Flying Florida
Where We Fly & Teach
While the rest of the country prepares for winter after Halloween, we are just about ready to start enjoying the best weather in Florida. God bless the Sunshine state and its beautiful weather. It’s flyable year-round!
If you are lucky to own a paramotor in Florida, then you know what ultimate freedom feels like. Yes, you might see a lot of Porshes and Lamborghinis on the streets on South Florida, but very few people get to experience the freedom that comes from obtaining the bird’s eye view and unique aerial perspective. Keep in mind, money alone can’t buy skill. If you are a true pilot, you know you must do the work. It also takes courage, sacrifice and serious commitment to become a skilled pilot. There is no cutting corners. There is no way around the work. You just have to do it and hopefully enjoy it!
The Florida Flatlands & Beaches
XC Flying
If you like to ride thermals, whether powered or unpowered, Florida is the place to be. You will need a winch to paraglide in Florida, an experienced operator, and to have been trained in towing by a professional who will explain all of its risks associated with towing. Florida’s weather usually offers convergence and great lift, making it super interesting for Cross Country flights (XC). It is possible for paragliding pilots to fly for more than 150km+ on good days just on thermals. Best season is Feb-May but local pilots fly year round. There are several towing communities that operate in South Florida. Labelle, South Florida is a popular area to start your XC Flights. The terrain is somewhat tricky because of the abundant swamp and other natural areas. Sometimes easy retrievals can get very complicated since some of the levees and access roads are gated off by South Florida Water Management. Getting acquainted with the route, planning your flight, and flying with locals on your first flights is highly recommended. The winch operator should be a good reference. The preferred wind direction to achieve better distance and avoid restricted airspace would be when its blowing from the south/southeast. Some pilots have ended up landing way up north already in the Orlando area. What an amazing Flight!
Ridge Soaring
Another way to get aloft without a motor in South Florida is to ridge soar the buildings at the beach. Local pilots call this “Condo Soaring”. Some buildings in certain areas act just like cliffs, creating good lift out front, making it possible, when conditions are favorable, to soar effortless for hours. Some of the sand dunes in certain areas are tall enough and offer decent lift as well, and dune soaring is also possible. Juno and Jupiter Beaches are known to have decent dunes where we can play. Whether you are soaring the condos or the dunes, pilots will most likely need to be familiar with hand tows. Hand tows are possible when stronger wind conditions exist, and the pilot/glider needs a short and powerful tow to position the glider in the lift. Once the glider and pilot are positioned in this lift, they may remain aloft for a long time. Hand tows are very similar to flying a kite at the beach. The stronger the wind, the easier it is to be towed, up to a certain speed. Instead of a vehicle pulling the pilot 3000 ft up into the air in a distance of no less then a mile, two or three persons and a short run usually do the job. One of the major differences with getting towed by a vehicle is the amount of brake pressure needed. The risks involve with hand towing are way lower compared with towing with a vehicle and winch. No certification is needed to hand tow but the pilot should also be very familiar of the risks involved. There is another small community of free flight pilots known to have been flying for years at Deerfield/Boca Raton Beach. This is also a great training place. Pilots can practice ground handling under various types of wind conditions. The good news is that pilots can splash into the water and cool off the Florida heat whenever its necessary.
Paramotor Possiblities
As far as motoring in Florida, there are a lot more options available compared to free flight pilots. It is awesome to have such a privilege to take off from many different places. The more skilled the pilot gets, the easier it is to take off and land in smaller places. We start students on huge unobstructed areas such as public airports. Students need to start in huge areas on their first flights. Some of the public state and county airports and beaches are ideal. Currently, students will be airbourne for their firsts flights at Homestead HGA where hundreds of students have trained before. Belle Glades State Municipal Airport also offers a nice grassy runway and plenty of space, ideal for student’s first flights. Flying from airports is usually done early and late in the day to avoid bumpy conditions. They are usually surrounded by close-by cities, farmlands, or swamplands and will start getting active with thermal activity usually between 9am and 6pm.
Beaches
Some beaches in Florida like Ft. Pierce, Jupiter, and Juno have remote beaches with little or no people at all and wide open airspace. High Flights are possible at such places. Beach flying has very little, if any, thermal formation and smooth flights are possible at any time of the day. We get the smoothest conditions ideal for tandem passengers who are just experiencing their first flight. Beaches are ideal to spend the day out with the family and a group of friends and have multiple passengers experience their first flights. We are respectful to people and nature at all times. We avoid complaints and drawing any type of negative attention. We expect you to behave the same when participating in any activity with us.
Lake Okeechobee
Lake Okeechobee also known as Big “O”and its surroundings offer very interesting conditions. The lake acts as a thermal regulator and usually produces a fresh laminar wind with much smoother conditions compared to other inland sites, especially at the hottest hours of the day. For those ppg pilots who prefer smoother conditions, flying around the lake’s microclimate will be more soothing and feel similar to flying at the beach over water, although the lake is known to produce some thermal activity at times due to its shallow average depth. Free flight paragliding pilots call this the “blue hole” and often stay away from the lake effect because it kills thermal activity for the most part.
The views and nature around the lake are astonishing. A levee runs around the lake where you can land anytime if you ever have a motor out. The road around the lake has access to many grassy open areas where you can potentially take off from and land easily. If the wind direction is not ideal, sometimes driving around a little more will place you directly into the wind
Paramotor Inland
There is a small number of ppg pilots who like to take off from inland areas with a motor, turn the engine off, thermal for a couple hours, and land eventually. This can be done from so many different fields and farmlands in S Florida. US 27, south of Lake Okeechobee, offers plenty of options. Just make sure to respect private property, there are plenty of available public options.
Have a Great Flight!!!
The Florida Experience
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Give us a call to schedule your first tandem flight
305-984-2747
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