20. The Power to Fly through Paramotors | Anthony Vella Part 2

Part 2: Hear how Anthony Vella FLEW to Walmart and made a PB&J on the flight back. He is a certified paramotor instructor who now promotes the sport full time on his podcast (The Paramotor Podcast), YouTube channel (www.YouTube.com/AnthonyVella), and Instagram (@anthonykvella). He also has a flight school and offers tandem flights for anyone wanting to try out flying for themselves. If you want to sign up for a flight or training, reach out to Anthony's Facebook page “West Texas Paramotor” or email him at flyeptx@gmail.com.

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Transcript

Episode 20. The Power to Fly through Paramotors | Anthony Vella Part 2 

Anthony: [00:00:00] It does strike me as odd. But, it's understandable at the same time that there are a lot of people who don't want to fly, just because they have this immense fear of Heights, and truth be told 

Most people can get over this fear of Heights too. For example, when I started flying I was watching YouTube videos and I thought to myself, I can totally do that.

I've been in the army. I I've seen crazy stuff happen. This is nothing I can do it. And then lo and behold, I get to flight training and I was doing really well with all the practicing stuff on the ground, you know, practicing, handling the glider just from the ground, kiting like as if it was a kite which is like the initial step and then comes the day of the first flight.

And they're like, who wants to go first? And I was like, I do. And it's, I remember. When the motor was on my backing, it's on. And there's the [00:01:00] loud sound of the engine and the propeller spinning. And it kind of creates this vibration. And you know, you're right about to take off. I started to feel a little bit nervous, but once my feet left the ground, Freaked out a little bit.

And for a lot of people, that's what happens is, is they have this idea that it's going to be like in their dreams, which in many ways it is, but you still have to overcome being the human that was not born with wings. And now you're hanging from some strings we up in the sky. So the reality is, is it's so amazing.

The majority of people will get over that fear. And as they learn to understand and trust in their equipment that they're flying with, but some people don't like, like my wife, for example, she doesn't feel comfortable flying by herself. 

Roxxi: Okay, So you,, when she went through her training, there was always like an instructor with her or has she ever flown solo

Anthony: yeah. Yeah. So, so that's, what's cool about what we're doing is [00:02:00] the majority of schools or training facilities where people go to learn how to fly para motors, their first flight, their flights will be done entirely by themselves. So the first time they're in the air, They're going to be by themselves, and that doesn't make sense to me.

Like I definitely didn't want to create our school to be like that because I'm very much aware that somebody can panic a little bit in the reason that people feel this immense anxiety. Is because they're there by themselves. And they they're like, what if, what if, what if something, what if this happens?

What if that happens? And all of that goes away. If you're with an instructor, who's got hundreds, if not thousands of hours flying these. And they're like, what if, oh, my instructors, right here no big deal. And then they can become familiar. Namely, you know, so what we do with our training program is we take people up.

They do all the same stuff, the ground handling, learning how to, to control the glider from the ground. We go into a simulator, which is on the ground where they have the motor on [00:03:00] their back. And they're just kind of like visualizing what they need to do. A practicing emergency is a strong word, but mishaps in the air, like if your engine were to turn off, it's not an emergency because people fly these without the engine.

So if your engine turns off, then just fly it as if it was a paraglider. But situations like that. But then before they go up by themselves, Then I take them up and they can place their hands on top of my hands as we work the controls and feel how easy it is. And they can also feel what it's like to come in for a landing or getting yourself to that specific landing spot without having to do it all by themself.

Which is what creates for that anxieties in the first place. And then eventually they get to a point where like, no, I got this, I got this. So when, when my feet left the ground for the first time that anxiety won't be present in those who've, who've been able to fly with an instructor because they're already familiar with that that new perspective and the sound of the engine and all those other things that oftentimes can cause anxiety.

There'll be used to it by the time that they fly [00:04:00] by themselves. So we're really excited to be able to give that to students that fly with us. 

Roxxi: I agree with that concept too. I'm really appreciative that your school is going to have that component where the instructor takes you originally until you feel comfortable, because I'm surprised to hear that the other schools in the country do it where you just kind of fly out by yourself the very first time.

So that's actually surprising for me to hear. So what are some unique or strange places or maybe unexpected places you've flown to? Like you said, someone thought you were flying to class when you are, you met with, you were going to land drive to class, but what are some actual places you've actually flown as a commute to.

