Powered Parachute Flies OFF Without Pilot

[Doug Robertson]

On Saturday, 14 August at Tracy, California airport TCY, a powered parachute made an unscheduled and unmanned departure from the 2010 Burrito Run Annual Powered Parachute Rally when the pilot may have unwittingly hit the throttle while standing beside it. The 500 square-foot SIX SHOOTER parachute, weighing about 400 pounds, soared aloft thoiusands of feet until out of sight. No reports of damage or injuries indicated it probably came down before noon Saturday in an unpopulated area.

I have just one photo taken at OSH of a powered parachute, N3807A, a 2007 Powrachute AIR WOLF powered by a Rotax 912ULS of 100 Hp. This incident suggests these aircraft could be equipped with the SPOT GPS transmitter, to aid in unmanned-flight recovery.

[Eteveance]

This is the answer from RRHT,


In answer to your query regarding the performance of the Griffon IIB-powered Beaufighter, the performance calibration was not completed before the aircraft was written-off in a forced landing. The figures recorded up to that time were 316 mph at ground level, 329.5 mph in MS gear at 3600 feet, and 342 mph in FS gear at 17,600. These results could not be confirmed as totally accurate without further tests, which, of course, never happened.
Hope this helps.

Can any one help with the figures for the Merlin and Hercules variants?



Hi Wuzak, Chris,

Thanks for the info, its the performance that interests, but the photo is superb.
Would it have been a better bet than the other two variants if it had gone in to production?/