Paramotorists soar across remote Peru desert to collect threatened plants(phys.org)
phys.org
Paramotorists soar across remote Peru desert to collect threatened plants
https://phys.org/news/2024-09-extreme-botany-paramotorists-soar-remote.html
25 comments
It is mildly shocking/surprising there are parts of the surface we just haven't really visited yet.
Large swaths of Canada are similarly unexplored except by aerial survey. There was a story about the world’s largest beaver dam on HN earlier this year [1] and how remote it was.
Since it’s mostly bogs, peatlands, and boreal swamps, it’s practically impassible to humans except occasionally when the water level rises enough to support a boat but even then the dam was only accessible by luck. The water is just too cold for humans to survive going deep into the wilderness, even with modern clothing and tech.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38606804
Since it’s mostly bogs, peatlands, and boreal swamps, it’s practically impassible to humans except occasionally when the water level rises enough to support a boat but even then the dam was only accessible by luck. The water is just too cold for humans to survive going deep into the wilderness, even with modern clothing and tech.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38606804
They were protecting it probably because people had
The more I think about it, the more I see how fucked up this world is and how unfair and imbalanced life can be for different human beings.
Some people risk their lives to save a few plants, while others (including myself) don’t give a damn about the consequences of our western lifestyle. Depressing...
Some people risk their lives to save a few plants, while others (including myself) don’t give a damn about the consequences of our western lifestyle. Depressing...
Tangent: paramotors are the real jetpacks of the world. It’d be so cool to have a traffic system where one could just take a paramotor to work
It's very appealing (especially with electric paramotors almost being ready for prime time.)
However, the amount of training required to be safe is a pretty high hurdle. Check out Tucker Gott's channel on YT - he will often analyze crash videos. E.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO9BzlcNWMg
However, the amount of training required to be safe is a pretty high hurdle. Check out Tucker Gott's channel on YT - he will often analyze crash videos. E.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO9BzlcNWMg
I used to watch Anthony Vella's paramotor videos, until he crashed and sustained life-changing injuries: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-jyc2OYXsI
It appears that the difference between life and death could be something as small as a barely perceptible difference in tension between two lines. That puts paramotoring in the same safety category as hang gliding and base jumping in my mind. I.e. it is far too dangerous an activity to be doing regularly.
It appears that the difference between life and death could be something as small as a barely perceptible difference in tension between two lines. That puts paramotoring in the same safety category as hang gliding and base jumping in my mind. I.e. it is far too dangerous an activity to be doing regularly.
As a paraglider: Paramotoring is definitely as dangerous as any other form of free flight, more dangerous the way it is done on a lot of youtube videos.
Paramotors frequently fly in less turbulent conditions, but they seem to love flying low (for youtube anyway). This means there is no chance of recovery in the event of a collapsed wing, and there is no chance of throwing a reserve.
I would say that base jumping is even more dangerous than it all by virtue of the fact that most paragliders "last chance, everything else has completely failed, emergency option" is basically what base jumpers are doing on purpose.
That said. All these sports are very dangerous. People die doing all of them.
Edit: just went and watched the Anthony Vella incident. I'm not a paramotor pilot, but the end result there was very predictable as a paraglider pilot. He was trying to see how fast he could go, and doing it at a low altitude (close to the one thing that can hurt you. The ground). He had intentionally lowered his angle of attack for maximum speed using the speedbar/trim, it sounds like he then slightly eased on the throttle, which would have swung him back relative to the wing, lowering the angle of attack further. If your angle of attack is too low, your wing WILL collapse. His wing collapses. His wing had almost completely recovered, but it happened to recover in a nose down attitude, where it flew him directly into the ground. If he had been at a safe altitude would have been completely fine, minus a sprained sphincter.
Paramotors frequently fly in less turbulent conditions, but they seem to love flying low (for youtube anyway). This means there is no chance of recovery in the event of a collapsed wing, and there is no chance of throwing a reserve.