Anthony: Oh, as a community too. Well, I went to the Walmart once I flew to Walmart. And just, just for the sake of doing it to, I think demonstrate the potential of a pair of motor, all it is, it is really [00:05:00] not a practical form of transportation, to be honest, you know, with everybody. Because you're so dependent on the weather, like a lot of people ask about flying to work and you totally could, if your work is not in a congested area, say like you, you work at a grocery store on the edge of town, sir, you could land on, you know, just behind the building and, and set your stuff down in the back and walk inside and go to work.

But you'd also have to have the weather be good. By the time you left. Right. Which, you know, the weather changes. And so it's just not really practical for that, but I've flown through a lot of other really cool locations around El Paso. I've flown to a bar one time. I don't really feel comfortable with drinking and flying and I don't advocate for it.

But I mean, if somebody has like a drink and then you hang out for an hour and then fly back, I don't, I don't think there's anything wrong. And it's probably a case by case per person. And there's a bar on the beach. It was really cool. This was in Galveston, Texas, but one of the [00:06:00] coolest places that people could fly to here in El Paso is this volcano that most people don't do you aware that we have a volcano just outside of Is it 

Roxxi: like in New Mexico? I think is it called something hole, or I've seen it in the hiking group, but I've never been, 

Anthony: oh my gosh, Roxxi, after this, get in your vehicle, go to it. It is so cool. It is, it is a volcano. You'd go toward Santa Teresa airport and then you follow this dirt road for what? It seems like 30 minutes.

And then all of a sudden, there's this massive hole in the ground. That's six miles circumference. It's huge. So myself and some of my friends. We'll fly from here and go all the way to that volcano. And I'm proud to say that only myself and one other person, I was way out of a group of 10 people actually landed inside and watched all the para motor people who were too scared to land inside.

But it was, it is such a [00:07:00] cool spot to go and fly to. In fact, we want to fly out there with camping gear, you know, bring a tent and a sleeping bag with us, strap it onto us. I don't know how, but we'll figure it out and then go camp out there one night and fly back in the morning. Yeah, Kilbourne hole is a fantastic place.

There's also a, another airport that nobody really seems to know about. We just call it a magma port because there's an airport on top of this old lava flow. And on the edge of it, it's on top of this bluff. This airport's like up here. And then there's this little cliff bluff thing that goes down to one of the biggest pecan farms in the world.

And so you can just take off, it drops off and then you're in a sea of trees. This is also out in New Mexico, really beautiful spot called Stahman farms. And they have an airport up on top 

Roxxi: of that. What is the airport? 

Anthony: I think it's, we, we nicknamed it magma port, like airport book, magma port because it is on top of a lava flow, [00:08:00] an old one.

But it's called, I think it's just Stallman farms, airport, if it's even listed, it's been around for like decades. But nobody really knows about it. Cause you can't see it from any other perspective than in the air. Because it's above where I 10 is. So you can't really see it. 

Roxxi: So if I was to hike there, there's not much to see from the ground.

Anthony: You'd have to go through private property and,

yeah. So, so it is owned this farm. Have you ever taken that drive along highway? I think 28. You know, the back roads in New Mexico, if you were to go to Las Cruces, you get to this area where you have this super long, very photographic road where it's just the road. This covered with trees for a long stretch.

It's out in New Mexico, really beautiful drive. If you ever take it

Roxxi: exactly where 

Anthony: it's a beautiful spot. So in the best time to go is when it's in full foliage and it's got the leaves on the tree. [00:09:00] 

Roxxi: We had anything like that with the Archway. 

Anthony: Exactly, but it's not just like, it's not just like for, you know, a few hundred feet. It's like several miles you're underneath the trees and it is so pretty.

And then if you look left or right, it's just a sea of trees as far as the eye can see. So it is a really pretty place 20 minutes from here. It's really nice.. 

Roxxi: Okay. And then Kilborne hole. I'll have to go hiking there one day, but I didn't realize it was six miles in circumference, doctoral crater of the volcano. Can you see much when you're hiking or is, I mean, obviously from an aerial view, you see a lot more. 

Anthony: Yeah, well, no, it's spectacular from the ground as well.

