norman

Thanks Gordon, not one of mine of course, burgled from some boring old fart.

Love it Pete! At least he kept running just like you would have to keep flying. I wonder if this boy below should have used his superior judgement to sit this one out when he felt that 'flock of pigeons' in his lower abdomen earlier.

I flew home in a nappy once, I wouldn't do it again in a hurry. LOL

What troubles me slightly is ... when you made your decision to fly, what criterion were you applying?

Did you say, "Well the wind is 5kts above my personal limit and forecast to get worse, but hey, I need the experience."

Or did you say, "I just want to go flying and I think I should be OK, to hell with it, I'm going."

Accidents seldom happen for mechanical failure or external reasons, MOST, probably near 70% of them flower from our inappropriate choices.

By definition this means that we can avoid accident and injury by making informed choices. The word informed implies training, but more than that, the discipline to remain within the parameters that your training defined as most likely to be safe. After many hundreds of hours you may still make errors when you move outside those limits but (because of that experience) you might around to beat yourself up with the following;

"The superior aviator uses his superior knowledge and skill to avoid situations that might require the use of them."

Shaggy does us all a service by highlighting the kind of thing that is happening out there. What can I say, you are the pilot in command - make the wrong choice or fail to listen to that little fellow on your shoulder (the result of training) whispering in your ear and the consequences can be painful. Perhaps for you, worse for your family.

NOBODY is immune, absolutely nobody.

Ponder this.

A pilot gets airborne in winds that are brisk but they freshen further after take-off. His mates are now experiencing 20knots on the ground but he is feeling 35k-40ts at 1000' below that he is getting a severe kicking from rotor. Like Shaggy he is then flying backwards at 15 knots with no prospect of landing safely. Now lets say he is near the coast and the wind is blowing offshore.

If that was you, what would you do next? Enjoy your supper.

NB: A paramotor cruises flat out at around 20-25kts at best doesn't it?

Sod it! in Lisbon with the missus. Aaargh.

Pete, Mark, thanks for the feedback.

It is interesting. When I did my fixed wing instructors course they took our flying apart, made us wonder how we ever managed to stagger around the sky, then built us back into aviators again. Teaching after that was a continual learning process, it was never enough to be stumped by questions from the floor nor faced with a situation where we couldn't explain how to do something at least four or five different ways. Yes, teaching is a great way to learn. Sounds like you are going to really enjoy yours Mark.

PS: Really intrigued by your 'device'

Another heads up on a new development.

After both listening and having had discussions with our PEs we have come to the conclusion that these needs to be a stepping stone between the PPG2 certification and AFI/QFI. This stone will be called the Mentor.

The Current situation

At the moment we have certified pilots (almost anyone that wants to lend a hand really) helping new pilots with ground handling and advice. Traditionally we have done this for each out of generosity of heart. However here are a couple of limitations in the system that bear a little consideration - Insurance and Standardisation being the most important.

Insurance

We believe the untutored assistant is exposed if it came to a mishap or accident, perhaps someone being dragged or otherwise injured. We can raise our eyebrows but be sure that a litigating brief and his/her pointed questions could rather blow a hole in the suitability of a random club member assisting with ground handling. On who's direction was this 'training' taking place? What training did the 'instructor' have to fulfil that role? You can imagine ...

Standardisation

With the best will in the world a random club member may have limited knowledge of teaching and training techniques or the goals for an instructor in the early stages of paramotor training. Assistance on a busy flying day is vital if an instructor is to be effective in giving good training value to his trainees. Help is a godsend but the AFI or QFI wants ideally to take over a trainee from the ground handling field with few if any wrinkles to sort out before he can continue with further training towards flight.

Mentor

So what are we suggesting?

'Field assistants' come in many guises but quite often they do what they do because they love to help and enjoy it. They may even aspire to instruct one day but feel they need a little more experience and exposure before they put themselves forward. A word we keep hearing when talking to prospective Candidate Instructors is 'credibility'. They feel they need it for themselves and others before they enrol in an Instructors course and rightly so.

So how about taking an active step in the right direction?

By completing the Core Instructor Skills module (CISM) and developing those skills during the course in the field, you will be placing yourself in a position to gain VALID training experience. When the time comes for you to enrol on an Instructors course you will feel very well prepared for it.

A Mentor on completion of training will be certified to train ground handling to the point where a motor is included in the GH process. He cannot brief or train anything beyond the point at which the trainee moves forward to launch. No motor related actions, no emergency procedures, simply wing preparation/packing/care with handling with the forward and reverse launch.

This course will be run in the UK, will last around three days. It will involve the full CISM and will include the practical art of teaching ground handling. We will be using undersized as well as standard wings so that the available wind 'window' will be potentially larger than for straight paramotoring.

On completion of the course the Mentor will be certificated and registered as such. He will not need to complete the CISM during any instructors course though he will need to sit the technical qualifying exam that comes at the close of the CISM.