I would say that base jumping is even more dangerous than it all by virtue of the fact that most paragliders "last chance, everything else has completely failed, emergency option" is basically what base jumpers are doing on purpose.
That said. All these sports are very dangerous. People die doing all of them.
Edit: just went and watched the Anthony Vella incident. I'm not a paramotor pilot, but the end result there was very predictable as a paraglider pilot. He was trying to see how fast he could go, and doing it at a low altitude (close to the one thing that can hurt you. The ground). He had intentionally lowered his angle of attack for maximum speed using the speedbar/trim, it sounds like he then slightly eased on the throttle, which would have swung him back relative to the wing, lowering the angle of attack further. If your angle of attack is too low, your wing WILL collapse. His wing collapses. His wing had almost completely recovered, but it happened to recover in a nose down attitude, where it flew him directly into the ground. If he had been at a safe altitude would have been completely fine, minus a sprained sphincter.
> That puts paramotoring in the same safety category as hang gliding and base jumping in my mind.
Base jumping is NOT in the same category as the other two. It is riskier by one or two (or more) orders of magnitude, depending on how you count.
> I.e. it is far too dangerous an activity to be doing regularly.
That is not how risk works in paramotoring / paragliding / hang gliding. Doing it regularly means you're more "current" – less likely to make bad decisions, due to regularly exercising pilot skills. This more than offsets the increased risk from increased number of flights.
Paramotoring, like paragliding and hang gliding, can be extremely safe – with proper skills, weather conditions, and equipment. Accidents usually happen when people decide to go beyond safe conditions, e.g. fly in too thermic / too windy conditions.
Something to keep in mind is that paramotors are the easiest way to fly. And the easiest option always attracts the kind of people who look to expend the minimum amount of effort to get what they want. This attitude, predictably, results in more accidents – for this particular subgroup, not for all paramotor pilots.
In these sports, the pilots rely on their self discipline to stay safe. This is the real reason why these sports can never go mainstream – the actual skills are easy to learn, but the discipline is not.
Base jumping is NOT in the same category as the other two. It is riskier by one or two (or more) orders of magnitude, depending on how you count.
> I.e. it is far too dangerous an activity to be doing regularly.
That is not how risk works in paramotoring / paragliding / hang gliding. Doing it regularly means you're more "current" – less likely to make bad decisions, due to regularly exercising pilot skills. This more than offsets the increased risk from increased number of flights.
Paramotoring, like paragliding and hang gliding, can be extremely safe – with proper skills, weather conditions, and equipment. Accidents usually happen when people decide to go beyond safe conditions, e.g. fly in too thermic / too windy conditions.
Something to keep in mind is that paramotors are the easiest way to fly. And the easiest option always attracts the kind of people who look to expend the minimum amount of effort to get what they want. This attitude, predictably, results in more accidents – for this particular subgroup, not for all paramotor pilots.
In these sports, the pilots rely on their self discipline to stay safe. This is the real reason why these sports can never go mainstream – the actual skills are easy to learn, but the discipline is not.
That was brutal to watch and no offense meant to Anthony Vella but this wasn’t a paramotor accident, it was a Youtube vlogger accident. It shouldn’t have happened and wouldn’t have if he had been paying attention instead of filming a max speed attempt in a glider he didn’t have much previous experience with.
There are better commentaries on what happened out there so I won’t rehash but quite a lot went wrong with that flight to cause that crash while the pilot wasn’t fully engaged, including pre-flight mistakes and poor judgement.
There are better commentaries on what happened out there so I won’t rehash but quite a lot went wrong with that flight to cause that crash while the pilot wasn’t fully engaged, including pre-flight mistakes and poor judgement.
A brief search shows paramotors are regulated as ultralight vehicles, and therefore do not require a license to operate. You're not allowed to fly at night or in restricted airspaces, and as far as I can tell that's about it for regulations. (Although I am far from an expert in the area.)
