The Kids Bought Us A Boat!

The babies, Ernest and Sophie, surprised Beth and I by getting a pontoon boat for us.  Could you imagine the excitement on their little faces when we discovered that we were boat owners and that they, too, would be able to go playing on the water!

The Kids: Sophie & Ernest

 I got home from work and Ernest was acting a bit strange; kind of like he wanted me to take him somewhere in the truck, with a trailer hitch, and the checkbook.  Who was I to question him, so we jumped in the truck and up the road we went.  He had apparently worked it all out with Greg, the fellow whom he was purchasing the boat from.  We met up in Quakertown to transfer the title and registration, which included a trailer as well.  Good negotiating skills Ernest!  We were even able to get a slip at the lake nearby to keep it in during the open seasons (April - October).

SHUGAH

We were so excited to get up to have a look at it. It’s so purty!  We’ve never had a boat before and a couple of months back, when we spent a week over yonder in Kentucky, we had rented a pontoon boat for a couple of days and everyone really enjoyed it.  We didn’t realize it, but Ernest and Sophie must have heard us talking about it and began working on operation “Get Mama A Boat”.  Well, they succeeded for sure!  There is a lot of room on it and we’ve had it out a couple of times already.  Sophie got used to it quickly, while Ernest seems to want to launch off the front of it and fly like Under Dog!  They both have and always wear life jackets so they’ll be safe.  The boat is presently powered by a 20 hp, four-stroke outboard motor.  We have plans of taking it down to The Chesapeake Bay, so we’ll be looking for a bigger motor, atleast 60 hp. 

Captain Beth driving SHUGAH

We’ve added a couple of things to it so far to better equip it for fishing for me. The first addition was a depth finder, as I was a little nervous getting too close to the shoreline and dragging the motor or having a prop strike.  Beth wants to be able to take the babies off the boat to let them stretch their legs when we are out for a few hours.  Next, I found a Garmin Striker 7cv fish finder with clear view (cv) technology and also a depth finder too.  The picture below is so clear, you can distinctly make out tires and trees and fish and structures under water.  Very Cool!

It is worth noting that since Beth has become a boat owner, I’ve hardly been allowed to drive it!  I really do think she like it!    I’ll add a few pics of SHUGAH, which is the boats given name.  Aunt Shoy (Beth’s Sister Joy) suggested SHUGAH for a name and it fits perfectly!  I’ll have to get some of those big letters to put along the back so ‘erbody knows who’s floating by.  Hope you like the pics!

Chillin’ Like A Villan

Beth and The Babies.

Lake Nockamixon Marina 

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Spring Wing 2019

Beth, the babies, and I went down to Campbell Field Airport in Weirwood Virginia for a fun week of powered paragliding, sight seeing, and camping.  What a great time we had!

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Spring Wing 2017 (May 17-21, 2017)

SPRING WING 2017 - May 17-21, 2017

Ya'll come and join us for the most exciting and awesome flying opportunities on the Eastern Shore.  Each Spring, we get together for an amazing time.  Bring your campers, tents, book a hotel, or a cardboard box.  Just get here cause you'll have loads of fun.
Plenty of open flying space and a huge field to launch and land from.  No worries about crowding each other or a train-wreck waiting to happen.   The Ocean shoreline is 2 miles to the East and the Bay shoreline is 2 miles to the West.   If water is not your thing, we have 100s of square miles of land flying too.  Just come on down.


Campbell Field (9VG), Weirwood Va

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Returning To Base

Gliding Home

Nuclear John was following me back to base after my silencer came loose at one end and quickly ate my prop tips like there were candy canes.  Sunuva!  We were conversing on Sena intercoms, so when the initial event happened - thankfully, he was able to quickly tell me what was happening before I bailed out.  No, I wasn't actually going to bail out, but my behind did eat my seat rather quickly. 

Van Sant, We Have A Problem

Crowded Airspace

Touch Down Dead Stick

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Had a real fun flight in Germansville.

Low Approach by the LZ #theta360 - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

 This is just a really short post to see if the 360 degree camera works with the website.  I'll have a few videos later from earlier flights (need to catch up).

Peace!

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Had a great flight and dinner party after flying yesterday at historic Van Sant Airport in Upper Bucks County.  We have a thin overcast, but enough to limit thermal activity and allow smooth(er) early flights.  What a great time.   I also got to try out my Ricoh Theta S 360 degree video camera.  Below, I have embedded a video, hopefully it works  :-)

I'm not sure I had enough light (brightness) to do the video justice, but I'm learning.  :-)

Drop me a line and let me know if you had success in panning around the video.

