83. Paramotor - Benedikt Boes

Motor glider flying is such a beautiful and brilliant hobby, but the propeller doesn't just give us fun; it's simply a piece of carbon that someone is spinning at very high speeds, and there are forces at play that we can't stop, and you just have to be aware of that—you shouldn't sugarcoat the fact that there are risks involved.

Podz-Glidz, the Lu-Glidz podcast.

Stories from the cosmos of paragliding. Today

with Benedikt

Böss and

I'm Lucian Haas.

There are many types of paragliding. Ground handling, gliding, soaring, thermals, XC, agro, speedflying. In all of them, gravity, wind, and the sun are always the only sources of propulsion. It's different with paramotoring. There, you carry a motor with a propeller on your back. It provides the necessary thrust to more than compensate for the craft's natural sink rate when needed. This then results in completely different flight possibilities. One person who has dedicated himself to this form of flying is Benedikt Böss. The 31-year-old today got a normal paragliding license when he was 16. But because he simply got into the air too rarely for his intuition in the following years, he tried paramotoring at 19.

It quickly became his obsession. Today, Bene is probably the best-known pilot and ambassador of the German paramotor scene internationally. For example, he won the British Open Paramotor Championship in 2019 and 2020. In 2021, he took the victory in the international XContest in the Paramotor Footlaunched class. He is a team pilot for BGD and is sponsored by Vitorazzi Motors. Additionally, he has been running a website for years that has sort of become his trademark: Paramotor Germany. In my conversation with Bene, I was interested in what the fascination of paramotoring lies in compared to normal paragliding. After all, he sometimes takes to the air for hours with the humming gyro on his back and flies huge FAI triangles, the last one being over 400 kilometers.

They have their own unique challenges with a motor. And in this 83rd episode of Podz-Glidz, Benedikt Böss talks about his passion, which has given him many magical moments but sometimes also, in a different sense, suffering. Because he, like many other motorized glider pilots, has felt the power of the propeller in a very painful way before. However, he's not ashamed of his own mistake that led to it. He understood it as a lesson from the very beginning and has spoken openly about it to spare others similar experiences. If you enjoy Podz-Glidz, why not support my work as a patron? You can find out how that's possible, easily and without any obligation, on the website, specifically on the support page.

Bene, why do you actually prefer flying with a motor instead of just soaring freely on thermals?

Yeah, well, I have my fun with thermal flying too. And I still really like doing it whenever I get the chance. But somehow, over time, it shifted so that at the beginning, it was just easier for me to get into powered glider flying than thermal flying. Because, for example, when I finished work, there was nothing left for thermal flying near us, like in the small Hebacher Köpfle. And one of my bosses also flies powered gliders. And he would just be at the airfield in the evening and would just get into the air. And then at some point I thought, okay, I really like flying, but I don't get to do it as often as I'd like. And then that would be a good addition. But then over the years, that developed so that I did it more and more intensively, and it shifted so much that now in the summer—now with Corona, everything has been a bit different since then—but before Corona, I was actually at some airfield every weekend or at some powered glider meeting or at a private meeting with other powered glider pilots, and I was out and about a lot, and because of that, I simply had the time to drive into the mountains and go flying there.

That means that, at the beginning of your powered glider career, it was basically envy.

Yeah, it was simply the need. The need to get into the air. In contrast to the time constraints due to work, due to a car being available. I had my license by then, of course, but I didn't have my own car yet. And then, having a car to rent to drive to the Alps for the weekend was sometimes harder to organize than just heading over to the airfield briefly in the evening. And that's how it came about.

How old were you when you started motor glider flying?

I was 19 with the powered glider. With the paraglider, I was 16, and with the powered glider, I was 19, which was when I finally had the money together. I

I have the image of the classic powered glider pilot that I know. They're actually like the classic paraglider pilots too. It's more like 50 plus, and then at some point you say, okay, now I'll buy a motor, I'll get this license, and then I'll go flying there. Were you maybe something like the youngest powered glider pilot in Germany? I mean...

I wasn't the youngest. There are various other pilots, especially children of flight instructors, kids from flight schools, who naturally started with a motorized glider at 16 or so. But I was certainly one of the younger ones. And it's still like that today, that a very large part of the scene is, I'd say, 50 plus. But in my feeling, over the last few years, because of the whole social media thing with Americans, like Tiger God for example, motorized gliding is suddenly much more present on social media. And because of that, I believe—well, I assume—that it's just that more young people are getting interested in it.

And in recent years, I think there are many pilots between 25 and 40 who are getting into the sport, either because they don't get to the mountains as often as they hoped, or because they come straight to powered glider flying after seeing videos of what the Americans are doing. There's one very famous one where Tiger God—I think that was his breakthrough—is a young pilot who flew to a McDonald's, landed there, ate a burger, and flew back. And that went viral on YouTube. And there are already very many people who have seen something like that and have been inspired by it. Then they're a bit disappointed when they realize that here in Germany, you don't just go to a sports field, take off, and land at McDonald's, but that we have a bit more rules.

But you can make do with all of that.

Is motorized glider flying booming in Germany?

Well, I don't know any reliable figures right now. You could check with the DULV to see how many licenses there are. But it's definitely on the rise, in my opinion. I mean, it's not declining—you wouldn't say it's completely dying out—it's more on the increasing side. I'm not sure if you can call it a boom yet, but it is growing.

What's the main motivation you pick up from people? Why do they start with powered glider flying?

So, for many pilots who have flown before, who come from paragliding, they just don't get into the air that often. They have pretty much the same problem I had back then. And they say, yeah, until I somehow go to the Alps or something, that works with the family. But on the weekends, they actually don't have any time anyway. And for them, the idea is that you can just head to the airfield briefly on a weekday evening after work and do a quick flight.

Is powered glider flying, in the end, also more family-friendly?

Yes, I think you can make it more family-friendly because of the times we can do it—so people who have some flexible working hours can just easily drive to the airfield in the morning. They do their hour-long flight, they're happy, and then they come home in the evening and can look after the kids. Or maybe just one evening they drive to the airfield. But then it's an evening where you get home later and you don't have to take a day off and travel somewhere. That certainly works for many people. There is

is there actually a term like paragliding for powered glider flying?

Yeah, well, weather is always a topic for us too, and especially for people who are just starting out, they often wait until the wind has really died down. For motor glider pilots, ideal weather is when the wind on the ground is maybe between 0 and 10 km/h. A little bit of wind is often preferred so that you can take off more easily. Some people find it a bit difficult with zero wind, although that's not a problem with the right takeoff technique. But it can be the case that you're at the airfield and then wait for a short hour until it dies down, until the last gusts are gone, until the thermals subside. But I'd argue it's not to the extent it is now at the mountain.

That means the time you'd spend away from your family, just sitting uselessly on the mountain hoping it'll eventually work or something, is eliminated; instead, you can plan everything much better. Yes.

So, of course, it can happen that you drive to an airfield and it's windier or more thermal than you expected. But generally speaking, if you're there in the summer, for example—right now it's about 8:50 PM, so sunset is approaching here. And if I say, okay, it looks calm tonight, little wind at altitude. And if I work until 6:00 PM and drive over to the airfield, I can actually rely on being able to take off straight away at 7:00 PM. And then I can fly for an hour and a half, nearly two hours, and I won't have to spend any time just waiting around.

That means that's also the standard sequence of a classic motorized glider flight, where I say, for example, I still have about an hour in the evening and I spend that one hour in the air. And that's probably also the average duration that a motorized glider pilot usually goes up into the air for.