So, ever wanted to gain some teaching and training skills? Want to help out and feel as though you know what you are talking about? Please express your interest here. norman@pfm-fts.com piers@pfm-fts.com

Your feedback is vital, tell us what you think please guys.

The best camera is the one you have with you. If it is at home then it is the worst.

I like your style Dave!

Yep! he who makes no mistakes learns nothing.

He who learns from others mistakes learns a lot but sometimes not as much...

I wonder sometimes if it is just simply embarrassment that stops people reporting incidents/accidents. The RAF, Army, Navy, airlines and aviation in general have developed a culture of owning up and documenting clarts and mishaps. We enjoy them for what they are and learn a lot from them. It isn't much fun starring in them but the response from others can be amazing.

If we are talking about ERRORS and SITUATIONS, Anticipate, Avoid, Trap and Mitigate is the mantra today.

That is how you save bent metal, scratches, breaks and wakes.

Why try to reinvent the wheel? Let's encourage and develop that healthy and refreshing SAFETY CULTURE here.

Phil,

It's called Hyena Syndrome.

As long as the central figure doesn't feel he is being gobbled up to painfully, they wade in for a bite. Sometimes to prove how clever they are, others to score points and those who have either 'seen' or been there and want to save others the journey.

'Not making accusations here, the general theme does seem light hearted. Good natured debate and honest advice given in good faith - it can make us reflect on our experiences, adjust attitudes and maybe even save damage, injury or worse. That is the very best a forum can offer imho.

I enjoy reading about other peoples experiences and never stop learning. You can always pull something from these entries. Good on you Shaggy for being so open - can you take the next step? There are some gems here for us born of experience, can you find 'em?

Karan has been busy even though flying has stopped for the Monsoon and army commitments.

He has registered Mountain Hawk ASC with the Nepali authorities and brought a friend in to help with the organisation. As his mate is a graduate and very well motivated towards aviation he seems likely to be a valuable addition to the team.

In 2010 there is a government backed push for tourism and one of the things Karan is looking at is a small air display at one of the venues he has earmarked for PPG. All plans of course but our new pal in Nepal has an incredible store of determination and something tells me he might just pull something off.

It looks as though Karan and I will meet up in India (Hyderabad) during late September so if anyone has any spare or unwanted kit that they think might be useful or might even have mentally earmarked for him, now is a good time to get it to me. Nothing will be wasted, it will all get used.

Karan during training at Pune with school kit.

Watched the video, it is fab isn't it? As Phil says it is the solution to a locally perceived problem, not a speculative venture. You don't need to be able to fly to fly it. Hmmm, how about navigate, communicate and understand wind effects and the massive CBs they have out there. It would be a brave passenger who flew with....

This is not a criticism or an inference, purely a question.

Is there any issue with applying 'non manufacturer approved' modification kits to wings? Might the modification take the wing from its certified and approved form and turn it into something else? Could this raise insurance questions?

Again I am not casting doubt on the quality of work or the design of the mod, just curious about the further effects of making additions like this. I seek knowledge...

A perspective from one fixed wing pilot to others.

This is a very interesting subject that has increasing relevence as people migrate from conventional fixed wing fling to our sport. It is tempting to arrive on the PPG doorstep believing that somehow you are exceptionally well equipped to excel and hack down your training time as your obvious qualification from elswhere has enormous value. I have found the truth to be subtly different.

An opinion for what its worth.

Aviation is aviation, the environment and the rules of law and common sense that govern it don't change when viewed from a paramotor, but they can change subtly in their apllicability. The associated technical sujects like air law, meterology et al (as has already been pointed out) apply equally as well to PPG as they do GA. So if you have a PPL or higher you are well placed to save yourself some time in the study, if you add flying experience to that you have a valuable basis on which to build. Your airmanship skills and selected instincts have a place in your new sport as does your famiiarity with the flying scene. But that, as they say, is about it.

I believe it is essentaila to create a mental bubble around your new flying machine and consider EVERYTHING within it as NEW STUFF.

You can make potentailly dangerous assumptions about the handling and flying characteristics of a ripstop nylon wing. ALL of your biomechanical factors, muscle memory, muscle structure and some of your flying/handling instincts need training and re-orientating.

As a conventianal fixed wing pilot you have a great head start but my advice would be to use the one skill that does transpot wonderfully. A healthy respect for your new flying machine and a keen ear to those that KNOW the equipment you are going to trust your life to.

There is no substitute for qualitly training, you cannot 'wing it' with what you already know imho.

Poor sod either needs another 3 knots, a hill or a motor to be truly happy.

If you leave the motor at idle you might have a little drag from the prop disk. Leave just a little thrust set and you provide a 'zero thrust' setting that counteracts the drag from the cage and motor assembly. That is the theory at least...

Phil,

I would really love to know what fuel consumption and TAS figures a 42m Synthesis produces. I think the results might be very revealing and compliment your post above. If I recall correctly Ian W reckoned his Synth 34 performed really well against other wings, even without letting the trimmers out or touching a speed bar. He was flying at a considerably lower AU weight than I am and that might scale to an interesting result.

