| Author | Message | ||
     Geforce |
Anyone here ever dabbled in this activity? I'm researching it now and I'm going to give it a shot. There is so much room for "Erik Buell Style" innovation in the cages and motors it's not even funny. I could only hope EBR would eventually take up a side project and build an EBR Powered Paraglider complete with "Fuel in Frame", Pilot Ergonomics and weight distribution! One can only wish.. plus he could RACE them! I talked to Dean Adams about this and tried to convince him to weld a custom cage for me... the last time I approached him with a crazy idea he started his own Garage Based Muffler company. He still blames me for his lack of weekends and sleep!  I've also started a "GoFundMe" campaign to raise funds for this endeavor while I begin to save up and continue to research the sport. My goal is to "Return to Flight" as I can no longer parachute and handle the stress of lower body injury due to a military parachuting accident. So, how about it? Any Buellers dabble in PPG?! I'd like to hear about it. | ||
| Ourdee |
I had the money saved up for an auto gyro. Then I got married. I have been thinking of flat tops for the last 15 years. 26 mph seams to be the limit. Lots of room for improvements in the equipment I've looked at. Keep me in the loop. Especially if Dean goes all in. | ||
| Rocket_in_uk |
Yeah a good friend of mine took it up. He's ex Commando too. Very enthusiastic about it. Was fun helping him \ watching him fly off into the distance. He gave it up after a handful of years. Too many deaths. He didn't want to be one of them! Rocket in England | ||
| Jim2 |
Not to stomp on your thread but your in Houston now so come on out to Greater Houston Soaring Association. http://houstonsoaring.org We had a guy in my Soaring club that was a champion power (Message edited by jim2 on May 07, 2014) | ||
| Aesquire |
There's 2 basic types. One "the powered parachute" uses a fairly heavy buggy with engine & a low performance rectangular chute derived from skydiving "squares" and remote drop cargo chutes. Yes, a parachute you toss out the back of a C-130 5 miles up and 15 miles away ( more or less... depending ) that homes in on a GPS coordinate next to the waiting troops. The Powered Chute designs are setup to take off, cruise, and land at the same speed, usually about 26 mph. You steer with foot bars/pedals for left & right, ( you're pulling lines like any skydiving chute, but with the higher weight & forces leg power works better ) and control up & down with power. More...up, less.... down. So simple a chimp can learn. Upside is you have to be stupid to push it hard enough to mess up and crash, downside is it has one speed. High winds & powered chutes don't mix, and winds get stronger usually as you rise. If there's a 20 mph wind at 1000 feet, you can only do 6 mph against it. It's easy to find yourself downwind of takeoff, unable to get back before running out of gas. Still, slow, fun easy to learn and easy to pack on a small trailer. Rules for a license range from none for a single seat pt. 103 Ultralight, to private pilot's license or Sport Pilot for 2 seaters. The OTHER kind is powered paragliders. Paragliders are less rectangular and more elliptical with a higher aspect ratio ( area to wingspan. Albatross = high Aspect Ratio. Pigeon = low aspect ratio ) Paragliders use hand controls, toggles you pull like a skydiving parachute and you can control speed and turns. More control, better performance, but that comes at a price of higher required skill. There's more going on than in the simpler powered parachute. The variety of quirks this type has is best explained by an instructor & book, but short form is you can spin and do other moves that can partially or completely collapse the glider/chute in ways that don't usually happen in the slow big powered parachutes. Usually powered by a backpack "paramotor" with caged propeller, or mini-buggy to make take offs & landing easier. I've done both. I think the paragliders are more fun to fly, best analogy in Bikes is the Powered Parachute is like a 3 wheel Goldwing, and powered paragliders are like small sportbikes. Maybe darn good Vespas.  BOTH TYPES REQUIRE TRAINING IF YOU WANT TO LIVE TO TELL STORIES ABOUT IT. Easy to fly doesn't mean no judgment or skill. Knowing when not to fly is the highest wisdom there is. Ditto Gyrocopters, which look simple enough, but have their own quirks that can bite. If you get the airflow though the blades backwards, ( from above ) all the stability & aerodynamic stuff goes away, the rotor blades tend to chop the tail off, the gyrating ballistic mess then plummets..... in dry terms, unsurvivable. Still, if you learn how, Gyros laugh at wind, land on a dime, and are a royal hoot. Randomly grabbed references..... http://www.flyppc.com/ http://superflyinc.com/?gclid=COPkpoX2mr4CFU4R7Aod JSAAAw http://beachparagliding.com/?gclid=CPPd0aL2mr4CFUg Q7Aod6XwAeQ ( this belongs on the Skytoys thread methinks ) | ||
| Sifo |
I might consider something along these lines before a paraglider.  http://www.mosquitoamerica.com/MainInfo.html I don't really know much about them though. | ||
| Geforce |
Aesquire, thank you for the insight. I had no idea we had a Skytoys thread... Blake is going to kill me for not looking! Jim, I'll look into that group for sure. As far as expectations on the dangers of powered paragliding, I've been doing a ton of research and given my background nothing has stuck out as "this is incredibly dangerous". However; having spent my active duty career dismantling IEDs and jumping out of airplanes... perhaps my danger compass is permanently stuck on "That's Safe!". I have no desire to do silly things with this contraption... rather I want to return to flight and explore in a way that allows me to cross over the physical limitations. http://www.gofundme.com/Return-To-Flight ^ Check it out! | ||
