Parajet Pilots Blog Latest Team News

Posted on May 15, 2012 in Dean Eldridge   

A break in the weather

Despite the recent chilly, wet and windy weather, we’ve still managed to find mornings or afternoons favourable for conducting ground training and getting people in the air safely. Saturday morning we had Charlie Boorman down for his second training session and is now ready to take to the skies on his next trip down to see us. Phil Jennings also arrived on Saturday and brought some great weather with him so, with some local pilots and some of the Parajet crew we had around 10 Parajet pilots together zooming around the Dorset countryside in the evening before all heading to the pub!

Phil and I managed some time to perfect some advanced moves in preparation for demonstrations in the summer including syncro-spirals and wing-walking! Watch out when we have the ribbons and smoke systems going!! Have been spending all my time on my prototype Zenith and just love it more and more with every flight I make on it. Can’t wait for my new anodised one to come off the production line so I can fit my sparkly new Polini 200 to it. Then we’ll be rocking!!

Check out this video filmed and edited by David, an ex-student of mine who’s now beautifully flown the nest!

Posted on May 10, 2012 in Glenn Tupper   

On Tupper the World at Beach Blast

Beachblast is in full swing, today is Thursday and loads of people should arrive.  There are already at least 100 pilots here and the Parajet and Paramania team have been having a literal blast showing off our stuff.  Once the crew was assembled it was game time, Pascal, Paco, and myself have been putting on shows for the onlookers as well as for the local news channel.  I brought along my 700 foot long streamer and had a great time spiraling with it while Pascal and Paco chased the tail.  Tuesday the brand new Parajet Zenith arrived.  The excitement of opening the box and assembling the frame for the first time was astounding.  What was even more astounding was getting the Zenith up in the air.  The same engine, Thor 100, going from the volution custom to the Zenith was like flying a cargo aircraft and then jumping into a fighter jet.  In the air she feels so slick, the lightness combined with the aerodynamics reduced my need for power for level flight by at least 15-20 percent.  That is not the best thing however, the swing arms are incomparable to anything I have ever flown.  Like on a motorcycle if you just think you want to turn left the bike turns, the same with the Zenith.  This will prove to be priceless for my aerial photography as I can focus on getting the shot and turn with weight shift to make adjustments for setting up the perfect shot!!!  Four more days left of fun in the sun here in Panama City Beach Florida with the Parajet and Paramania team!!!  Representing the BRAND!!! Stay tuned for more action and excitement!!

Posted on May 10, 2012 in Dean Eldridge   

Success at British Nationals

Well it looks like all the recent scoffing of Yorkshire puddings and pies paid off in Boston last weekend as I was able to pull off the fastest times in the speed/precision tasks and ended up winning the weekend competition! My economy didn’t seem to be compromised by my extra pounds gained in York but my spot landings could do with a little brush-up. All in all though a great weekend with some fierce competition from the other guys there.

Had the pleasure of conducting some training for Charlie Boorman on my return to the Parajet factory and looks like we’ll soon have him in the air when the weather cheers up this weekend.

Eagerly waiting the arrival of my new Polini 200 motor and Zenith chassis so that I can get out testing ahead of the forthcoming competitions in France and back here in the UK.

Fired up and ready for the next one!

Posted on May 10, 2012 in Maren Ludwig   

Maren hits Beach Blast

Day 1 - Zenith Arrives
I couldn’t be happier. I got my Zenith delivered at Beach Blast today and it was amazing to see how small it all packed down. Great looking machine that is quick and easy to assemble and very light weight. Had so many pilots come to check it out and be very pleased with the design and the weight of the unit. I think it’s going to be a great success! Got it all tuned up in the evening and it’s ready to go now. Looking forward to putting lots of airtime on it today. Can’t wait!!

Day 2 - Zenith First Flight
Had a great flight on the motor today and loved loved loved it. Flew it with a glider though that didn’t really like to turn. But even with that I could tell that the motor allows really great weight shift and feels nicely sporty. Very pleased. Can’t wait to take it up again tomorrow on a couple different gliders that are smaller and sportier. No flights in the afternoon. Had a pretty good storm moving through.

Posted on May 08, 2012 in Phil Jennings   

The best at Boston!

After a hectic week at work it was time to load up the van and head of for the second leg of the British Paramotor League at Boston, Lincolnshire. The weather forecast was a mixed bag and arriving Friday I was surprised to find unpredicted flyable conditions. I made the most of this and got in several short flights allowing me to get some quality airtime after the constant April showers that had plagued the last few weeks.

