Emails with 'excitable' chap called Dell re: Reflex safety

I recently posted a short clip on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/pb6095) and shortly afterwards I got a PM through that site's messaging service from a guy called Dell, who I had never heard of before. I was so amazed at what he had to say about my equipment, and the directness of his tone, that I thought that I would share the correspondence with you. I have done some research on him and it seems that he takes this line regularly on the forums.

Has anyone else had personal experience of him getting in contact with them to say that they are flying a 'death-trap'? I have done lots of research on the kit I fly and I am happy with it, so not too interested in getting into the old debates in too much detail, I am more interested in what people think of this guy's mission (last email suggests it is a mission from god) and the way he is going around rubbishing the competition's gear, while plugging his favorite brands. Have you ever heard someone so confident of their own ability either?

First message - from Dell to me, out of the blue.

I saw your last video there. I would highly recommend updating your equipment the first change you get. You really have none of the latest safety features working in your favor. You are on a totally uncertified glider with no crumple zone. Do you fly with a reserve at least? This sport is super fun and safe as long as you get the right gear and training. For sure your gear needs updating. Where did you get training? If you send me a link to a video of you kiting I'll be happy to give you some input on your skill level and any safety concerns I see.

Hope this helps. This sport is a total blast but too many people die on paramania without crumple zone or reserves. It's easy to fix.

Let me know if you ever have any questions you need help on.

Thanks,

Dell

My, slightly surprised, reply to him

Thanks for the message. I wonder if you are referring to the same glider? I use a certified paramania fusion 29 - here is the certification test report:

http://www.flyparamania.com/images/stor ... _29_en.pdf

I do fly with a reserve (front mounted).

Thanks for the offer of checking my technique - I fly with three certified instructors and get all the tips I need off them, including recommendations for kit. Two of them fly parajet and paramania fusion wings, the other a Dudek.

I did a google search for the subjects that you talk about and found that you had made some posts on other websites talking about Paramania wings, saying similar things. I guess that you must be referring to the Action GT. Presumably you ought to add to these posts that the fusion does have certification, and that the test pilot said that he couldn't make the wing enter a frontal stall at all when it was on the fastest trim settings.

Having tried a few paramotors I decided that the most important thing of all was reliability rather than crumple zone. Parajet is made by a local company to me, the best after sales of any company I know and they are ultimately reliable so I went with them. So along with a wing that doesn't have a tendency to collapse, a reserve and some good training, I think I am flying safely.

Peter

...and his cross reply to me:

Yes it might pass EN-C certification at trim speed ONLY but that isn't the whole story. Just based on that though whomever you are dealing with are incompetent morons that are trying to get you killed. What kind of freaking idiots would put brand new pilots on EN-C gliders???? Then let the trims out and it goes from horrible to freaking nightmare. The part about pulling on the A risers in flight is total BS. Just look at my latest video of the side by side with the Nucleon they try to suggest is stable. You are about 1000 times more likely to take a collapse on that glider then any certified quality beginner glider.

Then to top it off you have no crumple zone under your butt to absorb impact when you do pound into the ground on that death trap.

You are not in my area. Financially I don't really give a crap what you buy. I'm just giving you advice from an expert pilot that you will appreciate either now or after you find out I'm correct. Watch your so called instructors fly. Can they do anything that I do? No. They do not have the skills or experience or competence.

I cannot hardly believe they put new pilots on such a setup. It is a terrible nightmare and the reason so many people are dying on those gliders. Even the safety test pilot for the Nucleon just died doing some very basic safety tests. Get yourself a certified glider in your skill range. DHV 1 or 1-2 at worst. Not a freaking EN-C at trim and nightmare death trap beyond trim speed.

Now you can ignore this if you like and that is totally up to you. It is my moral obligation to share it with you. Now it's totally up to you what you do with this accurate information from one of the best and most experienced pilots in the world. I still love you either way.

Look at the facts. Forget how rude this might be and just look at the facts. Beginners should NOT be on EN-C. Only a freaking idiot non instructor would suggest they should be.

Love, Dell

Reassured that he loves me, I reply:

Dell,

Again, thanks for the advice - very kind of you to offer it, though unsolicited. While I am relatively new to the sport I am not a brand new pilot and I didn't start out on this wing as you suggest throughout this message - I am not sure why you thought this, except perhaps for the poor quality of my first few attempts at filming my flying. I am working on this! As you will see from my channel I have been posting for a little while which should give away the fact that I am not a complete novice. I have been flying for two years and I started out on a Paramania Revolution. I have never had anything approaching a collapse on either wing.

It is clear from looking at your videos on youtube that you are very experienced indeed and passionate about the sport, which is really great. As such, you are in the position of being somewhat of an ambassador and a subject matter expert on paramotoring. That makes it rather surprising that you would make a claim that the wing that I fly is "1000 times more likely to take a collapse" than another one you would recommend. What tests indicate this? It seems rather too round a figure to be the product of a proper analysis. To claim that it is a "nightmare death trap" has to be an emotive exaggeration, surely you can not be serious about this? A large proportion of the pilots I know fly this wing, many who have been flying for years on all sorts of different makes. Again, as I say below, I have been looking once more on the internet about this and you seem to be somewhat of a lone voice on this issue. I am a member of a uk paragliding forum and have nothing bad about this wing at all, in fact I have heard very positive reports, backing up my own experience.

