Meet the air traffic controller who flies himself to work

PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) — Jake Hutzler spends his workdays directing planes from an airport tower. Once a week, he gets there by strapping a propeller to his back and taking to the skies of 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. Within seconds, his feet leave the 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. He soars over a highway, a water tower and finally the airport while listening to his favorite music.

Before taking off, Hutzler calls the tower where he works and lets his colleagues know he's coming. Once airborne, he keeps them updated on where he's at and how high he's flying.

“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.”

As the airport comes into view, he waits for the OK to land on the airport’s ramp. Pulling down on toggles to slow down the paramotor, he lets his feet dangle and meets the ground with a brief 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.

For someone who has been fascinated with flying since childhood, it's a particularly satisfying commute. Hutzler says it's 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 said. “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.”

His grandfather used to take him up in a small four-seat 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.

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.

“After I saw that, I was like, ‘I’m sold,’” he said. “I gotta do that.”

Hutzler started training to fly the contraption — also known as powered paragliding — in 2021 in Florida and later became an instructor.

Part of the appeal is just how accessible paramotors are. There’s no license required and the price tag is a fraction of the cost of many other forms of 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.

The sport became a part of Hutzler's life 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. On their wedding day, their paramotors were with them at the altar. Now he’s looking forward to the day their 2½-year-old daughter is old enough to go on a tandem ride.

But after Hutzler started working in air traffic control earlier this year, his job left him less time to fly.

The solution: Start flying to work.

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. He made his first flight to work in June and has been doing it ever since, weather permitting.

But paramotoring is a very fair-weather sport. It only takes about 10 mph (16 kph) of wind — basically a light breeze — to keep Hutzler on the ground. It can also be problematic if the sun heats the ground and causes updrafts — making for an extremely bumpy ride.

With the time needed to set up the paramotor and put away all the gear, the trip takes slightly longer than driving to work. But, he said, it’s so much more fun.

“You could be having your favorite song playing in your headphones, and you just can relax and take in this awesome experience,” he said.

Golden reported from Seattle. Associated Press transportation writer Josh Funk contributed from Omaha, Nebraska.