Electric Paraglider + Electric Hanglider

[parajared]

Anybody on here do this type of paragliding, even with a gas motor? It looks awesome and I would like to pick someone's brain about getting into it.

I'm a PPG pilot and it's pretty friggin awesome. I fly a blackhawk 313 and Ozone Buzz Z. Electric will most certainly have the same problem we have with 4 stroke motors. You can only bring so much weight up with you and 4 strokes are just so heavy and weak that you can't bring up much gas. I hate two strokes because of the noise, smoke, and reliability but they are so light for the power they produce seems to be the primo way to go.

Runways are a PITA. There is almost always some kind of membership fee, regulation, jump through hoops kind of thing you have to do to fly there. Much better to go out in the boonies and foot launch from an open field. Most of the “boonie fields” I have seen are too rough for wheel launch, that’s why I recommend a foot launch setup.

I find straight up free-flight paragliding to be more fun than motorized flight, just throw all your gear in your trunk, drive somewhere where the wind is blowing up a hill or something and go fly. Training is short; it only takes about a week or so to get enough training to avoid a grizzly incompetent death.

Paragliders are better at ridge lift and hang gliders are better at flying thermal lift. If you fly a paraglider you go out in the morning wait until it picks up enough to fly and fly around for a few hours until you start getting spanked by the strong thermals "rodeo air" and land. If you fly a hang glider you wait until the thermals get strong, usually when the paragliders are starting to land and try to get as high as you can, the thermals get weaker and weaker as the day progresses and you are eventually forced to land, usually around the time when the paragliders are back out again for an afternoon flight.

Here's a video of me flying torrey.
[youtube]JLZTMveb5PQ[/youtube]

 

[cwah]

Anyway we can use this as a way to travel in urban city? :lol:

 

[Kin]

This is one of my favorite ES threads.The videos are great ^_^

 

[sk8norcal]

Anyway we can use this as a way to travel in urban city? :lol:

that would be nice!
would love to motor PG over SF

5 years ago, I was living in Oakland and met a cessna pilot who was taking people up for free (just split gas!!! $15 bucks !!!)
flew over SF to Marin to Berkeley to Oakland.
just an awesome experience.
about 35 min flight (just long enough for me, was feeling a bit nauseous toward the end)

the only thing I think that would make the experience better is if i was in a powered HG Trike (of course even better if its electric)

This is one of my favorite ES threads.The videos are great ^_^

if you get the chance, do a tandem pg or hg flight!

 

[sk8norcal]

http://www.electraflyer.com/trike.php

 

[sk8norcal]

http://www.icaro2000.com/Products/Trike/Trike.htm

[youtube]UhZKChzNjfM[/youtube]

twin prop
[youtube]NLPcsGQdYQ0[/youtube]

 

[sk8norcal]

a bit off topic, :lol:
wished i flown fuston before i quit hg

[youtube]ln3ogDN-KWA[/youtube]

=========

dreamscience pg truster
http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=50749&p=750978#p750978

 

[sk8norcal]

ego trike with atos

[youtube]sIjhgXWMb2g[/youtube]

 

[sk8norcal]

http://www.ruppert-composite.ch/en/index.php
archaeopteryx glider

 

[23skidoo]

Paragliders are better at ridge lift

Better until your feet leave the ground.

This is at Funston:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xkf8m_6JFyI

 

[sk8norcal]

cool footage,
^ if that u flying?

that's not a hanglider though...

he was comparing pg vs hg

Paragliders are better at ridge lift

for me, never did ridge flying, only thermals...

 

[patrickza]

I flew paragliders, and powered paragliders for about 8 years until my son was born. PG was far more rewarding, PPG is far safer IMO. I hated the noise f the PPG too, but being ableto take off and land in pretty much any empty field made it completely worth the noise.

If I lived at the coast I'd pick start regular PG again, so peaceful in the smooth sea air! The prop noise from even an electric would probably still be very high, and unless it offered a 90 minute flight time I'd be unlikely to take it up.

 

[23skidoo]

The ridge racing was me. I don't mean to get in to a debate on definitions, but when I foot launch hanging by my armpits, and I'm flying in the style of many early hang gliders, and fly from the same sites, I consider myself to be a hang glider. The FAI defines it as a class 2 hang glider.

