Connecticut Yankee PPGers is an organization dedicated to promoting PPG safety, getting and keeping flying sites, and otherwise promoting the interests of PPG pilots in Connecticut and nearby states.
Powered Paragliding (also known as Paramotoring, but not the same thing as parasailing, parachuting, or hang gliding) is the fastest growing air sport in the world due to its extreme portability, relatively low cost and ease of learning.
What is it like to fly a PPG?
Setting up to launch
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Picture a warm summer morning. There’s a gentle breeze
blowing and the sun is shining. You drive to your favorite field (a farm field, or
perhaps a park or ball field) and take your equipment out of your
car. If you drive a sedan, you may have to spend a few minutes
assembling the cage; if you drive a pickup or van this probably
won’t be necessary. You check the wind direction and spread the paraglider
wing out on the grass. After a simple preflight inspection and
engine warmup, you slip into the harness and clip into the wing.
Running into the sky!
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A few steps and the wing is overhead, just like pulling a child’s
kite off the ground. You squeeze the throttle and running becomes
magically easy… and then there’s nothing left but
air under your feet.
As the ground recedes beneath you, the earth spreads out like a vast green
carpet below you. You settle back into the comfortable seat and
decide to head over toward the shore, and flying low along it, you
return the waves from the people on the beach as you fly alongside a
seagull.
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Cruising along the shore
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Climbing back up and skirting the edge of town, you see a
man tending a barbecue, and you catch a whiff of his food cooking as
he looks up at you. You fly across some farm fields below treetop
level, startling a few deer who run into the woods, then effortlessly
climb over the trees to head back to your start point, where you see
your friends have arrived and are setting up to launch. A hundred
feet up, you shut off the engine, and shout a greeting as you glide
down with nothing but the whoosh of the wind in your ears. A tug on
the brake handles, and you touch down light as a feather, then turn
to watch your colorful wing settle to the ground. You’re down
for the moment… but your thoughts are still dancing among the
clouds.
Who we are
Connecticut Yankee PPGers membership includes PPG pilots who regularly fly in Connecticut.
Members are all ages from young adults to "old farts", and all walks of life, including engineers,
restauranteurs, farmers, salesmen, utility workers, programmers police officers, trash haulers, architects, students, and retired.
We have beginner pilots as well as pilots competing at the national level.
Where we fly
Despite the fact that a PPG can fly from nearly anywhere, finding flying sites can be problematic, particularly with the loss of Griswold Airport.
Despite a safety record unparalleled in any other form of recreational aviation (injuries to pilots are extremely rare, and injuries to bystanders and property damage are unheard of),
the sport admittedly looks insane... "Look at that crazy guy with a fan on his back!" This impression makes landowners hesitant to grant permission to fly.
Landowners are also concerned about liability. Fortunately, Connecticut (along with every other state in the U.S) has a
"Recreational Liability Statute", which essentially shields a landowner from liability when
he makes land available to the public for recreational use. The U.S. Powered Paragliding Association also has a
informational brochure intended as an introduction to our sport to landowners.
Noise is also an issue. While the sound of our engines may be music to our ears, it can be annoying when several PPG's continue to fly around one area.
Launching and immediately climbing away and out of the area goes a long way towards keeping the neighbors happy.
Most of the flying sites we use today have been arranged through the efforts of one or more local pilots.
In some cases conditions are set by the property owner, and violation of these conditions may lead to loss
of the flying site. For this reason, we do not list most flying sites on this website.
If you want to fly from any of our established sites, please contact a local pilot and arrange
to get a site introduction. Feel free to work on getting permission to use fields in your area, and if possible,
invite other pilots to fly with you.
Griswold Airport in Madison, CT was our primary flying site for the past several years.
Unfortunately, like so many small airports everywhere, it fell into the hands of developers and closed at the end of 2006.
We are actively searching for a new primary site; most of the other spots we fly from cannot support the level of activity that Griswold has seen.
For more info about Connecticut PPGers go to the Connecticut PPGers Yahoo Group
For questions about this site, please send email to to
