stevec

My Top 80 with the W8 is the same - runs much better at 1 to 1 1/4 turns out. From what I can gather this is completely normal and all motors will tune at a different point. You can only adjust the low speed mixture screw on the W8 and the motor doesn't work hard enough to be able to seize it at low revs. The main jet on these is fixed and controls the mixture at high rpm, although he low mixture screw will apparently have a minor effect. If you do a plug chop at high revs just to make sure you have a nice browny sooty plug at high revs then all should be well. Just adjust the bottom end to run as cleanly as possible. (My Top 80 runs like a pig with book settings). Lean the motor off until it won't pick up cleanly when blipping throttle, then enrichen 1/8th turn at a time until you get a clean pick-up. If it is too rich, tick over revs will drop and it will 4 stroke - go lumpy and brup bruppy! Make sure you don't have any major problems first like air leaks (though unlikely as this would make it leaner). And if it explodes - I'm not paying for it - disclaimer! Steve

I was wondering who was following me and filming at the coast on Sun morning. Nice one. Steve

The problem with the lawn mower balancer (Cone) is that they do not always sit perfectly centered in the hole. If the centre of the cone is even 0.2mm off centre then it will wreck reading. I use it in conjunction with a vernier caliper to ensure the cone is centered. 10g off balance in the chord direction is not that much due to the short distance from the hub centre. I've just had mine "rebalanced" in Romania. It went out with 60g x 30mm off balance and came back with still 40g x 30mm off balance (Chord direction). They tried to tell be that it was in spec. as even general aviation props are only balanced to 2g x 1m. (It is the product of the distance and weight that is key) I don't believe it! I'm now going to drill 2 x 1/2" holes in the hub and fill with lead. I've also ordered the hang type balancer. Prop pitch and balance is a nightmare! Steve

Are you sure that it is balanced across the chord (90°) to the spanwise balance. I don't see how your balance jig can check for that properly unless the prop is free to turn through 360°. Check that everything else is secure on the motor/frame. After running an out of balance prop, I found that my exhaust downpipe was loose and resonating, even when running a balanced prop afterwards. I took it off, cleaned up the joints and copperslipped them and it is a lot quieter. Steve

Looks like the cameraman had an interesting ride as well!

I've just sent one back to Romania for balancing, although I doubt that it is possible as it was out of balance by an extreme amount in the chord direction. I needed to place 6 x £1.00 coins (60g) 30mm from centre to get it to balance. As it's across the chord, it is hard to see how you could place enough lead at the hub! My motor was also shaking itself to bits. I suggest you use a simple means to check balance (lawn mower cone type balancer, or preferably the pivot point adjustable hang type) to see if it is out an extreme amount. If it is, and it's relatively new, then contact the maker. If it is out by a small amount then the spray laquer and/or material removal tricks should suffice, or for piece of mind get someone to do it. I wouldn't put a new prop on without checking balance again. I'd be interested to learn if yours is similar to mine. For information, the cost of sending to Romania was £35 with Parcelforce. Steve

Hi All. I suspect my relatively new prop to be slightly out of balance. I'm getting cage vibration (a sort of zinging noise) that I can't remember getting with previous (overpitched) props, and my risers are shaking like mad. I've ordered a simple cone type lawn mower blade balancer, and I'm knocking up a hang type balancer. My question is - what type of laquer/varnish should I use to fine balance and how is it best applied - aerosol or brush? I'd like to varnish it anyway as it came from the manufacturer with a poor finish. It looks as though it had been laid on a surface when varnish wet. Many thanks. Steve

That's interesting. I've taken a look at tomorrow's chart. East anglia has a line of strong thermals at the coast. I guess this must be the cooler sea air being forced aloft as it meets the warm land mass? The times given are 1230 (midday). Is there any indication of how the thermals drop during the day - specifically the last 3 hours? Ah - Just noticed the time bar on the right. Very useful. All goes a nice shade of blue during the last 3 hours. Steve

Ah. Now if you can find an answer to that I will be most impressed! I too have the same filter orientated vertically and it runs almost dry. I can only imagine that there is either a pick-up tube inside the paper element which runs close to the base of the filter bowl, or the fuel runs up inside the paper element without escaping into the bowl. I also get streams of bubbles occasionally from the filter to the carb and there is definately no leaks at the joints or in the filter (I have pressure tested the line). After changing ny fuel line/filter set up multiple times, the best advice I can give is that if it runs ok - forget about it! Steve

You can take it off, or run 1/4" tube. I prefer 1/8" ID tube to the carb as it seems to help with bubbles. I use the Bing blue alcohol resistant stuff as I find Tygon too soft. It's transparent so that you can see the bubbles and get paranoid about them like me!