In fact, it's one of those locations that a lot of people go to, to paraglide without the motor, because of the way that the wind curves up on the, the bowl of the, of the volcano fun geology fact factoid, or Yeah, geophysics is a [00:10:00] type of volcano is a Mar, so you don't really see it from the horizon because it is sunken it's it's Kilbourne hole.

So it's at Mar M a R R. And that's the type of volcano that rather than becoming a cone shaped volcano it's con cave. And yeah. So it is, it is. A beautiful place and I didn't even, you know, suggest that you go and camp out there. It just take some friends of course. But it is a beautiful spot.

Roxxi: Landed in the 

Anthony: crater. Yep. Yeah. I landed in the Mar. Yeah. 

Roxxi: Can you camp in the Mar 

Anthony: that is, that is what we want to do. And then make a video you know, entitled. I slept in a volcano, Bluetooth, volcano, and slept in it. I'm trying to figure out if, if I can take my trike, the two seater and instead of putting in a passenger upfront, just loaded up with like tons of camping gear, a little cooler and, and, you know, really make it kind of like a glamping trip out there.

Then that is [00:11:00] what I'd like to do. The only question I have is if at the bottom of the volcano, if there's enough room to take back off, I can certainly land in it. But, but you have. Hey, man. You know, once you get off the ground, you can only climb so fast. I don't want to find out like, be like, oh, guess I couldn't, as I like hit the site.

Roxxi: Okay. So you have to get kind of a little bit of a running start. 

Anthony: Yeah. Just like any other unless you're a helicopter. 

Roxxi: Just go straight up from the volcano. Well, hopefully you get to do that. I'm sure if you and your flying buddies we'll figure something out. 

Anthony: Yeah. There's that . other thing we want to do is, is fly to what we call the murder house. So like radar. We, we went out there camping once I've, I've gone out camping and brought the, brought the motor camping with me, but I've yet to go and camp. You know, get there with the pair motor camp and then [00:12:00] fly back. But, but that time out, you know, adventuring around this volcano and there's this really scary looking like abandoned house.

That's actually not abandoned. It's amazing. Somebody lives there. If you live there and you're watching this, please don't come and kill me. I brought my pair motor and I brought our four Wheeler and my wife and I, we went It is, it is very scary. These SAC religious like structures around it. So the, the dumb thing to do that my friends and I want to do is to fly out there and, and go out there at night and then, and then fly back.

But maybe we'll bring like a Weegee board or something and make it extra scary. 

Roxxi: Yes. And some headlamps since night vision cameras to document, bring a ghost hunter out there. That'll be fun and different. No, one's done that before. So.

Okay, well let's get to the listener questions. We had a few questions when I announced that you would be coming on the [00:13:00] show. You've answered you already, but if you think of anything to add, so the first one is, is a license or certification required to fly a para motor. 

Anthony: Right. The answer, the answer is no, the only time you need. To get a first lien backtrack. The answer is no, but I'm telling you, like, in spite of not being required to get one, it is crazy. There are a handful of people who are like there, no license required. Okay. I'm going to buy one and do it.

That is asking to get hurt. And if you've already done it and you, you Flint successfully by all means come fly with us. We'll, we'll tell you things that can help you stay safe along the way, though, the training is not required. It's just the smart thing to do because there are ways to get hurt doing it.

And the sport is as safe as it is when you're aware of the risks and ultimately that's what the training affords you. You, you can get certified and you get, so you can get a certification though. It's not required. By [00:14:00] the, the most recognized peer motoring organization in the United States, which is the U S PPA.

And that is what my wife and I have is our businesses. By people when it basically just writes off that you've learned all of these things there are certain flying sites that will require it or certain flying events that will require that you do have a certification as a proof of knowledge inexperienced to some degree.

But no, there isn't a. Required licenses because and it's not just for motors, the way it works in the United States is if you have a an aircraft that weighs less than 254 pounds, and it does not exceed a certain amount of horsepower and it has a limited fuel carrying a city. Then you are free to fly that without any sort of training.

Although yeah, once again, Yeah, just out of concern for the individuals who want to do it they should, they really should get the training 

for 

Roxxi: the record. We're not condoning any irresponsible flying here. [00:15:00] Know, 

Anthony: it's funny. It's funny because I say that I say that in my YouTube videos, oftentimes I'll say like by talking about this I'm in no way you know, like suggesting that you should try it.

