Lake Wales, Florida – Nearly 200 paramotor pilots and industry leaders from across the United States will attend “Wings Over Winter” to share and celebrate their love of flying paramotors this weekend. The 4th Annual Powered Paraglider Fly-in will be held at the Lake Wales Municipal Airport this year.
Admission for spectators is free. There will be food trucks and different vendors, including Red Bull. Attendees will get a chance to watch colorful gliders soar through the sky and what Aviator PPG is calling “kiting wars” where pilots fly their paragliders using the wind like a kite and see who can stay up the longest.
“We have pilots coming from all over the country,” said John Eisele, instructor at Aviator PPG. “The furthest one is coming from the United Kingdom. Paragliding is really big in Europe. Within the last five years with the technology, it’s really starting to gain steam here in the U.S.”
For the first time, the three-day paragliding event that begins this Friday takes place at the 200-acre Lake Wales Municipal Airport. The event hosted by Lake Wales-based Aviator PPG went on hiatus last year after being held near Chalet Suzanne for the first three years. Aviator is a dedicated paramotor sales and training facility. Aviator PPG was founded in 2012 by Eric Farewell, who was later joined by co-owner, Travis Burns, and instructor, Jon Eisele. Together, the group formed the Paradigm Aerobatic Team, which is set to perform in airshows around the country in the coming year, and continues to revolutionize the sport by growing a dedicated social media following on YouTube and Facebook. Aviator moved into its current state-of-the-art facility located on-site at Lake Wales Airport in July 2016.
“I think this will be the biggest event (at the airport) aside from the skydiving nationals,” said Eric Farewell, founder and co-owner of Aviator PPG. “It’s a spectacle; it’s family-friendly; I think it will really be a fun time.”