Thanks,

Shane

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Cherry Ridge Breakfast Buffet

Beth and I flew up to Cherry Ridge (N30) for their famous breakfast buffet. Very Delicious Indeed! We had a great flight, both VFR and an enroute IFR pickup to get through the weather. Super smooth ride both ways and awesome sites!
Cherry Ridge offers a very scenic view from inside their country restaurant, along with opportunities for helicopter rides and biplanes rides.  Its a really nice country airport.  Don't fly up there in the winter though without checking first; I overflew it last year and it was 12 inches under snow!  Yikes

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By Dawns Early Light

First time back PPG flying since I injured my arm. All went amazingly smooth and I enjoyed an hour long silky smooth flight Sunday Morning. John came out and flew with me and we met Emiel from New York who was kiting and soon to be flying with us.

If ya'll have ever thought about PPG flying, you should try it.  It's amazingly fun and safe!

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Pine Tree Drone War - Drone Lost

Still learning to fly my Drone. Less crashes and I'm getting better with spot videos. I'll be using this when paragliding next month.  The camera views that this thing puts out is awesome!  I'm trying to get smooth with the transition from horizontal flight to vertical flight whilst adjusting the camera angle to stay on the same subject.  So far, I either crash into the subject (me), go flying past the subject and nearly hitting the house, or rocketing to a climb and missing everything - including the shot!  

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OtisDrone - First Flight

After 4 months of my DJI Phantom 2 Drone sitting in the closet, I finally decided to take it ouit for a test spin.  I'll be using it for my paragliding videos in the Spring so I figured I should learn how to fly it.

Ernest almost got a hold of it but just missed biting the skids.  Thank goodness he missed because there are 4 carbon fiber blades spinning ridiculously fast. I have a lot to learn flying these drones but it's really cool and provides great camera footage.

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Cloud Hopping On The Delaware

Had an amazing flight this morning.  Lots of low level fog over the Delaware River but absolutely clear as a bell above it.  The ride was really smooth too so after a short solo flight, I went back and joined up with John and we flew out over the river and then back over the Pennsylvania countryside.  Even though I thought of Sweet Home Alabama, I was still riding above PA.  I hope you enjoy this flights video.

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Van Sant Air Stroll

Went flying tonight at Van Sant and found the air to be absolutely glass smooth.  Not even a ripple!  Beth went with me to explore the countryside walking up and down the hills.  Had a crowd of folks show up and hang out for a bit, including the local Police Department. Maybe they'll all take lessons!   Hope you enjoy the view.

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Van Sant to the Delaware - Scud Runnin'

Met two more PPGers this morning up at Van Sant airfield in Northern Bucks County.  This is a great field to fly at and the folks there are wonderful.  Also, got to meet two cool dudes, John & Milan.  John has been flying about a year and Milan is just about ready to get started with lessons.  Milan took some picks and shared them with us after the flight.

Hope you enjoy the video!

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Spring Wing 2014

We had a ball down in Virginia over the long Memorial Day Weekend.  What a blast!  I took about 5 hours of video and slowly (but surely) getting to it.  I hope to get the remaining edited up in the very near future.  Each year the event is getting larger and I/We do hope ya'll decide to come down.  Even if you're not flyers, there is always  a party going on and a dead chicken on the grill somewhere.  Hope to see you soon!

Take a look at the video, hope you enjoy!  This was the first time I was using a GoPro chest harness and didn't realize that my knees would be showing up in the video.  So, we'll call this one a first person view of the airport.  If you sit on your keyboard it'll look like your legs are in the vid.  lol

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Germansville Heatwave

Had a great time up in Germansville this weekend flying with Rob, Jesse, and Matt.  The temps were a little high. Ok, a lot high with "feel-like" temps reaching 100 with 90% humidity.  I flew a couple of times and my take-off run was long each time.  The Density Altitude was no doubt pretty high and it kept me running for a bit.    We all went down to the "school house" for dinner last night and man it was delicious; each having a pounder cheesesteak and fries.  Oh, an perhaps a beer or two.  

We are testing out some new tow-behind camera's so you can expect a new view in the new future from my video's.  Hope you enjoy this one and as always - Be Particular!

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Balloon Hunting

 Morgantown in the morning.  6:00 am to be exact.  I arrived in Morgantown this morning about 5:40 and got all my gear ready and airborne just before the 6:00 alarm went off on my iPhone.   I had a really nice flight with the ride mostly smooth when below 150 feet.  Right before the flight ended (about 45 minutes), it started getting a little bumpy so the coffee that was waiting on me at Duncan Donuts wasn't gonna be waiting long.  I hope you enjoy the video and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pennppg 

Thanks!

