Скачать или смотреть Dangling 2,000ft up in the air in a paramotor

The rapidly growing trend for personal aviation claims a stylish but edgy new recruit.

I am dangling from a parachute strapped to a giant fan 2,000ft above a Dorset cornfield. Suddenly, we begin to dive, soon to land amid a herd of cattle – if my feet don’t clip the power cable first.
“Did I take you through the landing procedure?” asks my tandem pilot. It’s a bit late for that.

Then, just as I begin to make out individual leaves of grass, we start gaining height again. It turns out plummeting towards earth was all part of the plan, after all.

We are five minutes into my first attempt at paramotoring – essentially, paragliding with a motor belted to your back – and I have entrusted my life to a man who calls himself “Deano”.

Paramotoring is not new. In fact, it began in the Eighties, but is still much less well-known than more conventional types of gliding. For three decades, it has been the preserve of a handful of wealthy eccentrics, who liked the James Bond cachet of being “flying men”.

Now, however, it is becoming big business. Parajet, the largest manufacturer in Britain, has gone from selling 30 or 40 of its machines a year to more than 500, as interest in personal aviation has soared in recent years. The growth of unmanned aircraft, such as the drones Amazon is developing to deliver parcels, has shored up demand as people realise that nimble flying contraptions have moved from the pages of science-fiction novels to the skies.

The paramotor has made the crucial transition from weekend hobby to practical transport.

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