Chute the Sky!

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"Power up... full power!" Flight instructor Nathan Taylor's words came crackling through my helmet radio as I eased the throttle forward and began to maneuver down the center of the grass strip. I was strapped squarely in the seat of a unique flexible-wing flying machine—the ParaPlane—and just seconds away from taking off even though I'd never piloted any aircraft before.

For a moment I concerned myself solely with keeping the cart on course and pointed into the wind, as instructed. But before I could really worry about ground-steering control, that problem was suddenly behind me: The ParaPlane lifted its nose and gently rose into the air. A belated peek at the machine's only instrument—a convex mirror mounted just behind the nose wheel—assured me that the airfoil canopy overhead was indeed fully inflated and doing its job. A quick check of the ground below confirmed the fact that I was climbing . . . though perhaps a bit more rapidly than I'd have liked.

Resisting the urge to throttle back, I remembered what Dave Erney, ParaPlane Corporation vice president, had said earlier: "A lot of first-flight students think, well, I'll just take a short hop and see how it feels. They don't realize that the ideal training altitude is three or four hundred feet off the ground, where there's plenty of safety buffer in all directions."

Now that I was high enough, I'd lost reference to things on the field below. I knew I would totally enjoy this new world in the sky—as soon as I learned to maneuver this bird to my satisfaction.

Suddenly, the voice in my ear said, "You're looking good up there . . . reduce power and make your first turn." With my left hand, I nudged the throttle rearward in half-inch increments, which dropped the roar of the twin 210cc, two-cycle engines to a comfortable drone and brought my suspended platform to a level plane. Then I pushed the right foot lever forward about four inches, which initiated a gradual right turn. When I released the lever, the ParaPlane eased out of its mild bank and continued on a straight course.

As I'd been told in my preflight instruction, the foot controls responded gradually to substantial pressure and movement; ParaPlane designer and company president Steve Snyder purposely built them that way to eliminate any surprises caused by slight changes in leg pressure. To test that claim, I removed my foot from its stirrup and gave the lever a long, firm shove at its outer end. After a second's delay, the ParaPlane heeled to the right, this time more sharply than before, and smartly executed its second turn.

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