It is also odd that when I mention that I fly with three certified instructors you say - without any knowledge of who they are or how they are trained - "Watch your so called instructors fly. Can they do anything that I do? No. They do not have the skills or experience or competence". This would be like Andre Agassi telling me that as my tennis coach isn't as good as him then I should buy a Head racket that he recommends rather than the Prince that my instructor thinks is right for me.

I looked at your recent clip of two wings flying together and I question whether bumping them into each other and finding that one fairs less well on impact really means that it flies any worse. I am pretty sure that this is not part of the certification process - and if it is, then I will try not to fly into anyone else (not that I don't avoid doing that at the moment).

I know that we come from different cultures, and I recognise that in email correspondence it is difficult to judge another person's tone, but bearing in mind, and considering that I have already shown some deference to your clear skill in the sport that we both enjoy, I hope that you won't mind me remarking that your comment that you are "one of the best and most experienced pilots in the world" could easily be misinterpreted as being somewhat arrogant - I am also not sure that you further your argument with this approach. I am a rational guy and I will be persuaded by good arguments.

I don't want to be argumentative about this and I would certainly like to continue the discussion - which you started by commenting on my movie.

Regards,

Peter

..and he replies with following:

This isn't tennis fine sir, it's not about winning or loosing a match. It is about life & death. I personally tested the Paramania Revolution. I let the trims out just 1.5 inches and pulled an asymetric collapse. I instantly lost all control of the glider, all the lines went slack, the glider shot straight at the ground in the opposite direction of the way I was going leaving me with riser twists.

Anyone selling paramania is an incompetent moron. That seems like very simple logic to me. It might sound a bit broad to you but when you know what happens with those gliders and WHY they can't pass even DHV 3 certifications with trims out you start to realize how insane it would be to actually put a beginner on them.

Yes 1000 times more stable. That is an educated estimate. I have about 9000 flights and fly in some of the craziest air you can imagine when thermaling or selling cross country records like the 280 miles on 4 gallons. I know exactly what it takes to keep a glider open and would bet anything that in crazy air you would take about 1000 collapes on a paramania wing for ever one collapse a skilled pilot would take on a quality wing.

I really don't care if I sound arrogant. This is about your life. The fact is that I am who I am. You can see from my videos that I obviously have some above average level of skill. I'm telling you with absolute confidence that you are in a freaking world of hurt. Yes collapses are quite rare. They do happen though. If I flew paramania I would be dead as would ANYONE that put thousands and thousands of flights in. Crap happens. If you have a quality glider and crumple zone under your butt your odds of survival go up drastically.

Nobody that flies Paramania can fly for crap. No good pilots would fly that crap. Now you can take that as arrogant or you can listen. It's totally up to you. I've taken quite a bit of my time to warn you about what I know from personally testing those gliders.

The "instructors" you went to are complete fakes and have no clue what they are doing. All I need to know about them is that they would sell a paramania glider to a newbie. That's all I need to know. That makes them completely incompetent morons that don't have a single clue what the heck they are doing.

Bumping one glider into another is actually a pretty stupid simple test. What it shows is the collapse resistance. The more stable and solid glider will resist collapsing more than the less stable glider. It makes it super simple to show clearly which one is less likely to collapse. Yes that is a very good test for what happens in the air. When you get hit with rough air, which you will if you fly long enough, then your glider wads up like a rag compared to any brand of quality certified glider with a real pilot under it.

Anyhow I think I've shared enough input. You can do what you like with it. You might end up maimed for life or dead but what you can't say is that I failed to warn my neighbor of pitfalls that lay before them as God as commanded us to do.

Love, Dell

And on that bombshell I give up. Corresponding with him that is, not flying Paramania / Parajet of course. If I do have an accident I may get in touch with him to see if he can heal me though, he would probably be able to walk across the atlantic to get here.

Welcome to the world of Dell! See much more on his Yahoo group PPG Truth.

Thanks for sharing

Nige

Dell quote: Nobody that flies Paramania can fly for crap. .[/b]

How come the world championship is littered with Paramania wings?

Peter, a very interesting post. I think your second answer was exceptionally well balanced and phrased.

Leaving out Dell, I get the impression from web browsing that Americans in general tend to be cavalier in their approach to risk, or possibly put another way have less common sense, IMHO of course.

There have been very few fatalities within European paramotoring, I wonder what the score is in the USA.

Your correspondent doesn't understand reflex wings me thinks.

Cheers,

Alan - Reflex wing flyer

I watched the video of Dell testing the Nucleon.....What absolute biased rubbish!!

In Dell's world the only kit worth having is a FlatTop paramotor and a Cima wing, use anything else and it's certain death..

Neil..

I wish to sit on the fence with my opinion of Dell Bullshitanz......

bearing that in mind ......I will tone down somewhat ............... .

The Guy is obviously a lunatic.....first class...