In other words... We may already have a traffic system you can just take a paramotor to work!
In other words... We may already have a traffic system you can just take a paramotor to work!
There's one extra rule that you must abide by when Paramotoring in almost any country I've been: you can't fly over densely populated areas.
That's what prevents you to fly to work (at least in most work locations :)
You probably wouldn't want to do so... flying amongst buildings is terrible: they create a lot of turbulence; flying would be not confortable at all, and in extreme cases the gusts can induce a wing collapse.
That's what prevents you to fly to work (at least in most work locations :)
You probably wouldn't want to do so... flying amongst buildings is terrible: they create a lot of turbulence; flying would be not confortable at all, and in extreme cases the gusts can induce a wing collapse.
I've ended up with both legs broken in basic paragliding accident 2 months ago in Chamonix, France when trying to reach official landing spot quite close to the buildings... guess what, a simple newly formed completely unseen turbulence can fuck up your plans, and what worked 5 times in a row before (2x at the same day, 3x a day before) ended up with pretty bad accident 6th time.
A mere milliseconds more or less and on top of both legs broken I could have ended up literally with knee torn off from leg (amputation or complete knee replacement), or hitting a massive stone with my head or neck at speed where even good helmet just wouldn't cut it.
Don't get me wrong - those are amazing sports and experiencing flying on your own is a sensation that makes life (also) worth living. But safe it isn't, basically all senior paragliders I've talked to have stories of broken wrists, legs, nasty scars along the spine etc. But nobody likes to talk about it, which then may give you wrong impression on safety. And those are people that you can still meet out there. I've seen people being taken by choppers straight from launching zones after messing up something, or disappearing into thick forest canopy.
Suffice to say, with 2 small kids I gave up on this sport for good after what happened. I'll stick to rock climbing, hiking, skiing, ski touring, diving, touch of alpinism and maybe will pick up some surfing variant like kite or wind ones. That is, if all heals well which is still an open question for next few months. And maybe it won't and I'll have to abandon half of those.
Paramotoring is even more dangerous than this from what I've heard. For commute its insane to even suggest it, death or paralysis would be pretty common news in urban areas.
A mere milliseconds more or less and on top of both legs broken I could have ended up literally with knee torn off from leg (amputation or complete knee replacement), or hitting a massive stone with my head or neck at speed where even good helmet just wouldn't cut it.
Don't get me wrong - those are amazing sports and experiencing flying on your own is a sensation that makes life (also) worth living. But safe it isn't, basically all senior paragliders I've talked to have stories of broken wrists, legs, nasty scars along the spine etc. But nobody likes to talk about it, which then may give you wrong impression on safety. And those are people that you can still meet out there. I've seen people being taken by choppers straight from launching zones after messing up something, or disappearing into thick forest canopy.
Suffice to say, with 2 small kids I gave up on this sport for good after what happened. I'll stick to rock climbing, hiking, skiing, ski touring, diving, touch of alpinism and maybe will pick up some surfing variant like kite or wind ones. That is, if all heals well which is still an open question for next few months. And maybe it won't and I'll have to abandon half of those.
Paramotoring is even more dangerous than this from what I've heard. For commute its insane to even suggest it, death or paralysis would be pretty common news in urban areas.
You also may not fly over populated areas, and you require a nontrivial amount of open space to take off and land. And the weather needs to be clear and calm. But if you can pull that off…
It's the least reliable source of work transportation I can think of.
More risk more reward! It makes it that much sweeter when possible. I know someone who has done it a few times in San Diego, a ~45min commute. They do work as a paragliding pilot though
There is such a system. In most places (i.e. not near controlled airports) everything below 700ft or 1200ft is uncontrolled. Basically look around and fly.
It only really works when the air is calm, so dawn and dusk.
