Page 6

Page 1 - opening page on the paramotor	Page 2 - the engine	Page 3 - guards, wing etc, technical spec of what is included.
Page 4 - packing up and other items	Page 5 - ebay page text	Page 6 - making it earn its keep

Finding property

This is the most profitable area, and can include finding likely scenic places for advertising, TV dramas or films (this is what I bought this paramotor for originally), and finding property for development opportunities which is where the greatest sums can be made.

So with development what are you looking for, barns suitable for conversion, plots of ground in villages and smaller towns that could be built upon, property with large grounds that you could get an option on, ie bungalow in large grounds where the land is worth 10 times the bungalow.

You don't need to buy the land, you just get an option to buy (contract) for set time and then find a developer or investor who will buy this off you. Some may even pay you just for leads to follow up, or work with you on a profit share basis (Property Pension Club Ltd helps people to find investment property to build pension schemes and will work with you on this.) The value of a piece of garden is small, the same piece with planning permission is up to a hundred times more.

The great advantage beyond return, is that you can do it in many areas and to fit your own timescale.

Filming

I had a list of video films I wanted to produce form the air, trips along country paths, rivers, preserved railways etc. These could be sold as tourist items along the path, ie think of how many towns and other places are along the Thames. I never got around to it, although I have the video equipment still. A good fill in if you ever get the time.

Another area is for advertising or promotions, take for example a new housing estate, or tourist place. The down side is needing to deliver according to some other persons schedule.

Possibly another area would be working with people who want to sell holiday homes and touring Europe with it, putting together sales videos of properties. Remember that while UK estate agents have a 1.5% commission many European ones can be as high as 25% and prepared to split it with those who work with them.

I always called my paramotor the skyhook when talking to film people, as this is just about impossible to get by other means, except a very expensive and noisy helicopter fitted with special vibration damping kit.

You can't however take on filming assignments with actors, as you are unlikely to be able to guarantee the flying and visual conditions to a set timetable. If you could then the earning potential would be huge, even more than property finding.

Photography

Lots of people need photos from the air, and have specific needs rather than just hanging on the wall. It may be to sell a house, or to get planning permission, for advertising or even to object to what some other person is doing.

I may be able to arrange a deal for you with picture library to carry a wide selection of photos for you, providing your photography skills are good enough.

Banner flying

Some people with paramoters advertise that they can tow advertising banners. This would work and you would be slow enough to be able to be read. Its not something I would want to do, flying in circles would get boring after a while.

Searching

Ok a missing child and the rescue services and all and sundry are out, but what about a much loved pet dog, or similar.

Treasure hunting

From the air, you may have noticed, old underground developments tend to show up at some times of the year, be they roman, earlier or later. Armed with this information you could approach farmers to get permission to use a metal detector on a split percentage basis, some finds made recently by those with metal detectors are fantastic. Any group of items usually gets made treasure trove so you get from the authorities the value of the find, you don't have to find a buyer. There are many people with metal detectors who would work with you, but I am not in touch with any now. Magazines for metal detector people are published.

Others

I have only come up with a few ideas here, really to get you thinking. How about Santa arriving at a school xmas party, landing in the field as a silly idea to start you thinking of other uses.

What are you allowed to do with it

It may be worth looking up foot launch vehicles on the governments legal website and elsewhere, this is where it says you can fly items that are small and have no wheels so are foot launched even if they have an engine. (Put wheels on it and it becomes a microlight aircraft and needs a license).

In theory you cannot use it for commercial purposes but everybody does, you will have seen many being used on TV, and being offered for service and I know of no person to have ever been prosecuted or stopped. There are also restrictions generally about filming from the air, but every TV company, police force, ambulance and ...... does it. Phone paramotor dealers and ask what have you got that you could sell me to film from the air and they list the products, they don't say you can only take pictures for your own use, and not to sell. The other answer is of course not to sell the filming, but the product or editing service to edit the photos, or consultancy service throwing in the film, photos etc. It was never a problem for me as I own the TV production company so it was doing research for my own use, but no one ever asked.

