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Chapter 4.8 Paramotor Flyer Paramotor for animal rights by flying over your opponents to learn what they are up to. Radio instructions to a ground team to close in on them. Take photos and videos. Your opponents could be shooters, trappers, rustlers and anyone holding an illegal event in the open air. Find and survey large animals, like whales or deer, by the sea or over terrain too difficult for land transport. Just don a paramotor and fly (or use a drone, see Drone Flyer). A paramotor is basically a mobile parachute (technically called a wing). It has a harness below it and a little seat at the bottom bearing a small motor driving a propeller for ease of take-off and to push you forward. It is the simplest and cheapest form of powered flight. A paramotor is easy to learn to fly and a new one costs about the same as a large motorbike. Although some bodies have classified paramotoring as a dangerous sport, it is said to be the safest way of getting airborne, and safer than riding a motorbike. Should the motor on your paramotor go dead, all that happens is that you glide and sink slowly to the ground, because your parachute is already fully deployed. Getting Aloft You lay out the wing on the ground behind you, start the motor, strap the harness to your back and run a few steps. The wing inflates and gently carries you off the ground. Then you slip onto your seat and away you fly. Take off distance is up to eight metres (25 feet) with a comparable landing distance. Living on the edge of town you need only carry your paramotor to a suitable field where you can launch yourself into the air. Otherwise, a paramotor is small enough to put in the back of a car and you can drive it somewhere else to go flying. Once airborne you can fly up to 40 kph (25 mph). You can fly on long cross-country powered-flights or turn the motor off and glide silently, restarting the motor in the air any time you like. Increasing the motor’s speed makes you climb, decreasing it makes you sink. You steer by pulling on special lines attached to the wing; pull on the left lines to go left, pull on the right lines to go right, pull on both sides to slow down. An alternative way of steering, for when you really need both hands free for filming, is to fit a tricycle undercarriage to the paramotor and press against its foot bars using your feet. You can buy a tricycle undercarriage from a small number of paramotor-makers. A tandem paramotor may be more suitable than a solo paramotor if you need to concentrate entirely on flying, in which case you will take an observer/camera operator with you. A tandem is more expensive and less manoeuvrable than the solo craft, but then stability is an advantage when flying for aerial observation. Learning to Fly a Paramotor Paramotoring is largely unregulated by the aviation authorities in most countries, hence you will possibly have no need for a licence to fly a paramotor. Generally there is nothing to stop you learning to fly a paramotor, like the early pioneers of flight who had no one to instruct them. As an alternative to self-instruction, some paramotor clubs offer to teach novices. They may give you a minimum of 25 hours coaching spread over several days and offer you the hire of one of their paramotors plus flying equipment. On successfully completing a course they may give you a certificate that could be validated by a national or international body. The cost of a course can work out as equivalent to the price of a new paramotor. However, no matter how you learn you still have to go solo - fly alone on your first flight - because no one else can fly the machine for you. What You Need Prerequisites for flying a paramotor?
Advantages of a Paramotor
Goin, Jeff. Powered Paragliding Bible. Airhead Creations. 2018. Whittall, Noel. Paramotoring From the Ground Up: a comprehensive guide. Airlife Publishing: England. 2008. ›› To Entries & Home |
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