Greetings
again fellow flyers, may I start by wishing you a very
happy New Year. It’s the start of a new and very
exciting flying year and we have got a very busy calendar
of trips and events already lined up, but more about
those later.
I
have to start with a big thank-you to all those who came
to see us at our stand in the N.E.C, when we took part
in the Sport and Leisure Aviation Show. It was the first
exhibition Welsh Airsports had done since Edi took over
but after the usual last minute mayhem the team of Edi,
Michelle, Nigel and myself pulled it together and it
was a really enjoyable show. It was great to put some
names to faces as I normally only get to talk to you
on the phone which after meeting me some of you are quite
glad of. We had a lot of interest in our holidays and
training abroad and were very pleased to get some feed
back on the type of destinations and type of courses
you the pilots want.
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I must also thank everybody who
also visited us at the Adventure Travel show at the London
Olympia. It was fantastic to have so much support and we
uncovered a lot of potential future destinations. We were
approached by some of the big players in travel from the
Namibian, Tanzania, U.A.E, Lebanon and Omanian tourist boards,
inviting us to set up operations and bring the thrill of
Paragliding to Africa and the far East.
I must also thank you for all the support we got with our
last, which in fact was our first, newsletter. We had a
fantastic response. We now have a lot of students who have
got back in contact with us and resumed their training
and are looking forward to completing their Club Pilot
rating in the New Year. If any of you out there have any
comical stories or any flying related news or views please
send them in to me and I will include them in the next
issue.
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So what have we
got coming up in 2006?
I’m not sure where to start with this years flying
calendar. It all kicked off with our second exhibition
at the Travel
show Olympia on the 13th-14th and 15th of January. We then
have a month here before we leave to take the school over
to Morocco to begin our pilot week and two, two week
beginner
to Club Pilot courses. This has proved to be a very popular
set of courses and we have nearly filled the pilot course.
There are only a couple of places left for full courses or
CP finishers so give us a call. Next year these courses will
be in February.
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The
NEW DVD.
No flying season would be complete without Skyhigh Global’s
usual assortment of Paragliding trips to some of the world’s
most prestigious sites, and this year is no exception. We have
our usual and un-missable trip to the hidden gem that is Castelluccio,
of which Skyhigh Global, our sister company, has collaborated
with Spin Off Films and have made and released their own DVD.
It’s the first time anyone has made a film solely about
this incredible Paragliding play ground and at just £15
inc p&p is great value for over 40 minutes of great filming
inc extras not to mention a £25 voucher off future holidays.
Lots of great flying and beautiful scenery is worth watching
especially if your thinking of a holiday soon not to mention
the students doing the unbelievable flying over and “through
the clouds” section.
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The
Waga Festival
On
May the 31st we are heading down to the Dune-de-Pyla in France
for one of Paragliding’s greatest spectacles, the Waga
festival. The Waga festival is a five day event where some
of the world’s best pilots gather to put on a show
of some of the hottest new tricks on the circuit with awesome
displays of ground handling mixed together with some outrageous
airborne stunts. It attracts a sizable gathering over the
five
days which this year includes us. We are going to be there
for the five day festival 31st of May to the 4th of June
and we are then staying on until 11th of June to have some
relaxed
flying and have a taste of the world famous sand dunes of
the Dune-de-Pyla. |
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We received a lot of interest in Paramotor holidays and training
abroad at our show at the N.E.C. so we have organised a Paramotoring
adventure holiday in Hungary in September which offers superb
conditions and flawless terrain. It really does depend on your
support to make it work. We really believe that this is an
exciting chance to experience the thrill of learning about
a new country while seeing it from 1500ft. We have full use
of an airfield out there so we are also planning a couple of
week long courses in Hungary without having to be disrupted
by the unpredictable British weather even in August.
Hungary
is less than 100,000 square km, their language is not spoken
anywhere else yet the Hungarian people have been
in the centre of Europe for more than 1100 years. It’s
not the first place a Paramotor pilot thinks of when planning
a trip but it should be. It is a very flat country which
makes it ideal for any level of pilot and with some of the
beautiful 12th century Castles and blooming vineyards you
encounter as you take a unique birds eye view of this enchanting
land, you really get to discover the freedom of Paramotoring.
All trips are fully guided and are followed by a team on
the ground. With enough support we could really unlock the
door to this new and exciting destination and take Paramotoring
to the next level. For more details see our Flying
Trips.
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Annecy
Yes we have finally succumbed and can resist no longer. In early July we are
making our first trip to Annecy a place that every pilot has to visit in
their career. Pete Gallagher has been many times and knows the area very
well so there is no better person than him to lead this flyathon through
the stunning French mountains. This is going to be a week long introduction
to cross country flying trip and is already stirring up a lot of interest.
That
covers our trips for the first half of 2006 I will let
you know what’s coming up in the second half of
the season in the next issue.
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New additions
to the Welsh Airsports team
In April we welcome to the team Welsh Airsport's second apprentice
Alex Colbeck. Alex is a great lad and comes to us with a
pretty impressive flying background in both Paragliders and
Paramotors
even though he is only 18. He will be starting in the middle of April after we get back
from Morocco, with the existing staff of Edi, Pete, Nigel
and myself and the addition of an instructor and a couple
of T.I’s
this year our aim is to open the shop 7 days a week all year
round. Another new addition to the team is our new web site and
on-line shop. For the last two weeks Edi and I have been
down in London
designing and perfecting the new site and shop and we are
hoping to have it fully equipped and ready to go by May.
The on-line
shop will enable you to purchase anything from holidays to
gliders and day tasters to carabiners.
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PicFish
We are very proud to announce our new association with the
global travel photography site PicFish. We are constantly finding
that pilots returning from our holidays want to share their
pictures with others and we believe PicFish is the perfect
outlet to do it. The site is a free site where travellers from
all over the world can share their pictures and experiences
and you will find us on there with many of our holiday pictures.
You can
use it for all your holiday photos whether it was your trip
to Euro Disney or weekend camping in Cumbria or even your flying
trip to Nepal, its what the travel photography worlds been
waiting for.
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Our recent trip
to Nepal
We came back on Xmas day and it was brilliant. All the fleeces
that we had taken never came out of the bag because it was
too hot for anything else. We were there for 21 days and it
was flyable every day. Ok sometimes the thermals weren’t
working but a nice top to bottom was more than they were doing
in Wales. That didn’t spoil the real reason we were in
Nepal an SIV and Acro course. By the end of the course we were
doing SAT’s, helicopters and flying backwards not to
mention the spins, b-lines and dynamic stalls. The picture
is of James Price the split second before he stalled and fell
out of the sky. Although it was nerve racking I must admit
to being very glad in doing it and I do feel safer knowing
that a stall is really no big deal.
We were so chuffed that next year we are going back for 5 weeks
over the Xmas period. While we were over there I had meetings
with the Nepalese CAA and got permission to take a very small
group of paramotorists over there for a trial. So if you’re
interested in spending a couple of week’s paramotoring
in this country with these epic views then give me a call.
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