Every trip has its optimal vehicle, whether ebikes or aircraft. At Funston, the use of electric power to get into the coastal convergences which are often just out of reach offshore is intriguing, but would have its challenges. Like ebiking, the main limits are more administrative than technical.

 

[sk8norcal]

the inventors calls it "foot launch sailplane"
http://aero.stanford.edu/reports/swiftarticle1991.html

 

[Lock]

Ohhh... SAILplane? Works for me...
L

 

[23skidoo]

the inventors calls it "foot launch sailplane"l

I'm cool with calling it a foot launched sailplane. This means that its a high performance hang glider, and should not mean that I am not welcome at hang gliding sites.

 

[sk8norcal]

http://blackhawkparamotor.com/paramotors/blackhawk-amp-paramotor/

[youtube]2IBPgdA-zWM[/youtube]

 

[sk8norcal]

Scott-e Electric Thermic Beamer
https://finsterwalder-charly.de/en/scott-e.html

[youtube]wuhSRdffuDw[/youtube]

 

[Bryan]

That's a pretty slick setup. Especially with the prop that far back. Only 10kw though.

 

[etard]

The GreenWing e-Spyder by Yuneec is pretty clean looking. It's gonna cost about $40k, which is on the pricey end in my opinion.

I would like to see this converted into a "Last Mile" machine where the flying surfaces mounted on that beam can be taken off and a medium duty hub motor in the front wheel could be used to drive around town or over to work from the airport, but that still requires renting space to store your wings during the day.

Anybody recognize that motor? It kind of looks like the Colossus.


[youtube]tYo8S9jRoek[/youtube]

 

[regmeister]

Yuneec has been around for a long time.

I believe this is the motor.

The E-Spyder, a single seat electric powered aircraft features the innovative PowerDrive 24 propulsion system integrating the Motor, Motor Controller, 75 VOLT Battery, and Charger. The 24KW power plant quietly propels the plane at speeds of 68 miles per hour (59 knots)with flight times up to 1.5 hours received the world’s first type certification for an electric aircraft from Deutschen Ultraleichtflugverbandes (DULV) E.V in 2013.

There is one for sale on ebay.
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Elektromotor-Power-Drive-24-Electric-Motor-brushless-buerstenlos-neuwertig-/351308619381

I never translated, maybe it's sold already.

 

[parajared]

That's a pretty slick setup. Especially with the prop that far back. Only 10kw though.

You don't want a lot of power if the prop is going to poking out that far because of torque twist. Every paramotor on the market has a problem where if you hammer on the gas too hard it wants to twist you around your risers. Cleverly designed paramotors keep the prop closer to the pilot and angle the propeller in such a way that it doesn't twist as much. The more powerful the motor the more cautious the pilot has to be on the throttle.

 

[jansevr]

to counter the torque twist problem, why not use two smaller motors with one spinning to the right and the other spinning to the left. this seems like it should be fairly easy (in theory) with electric motors - at least over gas that is. that being said i don't know or claim to know much about paragliders so correct me if i am wrong

 

[parajared]

to counter the torque twist problem, why not use two smaller motors with one spinning to the right and the other spinning to the left. this seems like it should be fairly easy (in theory) with electric motors - at least over gas that is. that being said i don't know or claim to know much about paragliders so correct me if i am wrong

It would work great for torque twist; on rc airplanes you can twist a twin propper around with a technique called differential thrust. A twin prop paramotor built correctly would have zero problems with torque twist because it would simply differential thrust its way out of any twist problems. The propellers also would really like being out in open air vs directly behind the disturbed air of the pilot.

However:
-you would be hard pressed not to lose access to the forward launch technique because of how wide the rig would need to be (the low-wind technique where the pilot runs away from the glider pulling his lines through where the propellers would be). You can still launch using a technique called the reverse launch where the pilot runs backwards lines pulled through open air, but this maneuver is really hard to do unless you have a little bit of wind.
-weight even just a couple pounds matters quite a lot in the paramotor world. Two motors two escs and two props….
-double the inefficiencies
-thrust to get airborne: Big ol’ propellers mounted on low rpm motors produce better thrust to horsepower (or should we say thrust/wattage) ratio than high rpm motors with little props because they inefficiently chop through their own disturbed air. A rig like this would be more awesome with two little high rpm EDF engines but that potentially could be so inefficient it would be problematic.

 

[Luther Blissett]

With all that wing area, all we need is a breakthrough in ultra-light solar cells, and we're into "stay up all day" territory.