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Fantastic flying in the blue sky

Posted July. 23, 2002 22:22,   

‘I am a tricycle’

As Ru Yong-tae(46) flies above Haeundae Beach, people incline their head on one side because of the strange flying objects he is riding. At a glance, it looks like a paragliding, but if one looks carefully, he/she realizes that it has three wheels like tricycle. It flies just over the sea like touching the surface and soars in the sky freely within a few seconds. Looking carefully it, people can see big a unit of motor and propeller behind the tricycle.

The fly object is called ‘Tricar’ because of three wheels. Tricar is a kind of paragliding. Generally, paragliding jumps at a high mountain and flies by using air current, however Tricar can take off from the land with the power from the motor. It is a kind of motor paragliding that can be seen in movie sometimes. Recently, many people enjoy motor paragliding. Tricar is a kind of motor paragliding, but advanced one.

Mr. Ru said, “In case of motor paragliding, the operator has to take off and land at standing position on the two feet. So many people are worried about the safety. Tricar was designed to solve the problem. The operator of Tricar can take off and land by wheels in sitting position.”

Senior citizens feel uneasiness less with Tricar and are able to enjoy it. However, Tricar requires 3 –4 meters runaway. Mr. Ru is well known in paragliding field. He purchased his own Tricar recently.

“ One of the advantages of Tricar is to fly without air current. Ordinary paragliding can fly 40 km an hour, but motor paragliding and Tricar can fly 50km an hour. The flight distance of motor paragliding and Tricar is 200km, it is impossible by ordinary paragliding.”

Mr. Ru has enjoyed paragliding for last 10 years. He used to be asked “Are you from parachute troop?” Then he answered, “ I am from armored forces.” He saw paragliding first 13 years ago when he passed a hill in Gwangju, Kyeonggi-do. He was attracted to a trainer who had been a member of a ranger-commando force. He was destined to fall in paragliding.

Since then he has learned paragliding actively and opened a paragliding school in Busan. Now he extends his activities to Tricar that is just at introductory stage in Korea and its price is about 12 million won.

Ru Yong-tae Para School:051-804-7230, www.skypara.com



Won-Hong Lee bluesky@donga.com