The First Flight

One day last year I was driving back from my Dad's house in Osan and I noticed a man flying a paraglider with an engine strapped to his back flying over the river next to me at about 200 feet. I was astonished at this sight and had to see what the deal was with this flying machine. I followed him along the riverside and through many rice pattie fields until he landed, however there was one problem I was still on the other side of the river from where he landed... I got out of my car and tried looking for the nearest bridge, at this point in time it had been about an hour since I first saw the flying fan man, however I was absolutely determined to go an meet this guy. I had seen these type of things before on TV but had never seen one in person, it was intriguing to me to see such a low flying aircraft flying so slow, with a man hanging by a harness, feet dangling in the wind below him... I drove for another 15 minutes through the maze of rice patty roads and finally found a bridge to cross, made my way as close as I could to the launch site, and started walking towards what would soon be a dramatic change in my life. Walking through the tall yellow brush and pure white snow of the day I approached a group of korean Powered Paragliders. One of them spoke very little English but all seemed very happy to show me exactly what they were doing. They offered me hot coffee and we sat around a small fire they had made to keep warm while they waited for the wind to become just right. The lead character, Mr. Park was the most experienced of the eight men that were out that Sunday afternoon. I expressed to him my desire to go for a test flight and with a smile on his face he told me "NO PROBLEM!! They strapped me in in front of Mr.Park, as this would be a running tandem flight. They instructed me that I must run, run, run, run... So thats what we did, the wing came up over us and we ran... finally the wind catching the wing enough to lift us up off the ground, my feet and body completely exposed to the elements, I lifted off for the very first time in a Powered Paraglider, we flew around for about 15 minutes with the cold air blowing at our faces... the men on the ground constantly asking me over the radio if I was ok, I couldn't help but to scream out with joy, OHHHH MYYY GOOOODNEESSS!! This was the most amazing thing that I had ever done... I have flown in other flying machines before of course, but this was incredible. There was nothing in my mind that could compare to this experience, from that day I was determined to train and become a powered paragliding pilot. That is where this story begins, the draw and the dream to fly brought me to that place that day, however the reason that I am writing this today is to share a story of an invaluable friendship that has been made between myself and these men. When we first met I had no desire to learn korean but now I speak a little more, as do they speak a little more english. Even though every once in a while we have to use a dictionary to understand each other there really is no language barrier between our friendship. For the past year or so we have shared many many laughs and these men have truly become some of the best friends I have ever had and could ever hope to gain. Every weekend we gather together and fly our powered paramotor machines. I have started this blog a little late, and will try as best as possible to recount the times that we have shared with you. Beware, however, at times we get a little crazy and do some crazy things. These guys are way too awesome not to write about them and the things that they do. I hope you enjoy and be on the look out for many many more adventures to come!