These look like fun. They're both roughly the same from what I've read. You hang under a wing shaped parachute in some sort of fan powered vehicle. The main difference between the two seems to be that the powered parachute vehicle is more structurally significant, whereas the paraglider is just a seat with a motorized fan. The powered parachute may require a license because of its weight and fuel capacity, whereas anyone can fly a paraglider. People also apparently backpack the paragliders into the wilderness, which you can't do with a powered parachute because of the heavy golf-cart like body. On the other hand the parachute is more stable and controllable apparently.
Looks cool. I saw it in florida on the beach, and now I want to try it. The one I saw in florida was a bench with more than one passenger on it. It looked like someone was flying a park bench, which was pretty cool.
And so much stranger! Yep. John Denver went up and down in an experimental class kit plane with known problems (bad valves) and should not have been flying it improperly for conditions. I've flown experimental and production aircraft and in any case you have to do a lot of careful checks and rechecks pre-flight and post-flight and make sure it is properly maintained. Otherwise no matter the problems every craft out there finds just enough power to get you to the scene of the crash. I keep looking at powered parachutes in my search for a way around traffic, been paragliding but never with anything other than the wind for power.
