 Over
the Ocean
In a PPG
by Mike Masterson
July 12, 2002
The full story is
also available, along with information on Mike and his PPG business, at www.AdFlyer.com.
Mike is an expereience PG/PPG pilot and instructor who lives in the Southern
California area.
On 7-7-02, I Completed a Powered Paraglider
flight from Catalina Island Airport to Huntington Beach for a distance of 29
miles. This was the first ever crossing of the San Pedro Channel by a foot
launched paraglider aircraft. Time of departure from the Catalina Airport was
3:20 pm. Time of shoreline crossing in Huntington Beach was
4:40 pm.
Witness at the Catalina Airport was Control Tower
operator, Phil Slep, C/O Catalina Island Conservancy, PO Box 2739
Avalon, CA 90704. Witnesses at the Landing point near Huntington Beach were Jim
and Kathy Davidson and fellow PPG pilot Steve Tustison.
Equipment
Equipment used was Fly Products Power Jet II with
Top 80 engine, 10 hrs TT. Wing was AiREA Rebel XL set at DHV 1-2 max
speed. (48 km/hr)
Inflatable Life Jacket waistbelt from: http://www.sospenders.com/models.html,
Navigation from Etrex Vista GPS www.garmin.com.
Gasoline used was Shell Premium, started with 2 gallons, landed with 0.75
gallon. Oil was Castrol TTS mixed 50-1, Spark Plug NGK B-9
ES
Communication was by Standard Horizon HX 460
Submersible Marine Radio http://www.standardhorizon.com/.
Hook Knife and 3 hand held rocket flares were also carried.
 Turned
Away
At 0700 on the morning of the flight, I was
dropped off by a friend at the Catalina Express boat dock and was turned away
due to the gasoline engine on my motor unit even though the fuel tank was empty.
Since my ride was gone, I jumped on a city bus and transferred two times
getting back to a K-Mart store near my house.
I loaded all the flying gear into a shopping cart
and wheeled it a half mile back to my house where my truck was parked.
I transferred all the gear into my truck and drove down to a Long Beach Airport
flight school where I found a flight instructor willing to fly me out to the
Catalina Airport.
Getting Ready
We arrived around 2:30 and began assembling and
fueling my machine. It was ready to go by 3:00 so I went to the tower, paid my
$10 Airport use fee, told the Tower Operator, Phil Slep of my basic flight plan,
and returned back to the machine to finish prep for takeoff.
I called my shore crew, Jim Davidson
and his wife/Photographer Kathy, plus my usual flying partner Steve
Tustison who would be waiting on the Huntington Beach shoreline. I
estimated that I should arrive on the Huntington Beach shoreline sometime around
4:30 and advised them not to get concerned unless I was later than 5:00 PM.
Flying
I launched from the Catalina Airport at around
3:20 and climbed up to 3,000 feet above sea level to check the wind and the
condition of my engine. All was well, so I pointed in the direction
my GPS showed for HB and I set off at a ground speed of 30 mph.
My GPS estimated the time of arrival at 1 hr and 20 minutes.
I flew for about 10 minutes and then my ground
speed dropped to 20 mph so I decided to descend altitude to 2,000 feet above sea
level to check my ground speed. It had improved to 27 mph using full
speed bar, so I continued at that altitude for the remainder of the flight.
The visibility was only 10 miles, so I couldn't
see the shoreline, but I could see the tops of the  San
Gabriel Mountains, especially Mt Baldy, so I had a navigational Aiming point in
case my GPS failed. Due to it being Sunday, the end of a 4th
of July weekend, there were a lot of pleasure boats returning to the
mainland from a weekend at Catalina. I could see them departing from
Avalon, Two Harbors and the back side of the Island.
During most of the flight, if my engine had
failed, I would have been able to glide down in front of a boat.
I also had a submersible marine band radio, tuned to the emergency channel 16
and would have broadcasted a Mayday with my location as I was gliding down with
a stopped engine. If the boat were big enough, I would
have tried to land on top of it. As it was, the engine ran
fine for the entire flight.
I was using about half throttle and occasionally
a third throttle. I also passed a couple of offshore oil rigs which could have
served as emergency LZ's had I needed them. Two large boats nearly struck each
other as they were looking up at me. I must have been a strange site, being that
far out and looking like a parachute. One or two boats held a course under
me for a while out of curiosity or to be helpful.
Once I got within 10 miles of land, I could
finally see the actual shoreline. I could almost make out my landing field,
but still used the GPS pointer until I was about 5 miles out and could see my
exact aiming point. I made shore at Seapoint Avenue around 4:40 and flew south
to Golden West Street where I made a U-turn for a "Victory Lap" up the
beach at an altitude of about 300 feet.
At Seapoint, I climbed to 550 feet and crossed
the Pacific Coast Highway to head for my landing field. The emotions I felt when
I knew I had it in the bag were mostly gratitude at the people who built the
equipment I used. I gave a quiet thanks to the manufacturers of every critical
part, like the Spark Plug, Engine, Gasoline, Oil, GPS and Glider.
Once that was done, I wondered what I would do to celebrate the landing
and I figured that it would be fun to activate my inflatable life jacket.
I hovered over the landing field until I saw my
friends Jim, Kathy and Steve drive up. Once Kathy had the camera ready, I
made my approach and landed. The wind was blowing about 20 mph, but it was
no problem.
Aftermath
 After
a few High-Fives, I put the motor carefully in the truck while Steve got
my wing. I called Phil Slep at the Catalina tower to let him know that I
made it safely and then I yanked the cord on my life jacket. As you
can see from the picture below, It worked!!. (I re-armed
it the next day for a cost of $18.) Once I got home, I had a nice cold glass of
Peach wine. Had I not made it, the drink would have been "Mike's Hard
Lemonade".
Would I fly over that much water again?
Yes, for a record attempt, but not just for fun, because had I gone in the
water, I would have destroyed about $3,500 worth of gear.
The takeoff and landing witness signatures are
getting prepared by a Notary Public to make it an official record as the first
paraglider to launch from the Catalina Airport and the first paraglider to cross
the San Pedro Channel between Catalina Island and the Mainland. it may be
a world record for distance over water, because the English channel is 21 miles
at its shortest point and that is the previous longest water flight that I know
of.
5 minutes after landing I was wearing
swimming trunks just in case...
Mike Masterson is a USPPA certified instructor
and can be reached at mmasterson@socal.rr.com.
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