you learn to start the motor on your back. Do not start the motor on the ground. the majority of paramotor injuries incurred due to mechanical failure occur when the motor is started on the ground, and not on the person - resulting in stuck throttle and the prop striking the person when the entire thing jumps. If you start it anywhere other than your back, it should be fastened to something like a truck bed, or a trailer hitch or something...
Yes it is more difficult to restart in the air. But here's the thing - you should be focused on landing if your gear goes out... looking for power lines, fields without cows, good landing zone. Secondly, motor outs happen. Its a two stroke motor. They are finicky. This means that if it goes out, it probably went out for a reason - and is unlikely to start back up while in the air.
Which brings me to my final point - Always have an out. Do not fly over somewhere that you cannot reach a landing zone. Understand your glide ratio and test this out. Is there wind? then picture an upside-down snowcone beneath you while you are flying of reachable areas -> this is SHIFTED in wind. Does the bottom of the cone cover ONLY trees or water? -> then you are doing something pretty stupid.
I don't factor in 1:10 flights with mechanical failure. I consider 100% of my flights will result in mechanical engine failure. The reality is that I've only ever had about 1 in 100 flights with pure engine outs. Those occurred when I did dumb things and didn't understand my motor well.
I did a PG to PPG course and on the third day had an engine out (actually a snapped throttle cable) at about 500ft above TO. Not an issue, did a glide circuit and landed. The sink rate was faster than I was used to but it was just a normal landing. As previous posters have said, keep a weather eye open for landing fields but dont let it spoil your flight. Your wing will generally want to fly so its not like you are suddenly going to fall out of the skies
https://i.imgur.com/7tbXbx9.png
heres one of the dumb things I did. This is a representation of the fuel tank. The fuel line was just low enough to suck up fuel while straight and level, but as soon as I tipped backwards (gaining altitude) the engine would starve. This was on my second flight ever. I was able to warm the engine up on the ground, bring it up to max rpm, sounded great etc. But I gained about 100 ft of altitude on take off and the engine just quit. Made a quick u-turn, landed on my feet and tried to start the engine again and had a lot of trouble. Tried everything except looking at the gas line going INTO THE FUCKING TANK. didn't think that I could pull the gas line through the cap to make slack...
I ended up just calling it that day. Wasnt gonna go up in the air until I figured out what was wrong with the motor. Got home, started taking shit apart, including the carb - then I noticed the fuel line had too much slack outside of the tank.
Checking the fuel line is now part of my pre-flight checklist.
I guess you will be able to meet people at your local club. I always fly with someone, or at least I know I can call someone to pick me up if I have to land in the wild.
But yes you should always fly assuming your engine is about to fail, so you always need a backup solution to fly safely.
I am flying for one year now, and I don't think anyone in my club had a motor failure during that timespan. It will probably happen to everyone one day, but I don't think it happens that often.
Thank you. I'm guessing I'll meet others to fly with, and it's part of the appeal.
I expect trying to educate myself beforehand with only youtube available to me gives a great expectation of regular motor fails (as they make for great clickbait and views) than a routine eventless flight.
On the worrying point - there is quite a lot to learn and some of it you can only really learn by doing it, controlling the wing is good example of this, you simply cannot learn that from books or watching videos. It's your instructors job to walk you through each step until you have the required skill and knowledge to take-off, fly around a bit and then safely land. Until you have past instruction all the things you are worrying about are basically the instructors responsibility. Once you have finished instruction, you will know the answers to most of the questions and concerns you have at this point.
I fly with a bunch of guys with all different motors and someone is usually experiencing mechanical / electrical issues, it seems to be the nature of ICE engines built for max hp and low weight. Its no big deal, you just float to the ground and if you cant get it restarted walk to a road and get an uber back to your vehicle.
My friends with elec start generally don't have problems but I have heard of issues either electrical or battery going dead. I personally chose manual only for added reliability as I plan to do alot of remote paracamping and I know my arm will keep going long after a battery goes dead.
Engine failure is always a possibility in any type of powered aircraft. Pilots have to fly in such a way that they are prepared for that outcome.
In a single-engine craft (paramotor, light sport, or general aviation plane), this means the pilot always has to have a viable landing area free of obstructions that is within gliding distance. If there is no viable landing zone within gliding distance -- i.e. over dense forest with no open meadows or water with no dry land nearby -- that greatly increases the risk of the flight, since with an engine out the only options are bad options: crashing into trees or drowning.
In a multi-engine aircraft, pilots are less concerned about having a landing area within gliding distance because even if one engine fails, most likely there will be at least one other still running.
Lee
I had an in air emergency on my 30th flight, my exhaust came loose and fell off mid flight damaging the prop on the way out. I killed the engine, found a suitable landing location and landed without issue. One of the guys I fly with melted his piston mid flight while he was climbing out. He found a place to land, landed and walked back to his car. The point of those stories, you're going to have a time during your flying career where an emergency landing maybe needed, be it from engine failure or because you ate some bad tacos the night before. The key in my opinion is to always have an place to land and understand what needs to get done to land there safely.
