Flying Heaven   by John Wheeler

Just lately all I’ve been hearing and reading about from hill pilots is whinging on about how crowded the sites are all the time, well if you don’t want to be a lemming or a sheep all your life, and you want a taste of real freedom and independence, I suggest you do what I have done, and that is to first stop relying on hill sites, get yourself a Paramotor, get yourself trained up, go seek out a local friendly farmer and bribe him with the offer of a bottle of whiskey for every second time you use his field, and you will find flying heaven, just like I have, it doesn’t take long, my T/O field is less than 2 miles down the road from my house, it’s soooo convenient, especially in the last week, as my car, after having been thoroughly thrashed to death for the last five years with all the tearing about all over the country to different hill sites, decided to finally throw in the towel and resign itself to get ready to be used in junkyard wars, fortunately for me though, even though the water gauge meter is showing red after only one mile and steam is coming out of the bonnet it can still manage to just get me to my T/O field.

Once there it has time to cool off for a few hours while I enjoy myself either flying circuits of my T/O field, or going XC and back etc.: I usually drag the wife along for safety sake (who usually reads her favourite book/ sun baths etc.;) or a fellow flier, the field is very large/flat and neatly mown, 99% of the time we have it all to ourselves, sometimes there maybe cows but they soon disappear down to the other end when they see us, the farmer sez it’s OK for us to fly even when there around, the T/O can be flown in most wind directions so I have never yet had to use my other field that is a bit further away.

Personally, Not only have I found Paramotoring to be more convenient but have found it to feel a lot safer and secure,

No: 1. Being, less people around, to distract from what you should be concentrating on, i.e.; pre-flight checks etc.

No: 2. Plenty of airspace to fly around in without having to have a rubber neck and eyes up you aris to see where all the other pilots are.

3). Most important of all, I have found that I feel much safer and secure because of the extra loading on the wing by the Paramotor, my wing nor I no longer feel nervous as it did when I was hill flying, (yes I do have the right size wing for either disciplines).

4). Is the fact that I know that when I take off I know for sure that I can go up, and stay up, for at least 2 hours or even longer depending on size of petrol tank etc.; without the need to constantly search for thermic lift to keep me there, so I can just take off and XC straight away. I have been higher and further than I ever did whilst hill flying,

5). Having power is very useful in emergencies, i.e.; misjudging your landing approaches; just power on and up you go again for a second chance.

6). (Sad) on those non flyable days at least you can get ya Paramotor out and polish it to perfection, or have a tinkle about with it, like you can a car/motorbike, etc.;, (don’t polish ya paraglider though).

I could go on and on about all the virtues of Paramotoring, and sure! There’s a few drawbacks as well (the extra baggage and weight etc.;) and I know that what puts a lot of people off is the thought of all that noise, (that’s what I used to think) well I can assure you that Paramotoring has come a long way in the last few years and advanced technology on exhaust mufflers has made them incredibly quiet plus the machines are virtually vibration free as well, but most importantly and above almost anything else, and as was mentioned previously, what every flyer wants is the feeling of freedom and independence., to do there own thing as and when they like without a lot of the hassle,inconvenience, and confines that can be sometimes found within the hill flying community, i.e.; if you work full time and have to travel to hills, at the end of a hard working day feeling tired, the idea of having to drive miles to the hills (as I used to have to do living in the flatlands of Oxfordshire) you are more than likely to not bother, where as if your T/O site was only just down the road you would probably make the effort to go fly, I have found that my flying hours are definitely rising quicker in my log book since I started Paramotoring than they were when hill flying, i.e.; (55 hours in over five years,) is not good, I only wish that I had started paramotoring back then as it would have saved me mega pounds spent on petrol making endless frustrating, fruitless journeys, endless whinging /arguments, and dark moods within the family, plus it would probably have contributed less to the depletion of the ozone layer with my car pumping out fumes whilst I sat in yet another traffic jam due to some unnecessary road work, Whoops! Sorry, I’m starting to whinge, as the tee shirt sez, JUSTDOIT.

PS; If you want cheap kit try www.paramotorsuk.co.uk it’s the best free ads. site around.

J.W. Oxford. BHPA Mem: No. 4713.