...thrust,CC needed to get a pilot off the ground pilot weight 115.kg naked

i am 6'6" and weight 120kg in my cotton socks. With my motor and wing plus I weigh around 170kg. A Parajet Macro with 180cc and around 70kgs of thrust popped me off the ground quite nicely.

I currently have a Fresh Breeze Monster (310cc) which generates around 75-80kgs. That is purpose designed for tandem flying - it blasts me off the deck very well. I wasn't even using full power for the takeoff and climb last time I flew and it did the job (running in).

'Mein Motor'

To answer your question more fully and reflect what others have said here, it is really important to consider your wing. With a bit of a draft I could get airborne on the Macro with a 30m Revolution, launching in nil wind was..... quite a challenge. After a couple of falls and a few busted props I realised I needed a bigger wing (at that level of skill) as ours is a game of the balmy surface winds of morning and evening - I bought a Dudek Synthesis 34.

Others with similar all up weights have had similar experiences, even those with plenty of PPG experience. One big chap here (a PG pilot of lots of experience) has resorted to a Synth 42 tandem wing for really easy launches in nil wind. This is generally thought to be a little extreme as launching in 12mph could present a challenge, but you can see his point.

On reflection it may well be that the ideal wing for us larger pilots is probably around 36m. The new Paramania Fusion at 32 - 36 may be just the ticket but others with more experience may like to comment on that.

It seems to me that optimum wing size also relates to experience. Pilots with well developed technique really appreciate the handling qualities provided by smaller wings. Launching them requires that skill but once airborne they have a lot to offer. Design quality is also playing its part here, the Fusion and the Nucleon have notable improvements in their launch and handling characteristics over previous designs. Pilots flying them refer to this and state that they can drop a wing size and reap rewards in handling because of it.

This is a personal view - my belief is that beginners need a wing that will launch easily above almost all else (given that it is a DHV-1 wing). If you cannot launch consistently and safely the mountain seems a tough one to climb and frankly people are prone to give up. This game needs a fair bucket of courage at the beginning and failed launches erode that as confidence dips in relation to the amount of dirt eaten and props busted.

After post solo consolidation you can hone your technique, gain a greater appreciation of what you are doing and build the confidence you need to really enjoy this sport. Without it the door merely can remain ajar on the rewards of flight.

Have to say I agree with Phil, nice if you want to look like a Christmas tree at sunset - useless as an anticollision light during the day.

High intensity strobe is the tool for that task and 'navigation lights' are only any use at dusk or night. If you are using them in that role then they need to comply to regulations otherwise they will do nothing but confuse. As for 'something to light up the ground as you pack up.....

'Prat Gear' I'm afraid, a pile of pants.

I wish I could have recorded the telephone conversation I had with Karan just after he had gone solo for the first time. It was magical despite being at 0355 in the morning.

Well done you guys who contributed and others who gave morale or material support!

Karan's task is by no means complete but he has already done something he dreamed about for years never believing that one day he would actually do it.

What has surprised me is his extraordinary determination to succeed and the breadth of his plans and imagination for what follows his training and consolidation.

'Don't know much about the comps but talking to Piers 'tother day in the pub it seems really easy to screw the tasks up. To have done so well (half way up the ladder) having scored low on 4 does bode well for next year. Piers did very well in the curve navigation...

Top job Whitters, good luck next year.

And another which might give a clue.

One for Gordon.

UPDATE:

Updates, a few words from the Wings & Flights CFI and an update from Karan.

He has flown solo with a motor once and had a tumble during the second. He has run out of time now but will return to Pune in October to finish his PM-1 post solo consolidation.

Updates will now slow down and will revolve around our efforts to get some kit together for him.

Mountain Hawk ASC.

Good points Dan,

It is a great sadness that the sport is being sold by some as a vehicle for getting a bunch of kicks by low flying, particularly over water which is a lethal pastime.

Illegal low flying is not excusable, doing it legally and remaining so during the process is fraught with its own problems. Discourage it as we may there will always be those who insist that the kicks outweigh the risks. Handling them is a task for us all - a particularly vigorous approach to repeat offenders may save lives and ultimately the freedoms that the sport currently enjoys.

This is lunacy. Skilled and super talented pilots are a comparatively rare commodity, made so in part by the abundance of them in graveyards.

Is it worth considering that people are prone to exaggeration when reporting low flying sightings and that often they are reacting to the distraction, not the material fact of low flying. Paramotors are still very unusual in the UK and their power to distract is considerable.

If the police are passing a friendly warning it means just that doesn't it? They cannot identify the pilot and are reacting to a report. This also points toward there being a case for each wing to be identified with a form of registration mark, either national or club based so that reports such as this can be disowned if no registration has been logged. It may even be seen as a responsible move - possibly even a restraining one. Who is going to waz around at low level breaking the law if they know they can be identified quite easily?