surrey-dad

Well that looks about as safe as water skiing through a great white shark infested sea with a freshly skinned seal pelt on your back with all the entrails dragging behind you lol,

You're a natural poet Alan - love it

Andy

Simon have you seen the new 4 stroke from Paul Haxby, only £2995

Looks the dogs danglies IMHO.

Cheers,

Alan

Wow - that's more like it!

That's a very nice looking machine.

Looks quite compact for a 4stroke - wonder how heavy it is.

Any more details on the spec Alan?

Do you get wafers or a set of spanners with it

Andy

I do hope there are a few more members other than me.

I got the first flight of the year in today, it's been over a month.

It felt a bit like this on the first two attempts but I got there on the third

Way hay, here's to loads more this year...

Congratulations Alan !

Must confess was thinking of something entirely different when scanned 'Bunny Club' in the title

Anyway dust of that Flight Log, and add a few extra pages for all the great weather that is due this year

Cheers,

Andy

Keep an eye on TZ-7 prices, as they are likely to drop soon - following Panasonics launch of a slew of new Lumix cameras at last weeks CES in Las Vegas.

Andy

Nah, easter is the bit between winter and summer, I'm sure we can find one weekend in there somewhere !!

Ever the pragmatist

Bring on the spring !

From someone already sick of all this white stuff - and having only escaped my drive and icy hill this morning.

Andy

Never seen this done before, so thought it might deserve video of the week. Boy would I like to be able to do just one of these !DG

Hi Dave - I saw this video but chose not to post it because it is another imasuper/SuperD special. And that unfortunately often triggers a negative reaction.

Colin summed up very well the mixed feelings people have for him

...Think your right its superdell , gobby overbearing personality that he is he does have realy good piloting skills . If he wasnt so abrasive a charactor prob be an alright bloke...

The guy is obviously a talented pilot, but his reality distortion field seems to be getting stronger.

Here is his latest humble understated claim:

World's Best Paramotor Pilot!!! WPSDA YouTUBE World Championships!! Powered Paragliding Record!!!

It's a shame - as confess to envying his PPG lifestyle

Andy

Hey Simon, can we have an Easter fly-in at Commonleys ?

Great idea Dan - but won't that clash with the French Trip that Simon, Whitters et al are currently planning?

Andy

...hot air balloons over the other side of Thame, got a picture but its 22.8mb and can't figure out for to get it down to 800kb for upload

Tom

Hi Tom - you may have already solved this, but just in case....

If you have a 20MB+ image - I presume it must be in RAW format? If so have you checked the software disk provided with your dSLR, which typically provide resizing capabilities?

Alternatively there are a load of image resizing apps, many of which are Freeware.

One invaluable freeware photo app is IrfanView. It is surprisingly powerful, so will do a lot more than just resizing photos. I use it for batch processing and editing EXIF data on friends and family PCs, so keep it on my thumbdrive of Windows utilities.

Here is the IrfanView link

Another very popular freeware Photo Editor app (10million downloads!) on the CNet site: PhotoScape v3.4.

If you are a not a Windows user, then the provided iPhoto application supports RAW and will allow you to resize images.

Hope this is of help. If not PM me some more detail, and I will forward some more suggestions.

Andy

...Dislike the comfort, gets a bit tiring after an hour or so in the seat.

Hi Dan - looks like you need to take my pie & pint diet to get a bit more padding on your bum

Have you managed to get out to fly since the snow, or have roads also been to bad over your way?

Cheers,

Andy

Can anyone post up a video of a power stall? I've watch loads but not seen one yet. I'll put the nearest one up if I can find it

D

Not sure if you are just asking this to get me to post a Dell S clip again

This clip includes a whole series of forced stalls, but what I think you were after is at ~30sec

[youtubevideo]

[/youtubevideo]

Cheers,

Andy

Video from a few days ago. Brrr it was cold.

Only 2nd flight on the new Fusion!

1) First take off in the snow.

2) First landing in the snow....der... yeah...

3) First You Tube video :

Cheers

Mikey

Congratulations Mikey

Super short take off into that icy looking breeze. Hope you had some good thermals on...

NB. When you next post a video link, be sure to check the 'Youtubevideo' video button on the editor page, then copy and paste the URL - as that will embed the video into your post like this:

[youtubevideo]

[/youtubevideo]

Andy

NB: These are not my own video clips. They are just some of my favourites found whilst doing my newbie research into PPG.

Whilst searching for some more GoPro HD sample clips, came across this interesting low level flight over a wintry South Korea (although less snow than here).

As with previous SKorea footage, it includes low level urban flying.

But not so sure about them going under the high voltage lines (~2m30sec).

(This is a Vimeo video. Click on image to view the movie

or here Vimeo: Wintry Flight in South Korea

Andy

oh dont put your motor on your back and than get on your push bike the police are not amused, Alan

From experience Alan

Do tell

cheers,

Alan

Alternatively I wonder what the old bill would make of this conversion for cycling on the snow...

[youtubevideo]

[/youtubevideo]

Andy

Yertiz bays. flying today

...Dave. Now drying his boots ! And still smiling

Nice clip Dave.

Not surprised by your smile - perfect (if parky) weather, great countryside and the FT barely idling to lift your slimmed down figure skywards

Andy

Funny enough the bloke down the road is ex-military, now police firearms. He had 2 mates up visiting - both ex-SAS. Apparently they both professed that they thought I was 'f*cking mental"

which I take as a compliment

That's awesome Stu !

Andy

The listing has changed... different picture and its now £1600

Something very strange going on there!

Tom

I agree Tom - which is why I emailed the seller yesterday for clarification on the item, as the listing was not consistent with the title.

Have not heard anything back yet so remain skeptical, but saw that bidding had reached £1650 earlier today...

