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The vast majority of paramotor entrants enthuse over the sport's simple elegance, affordability and minimal regulation. Indeed, that is what got me so juiced, too. But there are some surprising dark corners that, while easily avoidable, are not obvious. Through several years of aggressively exploring the craft, I learned about many of them--a few the hard way. I learned even more by talking and spending time with the sport's most prolific and skilled instructors. These were people who knew what was actually happening and had developed ways to improve the situation.

It was obvious that we, as a community, needed to get the word out. After one particularly harrowing experience, I set out to create "The USPPA Safety Video." It started with an outline that eventually became a script, listing the the ways that pilots were actually getting hurt and what could be done to prevent those injuries. That script was passed around to a number of highly regarded instructors who gave valuable input which was incorporated.

It turns out that a huge majority of wing-related accidents shared a common thread: too much brake pull—a reaction aggravated frequently by having or holding too much power. It wasn't the wing's mis-behaving, it was the pilot's overreaction that turned a minor bobble into a major crash. In fact, nearly all PPG accidents where the wing does something unexpected was a result of the pilot pulling too much brake.

Worse than that was where serious injuries were occurring. They came not from flying at all but rather from the propeller. And most of those occurred during start or runup.

There are a host of other maladies that needed attention and were covered—aspects of paramotoring where risk was present but not readily apparent. It was my hope to present the problem and, whenever practical, its solution.

Another major goal was to show why proper instruction is so critical. Seeing all there is to know would hopefully make any pilot heed the admonition to get good, thorough training. It shows why choosing an instructor who uses a standard syllabus is better guaranteed to cover the necessary material. Any instructor not using the USPPA syllabus, or one that covers at LEAST the same material, is denying their student the advantage of collective wisdom.

It Can't Cover Everything

Essential?

UltraFlight Magazine ArticleAs said by a famous man two millennia ago, “It is Finished.”

An adventure. A beautifully rendered story that happens to involve powered paragliding.

You will be mesmerized. Your non-flying compatriots will finally get it. They will feel what motivates you. Why We Fly has become the best-selling PPG film ever produced—and for good reason. Hollywood insider Phil Russman does his best work creating a captivating story that will thrill even the non-flyers. Set to a rousing score, this video follows four pilots on an adventure book-ended by hurricanes.

There are some valuable instructional nuggets thrown in, too, for those who like to tackle strong winds. In the case of this adventure, there were a few times the pilots really needed to take on such blows.

A humorous mockery is made of the rift that sometimes splits free flight pilots and those who motor. It exposes the ridiculousness of such a dispute while showing the benefits of both flight forms.

More than any other PPG expose, you'll want to watch it to the end. There are some funny bits at the end, too.

The story starts out with one traumatic misadventure that leaves a pilot alone at sunset and a long way from the boat. And to answer the question that will invariably come up—it was the decompression valve. You'll understand after watching.

Strap on a paramotor and join these amazing people who run into their dreams of flight. But be well educated before leaping aloft—this website is dedicated to that end. The PPG Bible is a collaborative effort that takes you from "first sight to first flight" and way beyond, helping you aviate confidently in the national airspace system while having a blast along the way. Enjoy the ride!

One of the Special Boat Service's most celebrated soldiers survived undercover missions, sieges and prison revolts in Afghanistan only to die in a freak hang-gliding accident, an inquest has heard.

Sergeant Paul "Scruff" McGough, 41, was a key figure in a unit which won the siege of Afghanistan's Qala-i-Janghi jail, considered among the most highly decorated missions in the service's history.

Sgt McGough, from Taunton, Somerset, dodged Taliban bullets to stop the revolt of hundreds of prisoners in Masri-i-sharif in November 2001. He also dressed as a native to gather intelligence among the mountains.

But his death came not in the course of duty but after he had completed a four day course in paramotoring – flying using an attached motor – in Cyprus on June 1, 2006.

The inquest heard he was set to fly to Dubai from the course at Sky School, where he had excelled, but had agreed to one final flight.

After successfully completing two 360 degree turns at the field in Pissouri he kicked his legs to instructor and school owner Alex Ledger to indicate he wanted to repeat the manoeuvre a third and final time.