The barb on the carb takes a 1/8" ID tube. The general set-up is to run 1/4" ID to an in-line filter, then 1/8" ID from the in-line filter to the carb.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Standard-Tiny-Tac ... 27b9e62ef6 I think most of us use the Tiny Tach

No. It's a 8 litre Go-kart tank similar to the one originally fitted. The only one I could get from PAP was the new 13l tank which was expensive, and I don't really need it to be that big. I had to drill a hole on the back to insert a bolt - but no big deal. I've run the motor now after all the work. It is better, but still the idle revs drop from 2500rpm to 1900rpm after blipping throttle, but it slowly picks up again. I think I'll leave it now, as long as it doesn't stall. Steve

You lucky man! I went down to Walton to watch the waves batter the coast and the seagulls flying backwards. Steve

Thanks Colin. I'm at Colchester though so a bit of a trek from you. I've picked up a gauge, tee piece and check valve and I'll put something together. I've done all the work on the motor but not run it up yet. May have to wait until next weekend now. I'm hoping that the large spark plug gap was also the reason I never got full rpm as well - probably wishfull thinking! Steve

Thanks for replies. I’m using the poor weather to give the motor a good overhaul. Throttle cable routing looks ok, and it shuts off cleanly at the carb. I’ve removed the carb again and put a thin layer of sealant on the manifold gasket. I’ve changed the plug – I found that the current plug was put in without changing the gap (It was 0.75mm instead of 0.55mm), so may be significant. I’ve put a new metering spring in the carb (as well as the full rebuild items earlier). The fuel lines are being replaced with Tygon lines and the tank is being replaced with a new Kart type one (I damaged the old tank). The arms have been replaced with the alloy ones. I’d like to check the pop-off pressure but don’t have a gauge. I’ll see how I get on after that lot. Steve

I have a Top 80 with a very erratic idle. It can be anywhere from 1700rpm to 2700rpm for a given idle setting. It also stops if idle is low when I angle it over to put on my back. Apart from this it runs well. It only revs to 9100rpm but I think this is more prop related. I have just overhauled the carb with new diaphrams and bits (the machine is 5 years old but only 15 hours), and have played with the low mixture setting to no avail. Any ideas. Thanks Steve

I too have splattered cow poo on my wing. I saw a recommendation somewhere for Dri-Pak liquid soap flakes. It’s meant to be pretty benign stuff. I bought a bottle in Tesco and have removed a small area of poo with it by diluting and rubbing gently with a sponge. It has done a good job, and I’m considering giving the whole wing a once over. I’ve read conflicting reports on wing cleaning; from don’t touch at all, to immersion of the wing and lines in soapy water. Hopefully someone can enlighten us.

I have a question regarding bridle routing for my reserve. I have a PAP Top 80 with an overhead mounted Metamorfosi Conar reserve. The reserve has a very thick (about 1” dia) line protruding from it with a mallion at the end. This line is over 1ft long. I then connect this whenever the frame is re-assembled to the reserve bridle loop. I used to make the mistake of stuffing the line down the back of the harness, but it then has the possibility of fouling the starter pawls, or worse, the rotating metal prongs. I now use a Velcro cable tidy (from the back of the telly) to ensure that the mallion and line are secured to the frame. This seems ok, except that there will be a slight snatch on deployment. I would have thought that the best solution would be to have this thick line from the reserve packed in the reserve container with just the mallion protruding. Does anyone have any experience of the overhead mount with a Metamorfosi Conar reserve? Many thanks. Steve

If you are not fussed about a map, the Garmin foretrex 401is a great little gadget. It's tiny and has all the gps functions you need. Just need to put waypoints in from mapping software or manually from co-ordinates - Google earth etc. Can download track later to google earth. Currently £125 on Amazon.

