Return to the incident list: Incident List Near Calamity Contact With Prop PPG Type: Type of Injury:

Pilot Details

Age: Weight: 160 Gender: Highest rating held at the time of the incident: Pilot experience level:

Gear Details

Wing Brand: Model: n/a Size: Paramotor Frame: n/r with

Incident Details

May 6, 2009 Location of the incident: , Type of Incident:

Filers note: This conscientious, incident-free instructor has over 700 hours and 1600 flights. We must never let our guard down! My flying buddy (Drake we’ll call him) & I set up to fly about 6 pm. I have a brand new clutch-equipped unit that had only been started twice before that same morning. As my buddy and I chatted about our motors (same models), I preflighted the unit, including checking the throttle lever. As is my usual practice, I had the throttle in my left hand with my thumb next to the kill switch. I grasped the frame or vertical spreader bar near the starter handle which is attached to the spreader bar. One pull & the engine roared to life . . . . at full throttle! I had a death grip on the unit with my left hand & fought as it whipped around, still at full throttle. Drake was able to get to the kill button to shut it off. During the last 2 hours since 3 am I have been reliving the event, trying to figure out how this happened. I am probably over zealous in telling students about the dangers of this phase of flight & how most injuries happen in this manner. Here are my conclusions. This motor has a much smaller & lighter throttle than what I’m used to. Further, it’s curved whereas my other unit’s throttle is straight. When I reached forward with a small unfamiliar throttle in my hand and grasped an equally unfamiliar frame or cage part, I must have had the curved throttle lever fully depressed between my hand & the machine. Then when it started, I could not relax my grip at all to activate the kill button without losing what little control I had on the machine. This was a VERY close call. As the machine whipped around, my left elbow pressed against the netting, far enough in to shred the sleeve of my shirt! Never touched the elbow although the sleve had to be pushed tight against the skin. I shiver when I think of what might have happened if the netting had been a tad looser. Lessons learned: As this might have been a factor, terminate all conversation during this procedure so as to concentrate on the task at hand. I am also considering changing my practice of holding the throttle when the engine is started. I think I will check the throttle lever for idle, then set it down so the left hand is unencumbered while holding the machine. It did me no good to be close to the kill switch in this case. The manufacturer recommends having the choke on when starting which prevents it from going to high RPM in that configuration. That is a good idea and would have worked in this case.

Flight Window: Wind Speed: Type: Phase of Flight: Type of Injury: Collateral Damage: Analysis of the incident (additional input by the incident investigation team): Photos (if available):

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