HangTen

The expression "overly concerned" is extremely subjective. Who decides how much concern is too much or not enough? That's not a healthy attitude imo. I also am a private instrument rated pilot for 35 years with a commercial sign off in my logs. NEVER would I take that attitude for myself or my passengers. I'm "that" pilot who would question de-icing ground procedures and recheck fuel after filling up. And I'm not ashamed of that thoroughness. Each flight is proceeded with an extensive pre-flight check of every possible variable and in depth weather analysis of the planned route. I also snow ski, am a motorcyclist, scuba dive and work in a potentially hazardous industry.....and in all of those and my nearly 60 years my "safety driven" attitude has been a part of it. So far so good. As for PPG, I would offer the opposite advice.....if you are NOT that safety driven, and NOT that concerned with equipment failure then this is not the sport for you. The more fatalities and injuries, the worse for the sport overall. Overconfidence kills more pilots than their "over concern" for safety. There are old pilots, and there are bold pilots, but there are no old bold pilots. (I would add that there are few old pilots who disregard or diminish safety). I may be new to this sport, but certainly not new to aviation. And just for kicks, I'll add that Aerospace Engineering was my minor. It could well be the "engineer" in me that is the root of my concerns. Just my opinion.....we all have one

ok. Still waiting for the final report on the PPG death 2 weeks ago in Arcadia Florida USA. I know it's rare, but so are plane crashes yet they happen. And too often it's due to something that got overlooked. A failed carabiner under 1000 ft is probably one of those non-survivable catastrophic failures. Your life literally hangs on their integrity. Maybe someday a double carabiner system will become standard as a safety backup. Redundancy. It's actually the exact reason air travel is as safe as it is. Food for thought.

Someone died two weeks ago in Arcadia Florida USA and eye witness reports say that the paramotor took a violent fall on one side before plunging to the ground from 300 - 400 feet. No time to deploy a reserve unfortunately. Still under investigation but one person who saw the wreckage seemed to suggest he also thought it could be a carabiner failure. Stop for one moment and in your mind, go through what would actually happen if ONE carabiner suddenly failed.....you will fall from the sky in a hurry. Perhaps this thread will encourage someone to check theirs and potentially avert a disaster. There is absolutely no guarantee that any given Carabiner will not have a manufacturing flaw or other weakness that causes sudden failure, even if it is a rare occurrence. Again, I certainly wouldn't want to be that ONE.

Well, even though few have failed, would you want to be that one? I Googled Carabiner failures and they are frequently reported with climbers. It would be my guess that hanging a full grown person plus a 40-50lb paramotor and the jerks and jars that go with them also puts a lot of stress on them. So, is there any reason you could not double them up and use two instead of one per side? Seems like really cheap good insurance if so.

Hello, I was today reading of an incident where a PPG pilot was involved in a fatal accident and while the exact cause has not yet been determined or published, some suspect carabiner failure. My question is, it is possible (or safe) to use more than one Carabiner where the risers attach to the PPG frame or attaching points? Could you use two carabiners on each side for example? Would it be physically possible? My reasoning may be faulty, but explainable. If a carabiner fails at low altitude, you will have little if any chance to deploy a chute. Having at least two would ensure that even if one failed, a second should still hold. Also, if there are two, the stress on each one would be theoretically halved.

I'm just dipping my toes into the sport also. YouTube is your friend. 1000's of videos covering most everything, including a good one by Tucker Gott on BUDGET PARAMOTORS. I believe Tucker's in Jersey. Maybe you can hook up with him and his buds. Trusted wisdom says do not pay less than about $4000 for a motor and $2000 for a wing generally speaking. There are many who have either self trained or got some minimal training then experienced friends helped them the rest of the way. Find a local group of friendly paramotor pilots, learn where they meet and go make friends. That's what I'm doing. I'm an instrument rated private pilot so I have considerable flight experience and know the FAR's somewhat already but a paramotor is aa totally different game. I suspect I will largely self train with hopefully some help from friends I meet along the way. Buy a few of the good books on the topic. I have and they are really helpful. Learn all about the wing and the lines and connections before you ever get near one. I plan to do a good bit of ground kiting before attaching a motor. That said, many will tell you there is no substitute for advanced, professional training. Your life may depend on it. Good luck!

Has Woody ever done a video without doing wing overs? I'm going to call him "Wingover-Woody" haha. Good videos btw.

Thanks for the pics Andy! Great Job! Looks like you used aluminum tubing? Those wheels have got to be great for landing. Just shows what you can do when you put your mind and energy into it. I'm inspired. My biggest dilemma is knowing how to create the motor mountings and getting the glider mounts positioned properly.

