With several projects in development and a lot of activity at the workshop we found the Pap team last November. The idea was to test-fly one of the new models of the house, especially the expected electric paramotor on which they have been working for over a year together with the PAP dealer in Germany, but as they were not ready yet we took the chance to see the factory and chat with the PAP boss, Pierre Aubert, about the projects for 2010 - which include their own new engines and a light range. He also explained us in detail the work at Pap. We hope to test some of the new stuff very soon for Ojovolador.com.
At the moment of our visit the new engines, RM 80 and PA 125, were already a reality, and with them PAP entered a new phase in which they expect to speed up the manufacturing process while maintaining high levels of quality and more control over everything, which will benefit their customers around the world.  The brand counts on 400 m2 in Marbella (Malaga, Spain) where they have the workshop, warehouse and offices, all so impeccably clean and tidy that there’s hardly any smell of gasoline. Two members of the team were behind the welding machine making stainless steel frames while Pierre was mounting an engine on a frame, a work he does for each Pap paramotor that leaves the factory. Then he tries them one by one before sending them to their final destination. It is craftsman work that has won the prestige to this company after 20 years in the paramotor market; perhaps something a bit different to what one imagines when hears about the brand.
Currently the production of Pap is about 30 units a month and there are 3 months wait for new orders, though Pierre says he would prefer to make 25 engines per month for a more relax pace. With the new PAP engines it is very likely that the production will increase without much stress because the entire process will be quicker and also delivery times will reduce to satisfy Pap customers around the world. Who said crisis?

-Pierre, can you tell us how a typical working day at PAP is?
Sometimes people think that this is a big company and it is not, it is a small company; we are four people working at the workshop, me included, plus two at the office, Cristina and Blas. I have two people specialized in welding, who make the frames. Then there is Julio who takes care of the polishing, of cutting those frames and fixing the net. They give me the finished frame and I personally do everything that has to do with the installation of the engine; this has always been this way. I then start each paramotor, spend about 15 minutes with every unit, then check back and tighten what needs to be tightened, attach the harness and arms, and it is ready for shipping. So when I send a paramotor I know exactly what I have sent because I've mounted it myself. At the same time, while I set it up I also check the work that has been done before, that it is well polished and there are no faults. We try to make the product as perfect as possible, or with the least possible flaws; this avoids you getting calls from customers because there’s something not right... This is how we try to control the most.

-Tell us about the projects that PAP are currently working on.
We have been nearly a year with the electric paramotor, but not a year working on it; we have it there but as we don't have much time at the end there’s still work to do. Also, it is something new and we don’t really have customers asking "I want an electric motor". Everyone seems interested, but then I don’t think there are that many people willing to buy one. At every show we go, we see people around the electric paramotors with their cameras... Well, when I tried it in Germany last year I thought it was fun to fly it. So we have it almost ready, only the final finishes are missing to be as we’d like it, but the engine works. In Germany they are using it, flying with it every day.

-Can you tell us what engine it is?
In Germany they call it E-drive but I work it through a German who is also the person that sets the electronics, and it is an engine that will eventually go without reduction gear. They make it run at around 2100 rpm, so it runs very slowly. The engine weighs 4 kg, then the electronics add up some 800 grams, and then we will install a battery of 25 amperes that weighs 12 kg. With that, at the end we will achieve a paramotor with a similar weight to one that uses a Top 80 engine, the only thing is that the mass, the battery, will be very close to your back so it will be quite easy to carry. As it takes no fuel, those 4 or 5 or 10 liters of gasoline you usually carry are already included in the weight; you have half an hour of flying time included.

-What does PAP do to customize this engine?
The cage and the finishes like placing the electronics, hiding the cables and making it look as beautiful as possible; because I don’t like cables but here, there are cables everywhere! At the moment, that’s the work to be done.

-Do you think the future of paramotor is on the electric motors?
I don’t think the electric paramotor is the future, I believe that it is going to be just one more toy for those who can afford it. I don’t think that there is anybody willing to start by getting an electric motor, but rather someone who already has a paramotor might buy one as a whim because it really makes less noise, you can go to fly anywhere and you won’t bother anybody. I think that it will never be a paramotor for cross country, but if you go on holidays with your family and have to put your gasoline engine in the car which always smell, then an electric unit makes more sense. Then there is the price. At the fairs, for example St Hilaire, we have seen anything from 8,000 and something, to twelve thousand Euros. The one we are making should be released at a retail price of 9500€ with the charger and the battery of 25 amperes, because the battery is what moves the price.

-And you said there is another large project brewing at PAP?
We are in a project that’s just seeing the light, which is to start making our own engines. The idea is to have a product that it is very easy to work with both for us and for our customers, and the dealers in other countries. It is an engine that has two versions, 80cc and 125cc, but they share the same parts. Except for the crankshaft, the cylinder and piston, and the exhaust, everything else -ignition, carburetor, reduction gear- is the same. For example, they have the same fuel circuit, throttle or cage. So, we should be able to significantly speed up the production and, consequently, produce more with the same levels of quality and no problems... because now it is crazy, each unit depending on the type of cage of 2, 3 or 4 pieces has the throttle in one way or another. There are too many different things. We want to make everything much simpler.