We lost Saturday with strong gusts all day but used the time and briefed ready for Sunday mornings Figure 8 precision task and skittle landing. Next was a complex 60km curved navigation in strong crosswinds, this had to be pre-planned and times declared to the second for 5 gates before flying it. This was made even more difficult as the conditions kept changing and I had to recalculate all the legs 3 times before finally taking off. After a fairly stressful hour and a half navigating round the flat featureless Lincolnshire countryside whilst constantly altering trim speed and course we returned for a spot landing.

A 5.30 getup on the Monday saw us ready to launch at 6 straight into a slalom Anglaise, a task with just one stick that must be kicked 5 times as fast as possible. This left us time to squeeze in one final task which was a minimum 45 minute pure economy .

After 6 tasks and a great weekend I was delighted to finish second. Looking forward to competing in the French Open in a few weeks followed by the British Open straight after.

Bring on the summer!

Posted on May 03, 2012 in Dean Eldridge   

Becoming a Yorkshire Pudding!

There’s been a mixed bag of weather this last week up in Yorkshire, but have still found little weather windows to enable us getting new people in the air and to do some personal training and equipment preparation for the forthcoming competition in Boston, Lincs this weekend. I’m staying on the farm of my friend Mickey Fletcher whose soon to be the proud owner of a new Parajet Volution Thor and whose wonderful girlfriend, Becks, keeps us extremely well fed with all the local dishes. The only thing is I think I may have put on a few extra pounds which won’t do much for the economy tasks but means I’ll be flying a little faster… watch out!!

Posted on May 01, 2012 in Glenn Tupper   

Beautiful Colorado

This weekend I took it easy and went exploring the local area of Colorado Springs… While I was exploring I took the time to start expirimenting with my DSLR Canon 5D. If you read some of my previous blog posts you may have seen I had the opportunity to work with Devin Graham in one of his videos. After watching him and his friends work I really felt inspired to get out and shoot some video, it has always been a passion of mine ever since I was a kid, but I think there is no better time than now to get serious about it. The following are three videos that I shot and edited in three days. I am really just trying to explore what works best, what kind of shots look great, how to pan and tilt to really draw the eye. I know I have a lot of work to go, but I will never learn unless I get out there and do it. In the end all I really want to do is inspire people to do the same, get out and enjoy life.

Posted on April 24, 2012 in Glenn Tupper   

A Dream Come True

Somehow I was invited this past weekend to take part in one of the craziest, fun filled, epic events that has ever gone down in the history of extreme paintball wars. If you don’t know who Devin Graham is by now, you must be living under a rock. He is a youtube video producer of the most blockbuster kinds. I have been following his videos ever since he started producing, before he was well known. I admire his work and his cinematography. Anyone can pick up a DSLR camera that takes 1080p video and shoot, but this guy takes things to a whole other artistic level. Watching his videos is inspiring but being there and seeing him think about every shot, setting everything up, making the world his 3D canvas was truly inspirational. I can’t thank him enough for trusting me in this shoot to put on a good show, allowing me to be a part of the video and giving me some great tips that I hope to use in some of my future videos. The title says, “A Dream Come True” because Devin made me feel like I was some sort of Hollywood action hero on set and that is something we all dream about when growing up watching our favorite action movies.

A little more about the shoot; I showed up thinking I was going to provide a few aerial shots, shoot some pictures from my aerial platform called a paramotor, maybe get some film with my Canon 5D Mark II, but that is definitely not what went down. Devin had something else in mind, he wanted me to be a huge part of the film, flying with a paintball gun and shooting people from the air. The extra aspect in my opinion added just one more depth of field to the action. In addition to the people running around, jeeps with mounted guns and electronic triggers, smoking hot paint covered females hanging off an 800 horsepower NITRO CIRCUS baja race truck, dirt bikes with gun touting operators, and mountain boarders… there was also a fighter pilot paramotor buzzing people’s heads raining down a barrage of green paint. It was truly a sight to see and I am pretty sure that I had the best viewpoint of all the action. Flying around low with a paintball gun required immense flying coordination, I was constantly making adjustments with my breaks and switching back to the gun for some low pass strafes, weight shift was key as well. It was difficult but hopefully the video that Devin produces will show some crazy paramotor scenes. With a bit of luck this video may put paramotor a little more into the mainstream as well. The possibilities are endless here with this sport; the type of flying we can do is just like no other aviation aircraft in the world.

Besides all the crazy flying action, it was so awesome to see such a huge group of people passionate about what they do. After all, in life if you have no passion about something, nothing really matters. From Devin and his crew all the way down to the mountain boarders, every single person was passionate about what they were doing. Everyone was ecstatic just to be a part of what Devin and his crew had organized, smiles everywhere and with the sun shining bright over Salt Lake City, it was a couple of days that made you sit back and say, “This is what life is all about.”

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