Within 2 days, BlackHawk Paramotors USA was featured on Fox 40 News and CBS’s Good Day Sacramento. Gary Gelfand of Fox 40 News Sacramento brought his enthusiastic crew out to the opening day (April 18th) of the 2013 BlackHawk Ranch Fly-In. Live broadcasts hit 4 times throughout the morning, prompting a wave of spectators to make their way out to the event. Mike Robinson of BlackHawk Paramotors stated “We have a better first-day turnout than any of the Fly-Ins in the past. My phone started blowing up with texts and calls from customers who watched the report. It’s really exciting for us.” Rob Whittaker of BlackHawk’s Marketing Team commented “It was like pulling teeth to cold-call Fox News and get them out here. It’s a long drive for them and they wanted to make sure it would be an exciting story. After the coverage, the station manager contacted me and said they were extremely happy with the outcome of the story.”

The following day, April 19^th, BlackHawk’s Paraplegic student Russel Metlitzky was interviewed on CBS’s Good Day Sacramento. Russel is a phenomenon in the Powered Paragliding community. He was paralyzed from the chest down in a motorcycle accident back in 2000, and never let his tragedy prevent him from following his dreams. Russel took the opportunity to mention the Fly-In and his great experience training at the BlackHawk Ranch. This again caused phones to start ringing and more spectators to head out to the event. “We really hope this helps get the sport out there to more people. We have changed so many people’s lives in this industry and that’s really what it’s all about,” said Mike Robinson. Here are links to some of the reports on the news stations – make sure to check them out before they are not available anymore:

YOUTUBE VIDEO: http://youtu.be/VTXJYVxBQT4

NEWS REPORTS:

http://gooddaysacramento.cbslocal.com/video/8791429-paragliding-paraplegic/