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Powered Paragliding & Other Articles
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Places to Fly under the new Chapter 34.
I've seen the good, the biased and the BS around this sport for many
years now. It is my good fortune not to sell anything besides information
and so I share my relatively unbiased observations and other knowledge
here.
Bias
Everyone is biased to some degree. For example, as a free-flyer and
photographer, I like paramotors more if they have weight shift. As one who
likes to play around on the ground, landing, standing, prancing and such,
I like them to be well balanced on the ground. Such biases
are relatively easy to avoid since I know about them. Another easily avoided
bias is the profit motive—I make no money from
selling equipment.
The hardest bias is personalities. There are people whose obnoxious
behavior makes it hard to recommend anything they're involved with. That's
not fair, of course, and I try hard to look past it or make it clear why
the bias is there. The opposite is true
when it may be a good friend who's selling something that I'm not so fond
of. Gotta take the good with
the bad if you're gonna be credible. I'll try my darndest to be credible. Being Good Neighbors
This article appeared on
Indianapolis TV: not the kind of publicity you want! It's a reminder
that a) some people just don't know how to let others have fun and b) we
don't operate in a vaccum. There are more of "them" than there are uf
"us" so we must be good neighbors as best we can.
Low-Flying Paragliders Irk Some Homeowners
FAA Laws On Paragliders Ambiguous
POSTED: 6:39 pm EDT July 26, 2011
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INDIANAPOLIS -- Some homeowners in Franklin Township are fed up with
motorized paragliders that they claim fly too close to their properties,
disrupting their peace and quiet.
Joe and Virginia Harris have complained for years about the noise the
low-flying aircraft create, 6News' Joanna Massee reported.
"It gets very annoying and stuff when you're trying to do yard work or
anything like that and these things come in. They're very loud,"
Virginia Harris said. "They will descend and more or less kind of buzz
you in a way."
"It's kind of like an invasion of privacy. You want to feel safe and
secure in your own property," Joe Harris said.
Neighbors Harold and Cora Beasley echoed the Harrises' concerns.
"You're afraid to go out in your back yard. I was out there with my
grand kids and here they come. You never know when they're going to come
over," Cora Beasley said. "It's irritating."
Federal aviation rules ban paragliders from flying over congested areas,
but the definition of the term is determined on an individual basis,
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro told 6News via
email.
"The determination must take into consideration all circumstances, not
only the size of an area and the number of homes or structures, but for
example, whether the buildings are occupied or people are otherwise
present, such as on roads," Molinaro wrote.
State Rep. Mike Speedy, R-Indianapolis, said he has now been researching
the law governing gliders in response to the concerns.
"Constituents have made several calls to me and then followed up with
emails," Speedy said.
Speedy said he is sensitive to the property owners' right to enjoy their
own back yard.
But other neighbors said they don’t mind the paragliders. Michael
Karpinski said he and his children enjoy watching them fly over their
house.
"We see them every day and it's kind of neat,” he said. “My kids have
grown up with them flying overhead.” |