Board of Directors

ASC - PPG BFI 

Baz is a powered paragliding pilot with a passion for learning and adventures.  In her role on the Board of Directors of Aurora PPG as Vice President of Strategy, Ghada shares her experience as a management consultant and instructor, focusing on strategy and project management.  Having grown up in Eqypt in a family of aviators, she is determined to help create a community for female pilots where they can feel empowered and independent.

USPPA - PPG 1, 2, & 3 Foot Launch

USHPA - P3

Maria Blandin grew up on the coast of south Texas. She currently resides in Louisiana with her pup Lyla. She has a passion for aviation and adventures. With a 10 year history in the health/dental field Maria now enjoys being a flight attendant. She has been blessed to travel all around the world pursuing her love of powered paragliding and paragliding.

Nurturing a high-drive personal nature,  Maria experiences a healthy and active lifestyle weather that be in the gym, yoga, cycling or long walks with her pup.

With high energy and a motivational style of leadership Maria loves to empower and inspire women through aviation. 

USPPA - PPG 1 Foot Launch

I was born and raised in South Texas with my parents and sister. To this day, my father is one of my biggest inspirations – he was an athlete, veteran, bodybuilder and pastor while my mother was a stay at home mom and church bookkeeper. I had a very healthy Christian upbringing and my parents gave me a lifelong love of health and fitness. They also cultivated my love for God and taught me to be resilient and determined… with their support, I knew that I could achieve anything. I was very adventurous as a child, a love that has stayed with me – I am always outdoors even today. 

I spent many years working in the health and fitness industry before becoming a mother. I married at 25 and had two amazing children and cherished my time as a mom raising my kids. I divorced at 47, and my entire life changed. I never thought I would be divorced and I knew instantly that I had to go a different way. Everything was different – I even thought differently. I dove back into my fitness roots and started working out like crazy, and took the first job I could find as a caregiver for an elderly couple. A year later, I was ready to start my own business as a personal trainer. I knew that my purpose was to make a difference in the lives of other people.

I never in a million years thought I would be a paramotor pilot! After my divorce, I was ready to take on new things. I would have never pursued powered paragliding -- I didn’t even know it existed! It found me… I didn’t go looking for this adventure, but I was ready. While walking my dog, an instructor came over and explained the sport and offered me a tandem ride. I couldn’t wait! Three days later, I went up on my first tandem flight at the beach and I was HOOKED.

After a painful divorce, and being numb for years, once I was in the air, I could truly feel my emotions again. It was a life-changing, incredible experience that I could have never imagined. I had also suffered from a fear of heights for years, but flying helped me face that fear and beat it. Then, I took the classes and learned to fly solo. I enjoy the freedom that I can only find in the air. I love it all – my feet coming off the ground, the wind in my face, the open air. Flying is challenging but it has built my confidence in ways that I still can’t believe. I launched my first solo flight and landed as a different person. 

Health and fitness has been a lifelong passion for me. I have owned my current personal training business for four successful years now and I am expanding my operation to include life coaching so that I can truly help others live their best life… I help my clients with each area of their lives:  mentally, physically and spiritually. I teach people how to care about themselves and also how to really be in tune with what they really want in life. I teach them how to truly live and not just exist.

I am inspired by second chances… my second chance and helping others find their second chances. My second chance at a whole new life inspires me. It makes me want to give it my all and not hold anything back. It makes me want to shoot for the stars and live my dream. My dad also inspired me, He was a badass and a go-getter and he didn’t care what people thought. He was his own man and he thought for himself and he taught me to live the same way. I am truly grateful for him.

I’m beyond blessed to have a beautiful life, two incredible children, an incredible daughter-in-law, and a new grandson!

USPPA - PPG 1 & 2 Foot Launch

Susan Ray is an outdoor enthusiast that currently resides in Wake Forest, NC with her husband Kevin. Together they have four children and two grandchildren.

Susan was born and raised in Minnesota. She graduated from Augsburg College (now  University) in Minneapolis, MN.    It was at Augsburg that she began her 25 year long career in higher education administration.  The majority of her years were at Duke University, which she left in the Fall of 2020.

Since then she has been focusing on her health, learning to fly, Onewheel riding, and ways to help others spread their wings.   

USPPA - PPG Foot Launch Instructor

USPPA - PPG 1,2,& 3 Foot Launch

I was born and raised in Austin, Texas and learning to fly saved my life.  As a young girl I was troubled. Bullied in school, and had very few  friends. In my adult life I’ve had to endure two mentally and physically abusive relationships, depression and low self confidence or esteem. I was at “rock-bottom” and was ready to hit the delete button on the film of my life. I felt unwanted, uncared for, and unloved. It seemed I had no real friends and no real family.   

I went on a tandem flight with Travis, at Lonestar Paramotor and as soon as we lifted off the ground, I knew I had to learn how to fly on my own! I had no prior aviation experience or any family that were aviators so, at the beginning, I struggled to understand aviation and I definitely struggled to take off in a paramotor.  Nevertheless I was determined to fly and it was the best decision I ever made.  I am now surrounded by amazing and genuine people that I call my “sky family”. My friends have multiplied ten-fold and I am the first person in my family lineage to go airborne. I am now a Certified PPG Foot Launch Instructor through the USPPA and am beyond lucky and newly excited about life and my new endeavors.   

I want to extend a special thank you to Ron Toran, owner of Lonestar  Paramotor -and great friend- and Travis L. for holding my hand as long as it took just so I could get into the sky!   

I always say that flying is the ice cream and the community is the cherry on-top! 

USPPA - PPG 1 & 2 Foot Launch

USPPA - PPG 1 & 2 Wheel Launch 

ASC - PPG BFI

Wendy Weaver grew up in Alaska, where she met her husband, Justin. They’ve been married

now for 29 years in November. She moved to Pennsylvania after having her daughter Taylor,

who has joined Wendy at Weaver Wireless Consultants LLC.

Wendy first worked at Verizon Wireless for 16 years and helped the company start a division

that taught customers how to use their services better. When they bought AOL in 2015, Verizon

downsized and Wendy’s department was let go. Wendy was determined to use the knowledge and skills she had to move forward with starting her own company. Weaver Wireless Consultants LLC started in April 2017, to continue helping people. She began in her home town of Williamsport, PA and began to grow quickly, needing to hire Alisha McKinley in 2018 to help her grow. She then went to a second location, working in The Villages, Florida.

She has a strong work ethic and believes in helping her customers get what they need. Wendy is dedicated to helping the communities that she lives in and participates in many community services. Currently, Wendy is involved in the following groups:

• Member – Montoursville, PA Rotary

• Member – The Villages, Florida Rotary

• Member – RVSPG (River Valley Senior Providers Group)

• Member – Women’s Business Luncheon

• Member – Williamsport-Lycoming, PA Chamber

• Member – Milton, PA Chamber

• Vice Chair – The BalloonFest Air Show & So Much More in Williamsport, PA

• Board Member – Aurora PPG

In 2018, Wendy received The Emerging Business Award.

In March of 2021 Wendy completed PPG training with Aviator in Lake Wales, Florida. Wendy loves flying her Flash Cruiser Moster 185 Trike - she learned foot launching her equipment but chooses and prefers to fly her trike set up due to having had lower L4 & L5 back surgery several years back.