Paramotoring

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TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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I've decided to buy a paramotor in 2021 and take up this particular hobby. As I loathe the skydiving community (in Austin area) and people anymore this is a good compromise.

Foler Foler you down? I'm taking the course at Houston PPG in February and buying my shit.

 
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Sludig

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I said I was almost too tired/used to my 200mph bike and joked flying was the next step. I bet this is cheaper than trying to find a place that lets you copilot a plane w/ out a liscense.

Bonus points fantasizing dropping molotov's down on a antifa crowd or something.
 
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TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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I said I was almost too tired/used to my 200mph bike and joked flying was the next step. I bet this is cheaper than trying to find a place that lets you copilot a plane w/ out a liscense.

Bonus points fantasizing dropping molotov's down on a antifa crowd or something.
PPG exists in a situation where there's zero regulation of any kind. Even skydiving and base jumping (base has no official rules) have more restrictions placed on it.
 

The_Black_Log Foler

Stock Pals Senior Vice President
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I've decided to buy a paramotor in 2021 and take up this particular hobby. As I loathe the skydiving community (in Austin area) and people anymore this is a good compromise.

Foler Foler you down? I'm taking the course at Houston PPG in February and buying my shit.

Looks cool. Seems like it would be a step down in fun factor from skydiving but I hear you. I don't fit in with a lot of the skydiving community. Haven't jumped in over a year. I'm not looking to pick anymore hobbies up right now. Report back on how much fun it is, im curious.
 

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Looks cool. Seems like it would be a step down in fun factor from skydiving but I hear you. I don't fit in with a lot of the skydiving community. Haven't jumped in over a year. I'm not looking to pick anymore hobbies up right now. Report back on how much fun it is, im curious.
I havent jumped at all this year either.
 

The_Black_Log Foler

Stock Pals Senior Vice President
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I havent jumped at all this year either.
Wearing a mask while jumping is dumb. Think the florida triangle DZ's are still doing that bullshit.
 

fris

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Isn't there a school in Austin? Why would you do it in Houston?
 

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Isn't there a school in Austin? Why would you do it in Houston?
I have it on good authority that Houston PPG is superior. Houston PPG will also give you free trainings if you buy, which I fully intend to do. The guy running the Austin one is a douchebag I know from skydiving in the area so long.
 

fris

Blackwing Lair Raider
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I think we've talked about this before. I've done 15 jumps, and most have been with guys i can't stand. Most in San Marcus, few up in Salado. And I don't understand the rivalry between them and the tunnel people.

If I had $20k spare, I too would do para motor. The freedom to just take off anywhere you want seems awesome. And while you lose the 60 seconds of free fall, you gain soaring for 20 minutes per flight

Let us know how it goes
 

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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I think we've talked about this before. I've done 15 jumps, and most have been with guys i can't stand. Most in San Marcus, few up in Salado. And I don't understand the rivalry between them and the tunnel people.
You and me both. I've done over a thousand jumps across more than a dozen us dropzones and this tunnel fag vs skydiver shit does not exist anywhere other than Austin. It's fucking insufferable.
 

Hateyou

Not Great, Not Terrible
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I've decided to buy a paramotor in 2021 and take up this particular hobby. As I loathe the skydiving community (in Austin area) and people anymore this is a good compromise.

Foler Foler you down? I'm taking the course at Houston PPG in February and buying my shit.

Looks fun.

Your will up to date?
 
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LachiusTZ

Rogue Deathwalker Box
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You and me both. I've done over a thousand jumps across more than a dozen us dropzones and this tunnel fag vs skydiver shit does not exist anywhere other than Austin. It's fucking insufferable.

People who use wind tunnels?
 

Aychamo BanBan

<Banned>
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I've decided to buy a paramotor in 2021 and take up this particular hobby. As I loathe the skydiving community (in Austin area) and people anymore this is a good compromise.

Foler Foler you down? I'm taking the course at Houston PPG in February and buying my shit.


Can I ask whats the tunnel fag vs skydiver drama? I have around 150 jumps, almost all from a C-182, at a very relaxed chill drop zone. This was 20 years ago, and the dz doesn't even exist anymore. Tunnels existed but like just as a thing you went and did one time for 20 minutes and never again. I think I've heard that like if you train on a tunnel you can really get good fast? How are people even competing in skydiving?

-

PPG looks awesome. I've been interested in for years but never pulled the trigger. I could literally take off right in my backyard, I am right outside of class D airspace so I could take off and go around my town, etc. My main concern was I'm worried the little 2 stroke motor will just be a pain in the ass to keep running, and who am I going to get to fix it when shit breaks? And I worry about the stability of those elliptical wings. Seems like sometimes people just slam into the ground, but I wonder if they are just being really stupid? When I used to jump we used the rectangular shaped wings (Sabre 170! 1:1 which I know seems retarded now), and they were so docile and easy to fly. Would you do the cart version of PPG or the version where you just mount it on your back and take off running?

How long is the class in houston?
 
