Jake Hutzler spends his workdays in Pueblo, Colorado, directing planes from an airport tower. How does he get to work? About once per week, he straps a propeller to his back . . . and flies!
Mr. Hutzler is an air traffic controller. Before heading to work, he lays out a large wing on the road outside his apartment complex. He fires up the motor and starts running. Within seconds, his feet leave the ground.
He’s using a device called a paramotor—a paraglider with a light engine and propeller mounted on a backpack. The trip takes about 20 minutes. He soars at about 35 miles per hour above fields, a highway, a water tower, and finally the airport. As he flies, he listens to his favorite music.
Before taking off, Mr. Hutzler calls the tower where he works. He lets his coworkers know he’s coming. He keeps them updated as he goes along.
“I’m very small, and I don’t show up on radar,” he says. “So they’ll want to kind of keep track of my location and get updates on my progress.”
The airport comes into view. He waits for the OK to land. He slows his motor and lets his feet dangle. When he touches down, he jogs as the craft slows.
Now it’s cleanup time. He packs up the wing. He strips off his jacket. Underneath, he wears a collared work shirt. He starts his shift. He tells planes when it’s safe to land and take off.
Mr. Hutzler says his commute is as close as you can get to flying like a bird.
“In a paramotor, you have a view that almost nobody gets to experience,” he says. “You have no cockpit, nothing in front of you. You’re just sitting there in the air and total freedom to go wherever you want.”
Flight has fascinated him since he was a kid. His grandfather used to take him up in a small plane. In college, he hoped to get a pilot’s license but didn’t have the money. Then he saw a video of a man flying a paramotor. The man flew to McDonald’s. He ate his hamburger on the flight home.
“After I saw that, I was like, ‘I’m sold,’” he says. “I gotta do that.”
He did “do that”—and started teaching others to do it too. He even trained the woman who would eventually become his wife. Now he looks forward to the day their young daughter can fly with them too.
You don’t need a license to fly a paramotor. You do have to follow a few rules though: No flying at night. No flying in busy cities and towns.
Mr. Hutzler can’t fly to work on a windy day. Or even a breezy day. And the glide doesn’t save him time. It takes slightly longer than driving to work. But he says it’s much more fun.
