Josh showed up last night with just two flights remaining to complete all the requirements to earn his PPG2 rating. With no other students there for instruction that gave us way more time than needed. So, the obvious thing to do was make a cross country flight with the surplus time. That’s exactly what we did. Brad and Ryan were already at the airport. Brad was working on a few repairs. Ryan and I rigged his new Ozone reserve to his paramotor. They decided to join Josh and I for the long flight. Sean drove his Cobra up from Illinois to help coach that evening. He too joined ..read more

The spring winds have finally subsided giving us plenty of opportunity to fly. Adam, Josh Y, Caleb, Kyle and Jack all made their first flights this past week. Congratulations guys! Andrea made her 25th and graduation flight. She has all her gear on order and as soon as it arrives she will be free to fly on her own. Megan gets ever closer to making her first flight. Just a few more low tows to dial in her landing and she will be ready for the big day. Keep it up Megan! Matt E stopped by and picked up his new rig. While he was there Kate tried on the Top80 Miniplane and too ..read more

It’s the classic story of the right guy in the right place at the right time. A bunch of us had gathered at Elver Park to play with the north wind on the sledding hill. Everyone was enjoying fun 10 to 20 second sled runs from top to bottom. I also had a couple students there training. As we played the winds would routinely change direction and speed, indicators of thermal activity. We could see the cumulus clouds grow in number and size. Not surprising as it was a sunny spring day after all. Mariyan, our paragliding instructor, launched his “C” rated wing from the top of ..read more

Long days and warm weather are back! Now we can really get things done. Four new students signed up this week. Caleb, Adam and the twins Tyler and Kyle all joined the Madcity Paragliding crew. Andrea is up to 7 flights now with her goal of finishing by month’s end so she can fly in Baja after that. Kory, Andy, Kellen, Steve and Mark stopped by Saturday evening to fly in the warm air at the airport. It was nice to see them all in the air. More paramotors are being assembled. Andy, Matt E, Nick, Brad and Ryan were all turning wrenches on theirs this week. With all the Defiants in ..read more

Andrea began her training last fall after watching her friend Andy go through the entire program. Seeing him succeed gave her enough confidence to sign up and give it a go herself. Her flexible work schedule really helped us deal with the challenging weather we had this past winter. She was always super excited during training and she did very well at kiting. Having already gone through some general aviation training, much of the physics and some of the law knowledge was easier for her to grasp. We had several towing sessions for her to get comfortable with wing control before we added the mot ..read more

The gear is arriving daily here at Madcity Paragliding. This past week paramotors have shown up for Jim, Mark T, Andy, Matt E, Kellen, Ryan, Nick, Brad, Michael and Michael G! New wings for Kellen, Dmitry and Andy have also ended up in the hanger. So much assembly and breaking in of new motors there is almost no time to fly, almost. Collin and Henry finished up there last remaining flights to earn their PPG2 ratings Saturday morning. Pat passed his PPG2 written test to earn his rating. Jae, Matt S, Matt E and Kory were out flying around and enjoying the warmer weather ..read more

The training continues at Madcity Paragliding even in the dead of winter. Granted, we did take a short break and hid out indoors for the week it was constantly more than 20 degrees below freezing. Some of the activities included Craig making several tow flights in preparation for his first motorized flight. We also completed his simulator time. Now we are waiting on the weather. Megan and Andrea are a day away from their first flights. A few more tows then we will strap on the motors and give it a go. Kellen has been out a few times to keep his skills sharp while we wait for his gear ..read more

Two more Defiants arrived this past week. Eric J and Matt S were the lucky two this time. Instead of the usual Gravity green color these are silver. With the matching white padded Apco harness the machines are quite striking. Eric has completed the assembly process but still needs to do the two hour motor break in. Matt was able to finish both the assembly and break in of his Defiant Monday. Matt returned Tuesday morning to take it on it’s initial flight. Everything worked flawlessly as expected. Nick’s custom Spyder 3 arrived and he stopped by to pick it up and take his new sma ..read more

Matt S and I have been waiting for a good weather opportunity for a few days to attempt his first flight. Fortunately being a self employed home inspector he can move his schedule around a bit to take advantage of the conditions. January 2nd that day presented itself and we embraced it. All is practice and training paid off with a great flight. He even went on to make a few more flights that day. He has been back several times these past few weeks and had already completed his required 25 flights, the last few were with his brand new wing! Just the PPG2 written test rem ..read more

Henry started just a few weeks ago but he’s already made his first flight. In fact he made several flights. Stuck in Wisconsin over the holidays because of covid concerns at home back east, he had a bunch of spare time available. We made the most of it and finished up his ground school, simulator and even some towing to get him wing time before strapping on the motor. He did great! We decided to use the Miniplane with the Top80 because he was of the appropriate weight. The 80cc paramotor weighs just 42 pounds compared to the bigger 185cc machines that are in the 55-60 pound range ..read more