I clicked because "collect threatened plants" sounds like a humorously ironic undertaking, but wow, I was not at all prepared to be this impressed. I've been behind the times! This company promotes it pretty convincingly ('the cheapest form of powered flight', 'fair weather aircraft', 'backpack sized'): https://parajet.com/us/new-pilots/what-is-paramotoring/
And has this seemingly on-point guidance:
Overall I'm trying to think how the tech might improve to mitigate the discussed safety concerns -- they couldn't fly during the day because of wind speed, they had to plan extensively for potential crashes, they couldn't do tandem flights, and AFAICT only people who do Paramotoring as a hobby/profession were actually in the air for this study. Could some amount of computer-assistance help make all this a little more predictable...?
The best part, by far, is this little nugget of an idea they didn't try, hidden in a table halfway down:
Thanks for sharing, OP. Will live rent-free in my mind for a while, I have no doubt about it. Oh, and for the curious about my initial sentence: they were just surveying plants via taking samples and setting up static sensors, not trying to, like, propagate endangered plants to safety.
And has this seemingly on-point guidance:
Yes! Do not believe anyone who tells you that you do not need paramotor training, or only just a couple of days. Paramotoring, like any extreme sport, has its inherent risks and can easily lead to injury or death if used incorrectly. To learn to fly a paramotor we believe that there are no shortcuts. Proper training and responsible flying is imperative. It isn’t as easy as guys like Tucker Gott and Anthony Vella make it look on YouTube. If you decide to do this sport – get training from a reputable paramotor school, follow the rules, and don’t blow it for everyone else.
Overall I'm trying to think how the tech might improve to mitigate the discussed safety concerns -- they couldn't fly during the day because of wind speed, they had to plan extensively for potential crashes, they couldn't do tandem flights, and AFAICT only people who do Paramotoring as a hobby/profession were actually in the air for this study. Could some amount of computer-assistance help make all this a little more predictable...?
The best part, by far, is this little nugget of an idea they didn't try, hidden in a table halfway down:
Inflight sampling (using a scoop attached to the foot of the pilot)
Thanks for sharing, OP. Will live rent-free in my mind for a while, I have no doubt about it. Oh, and for the curious about my initial sentence: they were just surveying plants via taking samples and setting up static sensors, not trying to, like, propagate endangered plants to safety.
"Overall I'm trying to think how the tech might improve to mitigate the discussed safety concerns"
Make the power to weight ratio of a 4 stroke equal to a 2 stroke or make a reliable 2 stroke engine.
Anthony Vella had a life altering crash this year and stated he will never fly again. ParaJet might need to revisit their marketing. They make good equipment though.
Make the power to weight ratio of a 4 stroke equal to a 2 stroke or make a reliable 2 stroke engine.
Anthony Vella had a life altering crash this year and stated he will never fly again. ParaJet might need to revisit their marketing. They make good equipment though.
Hmm plastic engines anyone?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_automotive_engine
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_automotive_engine
I re-read this title (which to be clear, is perfectly reasonable) and my brain read it as being about - in various stages of failing to read it correctly:
* Commuting via parachute attached cars???
* Paraplegic motorists (a plausible subject)
* Paraplegics paragliding to collect plants (behold my brain linking incorrect reading to subsequent reading)
sigh
I'd be curious how frequently folk misread titles and have to re-read them, and what words trigger it for them (maybe common associations?)
* Commuting via parachute attached cars???
* Paraplegic motorists (a plausible subject)
* Paraplegics paragliding to collect plants (behold my brain linking incorrect reading to subsequent reading)
sigh
I'd be curious how frequently folk misread titles and have to re-read them, and what words trigger it for them (maybe common associations?)
> I'd be curious how frequently folk misread titles and have to re-read them
many times a day. usually from reading too fast, but sometimes, it's just an oddly worded phrase.
many times a day. usually from reading too fast, but sometimes, it's just an oddly worded phrase.
That glider is looking... well used.