23 Sept 2024
Just Wanna Fly -163. Molly the Pom takes Christian, in Wisconsin (Skydiving & Paramotoring) Just Wanna Fly 1.01K subscribers Analytics Edit video 15 Share
My name is Christian Cliffgard, my pomeranian canine is Molly.
I live in Elkhorn, WI, and grew up in East Troy, WI, next to the airport in East Troy.
I am 51, Molly is 11 years old. I am married, my wife is Deb, and we also have 2 other dogs (Winter and Javi, both are heeler mixes.) I am an independent business owner/operator, performing tile installations mainly, and consulting for some companies and architects out there. Just trying to keep it simple. My background is in building construction, light engineering, and being resourceful in fixing vehicles.
I grew up in the country, near a stream and small forest. As kids, my pops had us learn a bit of wild life, and we also had horses growing up. When my pops bought a new horse, I would test him/her out in the field. We also raised a raccoon from a baby (eyes not open yet,) to an adult. The raccoon was one of the gang of us kids. My family consisted of my 2 brothers and 1 sister. We also raised a hawk from a hatchling, rescued an owl, and had some cats and a couple dogs growing up. Growing up, being the oldest, my pops always utilized me to work on vehicles, home projects and more, so I would learn, and gain a better knowledge of building and fixing things.
Our entire life was under the landing approach of the East Troy Airport, and we would see planes, helicopters, skydivers, and specialty craft every so often on their way to EAA Oshkosh.
After high school in a small town, I got into college, and did some construction as well, which was part of my degree I was pursuing. In the end, I ended up making my leap in construction management, without finishing my degree, or the last half year of school. I had also went through an officer program for the USMC, which gave you the option to join as an officer upon graduation, without having to be obligated, since it wasn't a scholarship or program to fund my schooling. I passed the program, but in the end, it wasn't for me in the long term, so I accepted an honorable discharge for the program I completed.
After school, my activities included whitewater kayaking, rodeo boat style, motorcycles, a little on mountain bikes.
I had always been interested in motorcycles and flying. I got super interested in motorcycles after watching the movie TRON. As for flying, the steven speilberg movie '1941' with Wild Bill Kelsoe (John Belushi,) as the crazy army air corps P-40 pilot, is what initially caught my eye to flying, then of course STAR WARS was the next one to hit home.
In 2001, after many attempts to get friends to go skydiving, and everyone backing out, I went by myself, and after that first jump (which was AFF, Accelerated Freefall,) I was hooked, and kept going to attain my license. Years later, 2008, I actually rented the house on the dropzone in East Troy for about 8 years, before getting married, and merging into one household.
In 2013, I lost my dog of 18 years to old age, and within 2 days, I looked into Molly through a breeder in Foster City, Michigan (the UP.) She was 4 weeks at the time, and I came back 3 weeks later to bring her home. She became my shadow, and keeps me in her site at all times. She has a bit of separation anxiety, so I take her almost everywhere. I had her riding motorcycles within 3 months. After a year, and being fully grown, I started constructing a harness system for her to skydive with me. After having it all completed and set with doggles, we went, and she was secure , as long as she was with me. That first jump, she thought it would be like a car window, but then we jumped and she froze for a couple seconds, trying to figure this out. After that, she pushed her paws against the air flow of freefall, and just started looking around. After we landed, she was excited, and running circles around me, trying to figure out what was next.
A few years later, 2018, I started looking into paramotoring, as I saw it on the net, and was interested. Shortly after, I found an instructor, and started training to become an ultrlight pilot. The training was easy, because I had over 10 years experience in the air under a canopy/wing. Molly went to all my training, and once I was ready to solo fly, I just kept on going, eventually taking Molly all the time I could. Only time she is not up is when it is under 45 degrees on the ground.
After flying for years, I started going to Fly-ins, meeting others in this discipline, and enjoying the culture. (Every sport has a culture to it, like kayaking or skydiving..) You can talk about the sport with minimal detail, and others in that sport understand you without too much explanation.
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