Exactly, so a large part of the pilots certainly fly for about an hour on average, although nothing is stopping them from flying longer. But many fly for about an hour. And many of them aren't flying somewhere with a fixed plan, like "I'm going to fly this small triangle or something," but they just fly their laps. That's also partly why I'm currently trying to promote XContest flying in the scene, because I just want to try and motivate people to lure them out of their local laps, out of the usual radius they travel in. And if you just keep flying in a circle, you're maybe within a ten-kilometer radius of your airfield.

And then it's enough to do a 50-kilometer triangle. You can actually fly that quite well in an hour. But that means you have 17 kilometers where you're initially flying away from the airfield in one direction. And many people then realize they haven't actually gotten very far, because they turn after ten kilometers and then fly their 50 kilometers, perhaps, within a ten-kilometer radius. But they always see the same thing. And that's one of the projects I've set out to do, where I simply want to motivate people a bit. Because those who try it suddenly see new landscapes, things they haven't seen before. And of course, you get that bit of appeal too—if I managed 50 today, then next week I'll try 60 or 70.

And you can just steadily build on that, and you'll develop a bit further instead of staying stuck for years, just flying the same loop over and over.

Let's talk about XContest and your commitment to the scene and the attempt to push things forward and all that. Let's go over that again in a moment. Before that, I'd like to talk a bit more about cross-country flying with you—or rather, we've always said the average flight is about an hour. But this spring, for example, you were in the air for seven and a half hours on the motor or with the motor glider, and you didn't just fly 50 kilometers, but 403 kilometers FAI. If I remember correctly, that's also a German record. I don't know if it's an international record or anything like that. That was on March 12th. Tell me about that flight. Was it actually planned exactly like that?

So it's not a German record. There's a German record from 2010, which is also an FAI world record, by Peter Schulz. He flew 500 kilometers FAI-3 back then. So I still have a bit of a way to go. But for this flight, I've just been pushing my limits bit by bit over the last few years. And then in March, it finally got to the point where I saw—I think it was on Saturday—that the weather looked good. Meaning, yeah, not too much wind. And what's advantageous for me on these long distances is when the wind changes direction at different altitudes or at different times of day, because the goal is simply to fly the whole thing as fast as possible, but while being fuel-efficient.

That means if I just open my trim and turn my speed bar, I can fly it at 65 km/h airspeed. But then I'd need a lot of fuel. And I wouldn't be able to do these long distances. That's why I always have to look at the weather a bit more. And for that day, I had prepared it as a 400 kilometer triangle. But I always plan it so that I have an option to either shorten the whole thing a bit if it doesn't go as planned, or to extend it. I had the option to extend it to 453 kilometers. Fuel-wise, it would have even been enough. I had five liters left at the end. But my problem was that I was taking too long; the pissing is just a problem at some point.

I was out there for 7 hours and 20 minutes.

And at some point, it's just a mental thing too, when you've been squeezing your legs together for six hours and then lunchtime comes around, and of course it gets very thermal, very active, where you have to fly actively and are constantly working to stay on your perfect straight line. And then mentally, at some point, I was just done. And then I said, okay, I'm going to extend this to these 403 kilometers, which is 50 kilometers over my previous best performance. And then I go back to the airfield with my face completely exhausted. And then I felt like I was back at the airfield again. But purely in terms of the gear, there's the option that I can go further. And I've just informed myself and prepared regarding that topic as well.

That means next time you'll have a condom urinal with you? Yeah, I have a condom urinal. That would obviously be a clean solution. But as a foot-launcher, I'm a bit worried. If I'm all bundled up in my winter overall and everything, you have to run with the leg straps during takeoff, and I'm a bit scared of that. I won't be able to check once I'm up in the air if the tube or everything else is clear. And I imagine—it's difficult anyway when you're sitting up there in the air, and it might still be thermically active and shaking you around—that you just let go and pee. And if you don't know whether it can actually drain or not, that's a bit of my concern. Maybe it's unfounded, but I'm a little scared of it.

That's why I'll probably have to look into some kind of diaper solution. You have to make do somehow.

If you look at your track in XContest, you can see, okay, it's a triangle. But if you were to compare it to a triangle that a normal paraglider flies, basically every side of yours looks like it was drawn with a ruler, almost perfectly straight. Is it really like you say, okay, I have my waypoint, and then I look at my GPS and fly straight towards that point?

Yeah, well, if I want to fly such large triangles, it's simply about having to fly them as efficiently as possible. And efficient means I don't take any detours. For that triangle, I think it was the FAI route, it's 403 kilometers. And the track log length, including the start and altitude setup and takeoff and all that, was 412 kilometers. That means I didn't even fly 10 kilometers unnecessarily. And that's just important for me. I plan it that way so I don't have to keep checking during the flight where it's carrying, what it looks like up ahead, should I fly more to the left, more to the right? Where could the thermals be? All of that is ruled out for me.

I plan all of that in advance. I might have to adjust in the air if there's suddenly some high fog somewhere. And if I see that I can't fly any further, I'll also reroute a triangle in the air, moving my waypoints. I use the FlyXC website for that. I can operate that very well on my phone in the air and can transfer it directly back into the XC track in the app and navigate accordingly. But I actually have a fixed plan in advance of where I want to fly, and I'm constantly checking to make sure I stay accurately on the line and have as few deviations as possible, because that would just be a waste of time.

Does that actually mean, okay, you take off, you go up to, let's say, something like cruising altitude and then you stay largely at that height and fly, yeah, straight ahead?

No, for the routes I want to fly, I check the different altitudes and how the winds are beforehand. And then it can be, for example, that I say, okay, I'll take off. And I climb directly to 1,000 meters because, on one hand, I have to get over the Swabian Alb or something, or I see that I'd have a good tailwind at that altitude. And then I climb to, say, 1,000 or 1,200 meters and fly my first leg with a tailwind until I reach the turning point. Then I know, okay, over there I have to go down to 600 meters. Then I only have a slight crosswind, for example. Then I descend to that altitude, fly the leg, and then it can be that you say, okay, for the last leg, the wind has shifted in the meantime.

Four or five hours have passed now. I might have to go back up. Yeah, I always adapt to that. It's not like I just go to a fixed altitude. Of course, you have to coordinate all of that with the airspaces. As a powered paraglider pilot, I'm classified as an ultralight aircraft. And that's why I'm always on top of it. My altitude limits are significantly more restricted than those of unpowered paraglider pilots. In the Eco airspace, without a transponder, I'm only allowed up to 3,500 feet above ground level or 5,000 feet MSL. Because of that, sometimes it would be smarter if you could go a bit higher. But we're relatively restricted there.

And you just have to look, especially with triangles like these, at the airspaces—where can I fly over? Where do I have to fly under? And then also at the geographical features. Here in the Swabian Alb, the ground is sometimes 700 meters high. Elsewhere, it's only 200 or 300 meters. And you adapt to that. But primarily, I look at, I try to use the wind as positively as possible for me, so that it harms me as little as possible or pushes me, moves me forward.

You can actually plan most of that well in advance. You can look at all the airspaces. You can also see, at least if you trust the forecast, how the wind develops accordingly at different times, to maybe see, okay, it turns in the afternoon and then I can fly back easily, and stuff like that. And then I know at these and those points, I probably have to climb a bit. And at that point, I have to descend again and somehow fly under something, and so on. But in between, there's maybe not that much to do from a pilot's perspective. So not constantly looking for the next thermals, the turning, the centering, focusing on that, and stuff like that. Isn't a cross-country flight ultimately actually boring? Rattling around like that for seven and a half hours?

So it's not boring. That's a point I hear very often, especially in conversations with paraglider pilots or people who haven't tried it with a motor yet. I regularly read on Facebook or similar platforms that some people write, "Yeah, there's no problem with a motor, I can do that too." And then I say, "Yeah, go ahead and do it." There are relatively few pilots who actually fly such distances. Now, 150 kilometers or so isn't really a big problem. For those who are new to it and testing the waters—I don't want to put anyone down here—the first 150 kilometers can be a problem for them. But for me, I'd say it's not a big challenge.