The turn was tighter than expected and despite calls to put his hands up to recover the shape of the wing, he began to spiral down from 1,200 feet.

After the case, the West Somerset coroner Michael Rose paid tribute to Sgt McGough's "distinguished career" saying: "His death is a loss to you (the family) and to this country."

Recording a narrative verdict, Mr Rose ruled he had died after going into a spiral dive but noted: "In all probability the deceased would not have died if the risk of such turns had been more fully understood at the time and appropriate training given."

Just 10 days ago, The British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association published new guidelines on spiral dives, the coroner heard.

Alexander Ledger, owner of Sky School Flight Centre Ltd, told the court he had been flying since the age of 16 and had taught 40 people to fly paramotors.

He told the coroner: "He (Sgt McGough) was a very fit man and coming on very fast. He could certainly keep up with me, I spent a lot of time with him. I was very impressed with his determination, fitness and ability to learn quickly."

The first two turns that morning went without a hitch but the third was unusually sharp.

Mr Ledger said: "He entered into a tight turn, much tighter than anything he had done before. He applied the power which is an advanced manoeuvre – nothing we had discussed.

"I remember asking him to put his hands up and decelerate the power immediately. The wing would have moved but it wouldn't have deflated."

But there was no response to the radio instructions, he said, and Sgt McGough went into a 100ft-per-second spiral dive. Mr Ledger explained there would have been a lot of wind-noise during such a spin, affecting his ability to hear.

The court heard there had been two similar fatalities involving British fliers who had locked into spiral dives.

Sgt McGough leaves behind a wife and children. Members of his family who attended the inquest declined to comment after the hearing.

Sgt McGough's obituary, which was published in a national newspaper, recalled his role in defending the former Soviet airbase in Bagram from both Afghan government fighters and the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance.

Outnumbered, the C Company held the huge airbase for a day and a night, annoying the Americans who had expected to be there first.

Once relieved by US special forces, he embarked on intelligence-gathering patrols in local dress.

On November 25, he was involved in fierce fighting at the prison-fortress of Qala-i-Jangi, known as the "Fort of War".

Several hundred prisoners had revolted while being interrogated by the CIA, and were armed with AK47s and rocket-propelled grenades.

They killed the CIA's Captain "Mike" Spann, and cornered another agent, Dave Dawson.

Sgt McGough was one of eight Special Boat Service (SBS) men in two armed Land Rovers under a British commander, and nine US special forces, led by Major Mark Mitchell, who raced to prevent the Taliban from breaking out of the jail to retake Mazar-i-Sharif.

Sgt McGough repelled hundreds of "screaming warriors" despite a hail of bullets which tore up battlements beneath him, his obituary claimed.

Despite reports to the contrary, no Britons received foreign awards, and Sgt McGough received a mention in dispatches.

Some of his adventures were described in Damien Lewis's book, Bloody Heroes, published earlier this month.

China Qingdao Seawind Skysports Co.Ltd is one of the best aviation organization in China, established in1996. Specialize in paragliding, paramotor, hot balloon, kite etc. Since Seawind established, we spent much effort to the promotion of aviation sport in China, And established a good team of pilots. Seawind keep in one of the best team in China pargliding champion for many years, Now Seawind have two base in two province of China. After many years of experience in dealing with the equipments, Recent years we are developing our own products for the market. With a high standard in quality, strict control in production and continuous improving in design, Seawind is confident that you will be happy with the performance of our products, and we are looking forwards to hearing “Yes” from you..

Zhong.Xiaofei - Owner and Lead Instructor of Seawind, Experienced instructor of China Avaition Community. Now Zhong working with his friends to support more happy to the skysports fans.

http://www.moonairthailand.com/
Moonair, distributors of Parajet paramotors in the Netherlands, Luxemberg, Belgium and Germany, are currently looking for paramotor pilots to join them on their Thailand Paramotor Tour this April (2009).

The trip will total 2,600 km travelling around the beautiful countryside of Thailand and the company say that as well as flying every day, it will be “a complete cultural delight”. Moonair will use their local knowledge to take pilots to some of the hard to find beauty spots and to savour the culinary delights of Thailand.

