E 128 Steve English - WARNING - May talk about paramotors - Paramotor Podcast

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E 128 Steve English

https://www.youtube.com/user/stephen1english

I grew up watching the birds from the moment I could form memories, always wishing I could be up there with them. I have memories of building model planes and white wings, playing in the backyard with foamies, watching the planes land and take off from Piper Memorial Airport in Lock Haven, PA, all with dad. We shared a fondness for aviation. In college, I pursued my pilot's license with the intent to fly commercially. Got my PPL in the summer between freshmen and sophomore year in 2004. It was one of the proudest moments of my life, the next day after my checkride, I took my dad up as my first passenger...3 months later, I lost him to lung cancer.

Fast forward to 2018, I haven't flown since 2005 and I come across Tucker's flight to McDonald's. At that moment, my life took a turn for the better and I knew I had to get back into flying through this. Eventually, I dove in and signed up for training 2 years later at AviatorPPG, and had another extremely moving moment with my first solo there. It was Judson's first class when he was an intern and I remember the hug from him and the rest of my new family at the time. That was summer 2020, my silver lining of the year.

Since then, I have flown almost every chance I could, while wanting to share the joy with the world through pics and vids. JP Tulo is a big inspiration for the type of quick, catchy content I like to mess around with.

In May, this year, I experienced the shared deep sadness from the loss of a dear friend, Jeff Chorba. Anytime he wasn't there, the question my parabuddies and I always asked was "what's Jeff up to, is he coming?" He mentored us, he laughed with us, he inspired us to be better pilots. Coping with his loss has brought us NEPA fliers closer together. I often think about what Jeff once told me over the phone, "we know the risks, but we do it anyway because if we deprive ourselves of that which we love, we also deprive ourselves of life."

He and my Dad now share the view through my eyes of the awe this sport has to deliver.

Stories -
[ ] Flying in friend's dad's Piper Conquest to Oshkosh airshow during 8th grade time period
[ ] Aviation 101 at the local college in HS - sailplane experience
[ ] Flying with Dad as my 1st single-engine passenger
[ ] First PPG flight
[ ] Tucker saving me on my 1st PPG flight in PA
[ ] First people I flew with in PA (Jeff Chorba and Austin Wolf)
[ ] Wing bumping TG at Jersey Shore
[ ] First flight above clouds
[ ] Pride felt during Paradigm show behind the scenes
[ ] Meeting Brian "Haybale" Waller at Jersey Shore (Galileo)
[ ] Flying out West in SD while visiting my brother
[ ] Flying over my old homestead in Amish country on July 4th, 2021
[ ] Getting into RC flying
[ ] ...so many others I can't recall to jot down right now

Shout out to a few members of this channel:
John Wayne
Brian Waller
Kent Stamey

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Who is PPG Grandpa? Sean Symons also known as PPG Grandpa has been flying paramotors since 2019. He is based in Conway Arkansas and is part of the Little Rock Flyers club. He runs a paramotor podcast which first aired January 2020 at http://www.ParaTalk.org
Sean owns www.ParamotorCollege.com and has a http://www.PPGBootCamp.com for students getting ready to learn how to fly at www.ParamotorArkansas.com flight school. Sean had over 300 flights his first 12 months of flying ... Sean also completed 3 SIV clinics between 2019 and 2021
www.FaceBook.com/ShawnFitness