I have been away for the past few days, paramotoring in France. The aim was to fly the 350km from Dieppe to the worlds largest paramotor meet in Basse Ham, France, taking all we need to sleep along the way. On the first day we covered 250km in two legs, landing halfway to refuel at a motorway service station and to wait for the wind to die down. The morning flight took just under three hours and was very bumpy. I even started to feel a bit airsick! Luckily conditions had calmed down by the time we took off for the evening flight and we enjoyed very smooth air in the late afternoon sun as we flew low over the endless fields. We landed at an airfield in Rethel and camped under a tarpaulin stretched between our paramotors.

The following day my flight was cut short soon after taking off when my motor stopped and wouldn’t restart. I landed safely on a quiet road and felt happy that my first emergency landing had gone well. Sadly I was unable to fly the rest of the way, but I didn’t have long to wait for Karl to pick me up in the van which he was driving down to Basse Ham for us. Thank you Karl!

Basse Ham itself was very busy with over 500 pilots from all over the world getting together to fly. We even set a Guinness World Record for the largest number of paramotors in the air at the same place and time (327). On the same flight I flew over three countries in an hour and a half, (France, Germany and Luxembourg). It was a tiring but immensely satisfying four days and I can’t wait for my paramotor to be repaired so I can get up in the skies again. Thanks to Tom for lending me his paramotor for the weekend while I was unable to use mine.