For the majority of those though, it's more of a liability thing. Like I say, just in case somebody decides to say they tried to do it Anthony Vella did and leveled off, but this isn't, this is no joke. This one is like totally serious just out of the Human compassion. Like nobody wants to see somebody get severely hurt and the number one way that people get hurt in pair motoring.

You ready for this is they touch the propeller accidentally. And that's, that's all while they're on the ground before they've even taken off. And you have to have like an immense amount of respect for this blender. That's basically behind you now. Well, you're flying it. Be damn near impossible to touch.

Pillar. It's, it's more often than not while you're on the ground, if you were to start your pair motor on the ground, this is one of the things that maybe you learn with experience, but [00:16:00] when you start the promoter, the propeller could, could start spinning really fast, which creates the thrust to push it forward towards you.

And then our tendency is to stop embrace it. And if your hand goes through the net Yeah. Yeah. But there's, there's little things like that, that training can of course reinforce. But yeah, yeah. 

Roxxi: And then if you are flying to a bar, we're also not condoning flying back with a FWI (flying while intoxicated).

Anthony: I like that. I'm going to, I'm going to take that. Don't worry. 

Roxxi: My FWI. 

Anthony: I will credit you in the joke. 

Roxxi: And then a second question from one of our listeners is have you ever been scared of. While paramotoring or I guess, I don't know if they meet in general. 

Anthony: Yeah. I get scared at night. Now the truth is, is, is [00:17:00] aside from what I mentioned earlier about the first flight?

Absolutely. Absolutely. I almost get angry when I hear of people who. You know, just don't get scared because, because I do get scared and I know, I know, you know, my friends have all had scares when I'm sitting here in my office looking out the window at the Franklin mountains. They have been my biggest antagonist.

For lack of better words, the is gorgeous as they are. I've always wanted to fly along them but third intimidating. It's one thing to fly a thousand feet over flat land and experience some sort of fear from being just so high up. But it's another thing to be at 2000 feet up flying towards a mountain that is still bigger than you.

And then you get over it and you look down and you can really see the cliffs, the Rocky cliff side. And you wonder, oh my gosh, what if my motor turned off? Right. You know, for the viewers, it's actually not a big deal. You turn around and away from the mountain and you'll glide far away from it, [00:18:00] but still visually, there's a big fear factor to that.

And yes. Yeah. Or, or if for whatever reason you get into some really bad turbulence That can be intimidating because you know, you're flying along on the balanced there's computer, as a demonstrate the flying along on the controls like that, that it's nice and smooth. And then all of a sudden you're like, whoa, What was that?

And then you, you have this tendency to look down and is if you're going to see something, which you're not, it's like, you're not going to see the air going like this, but, and that's what makes it intimidating is it's like, kind of like that invisible force out there that, that just like, Ooh, cast a spell on you and made you move when you didn't tell it to move.

And so that can be, that can be. Intimidating. And with time you build up, what's called a bump tolerance or this turbulence tougher tolerance or a tolerance for turbulence because you end up trusting in the equipment that it's designed to perform in spite of a little bit of turbulence, but, but certainly.

The feeder [00:19:00] is there. But yeah, I think for the most part, you know, as time goes on and you become more and more experience the fear becomes much more manageable until eventually you know, what to be afraid of and you can then avoid the things that are intimidating or you can push through it. 

It 

Roxxi: all comes with experience.

Yes. And then we'll do one last question. Have you had any it malfunctions? 

Anthony: A handful. Yes. Yeah. So this isn't, this isn't good for self promotion, but on a recent tandem flight, the engine actually did turn off on me while I was flying with the passenger. But once again So. So big of a malfunction that we weren't able to get back to the original place that we had departed from. these things are paragliders.

So you just look for a place to land and we have this nice little farm, and then we landed and we actually ended up taking off from the farm lake. But yeah, there's that, and, and I've had cable by throttle [00:20:00] cable broke, which made it, so I didn't have power.

I've had an exploding sound from the engine on another flight when I was out towards Kilbourne hole. And then I, and then the engine turned off from that. I hope there are still people who want to fly out. Yeah, there's, there's been a lot of. But once again, every error I've ever had in flying pair motors comes from the motor itself.

And they're not as reliable as a car, but once again, we're the gliders are what make up the beauty and the safety of the sport. Being that we are dependent on them, the glider being functional and performing its duty. If the motor turns off, that's not really a big deal, but all of them, the malfunctions that I have have been engine related and, and truth be told.

