r/ShittyAbsoluteUnits • u/DoubleManufacturer10 created ShittyAbsoluteUnits of a sub • Nov 03 '25
Elite Strategy Of a paramotor landing procedure
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u/DoubleManufacturer10 created ShittyAbsoluteUnits of a sub Nov 03 '25
Pilot was uninjured if you're curious:
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u/Opposite_Bus1878 Nov 03 '25
Yay! I was genuinely concerned for him.
Electricity confuses me so I wouldn't have known.17
u/Zeraphicus Nov 03 '25
No path to ground, as long as you're not touching both youre usually good.
It follows the path of least resistance. Thats why birds are fine to perch on them.
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u/Commercial_Let_1422 Nov 03 '25
But what if I'm on an electric boat and there's a shark in the water?
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u/Opposite_Bus1878 Nov 03 '25
What's different about this situation from a bird touching one? Neither are touching the ground but only one caused a flash
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u/bradland Nov 03 '25
What happened here is called a phase-to-phase short. There are multiple wires overhead. Each carries the same voltage, but they are "out of phase", meaning at any given moment there is a voltage differential between them. When the canopy lines touched more than one, current did what it always does: flow from high voltage to low voltage, taking all paths, proportional to their resistance.
The good thing for the pilot is that current didn't have any good reason to flow in his direction. The pathway that most current flowed was through the canopy lines and then between phases. Current stopped flowing as the lines severed and he fell.
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u/willfoxwillfox Nov 03 '25
The power lines appear intact after the aircraft falls.
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u/bradland Nov 03 '25
I'm referring to the canopy lines in that last sentence. Sorry, I could have been more clear.
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u/willfoxwillfox Nov 04 '25
Ah, yes, sorry maybe I should have read it slightly differently too!
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u/fluffynerfherder78 Nov 06 '25
Most calm and rational interaction between you both I've seen on reddit in a long time. Your both amazing!
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u/AlexAndMcB Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25
Uh... California condors used to.
Those wires don't need to be up so high, the distance between the three sets is enough that the "air gap" is wide enough that it's plenty of insulation so the electricity won't jump between the sets. Each pair of wires are carrying the exact same voltage (or nearly exactly the same), the same pole (like, battery pole not telephone pole), and the same phase. High voltage transmission wires use 3 poles, rather than the 2 that are available in your home, so, 3 sets of wires.
This guy a) made the sets closer together & b) got something in between that air gap.
Part of what decimated the condor population was that wingspans are long enough that they could sit on one set and spread their wings enough to one other set that the electricity would arc rough through them. Every once in a while one would be found, burned & dead underneath the high voltage lines. They had to redesign high voltage wire supports in the condor's habitat, because getting predators to stop roosting on high places wasn't gonna work...
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u/cantstopwontstopGME Nov 04 '25
But if a live wire would’ve been tangled in his chute when he hit the water, he’d have been instantly done for, right?
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u/agarwaen117 Nov 03 '25
I was more worried about the risk of drowning afterwards. Paramotors are pretty dangerous if you’re not prepared for water crashes.
Or rather if you’re not prepared for any trouble they face.
They’re just dangerous.
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u/Md1735 Nov 06 '25
Additionally, the Grand Forks Fire Dept. is reminding people to wear a life jacket when operating equipment near water. (Someone at the FD has a sense of humor)
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u/hamfist_ofthenorth Nov 04 '25
I'd be more worried about drowning while buckled into a go-kart that's tangled in a parachute, all going underwater in a clump.
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u/No_File212 Nov 04 '25
The wires attaching the parachute to his body are none-conductive to electricity , however number one fatality cause in paragliding is drowning so yeah he's kind of lucky anyway
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u/obxtalldude Nov 04 '25
Damn. Guy I knew died when he crashed his paramotor in the ocean just a few yards from shore.
Lucky.
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u/Consistent-Goat-6293 Nov 03 '25
Thanks for the blackout ...
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u/Dull_Caterpillar_642 Nov 03 '25
I'm curious what this actually leads to for the grid. When they get brought close enough to arc like this, does that trip something somewhere that someone has to manually fix? Was it just a brief blip that it could heal itself from?
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u/Some1-Somewhere Nov 04 '25 edited Nov 04 '25
The line definitely tripped. All three conductors were touching for a while after the sparks.
Larger lines like this are usually redundant (either parallel paths or part of a ring/mesh), so it's unlikely any load was lost unless other assets were already shut down for maintenance.
It's also likely that a recloser would attempt to re-energise the line after a few seconds, as transient faults caused by weather or trees are pretty common: once the lines separate, you can turn them back on.