I can more or less just sit through that. But when I do those long distances, anything over 250 or 300 kilometers, on one hand, it's just a matter of the technology—everything has to fit, it has to work. But once I'm in the air, I rarely get bored because at the beginning, after takeoff, I have to check everything, once I've lifted off, to make sure I'm set up correctly—the connection between my auxiliary tank and the main tank, that everything fits, that it's running, that my engine is tuned properly. For example, through these long, ambitious flights and in cooperation with the manufacturers, I got a system from Vitorazzi for my engine that allows me to adjust the carburetor during flight.

That means when I'm at cruising altitude, I can lean it out so I consume less fuel. But that's another thing—I have to constantly keep an eye on the temperature so it doesn't overheat. Then there's the navigation part, staying accurately on my line. Especially when you have to fly long distances straight ahead—it doesn't look that simple, but flying a 100-kilometer stretch in a perfect straight line is actually quite difficult because you have influences from the wind and such. So, for the first two or three hours, if I start tomorrow and it's still calm, I keep my hands down and actually do everything with weight shifting.

But that's basically the core thing I'm always looking at, because on this route, over this distance, if I have a deviation of just a few degrees, I'll end up somewhere completely different. That's why holding the heading is so important, and later, when the thermals start at 11 o'clock, it'll rock you around just as much with a powered glider. Except I can't just say, okay, it's going up right now, let me see if I can turn into it. I'd only do that if it's a really strong thermal where I can center it nicely and it's worth it for the altitude gain, especially if I actually need height at that moment. But otherwise, I don't want to waste time circling; I want to move forward. And then you're just busy stabilizing the glider and holding the heading.

Because if it gets too thermically active, then with a reflex glider, it stabilizes itself to a large extent and can handle much more turbulence than a paraglider, a conventional profile. But there comes a certain point where some representatives say, "Yeah, this one is rock solid, you can just trim up and through." I don't belong to that group, because it's still a piece of equipment that I can simply fold up without tools after landing and put in my backpack. And because of that, any glider, even a reflex glider, can simply fail to a certain extent. That's why when it gets too thermically active, I have my hands up and fly actively, stabilizing the glider and making sure I stay on course.

So it doesn't really get boring. Plus, you're always seeing new landscapes. Of course, you take those in too. I want to see what I've flown past, not just look at my tablet or my phone. And what I also do in the air is check the wind forecasts—on Windy, for example—to see if the forecast has changed, just to get a sense of what to expect. Because if I'm only out there for two or three hours, not much changes in that timeframe. I don't really care then; checking before the flight is enough. But if I know I could be in the air for seven, eight, or nine hours,

then yeah, a lot just happens on a day like that. And I also stay informed during the flight about what's changing.

What do you see as the biggest challenge for yourself when it comes to cross-country flying with a motor glider?

You could maybe say the biggest challenge is the launch. Everything depends on that first. I can have such a great, efficient motor and a fast glider and good planning and everything. That is certainly the biggest challenge in the first moment, in a sporting sense. If you then steer with weight shift for several hours, you'll notice the next day that you've actually done something. But yeah, you could maybe say the first big challenge of such a cross-country flight is first of all the launch. With so much equipment, in zero wind, in the morning on a wet field. That's the first big point you have to manage, which certainly prevents many pilots from flying cross-country or such long distances.

Because if you don't get off the ground, then none of the rest of that stuff matters afterwards. Like

How much fuel do you have with you? I mean, what kind of weight are you hauling to the start and having to walk with others until the glider finally carries you?

So, the maximum amount of fuel I've had with me so far was 35, 36 liters. On top of that is my total weight, I can't tell you exactly right now, but the motor with the frame, with the harness, with the rescue glider, we're definitely at another 30 kilos with all those extras. Then there's the boots, the thick winter overall, the heated jacket, the heated gloves—all of that needs batteries. A battery for the phone is also very important, especially on long flights or when it's cold. So I haven't weighed it yet, and I'd rather not know. But we're certainly at 50 kilos for what you're carrying on your back.

That

means you also have to have the fitness to carry something like that and then, you might have to do at least three fast steps, or maybe ten fast steps, depending. So that has to work out somehow.

Exactly, so right now, with the gliders we're flying, when we have these reflex gliders—the one I usually fly—those are designed for 20 square meters of area. With the gliders where you're faster in the air, we just have to run a few steps faster during the start. With the right start technique, you can get into the air well with the weight and all that. But that's something where you simply have to practice, where you have to be able to do it; you don't just get it right naturally.

Is there something like a launch cart for motorized gliders? I mean, with kites for towing, they sometimes have these dollies where they start rolling and then take off from there. You could say, wonderful, I don't have to run much; I just stand on this thing, provide the momentum with the motor, and then it pushes me, and then I could maybe take off with it and ultimately carry more weight.

So there are triangles that you can strap something under. They're like trikes.

But then you have the frame with you, you take it into the air. Exactly. Where the frame stays down and you lift off and say, I was capable of a foot launch, or I have to land on my feet.

Yes. That

there is

not. I mean, you could definitely do it. I've seen friends in Sweden start in the winter on a frozen lake. They sit on a sled and then give it gas. They do a start like in a triangle. The sled stays on the ground and then they fly and land normally afterwards. But for me, that's out of the question for one thing, because then I'd need someone to pick it up at the airfield afterwards, someone to be in the way. And that wouldn't be compliant as a foot launch anymore. That is, my goal currently is, if I know that I'm staying under 500 kilometers, then of course I don't need it for FAI documentation.

...or world record or something, I'm not thinking about that yet. But I'm working towards it, and if the opportunity arises, it would of course really appeal to me to set a new record at some point. And it wouldn't do me any good if I sat on the vehicle and took off for 400 kilometers now, only to have perfect weather afterwards. But to fly 500 kilometers, I really have to do a foot launch so that I can get it registered afterwards, and if I don't get off the ground, that's part of the sporting ambition—being able to say, okay, I managed to get that mass and equipment into the air on foot, alone, without help.

If you flew your 400-kilometer flight with, I believe, an average of 55, that's probably about what you can fly in a meaningful way with your equipment. If you say you want to fly 500 kilometers, that's another fifth, so you wouldn't need seven hours, but nine hours for that, very simply put. How long can you actually stay in the air with such a foot-launch setup, where do you say it's realistically possible given what you can carry, with today's technical possibilities and the fuel consumption of the engines?

Yeah, so as for the nine hours, I'll definitely be able to manage that with my current equipment. That will definitely be doable. Regarding average speeds, anything over 50 km/h average is actually already good. I've also flown triangles up to 150, 160 kilometers with a 60 average. That 350-kilometer triangle had to be close, not quite 60, I think, but it was very close. But the weather just has to cooperate a bit. I wouldn't have any problem flying a constant 55, 60 km/h airspeed via the trimmers or, as I said, how I set the glider.

But then the consumption goes up too much. And that's why I usually fly with an airspeed between 50 and 55 and have to make up the rest over the weather. And on that flight, for example, on the second leg, the wind just wasn't quite from the direction I expected, but a few degrees more from the front. And that all braked me back relatively much. Then I had to make sure I was flying as low as possible. But at some point, it was already relatively thermically active. That also brakes you back again, because of course, the glider nods back a bit and pitches up and everything. And if I also have my hands on the brake to stabilize, then I'm simply slower.

And that slows you down a bit. If there were no wind, flying at a 55 average wouldn't be an issue.

I noticed you just mentioned a distance of 350. You flew that last year—once a bit over 300 and then once 350. Now this year in the spring, 400. I noticed that all of these, at least these three long distances I saw, you always did them very early. I did mine in the spring, in February and March. Is there a reason for that?

