Scout have designed a pod harness with “optional climb assist”, for “the unlucky pilots who live in the flatlands”.
It’s a standard pod harness and can be free-flown, or you can attach the motor unit to it and benefit from the ability to fly wherever you want, in any wind direction, and land back at home. No more para-driving, para-waiting or long retrieves, Scout say!
The pod design has taken three years and many prototypes thus far, but they are happy with the current design. The motor fits to the harness without any cumbersome frames and bars, so in flight it feels and flies like a regular paraglider harness. To account for the pilot’s change of position from upright on launch to comfortably reclined in the air, there is a mechanism that changes the geometry. There are no controls and no batteries, it happens automatically, and means the engine’s thrust is always in the right direction.
The engine is a Vittorazi Atom 80, and it has a six-litre fuel tank which means more than two hours’ flight time – plenty to get you from launch to the thermals, and back home again after the flight.
The harness has a front-mounted reserve container, certified foam back protection, various pockets and a drinks-pouch housing.
Scout are now on the ‘reliability and durability testing’ phase, and are hoping to bring the harness to market in autumn 2021.
