The FLAT TOP Paramotor | Avery Flies
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- Опубліковано 25 кві 2024
- If you are interested in purchasing either of these two flat tops, I am selling them on behalf of John, the owner. They are currently listed on facebook marketplace here: / 754537886660597
or you can email me: opengauge@gmail.com
Proceeds benefit John's flying in Alaska, preaching the Gospel to those in otherwise unreachable places. Disclaimer: I do stand to make a small commission from the sale of these motors.
The flat top paramotor is, like the dominator paraglider, an old design that is only being sold by one isolated instructor. If you know, you know. Despite it's age, the flat top was (until very recently as I understand) still being manufactured, sold, and marketed as the safest around. It features a quick egress harness, lower crumple zone, and face plant protection in the event of a crash. I don't know how effective all that is, but it means compromises were made- the flat top is VERY uncomfortable on the ground when used as a foot launch paramotor. In flight, it has no torque offset to speak of, so full power is kind of squirrely, but otherwise it flies fine and it's comfortable in the air.
Like the dominator, the flat top is an interesting look into where the sport came from 15-20 years ago, technology wise. But no, I don't like it, and no, I don't think it's the best paramotor money can buy. What good is all that safety if you can barely get off the ground, or have children after you land? If that makes you hot under the helmet, move along. This is an opinion piece, and if anything I have an incentive to pretend like I enjoy this frame. I was taught not to lie by my parents, personally.
Music:
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Neon Drive by Punch Deck | / punch-deck
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If you want to see my fly the dominator wing that is meant to pair with this motor, here's THAT review: ua-cam.com/video/q8NAiSC6I00/v-deo.htmlsi=115wzRiS0sm4fefo
thanks i was looking for this just now!
Former flattop pilot here. Especially as a former flattop pilot, I always appreciate honest reviews even when monetary incentives my be pushing in another direction.
I did want to mention that, All minari flattops had the 200cc model.
Your sholder straps did look loose and you need to hop it up on your back. It will never be as comfortable on the ground as a modern frame, but it can get better then where you had it.
Oh, good to know! I couldn't find a differentiation between the two and have never seen any Minari engine in real life before this. Thanks for the clarification!
Ive been flying a flattop for a few years now, I can add a few things. The starter handle riveted on the frame is weird, that must have bee a custom modification thing as its not on any ive seen. The ones in this video seem to be slightly older models, newer ones have angled corner edges under the arm bars, otherwise they are identical. The whole design is different to most other paramotors, it has its pros and cons. The harness is made to float around in for weight shifting not hugged like others. The straps on it need to be perfectly adjusted for the person otherwise its horrible to walk around with and even perfectly adjusted yeah ground handling isnt great but you do get used to it and actually up in the air is comfy.From the video id make your shoulder straps tighter so its up a bit higher. I wouldn't recommend the Flattop to anyone under 6ft tall, its a big unit and works better with a bigger guy. The throttle is different, its pretty rugged, im used to it now but with no inbuilt cruise control id switch it for an off grid for longer flights. The throttle strap is floppy like that by design, the idea is it wont pull your hand back into the prop if the cable somehow connects. Funny you had issues with torque, I get some with my Moster engine but on the Minari 200 i dont feel any, maybe just because its a bigger heavier engine. Funny you got elbow bruises, I actually added some foam padding there myself I can rest my elbows on. its really low hang point (comparatively) means you really need to pull deep in the brakes when landing if not take a wrap or grab from the top of the handles. Overall its been good to me, its special ability is its incredibly rugged and i like having some substance under my pelvis safety wise, downside is its ground handling is uncomfortable if its not perfectly adjusted. I thought the review was pretty good 👍
Thanks for the comment! I was really hoping I wasn't completely wrong on the whole thing because of some harness issues. I did get it to be a little more comfortable on the ground, but it's still quite clunky before taking off. I'm curious, does your motor also pitch forward when out of the seat?
I do really like the side to side sliding weight shift in the motor. I wonder if there's any harness that allows similar weight shift on other frames
@@AveryFlies No worries :) about the frame pitch that has happened to me yes and its all about the hang point which is sensitive because of having the fuel tanks down really low that is alot of weight distributed far from the center point which creates a kind of torque. (which has to do with the bad ground handling but also adds some safety so cons and pros) For example I switched from single tank to dual tanks (as one tank is no good for XCs with a Minari 200) and that extra tank change threw the whole hang point out of whack which afterwards I need to change. With a heavier Minari 200 and 2 tanks I have my hang points both set in the furthest back position but for yours I would move it a notch forward and have them both equal. I would say your main issue in the video was your shoulder straps needed to be tighter and the crotch straps looser so you would be hanging more vertically and less forward so to speak. Its a fine line though. The key thing about the Flattop more than other paramotor ive seen is the straps need to be perfectly set for the user, the crotch, the shoulder the forward / back ones on the side. It took me a long time to get it just right and then I marked them with whiteout permanently lol. It even gets affected due to my clothing summer/winter.