So the reason for me is simply that, on one hand, I have fewer commitments, so I'm a bit more flexible with my time. And for me, the huge advantage is that I often find conditions that feel right to me based on the weather situation, because the thermals time is also shorter. In March, or I was there in January—I've already flown 200 kilometers this year. It's relatively cold there, but I can prepare for the cold more easily and manage it better than I can with thermals. The cold doesn't slow me down. In that sense, the cold is even a bit better for my consumption, for example, because cold air has a higher density, more oxygen. My consumption is actually a bit lower there than now in the summer when it's 35 degrees.

And the problem is simply that at my airfield, I'm not allowed to take off at sunrise in the summer because everything is too densely built up. The houses are just too close. And if the sun rises at 5 a.m. and I'm there at 7 a.m. on a weekday, then 7 a.m. might be acceptable. But if I take off then and it gets bumpy by 9 a.m., it makes a difference to me whether I have to be actively flying and going slower with the effort starting at 9 a.m., or if that doesn't start until 11 a.m. or half past 11. That's why my tactic is always a bit to see if I can put in a good performance right away in the spring. Ultimately, only the best 6 flights per pilot are counted at the end of the year anyway.

And for the motorized glider XContest, the season also runs from January 1st to December 31st. Because of that, I really have the whole year to work with, and I already have 3 good flights in the bag. And then I can see a bit how the others manage to get through the summer. And if good conditions arise, I do fly cross-country in the summer too. But those are usually about 200 to 250 kilometers. I'm more speculating on, hoping to get such a good weather situation again in the winter or autumn to tackle those really long distances over 350 kilometers.

So, if I'm hearing you correctly and understanding you right, are you saying that thermals are one of the most disruptive factors for you as a powered glider pilot?

Yeah, if I want to fly cross-country, I don't really need it. I also like flying thermals with a motor. In classic competition, we also have economy tasks where you get a limited amount of fuel. That means, for example, at the European Championships, we each got, I think, 2 kilos. And that was a pure economy task. You were supposed to just fly as long as possible with those 2 kilos. So you don't start in the evening at 6 p.m., but at noon at 2 p.m., when the clouds are building up nicely. Then you just look for a way in, so to speak. And when you notice, okay, it's going up reliably, you switch off the engine to save fuel. And then we're up there, we were allowed to climb up to 1,800 meters.

And it went up very steadily. On that day, you basically had to make sure you didn't go too high. Because if you had violated the airspace, it would have been a 100% penalty, and there would have been no points. So at a certain point, we had to spiral down a few meters again. But I still enjoy it when it goes up nicely and I can circle. But that all costs me time. If I'm doing normal cross-country flying, say to 900 meters, I might have a slight tailwind. Or at 600 meters. And if I find a top super-thermal where I could climb 3 to 4 meters, I wouldn't get anything out of it anyway if I had a headwind at 1200 meters.

I want to stay on your 600. And that's why there are few situations, for example at a turning point where I know I have to gain 500 meters of altitude. If there were a nice thermal there, I would definitely take it, because I can obviously save a lot of fuel if I do those 500 meters quickly with thermal height. But otherwise, for these long distances, it's more of a disadvantage.

Let's change the subject a bit. Did you become known in the motorized glider scene, or are you primarily known now for your own website Paramotor Germany? There's also a shop and all sorts of other things on there. You started that back in 2011, which was pretty much at the beginning of your motorized glider career. I think you got your license in 2010. Did you already plan back then to focus your life so heavily on motorized glider flying that you'd say, I'm basically going to turn this into a brand and set up a website that already has national significance just from the name alone?

I could never have imagined back then how everything would develop like this. The background was that I helped a colleague create a website. He started his own business, and back then, without any real technical knowledge, I had tinkered around a bit using online tools and had fun with it. And because I had done something for him, I wanted to do something for myself too. So it was like, okay, what could you do? Well, glider flying. And that's how I registered Paramotor Germany, and in the end—well, at the beginning—I only used it to publish beautiful flights or videos from other pilots there and to collect them a bit.

And then it just developed to the point where I eventually realized that if I'm always just waiting for other people to go flying so I can join them, I'm not going to get very far. I wouldn't get into the air as much as I would have imagined. And then I started becoming a bit more active myself, going flying more, also driving to a motorglider meeting, even to an international meeting in France. And there I met someone from Sweden, for example, who told me that they fly all night during the midnight sun in the summer, and that his record was 15 hours of flight time in one day. And of course, I beamed with joy, I said, okay, I have to go there, I have to see that. And then he said, yeah sure, you can come visit me, no problem.

I have a flight school, you just need to sit in the plane, and you can borrow the equipment from me. And a year later, I was in Sweden, flew up to a guy I'd spoken to for an hour or two total at that event in France, and I sat in the plane and visited him. And he's now one of my best friends. I'm still very good friends with him. And it just all developed bit by bit like that, and then BGD noticed me through the website and that's how the first contact happened. And as the years went by, as everything grew, I'd think at the end of every year, when I looked back at everything that had happened, I'd think, okay, wow, I never would have imagined that something like this would happen to me or that I'd be working with some manufacturer or something like that.

And the next year it was even better, something else was added and there was another increase. And yeah, it was never the goal back then, or yeah, I never even thought of the idea that I could do something like that. That wasn't an option. That

So, you put in the effort, you showed your performance, but out of your own enjoyment, and the rest just sort of happened, did it kind of fall into your lap and grow from there? Yes,

So I have to say, that was something that made me very happy and where—well, "proud" might be the wrong word—but where I just really liked that, apart from things like with Bruce Goldsmith Design, where they came to me, it wasn't a case of me going to a manufacturer and saying, "Here, I can please have this, and I'd like to," or with the engine manufacturers, it was the same afterwards—that I wasn't some beggar somewhere saying, "Here, think about it, support me," but that I just did what I enjoyed and was active and committed, and they came to me and said, "Hey, wouldn't you like to try this?" or "Yeah, we like what you're doing."

we can imagine that we'll somehow work together. That's because I just know that in the scene, of course, everyone is happy if they get something for free or cheaper somewhere or something like that, but the way it developed was that I didn't have to go anywhere and ask, but rather, in most cases, people came to me. That, yeah, it's just nice, nice to see when you realize how everything eventually pays off.

Has it basically become a job for you out of your hobby? I mean, do you live off Paramotor Germany, or do you still have another job and this is still just a hobby and extra income? No,

So, I'm an orthopedic technician and I work there full-time. So, yeah, I live off that, but even with a master's degree, you don't make huge money in the healthcare industry. And if you pursue the hobby as intensively as I do, it just costs a few euros, so through my activities and also my job, I make sure that my hobby basically pays for itself, that it's refinanced. But from my point of view, it's hard to get rich in this scene or in this sport. So, it's not something to make big money from. The shop only came about because I developed a camera mount, a magnetic camera mount, to put the GoPro on the glider back in 2013 or so, and I had only done that for myself at the time and then published it, a few pictures, and maybe a few people secretly bought it, like two or three people saying, "Hey, can you make something like that for me too?" and then one or two big names from the power kite scene contacted me right away and ordered a part, and then other people saw it with them again, and then the demand increased, and then at some point I started making a page for it where you could order it, and then it all grew bit by bit.

Many of the other products I have in there are simply things I needed for myself or that proved to be reliable for me, but that I had a hard time getting. Eventually, I said, okay, I'm not just going to order one meter of this hose, I'm going to order 15 and put it online. The prices aren't huge margins either; it's just enough so that I can buy my fuel afterwards. It's not the goal for me to live off of this; I don't have any plans to do that.