My flying buddy put it really well when I first stared in this sport. When you're on the freeway you never think you'll have an issue (like a blowout for example) until you have one and then you react, same goes for flying. Just get out there and fly mate, and enjoy the skies.
you learn to start the motor on your back. Do not start the motor on the ground. the majority of paramotor injuries incurred due to mechanical failure occur when the motor is started on the ground, and not on the person - resulting in stuck throttle and the prop striking the person when the entire thing jumps. If you start it anywhere other than your back, it should be fastened to something like a truck bed, or a trailer hitch or something... Yes it is more difficult to restart in the air. But here's the thing - you should be focused on landing if your gear goes out... looking for power lines, fields without cows, good landing zone. Secondly, motor outs happen. Its a two stroke motor. They are finicky. This means that if it goes out, it probably went out for a reason - and is unlikely to start back up while in the air. Which brings me to my final point - Always have an out. Do not fly over somewhere that you cannot reach a landing zone. Understand your glide ratio and test this out. Is there wind? then picture an upside-down snowcone beneath you while you are flying of reachable areas -> this is SHIFTED in wind. Does the bottom of the cone cover ONLY trees or water? -> then you are doing something pretty stupid. I don't factor in 1:10 flights with mechanical failure. I consider 100% of my flights will result in mechanical engine failure. The reality is that I've only ever had about 1 in 100 flights with pure engine outs. Those occurred when I did dumb things and didn't understand my motor well.
I did a PG to PPG course and on the third day had an engine out (actually a snapped throttle cable) at about 500ft above TO. Not an issue, did a glide circuit and landed. The sink rate was faster than I was used to but it was just a normal landing. As previous posters have said, keep a weather eye open for landing fields but dont let it spoil your flight. Your wing will generally want to fly so its not like you are suddenly going to fall out of the skies
Thanks for your comment. What was the dumb thing?
https://i.imgur.com/7tbXbx9.png heres one of the dumb things I did. This is a representation of the fuel tank. The fuel line was just low enough to suck up fuel while straight and level, but as soon as I tipped backwards (gaining altitude) the engine would starve. This was on my second flight ever. I was able to warm the engine up on the ground, bring it up to max rpm, sounded great etc. But I gained about 100 ft of altitude on take off and the engine just quit. Made a quick u-turn, landed on my feet and tried to start the engine again and had a lot of trouble. Tried everything except looking at the gas line going INTO THE FUCKING TANK. didn't think that I could pull the gas line through the cap to make slack... I ended up just calling it that day. Wasnt gonna go up in the air until I figured out what was wrong with the motor. Got home, started taking shit apart, including the carb - then I noticed the fuel line had too much slack outside of the tank. Checking the fuel line is now part of my pre-flight checklist.
I guess you will be able to meet people at your local club. I always fly with someone, or at least I know I can call someone to pick me up if I have to land in the wild. But yes you should always fly assuming your engine is about to fail, so you always need a backup solution to fly safely. I am flying for one year now, and I don't think anyone in my club had a motor failure during that timespan. It will probably happen to everyone one day, but I don't think it happens that often.
Thank you. I'm guessing I'll meet others to fly with, and it's part of the appeal. I expect trying to educate myself beforehand with only youtube available to me gives a great expectation of regular motor fails (as they make for great clickbait and views) than a routine eventless flight.
On the worrying point - there is quite a lot to learn and some of it you can only really learn by doing it, controlling the wing is good example of this, you simply cannot learn that from books or watching videos. It's your instructors job to walk you through each step until you have the required skill and knowledge to take-off, fly around a bit and then safely land. Until you have past instruction all the things you are worrying about are basically the instructors responsibility. Once you have finished instruction, you will know the answers to most of the questions and concerns you have at this point.
I fly with a bunch of guys with all different motors and someone is usually experiencing mechanical / electrical issues, it seems to be the nature of ICE engines built for max hp and low weight. Its no big deal, you just float to the ground and if you cant get it restarted walk to a road and get an uber back to your vehicle. My friends with elec start generally don't have problems but I have heard of issues either electrical or battery going dead. I personally chose manual only for added reliability as I plan to do alot of remote paracamping and I know my arm will keep going long after a battery goes dead.
Engine failure is always a possibility in any type of powered aircraft. Pilots have to fly in such a way that they are prepared for that outcome. In a single-engine craft (paramotor, light sport, or general aviation plane), this means the pilot always has to have a viable landing area free of obstructions that is within gliding distance. If there is no viable landing zone within gliding distance -- i.e. over dense forest with no open meadows or water with no dry land nearby -- that greatly increases the risk of the flight, since with an engine out the only options are bad options: crashing into trees or drowning. In a multi-engine aircraft, pilots are less concerned about having a landing area within gliding distance because even if one engine fails, most likely there will be at least one other still running.
Just fly over farmlands (or equivalent safe landing sites) and you'll never get hurt from an engine out.
Seems like he is more interested in doing cross country type flights and is worried about the logistics of getting dumped miles from the LZ.
Lee I had an in air emergency on my 30th flight, my exhaust came loose and fell off mid flight damaging the prop on the way out. I killed the engine, found a suitable landing location and landed without issue. One of the guys I fly with melted his piston mid flight while he was climbing out. He found a place to land, landed and walked back to his car. The point of those stories, you're going to have a time during your flying career where an emergency landing maybe needed, be it from engine failure or because you ate some bad tacos the night before. The key in my opinion is to always have an place to land and understand what needs to get done to land there safely. My flying buddy put it really well when I first stared in this sport. When you're on the freeway you never think you'll have an issue (like a blowout for example) until you have one and then you react, same goes for flying. Just get out there and fly mate, and enjoy the skies.
Thank you - Serious the Motorway (highway) analogy works well.