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 It's
inspiring to see pilots making this sport safer while realizing that
choices will be made. Such was the case of Randy Bridge who implemented
an idea that will work with essentially any paramotor.
Obviously it still takes an alert, responsible pilot minding his own
safety—nothing is foolproof. You must be standing on the platform and
insure the paramotor is securely hooked in place. And be prepared to
bear the full weight of thrust in the event something goes awry.
Randy writes:
With prop injuries being a major problem in this sport I have tried
to come up with a tool that might make it a lot safer to start a motor,
do a run up or work on it while running. It is a very simple platform
that the unit sits on and hooks over the back frame structure. I have
three different motors and it works well on all three units.
I am able to go to full throttle on the Black Devil 172 and still
maintain solid control, even with hands off as demonstrated in photo
safetybridge7. I have always feared tuning the carburetor on the high
end without some kind of stability.
It is made of 1/4 aluminum making it lightweight and easy to carry
around. Until someone comes up with an RPM shut down, this might help
our sports safety. Even with an RPM cut-off, one will have to have an
override to allow for adjusting the carburetor, I would think.
If my idea saves one finger it will be well worth the time, money and
effort that I have put into the project. Being a proto type I am hoping
someone smarter than I can come up with improvements and welcome the
input.
Be aware that you must have sufficient body weight so that you and
the motor combined are heavy enough to avoid being pushed back and over.
Making the board longer reduces that chance at some tradeoff in ease of
carrying.
See also Cage
Intelligence and the many related articles on prop safety.
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