So in the end, it's actually seen as a service to or for the scene. You already mentioned XContest earlier, where you've basically established a sub-ranking in XContest this year called the Paramotor Germany Cup, which is basically the national German cross-country flight ranking on XContest for powered glider pilots. Why is something like a cross-country flight ranking on XContest actually not organized by the powered glider association or the DULV, the German Ultralight Aircraft Association, why don't they do something like that? So why is something like this organized privately by you?

The problem is simply, and I'm being honest here, I always tell the powered paragliding pilots that we are partly to blame ourselves. People in the scene love to just start complaining about the association, saying, "Look, they're not doing anything." The problem is, for example, we haven't had a German Championship since 2016, but on the other hand, you have to admit that very few powered paragliding pilots are actually involved or contributing to the association anywhere. Instead, it's often seen a bit like, I'd say, a service industry—that you pay your dues and expect them to do something for you.

And unfortunately, that just doesn't work. I can't judge whether they could implement it or not, but the fact is they aren't proactively following up and saying, "Come on, for the motorized glider pilots, we have, I don't know, 1,500 or 2,000 members who fly motorized gliders, let's do something for them." Instead, the motorized glider pilots would have to become active and tell the association, "We'd like to do this and that, will you support us?" And that would work. But take the German Championship, for example: you need someone who knows competition flying well enough to create the maps, create the tasks, and do the evaluation. That's all relatively labor-intensive and requires a certain amount of expertise.

And right now, there's simply no one who is also a competition pilot standing by. And that's why, over the last few years, I've started offering courses in competition flying in general, where I teach people the basics, because that's another issue where it's just hard to get information from anywhere. To start with that, you have to search for a long time until you find something or until someone finally does something where you can learn. And then it was just, maybe that's a bit of a disadvantage of mine, that I can always motivate myself very easily for something and say, okay, now I'm doing this and that and that. And why my time sometimes gets a bit tight is because I just keep too many projects and ideas to myself and then tell my girlfriend, yeah, I just have to finish this here, I'm doing another XContest and I'm doing a training session or something.

But above all, there was this XContest, because I thought, okay, I can't easily organize a competition right now, because if there were a German championship, I'd want to fly in that myself. Therefore, I can't take over the task setting or anything like that. But what I could perhaps do now is get people a bit excited about this XContest, about cross-country flying. And I already made an attempt last year, and there was a bit of something there; I've already heard from some of them say, "What am I supposed to participate in for that? There's nothing to win anyway, and I'm not going to come in first, it's international, I can't play at the top there anyway," which is why it's not interesting to them.

And then last year I had the idea that we'd say, okay, let's do some crowdfunding; everyone who wants to participate pays 15 euros, and then we use that money and split it by percentage or something for the top three of each launch site. And three classes, so we'd do it like that. But that didn't work either, because people don't want to pay for it. Or I just couldn't get them excited about it. And then at the end of the year, it was like, I had the top flights, so I would have gotten... well, I also paid in 15 and would have gotten like 35 back or something. But I already contacted the other pilots who basically participated in the funding and said, okay, so somehow, it didn't quite work out the way it was actually intended.

I would now suggest that we don't pay that out, since I would get a good portion of it anyway, but I got in touch with the people from XContest. And there is the possibility of doing national rankings, for example. That costs an amount X as a base fee and then a few euros per pilot who subsequently participates, who is subsequently in the ranking. And then I said, okay, let's take the money and we can cover that base fee with it. And then I contacted DULF again via the sports representative and said I would be doing something like this now and try to motivate the people a bit. And they supported it now too and basically also paid something so that the costs arising there are covered and that we also have a budget to buy prizes later, so that I can give the people something accordingly afterwards.

And this year it's working better. Although, at the beginning I thought, yeah, you just have to set the thing up once and translate the texts, the German rulebook and all that work, but then it's done. But I slightly underestimated the problems at the start with registration, then there was the XContest setting, there were still a few errors, then flights couldn't be uploaded, so I ended up being quite busy again. But by now it's running more or less, and we have almost, I think, nearly 50 pilots participating now. And I'm working on it with magazine articles and various other ways just to try and increase that a bit. And surely not everyone will start flying big 100-kilometer triangles now, but there are already a few pilots involved,

who have discovered the fun in it and are now progressing, already reaching over 100 or 150 kilometers. And for that, I have to say, yes, it has already been worth it for me. Now, you just have to see how you can expand it a bit more in the coming years, to increase the fun even further and, yeah, to get people to be a bit more active and not just fly around aimlessly in the area, but to set goals for themselves. And you simply learn a lot more from that, for example, if you have to check the weather. If I know I'm only flying my circuit around the airfield tonight, I don't worry about the weather as much. But if they want to fly even just 50 kilometers, they might still check the wind first,

...look, okay, what's the wind like, yeah, how could I position my triangle, and learn something from that too.

But you also have to say that even if it wasn't planned at all, with your choice of the name Paramotor Germany back in 2011, you actually hit the nail on the head. Because if you say, okay, now the cup is also called Paramotor Germany, that can also be understood as it being the name for the national level, but in the end, it's also advertising for you. So it's cleverly packaged, even if it was mostly a coincidence in the end. Do you actually have a role at DULF yourself? I mean, do you have some kind of task with them?

I'm not actually on the board or anything like that, but I have taken over the role of auditor. However, what's currently being discussed is the thing with Wolfgang Lindl, who is the sports coordinator; I'm still waiting for an answer from him, but he actually wants to fully finalize that I basically take over the national coach role. He already looked for someone a year or two or three ago, but no one responded. Now, since I'm pretty much the only one who's been active in this and also looking to pass on and convey knowledge, it just reached the point where I told him, "Well, I'd like to offer myself for that." So it will probably end up with me taking on the volunteer position and being officially responsible for it.

but that's what I'm doing now; for example, since there's no German Championship, there's the British Open this year, which I already took part in back in 2019 and 2020, and that's something I'm already helping out with a bit in terms of organization, supporting the people who want to participate, and yeah, I'll probably do that in an official capacity soon, but it won't really change my actual work. That

meaning, could one, in the end, maybe even drop it as a sort of German sub-ranking?

Yes, I've already clarified that, but we don't have enough participants for that right now. For me, it was an option where I said, okay, if we can't organize a German championship here with the English ones, we could do a separate ranking for them, so that it counts as a German championship, that there's a ranking for it. But right now, we probably only have five pilots joining, which is already an improvement from the two we had before, but it's not enough yet for it to be counted as its own championship.

I read somewhere that you're also working in a working group with the DULF or something similar, where the goal is to advocate politically for lifting this airfield requirement for launching with the motorized glider. What's the current status of the project?

So that started a few years ago; it involves authorities, so it's all relatively long-drawn-out. The current status is that we have a mandatory airfield requirement in Germany, and as an alternative, there is the possibility of obtaining an off-field takeoff and landing permit under Paragraph 25. That was used relatively uncomplicatedly for years, where people could basically get a meadow approved, but that has become increasingly difficult over the last few years. It's a huge problem for the motors, for the motor glider pilots, because many airfields don't want motor gliders or have operating hours that are simply not compatible with our flight times, and then we tackled this project again.

The current status is that we brought in a specialist lawyer back then who basically prepared an expert opinion showing that there is a clear need for action and that we also presented a possible solution in the form of an off-field takeoff permit, similar to what balloon pilots have now, where you would, for example, have to do some kind of small training or briefing and then be able to obtain a permit for a field in a simplified way, not through the regional presidency and such, but by a simple route. Unfortunately, it's still stuck on the authorities' side right now. For us, the positive thing is that there haven't been any rejections or anything like that yet,

but we're currently hanging in limbo and unfortunately have to be patient, because it has to go through the federal-state technical committee, and there are working groups before that. Then there was COVID and all that, which caused a lot of delays, and then the change of government apparently caused more delays because it's running at the federal level first and then has to be passed down to the state level. That's why we're still stuck in the waiting loop, but so far, all options are still open.

