Description
Powered Paragliding Bible
PPG Bible 7 is a clear, CONCISE, and professionally-illustrated guide for anyone wanting to become an ACCOMPLISHED paramotor pilot, either footlaunch or on wheels. It is comprehensive but breaks down information into digestible chunks to make success safer and more enjoyable.
It builds on our most successful book to date, the 6th edition, with every section updated.
We take you from first sight to first flight and way beyond. The Equipment content and illustrations now reflect what has become the de facto standard in paramotor gear, including appropriate training gear through competition-winning gear.
You’ll find out what the sport is about, what a skilled pilot is capable of, and how to become that skilled pilot. Not just the specific twists of technique, but how to practice, how to know you’ve got it, where the dark corners lurk, and how to avoid them. And it dispels many stubborn myths.
There is complete but understandable coverage of airspace and regulations as they apply to paramotor pilots.
If you are:
- Considering the sport? This will tell you all about what trade-offs are made and what to avoid.
- Just getting started? Know what to expect, and know how to prepare for training.
- Setting out on your own? Clarify the vagaries of rotor, micrometeorology, airspace, rules, field selection, etc.
- Curious? This answers questions. Many, many questions about everything from aerodynamics to history.
- Into photography? This will offer tips that may save much aggravation about getting good pictures from a PPG.
- Thinking about competition? This has the lowdown on what it is, how it’s flown, and, better yet, what to practice to become proficient.
- If any of these apply, then this book is for you.
If you have ever wondered about the sport of powered paragliding, this will answer your questions. Everything from selecting an instructor to buying gear to learning what to do with it.
It starts out with the most basic bits required using pictures to clarify better than words ever could. There are over two hundred pictures and diagrams on its 320 pages. It finishes with tips on mastering techniques required for the finest level of control.
For the curious, there is a thorough section on Understanding the Sport, which delves into several areas such as the unusual aerodynamics of a craft on a swing.
Many practical tips for setting up gear are included. How to tie brake-line knots, how to set up a motor harness and how best to adjust it for preventing potentially deadly torque turns. These are just of few of the many useful pieces that can enhance your understanding of the sport or possibly save your life.
Complete coverage of the regulations and airspace includes the charts and material that make easy work of USPPA’s PPG3/Instructor Written test. This is practical information for the adventurous pilot who sets out for parts unknown – how to get what you need from sectional charts without bogging down in unnecessary detail.
Many, many diagrams help make sense of complicated concepts and introduce some new ones. From the parts of the paramotor to Aerodynamics, our sport is explained in concise ways that encourage understanding. A real effort is made to avoid wordiness while keeping it interesting.
Clear up confusion on obtaining weather, including detailed descriptions of using the Flight Service Stations.
After getting the basics down, learn how to fly at airports, including controlled airports, and what you need to pull it off. Sample aircraft radio conversations with Air Traffic Control are included.
Many eye-popping photos help the enjoyment and make it a great way to show others the sport.
The Powered Paragliding Bible Provides newcomers with everything needed to succeed at paramotoring, buy equipment and thrive in the sport. Six sections take the pilot from pulling a wing out of the bag through flying confidently in the national airspace system. All information is provided in a concise, practical way with over a hundred pictures and illustrations.
Advanced topics from flag flying to competition are covered, too, along with the ramifications of the law. Many myths and misunderstandings are dealt with in the most thorough treatment of powered paragliding ever produced.
Every effort has been made to have clarity. If an editor didn’t understand what it was saying on the first pass, it was rewritten. Thanks for your patience, hopefully, it will have been worth the wait.
Enjoy!
Airspace & Law For Ultralights DVD
A combination of live action, illustrations, 3D motion graphics, narration, and bits of humor to help ease the pain of learning a tough topic.
Besides the fundamentals, see where the risk is and how to avoid unwanted attention. Failing that, we’ll show what to do if approached by FAA officials and even address how to handle the aftermath of a violation.
We don’t just show how it all works; we show why it was made that way. It’s easier to remember if you understand the reason why the airspace and corresponding rules were made. More than anything, this is geared towards ultralighters and the places where they are likely to fly. Minutia is covered, of course, but the emphasis is reserved for where it matters most.
Airspace is inherently 3 dimensional and should be presented that way. We do. Gain insight into the most challenging aspects of airspace and clear up common misconceptions to cement your understanding. Real-life examples and graphics bring clarity like no other source.
Trailer for Airspace For Ultralights.
Risk & Reward
The vast majority of paramotor entrants enthuse over the sport’s simple elegance, affordability, and minimal regulation. Indeed, that is what got me so juiced, too. But there are some surprising dark corners that, while easily avoidable, are not obvious. Through several years of aggressively exploring the craft, I learned about many of them–a few the hard way. I learned even more by talking and spending time with the sport’s most prolific and skilled instructors. These were people who knew what was actually happening and had developed ways to improve the situation.
It was obvious that we, as a community, needed to get the word out. After one particularly harrowing experience, I set out to create “The USPPA Safety Video.” It started with an outline that eventually became a script, listing the ways that pilots were actually getting hurt and what could be done to prevent those injuries. That script was passed around to a number of highly regarded instructors who gave valuable input, which was incorporated.
