28 - 31 January 2010 - Salton Sea, California

This year the Paratoy's Fly-in had 220 registered pilots.  The flying was Incredible as expected in this area. There were plenty of trikes and quads at this event as well as the newest innovations in PPG.   Many thanks to Michelle Daniele and Paul Anthem who hosted the Banquette, they did a great job and special thanks to Mike and Michele from Paratoys for organizing this event. After the event Leslie, Johanne and I went to Glamis and flew a great evening flight at the dunes. Below are some of the highlights.

23 Jan 10 - Salton City, California  -  We arrived Monday evening and today was the first time the rain had stopped.  The California Desert had three heavy rainstorms this week with

lots of flooding along the beach.  This morning it was nice and sunny with great flying conditions as usual for this area.  I pulled out my paramotor and joined several other pilot's flying the California sunshine!!

That evening a few more pilots arrived to enjoyed the warm air.  I assembled the Xenit trike and took it for a test flight.  Very nice air!!

24 Jan 10 - Snow in the mountains  -  In the background of some of the pics you can see the snow in the California mountains today.  A few more pilots arrived last night from New Mexico to fly in warmer weather.  Greg flew "Pinkie" his all pink trike. The air was excellent as usual!!

                                     Greg & Sheila                                                                       New Mexico Pilots                                                                                            Ed & Ann

25 Jan 10 - More pilots arriving  -  Each day more and more pilots are arriving for the fly-in.  Today's flying was great, Salton Sea allows you to fly all day. Apparently there will be a large turnout at this event.  Looking forward to this week-end. 

27 Jan 10 - Event starts tomorrow  -  The pass two days was "Old Home Week".  It was totally awesome to see our paramotor friends again.  I'm standing beside the Kangook paramotor with the new Polini engine.   Dean Eldridge from the British paramotor team is testing the new motor out, so far he's happy with the engine.  The photo on the left is Paul Linquist a PPG Instructor from Minnesota, we always seem to show up early for the event and we fly often together.   Michelle was working in here mobile repair shop to help customers.  Later on in the evening we had a bon fire and it was a really good time.  

28 Jan 10 - ParaToy's Fly-In  -  This morning the sun was out and it was quite windy.  Later in the evening the winds came down and everyone was happy to fly.  According to Michelle from ParaToy's they have approximately 180 registered pilots. There's plenty of new equipment on the line including the Parajet Rotron (Rotary engine).  Everyone had a great flight!!

Dean and Eric

                                                                                                                                              Luc from Quebec                                                                      Elisabeth from Florida        

                                    Kirk on his Greeneagle

29 Jan 10 - ParaToy's Fly-In  -  Eric did a demonstration run for the USPPA Competition later on in the morning.  Today is the preactise run to try out the course. There are several competetors this year including Dean Eldridge from the UK Paramotor team.  It was great flying today, followed by a very nice evening flight. Afterwards we had a beach bonfire and videos from Phil Russman. Great time!!

                                  Frank, Elisabeth and Eric                                                                                                                                 Eric Dufour   

                                    Michelle and daughter Jordan                                                                 Chad Bastian                                                             Michelle,Jerry and Jordan Daniele

                                                                                                                 Leslie Britt took these two pictures with the birds

30 Jan 10 - ParaToy's Fly-In  - Today was competetion day in which consisted of just two events, the cloverleaf and the spot landing.  Most competetors done fairly well but the top three winners were: (1) Chad Bastian with a very good run who completed the course with no penalties; (2) Dean Eldridge (UK ) who did very well but fell during his spot landing; and (3) Paul Linquist who again did very well but had slipped on the plastc spot when he touched down during the spot landing.

During the Bear Drop, Johanne caught two bears this year and the last two kites during the Kitting War was Jeff Goin and the winner went to Chad Bastian.  Johanne and I took the Xenit trike out for a very nice evening tandem flight.  Johanne filmed the evening flight with our new GoPro professinal wearable HD camera and going to make a video of the area.

      Ed and Jerry members of the New Mexico SAR                                                      Dean Eldridge                                                                                      Paramania Flyers

                                                      Frank, Dmitry and Leslie                                                         Jeff Hamann                                                   Commerical for Green Eagle

                         Frank and Johanne Filming                                                                       ParaToy's Event                                                                            Just landed, bad hair day

31 Jan 10 - ParaToy's Fly-In  - Last night we had a wonderful time at the banquette hosted by Michelle Daniele and Paul Anthem.  Most of the vendors were packing up but that didn't stop pilots from flying all day.  Leslie and I few in the afternoon and evening.  I took Johanne up on the trike and see enjoyed the evening sunset. 

                                        Phil Russman                                                                   Ed & Ann Poccia                                                               Paul Anthem making another video 

                                    Ashton Brunner                                                                                  Mike Robinson                                                                              Leslie Britt

1 Feb 10 - Sand Dunes  - This afternoon, Leslie, Johanne and I took a drive to the sand dunes in Glamis, California. Their were approximately 25 pilots this evening camping in the desert enjoying themselves. I took my Go Pro video camera and shot some video but unfortunately I had it adjusted too low so the footage was not great. But the flying was incredible!!

                                                                                                                      Dean Eldridge and Frank - Picture taken by Leslie Britt     

                                    Paul Linquist                                                                                       Frank and Jeff Goin                                                                       Jeff Goin and Paul Linguist

                                   California Desert                                                                                    Steve & Scott from Illinois                                                                     Wayne Mitchler

                                              Jeff Goin                                                                                        Guy's flying back                                                                        Mo Sheldon from Arizona

                                                                                                    Tim and David from the "Bad Apples" group in Georgia with their better halves