Purest form of powered flight, a motor powered prop behind the seat harness, a large fan producing 150 pounds of thrust, from about 15-35 HP air cooled 2 stoke motor that burns mineral oil mixed with Motul 2 stroke oil, 25 parts mineral oil to 1 part 2 stoke oil, pull start.
Start by finding wind direction on the ground. You want to take off by running into the wind so that the fabric airfoil inflates, produce tension on the lines connecting the wing to the harness, with safety rings attaches to the standoffs, leaving handles on the left & right that you pull to steer or adjust sink rate.
The wing airfoil must be sized to your gross weight, the paramotor harness gear, you, leather helmet, goggles, flight electronics, backup parashoot, smartphone, wallet, shoes, pants, so if your 150 lbs, then all that other stuff going to add about 75 more pounds, so 225 lbs total, so wing loading must be considered, your aiming for 75% of max wing load, so if your total loading 225 lbs., that is 75% of 300 lbs load rating of fabric airfoil, similar to the ones used paragliding, a sport where you hike with a special backpack containing the paraglider fabric wing & lines & harness.
At the top of the trail, you setup the wing, then you run off the edge of a cliff inflating it then fly around using thermals to create lift to stay up for hours, an activity popular in Issaquah, near & around the entrance of the hiking tail Poo-Poo Point, a very popular recreational location in Western Washington.
In the summer it's not uncommon to see many tens of people flying paragliding wings, soft fabric airfoils attached to a backpack like harness, often very colorful wings easy to spot, like giant birds, almost silent without any kind of motor or engine.
You unfold & lay out the synthetic fabric airfoil wing, careful to lay all the connection lines, special thin synthetic ropes, so that they cleanly attach to the harness correctly, then you lift the paramotor onto your shoulders & strap in.
Now, double check everything, having a quick start laminated checklist, to run down visually, make sure your check everything secured correctly, any loose items can be sucked into the motor fan, it can go very badly like that, a cause of some near fatal & fatal paramotor accidents. When you are sure, all is clear behind you, lines are correct, straps, ring attachments on standoffs, everything must be correct, then if so, yell "all clear" to mentally log it & declare to anyone nearby that you did not see.
Grab the engine starting cable on its smooth pully, pull a few times to fire up the engine, that you already primed & test the night before, it must be daylight hours in a glass G airspace to be legal in America to fly a paramotor. Ask me how I know. I had in 2002 on craigslist purchased a 1 year old paramotor, Parajet, made in UK, in like new condition from a man in Seattle, who had the "Daylights scared out of him near midair collision miss and was done with it after only 10 hour or less flight time, so everything was in very clean condition.
I paid $5300 for that Paramotor & wing kit with accessories in June 2002, flew it about 30 times or about 85 hours over 4 years, then sold it for $5000 to another guy on craigslist, who was much bigger and heavier, so he had to get a new airfoil for it anyway. The original paraglider soft wing was 4 years old and at the end of its good life, could be used longer, but the fabric breaks down and the lines stretch, hot & cold, when folding up, when unfolding they get abraded, bread down, perhaps 5 year or 300 flight hours or so of useful life.
Given the fabric wings cost between $1000 and $3000 to replace, your hourly operating cost, depending on total out of pocket expenses divided by total flight hours, including setup, transportation in your car, truck or SUV or van, maintenance, fuel, insurance, can vary wildly, but on the low end about $60 per hour, or with really dope gear, more powerful engine, can climb to $200 per hour if you never fly much & spend more than $14,000 on gear, and you might spend a few grand on a training class, so you don't die easily making a simple mistake.
Get a book on Amazon about Paramotoring to learn all about it before starting. I did not and went into it as a very fit arrogant twenty something, and managed to figure out, the kit had instructions that I read 4X before using it, and the guy who sold it to me used, gave me a 5-minute primer explanation of all the do's & do nots.
He failed to mention that its only legal to fly a paramotor under FAR103 in Class G airspace, which if it does exist in King County, I never found any, and got so many expensive FAA tickets, that is what caused me to sell my paramotor, otherwise I loved it more than my motorcycle, it's the closed thing to being a bird or airplane, with the lowest amount of gear, and that Parajet from the company in the UK that made it, explains, taking a flight in a paramotor unlike anything else, pure freedom, but at over $10,000 to get into the hobby, SO EXPENSIVE, my Yamaha MT03 Motorcycle brand new in 2020, was just less than $6,000 out the door, so only very low end paramotor gear costs similar, most quality paramotor wing combo kits are north of $10,000 all said.
If I had unlimited money, I would get a Robinson R44 Helicopter in minty condition, & take Meg out for a spin in the "Flying Car" noting that getting variable wing pilots license to fly that machine also costs many thousands of dollars in special time consuming somewhat intellectual training to obtain the needed pilots license with correct endorsements, or SO EXPENSIVE.
FAR103 almost a crack cocaine like invitation to fly on a low budget in America, a vast country, but flying experimental aircraft, kit planes that take a few hundred hours to build, like that 3/4 scale FokkerD-VIII kit. While many other hobby kit build helicopters, paramotors, paragliders, trikes under fabric airfoils, quads under similar bigger ones, so many pathways to lower cost flight.
Meg & I talking about it, said maybe we should not buy any expensive flight devices or gear or machines, but instead, book a flight online, hotels, or accommodations, careful not to be scammed, mark your calendar, make a checklist, pack, get ready, book an uber, take you to airport 3 hours before your flight, enjoy the food on the flight to Seattle to Osaka, we sure did, Star Flyer program, thank your Delta, the flight back from Haneda in Tokyo on ANA was all Japanese food, the Boeing 787 both ways was incredible aircraft to fly on, wow, awesome technology BOEING, glad your figured out the Dreamliner battery problem lol. The KIX airport in Osaka & Haneda airport in Tokyo make Sea-tac look like a 3rd world country!
There is an amazing airport in Singapore, so renowned, that people often travel abroad & stay at the airport as an event, it has the worlds largest indoor waterfall and corresponding giant greenhouse complex, its a visual stunner, looking online just dim reflection, its on my bucket list to visit. Singapore's Changi Airport a destination level visual spectacle of applied commercial technological development imbued with nature flare level amazing.
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