Flight School  HGVETS, ABLE Pilot

It is zero dark early on Sunday morning, Aug 7, 2011, my birthday.  What am I doing getting up at 4:00 AM?  Got an airplane to catch. This plane is whisking fellow NW Chapter Member Brent King and I to Sun Valley, Idaho where we will begin an intense training week into the fun world of paragliding. Hopefully by the end of the week we will be launching flights off some of the higher hills in this beautiful mountain resort.

But before I get too far ahead of myself on this tale, I want to tell this story one day at a time.

After we arrived in Sun Valley and checked into the lodge, we enjoyed a buffet lunch overlooking the outdoor ice skating rink. Then a short nap before our first team meeting at dinner in downtown Ketchum. There, everyone introduced themselves and the ABLE Pilot folks told us about the origin of this program and that we were the first group. Another Flight School, HGVETS began

We were so lucky to be here. Our instructors/tandem pilots were some of the best and most experienced paragliding pilots in the country. Five veterans (us) were going to have their undivided attention for a full week. Each day we would make two flights, weather permitting in early morning and late afternoon/evening with  classroom time in between.

Following dinner, we returned to the lodge and called it an early night.  I placed a 4:00 AM wakeup call and went to sleep dreaming of getting my knees back in the breeze. One heck of a 58^th birthday.