, Independence
paraglider, Wills Wing products, Arcus Paragliders, Skycruiser Paramotors,
Macpara Paragliders, Thermal Tracker products, Critter Mountain Products,
Reflex paragliders, Fly Ohio PPG school, Bad bones Bill paraglider repairs,
Beres/herst prop repairs, SD paramotors, Tx Flysports, American Flyer
PPG school, Cloud Nine, Neruures paragliders, Mini Plane paramotor,
Ws radio, Powered paraglider.com,
The closest
camp grounds are 6 miles away at McGrath state park on the beach, the
phone number for reservations is -1-805-654-4744, $12.00 per night no
hook up’s. Within 5 miles we have the following hotels/motels-
The Port
Hueneme Country (1-805-986-5353) Inn is an extremely nice hotel .2 miles
away for $89.00 per night if you mention paratoys when reserving your
rooms and this comes with buffet breakfast and evening complementary
two drinks.
The Comfort
Inn is 5 miles away 1-805-987-4188 $63.00 per night also includes breakfast,
Motel 6
1-805-650-0080
Motel 6 1-805-643-5100
PPG
Pilots and Wanna bees -
La Salina July
13-14th 2002 fly-in Wsradio.ws
and Paratoys.com have some fun events planned for the La Salina july
13-14th 2002 fly-in:
Saturday
12:00 noon mass launch record, this large beach will allow as many as
100 pilots to line up if we wanted to do a mass take off launch. I would
be very happy with a number of 15 as a record.
Saturday
1:00 cross country lunch flight- 13 mile cc to the sand dunes for a
beautiful up the coast stop for lunch and return by 2:30.
Saturday
2:30- a no charge, paragliding clinic will be given by Gabriel Jebb
for those pilots who would like to try the world famous La Salina ridge
Gabriel will provide free flight harness's/reserves.
Saturday
night- Margarita night, the blender will be flowing thanks to wsradio.ws
for a night of fun! Thanks Michael/Casey
A
professional video photographer will be on hand this weekend to record
the whole event, and will provide a copy to all pilots who attend .
La
Salina is 45 miles south of San Diego in baja Mexico on the pacific
coast along a beautiful coast line. The toll road is perfectly maintained
and makes this a easy ride to Baja Seasons. To make hotel or RV space
reservations contact www.bajaseasons.com
For
more info, feel free to contact me at 805-496-5122
total
prizes given away: 63 Major
prizes given away:
Skycruiser paramotor- Richard Good
Apco paraglider - Quinn Mclaughklin
Ranger paraglider -unclaimed returned
to Scott Alan Small prizes
given away: 10 t-shirts,
4 cinch sacks, 2 helmets, 10 paratoys dress shirts, 12 videos, 10 calenders,
4 PPG trainig courses, hook knife, 5 Ocotillo
Wells plaques, two stroke oil 2, Ocototillo Wells video 1, Celibrity on site:
William Shatner AKA Capt Kirk Free barbque Lunch cook/served by : Manny Machado Clinics
Provided: Reserves-
Alan Chuchalate
Radios- Nick Scholtes
Thermaling with a PPG- Scott Johnson Competetions
held: Kiting
Wars-winner Steve Meyer
Cone knock down- winner Jeff Goin
Thrust wars- none Favorite
food given away at the show: Smittys
Jerky Total number
of PPG pilots registered: 111 Total counted in the air at one time over LZ : 34 Total pilots including ultraltes; 167
Video of show
Hook Productions Largest
number of one kind of paramotor: Skycruisers
44 Most helpful
fantastic couple: Rusty/montine
Blevins Safety
director: Eric Dufour Assistant
Safety directors: Richard
Good
Ken ward
Bob Armond New products
shown at this convention for the first time: Paralite
skycruisers: Soft
gas tanks
Siminoni Clutch
Two piece props
Folding frames
Weight shift bars Fresh
Breeze: Simonini
based paramotor
Silex 2 Bandit
: Paramotor
ITV
paragliders Fly
products Gold 130
simoni based paramotor Total number
of porta milos's this year: 2 Total
number of porta Milos's ordered for next year: 4
3-8-2002
- Para
Toys gets a new website
We now
have a working classifieds section. click
to view