There are restrictions against any item flying low, so no police helicopters, military planes or you are allowed to fly below 500ft, but again you see many people at low heights, military helicopters and planes frequently are little over the trees near me, and if you visit many other areas you see them weaving around hills following valleys.

Just about every other powered item in the sky has an identification number on, and can be traced, but paramotors have no numbers on.

As you don't need a license no one could take it away, and the authorities are unlikely to ever have a go at paramotor or microlight aircraft unless they want to enforce the rules on their own people as well.

When you take off or land you are supposed to get permission first, quite how you do that from the air is difficult to see, unless you have a ground crew and radios. When you land, you are something exciting happening, you can create as much excitement as if you were royalty or from Mars. So you can be a star or choose out of the way field sites to land. Unless you are going to damage crops or frighten animals most farmers have no objections when you do ask. Many paraglider schools fly in fields that they share with farm animals, and pay the farmer a small amount to be able to.

Having said this, I am told you are likely to get complaints if you run the engine and buzz people for long periods or fly very low over some livestock. My preference is to gain height and cut the engine and glide silently, using the engine from time to time to move greater distances or gain more height.

I have mentioned elsewhere that there are height restrictions in many places, ie airport approaches and around airports, and I will give you maps of these covering much of Britain. Once planes are up, they are a long way up, you are not going to want to fly that high, so its no major problem.

As to flying over towns, you need to be able, like a helicopter or any other powered item, to be sure that you can make it to the next open space if your engine cuts out. Unless you are very low you can glide a fair way. In the James Bond film they had a number flying in formation over London over the Thames. In practice you are just about the only item that could land in someone's garden in a real emergency.

Learning to fly it

Before you can make it earn its keep, you need to become confident and gain sufficient control that you know what you can do and want to do.

Some people read a book or get a video and then just do small flights to start, first with just the paraglider and then the paramotor before going higher. Taking off and landing is the hardest bits of course. Once in the air just avoiding turbulence and map reading is the main skills required.

I chose to learn by going to a paraglider school twice, plus reading books and watching videos. I found the paragliding was so easy that anyone could do it, but I lacked the confidence to jump of a hill myself without a little encouragement. There are people who run paramotoring courses as well, some in this country and some running trips to the continent and flying in the sun. Although I used my own paraglider wing at the paragliding school I went to, you could start with a school one, which is far smaller. There is little point in my view in learning to fly a small paraglider if you are going on to fly a full sized one. I did look at taking mine on some paramotoring holidays abroad, but was always too busy on the dates they were going to be away.

From a safety viewpoint flying with others, paragliders or paramotors is more dangerous than being on your own as you may end up together, but I think it is always wise either to have someone on the ground supporting you or to have a set plan and someone who knows where you are going to fly and when to raise the alarm if you don't show up. Common sense has to be used and the more you have the safer you will be.

You can transport it in a car or estate (I did), or of course you could use a trailer, and then would not have to take it apart. Putting it together takes minutes. The only problem I found with it in the car is that you smell petrol fumes and therefore had to have the back windows open. I never put much fuel in at a time, and you could probably tip it out again, this is done when people transport them abroad on holiday.

Important

Do your own research and decide on the suitability of this machine for yourself, making it earn its keep is not likely to be a problem, but if you are hoping to use it openly to make a fortune then check it all out fully.

If you want to do property spotting then I can put you in touch with the club mentioned, I am its chairman, who will talk to you as a consultant to help them find opportunities for members, this is no big deal as many others would like you to help them as well, so you should not consider this of any financial value. I am not offering any other business help or help to learn to fly.

The paramotor is to the best of my knowledge in perfect condition and an expert looked at it recently and was considering buying it. He spotted no faults. I expect the rechargeable batteries will need replacing. I have never had it serviced, its a two stroke engine (like a mower or many motorcycles), so a mower service place or garage could handle it.

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