From the ebay listing, it appears that the seller (filmsukproductions) is an independent "Actor, Director, Writer , Producer, Stunt Driver, Casting Director"

Will post any response I get from him...

Cheers,

Andy

Dave this was not aimed at you I was referencing "imasuper" but I think he sells them.

Tom

I think that imasuper is half the problem Tom.

The FT's are compelling motors, but many folks simply get put off by the way SuperDell / imasuper harks on about them in all his video clips.

There is no doubt the guy is a talented pilot :

[youtubevideo]

[/youtubevideo]

but would you want him living next door to you ?

[youtubevideo]

[/youtubevideo]

Pesonally would much prefer to see some video footage of (FlatTop) Dave's adventures over Dartmoor with his own FT...

Andy

Here's a video of a flight I made in Lanarkshire last week in scotland.

...comments (and ratings!) welcome!

stu

Cracking video Stu !

Very impressive picture quality even with Youtube codec.

Particularly surprised with the auto white balance performance, as snow sky and bright conditions can often confuse small video cameras.

Love your production company name as well - some of the locals must have thought that when they saw you flying overhead in such cold conditions...

Anyway thanks for sharing, and please post any further experiments you make with your new goPro HD. Happy flying !

Cheers,

Andy

Nice pics PL !

The GoPro HD looks to handle contrast much better than its predecessor.

With the higher still resolution it also looks much more versatile.

What is your verdict on it - has it met your expectations?

You can probably tell I am interested in getting one So was also wondering if you had played around with the automatic interval capture function? If so can you post a sample clip sometime?

Cheers,

Andy

Nice job Simon !

Love the way that you are already embracing the broader Apple world of MobileMe - including adopting Apple's less is more design approach

Only a few observations:

- Main problem with legibility of Red/Orange text is more down to the font used, rather than the specific colour

- That particular font is designed for use with a larger pitch, as with your titles

Re: 'About Simon' page

- Spelling of Qualification

- Shade of orange used for final banner is different from rest of page

Andy

Hi all

I have gathered some of my most memorable shots from last year...

The others can be viewed by clicking this link ( best viewed inn slideshow with captions off)

http://picasaweb.google.com/Donegalwing ... directlink

Safe flying for 2010

Dean

Stunning album Dean - you have a great eye for capturing a memorable pic !

Also very inspirational as we enter the new year

Thanks for sharing, and please keep posting more pics as you continue your PPG adventures...

Cheers,

Andy

Happy New Year to everyone !

Here's hoping 2010 brings many opportunities for all to fly far (and safe), explore new places and forge new friendships.

Simon - many thanks for this great forum. And am sure that it will only go from strength to strength in the coming year.

Alan - cool post, although had to turn the volume down very low.

Now where are my sunglasses and the alka-seltzer...

Cheers everyone.

Andy

I was told by a professional that a carl zies lens with 5 mega pixel is better than a10 or 12 with a cheap lens.

The speed of the lens can certainly makes a big difference Pete, but with digital cameras more often than not it is down to the sensor.

More specifically cameras with larger pixel pitch rather than simply more pixels lead to more sensitivity, dynamic range and lower noise - especially important for indoor photos.

But unfortunately the marketing hype around consumer cameras demands higher and higher megapixel counts - as bigger is better, right. Wrong ! By simply increasing pixel density for the same size sensor you introduce noise, and often sacrifice the actual quality of the image.

My brother bought a cheap 6MP compact camera a while ago, but the quality of the pixels was so crap that he had to reduce the length and width of the images by 50% to get decent pixel quality, which really left him with a 1.5MP camera (6/4) ! By contrast a 2001 Canon EOS-1D with an effective resolution of only 4.15MP (2496 x 1662px), would produce an infinitely sharper picture, with better balanced colour and lower noise due to its much larger sensor size (and pixel pitch).

Andy

All,

I have had my Skype account stolen and Credit withdrawn from my Paypal account (directly from Skype)

The password and E-mail address have been changed, and I can not contact skype without having the history from my account which I cant access.

F knows how this happened.

Just a warning, that it can!!

I have of course now emptied my Paypal account.

SW

Really sorry to hear that your Skype account was hijacked Simon, and hope the thieving toerags only had access to limited funds before the problem was discovered.

You have no doubt Google'd this scam already, but many folks don't really how widespread this problem is and how long it has been around.

Read PayPal accounts compromised over 16 months; No response from eBay.

In this case there appeared to have been a Chinese connection, so the timing of this may coincide with recent attacks on your website.

The added problem for victims of this scam is that both PayPal and Skype (until very recently) are owned by eBay, who are notoriously poor at resolving such problems.

It appears that when eBay chose to integrate Skype into their corporate PayPal payment system, some potential exploits resulted. All three companies are now supposedly working hard to "strengthen security", which is worrying bearing in mind how long the problem has been reported. There are also suspicions of an inside job - possibly by disgruntled employees.

Anyway here are some other related threads on the subject (some with interesting links):

*Skype ignores PayPal siphoning hijack scheme (The Register)

*PayPal Skype Complaints - Unauthorized billing! (Complaints Board)

*Skype ignores PayPal siphoning hijack scheme (ZDNet UK Blog)

... plus ~10.1 MILLION other links via Google !!!

We wait to see if the selling off of Skype will help to improve security around such scam payments...

Meanwhile hope that you are able to recover your Skype account soon Simon.

Andy

Great find Andy. I do like the start also, but it is not breaking air law to fly low over a deserted road.

HI Alan - thanks for the clarification. I had assumed that the road would be designated as a structure

...I wish I had known about the fly in as its only about 75 km away

Sorry to hear that Alan - maybe we should ask Simon if he could add a 2010 PPG calendar of events to the forum?

Andy