He goes on about Certification.....and why not he is an expert in this area .. as he himself must have been Certified at some point....

he flys good.... ....but as with any genius....there is always a down side.....Ying/Yang

and that is his Mouth..watch his videos and you will hear wht I mean

.Weeee Hooooo....yeaaa....frickin this ....fruukin that......the bramblings of a mad man

I said I would sit on the fence

I actually like his opinionistic views and coming from a long line of argumentative prats I would love to get stuck into him cheers Alan.

Unfortunately I've not had such openly direct contact with the self proclaimed 'messenger of god' although I've had some suspicious comments on my you-tube videos urging me to check out the 'totally awesome' superdell ....

His ranting opinions of 'fact' only make me picture Peter Griffin off Family Guy - although unfortunately I think his sheer volume of posts will convince many beginners to the sport that he is correct ... This must affect Paramania's chances of breaking into the US market so perhaps they should consider suing for libel ?

Now Dell is involved with team red bull perhaps he will put his claims to the test against world class pilots (including the Paramania team) or at least compete in the Parabatix type stuff - as opposed to endless wing tip dragging ....

Finally, I would like to see him fly into some "rough air" over Helmund province ... where I'm sure his reasonable opinions would soon convert the Taliban and contribute to world peace ........... or not !

Unfortunately I've not had such openly direct contact with the self proclaimed 'messenger of god' although I've had some suspicious comments on my you-tube videos urging me to check out the 'totally awesome' superdell ....

Funny - after these emails I had a comment on two of my videos by mysterious users with only a handful of other posts, asking me about the safety of Paramania, would I recommend them for beginners etc. One of them asked me what I thought of Dell's advice on flat-tops and K2. Needless to say I sat on the fence and told them to talk to an expert.

To be fair the guy makes good videos which are fun played with the sound turned down.

He can fly well but is a shite pilot and has a weird out look on life

Unfortunately I've not had such openly direct contact with the self proclaimed 'messenger of god' although I've had some suspicious comments on my you-tube videos urging me to check out the 'totally awesome' superdell ....

Funny - after these emails I had a comment on two of my videos by mysterious users with only a handful of other posts, asking me about the safety of Paramania, would I recommend them for beginners etc. One of them asked me what I thought of Dell's advice on flat-tops and K2. Needless to say I sat on the fence and told them to talk to an expert.

To be fair the guy makes good videos which are fun played with the sound turned down.

I think he spends rather an unhealthy amount of time on you tube...

SW

I think he spends rather an unhealthy amount of time on you tube...

and there you have the problem - his is the first (and loudest) voice beginers will come across when searching google for paramotoring. As long as they buy his supersafe & totally awesome gear they can be wingtip dragging from their first flight !!!

Free flyers may have come across Dell's Scottish half brother - Murray Hay - banned from most forums and referred to as "he who can not be named" for his vitriolic outpourings against the BHPA (dangerous, unsafe cowboys) and his own brand of paraglider "retraining" (super safe and 1000 times better).

About the only difference is M.H. doesn't drag religion into his every argument or bad mouth every other brand of equipment.

There you go again with the religon thing.....

Murray Hay .......he is a flying GOD

Murray Hay .......he is a flying GOD

but not TOTALLY AWESOME until he can do 20 consecutive wingtip drags .....

Wonder how Murray & Dell would get on in a locked room for 24 hours ????

It doesn't matter how often you fly - you can only become a truly good pilot when you have posted 10,000 comments on internet forums & youtube.

(that's me one step closer)

Your all going to burn in Hell

Love del

At least it will be warm...

And Superdull Definitely wont be there

Love

Colin B2

(Complete, incompetent Moron. And I cant/wont drag my wingtips for crap)

K2 Boooya

I lost any respect for Dell when he started spouting that crap on Julius Gee's youtube memorial videos.

Same here Dan. I lost respect for him then too.

Shame, as he is a very talented Pilot, but can't help himeself do and say stupid things.

My mum told me never trust a man with ankle swinging trousers!

Quite a while back I wanted to see what all the fuss was about the self proclaimed "Super" Dell so joined his forum only to quickly take myself off again when I realised what a self promoting, nasty, ranting fool he was. I could have just kept away from the forum but didn't want him to be able to claim my dormant membership as some sign of support or popularity.

And when he ruined Julius's memerial video with his vile comments that sealed my negative views on the guy. Just a shame his videos are so popular which gives him an air of credibility to newbies. At least his over-the-top and very American viewpoint will put most Europeans off.

Just my 2 pence worth.

Regards,

Ian.

Hey thanks for this post guys,

im new to this type of flying and have watched all of his vids and others before i found this place, he does come across to me as obnoxious and annoying, i did enjoy watching the flying though, he does make the wing look pretty impressive but im sure that can be said of many wings out there, you are right in thinking it will influence people as i was amazed at the K2s performance and wrongly assumed it was the latest bestest model made yet etc, the engine i have no idea about, im sure theres ones here just as good or better.

When i get involved in things i like to do my homework hence joining this site, making posts, watching tons of vids/training tips etc etc, you would have to be insane or gullible not to, hope this post helps others out there.

I will say i would like to try a K2 and quite a few others, lots to try out yet