It turns out that a huge majority of wing-related accidents shared a common thread: too much brake pull—a reaction aggravated frequently by having or holding too much power. It wasn’t the wing’s misbehaving, it was the pilot’s overreaction that turned a minor bobble into a major crash. In fact, nearly all PPG accidents where the wing does something unexpected was a result of the pilot pulling too much brake.
Worse than that was where serious injuries were occurring. They came not from flying at all but rather from the propeller. And most of those occurred during start or runup.
There are a host of other maladies that needed attention and were covered—aspects of paramotoring where risk was present but not readily apparent. It was my hope to present the problem and, whenever practical, its solution.
Another major goal was to show why proper instruction is so critical. Seeing all there is to know would hopefully make any pilot heed the admonition to get good, thorough training. It shows why choosing an instructor who uses a standard syllabus is better guaranteed to cover the necessary material. Any instructor not using the USPPA syllabus, or one that covers at LEAST the same material, is denying their student the advantage of collective wisdom.
It Can’t Cover Everything
We wanted to address the major causes of calamity in 60 minutes (it turned out to be 72 minutes long). Obviously, it can’t cover everything. Free flyers, for example, put themselves in strong conditions necessarily. They rely on rising air that’s strong enough to remain aloft and sometimes climb to great heights—an endeavor that carries a price. Turbulence associated with such lift has proven deadly; even highly experienced pilots have succumbed to malfunctions in strong conditions. According to the U.S. Hang gliding and Paragliding Association (USHPA), the major cause of serious accidents in paragliding is wing deformations resulting from turbulence. That should send a powerful message. But for paramotor pilots, that is not their greatest worry, so it gets much less time in the video. R&R does, however, offer a concise solution to the vast majority of maladies caused by turbulence that are likely to be encountered.
Clear avoidance of strong conditions is far better than recovery. It goes without saying that any pilot is best armed with the tools of prevention and recovery, but it is equally obvious that staying out of strong conditions is even more effective.
Hopefully, somebody will someday produce a “Paragliding: Risk & Reward.” But alas, even though I’m an avid free flyer, it has never become the passion that paramotoring has.
Another video, Instability II, does a spectacular job addressing wing maladies and handling them. It is clear, concise, accurate, and well done—a perfect adjunct to Risk and Reward. Produced by extremely skilled pilots, it vividly points out how some maladies, particularly those that cause sudden or steepening turns, do require immediate action. A cravat, for example, where part of the wingtip gets caught in the lines, is one such case. While the vast majority of cravats that happen to PPG pilots will be minor and allow almost normal flying, getting a big one that causes a steepening turn requires immediate correction (this is covered in Chapter 4 of the Powered Paragliding Bible).
Essential?
You bet. I made no money on the production, it was a product of passion. A project, like the later-appearing PPG Bible that needed to be done. To a large degree, it’s a selfish attempt at preservation. Preserving what has proven so rewarding and has become such a large part of my life. Many of the admonitions don’t sound “cool” but rather are practical and effective. Human factors techniques are used, like the ones employed so successfully in the airlines.
I strongly believe that Risk and Reward, like The Powered Paragliding Bible, are building blocks to a foundation of knowledge that will help ensure every pilot’s longevity and, hopefully, the sport’s longevity. A good instructor and thorough training are, of course, even more essential, but why not start out with the proper tools?
From an article first published in the May 2005 issue of Powered Sport Flying Magazine
As said by a famous man two millennia ago, “It is Finished.”
After over four years, six locations, countless shoots, and two recording sessions with William Shatner, the USPPA project “Risk & Reward is finally in the can. The 67-minute packed show was expertly produced by Phil Russman of Lite Touch Films and involved many, many people in the scripting, filming, and contributed footage.
It is a must-see for anybody currently flying powered paragliders or expecting to start training. The intent is this: Expose the risks of our sport and, whenever possible, reveal how to minimize them. You won’t learn how to hook up your risers, that is the purview of an instructor, but you will learn when it’s a good idea not to hook up your risers.
The intent, from the start, was to make sure people flew their craft with knowledge of what risks are being taken. Rather than say, “Don’t fly low,” it says, “If you fly low, here are the risks and a few simple steps to minimize them.” Having a pilot come to grief after knowingly taking risks is bad; having it happen because without knowing about the risk is a travesty.
William Shatner, a paramotor pilot himself, participated in the project when he cut his parts back in late 2001. While only had 13 flights, he wanted to help spread our message and help preserve this awesome freedom.
Phil Russman narrates with music courtesy of a movie industry provider who is also a paramotor pilot. He chose to remain nameless, but his contribution was no less important.
Thanks to the many who provided input to the script, video footage and participated in the filming. The credits are long; fortunately, they’re at the end!
It is priced at $39.95 but is being offered to USPPA members for $19.95 and non-members for $29.95 to help get the information out there. For ordering information, please visit www.USPPA.org and click on “Risk & Reward” at the top Favorites section. To get the member price (one per year per member), log in and click on “Risk & Reward.”
Hopefully, through education, we can give pilots the opportunity to become aware of risks that lurk and maybe find out what they need to learn. Through this and other efforts, we can preserve our ultimate freedom for our own future and those that follow.
