Paratrike — controlled extreme

Fly­ing on a para­trike can give max­i­mum impres­sions even to the most restrained peo­ple. After all, only this unusu­al device can give you the oppor­tu­ni­ty to feel free and, at the same time, ful­ly con­trolled flight.

The his­to­ry of the para­trike

Para­trike, as a sep­a­rate type of extreme aero­nau­tics, appeared rel­a­tive­ly recent­ly. The com­bi­na­tion of para­chut­ing and paraglid­ing led to the birth of a struc­ture that stays in the air due to a wing sim­i­lar to a para­chute, but con­trolled by a motor with a pro­peller. Para­trike com­pe­ti­tions are held as part of the paraglid­ing cham­pi­onships. Dur­ing the com­pe­ti­tion, maneu­ver­abil­i­ty, aer­o­bat­ics and land­ing accu­ra­cy are eval­u­at­ed.

And in recent years, not only ath­letes, but also lovers of active and extreme recre­ation have shown spe­cial atten­tion to para­trike flights all over the world.

What is a para­trike?

The para­trike con­sists of a wing, which is a mod­i­fi­ca­tion of a con­ven­tion­al paraglid­er, and a light bas­ket (wheel­bar­row) made of an alu­minum frame with two pas­sen­ger seats. The bas­ket is equipped with a pow­er­ful pro­peller nec­es­sary for accel­er­a­tion dur­ing take­off and for per­form­ing maneu­vers dur­ing the flight. In addi­tion, there is a dash­board in the bas­ket, which con­tains devices for mea­sur­ing alti­tude and air­speed, as well as con­trols.

The advan­tage of a para­trike is that two peo­ple can par­tic­i­pate in the flight at the same time — a pilot and a pas­sen­ger. Para­trike, like a reg­u­lar paraglid­er, is kept in the air due to ris­ing gusts of wind. How­ev­er, unlike a paraglid­er, a para­trike is con­trolled using wing lines and guides locat­ed on the pro­peller. A flex­i­ble para­chute wing makes the flight more even and smooth, smooth­ing out air pock­ets.

The max­i­mum height gained by a para­trike can reach 5 km. But at the same time, it should be not­ed that the pos­si­bil­i­ty of a spin in the event of a motor fail­ure is exclud­ed.

To take off, a para­trike needs only a small area of ​​unpre­pared sur­face used for accel­er­a­tion. And in order to catch the wind flow, 30–40 meters is enough.

The chas­sis base of a para­trike can change depend­ing on what sur­face it needs to land on — wheels for dirt and skis for snow and ice. If the para­trike is made on a wheel­base, then it can also be used as a ground vehi­cle (pro­vid­ed the para­chute is fold­ed). On the track, the para­trike can reach a cruis­ing speed of up to 60 km/h.

Due to the motor propul­sion, the para­trike gives an advan­tage in speed and maneu­ver­abil­i­ty com­pared to oth­er paraglid­ers.

Para­trike flights are allowed only in good weath­er, in the absence of wind, rain and snow.

Kinds

There are some types of para­trikes. Among them:

Knap­sack para­trike

It con­sists of a wing and a shoul­der mech­a­nism with a motor and a pro­peller. The design is designed for one per­son, the advan­tage is that accel­er­a­tion is not need­ed for lift­ing.

Dou­ble para­trike

The design con­sists of a para­chute wing and a light­weight alu­minum trol­ley on which a motor is attached, pro­vid­ing accel­er­a­tion and maneu­ver­abil­i­ty. Such a design can pro­vide flight at an alti­tude of 500 meters, a load capac­i­ty of about 350 — 400 kg.

Addi­tion­al options for using a para­trike

A para­trike can be used instead of a crane cam­era, as it can pro­vide a fair­ly even and smooth flight or hov­er motion­less­ly over a cer­tain point. In addi­tion, many agen­cies offer­ing out­door activ­i­ties offer para­trike flights as gifts for loved ones, since if the struc­ture is man­aged by a pro­fes­sion­al, this type of out­door activ­i­ty is not only pleas­ant and inter­est­ing, but also rel­a­tive­ly safe.

Arti­cle pro­tect­ed by copy­right and relat­ed rights. When using and reprint­ing the mate­r­i­al, an active link to the healthy lifestyle por­tal hnb.com.ua is required!