dede2008

oh yea. I missed that. Sounds reasonable then.

Wow, Speedster as a first/training wing. That must be a first, or maybe things are really changing in paramotor and I'm getting old

love the boots

It can happen and it has happened before, so its better to know what to do to avoid it. In modern reflex gliders in particular, when fully trimmed out they put most of the weight on A's, while D's and breaks are very slack. When you want to fly even faster, you push the speedbar which is further increasing the break's slackness. Combine this with the natural tendency for some people to push their legs down when using the speedbar which also means bending forward and dangerously narrowing the gap between the cage and the break's (slack) lines. So remember two things: 1) always attach the breaks handle to the magnets when releasing them for any reason. 2) When using speedbar, the legs need to be mantained perpendicular to the body trunk. Follow these two simple rules and you will never have to worry about this problem.

just use self-service petrol stations, they do exist over there right?

I use Motul 710 happily, and I think it is a better choice over Motul 800 for our use. A quote from a bike forum: Motul 710 has a much lower flash point than Motul 800, which makes the ideal oil if you are doing slow speed technical riding as the bike is not running in the higher RPM range for long periods resulting in lower engine combustion temps being reached. The excess oil is therefor burnt up more efficiently which prevents carbon build and excess oil been blown through the exhaust. Motul 800 is made for racing as it requires higher temps directly related to higher speeds and extended high RPM, you need a oil that does not burn up to quickly in this case, to put racing into perspective a rider like Lawrence Mahony rides full taps so Motul 800 would work better for him. Another example where Motul 800 will work at its best is high speed desert racing like the Dakar.

Brand new, only 6 hours of use Amazing how people forget the zeros when posting this kind of staff

I agree with Simon here. The only small problem I had so far with my miniplane was a cylinder head bolt that fell off within the first 5 hours of paramotor life. It caused a scratch on the propeller which was fixed quickly with soda and epoxy. My fault, the manual stated clearly that you have to tighten the bolts after the first few hours. I do that regularly even though it is almost not needed now after 200+ hours. Structure and motor is settled. You have a vibrating machine on your back, and that means everything needs a regular check.

I agree, this has been encountered a few times around here and a word with miniplane owner identified the problem. A quick filing with light sand paper and the problem is solved, just make sure scraped material will not get into the tank.

hi, It's not so much the quantity of thermals rather than the quality of them. In the middle of the day, thermals are much more turbolent due to the strong ground heating. You need to fly more actively and keep constant control of your glider in order to prevent collapses. So flying becomes more stressful, expecially if you are not used to it. Low airtime pilots tend to avoid those hours and take off before or later where the heating ease up a bit and all become smoother. Your instructor should explain this better anyway

As mentioned already, it could have been a one off problem with cravats, tip steering balls cought up, or something else. If the problem ever repeats, get some height without flighting with breaks and do some trial and error: release power, if the problem persists you will know it is not the motor, could be the wing or the harness. Try to check both one at a time and you should get to the problem easily.

In the 3+ years of sailing around with my miniplane at around 150 hours per year, I've never HAD any safety or essential upgrades. Actually I never had an engine failure in flight or on the ground so far (touch wood). I did shut the engine down a few times on take off or in flight by mistake, but restarted right away. Credits to manufacturer and to a periodic maintainance (so easy). Luckily this behaviour didn't get me less alert on the possibility, so I'm just waiting for the time when it will come and hopefully be ready for it.

Sounds a good idea, but how is a tilt switch set up on a paramotor so that it will only function on the ground and not when you are flying? I can easily see a lot of times when your paramotor is at steep angles in flight.

Now, you can't actually blame a cruise control for the lack of proper preflight check. Anything you use while paramotoring can become a danger. Would you blame your gps or fuel mirror if it suddenly become loose and hit your prop because you forgot to check it in preflight? Cruise control is a good thing, just include it in the preflight list and you will be always allright.

No, he was testing full reflex (trimmers out) collapses by trying to pull A's as hard as he can (A's connected with that foot handle), the shrimp was the effect of releasing A's too quick after so much pulling

Well he really went the hard way, all that effort pushing and pulling while he could have just waited 10 mins more for that thunderstorm to strike... No comment.

I think thats the easy part of the whole thing If you ever tried a speed riding wing, they are a toy to launch especially in winds like that.