@@Para_Ninja Wow, that's really touchy. If these don't sell, I'll spend a few hours on the hang point simulator and try it again
ParaNinja, also you put your fuel tank on one side instead of the middle. So, that gives you some torque compensation.
@@mmcowan yep true, just reminded me to go and move it over on my other one which was giving me a bit more torque too.
It's great to have a different perspective. This is the perspective that I was looking from, when I first got into the sport.
My Mod.'s:
re-routed pull-start, to the right side of the "Flat Top" top cage piece
Diamondcord pull-start rope- mine hasn't broke once yet (Vittorazi replacement)
couple of replacement throttle return springs
new swaged metal, frame-to-engine mount washers, grommets, mounts- like with the new Minari (so the prop will not ever flex into the cage on a hard landing)
K&N air filter sn-2530
Vortex Aero Ceramic Coated Replacement Exhaust (Vittorazi rusted)
titanium exhaust studs (regular Vittorazi sheared at high rpm)
triple-blade 130 cm prop
Modded 3 Point Quick- Release Dudek PowerSeat Comfort Low...quick-release sewn in, by Andy Fuller - on Dudek Powerseat (I wish Dell would sell a more premium option, with this harness from the factory.)
Flat Top Reserve
fuel mirror, on throttle
powerfloat.au - double flotation
double fuel tanks- you can always expand it (I needed it a little when I had an "A" wing, but don't now that I have a "B".
From my point of view, it's about the wing!
Also, especially when you have that factory harness you have to huck the motor up, high on your shoulders so you can run easier. But, the starter harness, will get you into the sport.
You mentioned something about the torque steer. At cruise, unless full bar, I tuck my elbows inside of the horns(comfort bars) and hold onto the brake toggles with my hands outside of the horns...It gets tiring holding toggles outside.
safety features I've come to love: 1. crumple zone(especially helpful if you sit too early, on launch, or have a bad landing) 2. 3-point quick-release harness (if you go down in water!) 3. circular aluminium tubing(it's strong, & built like a tank) It's not like flimsier frames. Trust me, I've taken a beating on mine, and I and it, kept on tickin'.
I've made all of my videos, with a FlatTop.
i quite enjoyed this. im usually not into paramotors and i also tend not to watch smaller channels but this was great. quite entertaining, very good producion quality too. keep it up
Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it
I'm not a pilot but I would love to be one. I used to have a lot of respect for Dell. He made a ton of enemies because he talked endless trash about everybody. He had amazing skills but after I saw him flirting with a woman that wasn't his wife and, in addition, talking trash about his own nephew who he used to call 'super Trevor' I never watched his channel again.
It is a shame, he's a great pilot.
It's like a big lawn chair
Good review. If Dell wasn't such a crazy sob he could've made improvements through the years to these things and done well for himself. Before my first solo skydive a dude told me, when you put that rig on get the boys in middle and get the harness tight! I'm thankful for that dude lol. What state is this?
I'm in NC
Ha, yeah dude you are definitely the one I'm talking to. @@AveryFlies
@@MechInvent in a good way, I hope!
@AveryFlies can you please explain the comment "only fly as low as you are willing to flare". Thanks
Sure! So these 2-stroke engines are not very reliable compared to the rest of the aviation world. When flying, you should always be within range of a suitable landing site in case of engine failure, because eventually you will have an engine failure. When LOW flying, hopefully you're already over a suitable landing position. The engine can still fail when flying low, and the lower you fly the faster you have to react to an engine failure. if you're flying at 20 feet, you have about 2 seconds from loss of thrust to hitting the ground. If you fly at 6 feet, that's less than a second. Whenever flying low, you have to be prepared to flare, and the lower you fly the more prepared you should be. So I guess my stream of conscious quote there should've been "only fly as low as you're willing to react to suddenly landing". It's a response time thing. On this (relatively unknown condition motor) I didn't trust it as much as my personal motors, so I didn't fly it very low so I had more time to react to landing if I needed to.
@@AveryFlies Thank you. I'm a watcher not a flyer. As I understand it, flaring is pulling a heap of brake on landing to slow down and drop the last little bit. When you see people flying low and fast, I'd be surprised if flaring would save them in the event of a motor out. Is that a fair comment?
@@meetim2931 probably accurate down below the 6 foot mark. If they lose engine power, they're going to the ground. The question is how quickly they can flare to turn their forward speed into vertical speed to stop the descent and run it out.
