Beach Bash powered paragliding trip was great!

The trip was excellent. Scott Clark and I drove down to Panama City Beach, FL, with our flying gear. The trip was a wonderful way to spend more time with midwest local friends and get reacquainted with many friends from all over the country who haven't been seen for some time. Among those that are not so local were John Fetz, Chad Bastian, Don Jordan [somewhat local], Eric Dufour and his wife Elizabeth, Check DeSantis, ....

We had some excellent weather the first couple of days and most of us got a good bit of air time. The first day saw many of us getting in a good number of launches and landings too. The beach was crowded with many pilots in the launching and landing area. There were many sting rays in the water primarily in groups of 2 to as many as about 15. The beaches were crowded all of the days that we were there. We were all careful to stay clear of the beach goers. There was a competition scheduled but unfortunately the local authorities thought that it was not appropriate for their beach and the observers on hand. Some of us had problems and our Kankakee friend, Lance, was wonderful in helping many of us, including Scott & myself.

Lance Marczak was awesome with his motor expertise and extremely generous sharing of his skills by helping many pilots with minor and not so minor motor problems. He tuned and replaced parts in carburetors. He changed out a motor or two on different frames. He repaired stuck rings on a cylinder and buffed down a cylinder to get one motor running quite well that had a minor seizure.

The resort was very nice. The vendors were helpful and informative. The beach babes were very impressive. The camaraderie of all of the powered paragliding community was superb as always. The best reason to attend a fly-in is to spend time with the awesome members of this great community.

My photos turned out pretty well. Below is a link to them or you can click the title of this post to go to the Picasa link to view them.

http://picasaweb.google.com/davidmcw3/100505PPGBeachBash#

Please let me know what you think of them at your convenience.