NewsRoom,Home Improvements:
NewsRoom,From the Ground Up
Sept 2, 2001
Several months back Richard Proner, of the Chicagoland area, decided he had too little power and too little cage strength. Not wanting to spend the money on a completely new unit, he set to work on a solution.
Armed with help from several Chicago area pilots, primarily Nick Scholtes and Alex Varv, he crafted his own cage out of aluminum tubing, square stock and lots of rivets. The Solo 210 motor and mount came from his previous Fly Castalucio unit. If RoboCop were to own a paramotor, this would be it!
| Risky
Business
It should be understood that doing this sort of thing involves significantly more risk than buying an established and tested unit. The builder will be acting as a test pilot while flying his own creation and very unexpected things can cause very unpleasant results. Of course simply flying these things involves a varying amount of risk. It's one of the beauties of the sport that allows us this choice. But do be very careful if going this route...it's important to get the input from some experienced pilots before setting out in your own creation. |
There is very little welding involved...only $50 was spent to have the ring welded to the ring supports. It may have difficulties with forward launches since the lines could get caught on the cross members but that remains to be worked out.
Richard claims he can jump his 215 pounds on it without damage!
Below are some shots airborne.
It had no problem getting him up to altitude even with full fuel Richard's 200+
lbs.
The following pictures show more detail. It
will take a few seconds to download the full size pics but you can see them by
clicking on these thumbnails. Richard is sitting in the seat and Nick Schotes is
providing the introduction.
