There are a lot of great resources for learning to fly airplanes, but there is only one complete book for learning to fly powered parachutes and this is it.
This book is meant to be a practical textbook to help you not only learn to fly, but to help you earn your FAA sport pilot certificate for powered parachutes. Roy's Powered Parachute Book contains not only the information you need to know, it is the one resource you can depend on to prepare you for not only your knowledge test, but also your FAA practical test. Standards are presented, cross-referenced, and explained so that training is easier and your check ride becomes a far less stressful affair.
Based on over thirty years of experience in the sport, Roy Beisswenger has put together a resource that most powered parachute pilots wished they had when they were learning to fly. Just as important, as the first FAA sport pilot designated examiner in the country and the first FAA Gold Seal Flight Instructor in the sport, he knows where students stumble and what they need in a textbook. This is the result of those years of experience.
If you want the one resource that you can depend upon through your flight training experience, you need this book!
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Understanding how a powered parachute works is critical to safety. Roy's Powered Parachute Book provides more detail and understanding of powered parachute aerodynamics than any book on the market.
The FAA recommends 30+ regulations, advisory circulars, handbooks, and other references in their Practical Test Standard for powered parachutes. You can purchase all of that material and organize it if you like. Or you can get the one book that does that for you. Roy's Powered Parachute Book is a big book that covers a lot of ground.
The details of powered parachuting are explained. That includes both aviation theory and powered parachute practice. Professional, exclusive photography and illustrations are used extensively.
The most challenging part of getting an FAA sport pilot certificate is the check ride. It is a two-part process that contains an interview portion and a hands-on portion. During the interview portion, you can bring any reference you choose. Roy's Powered Parachute Book is cross-referenced with a built-in Practical Test Standard to make the process as smooth as possible.
There are thousands of pages of regulations. Fortunately, you don't need to know nearly that many to safely and legally fly a powered parachute. Roy's Powered Parachute Book includes only the ones that you need to know about as a powered parachute pilot. And unlike other publications that have one volume for pilots and another for maintainers, here all of the regulations are in one place.
The author was the first FAA pilot examiner for powered parachutes and possibly has trained and tested more powered parachute pilots and instructors than anyone else. He knows where students have problems and wrote this book to make it easier both for the students and fellow instructors.
Roy's Powered Parachute Book was originally published in 2015. The second edtion was publishd in 2024 and is a completely redone work with tighter editing, more graphics, and more content. We look forward to hearing about your experiences with the book. Use the online form to contact us and let us know what you like along with any tips for improving future editions!
Roy Beisswenger is a Titan in Light-Sport Aviation and it’s no wonder by his strong drive to contribute, desire to impart wisdom and results-oriented approach. He has a creative yet disciplined mind which is turbo charged by his tremendous energy and commitment to deliver excellence in everything aviation. Roy is an impressive and inspirational guy with solid values, thirst for learning, as well as teaching. I’ve learned much from just being around him. We consider “Roy’s Powered Parachute Book” to be the gold standard in training and are using it for our own flight training operation.
I have been a flight instructor for many years, beginning with airplane and moving on to powered parachutes. For the longest time, there just wasn’t a good training manual for powered parachutes, certainly nothing of this caliber. I’ve had the opportunity to work with this manual with students and have found that its powered parachute focus, along with the great graphics, help students learn and retain the information better. This has resulted in better results for students taking the Sport Pilot Powered Parachute Knowledge Test. Even more important, the book keeps everything between two covers and is well cross-indexed with the FAA Practical Training Standard. This makes it the best book a pilot applicant could ask for when preparing to take his or her check ride.
I have read and gone through this book. As a CFI flight instructor for powered parachutes, I find it to be very comprehensive and complete. It has all a pilot would need to know about flying powered parachutes. It also covers maintenance, which is not covered in the usual FAA powered parachute books used by CFI's. This book replaces a stack of 5 books, and makes my training go a lot smoother, because a student knows they need only read this 1 book. It will also be a help for experienced pilots as well. The illustrations are top notch. This is a great addition to any powered parachute pilot's library of reference books.
Roy Beisswenger is based in Greenville, Illinois, where he has operated the Easy Flight powered parachute training school since 1993. Before the Sport Pilot rules were introduced in 2004, he held the designation of Ultralight Flight Instructor-Examiner (UFI-E) with the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) as well as Advanced Flight Instructor (AFI) with the United States Ultralight Association (USUA). He has trained local pilots, equipment dealers and students from other countries as well as US military members.
In late 2004, Beisswenger was chosen to participate in the Federal Aviation Administration’s first Designated Pilot Examiner (DPE) training class for the sport pilot program. In January of 2005, he was the first to receive the designations of Sport Pilot and Certified Flight Instructor-Sport Pilot (CFI-SP) for powered parachutes. There he also became one of the country’s first two DPE’s for powered parachutes as well as one of the country’s first Designated Sport Flight Instructor Examiners. He is also the first sport pilot flight instructor to become an FAA Gold Seal CFI.
Before Sport Pilot, Roy assembled aircraft from kits and serviced them for his school and customers. In 2006 he became a Repairman, Light Sport Aircraft Maintenance with the designations for airplane, powered parachute and weight shift control aircraft. He also served as a designated airworthiness representative for those same categories of aircraft.
Beisswenger is also involved in industry organizations. He became a board member of the United States Powered Parachuting Association, which evolved into the North American Powered Parachute Federation. Roy is a board member of the United States Ultralight Association. He also served as president of the Illinois Ultralight Advisory Council (IUAC), which advises Illinois state as well as federal officials on light sport aviation issues. The IUAC also conducts the largest sport aviation safety seminar in the US on an annual basis, attracting approximately 400 participants a year. The Light Aircraft Manufacturing Association (LAMA) asked him to become a member of the Board of Directors in 2014. Roy is also chairman of the ASTM committee for powered parachute standards.
As president of the USUA, Beisswenger served as the United States delegate to CIMA, the committee of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) pertaining to Microlight activity around the world. There he has helped set competition and record setting policy for the sport on a world-wide basis. He was also a Steward for the 10th World Microlight Championships held in Levroux, France in 2005. He served in Spain in 2012 as President of the Jury for the FAI World Paramotor Championships. He also served on an international expert group for FAI pertaining to regulations.
Beisswenger has written for many of the ultralight and light sport aircraft magazines. His articles have appeared in UltraFlight Magazine and the EAA Experimenter, where he was a columnist. Stories have also appeared in Ultralight Flying! as well as the Australian magazine, Pacific Flyer. He wrote about one quarter of the FAA’s Powered Parachute Flying Handbook and helped edit the rest of the book. His chapter on powerplants was the first official document ever produced by the FAA for the two-stroke engine. He now also writes and helps edit the monthly magazine, Powered Sport Flying.
Prior to his work in aviation, Beisswenger was schooled in Mechanical Engineering, graduating from Washington University in 1984. Following that, he went to work as an officer in the US Army.
Roy's been honored with several aviation related awards including inductions into the EAA's Ultralight Hall of Fame (2021) and the Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame (2018). He also won the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association President’s Award in 2014 and Flying Magazine’s Bax Seat Trophy in 2011.
