CHAPTER 407 FEBRUARY 17TH PROGRAM MINUTES

Keynote speaker Robby Denning told us about powered parachutes at the EAA meeting at Aero Mark on February 17. Robby's interest in aviation came from aerial game scouting, which he does for himself and others. Laws governing the aerial support of hunting vary from state to state, with Idaho being one of the most liberal. You can hunt coyotes from the air here, and Robby is quite confident that a coyote cannot escape from a powered parachute. Only a light sport license is required to fly one of these, and no license is required for a single place machine. The safety record is quite good considering that In the case of an engine outage, you already have a deployed chute. The few accidents come from hitting an object. The controls are quite simple. You steer with your feet and control altitude with throttle. There is no need for an airspeed indicator as the speed is fixed at 26 mph, so Robby takes it by trailer to the area he wants to scout, and takes off in 30 yards of road. Robby doesn't like to fly with more than 15 mph of wind, but a groundspeed record was set in Alaska of 85 mph backwards. With the canopy detached, you can drive it on the highway faster than 26 mph and have immunity from citation until you pass the first pay phone. If you think you are flying it, you are giving yourself too much credit. Prices for these craft are lower than ever due to some upcoming changes in the rules. He displayed his craft for us in the hangar and gave a most informative and entertaining presentation.

Dale Cresap, Secretary