Interested pilots need at least a year’s experience, plus their own wing and swimming trunks! Moonair provide the paramotors, the accomodation and all the travel arrangements once you are in Thailand.

Pilots who take up this bespoke trip are also offered the opportunity to buy a new APCO wing for just 1,600 Euros.

No long-term agreement reached yet

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Israeli troops, some smiling and dancing, began to withdraw from Gaza on Sunday after their government and Hamas militants declared an end to a three-week war. But neither side achieved long-term goals and the burden of consolidating the fragile calm fell to world leaders.

The truce brought relief to Gaza's citizens, who took stock of the devastation in relative safety for the first time since Israel launched the offensive Dec. 27. And it brought more trauma, as rescue workers in surgical masks ventured into what once were no-go areas and pulled 100 bodies from buildings pulverized by bombs.

"We've pulled out my nephew, but I don't know how many are still under there," Zayed Hadar said as he sifted through the rubble of his flattened home in the northern town of Jebaliya.

Tension eased in Southern Israel, the target of Palestinian rocket fire, even though Hamas launched nearly 20 rockets in a final salvo before announcing a cease-fire. Three Israelis were slightly wounded, while two Palestinians were killed in last-minute fighting, medics said.

Israel and Hamas do not recognize each other and ended up separately declaring cease-fires 12 hours apart after strenuous efforts by Egyptian mediators to get an agreement. Israel first announced a unilateral cease-fire Saturday night, with Hamas initially vowing to keep fighting until all troops left Gaza. But early Sunday, Hamas too said it would hold its fire to give Israeli forces time to pull out.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said his country had no desire to stay in Gaza, a Mediterranean strip of 1.4 million people that was vacated by Israel in 2005 even though Gaza's airspace, coastal waters and border crossings remained under Israeli control.

"We didn't set out to conquer Gaza. We didn't set out to control Gaza. We don't want to remain in Gaza and we intend on leaving Gaza as fast as possible," Olmert said.

Despite losses suffered, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh claimed "a heavenly victory" in remarks broadcast on Al-Jazeera Arabic news channel.

A swift withdrawal would reduce the likelihood of clashes between militants and Israeli troops that could rupture the truce.

The world welcomed the apparent end to the latest round of fighting in the Middle East. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged a quick influx of humanitarian aid to the isolated enclave, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice - in the final days of her tenure - said a cease-fire must be durable.

Iran, which has supplied rockets to Hamas, said a key to calm is the opening of border crossings that Israel and Egypt have kept virtually sealed since the militant group staged a violent takeover of Gaza in 2007 from forces of the rival Fatah faction. The comment by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was a reminder that the tiny coastal territory is just one piece of a larger conflict between Israel and regional enemies.

In Egypt, European and Arab leaders were seeking a long-term deal to solidify the truce. Delivering humanitarian aid to rebuild Gaza, opening its borders and choking off the flow of weapons into Gaza across Egypt's border and at sea - perhaps with an international naval force - emerged as key goals from their summit at the Sinai desert resort of Sharm el-Sheik.

The gathering, however, failed to deliver specifics on international monitors to stop weapons from reaching Gaza's Hamas rulers. Israel wants monitors, but Egypt has refused to have them on its side of the border.

The Israeli military warned that the next few days were critical and that any Hamas attacks would be met with harsh retaliation.
Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Monday, January 19, 2009

Udupi: People from Udupi and Manipal had a whale of a time watching the airshow held as part of “Aerofest 2008” on the Malpe Beach here on Saturday.

The event was organised as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore, in association with the Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) and National Institute of Technology – Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal. Its aim is to attract the youth to aviation and flying.

Though oppressive heat and the humid weather made the people sweat, it did not dim their enthusiasm anyway. They waved and clapped every time a microlight aircraft passed closed to the ground.

The fest comprised a flypast by microlight aircraft, powered hang gliders, and flights by paramotors from the Para Regiment, Bangalore, thrilled the people. The flights of powered hang gliders and paramotors were also appreciated.

Women pilots Audrey Maben, Vinitha and Roopa Almeida flew microlight aircraft. Ms. Almeida, an alumna of MIT, who is working as a software business analyst in the United Kingdom, said: “I learnt flying at Mysore Aero Sports. I got my licence to fly four years ago. I was happy to fly here. I am sure the youth will love flying.”