Anyone built their own motor frame assembly?

Nice! Pics? I would assume you bought the motor first, so that you could make sure the motor could properly mount to your custom trike?

Yes, I bought the book. Thanks

Pretty much gave up on Fresh Breeze and Kurt Fister. Just too many negative comments. If this confusion keeps up, I'll end up building my own based on the best attributes of them all. The Kurt Fister FB trike is $2500 and has probably $250.00 in materials. Heck of a lot of profit in there. I've done quite a bit of welding and brazing and really good with CAD so who knows. That's a trike. But not so sure about building a motor frame.

Uh oh. I saw Mark Hunnicutt's flight and review of the Flat Top and Dell's video on the comparison of the FT to the FB. Dell seemed on point on that video and many agreed. I noticed the FT had MUCH better netting behind the pilot where the FB has large gaps and wide openings. Flat Top = Fresh Breeze ?? DANG! So are there ANY good Paramotors out there?

He's a very convincing guy. But it makes sense that a guy who has a cardboard cut out of himself is probably a bit of a narcissist. I was honestly all set to start buying equipment from him and schedule training. But his claim that ONLY FRESH BREEZE has Nikasil linings and/or roller crank bearings gave me a hint that something wasn't right. Then when I saw a Fresh Breeze motor and the one position attachment point for the harness at the top, I was convinced that the quality just wasn't there. Thanks for the post Laura. Many other posts have obvious "other" motivations for their posts and it's easy to see that. But your post seems genuine. Good luck and be safe.

I've nototiced on some videos that the throttle cable appears to be a bit too long (granted I have no yet owned a Paramotor so it's just visual observation). The Flat Top for example. Can the throttle cable be shortened a bit?

ok. not sure why Capt Kurt would make it sound like a Fresh Breeze exclusive then. That seems deceptive.

Which other brand has those? What about roller crank bearings? I'm going for the Trike so ground starting won't be an issue for me.

That said can you dispel something? FreshBreeze specifically claims.... 1). The only crankshaft with roller bearings 2). Nikasil coated cyinders 3). 4 point flexible exhaust joints. Are these really unique to FreshBreeze? Those seem like very good points of quality? Also, other than a few complaints, I don't see much in the way of problems with FB other than one guy who probably tried tinkering with it but didn't know how to fix it and then blamed FB. Is Capt Kurt lying about his safety record and number of students? He claims around over 1200 students now and no accidents so far. I can't find anything to dispute that. But there's no way to verify the numbers. He could claim any number of students. TBH, he does come across as a slick used car salesman at times. On the other hand, he seems very sincere and he doesn't have to offer free training, but he does. It's difficult to sort it all out at times.

If you're in powered flight at several hundred feet or less, and you encounter the edges of a thermal, you could end up slammed? But that must be very rare since I don't see many reports of that on YouTube. Just some guy flying at about 50 ft and hitting some power lines. That young guy Tucker Gott on YouTube seems to fly the tree tops and skims the ground a lot. Is he immune to thermals?

Hello, Starting at ground zero with no PPG knowledge. But I've seen several times now where it is stated that PPG flight should ONLY take place early in the morning and an hour or so before sunset. If that's correct, that drastically changes my outlook. So does this mean these wings are very susceptible to collapse if they encounter up or down drafts? So daytime flights where there's a chance for thermals aka up/down drafts is off limits? Then how does anyone do summer time cross country flights?

For comparison, 2 stroke motors on Motorcycles and scooters for example can last thousands of hours. Of course, you can't fall from the sky on those.

Hello, I have become interested in the Paramotor hobby and this post is literally the very beginning of my search for information. I've watched a number of YouTube videos and am trying to absorb as much information as possible. I am located in the USA, South Florida. I'm wondering if there's a good book on Paramotoring that has good illustrations showing the various components and explaining what each cable and piece of hardware is for, what it does and how it works so I can study and learn before I purchase a Paramotor. I am a licensed private pilot so I'm somewhat familiar with airspace and basic flight dynamics, but of course, nothing with non-rigid wings. At this point I'm mostly interested in a trike style Paramotor as I'm in my late 50's and it just seems more comfortable. But not sure. I saw a video by FlightJunkies and he (of course) claimed his trikes were better than most and went on to describe (very convincingly) why so. His free flight training is quite an offer it seems. What Paramotor trikes are highly recommended for beginners? What wing? So many questions. Thanks for your patience. Randy