Added Light Sport Powered Parachute.

Posted by SSMDive@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 9 comments

Had to take some vacation days and I am not the type to just "Relax" on a vacation, I like to learn so I am always looking to try new things and gain new skills and maybe find new hobbies. I took my SES to skip a flight review and ended up buying a seaplane. I am at a point where I am considering selling my Pitts and buying something else. In addition my job requires working with the FAA for an airline and I am required to do continuing education. I have convinced my boss that adding ratings should count and I used adding my SP Gyro and PVT Helicopter as continuing education... They are even going to pay for ATP/CTP next week. I have \~2.5K hours TT and over 7.5K skydives and had never really considered looking into powered parachutes. I did consider powered paragliders since it seemed closer to skydiving parachutes and a bunch of jumpers play with the powered paragliders. But honestly I didn't really know the differences between the two. What better way than to take a class? First the differences (to the best of my ability)... Powered Parachutes (PPC) normally you control the craft using your legs. Powered Paragliders (PPG) you normally control the wing with your hands like a skydiving canopy. In addition PPC you normally have a little cart you sit in and PPG you wear the engine on your back, although I have seen PPG's with carts. So I found a school that was highly recommended and got in touch. They had some availability for a week I had in mind and we were off to the races. One thing I hate... The crafts require almost no wind. On what I would consider to be a nice calm day for flying, skydiving, going on a boat... Could easily be too windy for a PPC. So on a beautiful day we could only train very early in the AM and were pretty much done by 9AM. Another thing I hate... Early mornings. We met at 6:30AM each day. This early morning requirement is maybe the biggest negative to me looking into buying one. Where I live, perfectly calm days are pretty rare and even calm mornings can be difficult to find. A few things I really like. Light Sport is such a great thing for aviation. Your first rating you need a DPE, but any add ons just require two CFI's - One to train you and recommend you for the proficiency check and one to give you the proficiency check. And any rating counts, so if you have a light sport rating or higher you can get light sport add ons very easily. The next thing I liked is that all my time under a canopy skydiving helped me understand the canopy flight very quickly. I understood the pendulum effect and how it was very easy to overcontrol... I still overcontrolled, but I at least understood the idea. If you have some right in for landing and want to move a but left, you just release some right, if you release right and add left, you screwed up and will start an oscillation that could end poorly. And the performance is actually pretty impressive. At full power the little craft leaps into the air and climbs very fast. First take off I was impressed with the climb rate. And on the first turn the view was simply amazing... It was at that point that I actually shifted my thinking from doing this for the challenge to doing it for the challenge AND enjoying myself. I enjoyed myself much more that I thought I would. If on a 10 scale, flying aerobatics is something like: Challenge: 6, Fun: 4. A helicopter is something like Challenge: 8, Fun: 2. The PPC was Challenge: 2, Fun: 8. I caught myself grinning like an idiot more than I thought I would. The powered parachute used was a Powrachute Airwolf [https://powrachute.com/airwolf/](https://powrachute.com/airwolf/) It has a Rotax 914ULS at 100HP. It also has a 550 sqft 32 cell canopy. The major trick is the layout and take off... The layout you have to unfold the chute and set it up so it will fly without getting tangled. This is much more difficult than a skydiving parachute based on not only size but complexity. The PPC has many more lines and laying it out they are all not even like when packing a parachute. The next major hurdle is the take off. You start your take off roll LOOKING BACKWARD. It just feels wrong - It makes perfect sense, but feels wrong. You need to watch the parachute inflate and rise up avoiding a bunch of possible embarrassing and expensive issues. So you look right, add power and watch the parachute come up and then when it comes up, you reduce power a bit and quickly look forward to check your ground roll, then back right to check your lines to make sure you have no tangles, knots, or closed cells. you then glance forward and then left and check the lines, and cells and once you feel everything is good you add full power and you are off. All this happens faster than you read about it and it is very easy to feel rushed. Once you are off everything slows down and it is pure fun. I found the amount of pressure required to turn to be higher than I expected but nothing crazy, just more than I expected. Flying around in cruise is easy. The aircraft does about 25 knots... That is 25 knots in cruise, climbs at 25 knots, and approaches to land at 25 knots. But in cruise everything is balanced and if you want to go left, just push down on the left and you will turn left, want to go right, push right. If you do a shallow turn you will not even lose altitude, but if you crank on it the thing will dive. It was just relaxing. Calm morning air, cool temperatures, putting around looking at wildlife. Fun. Then the CFI takes over... He turns and dives the aircraft, getting within a few feet of the ground and then skillfully manages to fly a few feet off the ground up and over hills, down through small valleys, around hilltops, chasing coyotes.... From slow and peaceful to adrenaline rush in seconds. You think it can't be that hard, but later when he has you do fly bys down the runway you find out that it is much more difficult than you think and you could spend a lifetime working on the details. The dichotomy between low and slow puttering about and zipping around is massive. Landing is pretty easy. Line up on the runway (wherever you want to land) and just keep pushing a little right bar with your feet to stay straight... Need a little left? Let up a little right input. When you get what feels like crazy low, push both legs forward and flare. The thing that blew my little skydiver mind was we were able to do touch and goes... Once you touch down, release the flare, check the canopy again, add power and you are flying again. Want to land and stay, once you flare turn off the mags and flare like crazy with your legs and grab the lines with your hands and pull them down and watch the canopy collapse behind you. Then the work begins, folding the chute so it is easy to deploy the next time. With 7K plus jumps I thought it would be easier, but one day I just screwed it up and put a flip through into the wing. It is harder to fix than with a parachute since it is so big. It is not difficult, just more difficult. All in all, pretty fun. These things sell for around 20k used with a two stroke and around 65K new with a 4 stroke... 65K is a bit more than I want to spend on a toy that I can only use if I wake up really early and the winds are calm... But I am still considering it. This is a prime opportunity for a good partnership, IMO.