AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - June 2018 - 67

stationed half a mile upwind. Instructors
guided us through the steering with the
left and right brake toggles while climbing, descending, and flaring for a landing.
For being an inflated bag of air, the modern paraglider is a very responsive flying
machine. Steering inputs must be smooth
and gentle; flying well is a matter of finesse
and not strength.
As with all of our flying sessions, we
were finished towing by 9:30 a.m. as the
sun became high enough in the sky to
begin generating thermals. Then it was

FAR RIGHT, TOP AND BOTTOM: MIKE COLLINS

SHIFTING THE PARADIGM

back to the classroom for a thorough
debrief of the towing flights. Instructors
recorded videos of each launch, and in
the debrief we studied the videos in slow
motion. After lunch we returned to the
classroom for an afternoon of meteorology,
with occasional breaks for more kiting.
On the fifth day we gathered before
sunrise to find the sky full of instructors
enjoying the perfect flying conditions.
Part 103 allows flying up to 30 minutes
before sunrise, provided the aircraft is
lighted per the regulation. The day had
finally arrived to combine all of the training layers in our first flights. With such a
small group, we were all friends by this
point, and each flight was a celebration
for the pilot, the rest of the class, and the
instructors.

Eric Farewell, 32, started flying powered paragliders, or paramotors,
five years ago. "I tried it and it totally took over my life," he said. "It's
a very visceral, magical way to fly." Now, Farewell-who grew up on a
grass strip, and has a Piper Cub and a Cessna 172-and business partner Travis Burns have developed a network of eight paramotor flight
schools across the United States.
Farewell attended EAA AirVenture for the first time in 2013. "The
crowd's right there. There are no fences. It's a great way to show what
powered paragliders can do." They founded the Paradigm Aerobatic
Team, which performed its first airshow at Oshkosh in 2016. "Hearing a
group that large get up on their feet, and hear them gasp, is one of the
greatest things I've heard in my life," said Farewell, who narrates many of
the shows. "No one expected us to do what we do, and to do it so well."
Paradigm made its Sun 'n Fun debut in April. "We've been asked
to do 27 airshows this year," Farewell said. "We're doing just four. If
we had sponsors we'd definitely do more." There are 10 pilots on the
team, he explained, and five or six fly per show. But getting them together is a logistical challenge-two pilots are from Spain, three from
Wisconsin, and the rest from New Jersey, Minnesota, and Florida.
The schools, which train about 800 students per year, share
instructors and a syllabus. "We truly believe that when you fly, you
become a better person," Farewell
explained. "We want to inspire
people to learn to fly."
The average paramotor pilot is 37,
he added. "In paragliders there are
no age restrictions. We've taught
as young as 11 and as old as 78. It's
affordable-a paramotor is the price
of a motorcycle."
Paradigm's pilots may be the
youngest in the airshow industry;
the team's youngest flew his first
show at 17-he's older now-and the
oldest is 26. One aspiring showman, who had never flown before,
learned the powered paraglider four
years ago. "My father's 71 now, and
he wants to fly in the shows, too,"
Farewell said.
-Mike Collins
www.aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 67

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AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - June 2018

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