chunkystyles

https://youtu.be/iR9zBsKELVs

Unlike you, he has contributed greatly to society and people care what he thinks.

I love cilantro, and I'd never buy this. I'd try it out if morbid curiosity if I could.

I'm not advocating for this, but I could see it effectively ending phone scams that often prey on the elderly.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/promissory_estoppel

I've heard a saying, and I really like it.

The best music is the music that was popular when you were a teenager.

Basically whatever was popular in your formative years will be your favorite. Because that is the time where you start experiencing all that music can be and expanding your horizons. And every generation says the music if their youth was the best. And everything after that is garbage.

None of it is true.

are tandem powered paraglider flights done under an administrator’s waiver?

It's exactly this.

Reading the website you linked, I struggle to understand the experience requirements for a tandem instructor.

Now, I'm not an instructor, and the highest rating I've attained is PPG2. So some of this I'm a bit fuzzy on because my info is 3rd hand. My understanding is there are no hard and fast requirements. I know that for the ratings, there are written tests you have to pass that are done by the USPPA. As far as the waivers go, I think it's just up to the administrator. From what I understand, there's a bit of an epidemic of administrators who will just give out waivers for cash. I've heard of at least one that will do it for as little as $1500.

FAR 103 and ultralights are pretty chaotic. There's very little structure to any of it.

Going on a long car trip in winter as a kid sucked so hard. Parents are in the front seats, you're in the back. They're smoking more often than normal because of boredom. You're freezing your ass off because they're cracking the window, and the smoke is awful.

Paramotor training works differently, though.

I travelled for training to Florida. I stayed there for 2 weeks and did nothing but training. We'd do any flights in the morning and evening, and then instruction in the middle of the day when the air is no good for flying.

Not all schools operate like that, but many do. The other type, where you spread the training out as weather permits, those are suited more for locals.

Second, there is no licensing in paramotor. There is a governing body that offers ratings, but it's not required, and honestly, I've never once needed to prove my rating to participate in events. https://usppa.org/usppa-program/

I know for a fact there are several instructors out there who have no USPPA ratings. I'd personally not use one of those instructors, or recommend them, but they do exist.

The better instructors, in my opinion, will do an introductory tandem flight or two. Another option is towing, where the student is hooked up to a winch with a paraglider and a short flight happens where the student gets to land without the motor on their back. In my training, I got both of these. Two tandem flights and three flights with towing. But some instructors do neither of these things.

it’s tough to find schools and instructors who can give you meaningful instruction for them.

These days, paramotor instructors are easy to find, and fairly plentiful, especially if you're willing to travel. The real catch is determining the quality of the instruction. There are a fair number of grifters and bad actors in the sport that lure in unsuspecting newcomers.

I think it's a lack of standardization, at least in part.

It is a magneto, and it's a super common issue. I've seen some have success with shielding the wire from the magneto to the spark plug. I just need to try that.

My understanding is this was his first flight of any kind in any aircraft

Probably self-trained, too. That's not uncommon in paramotor. Paramotor can be an incredibly safe, and cheap way to fly. But without good instruction, there's a lot of ways to get yourself killed. Ending up in a tree is probably one of the better outcomes for that guy.

and it was made solo in a paramotor at a busy airfield.

I don’t know if his engine gave out or if he made some glaringly bad decisions

I'm going with poor decision making all around.

I wonder if they gave up, or if they killed themselves.

I wouldn't be surprised if they got something built, and scared themselves shitless the first time they got in the air with it and never touched it again.

Every now and then we'll see a complete newbie ask about building their own paramotor to save some money which is insane because a full, brand new beginner kit costs in the neighborhood of $10k-$15k brand new. Used gear can easily be half that.

Building your own gear is insanely dangerous, because if it's configured incorrectly, you can easily end up in a dangerous situation like a torque twist where the motor twists the risers of the paraglider and spins you around underneath it. That situation is often fatal. And newbies just don't know these things.

And the icing on the shit cake is that these types often have a chip on their shoulder. They get indignant that we recommend paying for training and tell newcomers that they don't need to waste the money on training.

He was not carrying a radio.

I have a radio, I know how to use it. I almost never carry it just because my motor spark causes so much interference that it makes it unusable. I'd like to figure out a way to shield that interference, but I haven't done it, yet. I fly out of a small, not-busy uncontrolled airport, but I'd really rather not be near an airport if I could help it. I'd much rather fly from just a regular grass field if I had access to one.