And people?  "It's a huge rubber-necker," he says with a laugh.  "They just stop.  They've never seen anything like it."  In fact, the first time Reimer flew his motorized parachute over the nearby town of Notre Dame de Lourdes, it touched off a small argument in the coffee shop.  Was it a light aircraft, a parachutist fallen from a plane or a hang-glider?

None of the above.  It was Dan Reimer and his amazing flying machine, the first of it's kind in Manitoba

The hardest part for engineers was designing the parachute, or wings as they are technically called.  The chute is sectioned into tubes allowing air to flow through the top where it becomes trapped and forms a pressurized canopy.  The fan doesn't push the chute, but rather, pushes him.  That creates the angle at which the parachute takes in air.  At full throttle, he sits and less than 90-degree angle between him and the front of the parachute.

If he cuts out the engine, his body swings back and creates an angle where the wings will gently take him down.  Touchdowns are as soft as jumping off a single stair.  For brakes, he pulls down the back outside quarter of the chute, creating drag to slow down and lose lift.

When he is done, the entire machine folds up to the size of a large suitcase.  "I can put it in my Volkswagen trunk.  I could put two of them in there," he says.

The cost is still fairly steep at $8,000 but the product is still brand new.  It's certainly cheaper than a light aircraft, you don't have to pay to store it, and you can take off wherever you want.  "It's the simplest, easiest, safest way to fly," he says.  "You're always below your parachute, so it's safer than a hang glider."

Around Winnipeg, he could fly out of LaBarriere Park just south of the Perimeter but can't take off from city parks because light aircraft regulation apply.  On the prairie, the flat landscape means straight winds that are ideal and safest for the powered parachute, he says.

Reimer has logged 82 flights and 25 hours in Manitoba since obtaining his flying licence last fall in Quebec city, the only place in Canada he could get his training.  He's also taken it on vacations, flying over Tamps Bay and Caribbean beaches.

He's flown in winter.  "It's very interesting flying during winter because the air is so much denser," he says. "The wings inflate quicker, and you get better lift."

He'll drop in - literally - on friends on a summer evening.  "I fly over Burt's and I fly over Doug's for coffee.  People around here think I'm crazy.  " In this tiny hamlet of alternate lifestyle rebels, some friends have dubbed him Fan Ass Dan.

He's used his flying machine for search-and-rescue attempts, something he says the contraption is ideal for.  A farmer in the area is interested in learning to fly one because it's the best way to tell where crops aren't germinating.

It travels up to 25 kilometers an hour and a full gas tank is enough to last about three hours.