Patrick's Progression

Patrick. Really good blog. Both informative and enjoyable.

Jamie

love your blog Patrick, always a joy to read, as for the fuel bit I have one of these mirrors on a retractable keychain, very easy to use, I have it in the left pocket of my harness as that's my free hand, throttle in right, takes seconds to whip it out and take a look, no need for fancy fuel gauges.

http://inventions.aerocorsair.com/id45.htm

love your blog Patrick, always a joy to read, as for the fuel bit I have one of these mirrors on a retractable keychain, very easy to use, I have it in the left pocket of my harness as that's my free hand, throttle in right, takes seconds to whip it out and take a look, no need for fancy fuel gauges.

http://inventions.aerocorsair.com/id45.htm

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I find I need to write it immediately after the event before the ever decreasing brain cells, decrease anymore!

Training visits will be even less frequent now, being limited to weekends, now that I have exhausted holiday days.

That inconvenience that is Work!

Neat little gadget, quick trawl of ebay, i think, to find the necessary bits.

love your blog Patrick, always a joy to read, as for the fuel bit I have one of these mirrors on a retractable keychain, very easy to use, I have it in the left pocket of my harness as that's my free hand, throttle in right, takes seconds to whip it out and take a look, no need for fancy fuel gauges.

http://inventions.aerocorsair.com/id45.htm

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I find I need to write it immediately after the event before the ever decreasing brain cells, decrease anymore!

Training visits will be even less frequent now, being limited to weekends, now that I have exhausted holiday days.

That inconvenience that is Work!

Neat little gadget, quick trawl of ebay, i think, to find the necessary bits.

if your tank is not already marked you may want to do so, I emptied mine and marked it up using a marker pen as I put in the fuel, got a one litre measuring jug, put one litre in and marked a line in red, then put marks at two litres, five litres and ten litres in black, works well in flight easy to read and not much to go wrong.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RETRACTABLE-K ... 27d600e9fb

there you go!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RETRACTABLE-KEY-RING-REEL-CHAIN-YOYO-inc-CARABINER-CLIP-HEAVY-DUTY-STEEL-CORD-/171094108667?pt=UK_BOI_Office_Office_Supplies_Stationery_ET&var=&hash=item27d600e9fb

there you go!

Lol. Same one I found about 2 mins before your post came in

Better order now before there's a run on them.

How are you doing , James, have you had your kit delivered yet?

Hi no kit yet hopefully in the next couple of weeks, unfortunately I have pulled a tendon in the back of my knee so running is difficult at the moment but its getting better slowly.

Nicely written blog, as ever.

Good to hear you've got a site to fly from. I still have nearly an hours drive to my club site. This is a significant restriction on my opportunities to get off the ground.

Outside my front door is a 40 acre common. Unfortunately it's within Old Buck. ATZ.

Looking forward to reading more of your exploits.

Thanks, yes I have struck fairly lucky, if it all works out as the field is less than a mile from the house.

Not as lucky as it might have been, though, there is another large field opposite the house, but he wasn't keen on me using that as it had a footpath one end.

Still that might change once things bed in and he realises, actually that not a huge area is required for take off/ landing and it could be accomplished without going within 300m of the path.

Although the proposed field is grass, there may be more opportunities to fly off stubble between cropping, what is the received wisdom on what that does to your wing?

Patrick

I'm pretty sure that when I spoke to Simon W, or maybe one of the Colins, a few days ago they were saying that stubble can easily poke a hole in your wing. Not recommended!

Jamie

Stubble will only poke holes in wings if you help it , ie kneeling on your wing while folding / stuffing it away

Same as fields with flint in, just be careful.

Sent from my iPhone using PMC Forum mobile app

Wasn't me...

Frozen ground with lumps of flint on the other hand!!! that will shred it!

SW

The oracles have spoken.

19/8/13

Not a training or flying entry, but an important milestone in a new pilots progression, nonetheless.

I am now the proud owner of a very clean and tidy used Parajet Macro V2.

Nice one dude!

You on the field today?

SW

Unfortunately not. Bloody work, but necessary after punishing the bank balance!

Hoping it might hold till the weekend.

Well done Pat nice bit of kit hope you can make it down to us and have a fly soon.

Neilzy

Neil, haven't forgotten the invite, thanks.

Not quite ready to be let out on my own yet.

Comfortable in the air , its just the stuff to do with the ground! Few more flights required to nail my landings.

I don't have sny problems on stubble

DAYS 18 &19 26th and 28th August. Flight 6

I really needed to stop polishing the new machine and take it for a fly!

Bank holiday Monday was looking like the only possible day over the weekend, but WeatherPro was saying it might be too windy..............It was! I turned up on the off chance anyway and had to be satisfied with buying Simon a coffee in The Starbucks at Membury Services, a chat and an agreement that Wednesday looked much better.

