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2.com
"Paramotoring Questions Answered"
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It is the safest thing you could possibly be in the air with!
Safety of an open parachute! Safety of a glider! The benefit of motorized
aircraft. Most people immediately associate reputation of parachuting with paragliding.
This is not parachuting! This is paragliding! The danger in parachuting is it must open
from being COMPLETELY collapsed. These must be completely opened before you can even get
off the ground. A paraglider is a specially designed parachute, engineered to function as
a glider. Functions like a hang glider. It typically has a 7:1 glide ratio. Another words,
foreword 7 ft. before you drop 1 ft. Also a paraglider has 150% surface area compared to
pilot weight as compared to a parachute to pilot weight. So it sets us down gently,
even more so than today’s advanced parachutes. Like today’s advanced designed
parachutes, these are Ram-air cell design. Air comes in the front intake cells opening,
but it has no exit, so it becomes pressurized wing. The material is called
‘rip-stop nylon’. It is sewn and reinforced in a special way to prevent and stop
tears. It is also ‘zero-perosity’ that means the ‘rip-stop nylon is like
plastic, in that you can’t blow any air through the material. Also each attachment is
only typically loaded with approx. 6 lbs. Yet rated and tested to hold 60 lbs. at each
attachment. Also majority of wings on market are independently tested and rated by AFNOR
(French testing agency) and DHV (German testing agency) for a number of 15 or so point of
safety such as full stall, asymmetrical, B-line stall, you name it. All wings certified
are guaranteed to open on own in under 2 seconds without pilot input to recover from ANY
of 15 or so paraglider test pilot induced situations.
Many people ask, or think, What if the motor goes out? Probably 80% of the paragliders sold and operated are used as paragliders only. Another words, without the motor all together. Most of the times they are flown from hill or mountainside without a motor all together, just like hang gliders are. Remember, it’s a paraglider (glider)! Powered paraglider, or paramotor, is a paraglider in addition to having a motor also.
Another important safety concept is the added weight of the motor and the added scoop the thrust a motor. Typically, the more weight under a paraglider equals the more "loaded" the wing is (we call it, the paraglider, a wing). The more "loaded" the wing is equals the more rigid the wing is. More rigid the wing, equals less likely to have a ruffle or collapse. Also the more maneuverable and responsive it is. With paragliding, the pilot pretty much flies directly under the wing. With paramotoring, with thrust, the push of the motor pushes the pilot out in front of directly below the wing, so the angle of ‘scoop’ is more. Wing is more loaded and front lip is even less likely to fold.
Since I have been flying paramotors, I’ve realized allot of safety, or lack thereof for aircraft’s nature. Most other aircraft are motor dependent. Motors go out. The can run out of gas, blow gaskets, fowl plugs, etc. With these, no problem. If you’re altitude is safe, just glide in and land like normal. Also many other aircraft have many "single point critical failure points" what that means if that point breaks, you die or come crashing. I’ve flown with lines ripped out, 3 cells blown out on one side, and it still flew and handled like usual and came back to land as usual. I’ve seen many paragliders fly safely straight and level with a 50% (pilot induced and held) collapse. I now almost always do wingovers (pilot comes over horizontal to wing) and even swing myself above the wing, or loop it- ALMOST EVERY TIME I FLY NOW for the last two years! With carefully chosen wing make/brand, I have no collapses or even ruffles. I used to have a reserve chute, but I stopped carrying it, because I really feel confident in the air without it.
The more you look into and fly these things the more you will see how inherently safe they are, and how you really can’t fall out of the sky!