RAF HONINGTON PARAMOTOR CLUB

For those who have looked at the sky over RAF Honington recently, it is hard not to notice a paramotor flying over the Station. So, how do these things fly?

Iliken paramotoring to the old WWI era (and earlier) biplanes. It’s an exposed experience where you are next to the elements and have (relatively) primitive instruments and flying aids (some liken it to flying in a garden chair powered by a desk fan!). We fly on canopies/ wings/gliders (the names are interchangeable) that are air formed flying surfaces producing some lift (though not enough to fly independently). These wings develop your forward speed, so your speed limitations are down to your wing rather than the motor. The motor and propeller provide you with your lift. Ease off the throttle and you sink at the controlled rate of the wing, accelerate and you climb. The wings are synthetic materials and come in differing designs. I have a reflex wing which gives me good crosscountry capability and some limited aerobatics. Other wings have other capabilities like ease of launch, ease of stall recovery etc. The engines are, in the main, 2 stroke although there are some lightweight 4 stroke engines floating around. These engines usually consume 3-5 litres of fuel an hour. The next big thing is the green revolution and electric engines.

Controls

The controls are simple, and there is some skill involved to take off but, I think, landing is far simpler. At low speed/low level, the controls are the same as a paraglider with a set of brakes providing yaw controls and brake/limited increase in lift. There is a grip throttle you hold in one hand and this controls your power, and therefore your lift. At higher altitudes you ‘trim out’, this changes the attack angle of the wing and the wing loadings over differing areas of the glider. Mine’s a Reflex wing that does some clever stuff with the structure, increasing the ability to punch through rough air. Then the steering is done with tip steering systems, which on my glider is stunningly responsive, and weight shift for fine corrections. Ground speed varies with glider, I get about 25 kts but trimmed out (best speed configuration) this can be further improved by about 5 - 10 kts with speed bar which further reduces the angle of attack but raises the wing loading and subsequent stall speed. The UK max altitude record is somewhere around 26,000 ft, achieved by Flt Lt Giles Fowler (the last time I looked).

Training

You can fly these systems without training or learn from YouTube, but you’ll have no insurance, which blows a hole in your plans if you wish to use most flying sites, and you are highly likely to kill yourself. I trained at the UFly4Fun flying school at Winglands airfield in South Lincolnshire. It’s geared to practical learning (there are no simulators) with some theory work to understand, in essence the ‘rules of the road’. Perseverance is needed as all this can take some time. There is a physical side to the training, the engine when fully fuelled can be quite heavy and you need to move around with that weight on your back. Some people (and Youtube videos) insist you have to sprint to get into the air, but this is overstating the case, a slow run is more than enough and most make do with a brisk walk to launch. Landing can be a little more sporting and some bruises can occur, the one area that will get heavily bruised is your ego! Nobody is above a spectacular landing that will deserve to be on Youtube! Once qualified, you become Club Pilot rated and then progress to Pilot rating, this requires more training, some demonstrative tasks and another Civil Aviation Authority exam.

My journey into paramotoring started many years ago, having first seen paragliders when on adventure training in the German Alps in the early 90’s (we were running up an alp with bergans on, so I had to wipe the sweat out of my eyes to see them!).

Over a decade later I got onto a paragliding JSAT course at Crichowell. After qualifying I got fed up with looking for hills in the right place with the right wind to jump off, and then got my Paramotoring addiction. I still have a soft spot (and my kit) for paragliding.

Every club member has their own reason to fly, for some it is the ability to travel cross country and see things from the air, some enjoy the challenge and adrenaline of aerobatics and some (like me) enjoy the ability to go low flying. It develops everyone, your understanding of 2 stroke engines and their maintenance will increase, you have to be air aware and it is one of the best ways to destress.

Last year a couple of club members and myself attempted to fly around the coastline of England and Wales, a world first. Challenging, but the reward was a unique view of the beautiful British countryside in summer.

The question everyone asks is ‘How much does all this cost?’ and that’s a fair concern. It is expensive but, compared to any other powered flight it is dismissively cheap. The example I use is, £10,000 gives you all your training to full pilot, a brand-new engine, wing and reserve, all your clothing and helmet and a lot of flying, and you will still have change. Others follow the route of second-hand equipment, which can be a real cost saving, but there are pitfalls you can fall foul of. As a comparison, earning your Private Pilot’s License costs over £10,000 and flying a powered aircraft consumes 60 litres of fuel an hour (and you have to pay for that!).

The Honington club is small with an enthusiastic membership, but everyone is friendly and happy to talk about paramotoring. Although there are no fixed club meetings or nights, we get out onto the airfield whenever we can and regularly fly at other airfields and locations. Because of weather conditions, this is often in the early morning or the evening. So, if you see us out on the airfield (or elsewhere around Station) please stop and ask about paramotoring, you may get hooked!