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Germansville By Air

Good Morning!  Rob, John (on his PPC), and I took an early morning flight from Flying M Aerodrome this morning to see the sites over Germansville and New Tripoli.  The weather was cooler and less humid that it has been and made for a real fun flight.  I really like this sound track in the background, hope I can find more of the same type.    Hope you enjoy the vid, as always.   Be Particular!

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Flight Seeing This Sunday

What an amazing Weekend!  We started on Friday with a farewell to Beer Week - even though it still had a few days to go.  We knew we'd be busy with other fun stuff and wouldn't be able to get back out so we sent Beer Week off with a bang over yonder at Capones with Beth & Joy & Matt & Will & Kyle and myself.  On Saturday morning Beth and I got up to start working out in the yards and spreading the five yards of mulch that we'd ordered.

 Matt and Joy had offered to let us borrow their wheel barrows but we'd have to come get them in the truck.  I happily accepted their offer and headed over.  Unbeknownst to Beth and I, they had a plan to come and help and Matt and Will jumped in the truck and we headed back over with extra hands and tools.  Joy followed shortly after with the pup and lunch!  This was going to be a work party for sure!  When we arrived back home, Beth and Kyle had already started weedin' & seedin' and the party had begun.  By 5:00 pm, we were all shattered and called it mission complete; all mulch spread.

We had a big bbq afterwards and perhaps re-celebrated the end of Beer Week with a few more good 'uns and some dead chickens, porkchops, corn, sweet taters, Sangria, and a whole lot more.  Plus, all the pups got a bath since they'd been playing all day and had mud from head to toe!  I'd say a pretty successful day!

On Sunday Beth and I got up at 7:00 to head over to Brian's Harley Davidson in Langhorne Pennsylvania to queue up for the Bucks County Covered Bridge Poker Run. We were thinking there would be about 100 bikers there but boy were we surprised to learned that there were 540!!!!!  We registered, received our riding pins  and poker sheets, lined up with about 80 other riders and headed out for our first stop (pictured to the left) at Van Sant Airport in Northern Bucks County.  Here we went to the check-in table and each picked a card.  The facilitators marked our poker sheets with the card that we'd picked and the object was to get the best hand by picking a card at each of five stops.  Neither Beth nor I ended up with anything more than a pairs of Kings but the 7.5 hours (yes, 7.5 hours) of riding through the Pennsylvania Countryside was incredible.  The Vulcan 1600 (motorcycle) that we have is so comfortable that we never ached from the long day. We headed back home around 3:30 pm and as soon as I walked in the door, I got a call from one of my Paragliding buddies, Matt-Matt asking if we were coming out to fly on this gorgeous day.  I was a tuckered from being out in the sun, but any opportunity to fly can't be quickly ignored.  Beth wanted to do some stuff around the house, so I loaded up the truck and headed out to Morgantown, one hours drive towards the west.  As quickly as I arrived, I unpacked my gear, said some quick hello's, and launched.  Hopefully the video attached below will do the flight some justice.  It was simply amazing.  I hope you enjoy it and look forward to posting the next one too.  

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Combat Maneuvers

Today Matt and I did some war games maneuvering throughout the Morgantown (Pa) valley area.  We (unbeknownst to Matt) decided that he'd be the aggressor and I, the defender of freedom and hot air balloon flying.  I started following him around and decided later, again unbeknownst to him, that I'd followed him around long enough to run him out of the area and returned to our LZ to prepare for grub time. 

The air was a bit trashy but it still made for a fun day of flying.  There were three balloons initially when we took off, but I've no idea where the third one ended up going. I guess Matt Matt shot it down.  I hope you enjoy the video and come back or more later.

Be Particular!

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This morning Rob and I braved the cold twenty-six degree weather and went flying around Germansville and New Tripoli.  The air was a bit active but the ride was definitely worth the additional pucker factor.  We both decided later that we had brought the wrong gloves and paid the price by having our flights shortened due to the numbness and loss of dexterity in our hands and fingers.  Still, a successful flight is worth a lot and I didn't mind the conditions too much after all.  

Rob had a real smooth landing and almost zero forward speed, while I had to take a couple of steps on landing.  Now, if I can just get him to do a transition course to paragliding (nonpowered), we'd be able to fly all hours of the day.  :)

Short video attached of today's trip through the air!  Be Particular.

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