An air traffic controller in Colorado flies to work by paramotor, taking off from the road outside his apartment with a propeller strapped to his back.
Jake Hutzler, 28, makes his airborne commute to Pueblo Memorial Airport at least once a week. Before every flight, he calls the control tower to let his colleagues know he’s coming, then keeps them updated on where he is and how high he’s flying, according to the Associated Press.
“In a paramotor you have a view that almost nobody gets to experience,” he said. “You have no cockpit, nothing in front of you.”
Flying has been part of his life since his grandfather took him up in a small four-seat plane. He logged around 20 hours toward a pilot’s license in college but couldn’t afford to keep going, and it was a viral video of a man flying a paramotor to McDonald’s that finally got him back in the air.
Starting a job in air traffic control earlier this year left him less time to fly, so he found a way to do both. The commute now doubles as his flying time.
“There’s nothing better than flying to work, you know, 500 feet in the air sipping your coffee,” he told ABC News.
It isn’t any quicker. Setting up the wing and packing it away again makes the trip slightly longer than driving, but Hutzler doesn’t seem to mind.
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