That would mean, let's say, if everything goes well, it could get to the point where you could take off relatively freely with the motor glider from any meadow that isn't directly next to residential areas or something like that, if you have the approval of the meadow owner, right?

So, it won't be possible in Germany to just have permission from a landowner, like they do now in Italy or somewhere, where I can just go to a meadow and take off. We probably won't achieve that here. The goal, however, is that currently you have to go through the municipality and nature conservation, and then it all goes to the regional government. It's a huge fuss with so many different parties involved, and of course, there's a lot of risk that someone will say, "Yeah, but I don't really like it." That's why the goal is to significantly simplify it, so that you can get a permit—a stamp, let's say—at the local level. It won't be as paradise-like as it is now in Italy or France, but we hope we can make it easier again to that extent.

that it becomes feasible for more pilots again. Because currently, there are some federal states where it works perfectly. They send an email with a screenshot from Google Earth and the coordinates, plus the permission from the property owner. And then, if the municipal council agrees, the clerk just approves it. But then there are others who demand a bird protection assessment and various other things, and then it just becomes very complicated and very expensive, so many people give up again. And that is the biggest point why motorized glider pilots give up flying again, because they just can't get into the air as easily as they hoped at the beginning if they can't basically solve the launch site problem, if they can't find a suitable launch site.

I

I've pushed this idea with the DRV to establish the electric motor as an assistance for climbing on normal paragliders, and with that, to introduce a new type of launch and to shape it legally as much as possible so that you could start relatively freely anywhere. It goes somewhat in that direction—what's your actual take on this electric motor topic? It's done now at the DRV, but do you see it as a future, or is it ultimately just a side issue for classic powered paragliders, especially when you say I want to do cross-country flights and I need thrust for seven and a half hours, which no battery can ever provide?

So for those massive cross-country flights, it certainly won't be a thing, not even in the coming years. For normal flying, as we said before, many pilots fly for one or two hours maximum. I can imagine that might increase a bit over the next few years, but I believe it will only really take a step forward when battery technology makes a significant leap. I've already flown some motors. A friend of mine, Thomas Brennstedt from Austria, is a very, very good tinkerer, inventor, hobbyist. He's built various systems from the ground up. He makes the propellers and everything himself and develops and tests a lot. I'm systemically excited about his work too. We've already flown them.

A few years ago, we were in Zell am See at IONIKA. That was an e-mobility event. We were there as a show team, demonstrating what's possible. Nowadays, even with a winch launch. But with an efficient glider, the current state of the art, let's say, is about forty-five minutes, maybe an hour, as a foot launch. And the problem right now is simply that the weight of the batteries and their capacity mean the whole thing can't function that well. It just can't hold a candle to an internal combustion engine. With that, I have such a high weight on my back. If I compare that to a small one—I have an Eclipse Atom 80, which weighs 19 kilos empty. And if I only put four liters in there, I can fly for an hour as well.

If I want to fly longer distances now, I still have to carry the weight at takeoff. It's already lighter again during landing. And above all, I can just quickly recharge it after the flight. I think currently, the prices are simply the hurdle for many people, because you're spending over 10,000, 12,000 euros on an electric motor system where you can fly for 40 minutes, but no one can say for sure how many years the batteries will last. Even if they manage 1,000 cycles, if I fly less often—many pilots only fly maybe ten times a year—and if they don't charge it regularly, the batteries will break or something.

I think that would just take a bit more time. But fundamentally, it's certainly interesting, and it's also interesting for many pilots, if you no longer have to do carburetor adjustments. There are already very many engines that run perfectly fine with carburetor tuning. But there are still cases where you have to do something technical. And that's not for everyone. I think that would certainly be interesting. But from my point of view, it just takes time for the batteries to get better. How long do you estimate that? Based on your knowledge? We'd have to ask the automotive industry or something like that what they say. I'm not involved in that topic intensively enough to know what the market is like right now.

Because you can expect significant improvements there. I mean, it always depends on who wants to fly for 20 or 30 minutes; they'll certainly find suitable systems already, even if those are still very small series. But for the masses, in my view, it's not suitable yet.

Let's look at something completely different for a moment. I'd call it the dark side of glider maintenance. In 2016, you had a relatively serious accident with the glider. What happened there?

I had an accident while starting, while turning on the engine. Back then, I traveled to Sweden in the spring, it happened on April 1st, at a motor glider meeting on a frozen lake in the Arctic Circle. And I had brought my alignment from the plane, set everything up calmly at the top, and mounted the engine and wanted to start it. So it has a pull rope, a hand starter, and I pulled and pulled and pulled and it just wouldn't start. And I had the engine relatively new and thought, well, maybe I pumped too much fuel into the carburetor and it's flooded, so I took it off again, checked everything again, and at that point, I had actually been telling people for two years to always put your engine on its back when you turn it on, so that if it should rev up because something goes wrong, you're a bit better protected.

And on that day, I disregarded that myself. And after it didn't work the first time on my back, I put it down, checked everything again, and then—I had already prepared—I positioned the engine so that it lay flat against my leg on the side, so I could hold it well from above. I made sure my thumb was directly over the stop button and that nothing in the front was pressing on the throttle so I couldn't accidentally give it gas. Then I pulled the starter with my other hand, heard an ignition, and was actually relieved, thinking, okay, perfect, because the weather was great too, now it'll start right away and I can go lie down, and then I pulled again.

and then I—I still realized from the sound, I heard immediately that it was revving too high, but it happens so fast, it's fractions of a second. The engine, it's pushing with 60, 70 kilos and it tilted toward me and then with the propeller, I basically got pushed through the net, through the covering, by my arm, so that the propeller hit my arm there five times, three times deep, until then—thank God I let go and moved backward so that it fell onto the belt. Luckily, I didn't try to reflexively protect myself with my hands from this propeller that was coming toward me, otherwise it would have been much worse, but I basically had the

The triceps tendon, the triceps muscles were severed; it was down to the bone, but thank God I didn't hit the bone or the nerve. Fortunately, I had a first responder on site who had basic medical training through the fire department; he treated me immediately because it took 25 minutes for the ambulance to arrive, and then they drove me to the next town for two hours and operated on me there at night, sewing everything back together. Now, apart from some slight numbness in my fingertips, I have no damage in the area of my arm; I can move everything freely, it all works again, but it was simply the mistake—I noticed that the throttle cable was jammed.

And because of that, it was basically at three-quarters throttle, which is why I didn't catch it at first. It's just a risk that some people like to push aside a bit. These accidents were a topic for me back then too; I told the paramedic who was with me in the ambulance that once we're in the hospital and they open it up, she has to take a photo of it for me. She looked at me completely bewildered and asked why I wanted pictures of the wound or anything, and I said I'd made a pretty stupid mistake and I have to talk about it and share it to prevent others from making the same mistake. But even back then, it was clear to me that you need drastic images so that people really take it seriously and that it actually sticks with them a bit.

Because these accidents—if you're at a motorcross meet or with pilots who have been in the scene for a long time—there are so many people who somehow lose a finger or something, because I'm not the first person to have come into contact with a propeller, but unfortunately, it keeps happening. I reported on it on my end, wrote an accident report, and also did an analysis of what the problem was in my case, and I was very glad afterwards that I made all of that public so quickly. Two weeks after me, there was an accident in Munich, in Poland, where someone was seriously injured in the arm, and six weeks after me, a German pilot—who even wrote to me afterwards saying "get well soon" and stuff—had read my report but then thought, "Yeah, I just want to let my motor run nicely in the yard, check something," and the motor went full throttle. He put his arm in so badly that his upper arm is now amputated on one side, and on the other side, I think he also partially injured his fingers.

