Weston133

Hello, I have been looking around at different paramotor units for a while and am wondering what the main advantages and disadvantages are between the different kinds of props? From what I take it now, two blade props are the most gas efficient but three and four blade props are quieter? Am I correct in that statement? Which kind of prop would be the quietest? Which the most gas efficient?

Thank you TerriB! I will send him an Email for sure, probably later tonight. I have been looking all over for a good instructor / school and they are really hard to find! The few I have found really don't have a lot of information on their websites, or they lack a website all together. If anyone knows of any other good instructors around Kentucky, Ohio, or Cincinnati, please let me know! I would like to shop around and consider my options. I also noticed how darn expensive training is, it's almost as much as a chute!

Hello there SimonW! Thank you for the welcome. You are the owner of this website, correct? From your experience, where are the best places to look in order to find an instructor near me? I've Googled it many times and I cannot seem to find anyone close. Every instructor I find is about 6 hours or more away from me. Is there a website where instructors are listed that would make things easier on me? Do you have a lot of members here on your forums from the United States?

Hello, I have begun saving up some money to buy a PPC. I came upon PPC totally by chance on YouTube about a year ago and I have not been able to get it off my mind ever since. I have always wanted to fly, but didn't have the money to get a pilots license or aircraft for that matter. However, with some saving, PPC's are right up my alley! I have just decided to save up enough for my first PPC and I plan to buy a good one. I am looking for something that is reliable, easy to maintain, quiet, and with good safety features. My projected budget for everything as of yet is $10,000 and should be able to have that money in about two years. In the meantime I will be researching and learning everything I can on PPC's. I live in Northern Kentucky just South of Cincinnati in the United States. What are some pointers you would give me that would help kick start my learning? Also, what brands and models of PPC would you recommend? What kind of wing should I start with? I am not too interested in flying fast, I imagine myself as more of a slow stable flyer. Any advice would be much appreciated!

I understand economics, and I realize flying is different from driving and that manufacturing the product is different. Though, my argument still seems sound in the overall value of a car vs a paramotor. Also, one way to increase demand is to reduce the selling price.

I have been looking into purchasing a powered paraglider for quite some time now but am finding it very hard to justify the cost with myself. Everywhere I'm looking, it costs between $6,000 - $7,000 (£3,780 - £4,410 / €4,800 - €5,600) for the paramotor and another $2,000 - $3,000 (£1,260 - £1,890 / €1,600 - €2,400) for the parachute. So in total, it will be right around $9,000 (£5,670 / €7,200) to buy a powered paraglider. So basically, it will cost me about the same amount of money to buy a powered paraglider as it would to buy a decent used car. Looking into how the engines are manufactured and everything, it doesn't seem like a very good deal at all. I still have a rather large craving to fly though. So ultimately my question is, why does it cost so much for a powered paraglider? Most of the engines I've seen in PPG's are two stroke engines. This type of engine is rather simple as it has only one piston doing all the work and is air cooled in most circumstances. The typical used car for the same price has a much more complicated engine with four pistons or more, are typically liquid cooled, and just require more material and parts in general than a two stroke engine. The frame of a PPG is essentially some metal tubing around the propeller from what I can see. So I find it hard to believe that the frame of a PPG even comes close to using a tenth of the material the frame / shell of a car does. In general, a used car has a more complicated four piston engine, takes about ten times more material to make the frame, has many more complicated systems that come standard (like air conditioning / heating systems, radio systems, wiring for many more lights / sensors, ect), and just has many many more little parts throughout it than a PPG does, yet a PPG costs just as much. So why do PPG's cost so much. I have a decent understanding of how most businesses work and operate, and I know the basics of economics. However, it would cost much less to buy all the machinery needed to produce a PPG than it would to produce a car, and you would need much less manpower to do so as well. I also understand the supply of PPG's is pretty low compared to cars, but so is the demand. So I guess I'm just having a very hard time wrapping my head around where the cost is coming from...? I know PPG is more popular in and around the United Kingdom than it is here in the United States, which is why I did my conversions to the other pricing formats. Hope my math is correct.