Aside from the last one, where, where I just was worried that the passenger would be nervous, which he was but he was like over the top excited when we landed to the point where he was like, let's take off again. [00:21:00] And but, but Every other instance where the motor had turned off. Even when crashed, when my then girlfriend was filming me wasn't that scary?

Like I. I knew I wasn't going to get really hurt. I was just gliding and fast. So no fear malfunctions like that are, are a part of the sport. But they're not cause for concern. When you know what you're doing with experiences, you've mentioned, 

Roxxi: right? Like you said, by default, you're still gonna glide soft, laid down.

Anyway, despite if the motor hot something happens to the motor. So if anything, you're taking a scenic detour. 

Anthony: And so What I'll say is, is if your, if your engine turns off and you're close to the ground, I don't think people have the patience to learn the physics of it really quickly, but I'll just describe, like, if this hand is me flying on the para motor, and this is the glider above me.

If I'm, if I'm flying low. Well, what happens when the engine turns off is if I'm at full power and then my motor is going to push out in front, if I'm going this [00:22:00] way, I'm going to be in front of the glider and it's going to be kind of behind me. If all of a sudden I lose power, I'm going to that thrust goes away.

The engine I swing back under the lines, the glider will then come forward and pitch me down. But if I'm high up, that can happen and it can pitch me down because then it'll just kind of swing through and find its natural, smooth glide. But the reason it turned out that way, that that day was because I was low to the ground.

And so it didn't have time to stabilize. So if you're higher up in the engine turns off, which is what had happened. Every other instance that the engine had turned off. Really peaceful paraglide down to the ground. So that's why people advocate for flying higher cause it gives you, it gives you ample amount of time to sort things.

Roxxi: Okay. That's a good pro tip there. And then, and then you just have to hike a long way back to 

Anthony: that's funny. I that's part of the pre-flight brief, whenever I'd take passengers slang with me is I tell them I'm like the [00:23:00] motor can turn off. And the worst thing that, that is likely to happen as a long walk back.

Roxxi: Okay. I think it's all making sense now. I think I'm getting the process. Okay, well, thanks to all the listeners that wrote in with a question. And I guess right now, would you like to hook the viewers up with anything that you recommend that would add value to their lives? 

Anthony: Oh yeah. Whether it's, whether it's flying whether it's flying or, or some other form of activity, I wish more people would pursue it.

You know, I hope people don't. You know, look too deeply into this in a negative way. But when I got to El Paso the first thing I noticed was how beautiful the landscape was. And I was really turned off by how many people just gravitate towards like the nightlife or the downtown and in the noise, the noise and, and needing to be surrounded by.

Uh, Energy of so many [00:24:00] people, which isn't necessarily a bad thing in doses, but being that we live in such a beautiful area here. There's not a lot of people taking advantage of it. And so, like you said, that you're part of the El Paso hiking group. I wish more people would do that and get to appreciate a somewhat more holistic view of, of life.

Whether, whether it is hiking or flying pair motors and experiencing from that perspective, or if they. Off the coast of some beach and get into scuba diving and makes something you know, engage with the world a little bit, the actual planet. I'm not, I'm not some sort of a hippie or anything. I just think it truly contributes to their overall quality of life.

If they find something to be passionate about outside of viral. Blah, blah, blah. I mean, I don't 

Roxxi: know.

Anthony: My sister's like a viral tick talker. She's got like, like. [00:25:00] Millions of followers and I'm like, get a pair of motor coat, 

Roxxi: do something with your life. No, I totally relate. Cause I, I essentially grew up here and, you know, going to school here and everything, high school, no one ever cared about the mountains and we always thought it was like, some people thought it was ugly because it's like our mountains here.

Is it like iron deposits? It's like kind of reddish tone. Franklin red. Yeah. So it's, I mean, it's got some vegetation, but it's not like Aspen mountains or something. And so no one really cared. And now that I've lived in other cities before I've lived in like Houston and WebEx before and just knowing how every other city that I traveled to is, Beauty in those cities, but most of the time they're very flat and you don't see the elevation changes.

And here I [00:26:00] can drive on the freeway and be able to see, like, it seems like hundreds of miles out into the distance, into the horizon. And I just realized that everyone that I grew up with here in El Paso pretty much took it for granted. And then I hear of people that moved here, like yourself that enjoy the scenery here and tell me how beautiful they think it is.

And I used to be surprised like what you think. So, but now moving back home after college and everything, I really realized how much. The scenery we have here is under appreciated. And I love the sunsets here. It's just like none other, none other 

Anthony: than to say totally hit it on the head with that one.

Roxxi: Can't compare to anywhere else I've been. I don't care where you, where you've seen another sunset. It's just the most beautiful, gorgeous, and they're always different is what I like too. And then now I appreciate the mountain so much. I've gotten [00:27:00] into hiking. So I definitely know where you're coming from that.

I also wish people would, I guess, realize how good they have it here. Yes. By more and more people. Like, I think as work, getting older, like the people I grew up with, at the time we didn't really appreciate it, but I feel like more and more now people are wanting to go out in nature and learn more about.

Our community and our environment and wanting a little bit more to go out there. There's of course still the nightlife, people that just want to drink and whatnot. But I think a little bit by little bit, we're getting there and then definitely seeing you and your friends flying around. I think it inspires.

The community as a whole as well. So keep doing that. 

Anthony: Thank you. Yeah. And just to add to that, as well as people, people don't need a pair motor necessarily we're fortunate we have off-road vehicles as well. And you know, if you do have that fear of Heights, you could find a used four Wheeler for a relatively [00:28:00] low cost , go get something, it'll put you around the desert. But, but there are so many different ways to access it in, in sometimes we need that tool and sometimes you don't and that's, that's why you have the hiking group. And there are thousands of people following that group. And so even if you have nothing at all, but your own two legs get out there and indefinitely experience.

Roxxi: That's true. Have you flown out by red sands? Like all the ATV? Yeah, 

Anthony: yeah, yeah. Yeah. I do. I used to fly on the east side a bit more often when one of our local he's a service member who recently was relocated to Korea. But he lived over there on the east side and we would fly over to Ray at sands and it's always fun to see their smiling, see their smiling faces when we fly over here.

Roxxi: That's pretty epic. Is there a resource or a handbook that you recommend for people that want to look into power motoring? 

Anthony: Yes. Yes. Absolutely. There's a book called the PPG Bible and I tell everybody who's [00:29:00] seriously interested in learning how to fly. Like it, you know, sometimes the investment of buying a is big, but in the meantime, they could purchase this one.

It's on Amazon. Just look at PBG Bible and it's got like really great images and the way that the author, his name is Jeff goin articulates, everything. It's super easy to understand and, and it'll, it'll put them so much closer to being able and ready to fly. If they, if they peek through this book, I usually have a co oh, I do have a copy of it.

I see it and see the book I'm going to show, I'm going to show your viewer. This is it. So it looks like this, and you got this old man on the front, not sure who he is inside. It. There's just so much good information on how to fly and the different components of it in different techniques. And so if somebody learns to fly with me, they ended up getting the book anyways.

But yeah, it's. That's such a, a great book for anybody to have. I have, I have [00:30:00] at this point, hundreds and hundreds of hours of flying, and I still look through the book just because. It's entertaining. And sometimes I refresh my memory with certain techniques. 

Roxxi: Yeah. It's like a all around encyclopedia.

Absolutely. Yeah. That's great. And so can you tell us about the name of your school and your current business and where they can book a flight with you or learn how to do this on their own? 

Anthony: Yeah. Cool. My chance to shine. West Texas Paramotor. And if people want more information, they can just go to flyeptx.com..

And on there, we have information on learning. Y if they want to sign up and learn how to fly with us, or just go for a tandem flight people can, we have this thing called the gift of light. So if they want to, maybe they don't want to fly, but they know one of their loved ones is, is has always wanted to fly.

They can purchase them like a gift voucher [00:31:00] for tandem flight with us. Yeah, I think, I think ultimately the other cool thing is if somebody thinks they want to get into flying, but they're not quite there, they want to experience it. First. The cool thing is, is if they book a tandem flight with us and then within six months, if they decided to get their training, we will put towards their training, the cost of the tandem flight.

So it's $150 for a 30 minute flight around the area. And it's somewhat instructional as well. If or if they just want to really experience it, they can just sit up front and soak it in. But if they're like, Hey, you know, I'm kind of on the fence. I want to see if this is something I want to do, then they can go flying with me and I'll hand them the controls and let them have a taste of what it's like to actually fly a promoter.