Ms. Vinitha said: “It is a wonderful opportunity to fly. It was fun to land the plane on the beach. We want youngsters to take to aviation.” Ms. Maben said: “We want people to feel encouraged to take flying as a hobby.”

Vice-Chancellor of Manipal University Rajasekharan Warrier, who flagged off the airshow, said that the university was planning to have a tie-up with NAL. “Such programmes show the commitment our university has to science and technology,” he added.

An exhibition showcasing the contributions and achievements of NAL was held on the sidelines of the airshow.

There was also a display of Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) that can carry audio and video sensors. MAVs will be useful in times of floods, tsunami and controlling forest fires.

Have you ever wished you could fly? And I’m not talking about hopping on board a jet plane, comfortably sitting in a chair while a stewardess serves you food and drinks as you catch up on your Hollywood blockbusters. I’m talking about actually flying, like a bird.

I have always wondered what it would be like to actually be able to jump up into the sky and fly away. Now unfortunately, unlike a bird or Superman, I have neither the wings nor the cape to do so, but when I heard about a new craze called paramotoring, I immediately knew it was something I had to try.

So let’s start at the beginning, just what is paramotoring?

Well the easiest way to describe it is, it’s strapping a big fan on your back and then blowing yourself up into the sky. No, seriously, that’s what you do.

There are two components to a paramotor. First, as the name suggests, is the motor and the second is the wing. The motor actually powers a big fan, while the wing, which looks like to a parachute, is similar to what a paraglider would use.

So effectively, paramotoring, is actually paragliding, but with a motor to propel you.

On assignment at the Bira Race circuit in Pattaya, Thailand, I decided to duck away from the circuit and headed over to an airstrip about 15 mins out of Pattaya where paramotorers flock to spread their wings. Lucky for me, I had George Macak, a paramotoring pioneer in the region to initiate me into the sport.

I started off by strapping on the harness, which comes up all the way over the shoulders and across the chest and ends up like a little seat. The straps were there just to keep you in place and so there was plenty of room to move.

With that done, my next lesson was to master the art of manoeuvring in the air using the wing. It’s actually called a wing and not a parachute because once inflated, it works exactly like an aircraft wing that you see on a plane. By pulling on the right cables, you can steer left, right and even brake!

Now I wish I could explain the exact physics behind the workings of the wing, but honestly most of if flew right over my head. All I remember was George summarizing, “It’s actually an aeroplane wing, but made out of fabric.”

I had a go at trying to inflate the wing by myself. The process involved starting with the wing on the floor attached to your harness, and then when the wind blows towards you, you start running as fast as you can, pulling on a cord that opens up the mouth of the wing, air rushes in and inflates the wing which then goes up in the air. Exactly like what you do with a plastic bag when you want to open it up. Sounds simple right? Wrong.

The first step was easy. I started running and pulled on the cable to inflate the wing. But then when it did, picture a parachute that opens up behind a dragster and jerks it to a stop €“ same thing.

When the wing inflated, it pulled me backwards and there I was in the middle of an open grassy airfield, trying to run forward with this massive inflated wing floating just behind me not allowing me to budge an inch! It was a scene straight out of a comic strip.

With George’s help I managed to eventually get the wing up over my head and then tried very hard to master the art of controlling it.

There are many factors that come into play, wind speed and direction for starters, and according to George, it takes at least a week to get close to being able to learn the technique.

So once I’d exhausted every ounce of my energy fighting the winds with the ‘wing’, I conceded to the second best thing to actually paramotoring by yourself, and hopped onboard the tandem machine.

The tandem machine is pretty unique. I sat in the front while George climbed in the back, fired up the motor, inflated the wing and we started taxiing down the runaway. It started off pretty similar to taking off in a plane, but as soon as started to get airborne, the difference was apparent.

Lift off. I could see the ground slowly falling away, and because I was right upfront with no fuselage around me, I had a 360 degree view of the world as we soared above the treetops. It was breathtaking to say the least. I could feel the wind against my cheeks and through my hair.

The horizon was stretched out as far as I could see, and to the west the sun was setting into the clouds. Beautiful.

