Scot Trueblood <<paradisehanggliding>>
writes:

It has certainly been a busy spring break season here in Paradise.
Our hang gliding operation here in the Florida Keys seems to have much appeal to
international guests as well as south Florida day-trippers. We have flown
hundreds of tandem intro lessons, and each of our guests has been treated to
something special in the way of wildlife spottings, incredible visuals, or just
plain fun.

As I am personally on the injured list from a non-flying related pulled back
muscle, we have been working resources in the form of having Zac Majors here to
fly for us for 2 weeks, followed by Alex Cuddy, who is presently here until
April 30.

Having Zac here was truly very special for all of us, guests and crew alike. For
me, he is an old friend, for our customers, he is like winning the lottery.

His expertise and comfort level was a major asset for the production crew of
Making Waves https://www.facebook.com/MakingWavesTV, who utilized Paul Barth, one of the
top helicopter filming talents in the world for the air-to-air shots
http://www.cameracopters.com/. We were all pretty stunned by how close Paul
flew the copter with the glider with no problems whatsoever. After the helo was
gone, we went back out for another session with their custom video platform
boat, and spent most of the afternoon doing some very painstaking flight
sequence line-ups. In the end, it was all a smashing success. Look for the
program to air around the third weekend of May.

A very full day of video shooting and lots of tandem flights was only a fraction
of what Zippy accomplished here in Paradise. We also managed to squeeze in a
SCUBA dive of 62 minutes on a local reef, and Zac took a kitesurfing lesson from
our friends here at 7 Watersports
https://www.facebook.com/IslamoradaWatersportsCompany. I also coached him
into learning how to fly our official Paradise Hang Gliding quadcopter (without
incident).

Having Alex here is equally awesome. He is one of the best and brightest young
pilots in the world, who also happens to be an incredible tandem instructor and
has flown for us in the past. Besides tons of raw talent, his knowledge of
tandem flying, glider tuning, video production, etc is amazing. On his second
day of flying with us, we got the GoPro Photo of the Day ! Every guest of ours
wants to either kiss him or high-5 him, depending on their gender.

In short, we are striving to put hang gliding in the face of the mainstream
audience. A great experience for all ages, visually stunning and a visceral
thrill as well.

GoPro photo of the week: