Maren Ludwig Team Parajet Pilot

Name :: Maren Ludwig
DOB :: You know better to ask...
Hometown :: Warrenton, Oregon
Paramotor :: Parajet
Wing :: Ozone Addict 24 / Ozone Viper 24
Year's flying :: Started flying PG in 1995, PPG in 2011

What got you hooked on flying?: I took a tandem flight with my brother’s friend and that one flight absolutely totally changed my life forever. Once I landed I immediately knew that my life would never be the same again, couldn't stop thinking about it or dreaming about it at night and was driving everybody around me absolutely crazy. My friends thought I had lost my mind and I can only imagine how much I was driving them crazy talking about it non-stop. Started practicing kiting with my brother immediately who at that point had been a pilot for several years and signed up for lessons at the closest school which was about 5 hours away within a couple of weeks as well. Living in Hamburg, northern Germany at the time, wasn't really convenient for pursuing the sport since that part of the country is pretty much completely flat with just a couple little cliffs in the area to do some coastal soaring. I pretty quickly started thinking about moving somewhere much more convenient for paragliding like France or Spain. Did as much flying as I could based out of my hometown Hamburg for the next year or so and in 97 jumped on the opportunity to do a job in Oregon/USA after researching paragliding in that area. I've been happily living here ever since not only flying but also teaching paragliding as well becoming an instructor and tandem pilot around 2000. After meeting my husband Brad at one of the local flying sites we pretty much became inseparable sharing the passion for the sport and the outdoors in general and we've been flying and teaching as a team for the last ten or so years.

I'm so totally happy and feel so lucky that I can fly all the time and that I can share my passion for the sport with our students. It's so special to be around so many happy smiling faces all the time when students get their first taste of the sport.

Where has been your favourite place to fly?: there's so many incredible places around here locally and outside of the US that I love that it's really hard to name a favourite. Within a couple of hours of where I live there's some really incredible coastal flying sites with some stunningly beautiful coast line. There's also some sand dunes locally that make me just silly and giddy to fly when you're just swooping through the sand tearing up that dune. A few hours inland there's some pretty cool desert flying sites that give you a totally different kind of flying. And there's so many fantastic flying sites inside and outside the US that I had a chance to fly over the years that are all pretty magic in their own little way.

Now I'm really looking forward to doing a ton of motor flying seeing and exploring all those sites that you normally can't see or get to because there's no launch sites nearby.

What wing do you paramotor with?: Been flying different gliders for motoring including my Addict and the Ozone Speedster, but now that I've got my sporty Zenith I'm looking forward to getting an Ozone Viper. That glider has some really great features for motoring and it has a nice sporty feel to it which I love. As much as I love the opportunity to fly above beautiful scenery and do some sightseeing I really love to bank it up and feel some G's.