“Super” review
You need Super Training in order to fly a flat top. 😂
Clearly I do not, look at me go 🤣 I feel like beach flying would've made this way easier
🤣🤣🤣
Dude those fart sounds, rofl.
Keeps that UA-cam demonitizer bot away 😜
Missed opportunity for fart sound at 13:06
UA-cam doesn't care if I say crap, but the other 4 lettered words are frowned upon for sure
another at 27:55
How much for the cage only?
Not sure that the owner would want to sell just cage pieces. An entire frame without an engine, perhaps
Jordan Schanze has the old flattop inventory since his dad left the company and can hook you up with new cage pieces if you need some.
I ordered a Flat Top paramotor April 3, 2023 only to find out later that the Flat Top was no longer in production. He did not tell us at the time of order that they were no longer in production and that he had nothing to sell. He stole almost $10,000 including money for a reserve parachute and shipping costs from us. He states that he will not issue a refund. He is deleting my customer inquiries on his business Facebook page and he has shadow-banned me on his UA-cam channel for asking where my order is. This has been my introduction into this hobby and now I cannot even fly due to this man and his dishonesty. I just want to take the time to let everyone who might be contemplating doing business with this man to beware. I would recommend staying away from him and saving yourselves a lot of money and trouble. I sincerely hope this helps someone out there to avoid what we're going through. Try hard to find someone reputable and do your homework first. The Utah Division of Consumer Protection has filed an action against this business for defrauding customers and the case will be adjudicated in court soon.
That's awful to hear. I had a student that visited Mojos who had a similar story. I hope you can get your refund and get in the sky, hopefully on a better designed machine. Please take my ❤️ as a 😡 against the Mr. Sooper in question.
10:22 dude that's horrifying... one pull and you can fall out.... wtfudge Its drops you're leg straps in one go...
Like all paramotor designs, it's an exercise in compromises. That's one compromise I don't want, but some do.
It was basically a solution to the years when more paramotor pilots died by drowning than flying. Even recently we had a guy crash in -15C snow and nearly freeze to death because he couldn't remove his harness one handed with a broken arm I believe. Lucky he had phone service and a friend came and rescued him in time.
Its worth noting for people trying to make this some kind of safety negative that one pull and nothing would happen, you are still sitting in the seat with both arms hooked through the frame. Ive never in 3 years even come close to accidentally unvelcroing the the handle and then pulling it to pop off, ive never heard of it happening though I don't doubt someone could have done it at some point its certainly less than the times people have accidentally pulled a reserve handle.
Shutters* Imagining pulling the quick release instead of the reserve in an emergency...
Andrew Fuller can sew in the same style quick release. The difference with Andrew's design is the extra clip beyond the Velcro to prevent accidental release. The clip can be undone while flying over water to allow a one pull release then re-clipped at any time.
@@joelkPPG Its probably a good idea for any paramotor to have this sort of quick release attached especially those flying around big lakes with cold water ie places where they are wearing fat gloves and the shock of cold water is going to make messing the small multipoint double fingered clips an issue. Ive never felt any risk of accidentally unvelcroiing the handle and then you have to apply some force to pop the hook part outwards so the extra clip would just be something else to do like i see guys with the leg straps constantly tightening and loosening then tighting again during flights. Maybe if I did extreme acro id feel differently.
oh god here he go! do NOT say anything bad or dells wrath will come over you. start watching in fear now...
I already caught his ire by reviewing the dominator. I am now immune. And like I said at the bottom of the description, I was taught that lying was bad. If he has problems with my review, maybe he can sell better equipment
9:30min in and i am in stitches! watch those gonads mate 🤣💣🦴💣
Can't wait to read his 37 paragraphs of reply!!
@@davidyoung518 i got the popcorn ready for a text of biblical proportions
@@AveryFlies but he cant sell better equipment because there is obviously no better paramotor in the world then the floptop with cripple zone and a denominator wing.
how is it that 99% of all pilots still not understand that? i call that blasphemy! shame on you avery for speaking the truth. 😂🤪
Where is dell. Hes been awfully quite lately
I don't know, but just like my dominator review if he shows up it won't change my mind. If he cares so much about what I think, then he can build a frame that's better at ground handling and actually has torque compensation.
On a personal level, I only take criticism from people I'd also take advice from.
Philippines
[delete]
Not sure what you mean there
OVER ALL FLAT TOP ARE SHIT !!
I mean- that's a little oversimplified. It's definitely not for me, but people obviously fly them successfully. It's okay in flight, and it does have gobs of weight shift, but on the ground and with torque compensation it's pretty bad. I tried to be pretty even handed on this video, hopefully I was successful.