-How has the manufacturing process of these engines been like and what makes them "PAP engines "?
During the 20 years that I have been making paramotors I have faced the same problem over and over with the engines in the market, which is that I find products with good things, of course, but others that can be improved, and you speak about them once and again with the manufacturers but they don’t change them. In recent years I built a close relationship with an engine manufacturer who proposed me the idea of making an engine exclusively for Pap and according to my direction and ideas. We began to talk more seriously and there came a first prototype. Of course everything did not go as expected at first, and so started a long process of testing and testing, changes and more changes, until we got the product we have now and that is giving me a lot of pleasure when I fly it. I control every step until the final assembly to ensure that they are doing it as I want it. Now the relationship we have with this manufacturer allows me to develop the engine exactly as I want it –it is very simple, I tell them how I want things and they put the machine to work, I try it and if I like it, it goes into serial.
I see and hear many comments that if we copy this or that, or if it is just like another engine, and I can only say that 2-stroke engines are very simple but full of small details and parameters that make them all very different, and that who speaks only based on a picture he saw - and often not even this - should think a little more. In recent years we have gained a lot of prestige to the ROS engine, but that was an engine that came totally into pieces that we could check before assembling, and therefore we could introduce some changes that made it different from other ROS paramotors from other manufacturers. The RM 80 and the PA 125 are the result of what we were expecting but did not arrive. They are not a revolution but very complete engines with few weak points, on which we have taken the best care of every detail and which we will continue to improve as much as we can.

-With this step, will PAP be forced to grow, to move to larger premises for example?
In 2009 we have gone from two weeks delivery time to three, a month, five weeks... and we have now three months. Now we hired a new store with which we will have a total of 400 m2 for the workshop and everything, and we are reorganizing all to be able to produce more and have all the after sales service, spare parts, etc., better organized. We also found an external welding person who is making some parts of the cages, and that will help us increase the production. The next step will be to get to make part of the frames outside. We have a place that allows us to have stock and store more; this was a problem before because sometimes we had boxes everywhere and that’s not the way to go.

-You also told us about a lightweight paramotor.
Yes, apart from that we are working to have a light range, because we are being asked for it since some time ago. We have always worked in stainless steel for frames that are strong, so that you can inflate with the engine. We will now have a frame which I suppose will be a little more 'delicate' but with the idea to save weight and have a product that is easier to ship, as it will be easier to disassemble and to reduce it. It is supposed to use titanium, aluminum, and fiberglass. We will make the lightest possible frame with the system of arms that we have always used. I think that for this paramotor we will not place the reserve parachute behind the head, but it will go in a front container (ventral). The idea is to have a lightweight product, because I hear that there are more and more women who want to fly with paramotor and at the moment we don't really have a model adapted to women in our range. And they say that if there are more women in the sport there will also be more men (laughs)... so we must make an effort. We have already prepared and ordered a pre-series of a lightweight harness in sizes S and M, with a weight save of 800 grams.

-What is the total weight you want to achieve?
I think that it is difficult to obtain a paramotor lighter than 20 kg, but the idea is to get very close.
We also have a 4-stroke project although it is kind of stopped since we continue with foot launched paramotors, we don’t have trikes, and the 4-stroke for my taste are still too heavy to take off on foot. You can do it, but in the end it’s going to be too much for your back. We only have one and we should take care of it.

- I suppose then that this year of crisis is not having much effect on PAP if you have waiting list of 3 months, right?
To tell the truth, it is not affecting us because our market is mainly foreign. If our market was Spanish then that we would have a crisis. At least we are doing very little here in Spain, but France for example is still an enormous market and then we have entered in all the Arab countries; we are selling a lot in Dubai and Arabia. Then Germany is also active, and up in Norway, Finland... In the end, apart from France that really is a very powerful market, there are several places from where paramotores are being bought. The Arab countries have crisis but it does not affect as much as here.

Ramón Morillas ready to fly with the new RM80 at Las Candelas 2010 (Photo: Claudio Heidel)

+Info: www.papteam.com

It might be not the brand that sells the most in the world, but PAP paramotors have a special reputation for their high quality manufacture: they are well balanced machines and have a level of performance and reliability higher than the average. That’s why we were interested in seeing this factory that has been a pioneer in the world of powered flight and has now 20 years of brilliant career.  
In case anyone doesn't know him, Pap boss Pierre Aubert was one of the first paraglider pilots to attach an engine with a propeller to his back and fly. We owe Pierre the development of a low-hangpoint paramotor with sensations close to free flight, as well as the oscillating arms to compensate the torque effect. His ideas and solutions in the construction of paramotors have been replicated by many other manufacturers that came later, both in Spain and abroad, giving origin to a style of paramotors of similar features. Great pilots like the world champions Ramón Morillas and Mathieu Rouanet, have taken PAP to countless podiums in the world while the most incredible challenges have been overcome with paramotors brewed in this factory, for example, the world record of distance over the sea of 1106 km by Ramon.

It is not a mega- factory but a workshop with a great deal of craftsmanship and customized work for each paramotor.

-How long does it take to make a Pap paramotor?
It is difficult to say because there are many pieces that we’ve prepared before. What I can say is that our capacity of production is about 30 units a month. Making more than that becomes a total stress, and ideally we should make about 25 to work at ease. From 30 on you can no longer sleep; besides there’s always a check to do or something else, or some engine that you start and doesn’t work as it has to work…

The new workshop has 400 m2, with specific areas for offices, assembly of frames, preparation of engines, storage and dispatch.

When we enter in the PAP factory the first we see are these long shelves where tubes and bars used in the manufacture of the frames are stacked.

Pierre spends little time at the office, his place is the workshop where he personally mounts every engine on its frame and checks the correct operation of each. If one day you call Pierre by phone, it is very likely that he will answer while he works on a paramotor, yours perhaps?

The frames assembly room is perfectly structured as an assembly line. The place is as clean and tidy as can be.

The new engine PAP PA125. The main difference with the RM80 lies at first sight in the larger cylinder; they share almost all of the other pieces.

Blas, Ramón and Pierre introducing the new paramotor to try during the recent meeting of Las Candelas (see report). Photo: Claudio Heidel