SaltyBill Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 (edited) Hi What do people think of deployable airbags that inflate underneath the paramotor frame, similar to this design. https://xcmag.com/news/swing-survey-arus-airbag-reserve/ I wonder why SWING.de hasn't finished it for production.. Has any company thought of making one? I have seen allot of crashes on youtube where a deployed air bag system could have helped, leading to less injury for the pilot. Especially when partial inflation of reserve or when pilots do not have enough time to deploy reserve. An airbag system could be underneath and infront of the pilot, in a bag which clips on , this could help with front collisions. ? Any thoughts? is it a silly idea? Edited April 23, 2020 by SaltyBill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 Don't fancy one of those accidentally going off when coming in to land normally or mid wingover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaltyBill Posted April 23, 2020 Author Share Posted April 23, 2020 Fair enough , lets say there is a system in place where accidental deployment would not happen. Any other reasons why it would not work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 My paramotor already has guaranteed non-accidental airbag deployment. I think that extra weight, extra bulk, extra preflighting, extra stress worrying about it going off accidentally, and wondering what to do if you're coming down upside down or spinning and so on would be prohibitive. How would you know when to deploy it or whether you perhaps shouldn't? If things have gone that badly wrong then it's probably enough to deal with sorting the wing and throwing the reserve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flypapuk Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 Check out the Pap supair harness Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaltyBill Posted April 23, 2020 Author Share Posted April 23, 2020 Hmmm that makes sense. I realise it will not be made to cover every scenario. ( upside down, line twist etc) i have seen heaps of crashes online where no reserve was deployed and there was a hard crash, not fatal just serious injuries. everytime the airbag could have softened the fall, considerably. It could be tethered to a shoulder strap , a quick pull while coming down, even while holding the brake lines. Also I was thinking of automatic deployment right after a reserve is deployed. As a secondary way to deploy. i dont know, it seems like a viable safety device which would not add that much weight. And could help allot of injuries. Anyway thanks for the advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan88 Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 Thinking from a companies point of view, each air bag would have to be developed specifically for the frame its being mounted to for safety reasons. (imagine if you used one of these and mounted it to some obscure frame that made it fail to deploy, now in the accident report it says the pilot would of survive if the air bag had been designed differently) There's a lot of different set ups out there to cover, that's a lot of development and cost. Even if they said "only to be installed on X and X set ups", they'd be targeting a small bunch of customers in an already small market, plus its only the people in that group that wants one. There's a lot of cost, responsibility and not much profit when it comes to safety devices unfortunately. There isn't any harm in making one yourself if you want that little something extra. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hann__ Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 They`d make an excellent water landing recovery system - you`d end up floating on the water in what looks like a giant inflatable chair. Could only be bettered if an automatic tray popped out from a folded position and served you with a G`n`T whilst reclining in a nonchalant splendour bobbing up and down on the water awaiting recovery. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cas_whitmore Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan88 Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 A little pop out speaker over the shoulder playing Rupert Holmes escape. "if you like pina coladas....." Quick call to the wife "sweetheart, need a pick up... no rush though" Life goals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nathan88 Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cas_whitmore Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 That made me laugh , good one 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SaltyBill Posted April 25, 2020 Author Share Posted April 25, 2020 Gin and tonic would be perfect... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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