Salton Sea PPG Fly-In 2010

A strip of beach in the desert along California's Salton Sea again hosted the Salton Sea PPG Fly-In 2010. From Thursday to Sunday, January 27-31, PPGers from across the country and Mexico came to fly their funny flying machines.

The Salton Sea has the distinction of being 220 feet below sea level. That's right, below sea level! It's a landlocked body of very salty water with nowhere to go but where it is. The conditions for PPG flying are great there, and few people live there to make a fuss about all the noisy things flying around.

PPG stands for powered paragliding. In this author's vernacular, PPG stands for contraption flying. The 'contraption' is really a motor and a caged propeller strapped to the flyer's back and a large kite, called a wing, overhead. The motor is for power, the wing is for lift, and there must be at least a little wind and a whole lot of skill to get the whole business off the ground. Flying a contraption is what the sport looks like to the uninitiated. To PPGers it's powered free flying with a wing and an occasional prayer.

The PPG Fly-In attracts people who like to fly unencumbered by fixed wings or licenses. A pilot's license is not necessary for PPG flying. A love of flying is. The Fly-In also attracts people who like to watch other people flying, or trying to. Not all who try to fly are successful at it. It requires enormous skill, strength, and knowing the exact function of 35 or so colored wires, what to do with them to go up, down, around, and avoid landing in the Salton Sea.

Equipment for powered paragliding comes in several varieties. Most PPGers take off on foot, actually running, after first launching the wing up into the wind. A successful launch looks like a dance with a gigantic kite, followed by a sprint down the beach, finished with a gentle lift to airborne. When done well, it's a thing of beauty. When not, it gets ugly.

A launch can be achieved without running. The more mature and courageous PPGers use a rolling device in which they sit, called a trike if it has three wheels, or a quad if it has four. The PPG motor for trikes and quads must be more powerful than the motors for a running launch. Misunderstanding that bit of physics will cause repeatedly unsuccessful launches, which are spectacular for spectators but hard on the PPG pilots and their equipment.

PPG competitions are conducted for the fun of flying, but PPGers are fiercely competitive to the delight of the on-lookers.

--There's the Bear Drop. Teddy bears on parachutes are released overhead by powered paragliders flying by. Crowds on the ground scramble to catch the teddy bears in a grand grabbing competition. This competition reminds me of a bride tossing her bouquet to a hopeful crowd. Those plucking a teddy bear wearing clothes get to keep theirs. Those catching a bare teddy bear get to compete in the next competition.

--It's called the Kiting War, essentially a demolition derby for PPG wings. About twenty people qualified for the Kiting War competition; recall, they each caught a bare bear. (I know, by now you think I'm making this up, but I'm not!) Twenty PPGers launch their wings into the air and try to knock down other wings from the air. The last wing flying without touching the ground is the winner. The prize is a serious five hundred dollars! Others keep their bare bears as consolation prizes.

--The Clover Leaf is a skills competition. Only fifteen PPGers considered themselves duly competent to compete in this skilled exercise. The course is completed while flying in the tightly curving direction of a four-leaf clover's perimeter. Two figure eights must be flown around four cones on the ground, while the pilot tags a flag at the center of the clover pattern with his foot during each of four passes over it. This flight pattern requires skill in precise flying close to the ground. It reminds me of barrel racing at a rodeo, where horse and rider make sharp turns around four barrels as fast as they can. The flight finishes with the requirement to land engine-off in a targeted zone on two feet, no stepping out and no equipment touching the ground. It's analogous to getting the horse to go to sleep at the end of a barrel race. This last requirement disqualified most of the competitors as their propeller cages grazed the ground. That, or their slow power-off drift down to earth missed the taget zone. The winner of the Clover Leaf was, in fact, a professional competitor and a PPG instructor. Although he dismayed the amateurs, his stunning flight was a definite crowd pleaser.

The Salton Sea Fly-In constitutes flying excitement for PPGers and a unique experience for spectators. Where else can you sit or fly below sea level and not be under water?