George wasn’t a paramotoring pioneer for nothing, just as I was settling in and enjoying the ride, he warned me to hold on and then we went into a series of manoeuvres that immediately increased the heart rate.

Quick swerves right, and then left, but best of all was the freefall downwards spiral that he caught just as the ground was getting uncomfortably close.

We swooped low so I could almost touch the leaves on trees and then climbed high, so high I could feel the change in air temperature. I was truly flying. This was as close to being a bird as one could be.

Over in the distance I could see other paramotorer take to the skies. All of them were solo pilots, so it was kind of like a scene from the Jetsons with men flying in the air with a big fan strapped on their back and a wing above their heads and feet dangling in the wind.

The best thing about it is that once you’re in the air, you don’t need your motor to stay afloat, its just there to manoeuvre. So even in the worst of circumstances when the fan dies, you just glide down using the wing as a skydiver would.

It wasn’t an adrenaline rush like a rollercoaster ride, my 20 minutes in the air was a movement at best. From the smooth and gradual take off to the slow climb up into the clouds, to the swooping and swerving, and finally the softest of landings, it was all one big fluid movement.

All I can say is that if you’ve ever fantasized about flying, then you must experience this. Forget AirAsia, with paramotoring, now everyone can really, really fly.

Area resident, 47, killed after ultralight aircraft crashes in Musquash River area by Georgian Bay
Sep 23, 2008 04:30 AM
Carmen Chai
Staff Reporter

The body of an ultralight aircraft pilot who went missing after flying from Barrie has been found near wreckage in Georgian Bay Township.

The ultralight was discovered yesterday afternoon in a remote area near the mouth of the Musquash River. Lachlan MacLean, 47, was found dead a short distance away, OPP said.

Police are helping Transport Canada and the Ontario coroner's office investigate the crash.

MacLean, who lived in nearby Springwater Township, flew out of Edenvale Flying Club airfield in Clearview Township at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday.

He was flying a Highcraft Buccaneer SX ultralight aircraft with a white body and red wings.

MacLean's intention was to fly up to Beausoleil Island in nearby Georgian Bay and then make the return trip to the Edenvale airfield.

He was supposed to finish the trip by 2 p.m. When MacLean hadn't returned by 3:30 p.m., the flying club reported him missing.

It's the third death of the pilot at the controls of a small aircraft in three weeks.

On Sept. 11, police pulled the body of Iqbal Rupani of Richmond Hill from Lake Simcoe, still strapped into the pilot cage of his motorized paraglider.

On Sept. 6, John Townsend, 54, of King City was killed when his motorized hang-glider crashed a half-kilometre south of Volks Aerodrome in Tottenham. His body was found the next day.

To obtain a permit to operate an ultralight plane, pilots need to complete at least 10 hours of practice with an instructor, and 20 hours of classroom time. In ground school, trainees are instructed on safety, radio communication and aerodynamics. Three tests are also given to fledgling pilots before they're supposed to fly on their own.

Onofrio Spatola, office manager of the Edenvale Ultralight School, wouldn't say how much experience MacLean had in the aircraft, adding: "He rents hangar space at the facility." Spatola said the Highcraft Buccaneer that MacLean was flying could land on water and on land. "It's not a basic ultralight."

Spatola said the weather on Sunday was perfect for flying. "There were very low winds and lots of visibility. I don't know what went wrong."

http://www.foxcarolina.com/news/17738756/detail.html#
POWDERSVILLE, S.C. -- A pilot is recovering after his ultralight plane crashed on Thursday night.

The crash happened off Piedmont Road.

The man was trying to land his ultralight plane, also called a motorized hang glider, when it crashed into a wooded area.

One of the pilot’s family members told FOX Carolina News that he suffered a broken back, a broken leg, fractures to his face and burns over 14 percent of his body.
Read full story from WHNS and watch the video

Temples around Chiang Mai from Andrew Shepherd on Vimeo.
Temples filmed from a paramotor in northern Thailand.
Filmed over the course of a few evenings, and a bumpy afternoon, with a leg mounted Panasonic HDC camera.

