S P O R T S

Havana.  July 18, 2013

"WE have a bigger project, making the flight from Batabanó to the Isle of Youth, approximately 130 kilometers, but we decided to do it first overland. Covering the distance between Varadero and Havana is just the taking off point for another aspiration – a bigger one," said Luis García, just minutes after his powered paraglider landed at midday in Havana’s Morro-Cabañas Park, having flown in from the Varadero beach resort, located in Matanzas province.
Luis García is president of the Free Flight Federation of Cuba’s Aviation Club and one of the protagonists of this feat, unprecedented in the country.
Within a few minutes, Gerardo Ramos (El Chino) and Carlos Antonio Pons, who made the trip in a two-seater, arrived. With excitement in his voice, Carlos reported, "We did the flight in two stages. In the first part, everything went very well, at an altitude of about 800 meters. On the second leg, we had some work during the take-off; the wind was very gentle and this sail needs a bit more. We managed to take off. Then it got really tense because of a storm."
Luis clarified, "We had to fly with the wind against us; the weather was not the most favorable. There were thunderheads, the rain pelted us; so we had to refuel on the way. The flight time was somewhat more than four hours…"
Powered paragliding is a risky sport, initially practiced in Cuba in the 1990’s. Many of its fans are parachutists who tried gliding when economic conditions in the country made parachuting difficult. This sport, they soon learned, required ascending mountain cliffs, so they turned to paramotoring or powered gliding, in which a motor on the pilot’s back generates enough speed to allow take-off in any geographic environment.
"The sport requires a great deal of discipline, many hours of work, but you’re left with the happiness that everything went well and that the pilots had a successful trip… We are thinking about other activities, other challenges. The machines are not that complicated, but since they are fragile, they require a lot of attention. We are going to incorporate a higher velocity motor soon and a delta wing. We have to put in a lot of work with the Civil Aeronautics Institute to get it going. If we can fly it, we’ll make longer records and have more success," said Osmel Doblado, the team’s mechanic.
These Cubans soar on the wings of enthusiasm, turning dreams into accomplishments, while planning new efforts which will no doubt serve as starting points as well.