Powered parachute pdf download

However, Destiny says most of the suspension comes from the low-inflation inch tundra tires. Many visitors count a large number of powered parachute manufacturers at airshows.

Insiders hear rumors about the large volume of engines these companies are buying. Much like trikes before them, the sales of powered parachutes and powered paragliders seem to be increasing. Most new flying machine types have their day, and currently powered parachutes appear to be enjoying a great run. Despite the fact that the planet supports only a couple million pilots, aviation is highly segmented.

Flyers in America enjoy the broadest choices imaginable with aircraft of every description. This incredible diversity is vast enough that we tend to focus only on the types of flying machines that interest us or that we can afford. Boats have been using parachutes to lift parasailing resort-goers for years. However, it is a more recent phenomenon for powered parachutes to make a significant market impact on conventional aviation. I first flew and reported on a couple of Buckeye powered parachutes in August ,1 soloing the single-seat Falcon in a humorous first encounter with the genre.

The original twin-engine ParaPlane may no longer be with us but it was the original powered parachute. Barely getting in on the old millennium, the company is one of the newer players in an increasingly crowded powered parachute field. A company of 15 employees expecting to grow to 20 during , Destiny taps its Michigan-based community for many retired auto workers who are rich in knowledge about machining and parts fabrication.

Hiring has been furious with the company growing from 2 employees to 15 in just 2 years. Destiny Powered Parachutes was founded by sole company owner John Rivers. His goal was to provide a higher level of comfort and safety in the carriage than he saw in other brands.

The enormous inch tundra tires are one example — they provide the main suspension though landing gear legs are also substantial. With a frame built around such large tires, a resulting 4-inch-higher clearance higher than other brands, Destiny suggests gives more clearance in the event of mishaps or poor takeoff and landing technique. Instead he says pilots refer to their canopies in square footage figures. Destiny offers three different canopies at present. They have and square-foot square canopy models supplied both by Apco and Elan as well as the newer Chiron elliptical canopy as flown in this evaluation.

The Chiron looks as big, even larger if you glance only at span but is clearly much smaller measuring only square feet. For comparison, fixed-wings run between and square feet. After being sewn and tested in Israel, the canopies are again tested in Austria, which Brown feels provides extra assurance to buyers. Indeed, the Chiron is somewhat more temperamental in the launch phase when you bring the canopy up above the carriage.

Contrarily, says Brown, the reliable square canopy rarely has this problem. The Destiny comes standard with huge inch tundra tires. A combination of chromoly steel and fiberglass rods give the frame more ability to absorb punishing loads while keeping as much force as possible from the occupants. Destiny has worked with the fiberglass rod supplier to arrive at an improved material composition that is less brittle and less likely to crack under load.

Charlie Brown says designer and company owner John Rivers has quite thoroughly tested the carriage, subjecting it to all manner of abuse and indecency in the effort to expose any weaknesses in the design.

While all powered parachutes tend to offer robustly built carriages, Rivers has been very focused on this quality. It takes time and money to change things.

Customers seeking something more or different from earlier manufacturers may buy the Destiny as it already incorporates popular features. One leading example is the more comfortable individual bucket seats in tandem versus trike-like tandem seats that place occupants very close to one another.

Destiny also feels this seating arrangement is safer and they add 5-point restraint harnesses to the equation. Typically powered parachute instruction works something like this my synopsis is greatly simplified, please be sure to see a qualified powered parachute instructor. You start out in the back seat going aloft to a safe altitude. Since Destiny installs a throttle in the rear, the instructor can have you run through a session of throttle changes to help you grasp this most important of powered parachute controls.

Of course, all instructors will be seeking light or no winds and will work from a wide-open field. With the instructor now working the throttle from the rear, all the student does initially is steer the nosewheel with the hand control on the left. Since it operates fore and aft to steer left and right, it may take some time to acquire comfort with this system.

Pulling in toward you by hand is similar to pushing with your legs in physical exertion and an experienced instructor can stay on top of the controls in this manner.

As experience is gained, the student can begin coordinating all the controls. With the rear throttle and hand pulling of the steering lines, an instructor can correct wrong moves.

A few hours of this routine will find most students ready to solo, according to several instructors I asked. In three or so tanks of gas, you should be ready for further learning on your own. But they can provide performance in other ways. In this category, Destiny does very well. Thanks to a demonstration by experienced powered parachute pilot Hank Austin, it was easy to discover the fun of low winds, end-of-the-day flying low over surrounding fields.