Wing: Paramania Action GT
Paramotor: PAP Ros 125
Pilot: Andrew Shepherd

Neil Laughton is a modern British adventurer of the usual sort, having undertaken dozens of corporately-sponsored desperate ventures around the world in aid of good causes. Like many of his wilderness-prowling colleagues he is a regular on the after-dinner speaking circuit, on top of his day job as chairman of an office development firm.

In addition to being one of the first two men ever to complete the Awesome Eight Golf Challenge ("golfers must play eight of the most remote and climatically extreme golf courses in the world... not using any caddy or cart"), Laughton has ticked off many another badge: the Seven Summits (highest mountain on every continent), the round-UK wetbike caper, skiing the North Pole, motorcycling the Sahara etc.

Prior to becoming an inspirational biz kingpin and extreme globetrotter, Laughton was a doorstep salesman and - briefly - an officer in the Royal Marine Commandos. He qualified for the green beret, which happens to young marine officers about two-thirds of the way through their initial training, but "when his father died, his confidence and concentration left him and he was discharged". Later he joined the Territorial Army SAS, serving alongside noted wilderness loony Bear Grylls - with whom he has since collaborated, for instance on a recent Everest-by-paramotor expedition.

So far, so what. But in recent times Mr Laughton's CV suddenly becomes interesting - according to his website, during 2008 he "developed the World's first high performance, road legal, bio-fuelled flying car". That's enough to make the Reg flying-car desk sit up and take notice.

Tomorrow, Laughton's "Parajet Skycar" will set off on an expedition to the fabled desert city of Timbuctoo/Timbuktu/Tombouctou in Mali. The Skycar will do much of the journey by road, but will take to the air to get over the Alps and the Straits of Gibraltar, apparently. It will be accompanied by a large cast of adventurous nutters in various support vehicles.

Unfortunately, the Skycar is basically just a paramotor/powered paraglider with wheels - or a dune buggy with a propulsion fan on the back, able to fly along suspended beneath a fabric wing closely related to advanced parachutes. Though Mr Laughton will lead the Mali expedition, the Skycar actually comes from paramotor company Parajet, run by Laughton and Grylls' Everest backpack-birdman buddy Gilo Cardozo.

To be fair, the Skycar has a little bit more special sauce than the typical paramotor claiming to be a flying car. Cardozo's firm has developed the "Rotron" rotary engine, which with supercharge and fuel injection offers a 34,000 foot ceiling - necessary for the recent Everest caper but not for normal operation. The "one-off" wing for the Skycar comes from paramotor canopy firm Paramania, and is said to represent a step forward on normal fabric aerofoil tech.

Overall you get a fairly normal dune buggy able to do 100mph on the road and go offroad too, with "rally car performance". In three minutes you can get the canopy out of the boot, lay it out behind the car, and drive away into the air after a takeoff run of just 200m. In the air the machine cruises at about 70mph and two to three thousand feet - though it can reach 15,000 according to Cardozo. It's thought that airspeeds of up to 100 mph are becoming practical for fabric-wing craft, beginning to approach the performance levels of normal light aircraft.

Disappointingly, the inventors make the oft-repeated "capable of beating congestion for the commuter" claim, which is of course untrue - factors of air safety, noise and lack of places to land and take off mean that such aircraft will never be able to fly into and out of urban areas above the traffic jams. But in other respects, the Parajet machine seems as near to being a flying car as most contenders.

Still, though. Normally, you'd really rather have a flying car with rigid wings, able to cruise at 115mph as opposed to 70 - and with twice the aerial range. The Terrafugia Transition, for instance, apparently to get its first flight test next month.

Refreshingly for flying-car inventors, the Terrafugia people truthfully specify up front that their machine will not let you leapfrog over the rush hour, any more than a normal light aircraft (or a car) can. But it will do anything a normal light aircraft or car will do, all in one machine.

On the other hand, a Transition - available from 2010 - will set you back $148,000. Cardozo has hopes of selling a "Road Sport Model" Skycar in years to come for just £50,000 ($76k), according to the BBC.

You pays your money and takes your choice - and fair cop, if you need to drive about on the ground in the deserts of Mali, you'd probably go with the Skycar rather than the Transition.

