Today, Luis Ruiz was early in Villa Pesquera Isabela to do some Tandem Introduction flights to the sport, which had been postponed, in the past months several times, due to the weather and work commitments of our friends. This time, we finally had the right weather and we had the presence of Alexandra, Ivelisse and Sammy Rivera, from Ponce.
Excellent weather, although light winds for the Take Off…
This time, in the morning, although the conditions were very good for flying, there was hardly any wind. So takeoff was going to be very challenging. Accompanying Luis Ruiz was his friend and pilot José “Cheo” Román, assisting Luis with the flights.
Luis managed to make the (3) flights, taking off with them by Front Launch method, using a powerful engine and a big 42-meter Tandem. The boys had a great adventure. We share a short video of their adventures.
The afternoon… gets complicated due to a dramatic change in the weather…
Later in the day, Luis and Cheo received a visit from Carlos Irizarry, who brought his mother Marisel to live her flight experience as part of her birthday. Also, his brother Beckham also was pending to live the experience too…
Previous of the flights, we observed that the wind had increased in intensity. At the same time, instead of coming in from the North, as it had been in the morning, it was rolling and coming now from the NW.
Luis Ruiz Take Off with Marisel, again using his 42-meter paraglider (for light winds). But at mid-flight, we began to observe a deterioration in the weather conditions. The wind intensity was picking up, fast and furious, and that’s not good news for a big Tandem paraglider. Then, the situation gets even more complicated… a sudden unexpected loose of Power from Luis engine complicated the equation, (the first in years). So, Luis, as a precaution, decided to land quickly with Marisel in the area known as Shore Island. (Like one mile away from Villa Pesquera).
From there, we contacted Cheo Román who came to the rescue. We observed then, that the wind kept getting stronger, at the moment, 15 mph+ and keep rolling in direction, now entering completely from W. So, we decided to hurry up to carry out Beckham‘s flight but, this time, from Shore Island with better and clear space for winds entering from W.
Luis took off from there with Beckham, and find that the wind intensity gets stronger, now at 20 mph+. In just a few hours everything changed, from light winds to 20 mph+ winds… and in some minutes, it gets even WORSE… We started to feel the wind direction keep rolling, now coming from the SW and strong !!!… That bring us a sudden heavy turbulence. Cold and Hot air were mixing in front of us, and again, for safety reasons Luis decided to land, this time at Posa de Teodoro…
Landed, BUT a very long walk ahead…
Once they landed, they consider their situation and decided to walked all the way back to Shore Island (at least a mile over the soft sand !!!), Beckham with the paraglider in hand and Luis with the Paramotor on his back. Definitely an extreme exercise for them, but at the end, everything was fine. What and a unforgettable adventure we lived !!!
We hope in the future to repeat the flight experience with Marisel and Beckham, who despite the adventure, were very happy with their experiences… God Bless!!!
Photos…
