Jake Hutzler spends his workdays directing planes from an airport tower in Pueblo, Colorado. Once a week, he gets there by strapping a propeller to his back and taking to the skies over the Front Range.
Before takeoff, the 28-year-old air traffic controller lays out a large wing 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 about 35 mph above fields, a highway, a water tower and then the airport. He listens to his favorite music while making the trip.
He does not just show up and land. Before taking off, Hutzler calls the tower where he works and lets his colleagues know he is coming. Once airborne, he keeps them updated on where he is and how high he is flying.
'I am very small and I do not show up on radar,' Hutzler said, 'so they will 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 ramp. He then packs up the wing, removes his jacket to reveal his work shirt and starts his shift telling planes when it is safe to land and take off.
Hutzler said the commute is especially satisfying because he has been fascinated with flying since childhood. He described the experience as the closest he 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 are 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.
He later found a viral video of a man flying a paramotor to McDonald's and eating his hamburger on the way home. After that, Hutzler said, 'I am sold.' He started training in Florida in 2021 and later became an instructor.
The appeal, he said, is accessibility. There is no license required and the price tag is a fraction of the cost of many other forms of flying. Still, the sport is subject to federal rules on ultralight vehicles, including daytime-only operation and avoiding congested cities and towns.
The arrangement also required sign-off at work. Hutzler approached his manager, they went through the rule book and made sure he would have two-way communication with the tower when he entered their airspace. He made his first flight to work in June and has kept doing it ever since, weather permitting.
Paramotoring is also a fair-weather sport. A wind of about 10 mph can keep him grounded, and heat from the sun can create updrafts that make for a bumpy ride.
The commute takes slightly longer than driving, but Hutzler said it is much more fun.
That is the part free enterprise tends to reward: people who turn skill, discipline and personal responsibility into something productive. Capital rewards clear rules, and this one still depends on them. Even the freedom to fly to work comes with the boring but essential machinery of order: communications, procedures and limits.
