We had some fun with the shop paramotor pictured above, and learned a fair amount. Some notes:
They are pretty mellow and both very easy and also kind of hard to fly. I think just about anyone can fly one arround when setup correctly, but setting them up and getting the most out of them is a bit of a learning curve.
The setup is critical for best performance.
In winds, add more weight, not talking ounces here, think pounds. I think we had a couple of pounds of ballast on ours to get her a bit more sporty. Basically, the more weight, the better they turn, and the more wind they can deal with.
The open style sails as shown in both craft above are very prone to collapse. (Pressurized sails should be much better, but cost a ton more.) They can be re-inflated with enough time. When they collapse, usually it is just a partial and it is annoying.
We ended up with some silly mixing to make things work a bit better. With ours we pretty much avoid using both brakes at the same time as that simply results in a collapse.
Have to be smooth on the throttle ups, sudden throttle increases with get you the thing rocking like a 3 year old on crack.
They don't care for turbulence much at all.
There is a Youtube channel out there from some Pacific Islanders somewhere, not sure what language they speak, but they make and fly the heck out of these things. They are super compact so easy to carry several on a motorcycle and they actually fly combat with them! Those are the best flying examples I have seen anywhere in the world. I'd have to dig around for the channel to share with you all. Those were pretty cool.
They are pretty mellow and both very easy and also kind of hard to fly. I think just about anyone can fly one arround when setup correctly, but setting them up and getting the most out of them is a bit of a learning curve.
The setup is critical for best performance.
In winds, add more weight, not talking ounces here, think pounds. I think we had a couple of pounds of ballast on ours to get her a bit more sporty. Basically, the more weight, the better they turn, and the more wind they can deal with.
The open style sails as shown in both craft above are very prone to collapse. (Pressurized sails should be much better, but cost a ton more.) They can be re-inflated with enough time. When they collapse, usually it is just a partial and it is annoying.
We ended up with some silly mixing to make things work a bit better. With ours we pretty much avoid using both brakes at the same time as that simply results in a collapse.
Have to be smooth on the throttle ups, sudden throttle increases with get you the thing rocking like a 3 year old on crack.
They don't care for turbulence much at all.
There is a Youtube channel out there from some Pacific Islanders somewhere, not sure what language they speak, but they make and fly the heck out of these things. They are super compact so easy to carry several on a motorcycle and they actually fly combat with them! Those are the best flying examples I have seen anywhere in the world. I'd have to dig around for the channel to share with you all. Those were pretty cool.
