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A brief search shows paramotors are regulated as ultralight vehicles, and therefore do not require a license to operate. You're not allowed to fly at night or i

A brief search shows paramotors are regulated as ultralight vehicles, and therefore do not require a license to operate. You're not allowed to fly at night or in restricted airspaces, and as far as I can tell that's about it for regulations. (Although I am far from an expert in the area.) In other words... We may already have a traffic system you can just take a paramotor to work!

alwa 2y ago
You also may not fly over populated areas, and you require a nontrivial amount of open space to take off and land. And the weather needs to be clear and calm. But if you can pull that off…
pqdbr 2y ago
There's one extra rule that you must abide by when Paramotoring in almost any country I've been: you can't fly over densely populated areas. That's what prevents you to fly to work (at least in most work locations :) You probably wouldn't want to do so... flying amongst buildings is terrible: they create a lot of turbulence; flying would be not confortable at all, and in extreme cases the gusts can induce a wing collapse.
- jajko 2y ago
  I've ended up with both legs broken in basic paragliding accident 2 months ago in Chamonix, France when trying to reach official landing spot quite close to the buildings... guess what, a simple newly formed completely unseen turbulence can fuck up your plans, and what worked 5 times in a row before (2x at the same day, 3x a day before) ended up with pretty bad accident 6th time. A mere milliseconds more or less and on top of both legs broken I could have ended up literally with knee torn off from leg (amputation or complete knee replacement), or hitting a massive stone with my head or neck at speed where even good helmet just wouldn't cut it. Don't get me wrong - those are amazing sports and experiencing flying on your own is a sensation that makes life (also) worth living. But safe it isn't, basically all senior paragliders I've talked to have stories of broken wrists, legs, nasty scars along the spine etc. But nobody likes to talk about it, which then may give you wrong impression on safety. And those are people that you can still meet out there. I've seen people being taken by choppers straight from launching zones after messing up something, or disappearing into thick forest canopy. Suffice to say, with 2 small kids I gave up on this sport for good after what happened. I'll stick to rock climbing, hiking, skiing, ski touring, diving, touch of alpinism and maybe will pick up some surfing variant like kite or wind ones. That is, if all heals well which is still an open question for next few months. And maybe it won't and I'll have to abandon half of those. Paramotoring is even more dangerous than this from what I've heard. For commute its insane to even suggest it, death or paralysis would be pretty common news in urban areas.

alwa 2y ago

You also may not fly over populated areas, and you require a nontrivial amount of open space to take off and land. And the weather needs to be clear and calm. But if you can pull that off…

pqdbr 2y ago

There's one extra rule that you must abide by when Paramotoring in almost any country I've been: you can't fly over densely populated areas. That's what prevents you to fly to work (at least in most work locations :) You probably wouldn't want to do so... flying amongst buildings is terrible: they create a lot of turbulence; flying would be not confortable at all, and in extreme cases the gusts can induce a wing collapse.

jajko 2y ago
I've ended up with both legs broken in basic paragliding accident 2 months ago in Chamonix, France when trying to reach official landing spot quite close to the buildings... guess what, a simple newly formed completely unseen turbulence can fuck up your plans, and what worked 5 times in a row before (2x at the same day, 3x a day before) ended up with pretty bad accident 6th time. A mere milliseconds more or less and on top of both legs broken I could have ended up literally with knee torn off from leg (amputation or complete knee replacement), or hitting a massive stone with my head or neck at speed where even good helmet just wouldn't cut it. Don't get me wrong - those are amazing sports and experiencing flying on your own is a sensation that makes life (also) worth living. But safe it isn't, basically all senior paragliders I've talked to have stories of broken wrists, legs, nasty scars along the spine etc. But nobody likes to talk about it, which then may give you wrong impression on safety. And those are people that you can still meet out there. I've seen people being taken by choppers straight from launching zones after messing up something, or disappearing into thick forest canopy. Suffice to say, with 2 small kids I gave up on this sport for good after what happened. I'll stick to rock climbing, hiking, skiing, ski touring, diving, touch of alpinism and maybe will pick up some surfing variant like kite or wind ones. That is, if all heals well which is still an open question for next few months. And maybe it won't and I'll have to abandon half of those. Paramotoring is even more dangerous than this from what I've heard. For commute its insane to even suggest it, death or paralysis would be pretty common news in urban areas.