Flight Test Area and Local Flight Restrictions

If you’re a private pilot or a student who’s passed the written test for a private license, you can do this lesson yourself.  If you’re not, you’ll need outside help.  A basic flight instructor (BFI) or AOPA Ultralight examiner can show you.  Anyone with a pilot’s license should have the necessary knowledge, although the professionals should be better at passing it on.  You can find a BFI under “aircraft schools” in the yellow pages.  The purpose is to discover what parts of the sky are open and what parts are closed.

If you go with a BFI, find a good one and be prepared to pay for their time.  Call and tell them what you’re doing.  An unsympathetic instructor will tell you you’re crazy and offer lessons in a real airplane.  You don’t need those people around, try somebody else.

The purpose of this lesson is to give you a limited area where the flight rules are simple, so you can concentrate more on developing flying skills.  You have no business leaving your pattern until you have completed this step.

Take a current FAA local sectional map (that’s a map of the area in flying terms.  Have the BFI explain it to you) and part 91b of the FARS (the Federal Air Regulations govern the rules of the sky and you must be familiar with them).  Part 103 governs Ultralight aircraft operation and you must understand it to fly safely.  Find your training site on the sectional.  With the information from the FARS, draw an area around the site where you can fly without breaking any of the regulations which would apply to a pilot.  You want enough room to explore a bit, but not enough to get lost.  It will not take too much.  There’s more than a hundred square miles of land within six miles of your airstrip.

Define your limits with landmarks, so you can tell where you are in flight.  Set an altitude limit.  A few thousand feet is plenty.  Set weather minimums.  Right now, unlimited visibility, no clouds and no wind.  There may be places inside these limits you will not want to fly over (lakes, cities, etc.), crosshatch over them to remind you.  Go through part 91b and put a check by each regulation pertaining to flight in your limited area.  Commit these to memory and ignore the rest.  (For example, part 91.101 regards flying to Cuba.  If  Cuba isn’t in your area, you don’t need that information).

PARACHUTE PROBLEMS

Emergency Procedures, Ground Handling

Although the powered parachute is designed for ease of flying and pilot safety, certain situations can occur that require thinking and instant “on the job training” in order to avoid a major mishap and injury.  There is no way to put every situation you may encounter in this manual.  Everyday, new situations and experiences are created in the Ultralight world.  Some situations are once in a lifetime “freak accidents,” while others occur more often.  You may have experiences that “only you can have”.  When something does happen and you do come out of it in basically good shape, share it with others and turn it into a learning experience.  It doesn’t do anybody any good by you keeping some unique fact to yourself.  They may not be as fortunate as you were, put in the same predicament.

The following pages explain a few of the more common problems and predicaments that you could encounter while flying; from taxi all the way up to advance, high-time flying.

The key phase in an emergency situation is “don’t panic”.  Always go for the surest, safest, solution.  For instance, your engine quits at 500’ over some trees (where you shouldn’t have been anyway), you spot a wide open field just on the other side of the power lines that are running next to the trees.  From 500’ it appears you might make it over the power lines, but you just aren’t sure.  You know for sure you can land in the trees.  Go for the trees.  That would be the surest, safest solution to this situation.  There is not set solution and procedure for any emergency situation, only guidelines.  You are the pilot in command.  Use your own good judgment to decide what would be your safest option and then stick to it.

Effect of Wind

Note: Although wind and weather are discussed in the following paragraphs, it is not a substitute for a course in weather training.  Any time you fly you are subject to predictable and unpredictable weather.  If you fly without thoroughly understanding wind and weather you risk injury or death. You must learn weather independently.  You must learn how to take advantage of the national weather service forecasts, the FAA aviation weather forecasts, and local and regional weather forecasts.  You can call 1-800-WXBRIEF and tell them that you are a powered parachute pilot and you would like the wind conditions for that day.

During your first flights in the powered parachute you must learn in completely calm air.  This gives you your best advantage to learn what the aircraft does by your inputs and not the wind’s.  However, dead still air has its share of problems.  For instance, say you’re just ready to begin Lesson 3.  You roll the power smoothly to full power, you start to move forward, it appears the parachute is inflating properly.  Low and behold the parachute starts gyrating and twisting violently and isn’t even beginning to inflate.  Cut your engine off!  Occasionally, your prop blast hits the parachute unevenly and since it is a swirling air mass, it tends to twist a partially inflated parachute to the point it tangles.  It will not inflate until you straighten it out and start again.

Okay, this time you start, the parachute inflates properly, but it is not moving overhead as it should.  Instead, it is hanging back at about a 60 degree angle.  Simply ease the throttle stick forward slightly from full power until the parachute is overhead where it should be.  (The leading edge of the parachute should be just about even with your line of sight looking straight up from the seat.)  Then proceed with your proper lesson and step number.  This problem may also occur in situations other than calm air, handle it the same way.

Crosswinds

Takeoffs or landings in a crosswind are to be avoided!  The parachute is going to go in the direction of the wind and so will you.  If you are taxiing and caught by surprise and the craft starts to tip over, shut the engine off immediately and lean in the opposite direction while steering the parachute in the opposite direction.  If you tip over make sure the engine is off!  When the engine is off, grab the nearest steering line and collapse the parachute before attempting to exit the vehicle.

Now you’ve figured out how to tax and inflate the parachute properly, you reach the end of the runway, you turn your engine off, coast to a stop, but there is not wind, remember?  Here comes the parachute and lines, directly down on top of you and the red hot engine and exhaust pipe.  Get in the habit from the beginning to always monitor the position of the parachute.  When you see that it is coming directly down on the exhaust, reach back and stop the parachute from coming in contact with any hot parts, worry about the nylon lines second.  It doesn’t take long to melt the parachute fabric (about two seconds).  It also doesn’t take long to burn your hand, so be careful.  The parachute descends slowly and not at all until you stop forward motion so you have enough time to stop, unbuckle your seat belt while seeing where the parachute is heading and step out in time to grab the lines or parachute before damage occurs.

The parachute may come down off to the side of the vehicle if you are turning or the wind is slightly to the side when you stop.  The parachute will come down to the side of the vehicle and the lines will go over the top.  The fan guard will prevent them from contacting the hot exhaust, but you must quickly remove them from close proximity in case someone moves the parachute or the wind blows it around.

Home

Table of Contents

Next Chapter

    Email Us at Joe@QuakerStatePoweredParachutes.com with any questions.

Email webmaster@QuakerStatePoweredParachutes.com with any problems with the website.

Copyright © 2010 Quaker State Powered Parachutes