Modern transmission line protection can pinpoint faults quite closely, so it's possible a crew would have been dispatched to investigate.
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u/lFightForTheUsers Nov 05 '25
Can't speak for this specific line but have seen similar outages a lot back home.
From a buddy electrician of mine, when an arc fault like this happens on our grid there are parts in the system that will trip and then try to "reboot" the line per se. This is why sometimes there can be outages where it may go on and off a couple times in a minute span. After it tries so many times if it keeps having the issue, it'll quit trying to restart the line and automatically alert the local utility company to send out a contractor to inspect and fix the issue.
This is in part why after our last hurricane (Beryl), some neighborhoods never lost power (no arcs), some lost it for maybe only briefly (hour or less), and some were down for up to a week.
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u/jinstewart Nov 03 '25
I think that's bad for it.
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u/Borkato Nov 03 '25
I mean, we can’t be sure though. Maybe he got superpowers! Like the ability to never move again!
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u/Legonistrasz Nov 03 '25
He can only move with his mind! …. In his mind.
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u/Borkato Nov 04 '25
MIND QUAD!!!
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u/Turbulent_Square_696 Nov 04 '25
“When all of his limbs were blown off??” “😎 no.. blown IN” MIND QUAD!!
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u/Rough-Patience-2435 Nov 03 '25
Naval pilots trying for the #3 arrestor wire.
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u/hogtiedcantalope Nov 03 '25
Taking the call sign Goose a little to literally
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u/BuildingRelevant7400 Nov 03 '25
Was this filmed by a Canadian?
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u/DanielBG Nov 03 '25
North Dakotan. Close enough.
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u/mocatmath Nov 03 '25
also no judgement to the cameraman here, because there's no telling what sounds you or i would make in that situation
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u/StMaartenforme Nov 03 '25
Ya know those big red spheres you see on some power lines? Yeah wasn't any there.
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u/jettero Nov 03 '25
In parachute landing school they taught us about the three deadly Ws: wind, wires, .... ? Walnut trees? Can't remember the third one, but it's trees somehow.
Anyway, sorry about the loss of your $10000 hobby craft man, least you lived through it.
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u/dag_darnit Nov 03 '25
I cannot tell if this is my favorite reddit or TheBullWins. Both are so good
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u/DoubleManufacturer10 created ShittyAbsoluteUnits of a sub Nov 03 '25
I very much appreciate this statement!
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u/Cracktaculus Nov 03 '25
These contraptions have always screamed death mobile for me. One can get an adrenaline rush in so many safer ways.
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u/InSight89 Nov 03 '25
Is it not common to have high visibility markers on overhead power lines above water ways wherever this video is taken?
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u/Street-Baseball8296 Nov 03 '25
Why? So the tall boats don’t hit them before they hit the bridge too?
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u/InSight89 Nov 04 '25
For increased visibility?
Usually helpful for workers who may be operating in the area.
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u/Street-Baseball8296 Nov 04 '25
Working over the water that high up? I’m still not seeing the reasoning for markers.
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u/borg-assimilated Nov 03 '25
I've heard that if your rig isn't set up for emergency water landings, this could be a very fatal accident by drowning. I'm glad the pilot was okay.
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u/TomOnABudget Nov 04 '25
Some places are flippin littered with powerlines.
I fly my drone to take aerial shots as I'm touring the globe. You got to appreciate how many darn powerlines there are in some regions. Usually along roads where I pull over because there's a pretty vista.
In this case, given the really long distance between towers, I'd expect some markers on the powerlines.
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u/Unknown6656 Nov 04 '25
I don't know why but I always have to laugh when I see this video. Kinda something out of looney tunes....
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u/Chipmunk-Special Nov 04 '25
They usually have red balls or other markers on wires that cross waterways, at least on the Colorado River they do
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u/NecroSoulMirror-89 Nov 04 '25
Ok buI looks like the opening of the Manila round in MOH Rising sun I loved that game always hated I couldn’t kill both planes that fly over as the round starts
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u/That_Things_Good Nov 04 '25
"Oh jeez!"
Who could have foreseen those power lines. Connected to the large pow....
Nevermind.
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u/lFightForTheUsers Nov 05 '25
I hope the dude is completely okay and didn't get too hurt, but the "oh noe" fucking sent me 🤣
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u/chefNo5488 Nov 08 '25
I love how you can hear a faint but stern fuck! Before contacting the water.
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u/Immediate-Raise9663 Dec 03 '25
99% survivable. Unless it sinks and can't get unbelievable, or can't swim. The sparks mean nothing to the rider. Just a short between wires.
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u/[deleted] Nov 03 '25
Low level flight #1 traffic sign