Powered Parachutes

    Powered Parachutes are a form of Ultra light Aircraft (compliant with FCC Part 103) that may be flown by any individual without a pilots license.  But that does NOT mean that you should not get training.  The aircraft ARE planes, and they will crash to the ground, if not flown properly.  That being said, powered parachutes are EXTREMELY safe to fly given that proper training.  After all, they ALWAYS have a parachute deployed, since that is in fact their wing!

    For some good training in Utah, I suggest Bonneville Skybase.  Not only do you fly off of a salt flat (lots of room to practice your take offs and landings), but the instructors are VERY knowledgeable.  Further, they hold an Advanced Instructor rating, and can help you towards your Basic Instructor rating (this allows you to take a passenger up with you for training purposes).  Check out their site for more information.

    The brand of PPC I chose was a Six Chuter powered parachute.  I am very happy with the design and construction of these particular aircraft.

    Being an ultra light aircraft, the FCC mandates that you must assemble at least 51% of the craft.  This can be quite daunting, at first, since this is what your aircraft looks like when it arrives:

    Basically, it is a whole bunch of boxes and plastic wrap.  The largest box there is the engine itself (which thankfully you don't have to do too much assembly on).  It is a special aviation version of a rotax 582 engine.  It has dual magnetos and two spark plugs per cylinder.  This drastically reduces the chance of failure in the sky.  The kit is pretty well documented, and built well, so the assembly was not all that difficult, and only took about a month of evenings

    Here are some photos as the process progressed:

    After the assembly is completed, you must run through an engine break in procedure.  This is fairly involved and requires running the engine at different RPMs for over an hour.  Not much to do but sit and read about the plane, and think about taking it into the air:

    Once it was built, it was time to take to the air over Park City, Utah.  Several of the places below are where the Olympics will be held.

This is myself flying over the area near our flying field.  I-80 and 'The Canyons' ski resort are in the background.

This is a close-up of myself flying in the same area.  The colors of the chute are amazing to see against the background of the mountains.  The mountains behind me are over 10,000 feet high.

    I decided to fly over the new bobsled run and Olympic jumping park that they are finishing construction on.  This will be a very crowded place in 2002.

    I mounted a mirror on the front of my PPC to keep track of the chute.  I find that it really helps to ensure that your chute is properly inflated before takeoff.  The place where we take off and land is just in front of my nose gear in this picture.

    Several balloons also provide commercial flights out of this spot.   They love to see us up in the air along with them, since it gives the tourists a good show!  Another beautiful fall morning in the mountains of Park City.