OUR COMPANY
Powrachute Corporation was founded in January 1999 by Bill Amyx (Winner of Kansas Governor
Award for Manufacturing Excellence). Bill Purchased his first PPC in July of 1996 and immediately
was hooked on the sport. Being the successful businessman he is, he started evaluating the industry.
After reflecting on the experiences he had with his PPC’s construction and factory service, Bill made
a decision to start manufacturing his own.
Bill’s vision was to run a professional PPC manufacturing facility, like he had done with his previous
successful businesses. The mission statement was simple; build the highest quality products, back
these products with service that cannot be equaled, and be honest with your customers and dealers.
The mission statement has proven to be successful. After starting with zero sales, three employees
and one year of research & development, five short years later Powrachute Corporation became the
industry leader out distancing its nearest competitor by over 70 units sold in 2003. Sales that year
soared to 254 units. Now ten years later Powrachute has produced over 1500 aircraft flown around
the world.
Bill decided to retire in 2005. Jeff Williams of Middleville Michigan owned a large machine shop and
was manufacturing most of the CNC machined parts for Powrachute at the time. Jeff was also
involved in the powered parachute industry since 1996 and had become one of the nation’s top
instructors and sold over 100 powered parachutes up to that time. Bill sold the company to Jeff and
Deb Williams in 2005 knowing the company would be in good hands and would carry on the
Powrachute tradition.
OUR AIRCRAFT
Calendar year 1999 was dedicated to research, development, design, performance and testing. We purchased three of the leading brands of airframes,
three leading models of engines being offered, three leading manufactures of chutes, and three leading manufacturers of propellers. After endless
hours of flying and studying all configurations of frames, chutes, engines and propellers we went to work on our first prototype.
The goal was to design an airframe that was simple, clean, and strong with emphasis on detail.
The first and most obvious improvement was to run the chromoly frame rails the entire length of the airframe, giving a strong structure for mounting your
engine and suspension. The rear end of a PPC is what takes the abuse of time, abuse from engine and propeller vibration, not to mention those not so
perfect landings that in a lesser design will destroy a propeller.
The next design enhancement was to reduce the number of junctions, nuts & bolts that were inherent in the existing PPC’s airframes and most
noticeable in the engine and fan guard area of these designs. Powrachute threw out the tiny channel brackets, plastic saddles and multiple tubes found
in the existing designs and replaced them with single piece radiused engine support tubes, formed 6061T6 Aluminum extruded brackets and precision
machined 6061T6 Aluminum saddles.
The next improvement was to plug every tube. We noticed that this was only being done in structural areas of other PPC’s, therefore without a plug if a
bolt was tightened too much the tube would egg shape and cause fatiguing of the tube. In addition, holes in the frame that do not have plugs will
eventually elongate the radius of the drilled hole. By plugging “every” tube and using precision machined saddles you eliminate this problem. Each plug
is machined .0005 over, shrunk in -400F nitrogen then installed. The plug then becomes an intrigal part of the tube sealing out any moisture for future
corrosion issues.
Another improvement was the design of our one piece A-arm suspension. This piece was cleverly designed. Before
the bend of the A-arm takes place we drive a 3” piece of 6061T6 Aluminum bar stock to the center of the axle bolt hole.
This makes a solid connection point for the wheel. Once this is driven into place the tube is then bent to form the A-arm.
You will notice the A-arm is attached to the chromoly main frame in a manner that allows it to move freely in an up and
down motion, working in concert with the hydraulic spring over shock or the upgraded air adjustable shocks.
Now let’s take a look at the fan guard area. On most designs you will notice use of brackets, bolts, rivets, etc to join the hoop ring to the fan guard
supports arms. Although this is effective it is not the most simple or clean application. On all Powrachute designs you will notice a very simple clean
application in this area. By utilizing liquid nitrogen we are able to freeze and shrink the plugs that are used on the fan guard support arms where they
attach to the ring. Once the plug comes back to room temperature it expands and locks into place. The saddles we use to join the tubes and the fan
guard supports to ring have a machined recess on the flat side of the saddle for the fan guard support to join into the saddle providing a smooth clean
finish. To complete the junction you will notice another saddle and a 3 ½ stainless lag screw that screws right into the plug that was sweated into the fan
guard support.
The frontal fuselage bars are another Powrachute innovation. This design feature was scoffed at by our competitors as unnecessary and if you look
around now you will see most manufacturers now offer them standard or as an option. The reason we added the frontal fuselage bar was to provide an
added measure of protection to the pilot and passenger in the event they should fly into an object such as a power line, fence, tree limb, etc. Two by
products come from the use of these bars. (1) Added roll over protection (2) the trussing of the frame from the pylon to the nose wheel. This is one
innovation we were actually happy to see our competitors copy, providing their customers with this added measure of safety.
Why does Powrachute use a bolt together frame versus a welded frame?
