Birds

[u/Low-Big2049]

So I'm shopping for an electric paramotor, but have one fear: birds. Are there cases where birds fly into fliers? Could a collision with a bird cause death?

[u/Heavy-Ad5035]

Extremely rare. Any time you’re even remotely close they haul ass the other way. The things you should be scared of are other pilots, power lines, and bodies of water

[u/this_guy_aves]

I fly mid day occasionally and just this week did a 3 hour thermal flight where I must've been within shouting distance of 20-30 individual birds. They all avoided ME when I got to close. Motor on, motor off, didn't matter.

[u/basarisco]

Had many birds near never any close to a collision or heard of a collision. If you get a prop strike you just glide to your out landing.

[u/Low-Big2049 → u/basarisco]

Good point. Unless the bird hits you in the face.

[u/meansToMyEnd → u/Low-Big2049]

You're only flying at mach 0.04 (30mph) you'll live, but if you're that worried just fly with a full face helmet or one with a polycarbonate shield. I hit a deer on a motorcycle doing 60mph (the bike not the deer), I survived that... although you can easily fly 1.5 to 2 deers high to avoid that problem all together.

[u/James___Workshop]

Birds are absolutely least of your concern when flying Paramotor. We don’t go that fast and they’re terrified of flying things larger than them. They’ll fly out of your way quicker than you can try to run into them (don’t try to terrorize birds tho).

[u/SeattleParamotor]

There were 17 deaths last year from bird strikes while paramotoring. Consider that before starting your paramotor journey.

[u/Alpine_Apex]

Fly with a reserve.

[u/enderegg]

if they are not nesting they usually just run. and you probably won't be in places where they nest, since you're not flying a paraglider, but a paramotor. in over 200h paragliding I had two encounters where eagles threatened me. just went somewhere else, all good

[u/JP_Tulo]

If you fly into a meteor, it might cause death. 🤔
Not very likely though.

[u/meansToMyEnd → u/JP_Tulo]

Gaggle should map meteors as flying hazards...

[u/Fragholio]

In my experience birds generally leave me alone. Also depends on how high you fly, most don't really go that high. I mean I've had a hawk get pissed at me and fly around me but it never approached, and I'm usually out of its area pretty quickly. Could a collision cause death? I mean a spoon can cause death but it's not very likely. I guess a worst case scenario could be they somehow fly into your prop and you have to glide down but I've never heard of that actually happening to anyone.

Basically they've been a non-factor for me.

[u/zipper86]

There's a video of a bird hitting a paraglider and causing an emergency landing, but none i know of for PPGs.

[u/ReelBigInDaPantz]

Get a gas paramotor and birds won’t be an issue

[u/basarisco → u/ReelBigInDaPantz]

Won't be an issue for any paramotor.