Not sure where this thread should go. It's a video of a guy flying at 17,500 ft in a paramotor manned aircraft. Is the FAA not concerned?

[Don Testme]

I accidentally came across this video surfing youtube. I just find it odd that a paramotor pilot can take his aircraft up to that altitude and not be considered as much of a risk to other aircraft as a medium sized drone. Aren't there some sort of regulations this guy is breaking? Drone pilots are under the microscope, but are these type of aircraft not?

 

[slup]

You already have a thread about exactly that clip here --> Paramotors vs drones

Dive in & read there ...

 

[Ty Pilot]

Aren't there some sort of regulations this guy is breaking? Drone pilots are under the microscope, but are these type of aircraft not?

Nope. Paramotors and other ultralights are operating in a way that RC and UAV's used to. That is to say - Paramotors are basically given a certain set of rules to follow and as a community have, for the most part self governed and remained so for many years.

In addition Paramotors have human beings that are physically in position to see and avoid all other aircraft. They (paramotors) are 100's of times bigger than a drone. These two aspects are some the differences between them and UAVs and why they can fly in class E and we can't (without permission)

You don't see a lot of paramotor pilots crashing into buildings, wandering over their neighbor's houses, falling into 'Old Faithful', flying at night, or wandering into controlled airspace where their not supposed to be. However, we (and the FAA) DO see this kind of stuff happening, over and over, a lot - with drones.

Some basics are: they can operate in class G and E but not in B, C, or D. They also cannot fly over populated areas or within five miles of controlled airports. Certain visual conditions must exist for flight up to and above 10,000 feet. There are others but you get the point.

 

[Drone Master]

You already have a thread about exactly that clip here --> Paramotors vs drones

Dive in & read there ...

Yeah, Its better to keep it in that thread, so lets keep it over there.

Thread Closed