PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) — Jake Hutzler spends his workdays directing planes from an airport tower.
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Hutzler → spend → tower
Once a week, he gets there by strapping a propeller to his back and taking to the skies of Colorado.
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he → get → Colorado
Before his commute, the 28-year-old air traffic controller lays out a large wing on the road outside his apartment complex, fires up the motor and starts running.
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controller → lay → motor
Within seconds, his feet leave the ground.
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feet → leave → ground
For the next 20 minutes, Hutzler flies at a leisurely 35 mph (56 kph) above the expansive fields around Pueblo, a city near the Front Range mountains.
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Hutzler → fly → mountains
He soars over a highway, a water tower and finally the airport while listening to his favorite music.
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He → soar → music
Before taking off, Hutzler calls the tower where he works and lets his colleagues know he’s coming.
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he → take → tower
Once airborne, he keeps them updated on where he’s at and how high he’s flying.
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he → keep → where
“I’m very small and I don’t show up on radar,” Hutzler said, “so they’ll want to kind of keep track of my location and get updates on my progress.”
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they → ’m → progress
As the airport comes into view, he waits for the OK to land on the airport’s ramp.
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he → come → ramp
Pulling down on toggles to slow down the paramotor, he lets his feet dangle and meets the ground with a brief jog.
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feet → pull → jog
He packs up the wing, strips off his jacket to reveal his collared work shirt and begins his shift telling planes when it’s safe to land and take off.
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it → pack → planes
‘A view that almost nobody gets to experience’
For someone who has been fascinated with flying since childhood, it’s a particularly satisfying commute.
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it → get → childhood
Hutzler says it’s as close as you can get to flying like a bird.
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you → say → bird
“In a paramotor, you have a view that almost nobody gets to experience,” he said.
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he → have → that
“You have no cockpit, nothing in front of you.
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You → have → you
You’re just sitting there in the air and total freedom to go wherever you want.”
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you → sit → air
His grandfather used to take him up in a small four-seat aircraft.
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grandfather → use → aircraft
In college, Hutzler put in about 20 hours toward getting a pilot’s license, but the costs were too high for him to continue.
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him → put → license
Everything changed when he came across a viral video of a man flying a paramotor to McDonald’s and eating his hamburger on the flight home.
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man → change → flight
“After I saw that, I was like, ‘I’m sold,’” he said.
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he → see → that
“I gotta do that.”
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I → got → that
Flying became a family affair
Hutzler started training to fly the contraption — also known as powered paragliding — in 2021 in Florida and later became an instructor.
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Hutzler → become → Florida
There’s no license required and the price tag is a fraction of the cost of many other forms of flying.
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tag → ’ → flying
However, they’re still subject to federal rules on ultralight vehicles, including that they can only be operated during the day and fliers must avoid congested cities and towns.
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fliers → ’re → cities
The sport became a part of Hutzler’s life story.
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sport → become → story
He trained the woman he would go on to marry, and when he was ready to propose he used fake engine trouble on his paramotor to lure her to the contraption, where he had left a ring.
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he → train → ring
Now he’s looking forward to the day their 2 1/2-year-old daughter is old enough to go on a tandem ride.
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daughter → look → ride
But after Hutzler started working in air traffic control earlier this year, his job left him less time to fly.
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job → start → time
He approached his manager about commuting by paramotor and they went through the rule book and made sure he’d have two-way communication with the tower when he entered their airspace.
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he → approach → airspace
He made his first flight to work in June and has been doing it ever since, weather permitting.
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He → make → it
It only takes about 10 mph (16 kph) of wind — basically a light breeze — to keep Hutzler on the ground.
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It → take → ground
It can also be problematic if the sun heats the ground and causes updrafts — making for an extremely bumpy ride.
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sun → heat → ride
The airborne commute isn’t actually faster
With the time needed to set up the paramotor and put away all the gear
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commute → need → gear
, the trip takes slightly longer than driving to work.
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trip → take → work
But, he said, it’s so much more fun.
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it → say → ?
“You could be having your favorite song playing in your headphones, and you just can relax and take in this awesome experience,” he said.
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he → have → experience
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Golden reported from Seattle.
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Golden → report → Seattle
Associated Press transportation writer Josh Funk contributed from Omaha, Nebraska.
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Funk → contribute → Omaha
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