Power – Parajet
Words: Violet
What?
Think para-gliding, but with a motor on your back. You get the pleasure of gliding through the air, but you don’t need a cliff and a good wind to take off: you simply throttle your engine, run a few dozen metres and launch off from your feet. I can’t help feeling there’s something slightly Super Mario about this – it all seems too easy – and yet it’s real! Top paramotoring speed is 45mph, with a peak flying level of 10,000ft.
Parajet is a British manufacturer of all things paramotors, run by paramotoring enthusiasts including a Champion of the Paramotor British Open, which I’ll wager few readers knew existed. It leaves me feeling good about the engines they produce, all ultra-lightweight motors and comfortable to wear. (FYI, the Champion’s motor of choice is their Polini Thor 200, a 193-cc 2-stroke engine with power output of 29hp at 7400rpm, and a static thrust of 80kg. It’s going for £5,228.)
Why?
I’m not a daredevil, but my only skydive a few years ago left me hungry for more aviation action. A few years older and wiser, I would be a little more nervous about going up to 14,000ft again – but paramotoring’s fit for those who might not class themselves an extreme sports enthusiast.
There are also far fewer barriers to entry than most aviation sports – you don’t need a license, you can fit a Parajet in the boot of a car, and you don’t need a private airfield or the correct wind conditions to take off.
Where?
There’s a 6-day training course for the beginner which you can follow up straight away with a 6-day intermediate course. In just two weeks, you can be flying solo. The courses take place either in Spain, just south of the Pyrenees along the Costa Brava coastline, or much closer to home in Wiltshire, near the Parajet HQ. Prices start from 795 for the 6-day course. It’s pretty reasonable compared to my experience skydiving – £250 only got me 30 seconds of free-fall and barely more than 15 minutes in the sky.
By Charlotte Beale
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