| Aesquire |
Oh! a Skydiver! Ok, then go for the paraglider. You jumped "squares" right? So you understand brakes & how they work. Paragliders are only more dangerous in terms of the ability to more easily make it maneuver more radically than a powered 'chute. More control = more responsibility. It makes no difference what you're in if you fly into a granite building. More control IMHO means you have a better shot at avoiding one. The power units for hang gliders like the Mosquito and the Doodlebug ( nearly the same idea, but supine instead of prone ) work well. The next step "up" in weight and ease of use is the Trike. ( microlight, nanolight, etc. ) Since the knees won't take the stress of hang gliding anymore, ( damnit ) I'm looking at a light soaring trike, like Northwing's ATF, or the Dragonfly... ( or about 5 other nearly identical designs from Australia to Russia.... I'm inclined to Go American, Aussie Or Brit because of the likelihood of political issues ) http://www.northwing.com/solairus-trike.aspx Check out the vids on the Skytoys thread, it's new and not a lot has been posted yet. It's hard to get a smaller, more portable flying machine than a powered paraglider. When the paraglider first came out we all marveled at how much easier it was to carry one around. A Hang Glider takes a roof rack and you don't want to leave it parked there while you're at work. Sailplane + trailer, ditto. A paraglider goes in the trunk. The Engine package takes more room, sure, but still fits in a compact car. Heck, you might be able to wear it on the Bike. That'd make a fun conversation with the police. Training is really needed to get the most out of these things. When you can explain "big ears" and know how to avoid of cause them, then, weed hopper you are ready to go.  | ||
| Aesquire |
Try this one Sifo. A little pricey... Carbon fiber is like that.  | ||
| Sifo |
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| Natexlh1000 |
I saw some seriously scary video of a powered chute guy being hit by a sudden gust that totally collapsed the wing. I don't think the guy recovered. Gust must have come from above/behind. It deflated the little pockets in the structure. Ultralights have always fascinated me since I was a kid but there was a guy that lived down the street from me that broke pretty much everything in a crash. Up til that point, I thought he had a sweet deal with a back yard runway. I was up in my uncle's Cessna when I was a kid and that's pretty much my lower limit on airplane size! Here is the remnants of the guy's little airstrip: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.0956041,-71.6918487,624m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en Trees have started growing in there. He used to mow the entire thing like a huge lawn. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
For my 50th birthday Mrs G got me a ride in a powered paraglider. 3 wheel buggy with a parafoil to hold it up & a pusher motor to make it go. One of the most fun things I've ever done in my life. | ||
| Aesquire |
I've seen and in one case heard people lose their lives in more than one activity. ( I heard the skydiver impact 40 feet behind me as I was pulling parachutes out of the van.) I was safety nazi ( officer on the paperwork ) for our collegiate skydiving team at The nationals. We figured out the cause before the police arrived. Flyers are funny that way. We like to learn from other's mistakes. Used to freak people out when they found me reading accident reports. Still does. I've pulled gliders out of trees and on one memorable occasion had to learn how to climb down out of a tree that I didn't climb up. My fault entirely. It's easy to get spooked when that kind of thing happens. Small slow aircraft need the same attitudes and care that big fast ones do. To quote one of the great movie pilots. "I'm a leaf in the wind" | ||
| Sifo |
Ultralight aircraft often kill their pilots, not from the severity of the crash, but from puncturing him/her with broken aluminum tubes that make up the structure. At least that's what I was told by a survivor of such a crash. It's probably no more dangerous than riding a motorcycle. | ||
| Geforce |
"It's probably no more dangerous than riding a motorcycle." ^ding! This is my take on it... granted, brushing your teeth can be potentially deadly under the right conditions. | ||
| Aesquire |
