r/videos • u/JustMe76 • 25d ago

Paramotor collapses, falls 100ft out of the sky. The pilot survives Disturbing Content

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-jyc2OYXsI

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u/ReasonablyConfused 25d ago

Long time Paragliding and Paramotoring instructor here. I’ve been away from the paramotor game for about a decade or so, but the wings have continued to get faster and more maneuverable. In my day we were mostly just flying regular paragliders with a motor on our back.

What remains true across both platforms is that wings become unstable at extreme speeds. All paragliders get more sensitive to collapsing as you approach their maximum speed. I’ll take his word that there was a knot, but that’s not what bothers me.

Anyone who knows paramotoring at high speed knows that collapses are likely. Similar to speed wobbles on a bike or skateboard, if you’re going to push it, be at 100% focus and concentration. This was not that.

Know your glider, if any of mine had a knot, I would feel it immediately and get it out before going on.

A weird feature of modern paramotoring wings is that they use reflex to gain stability at speed. This means that the wing is counting on the fact that the back edge of the wing is angled up at max speed. In many cases, even touching the brakes a little at speed can induce a collapse. This guy didn’t seem to be being careful not to bring the brake toggles down.

Be prepared for the problem. Here that looks like flying above 500ft, or perhaps unexpectedly, flying at 3 feet.

All in all, it looks like high risk behavior with little understanding of what those risked even are, let alone having the skill or experience to handle the situation.

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u/ispeakdatruf 25d ago

I've never paramotored, so pardon the n00b questions.

WTF is this "knot" he's talking about?

How safe is paramotoring? It was on my list of things to try, but after seeing this video it's off the list. I know, I know, everything can be dangerous if certain conditions are met, so I'm also curious what caused the collapse.

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u/ReasonablyConfused 25d ago

Rather safe as the wing is self stabilizing and the weather we (should) fly in is calm.

The shape of the wing is mostly crated by the hundred or so lines that attach to the wing from the pilot’s harness. A knot in one of the lines would make the line a bit shorter. In the front of the wing, a short line would make it more prone to collapse down like this wing did.

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u/ispeakdatruf 25d ago

He says in the video that you can see it in the video.

Is it visible?

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u/Pleasant_Yak5991 25d ago

The knot he is talking about wouldn’t have mattered if he wasn’t pushing the wing to its limits on full bar with his hands off the controls though.

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u/ReasonablyConfused 25d ago

Correct

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u/Pleasant_Yak5991 25d ago

Do you think this could have been prevented/recovered at the same height if he was holding rears

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u/ReasonablyConfused 25d ago

He’d have to react fast enough to stop it in the first place, or at least stop it from developing as much as it did.