I really expected to go aloft and to drive around with little maneuvering. My recent powered parachute flight with Hank Austin helped to change my mind significantly, and another flight later in another brand of powered parachute really shifted my mental attitude. In fact, powered parachutes like the Destiny offer a singular way to enjoy the delight of ultralight flying. If you can live with a to mph max cruise speed, you can relax and enjoy the ground passing by slowly underneath your wheels.

With no flaps or trim to adjust, you can concentrate on the basics of low and slow flying, just as ultralights were originally intended. After an attitude adjustment, I now give a hearty welcome to powered parachutes like the Destiny Sure, you need to seek out mild conditions and ideally you fly from a large field that always permits takeoff and landing into the wind. Yet who can argue with flying light aircraft when the weather is pleasant?

You may be able to fly your 3-axis design or trike in stronger conditions, but do you truly enjoy it as much when you must work the controls vigorously? They genuinely are different flying machines. Nonetheless, some parameters work. Climb with the hp Rotax and the square-foot canopy while assuming gross or near-gross weight is fpm, a rather modest value. Jump up to the optional hp Rotax and climb increases to fpm when using the square-foot canopy, or to fpm if you selected the square-foot canopy.

Go with the optional Chiron canopy and the Rotax if you want climb rates above fpm. To many 3-axis or trike pilots, these rates seem low given 66 hp and a large canopy area.

Curiously, the factory had no engine-off descent rate figures for me and I was unable to measure any myself. If you push hard on the footbar and pull in liberally on the close-by steering lines, you can make the Destiny turn much more rapidly than I expected. I usually check for longitudinal stability in any aircraft I fly. It does not take a radical maneuver to learn something and everyone should be interested by the results of consistent tests.

The pack may include attached bungee cords for tying it to the frame of the cockpit and may be part of a kit including line socks and frame attachment hooks. A powered parachute is a flexible wing aircraft using a parachute to provide a lifting surface. A cockpit, suspended below the wing by multiple, flexible lines, supports a motorized propeller that provides forward thrust. The parachute wing is made up of multiple cells open along the wing's leading edge to receive air that inflates the cells holding the parachute in the proper airfoil shape.

Parachutes range in size from square feet being approximately fourteen feet from front to back and thirty-seven feet wide. At the beginning of a flight, the parachute is placed flat on the ground behind the cockpit which rests on wheels. Once the wing is fully inflated, additional cockpit speed allows the parachute to lift the cockpit up off the ground.

Landing is accomplished by reducing the propeller thrust allowing the cockpit to descend to a runway. As the cockpit comes to a rest, the parachute settles on the ground behind the cockpit.

During times when the powered parachute is not in use, the parachute must be folded and stored. Proper protection of the parachute and the lines connecting it to the cockpit is necessary to prolong the useful life and to ensure safe operation of the powered parachute. The parachute is typically stored in an envelope-shaped bag.

Such storage is difficult because of the tendency of the zero-porosity parachute material to retain air and thus to balloon up inside the bag as the bag is stuffed. The present invention provides an improved storage system for the parachute of a powered parachute.

The system uses a storage pack that may be unfolded into a flat sheet providing complete access to the parachute as it is bundled in the center of the sheet. The storage pack is then assembled about the parachute by means of fasteners on edges of the sheet. This greater accessibility to the parachute during the storage process allows improved removal of entrapped air. Further, the wrapping action simplifies the storage process.

Specifically, the present invention provides a parachute pack for powered parachutes comprising a sheet of flexible material that in a first state is openable to lie flat against a ground surface and sized to receive a parachute thereupon. Fasteners positioned near edges of the sheet allow the edges of the sheet to be drawn over a received parachute in a second state, to enclose the parachute; the fasteners interconnecting to releasably retain the edges to each other. Thus, it is one object of the invention to provide an improved protective storage pack for a parachute of a powered parachute.

By allowing the storage pack to be broken down to a flat sheet, the time and effort required to pack the parachute is minimized. Thus, it is another object of the invention to provide a flexible fastener compatible with the sheets and unlikely to damage the parachute. At least a portion of the fasteners may be placed on a surface of the sheet lying next to the ground when the sheet is in the opened state. Thus, it is another object of the invention to minimize the chance of the fasteners from snagging material on the ground.

The fasteners may provide a range of connection points to allow a volume enclosed by the sheet in the second state to be varied. Thus it is another object of the invention to both provide a pack that is suitable for a variety of different parachutes and that allows cinching of the pack as air is removed from the parachute.

The edges of the sheet may extend in four pairwise opposed flaps and the fasteners may be positioned on edges of the flaps. Thus, it is another object of the invention to provide a design that is efficient in its use of material and that eliminates the interference of bunching of the sheet as the flaps are drawn about the parachute.

