Nice day for some fresh air. 

 

 

Highest a paramotor is allowed to go is 18,000 feet without a special permit.  Guess he didn't want to go up and brush that ceiling... 

Pretty cool nonetheless.

That's pretty damn high, but I call BS on the claimed altitude  of 17,500" since I didn't see anything resembling supplemental oxygen.

I'd wondered about the O2 thing.   In an unpressurized aircraft, the pilot must be on O2 whenever above 12,500 for 30 minutes or more, or at any time above 14,000.  The rules are very different for powered parachutes, so O2 probably not a requirement, but 17.5K is pretty far up there without any significant time to acclimatize.

In addition to the thin air and cold temps, I suspect he picked 17.5K as his max target because he knew he couldn't bust Class A airspace which starts at 18K, and altitude from a GPS isn't legal for determining where you are in relation to restricted airspace--the FAA only recognizes barometric altitude, which can be fairly different from what a GPS tells you.

I was thinking to myself, "This would be an awesome way to get to work!"

And wouldn't you know it, he has a video on his YouTube channel called "Flying To Work On My Paramotor!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMXhI2runRo

He has various other ones as well such as "FLYING TO MCDONALDS ON MY PARAMOTOR!" (below), flying to Dunkin' Donuts, etc.

On the one below he actually has a motor malfunction.  Luckily he just glides down slowly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi_sRYODhfY