Childrens Day from Andrew Shepherd on Vimeo.
Members of the Chiang Mai paramotor club have been performing displays to mark Childrens Day here in Thailand.The culmination was closing Chiang Mai international airport for four pilots to give a display in front of a crowd of thousands.
Taking off at 7.45am, we flew across the city and waited for our clearance from the tower. Fifteen minutes later we were given the instruction: "paramotors out".....well, who would want to ignore that when the local jet jockeys were up next!

To the hills! from Andrew Shepherd on Vimeo.

It's January, and the warm winter air allows us to fly nearly every day. One afternoon, four pilots, Joey Boy, John Kemp, Khun Teerasak the club president and myself set off to fly to the Hills.
Chiang mai sits in a wide valley and is surrounded by Teakwood covered hills with higher mountains behind making a perfect backdrop for an evenings ridge-soaring!

A series of aerial shots depicting tourist attractions in Turkey, offering both a sense of freedom and an uplifting amalgamation of colors through the lens of Ali Kabaş, is on display at the PG Art Gallery in İstanbul.

“Five years ago, in order both to nourish my desire to fly and to take aerial photographs, I began to fly with a paramotor,” Kabaş explains. “Formerly I was a pilot, and sometimes I also used to fly helicopters, but the fact that a paramotor is carriageable [easy to handle] was alluring. Starting from my first flight, the ideas about this exhibition began to evolve. I added a newer dimension to the things we see on the ground,” the artist says during an interview with Today’s Zaman.

Kabaş says he caught some very unexpected and interesting shots during his excursions. The show includes frames taken in -- or rather, over -- locations that range from İstanbul, Isparta, Alanya and the Central Anatolian Tuz Gölü (Salt Lake) to the historic southern holiday spots of Olimpos, Patara, Belek and Dalyan. “I fly all four seasons. You cannot predict what you can catch. This exhibition does not have a fictional dimension that is different than that of my previous shows. There is only a world that continually changes down there while you are flying,” says the pilot-artist.

However fun it may seem, taking those photographs is not easy. “It requires a certain experience and speed to catch artistic frames, [and in the meantime] controlling the camera while [having to manage] continual changes both on the motor and the parachute,” the artist explains. Still, he would not have done this if it were an easy thing to do, Kabaş says.

The unifying theme of the photos in Kabaş’s “High Angle,” as well as that of his previous three solo exhibitions -- “DreamWorld,” “Mound-Silent Villages” and “Recto-Verso” -- is the sensation of freedom, the artist says. His first show was also a “creative enlightenment” while his second show caught the soul of a number of tumuli during archaeological excavations. In his last exhibition, Kabaş tried to give motion to photographs through the lenticular technique, which magnifies different images when viewed from different angles, and showing two frames at once.

“The thing I want to say is that a person can transform something he dreams of into a photograph and can show a dream as reality through the photograph. Creative enlightenment is, in order to catch the effect I want to give, trying different lights and doing this via out-of-the-ordinary norms. It is something where the limit is not myself.”

“High Angle” will remain on display until Jan. 31 at the PG Art Gallery in Bebek. The gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday. Tel: (212) 263 3390

Into the Triangle from Andrew Shepherd on Vimeo.

"In November 2008, five friends flew from Mai Sai, in the far north of Thailand into the infamous Golden Triangle, where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos converge. This is Chiang Rai province's most popular attraction, luring thousands of visitors annually. This notorious area, located approximately nine kilometres from the historic town of Chiang Saen, is bolstered by its history and the surrounding towns. It's riverfront position at the confluence of the Mekhong and Ruak rivers lends it a unique appeal.

Located near the Northern-most point of Thailand - The Golden Triangle was once the centre of all opium poppy growing in the country, and actually refers to a large area of the three bordering countries. However, the point of actual convergence of these borders is what most people now call the Golden Triangle. Here, the illicit crops have long since been replaced by the small tourist village of Sob Ruak, and today the roads are flanked by countless small restaurants and vendor's souvenir stalls along the banks of the Mekhong river.

The historic 60km flight was made in the afternoon, in decreasing thermic conditions. The camera operator had an engine out and subsequent in air re-start at 150 ft. above the rice paddy.

The finale, unfortunately not filmed, was a down wind landing in a brand new university sports stadium, the pilot water-skiing half the length of the waterlogged sports pitch!"