Thus, it is another object of the invention to provide for a path of moisture escape from the stored parachute. The sheet may include attached straps sized to retain the enclosed parachute when the parachute is wrapped in the sheet and to hold the enclosed parachute to a structure of the cockpit. Thus, it is another object of the invention to provide a method of storing the wrapped parachute in a fixed location on the cockpit to prevent damage to the parachute.

The flexible sheet may be part of a kit including socks comprising tubular sleeves of flexible material separable along their length by a releasable fastening means and sized to substantially cover lines attaching the parachute to the cockpit.

Thus, it is another object of the invention to provide a complete system for storing and protecting the parachute and its lines when the powered parachute is being stored. The kit may further include straps sized to hold the stored parachute to the structure of the cockpit. The kit may also include rigid hooks sized to engage a strut of the cockpit to provide attachment points for at least one releasable strap. It is thus another object of the invention to provide for storage of the parachute in a position other than the seat so as to provide improved access to the seat during taxiing and the like.

The present invention is particularly useful with a method of packing the parachute in which the parachute is collected by collecting the parachute along an axis extending from a front of the parachute to a back of the parachute and fan-folding the rolled parachute on the sheet to reduce its front to back dimensions. The open construction of the present pack allows a single individual to fold the parachute and compress air from the folds upon the protective surface of the unfolded sheet.

These particular objects and advantages may apply to only some embodiments falling within the claims and thus do not define the scope of the invention. Referring now to FIG. Extending from the leading edge 14 to the trailing edge 16 are fabric cells having vertical Mylar stiffeners 89 open at the leading edge 14 and closed at the trailing edge 16 so as to capture air and to provide the parachute 12 with a desired aerodynamic shape.

A series of lines 20 connect points on the parachute 12 to left and right support cables 22 and 24 , respectively. However , the one item over which they powered parachutes , aircraft control is accomplished by The Microlight Pilot's Handbook is geared to taking a student through the areas required for passing the The technical definition of a SPHG may be found on page Powered Parachutes Flying Handbook p.

Skip to content. Parachuting has come a long way since its earliest days due to the advancement of technology, and, now, more people then ever are taking up this in-credible sport. With Powered Parachute Flying Handbook, you will learn what powered parachuting means today, the aerodynamics of flight, what types of engines are used in power parachuting, preflight checklists, basic flight maneuvers, and so much more.

Whether you are training for a powered parachute category rating test or are currently a certified power parachute pilot looking to expand your knowledge, Powered Parachute Flying Handbook is the book you need to make your flying ambitions a reality. Certificated flight instructors will find this handbook a valuable training aid, since detailed coverage of emergency procedures, components and systems, aerodynamics, powerplants, ground operations, flight maneuvers, airport operations, and aeronautical decision making is included.

Topics, such as navigation and communication, use of flight information publications, and regulations are available in other Federal Aviation Administration FAA publications.

There are different ways of teaching, as well as performing flight procedures and maneuvers, and many variations in the explanations of aerodynamic theories and principles. This handbook adopts a selective method and concept of flying powered parachutes.

The discussion and explanations reflect the most commonly used practices and principles. Occasionally the word "must" or similar language is used where the desired action is deemed critical. The use of such language is not intended to add to, interpret, or relieve a duty imposed by Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations 14 CFR. The Powered Parachute Flying Handbook is designed as a technical manual for applicants who are preparing for a powered parachute category rating and for currently certificated powered parachute pilots who wish to improve their knowledge.

Required reading for pilots for more than 25 years and formerly published as an Advisory Circular AC C , this new edition is now listed as an official FAA Handbook.

This handy reference book is an indispensable resource for members of the aviation community, as well as for aspiring pilots looking to get a solid background in the rules, requirements, and procedures of flight training. Topics covered include: Ground operations Cockpit management The four fundamentals of flying Integrated flight control Slow flights Stalls Spins Takeoff Ground reference maneuvers Night operations And much more The Airplane Flying Handbook is a great study guide for current pilots and for potential pilots who are interested in applying for their first license.

It is also the perfect gift for any aircraft or aeronautical buff. This handbook introduces pilots to the broad spectrum of knowledge that will be needed as they progress in their pilot training. Except for the Code of Federal Regulations pertinent to civil aviation, most of the knowledge areas applicable to pilot certification are presented.

This handbook is useful to beginning pilots, as well as those pursuing more advanced pilot certificates. This handbook includes the following chapters: Chapter 1. Introduction to Flying Chapter 2. Aeronautical Decision-Making Chapter 3. Aircraft Construction Chapter 4.

Principles of Flight Chapter 5. Aircraft Systems Chapter 8.