On Friday, March 27th I departed Pennsylvania and headed northeast to Bridgeport where many from the Paramotor community usually fly. Though I had exchanged several posts with a few people it was clear that as the responses stopped that Covid 19 had taken its hold.
Stopping just north of Bridgeport, I researched other airports that I thought I could make my way to that would be PPG friendly and enable me to camp a few days. I found Ellington Airport and made my way to where I arrived around 5pm. After filling with water I made myself comfortable in the parking lot.
The next morning (Sat 3/28) keeping some distance, I met Andy who works for Connecticut Connecticut Parachutists. After a short discussion, he and a couple of colleagues appreciated the opportunity to assist me in documenting a flight at the location.
Nursing an injured knee from a failed launch in Pennsylvania, I was completed launching and flew several passes of the runway to generate the required evidence to verify the flight in Connecticut.
The video shows the process to verify a flight.
After completing the flight I reached out to Ron in Rhode Island and started making arrangements to complete RI and ME. The weather has mostly not been great and in the interest of getting some great flying at a really cool place with all the mansions along the coastline we are waiting on weather and hope Wednesday will offer the best opportunity.
My knee has been grateful for the rest too, though I have also really started to worry about the risk of negative publicity for the Tour. The worst part is losing the opportunity to meet local pilots and enjoy the interactions and stories in the places I go to. Sadly, this ‘Stay Home’ strong policy which has now been extended to the end of May is likely to almost bring the tour to a total holt or significantly slow progress through the next few states.
On the bright side, I finished producing the videos for PA, NJ and CT and posted them on YouTube and also polished up some nice photos for Instagram. Don’t forget the LIKE, FOLLOW and SUBSCRIBE to get the latest updates that are shared differently across the platforms. Click any of the Social Icons at the top of the page.