Nice videos but make a note, you forgot the water rescue system at home

Hey Simon, do you mean you actually taped the camera body on the helmet, or you taped a custom mount where the camera was hooked to? I can't imagine to actually tape the camera itself, first I tend to use the cameras elsewhere, plus it will not give it justice to use sticky nasty tape on an expensive piece of equipment An photo of your mount will be nice

Hey Poz, how stable is the camera on that small connection? Is it vibrating? Also, the few people I've seen mounting a proper HD camera on helmet all went for a more stable fix with a custom modeled mount of some sort of polyurethane so that it would have a flat base to lean to, and screw tightened of course. That would also be better for safety... I keep getting the lines caught in my go-pro helmet mount from time to time while taking off or landing.

The first picture I was about to say he had some sort of monopod attached to his right side and parallel to his legs, but looking at the second smaller one it seems that was the speed/leg rest, and apparently nothing around revealing some sort of rig or mount. So, easy answer: someone else's picture of him.

Quote for youtube video: "Powered paragliding around Italy is a total blast. The people love wild & crazy stuff and unlike other places they are very accepting of things that would land you in jail anywhere else." No comments. Just let someone catch you Superdell around our country again doing this kind of stuff and we will sort things out the italian way, maybe you will not get in jail but you'd wish you did. We have folks who did things less stupid than this now part of the cement structure of buildings around here Watch out! .

Thanks Morgy and Lukebanks for your comments, much appreciated. I have flown the Nucleon and will be soon demo a Speedster, so I'm about to experience the difference first hand. The Nucleon is a great wing, but I found it doesnt suite my type of flying. For once, the recommended size is much more than what I'm used with for my weight. I've always flown 26's and going for a 29 was too much for my taste. Maybe because of that I felt it was a bit of a truck in terms of handling. Also coming from the paragliding world, I never got along with this hands off flying in full trims out. It really is a change of a deep settled habit of active flying especially when conditions get funky. So the idea of still being able to use the breaks in full trims out with no side effects is a welcome one. And I'm still paragliding quite often, so I would not have to switch my brain every time like: ok I'm paramotor flying now and I've set full trim out, DONT touch the breaks! Not so easy when you have the instinct of active flying the wing. Lukebank, nice to know the wing is so easy to reverse launch in nil wind! When you say nil wind you really mean nil? Any special technique to reverse in such condition? Almost hard to believe if I don't see/try myself. Seems really a dream to launch. Morgy sometimes I wish I was local there because there is no such a nice online and offline community of paramotors here in Italy, I'm flying alone most of the time. I have paramotor buddies but not so many BUT we have nice weather, unflyable days are only a few in a year. So why don't you all move here?

I never said 100% collapse resistant, no wing will ever have that its in fact a good thing, where other flying vehicles will break their wings, our just collapse, its meant to be that way. I just want to know how Ozone reflex compares to the traditional reflex profile that was used so far by other brands, and whether it is as collapse resistant as theirs at full trim out. Asking too much? I don't believe Ozone is lying, but I like to question things I don't understand and don't like to take everything for granted and just go buy the wing because everybody says its good, fast, has great handling and its safe.

Well it does come handy to have two options (reflex and non reflex) in the same wing when flying so one can choose the type of flying, handling and speed he/she likes. The reflex option I see it like a way to move faster around if I want to travel some distance or be more safe in case conditions suddently change, it should not be in my opinion a way to get airborne in stronger conditions just because you can, thats always calling for troubles.As someone pointed out, collapses in paramotor are really very rare and normally associated with throwing yourself into a bad situation, but when it does happen I'd like to know that in releasing the trimmers out I get a rock solid wing, the so called reflex profile is associated with. So the problem I think is not whether we should call true reflex a wing that has still some reflex in slow trim (dudeks someone says, I havent check that) but whether the wing has it at all (normally when trimmed out) or its a semi-reflex/hybrid profile like the Ozone Viper 2 for example. Maybe the real question we should ask Ozone (or in fact, test ourselves) is, ok, forget about this full-true-reflex definition, everyone seem to have his own opinion to what's reflex and what amount of it to be called full/true etc: Is the wing almost-uncollapsable/rock solid at full trim out or is it not? Because thats in the end what we look for in a reflex wing. In my opinion the ground handling trimmers-out collapse test and the virtual impossibility to generate a front collapse as shown on the nucleon video above are two good signs of that. So when you have some time Morgy, would you mind get your camera on and show this ground handling test with your speedster so we can see how it behaves? (I wouldnt dare to ask you to do the second test, becoming a test pilot on air is not for everyone) Thaat would be great for a start