Like most people, when I saw my first Powered Parachute, I didn't have the faintest idea what I was looking at. I was visiting some friends at a camping site in the Naples, NY area in the fall of '97. After we finished eating, a bunch of us decided to take a walk down some of the dirt paths in the area. We were all enjoying the warm fall evening when suddenly we heard an engine sound that none of us could identify. As we strained to see where the sound was coming from, suddenly a large kite shaped object started rising above the hedgerow of a near by pasture. To our surprise the kite kept going up towing a cart type object below it. In the cart were two people who were obviously having the time of their life. I immediately had to find out more about this strange flying machine.
For the next couple of months I searched the internet to help me identify this flying machine. After a lot of searching time I discovered that this machine was called a Powered Parachute. Now my next mission was to find out where they could be purchased, how does a person learn to fly one, and a million other questions, just like those that you probably have.
In 1998 I went to Florida to purchase a machine, learn how to fly it, and to take a dealer training course because I was suppose to be their exclusive dealer in my home area. That was with a company named "Parascender". Unfortunately that person was much less than a reputable person and I lost a lot.
In 2001 I went to a Destiny dealer in Pennsylvania and managed to fulfill my dream of flying. Ever since I completed my solo flight training, I find myself often thinking about re-arranging my daily schedule to maximize my flight opportunities. We now have a group of 15-20 PPC in the area who are always looking for a reason to fly. One of them actually uses flying as a way of escaping the biting mosquitoes. We have several instructors as well as a couple of well known dealers. We fly from a variety of field within a 30 mile radius. We occasionally meet for breakfast at one of the airports and then spend the rest of the day flying. Sometime we'll all meet at one of the local fly-in breakfasts to help support their airport or club.
When gravity gets you down, let Freedom Flight take you up!!!