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TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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People who use wind tunnels?
@Falxy-US

The entire wind tunnel crowd in Austin is just absolutely full of grade A douchebag faggots. The kind you can't stand to be around at all. Think wannabes who act like they are hot shit at everything when they work in the wind tunnel for minimum wage. They push this behavior onto the dropzone which leads to a situation where the tunnel fags group together (and they are good at flying because the tunnel does indeed help you with that). They also are big on trading tunnel time for other stuff which again leads to the In group and the out group and just shits on the whole experience. Even if you go to the tunnel and pay these people say a thousand bucks for an hour in the tunnel they are douchebag asshole instructors to you. I've never been so angry at something that should be fun.

If you imagine high school cliques filled with drama you aren't too far off. They don't even include anyone from other clique/groups you just get to jump alone. Unless you take steps to be a part of such group. They aren't even fun people to drink beers with. This phenomenon is a thousand times worse in Austin than any other area for some reason. Houston/Dallas don't have this problem, for example.

To answer your other question nearly 100% of the top dog free flyers have hours and hours of tunnel time/work at the tunnel. An hour in the tunnel is equivalent to 60 skydives so yeah you can get really good really fast if you blow a couple grand in there. I have a Sabre2 120 btw. These fully eliptical wings are for speedflying and IDK why they're popular with PPG. I'm not really good at mechanical stuff but I am sure maintaining the 2 stroke can't be that hard and there's plenty of guides on proper care and whatnot. I'm buying the running start one not the trike.
 
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fris

Blackwing Lair Raider
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that's what's always confused me. the cost of tunnel time is about the same as a real jump. it's more convenient to tunnel, both how much time you can get in in a day and not having to mess w/ the drive or weather. but a real jump is still ... more fun? I know there's trading time going on, but I don't know how that place stays in business.
 

Hateyou

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What is a tunnel in regards to jumping? You floating above a fan?
 

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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The tunnel company promoted heavily from within at first leading to their leadership being all frat boys who traded tunnel time constantly. They still do but its way more on the downlow than it used to be. As they hired some actual financial/business operations people finally who just look at numbers on a page.

They were surviving on investors for a long time. Riding their "growth" rather than an actual business model.

Hateyou Hateyou I think ifly is novelty for the regular person but for those interested in really improving at freefly skills the tunnel is truly valuable. Freefly being a skydiving discipline where you fly upside down, in odd positions and so on. I was always partial to swooping the canopy and stuff myself.

 
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Hateyou

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The tunnel company promoted heavily from within at first leading to their leadership being all frat boys who traded tunnel time constantly. They still do but its way more on the downlow than it used to be. As they hired some actual financial/business operations people finally who just look at numbers on a page.

They were surviving on investors for a long time. Riding their "growth" rather than an actual business model.

Hateyou Hateyou I think ifly is novelty for the regular person but for those interested in really improving at freefly skills the tunnel is truly valuable. Freefly being a skydiving discipline where you fly upside down, in odd positions and so on. I was always partial to swooping the canopy and stuff myself.

Looks fun. I kind of wanted to see him faceplant.
 

Aychamo BanBan

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Looks fun. I kind of wanted to see him faceplant.

I clearly am outclassed by TJT, etc, and I have a fraction of his jumps / airtime. So I'm an amateur commenting... but looking at that video, you see how the guy is upside down but like keeps his legs bent, that exposes them to the "relative wind", and helps his positioning. It's really hard to keep your legs still and use them to steer you. I used to watch video of my early skydives, and I would always be kicking my legs all over the place, which makes it hard to "fly" (steer) in the air.

A normal skydive, at least at my DZ 20 years ago: drive an hour to the dropzone, get out, talk to everyone, sign up for a jump, do a gear check, put on gear, get someone else to check your gear before getting on plane, wait for pilot to be ready, board plane, climb slowly (I can't remember but felt like 20+ minutes) to 10,000 feet in a slow plane, sitting on your ass on the floor of the plane cramped in with multiple other skydivers, spend the 20 minutes of climb time debating why you skydive, do you really want to die do something stupid, is this really safe? Then they open the door, adrenaline skyrockets, jump out, experience free fall, do about 50 seconds of freefall, open your parachute, land, trek back to the DZ, pack your chute, then repeat. It's a process, and it can take many hours / days to get even 10 minutes of freefall time. So you do all that, you jump, and you do something stupid with your legs, you don't fly well, you rinse and repeat. ... In the tunnel, you can get 10 minutes of air time in ten minutes. So I imagine these guys get insanely good really, really quickly. Sucks that they are insufferable douchebags. Nothing sucks more than gatekeepers to really fun things. I imagine someone could get better in a wind tunnel in a few days than I did my entire skydiving career.

I'm sure there are accidental deaths in wind tunnels, but skydiving has far more. People bouncing, planes crashing, getting paralyzed doing stupid things under canopy, etc. I think at my age / family status / profession I'd just do the wind tunnel instead.
 
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LachiusTZ

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Rich people shit.

In my day we jumped off cliffs and liked it
 
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