A Big Fat Review of my Paramotor Trike

A thorough overview of my Xenit with the Cosmos 300. If you’re new here, let me start by saying that paramotors, just like the one in this video, don't require a pilots license or a medical examination to fly!

The Xenit Paramotor Trike, made by the Italian company Fly Products, is considered a large trike compared to the other paramotor trikes on the market, and it’s designed for, and it’s really good at taking up passengers! Trikes larger than this one often require you to get your “aircraft” certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, and you probably already know by now that that takes so much of the freedom and fun out of it. On the other hand, going smaller than the Xenit wasn’t what I personally wanted because I wanted something more robust… an inherently stable flying machine, particularly while it's in motion on the ground, that could stand up harsh landscapes that I live in. And the power of this categorically large engine has made getting off the ground feel seemingly effortless.

The Xenit starts at $13,399. Still, I wouldn’t personally recommend the entry level Xenit, only because it comes with the Polini Thor 303 instead of the provably superior Cosmos 300. Historically, Polini Motors has produced dependable engines in not only powered paragliding, but in other forms of ultralight aviation as well. However, their most recent and most powerful engine used in paramotoring, the Thor 303, has left multiple owners frustrated over a pretty severe malfunction that results in the engine seizing.

The dual spark version simply means that it has 2 spark plugs, instead of one which is the norm in paramotoring.

Both variations of the Cosmos 300 produce up to 36 horsepower delivering upwards of 273 pounds of thrust. Let’s compare that to the very popular Moster 185 engine that produces 165 lbs. That additional 100 plus pounds of push will have you taking off in much shorter distances and will significantly boost your climb rate once airborne.

The one thing that I don’t like about this engine is how the factory has placed tamper tape on the high and low jets, and any adjustments made to the factory’s carburetor setting will void the warranty. Vittorazi put the tamper tape on this engine to protect the engine from being run too lean, which it really bad engines. On the other hand, running it rich doesn't pose a threat to the engines life, just it's performance. I ended up breaking the tamper tape with a little adjustment and it totally solved this problem allowing me to achieve the engines intended performance.

Considering the size and power of the engine, the Cosmos is efficient. I could fly for 3 hours when flying solo. With a passenger, you can fly for about 2 hours on a full tank. If you had that extra large tank upgrade, you’d be able to cruise for up to 6 hours!

The Xenit comes standard with a 16 liters, or 4.23 gallon fuel tank. Fly Products does offer an extra large 8.5 gallon tank.

The tank is removable. I see 2 benefits to this:
1. you can take the fuel tank off to make the trike lighter if you’re lifting or lowering the trike into or out of a truck bed.
2. On XC flights, you could land near a gas station, quickly take the tank off the trike, fill with fuel and mix the oil before reconnecting the tank to your trike.

The Xenit is a large trike. It has a dry weight of 175 lbs. It’s 7 feet long, 6 and a half feet wide, and almost 6 feet tall. The tires that come standard are exceptionally large with a 15 inch diameter and a width of 6 inches. All variants of the Xenit come with a very effective front suspension that further improves upon the ride quality on the ground.

Fly Products USA has an awesome video on how to breakdown your Xenit trike so that it could fit in the back of an SUV in a matter of minutes. I am able to fit my Xenit in the back of my F-150.

One of the greatest things about purchasing a trike from Fly Products is how easy and fun the assembly is. In that crate is an ALMOST ready to fly flying machine. ALL YOU NEED IS A 5mm Allen key, and its included.

BEST of all is that this NO DRILLING design does not compromise the structural integrity of the frame. By using these collars, no holes needed to be drilled into the frame. It’s this simple, yet proven design that make this trike so strong and capable of bearing heavy loads.

Underneath my seat is a compartment for a very large emergency parachute.

The control panel comes with any of the Xenit Packages that includes the Dual Spark variant of the Cosmos 300. If you purchased a Xenit package that didn’t include the control panel, you could buy it separately for $699.

It’s a solid and stable platform that I have trusted so much that I’ve taken my wife and kids as passengers. There is still so much more to be done in terms of adventure flights, like landing it inside of a volcano that isn’t too far away, or loading it up with my camping gear for a solo overnighter in the middle of nowhere.