That was a huge shock for me too, of course, because if an arm is gone, if a side is missing, your whole life changes. Your job, everything is no longer what it was before. But for me, there was this great sense of relief that I made everything public so quickly after my accident, because I knew, okay, there was nothing more I could do. I made sure that it was accessible, and he even saw that, and if someone still starts the engine on the ground, I see that again and again when I'm at the motor glider meet or an event; there are plenty of people, and I'm not the type to go around lecturing everyone and saying, "Look, you're not allowed to do that," but I do point out to people that they are exposing themselves to risk and that I would recommend doing it differently, and if you can protect anyone from something like that happening, that's good.

And every time an accident happens anyway, it's just sad. But it's often conveniently pushed aside, and after my accident, I came into contact with many people who then said, "Yeah, that happened to me too" or "I've had something like that before," and they'd just keep going and going, and then I think, "Yeah, people, but why don't you hear about this anywhere?" Of course, with the internet, social media, and all that, it's much easier to share such information now, but it's still just such a taboo subject where people don't talk about it because you made a mistake and you're not proud of it, so it's better to keep it quiet. Even big, well-known pilots from the motorized glider scene, when they have or had such accidents, they're just away from the glider for four or six weeks and then they're just back again, but people are simply reluctant to talk about it, and then you only find out afterwards or if they're wearing a T-shirt, you see, "Oh, he has this here too."

The scar is there now, and that's also a point where I think we just need to talk about it more and create this awareness, because powered paragliding is such a beautiful and brilliant hobby, but the propeller doesn't just give us fun; it's simply a piece of carbon that someone is spinning at very high speeds, and there are forces at work that we can't stop, and you just have to be aware of that—you shouldn't sugarcoat the fact that risks do exist.

Based on what you're hearing, would you say that powered paragliding is riskier or more dangerous than normal paragliding?

Basically, I would say quite clearly that it's safer, because the vast majority of pilots fly in calm air in the mornings and evenings. That means there are almost no cases in motorized glider sports where external influences—like wearing heavy clothing or a helmet, for example—lead to a crash where I might not be able to get the rescue out in time. Ultimately, it's just the human factor. There are still fatal accidents when people overestimate themselves. That's sort of the problem: the trend towards smaller, faster gliders and wilder maneuvers. They see a video on YouTube where someone is doing barrel rolls and crazy wing-overs.

And then they want to do that, but they're not aware that the pilot might have spent five years gradually working their way up to it, flying 200 hours a year. And on that point, of course, there are accidents from time to time where people overestimate themselves. Otherwise, the point is simply that people don't handle the equipment properly, which leads to accidents in some cases. But as long as you do your pre-flight check properly and don't overdo it in the air, there's generally no big issue with external factors, like material defects or anything like that. The standard is just so high by now that you can operate motor paragliding so safely,

because I don't have any risk from thermals or anything like that normally. That's why, actually, I'd say it would be safer.

There are also a few pilots, as you just mentioned, doing barrel rolls and stuff, who really do fly in agro with the powered glider. I think I even saw in a video somewhere that someone actually flew in infinity tumbling with the motor on their back, which I imagine is even more difficult and probably significantly riskier with all that weight and everything. So if you fall into the canopy like that, you probably won't have any fun at all. Does that interest you? Would that be something for you? Or do you say no, also from the experience of, I've had an accident before, even if it wasn't an accident in direct flight, I'm actually more of the cautious type.

Yeah, well, it's like, I know some agro pilots. There are the Malagita brothers, three brothers from Spain. I was down in Spain with them a few years ago and I'm good friends with them. For a long time, they were the three out of five people who flew infinity tumbling, and then bit by bit, there were always more pilots. Nowadays, relatively many fly it. Yeah, so what does relatively mean? It's not like in Germany that every second person is flying infinity tumbling, but worldwide, there are now certainly 50 pilots who fly all the agro maneuvers up to infinity tumbling with the motor glider. David from the Malagitas also flies twisted maneuvers sometimes.

A lot has happened in recent years. I do things like high wingovers now, and I have a great time doing that too. But pushing further than that doesn't really appeal to me that much. For one thing, I'm not very resilient when it comes to G-force. My body doesn't handle it as well as I'd like it to. That's why I just know I have to be careful, that I might be a bit more susceptible. I've also witnessed one accident or another over the last few years, or I've been to funerals. Of young pilots who maybe just pushed things a bit too far.

And that one, yeah, he pulled a maneuver that was too intense. And you have to assume he just blacked out, that he lost consciousness. He then spiraled down until he crashed. And when you've been to a funeral for someone who was only 22 or so, a year younger than me, yeah, it just makes you realize how serious this stuff is. For me, it's always about maximum fun with minimal risk. I certainly do things where I take a certain risk. When I fly the foottrack, skimming my feet over the grass or somewhere in shallow water, right by the water, I have a huge amount of fun with that.

But you have to be aware that there's just a huge risk involved. And a foottrack in the water, even if it works perfectly 100 times in a big puddle in a field or somewhere in shallow water—if you do that in a river, it's just a completely different matter. Because it only takes for you to submerge a bit too much once, or for too much water to spray up in the back and get your belt wet, for the belt to slip, because you have the thrust. And if you're suddenly in the water with the engine on and then also moving in the water, it's just a total catastrophe. And that's why I'm a pilot who's always weighing up how much risk I'm taking.

And I think that's simply because I know quite a few people and have heard about many accidents that didn't happen during normal flying, but because people just test their limits and want to keep pushing further. Yeah, it's just that fear of having an accident at some point. And if you've seen the relatives of someone else mourning afterwards... even if you don't crash, it's enough that you end up seriously injured. I always say, I'd rather get my fun in smaller doses, and in the end, when you add it all up, I have the big picture—like, I'm not trying to have this one huge dose of fun where I crash or end up so seriously injured that I can't fly anymore.

So, in my job as an orthopedic technician, I naturally deal with people who have been injured in serious car accidents or something, who are then left with permanent disabilities. Maybe it also plays a role that I'm constantly confronted with how much your life changes when you suddenly need so many mobility aids and such. Yeah, that's why I always try to find a good balance so that I don't push it until I can't go anymore.

Let's put aside those dark sides of powered paragliding for a moment and focus back on the good things at the end. Feel free to do a bit of advertising. Just give me a few arguments for why I should start paragliding as a paraglider.

Yeah, well, the great thing about powered paragliding—I think many people make the mistake of comparing it one-to-one or trying to. I often say that powered paragliding or paragliding is more like cycling and motorcycling, for example. They both have two wheels, but I move differently, I just have completely different possibilities. When I'm paragliding, I have my fun, like when I'm cranking myself up in the thermals, or last year at the team meeting in France, we were all mountain flying at noon and I got stuck here and then I... I actually wanted to go down and lose altitude, and then suddenly it started lifting me.

And then, when I can work my way up again, I have absolute fun and that has its own unique appeal. But with powered paragliding, it's just different points. I can fly to places or at times where I simply wouldn't get there with a paraglider. And I'd say, if it's a sunset, you can still manage that more easily with a paraglider, but something like watching a sunrise from the air, or if small clouds are forming somewhere and, depending on where you are, you fly over them and look at them from above, provided it's legal. There are just so many possibilities, or into the mountains. We also started with the gliders at sunrise during the team meeting.

And especially when you have the chance to head into the mountains, gain some altitude, and then reach 2,000 meters with this panorama as the sun comes up behind you. Yeah, that is just, just brilliant. Paraglider pilots have the advantage of being able to sleep in until 8 or 9. That's a bit of a disadvantage with powered paragliding. Especially during events, where you always have to get up early in the morning because if the light is on by 6 and the wind is weak, it's humming and the first person is already in the air, so there's no sleeping in for an event like that. And in the evening, you fly until the sun goes down. And they are just as social and like to sit together. But yeah, you just have completely different possibilities.

