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Yes....and if you snag a wee hook (I found mine laying on the floor in a Dobbies) or fashion your own from wire you can hook the funnel onto the cage spar and it leaves you both hands free to pour the petrol....

Sorry, only just found this. I had the same concerns about a faulty kill switch and with the added risk of being stuck with the throttle wide open. I added a 2nd kill switch to the frame of my Maverick and ran separate wires to coil and a 2nd earth point for added redundancy, i hope! It was first used in anger on a landing approach at the Bore Chasers this year. Throttle kill swich failed due to a wire break, and stopped it on the 2nd switch. Result. Hope this helps. Mark.

Can't knock his attention to detail. Love the homely standard lamp, and that he swaps his trainers for house slippers. Nice touch.

Designed some new graphics for the motorhome - 3 layers of vinyl. came out pretty good I reckon. the dark blue is same blue as front of van, and silver matches the hymer silver.

'between shit and syphilis' is such a great outlook Mike, I like you already. Fantastic to read your progress to success, a big well done from me. I have been flying for many years but still get the buzz every time. Stay safe and enjoy your flights.

Nice one Mike.We began our training about the same time.I remember you working so hard on the field kiting the wing ,and then resetting again, over and over and over, and then progressing onto your powered taxi runs on a trike, first without a wing, and then with a wing. I was exhausted just watching you. Sadly I missed your solo flight, but I can well imagine how big your grin was!. What a great achievement!. Well done you. Regards Nige

A short happy vibe, uplifting blog, as written by Mike the pilot. SW

All, I recently purchased a half decent ultrasonic cleaner for my motorbike restoration. It turned out to be 100% better than I expected!! I now call it the newifator. lolol I would like to offer to all of you that need it, to send me your carbs for a F.O.C ultrasonic de-gunge. When I put the motorbike ones through it, I was flabbergasted at the amount of crap that came out of them!! (been itching to use that word for ages) lol Deal is: Send them to me, and pay for the sending back. Reply here if interested and I will PM over the address. You will 100% need to get a carb service kit to accompany this clean... there are many online places you can get these, please try to use your instructor / dealer for this if you can. The last thing you want when this is all over is a motor that won't play air games. lol SW

Nice job Kiwi K I've learned loads reading this whole thread - thank you for the time and effort to keep documenting your journey

Hi Guys & Gals, I have after thinking about ways to get into Paramotoring finally joined forces with a Trike designer who has a brilliant design & also designed a set of fuel tanks that are also the seats in the trike units in fact, the seat tanks were designed specifically for these trikes. We have had a trike designer build the first trike prototype about two years ago and they have been testing and developing it since then. We will be offering both a weight shift trike and a paramotor trike (see attached). We haven’t started production yet, but we plan to do so soon. I will definitely want UK buyers of our products when production commences. The distributor price for the weight shift trike, without the engine, will be approximately €1750, excluding shipping. The paramotor trike will be slightly more. Contact me for pictures (photos are HI RES )

Hi Bobby. I've had a V5 for the past 18 months or so. I've done 130 hours on mine. I can't comment on customer care because I haven't needed it. This motor has been the most reliable machine by far that I have owned, and I have owned many. I still have a Fresh Breeze Sportix Simonini engine and a H&E 120. I have no financial interest in motors and am non bias. When my V5 arrived I was pleased with the weight and power. Slightly heavier than my 120 but more power. I have taken off from smaller areas like car parks, grass verges, country roads etc with the V5 because it feels small and light on your back and I have more confidence. On my GTX 26 It still maintains / climbs on fast trim full speed bar but does need full revs (see below). The economy is fantastic. I weigh 97kg naked, 110kg fully dressed not including reserve parachute and flight deck. On my Revo wings I get 2.25 to 2.5 litres an hour. Worst economy is on my GTX where I get 3ltres an hour fast trim. I plan my long flights on 3 litres an hour which works well with plenty of reserve. It's a 12 litre tank. It's nicely designed compact simple and reliable. Very clean, sounds nice, easy to start in the air giving confidence to stop the motor in flight and low maintenance. I havnt touched the carb and only removed the spark plug twice in 130 hours. For most flights I chuck 8 to 10 litres in and I don't have to think about fuel. I've flown many engines Simonini Black Devil Parajet etc. For me and my weight most use about 6 litres an hour. The Polini versions a bit less but you will not get to 50 hours on most of them without unexplained hole piston or seizure. That's my experience only. Comments welcome. As they say "if your 2 stroke motor seems to be running really nice it means it's about to seize up" LOL Negatives. The frame is lightly built, if you are new to Paramotoring and likely to fall over it will cost you. Power is less than the bigger Polini or Simonini but equal to Smaller Polini 110. Probably doesn't like long full rev full speed bar flying (see below). This is how I always used to fly but have adjusted my flying these days in keeping with my age. The fuel tank detaches which is good for out refuelling but is a bit tight and a bugger to get in. Also the fuel line leaves the tank underneath via a plastic L shaped connector which is unguarded and vulnerable. I've never broke mine but doing so when landing out to fuel will be troublesome. The fuel tank markings were inaccurate and the tank takes more fuel than indicated, probably because the tank was tight fitting and the sides bowed out. Because of this for the first few flights it seemed I was using much less than 2 litres an hour. I realised this when fuelling at the garage and 6 pump litres + my existing 2 litres = 7 ??? The V5s is much the same I believe but a bit lighter again. I prefer the look of the V5. The V5s has plastic head cover and different exhaust which I am not so keen on. I like shiney bits. I'm not sure on all of the differences. The early Bailey 4 strokes were heavier and had some trouble with cooling on hard flying. Increasing oil capacity and fan cooling has fixed this. However with this in mind my first few flights were all gentle slow trim on my Revo 30. I have since learned that more distance is achieved without speed bar and full revs. As per the manual instructions I avoid prolonged full revs / prolonged speed bar. The ideal motor would be a Bailey on the early volution frame which looked nice and was solid, but the one with netting. This might be a bit heavy tho. Bailey should give a titanium frame option. Although expensive would be better for new pilots. Bit of a long post. My experiences only. Hope this helps. Whitters.

First flight with the miniplane today was 'interesting' - i have to confess to being a bit of a tool and I will share my idiocy so others can learn and you are all very welcome to take the piss - I will post a separate thread in the safety room. I went to my local take off spot, really took my time making sure I was happy. I did a great forward launch into a light breeze, checked wing was nicely level and as it should be then applied gas, ran like a gazelle. After 100 meters and a tiny bit of lift, I had to kill the engine before running out of field. I'm close to max weight for a miniplane so I was expecting to run but was a bit surprised and disappointed with the lack of thrust. This happened. Three times and I was beginning to think I bought the wrong machine but I decided I just need a longer field (and lose some weight) so moved to another spot. After setting up, I got a good shape in the wing, went to full throttle and ran.. And ran and ran. I finally lifted off after 100m or so and very very slowly got about 100 feet agl, the machine was vibrating like hell. I turned down wind to avoid trees and began losing altitude immediately a, only gaining again when I turned into wind. Massive lack of thrust and the violent vibration led to a quick landing. The issue was immediately obvious. One of the prop blades was facing the wrong way! The curved edge was following and the sharp edge leading. I'm surprised I managed to fly at all. After a full check (the vibration had loosened exhaust screws and damaged the air filter box) I flew again, this time taking off easily in about 25 metres, climbing gracefully on a smooth, quiet, vibration free ride around my village before touching back down beautifully to the delight of neighbours and a couple of dog walkers. Conclusion, miniplane is really really lovely to fly, but ffs check the prop is on correctly! Thankfully no harm done and I'm now a wiser pilot.