And then aside from that is, is the training. And the training takes about seven to 14 days. It's dependent on the weather as well as their own individual progress. But yeah, so in, in about two weeks, tops, maybe as little as one week, [00:32:00] somebody could be flying their very own flying machine. And, and we cover a lot.

We follow a syllabus from the USPPA that I mentioned earlier, which is. The organization that really governs the sport and keeps it safe. Yeah. And then if they have any questions about equipment pricing, stuff like that, they can always reach out to us. 

Roxxi: And then personally, do you have any I know you have a YouTube channel and Instagram and your own podcast, so feel free to shout those out as well.

So the viewers can find you later on. 

Anthony: Yeah. If somebody just goes on YouTube and types, my name, Anthony Vella Our email address, if they wanted to reach out to us is flyeptx@gmail.com.

And yeah, I'm always excited to talk about. I can 

Roxxi: tell it sounds like you're really passionate about it. So that's great that you're leaving a legacy and teaching this to other people to enjoy as well, especially like you said, in our beautiful city. I know you have a YouTube channel and Instagram and your own podcast, so feel free to shout those out as well.

So the viewers can [00:33:00] find you later on.

Anthony: Yeah. If somebody just goes on YouTube and types, my name, Anthony

Vella,

uh,

it'll come up and then you can choose from one of those flying videos and hopefully you get hooked because I do put a lot of effort into the YouTube stuff, but if somebody like just really wanting to get into the sport and they don't even want to pay for the tandem flight yet.

The podcast it's called the Paramotor Podcast. It's really creative now.

Yeah, The Paramotor Podcast and I have a. Guests come from all over the world. And they, they may be a manufacturer or the world famous Tucker Gott his been on our YouTube channel. He's like the number one celebrity in the sport. And, and just people who've done crazy things with paramotors to include somebody who flew to.

 And thousand feet, which is insane. There's no oxygen up there. He had to take an oxygen bottle and it's freezing cold up there, but he flew all the way up there. And we've had somebody who flew from San Diego all the way to Florida and then fly across the ocean [00:34:00] into south America and fly all the way back up to.

San Diego, which was 6,000 miles, flew on his pair motor. Absolutely crazy. But yeah, some really awesome adventures and just really insightful stuff on learning how to fly and everything else. It's about paramotering. Hence the name, the para motor podcast. 

Roxxi: Episodes and the production value is excellent very much.

And I did learn a lot too about it. So just hearing from the voices of your guests and other people that are actually doing this, it's just really inspiring. What's the highest you've flown, I guess you mentioned elevation earlier. 

Anthony: Yeah. Yeah. So I flown to 12,000 feet above sea level. Okay. Which. I actually only about, I've learned about 6,500 feet above, above the ground.

After that it all kind of blurs together because everything is just like, you know, as you're, as you're taking off and you're flying, you see big things, get a [00:35:00] little bit smaller and a little bit smaller until eventually the height difference is indistinguishable to like, it's like 5,000 feet above the ground.

It, it. Doesn't really, it just all starts to look like a Google earth image from really far backed out or scrolled out from the screen. But yeah, no one day somebody was saying like, I just hit 13,000 subscribers on YouTube and they're like, oh, you should fly to 13,000 feet. I was like, well, what if I make it to 50,000 subscribers?

One day I can keep up. 

Roxxi: That's not how any of this works. I'm sorry. We'll find something else. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for spending some time with us today and educating us on this really exciting sport and hobby. I really hope to see a flourish in the next few years, but of course, people doing it safely and enjoyably of course, and while protecting the environment at the same [00:36:00] time.

So anything else you'd like to add? If not, then thanks for so much for me here. Yeah, 

Anthony: thank you so much. It's been a, it's been an absolute pleasure getting to record with you. And I look forward to listening to more of your episodes as well, 

Roxxi: so much. All right, everyone. Have a great day. Thanks for listening.

You can now drop me a voicemail that might be aired. And if you turn up, you'll find the link in my Twitter and Instagram videos at M F M P Pod. To my YouTube channel by searching many faces, many places in one word. Lastly, make sure tap the follow button on your favorite podcasting. Have to stay tuned for new episodes.