One of my Paragliding students who will eventually add SP flying to his skill set because the mountains are just too far away from home (6 hours round trip for the day). The video I put together for him is not about electric PPG flying but interesting nevertheless. I do not think when time will come, that he will have too many problems learning to fly close to home with a motor🤩
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Hi Voltaire, I’d like to see this video but don’t see a link. Can you point me in the right direction?
I found this XC flight impressive, though it was not clear to me how much distance the pilot actually achieved by finding and soaring on thermals. Since you are rather a focal point for PPG flyers to tell their stories, are you perchance aware of anyone setting XC distance records after launching from sea level with an ePPG and stopping the motor or using it as little as possible while soaring as far as possible – whether returning to the TO point or reaching some other targeted destination? I would be interested to know how far the flight duration and distance travelled could be stretched beyond the powered-flight capabilities of a one-hour battery.
I flew about 30 miles from the Ellenville takeoff (1300’ ASL) years back (free-flying on thermals) and reached cloud base with others. Here are photos in the Catskill mountains after taking off from the Ellenville site in NY. with a paraglider (no motor).
To give you a sense of perspective, look at the hang gliders in the distance.
As for staying up after taking off powered and shutting the motor,… there are competitions in Europe where they do this his kind of XC flying. Each PPG pilot has let’s say 1 liter of fuel and then it’s good luck to fly as far a possible to win.
Interestingly enough I am editing a video right now of a sunset flight with the SP where I was not coming down after turning the motor off. I will post it in a couple weeks. My videos are on queue.
Have a nice day.
Phil
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