Paramotor Ooops!! Powered Paragliding WPPGA World Champion Smacks Flat Top Into The Ground!!!!

Paramotor oopsies are pretty common in powered paragliding. What is completely uncommon is the safety and durability of the Flat Top paramotor. Not only is it the lightest unit in it's class but the safety and durability are simply unmatched for any ultralight or personal aircraft. Watch closely the slow motion replay and you see just how hard the pilot smacks into the ground but flies away without any damage to himself or the aircraft. There are hundreds of reason for both the lack of damage and the lack of injuries on Flat Top paramotors. Strength and durability of the Flat Top is no mistake:

The frame is made considerably wider than other units. By making the frame wider it makes the cage pieces smaller and the smaller the cage pieces the stronger they are. Next the bottom cage pieces on the Flat Top are smaller than the top. Since the bottom pieces are the most common to bash into the ground this design feature dramatically adds to the strength. Then the whole cage piece is strung with 400 lb strength kevlar line that is integrally riveted right to the cage. Because of the angle of impacts like this, that 5200 lbs of kevlar strength resists the flex on the cage back towards the prop. The cage piece is attached directly to the frame so when you try to flex the outside of the cage piece to the rear you pull on all 5200 lb strength of kevlar directly against the T6 heat treated frame. Remarkable the design works so well that even if you bash in so hard that you literally crush the cage piece inwards it STILL doesn't flex to the rear. People have been completely dumbfounded to find they hit so hard that they crushed their cage piece INWARD but it did not flex to the rear so the prop was still left undamaged and their protection from the prop was therefore still in tact. Even a crushed Flat Top cage piece still continues to protect the pilot from the spinning prop.

The safety of the pilot was the number one concern when designing the Flat Top. Watch closely how the pilots body never contacts the ground. The exact placement of the crumple zone ensures that the crumple zone will be the first to take an impact and NOT the pilots body. To achieve this there are many many factors. The comfort bars are one of the most important. Just like a roll cage in a car, the crush zone does absolutely nothing unless the driver is strapped securely inside of it. The comfort bars on the Flat Top hold the pilot INSIDE of the crumple zone. They also run the full length of the pilots rib cage all the way down to your hip. So if you smash into the ground you have a huge surface area against your body forcing the crush zones to work. If the "comfort bars" were one single bar then if you did smash into the ground that one bar would be forced right into your ribs with amazing force. Next the comfort bars have to be extremely solid and strong. If your "comfort bars" flex then they completely eliminate any affective crumple zone. Again it would be like no seat belt in your car as it allows your body to just flop into the ground without forcing the crumple zone to crush and absorb impact.

The solid comfort bars of the Flat Top also hold you solidly inside your aircraft for maximum precision. Just like a Ferrari that has a completely form fitting seat that you are securely fastened inside of with a seatbelt, the Flat Top comfort bars give you that complete support so that your Flat Top aircraft moves as you move. It hugs your body just like a race car so when you throw the Flat Top into a maneuver you don't have your paramotor slopping around such as the tail wagging the dog syndrome of other designs.

Watch closely how the kids catch the weight of the pilot AND paramotor. Instead of the pilot's body smacking into the ground and the weight of the paramotor crashing down on top of them the Flat Top paramotor does the opposite. It catches you before your body hits the ground and absorbs the impact. People have literally full stalled Flat Tops right into the ground and walked away completely uninjured.

The Flat Top design also prevents the crash and smash. The very low center of gravity pared with the rounded skids & smoothed edges prevents anything from catching and flipping you onto your face. The proper balance of the low certified height hang points along with the above are why this type of incident often results in the pilot just flying away without damage or injury. If you have a high center of gravity with high hang points and sharp points at the bottom of the paramotor then the cage on the bottom wants to catch forcing you forward and into the ground. Then the thrust and high...

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[socdhinds]

Any damage to the frame?



[imasuper0308]

@socdhinds No not with a Flat Top. They are seriously tuff even though it is the lightest and most powerful in the world. Fun stuff!!! We can do stuff like you see in the videos on anything other than a Flat Top or we would spend half our life just fixing broken crap. The Flat Top rocks!!!

[PPGAddict]

Dell maybe on accident but that may be the first wing tip knee drag on video on a ppg.

[imasuper0308]

Awe no it's not the first, I've done that many times lol.

[oilrigpilot]

Dell, could you explain what an SAT is? It doesnt look like a reg. turn... and I just can't imagine HOW this is done....to twirl around the middle axis like that ! Thanks... great recovery by the way !!! Loved it !

[imasuper0308]

In a SAT you are basically flying backwards around your glider. The glider is going one direction and your body is going the other. It is something you should learn from master pilots at a maneuvers clinic over water with a couple reserves. Then once you get the hang of it and practice it a bunch you can start to do them anywhere. Fun stuff:).

[imasuper0308]

I'm up to 30 circle foot drags in a row. There are 2 gliders I would take, the K2 or the Eris III RS. I'm 175 lbs and I fly the small K2 at 23sm or the medium Eris III RS at 22sm. For flying through your own wake the Eris III RS is going to be the best as it doesn't make much of a wake in the first place and cuts right through it anyway. Send me a video of what you are doing and I can give you some input on how to help you improve. Have fun!

[travelmoto]

I am doing round foot-drags,

in the second rounds starts to be more difficult because some times I go throu my turbulence, (and not ice in the ground to forgive).

I have been watching ALL your videos, (saw your 8 foot drags), I am watching your videos to learn from you and to improve my self. Thank you for sharing.

Your body-weight must be something like 170 pounds, right?

Which size k2 you usaly fly? 23 (m2) or 25 (m2)?

[imasuper0308]

Watch my figure 8 foot drag record video. The K2 is my #1 choice for flying like that. It is just amazing. The K2 is like too good to be true until you try it. A total beginner glider with fully certified safety but so dang fun I myself as an advanced pilot choose it over every single other glider I have. I literally carry over 100 different gliders and could pick any single one of them to fly but I choose the K2 as it is seriously the very best glider I know of. It's crazy awesome!!

[imasuper0308]

Yes for sure lol. You can't get away with anything on water. The second you touch it just sucks you in. Snow is the most forgiving and firm sand is pretty awesome too, I've skipped off that quite a few times. The Flat Top design really allows for some amazing flying capability with very minimal risk. A guy just full stalled into the ground yesterday on a Flat Top and walked away from it. The Flat Top freaking rules!!! I can't imagine flying anything else. I seriously would quit the sport!