Careful re-read on the OP tells me landing gear is good. Here's a couple of landing gear options. This one started as a kite buggy for zooming around beaches and dry lake beds. ( got neither around here ) I'm not all that impressed with the shock absorbing qualities, but stainless steel construction and flexible engine & wing options are nice. http://www.trikebuggy.com/about.htm This one got very good reviews a few years back, but seems to be in flux business wise. Also nice to be able to hook to a paraglider or hang glider wing. I read the construction manual on this one, and it's pretty simple. It's on my short list, depending on if it's in business or not.... http://flyforfun.net/ Note that Rotax ( yes, the Rotax of 1190R, Ski Doo, etc. ) no longer makes the 447 or 503 engines. There's a lot of websites still offering them on aircraft, but they just don't exist anymore new. Last I looked Rotax only make the 582 ( liquid cooled 2 cyl 2 stroke, 65 hp ) and the 912 family. ( liquid cooled 4 cyl 4 stroke, 80-100 hp. or 914 turbocharged 115 hp. All are not cheap. the 914 is really not cheap. Also keep in mind that better than half the companies that make this stuff went out of business around 2008 when new lawyer sponsored liability laws hit. Not to be political about it, but F-U D.C. Sifo, the "punctured with aluminum tubes" bit is mostly urban myth. Tree limbs? That's another story. Those bastards are deadly.  Don't expect Nascar crash cage protection out of a flying lawn chair. My experience with the breed is that the tubing framework usually does it's job and fails while absorbing crash energy, saving the pilot. It can happen that you get punctured by broken structure. That happens in other vehicles too. Proper design helps, but I've seen weird stuff happen. An Aussie STOL plane, the "real" kind, all metal construction, crashed after hitting a down line on a power pole. ( damn things are invisible ) hit on one wing and rolled it up like a toothpaste tube. Then the nose wheel hit and crunched the engine area a bit, but everyone inside walked away with just harness bruises. I've seen nasty looking piles of aluminum tubing with the pilot standing next to it. I've even been the pilot on one of those. and. I had a buddy "have to dump" his Kawasaki ( Yeah, I would have used brakes, myself ) and naturally the bike objected by crushing his wrist under the engine guard. ( bikes HATE it when you dump them, and will get revenge if they can ) Chased him down, and got him. Like I said above knowing when not to fly is wisdom. Flying an airplane that lands at 30 mph in gusty 30 mph winds is not bright. ( that's when you pull out the Gyroplane ) | ||
| Ourdee |
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| Aesquire |
ARRRRR! | ||
| Sifo |
That video kind of reminded me of an incident I saw once when I used to windsurf on Maui. Kite boarding was just getting started. They basically used a big heavy duty stunt kite. When learning to handle a kite, they can be very easy to manage until you suddenly get them powered up. At that point, they can easily lift you right off the ground, and drag you places you just don't want to go. So one day we were at the beach in Kehei and someone was learning how to handle his kite. He got it powered up, lost control and crashed it into the road gift wrapping a car doing about 40 mph! Exciting is an understatement! He had lot's of cuts, bruises, and raspberries, but at least nothing broken. I've also seen someone dragged across the rocky jetties they build on beaches to control erosion. On Maui the rocks are really nasty BTW. I knew a guy that went down kite surfing in the surf. He got a line wrapped around a finger. Then the kite got powered up again. That's when I learned the medical term "degloved". | ||
| Ourdee |
I like to fly kites and have homemade, along with buying had quite a few. I've been picked up and dropped by a couple of them. The first was a 12' wide delta while overseas. Then by a 5' by 6' StratoScoop III that would snap the 250 pound test cord I flew it with over 1/2 the times I flew it. After the first time it picked me up, I'd wear a climbing harness anchored to the ground or nearby trees. Chased it two miles one time. Neighbors always came out to watch. None of them would hold the kite though. Got caught by a tailwind once while landing a hang glider Northeast of Vegas. Sliding face first through the dessert ain't fun. But I still want to fly. | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Ordee, I too have a StratoScoop! I use 500lb line on mine, when I fly it I anchor it to the trailer hitch on the car.. Man can you hoist some line laundry with that thing. My fist "big" kite was one of the original Hawaiian Team stunt 2 line kites. I used 200 lb Kevlar line on it before switching to Spectra. That thing would hurt you with anything over 15 mph winds. On a low pass it would drag you across the ground. I used to wear spikes to keep from getting dragged around. I too have chased many a kite when the line was cut by another kite. Always fun trying to explain to a stranger why you wanted to climb one of their trees... Gotta break out the kite bag, it's been way too long.. rad | ||
| Sifo |
Back in the late '80s I was fortunate enough to tryout with the Chicago Fire Kite Team. I didn't manage to make the cut, but it was great spending some time with them, learning some of their routines. They were flying Magnum Opus kites back then. It's a blast with a team of four kites, lines all twisted together, then undoing the tangle. It takes a lot more running than many people might think. I should get out the kite bag again someday. I also had a big 4 line square wing kite that could easily lift me up in a 20 mph gust. Still nothing compared to being harnessed into a kiteboarding kite. Those things have a lot of power! | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Tom, I remember Chicago Fire! They were a heck of a team. I tried team flying with a friend, it was WAY more difficult that I though it would be. Kite tuning was super important so they all flew the same. We also had to match air time on all the kites to even up the "blow out" factor on each kite. Fun stuff. | ||
| Aesquire |
http://aerolight.com/A/index.php/products/powered- paragliding/trikes found some more. these look pretty state of the art. Geforce, are you going wheels or feet? |