And for many, the appeal is certainly that you can get into the air during the week, when you wouldn't normally be able to go thermal flying, or even if you have a launch site, with short travel times.

So, if I'm hearing you correctly, for you personally, the biggest fascination is actually these moments—these magical moments—where you say, at times when you can fly, when a normal paraglider actually wouldn't be able to fly.

Yeah, that really appeals to me. I can also draw on that for a long time. I was in Italy with a group two weeks ago, and we did a performance training. On the last morning—which was unpleasant, I was already very tired from the week—I set my alarm for 5:30, was in the air just before six, and watched the sunrise, how it came up out of the sea. And I can draw on something like that for a long time and really enjoy it. But for me, an even bigger appeal—which you just can't experience in Germany—is that deep, precise flying. So, maneuvers in the air, high wing-overs and stuff like that, that's all well and good, it gives you a quick kick.

But what, yeah, I'd almost say fascinates me the most is this precise low-level flying, where on the one hand you notice your speed differently, you feel it much, much more directly. And you have to coordinate all of that so sensitively. This mix of throttle and wind, via the brake—if I, for example, graze the grass with my foot, you can of course just do that against the wind, that's the first step you start with, and you already have enough to work with there. But for me, the appeal now is to say, okay, I'm going to fly a circle and make sure that I keep my foot on the ground permanently.

And if I have a bit of wind, at the moment I turn into the wind, I have to take some gas off in time so that I don't get lifted. And at the moment I get the tailwind again, I have to add some gas back or regulate it via the brake in time. That is flying where it's simply very direct and demanding technically, you could actually say, when you have to coordinate everything so perfectly that it works out. And that's where I have my fun. Or if you can fly slalom around pylons, that's also a point where, in paragliding, you might still be able to scrape down the slopes a bit and stick your foot in the grass. But that's not what you usually do there, and not in that form.

That's a huge appeal and a lot of fun for me, which I wouldn't be able to have with a paraglider without an engine.

Are there things that you sometimes envy normal paragliders for?

So, I often envy them for being able to sleep in in the morning.

Especially when we have a team meeting where powered paraglider and paraglider pilots get together and we all sit there for a long time in the evening, and then we powered paraglider pilots still get up at half past five or five in the morning to drive to a launch site to film videos and take pictures in that good morning light. I really envy the paraglider pilots then, that they can all still sleep in.

Otherwise, there's not really that much to be envious of. What I really admire, when I look at cross-country flying, is what people are simply capable of, how far they get, because I just don't fly into the mountains enough—or generally with a paraglider enough—to see or imagine that well, where is it going to be ahead, where could the next thermal be, how do I get further. And that's why, with paragliding, I'm not a cross-country pilot, because I just do it too rarely. I make sure to gain altitude, but I stay within the glide angle range, let's say.

I don't really dare to go that far because I just don't have the experience. And I really admire the people who can do that, who can come back reliably after doing those kinds of cross-country flights—and just, when they take off or something, for example, Ulrike, she was also here with you. I know her through the BGD team from Norway. And when I look at her tours or Marcel's, when they do those bivouac tours and say, okay, I'm just going to head out there, somewhere into the mountains, and stay overnight. And I trust myself to get back afterwards. That's just something I would never have the skills or abilities for.

And I really admire what's possible there.

Ulrike is Ulrike Jüse. And she was here on the podcast at the beginning of this year and told us about her high-and-fly adventures in Norway. A very, very nice episode of Podz-Glidz, I think. So it's definitely worth listening to. Now, right at the end. Can you tell one more little anecdote? I heard that last year you made a successful marriage proposal while powered glider flying. How does that work? Do you have to shout and say, "Will you marry me?" And the other person has some kind of hearing protection on and says, "What did you say?" Or how does that work?

No, well, of course we have helmets with ear protection and headsets inside, our Bluetooth intercom system. And that was, yeah, we were in Italy down in Fermo, where I fly relatively often. And I've already flown into the mountains with my friend in the summer, 50 kilometers inland. And there's this high plateau at 1,500 meters where you can land quite well, it's all meadow. And my plan with my girlfriend, when we were down there in the autumn, was that we'd fly there—me with her tandem trike, my buddy with the foot-launch motor—packed with a tent, no, not a tent, like a tarp, a sleeping bag, and a mat behind us. And then land there in the evening and do a bivouac.

And I actually wanted to ask her there. But that didn't work out because of the wind and weather. It got cold, so I had to scrap the plan. Then we went to a place where we could do tandem flying on the beach one afternoon. And when we got back to the airfield, I thought, okay, now I have to take the last chance. The next few days are going to be bad. So we did a tandem foot launch. That was relatively demanding because there was almost no wind at the airfield. And when you have to run so close to each other on flat ground, with weight on your backs and all that, it's just a bit harder than on a slope. But we got into the air just fine.

Then, of course, my headset didn't connect at first. I had to reset the Bluetooth again so we could talk to each other. And then I told her what my plan actually would have been. I said that I thought it would have been a good opportunity up there to ask if she wanted to marry me. And then it took her a second to realize what I was trying to do. I had the ring in my pocket. And I actually thought, yeah, I'll tie it on. But then suddenly it was sunset and there was no more time. So I carefully pulled it out of my pocket, stretched it forward, and flipped open the box.

and made sure it attached right away so we wouldn't lose it. But it all worked out very well. Did he do it over the gloves?

did it fit or was she not wearing gloves at all?

No, she wasn't wearing gloves there.

Are you guys married by now?

No, that's not until August this year.

Okay. How much suffering does a Moshi pilot's wife endure when her husband is constantly dreaming of big cross-country flight adventures and then always says, well, after work, honey, I'm still at the airfield for another two hours and then I'm heading out?

Yeah, well, sometimes you really do need a lot of understanding. My advantage is that she's known me for a long time and I've always been active, and that since Corona, he's calmed down a bit. I've taken on new projects for that, like all these things now. But I'm not at the airfield every weekend anymore. But what does happen, like just on my birthday or this March, we had vacation those days. And then I have to say, "Hey, the weather actually looks pretty good today. And we were thinking of going to Lake Constance, but I could fly 400 kilometers."

And then I'm dependent on having someone who says, "Yeah, okay, then we'll go to Lake Constance the day after tomorrow." And then I'll find something else to do. But thankfully, that works out very well.

Then I wish you a beautiful wedding. And I hope there's still plenty of understanding in the coming years, because from the way I can sense your enthusiasm, motor paragliding will definitely continue to accompany you for many years to come. And your partner will simply have to adjust to that. Does she fly herself? I mean, does she have a motor license herself?

No, she doesn't have a license. She enjoys going along as a passenger every now and then, but she doesn't have the urge to learn it herself right now. And I wouldn't push anyone into it. You have to want to do it yourself.

Bene, thanks so much for the interview. Thank you very much. And I wish you many, many more great flights. And I hope those 500 kilometers will work out sometime soon. I'm trying.

Podz-Glidz is a podcast belonging to my Gleitschirm-Blog Lu-Glidz. You can also find the show notes for this episode, No. 83 Paramotor with Benedikt Boes, along with some further links there. Lu-Glidz is completely ad-free online, specifically at www.Lu-Glidz.blogspot.com. Lu-Glidz is spelled L U minus G L I D Z. If you enjoy Podz-Glidz, please recommend the podcast. For example, with a good rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, a post on Facebook or Instagram, or directly in conversation with your flying friends. You are also very welcome to financially support Podz-Glidz and Lu-Glidz as a sponsor. The podcast and blog involve a lot of time and some costs, especially given the regularity and professionalism with which they are published.

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