Up, Up, Low and Slow

Paramotor pilot, Harley Milne, is harnessed to the equivalent of a hard-backed canvas chair with a small engine at his back and a paraglider for lift.  He is flying  10,000 feet above the ground and battling the onset of hypothermia. Frozen hands or a small mistake could fatally end his attempt to beat the US coast-to-coast transit record for a Powered Paraglider (paramotor) flight.

In November 2020, Rio Vista resident and paramotor pilot, Harley Milne succeeded in beating the coast-to-coast record by nearly 10 days.  In 2020, he also met the challenge of flying a paramotor, the equivalent of a motor-powered hang glider, in all 50 US States in less in 7 months. This feat will appear in the Guinness Book of World Records.  The 52-year-old paramotor pilot praises our local Travis Aero Flight Club for helping him finally earn his long-sought-after private pilot’s license after over 5 years of flying paramotors.  He specifically cited the friendly folks at the Aero Club and the cost savings over other nearby municipal airports, such as Davis and Sacramento.  He spends many hours fitting out and practicing his paramotor skills there.

Mr. Milne was born in Durban, South Africa, immigrated to the US over 25 years ago, and became a naturalized citizen.  He says he has “…plans to take on more aeronautical challenges this year and next.”  His day-to-day business is professional drone photography and other flight applications.  And going beyond just a hobby-level interest, he is also a certified paramotor instructor and would be happy to help others interested in the sport to try a discovery flight.    

Paramotoring does not require an FAA-issued pilot’s license and is much less expensive. Mr. Milne estimates it costs about $12,000 to get a private pilot’s license plus $30,000 to $150,000 for an aircraft.  By comparison, it costs, “… around $2000 for paramotor training and around $8,000 for the equipment.  A paramotor costs around $7 per hour while a single-engine airplane comes in at about $50 for the same flying time.” 

Is the sport safe?  According to The United States Powered Paragliding Association (USPPA) 

“…paramotoring is possibly the safest form of personal flight ever devised but it’s still aviation.  Humans in flight involve significant and not always an obvious risk. We are fortunate, though, in how much safety is at our disposal.  (There are) … tools to help educate pilots and instructors (fly safely).”  A beginner may operate a paramotor with as little as 4 or 5 hours of instruction. However, less than the recommended 5 to 13 days of professionally directed training is a sure recipe for disaster.  Paramotor flyers tend to safely fly “…low to the ground, and around 25 miles per hour,” according to Mr. Milne.  The paramotor mantra is …it is “low and slow. We are considered the motorcycles of the sky.”

There is no age limit to paramotoring.  Yet, training schools rarely accept beginners under 14 years of age and the oldest pilot on record is 87 years old.

Mr. Milne actively donates to Resurgence PPG whose mission is to help rehabilitate veterans and “…provide an opportunity for emotionally and physically adaptive capable veterans and warriors to overcome personal challenges through adaptive sports participation to build resiliency, as well as rehabilitate physically, emotionally, and spiritually.”