The short answer is that we build aircraft not race cars or motorcycles.
Keeping the above statement in mind we make maximum use of certified
component parts in our design. AN Hardware is certified military specification
hardware and has with stood the test of time. 6061 T6 also falls in the class of
aircraft grade aluminum. A welded frame is only as good as the person doing the
welding and even the best welders when welding certified parts should have
them x-rayed or magniflux tested. Additionally, if you have the best welder and
x-ray the welds, it would be difficult when pre-flighting your aircraft to find a
cracked weld caused from the stresses put on the airframe after several hours
of flight time. Another reason we use a bolt together is to make it easy to replace
damaged parts. If you damage a welded frame you will have to locate a
fabricator or become one yourself to make even minor repairs. How do you paint
it to match the factory powdercoat job? In other words we don’t believe a welded
frame is as fail safe as a bolt together frame.
Why doesn’t Powrachute build a lighter aircraft?
We could and it would be simple to produce and lower cost to produce. We choose not to because we don’t like the tradeoffs that come with this
decision. To do so would mean sacrificing structural integrity of the airframe something we are not willing to do.
Consulting with the two leading parachute design engineers in our country, Bill Gargano of Quantum Parachutes and John LeBlanc of Performance
Design, we started development and testing of the high narrow attach system.
After doing multiple flights at different spread distance we found a winner. We discovered exactly what Bill and John had told us, better performance!
Better in flight stability, rocking common with the low wide spread is significantly reduced with the Pegasus. The traditional stair step climb is all but
eliminated, turning performance is un-matched. You may be asking yourself why this higher more narrow attach can accomplish such a significant
improvement over the traditional low and wide set-up. I’ll do my best to explain.
The core engineering in the parachutes design came from the sky diving world. If you look at sky diver’s chute, you will notice it is attached to the
shoulder area which is high and narrow. You see, the traditional low and wide outrigger gives the parachute more leverage on the cart in addition the low
position causes the lifting point to be right through the center of mass. This causes the cart to pitch up and down in a rocking motion when hit with a gust
of wind from the front or rear. When hit with a side gust the chute lifts the cart from a low wide point on the craft causing a bucking and yawing effect. By
utilizing the high more narrow attach we have not eliminated but have significantly reduced these effects.
You might be saying ok that makes sense but what about this better climb rate. I have to admit that this was not anticipated but was discovered in flight
testing. First of all by utilizing the high attach we were able to get the lifting point significantly higher than the thrust line, which allows the cart to push out
in front of the chute quicker, changing the angle of attack of the chute sooner creating a shorter take off roll once your chute is kited over head. Some
designs actually have the thrust line above the attach point, causing the thrust line to actually push the cart in down and forward direction creating a
longer take off roll, slower climb and a more pronounced stair step climb.
The other effect we learned was that the higher more narrow attach had the ability to minimize the traditional stair step climb associated with low, wide
attach points. In a full power climb with the low wide outrigger you will notice once the cart gets to its peak angle of climb the chute rotates back over the
cart, then the cart gets back in front again and so on, during the climb. With the high more narrow attach point you will notice a steadier straight climb
angle. You will notice the Pegasus is still climbing while others are stepping.
OUR SERVICE
Our service is the corner stone of our success. To fully understand this I would ask you to read our testimonials. Some of our testimonials are from our
dealers who have owned or sold other brands but most are from the end user customer.
When a problem or situation arises we address them swiftly as possible to make our customers happy, and keep them flying. By utilizing our in house
powder coat system we are able to fill most parts orders weekly and get the customer back in the air in short order. The fact that all our parts are CNC
machined makes it easy on the owner, dealer, or mechanic to install the part. Our whole goal is happy flyers!
Our good reputation is something we have earned with hard work, honesty and dedication, and has been built over time. A good reputation is not
something you claim it is something you earn, and once you earn it you have to keep earning it every day!
OUR DEALERS
Our dealer network is by far the most professional and experienced group in our industry. If you take a close look at our dealer list you will find numerous
industry leaders.
These men and women perform safety seminars; hold elected positions with powered parachute and light aircraft associations. They are PPC World
champions and national champions. They are retired FAA, commercial Airline pilots, general aviation flight Instructors, helicopter pilots, V.P. of fortune
500 companies, attorneys, dentist, doctors, farmers, retired military. All of our dealers are Certified Flight Instructors or have someone on staff. They are
the best our industry has to offer. If you are a professional, a TEAM player, and care about safety we would like to talk with you too! If you want to be a
winner you need to fly with winners.
Our customers are the type of people that have an eye for quality. Although, they don’t just research the product they research the company backing the
product. Where have they been? Are they financially strong? Are they going to be there 10 years from now? Do they back their product with good service?
Are they leaders or followers? Will they care about me after I buy from them? Do they give back to their industry? I believe our customers find a positive
answer to these questions before buying our product. It is our hope that you will do your research and purchase a Powrachute too.
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