I booked one of my few remaining holiday days for Wednesday (the other three had been soaked up on a trip to Venice with the wife for a "thank you for letting me buy the paramotor" holiday!)

Wednesday dawned and no wind but fog! Still at the stage of being keyed up before flying, I turned up early at Membury to not even be able to see the windsock. Autumn is arriving fast.

Simon turned up a bit later and returned the coffee while we waited for things to lift and a few others turn up.

Today my objective was to practice landings, I really wanted to get them sorted.

Indeed one of the conditions of using the field I had negotiated with the local landowner was a meeting at the field to discuss how it would operate and , no doubt, a demo........therefore I need NOT to land in a heap!

The fog cleared around 11 and so after a couple of practice forwards, which went well, I set up in a 3or 4 mph wind. I have found that the Synth is easiest to launch in low wind with +1 of trim.

I decided I wanted radio to help me with timing of the brakes for landing. There was just enough breeze to pop the wing up easily, a quick glance up and feed the power in and got away on a technically good forward without direction from Simon.

I do find I need to keep full power in to climb out to 3 or 400 ft, not really complying with the running instructions of full throttle for 30 seconds only at a time.

I flew round the West of the field before heading back to the East to make my approach . First thing I was told was to kill the engine once over the field, still with loads of height, this was to take thinking about that out of the equation.

So the instructions then were "hands up and do nothing", OK, I think I can manage that! I then anticipated brake to shoulder level and final flare slightly ahead of instructions and slowed down to a "step off" landing, I landed on my feet but still keeled over onto my right knee, so still no achieved! But I feel that the flight , though short, has really built confidence.

I wanted to consolidate my progress with another flight, but in the near zero, but changeable direction, wind , I didn't get the wing up straight and pulled the plug. Conditions looked set for zero wind, and I didn't feel like I had the energy for another go and called it day.

I am pleased to have christened my new purchase, which performed faultlessly and progressed my landing technique, but I need more practice.Weather looks disappointing for the foreseeable future, so not sure when that chance will come

Congrats on the new motor!

Sounds like your enjoying the sport. Sleep must be a bitch lol

Cheers

T

"running instructions of full throttle for 30 seconds only at a time."

Is this a new engine running in thing?

Yes, but the engine has only 5hours on it ( and the consensus is that that is genuine). Running in takes till 10hours according to the blurb, but I grant you the major part will have been done (or not) by now.

DAYS 20 1st September. Flight 7

Sunday dawned with hazy high cloud and no wind at 7. The tall poplar in the garden is now my official anemometer , high enough to see the air above the general ground turbulence. And then you add a couple of mph for what it will be like at Membury.

Got to Membury for 8, I knew today was a day for getting DI'd, ground handled and engine warmed for the 9am start of flying, to get ahead of he the promised increase in wind.

Today I wanted to make a point of doing my set up and take off without any instructor input. I did need some assistance getting it started, although my only error was not allowing a full engine cycle on choke so it had not primed sufficiently.

Conditions were perfect for an easy reverse, 5 or 6mph and pretty constant. Clipped in, fired up, a slight lean back and up the Synth came I turned and stated to move off. The wing was moving off too far left, so I killed the engine, turned and laid it back down.

The wing was quickly laid out for me, to save un clipping, a couple of fills of air to get it right, and away I went on good uneventful take off. I was slightly surprised that the take off run was a little longer than I expected in the 6mph wind, which I later found out from Simon resulted from a little bit of belt slip. This , he explained, is not necessarily a symptom of a poorly adjusted belt, but something that starts to happen in Autumn an Winter when the whole belt/pulley assembly is not warm.

It was a fairly short flight mostly upwind of the airfield , in which I practiced clipping the brakes up without fumbling the throttle too much.

I returned to over the grain silos and made an approach that I quickly realised was too high but I let it play out to low level before going round again.

This time I was quite happy with my approach, flair and step off , making a conscious effort to walk my legs, which I managed for one pace on the ground , I just wasn't leaning forward enough and the motor weight got the better of me, so once again I sat down!!! But a million miles from my former arse skidding performances.

Each one gets closer.... Maybe next time for a text book landing.

On landing the motor smelt a little hot but the plug looked OK, but I have given the high jet another 1/8 th richer, which now puts I at 1 &7/8 turns as against the factory 1 & 1/2, so it should be plenty rich enough.

I also found that the airbox had started to split which was a bit disappointing. Below are photos of the "welded" and reinforced repair, we shall see if it holds. I could really do without shelling out £90 for a poxy piece of fake carbon!

It may have been a short uneventful flight today but I really feel it marked a step change in my general level of confidence. I was able to prepare for flight and fly unassisted, made a calm un panicked decision that my first launch was not what I wanted to be, judged and made my own approaches. I think I might just be starting to get the hang of it.

Damn it! I assumed, completely incorrectly, that today was going to be far too windy and didn't even think about coming up to Membury. Glad you had a good fly. I need o get myself in the air very soon. Jamie