I've just bought the CAA VFR 1:250,000 Southern England one for £19.99 delivered - Amazon. Steve

Ok. I needed to do my own homework and so I think I can answer my question! I’ve overcomplicated things because I used to fly PPL using ADF and VOR which you have to relate back to magnetic compass headings headings. With the magnetic compass turned off (it’s hopeless anyway), the “Heading” displayed on the gps is not really heading but track over the ground. So if I need to navigate to a waypoint, I can either choose to fly to a course line (fixed track from selected position) or a bearing line (a line which varies and gives a straight line to waypoint from wherever you are). The advantage of the gps derived heading to fly (track over the ground) is that it is the same as the course, or initial bearing and so automatically compensates for wind drift. In which case ignore your magnetic compass as you may be "pointing" in a completely different direction to where you are flying (depending on wind). At least I think that’s the case? This is a useful article: http://www.aeroexperiments.org/GPSsoar.shtml Now that I’ve got that straight, I’ll probably leave the thing on the ground and just enjoy flying!

I decided to take up Paramotoring early June of this year. I was sitting in the garden with a glass of wine feeling chilled, when one of them did a lazy turn above the house. There was a 2 minute thought process…. I have done nearly 600 skydives and got a PPL many, many years ago. I’d had the kids, and was now looking at this “aircraft” and yearned to be up there. What was stopping me? Well at 51 I felt like an old fart, but most of my bits appear to be working still, I didn’t have the cash but had a road and off-road motorbike in the garage that I could sell, or better still Tesco were doing a 12 month interest free credit card – I chose the later, well until it needs paying off anyway! Like most kids/men, I wanted to buy the kit immediately and so started looking. I also went along to see Alex at Braintree for instruction (which turned out to be one of my better moves)! I spent a couple of hours dragging a training wing around a windy field – or was it dragging me, and on the way home thought – is this really what I want to do? I was knackered, bruised, and had welts up my arms that looked like I’d been self harming. Well, I suppose I was. By time I was home I’d decided that I was not going to let a few metres of fabric beat me and continued my search for kit. Now I know I had the option to use Alex’s kit to train, and then be sure I was to stay in the sport and select the right kit based on knowledge and understanding. That is probably the way I would recommend to most, but I just don’t seem to be wired that way. I went to work on a Monday morning late June, and got an email from a mate showing me an add for a Pap Top 80 on Skyads. It had only just been placed on there. I looked at the STD phone code (01473) – Ipswich. I work at BT in Ipswich! By mid afternoon, it was mine. (Another good decision). Oh well. If I have a motor, I might as well have a wing. I spent more than I planned on the PAP, but it was very low hours and I was chuffed with it, but this left me with less Tesco ponies to spend on the wing. An Apco Thrust HP came up at the right price. Most said it was unsuitable for a beginner, an a couple said it was. I’ve always supported the underdog so I bought it! Then as usual I did my research after the purchase. I figured that with trims in, and no speedbar it was as safe as any other “beginner” wing, and the performance figures were similar to Revos and Synths. Anyway, I had convinced my self it was ok, and that is what matters. Off to the local field with my new wing! Perfect conditions. Bloody hell, why won’t this thing stay above my head. Back to Alex. There followed about 3 months of me watching every weather forecast, and nagging Alex senseless whenever reasonable weather was forecast. I kept my kit in the car, and would leave work early to do as many evening sessions as I could. The ground handling was going great until I tried it with 25kg of motor on my back. Common sense told me that this was not going to be possible. I could barely lift the thing of the ground let alone run with it! Anyway, I got to the stage of doing some ground runs with motor running and “trusting the thrust”. Most of these were in nil wind, and not having used my gym membership for some time, my heart started trying to beat itself out of my chest and my sweat glands went into overdrive. Then came the expensive run….. Alex had briefed me to run with the wing under control and not think about flying. (Don’t think about elephants!) The wing came up ok in a forward, I waddled off down the field like a duck on steroids, all felt well, so I squeezed more throttle. Christ, where did the ground go. I think that I felt safer away from it than on it, so I squeezed too much throttle and found myself at 30ft or so. I throttled back quickly, and the wing swung forward as I seemed to face the ground. Sod this, back on the throttle, oops, too much, off the throttle. Wow, that ground is rushing up fast, back on the throttle and crunch! A pendulum into the ground, which didn’t hurt me at all, but gave my wallet a slight bruising. I went home that night with a determination to crack this. Within a week I had a second hand prop fitted, thanks Alex, and had the hole in my tank repaired with a hot knife. I’m back in business – off to nag Alex The next few weeks were hard work, but really satisfying. I’d worked out where I had gone wrong and had gone through it all in my head. Surprising how much visualization helped me with it all. I spent one evening doing 4 or 5 powered hops, with a controlled descent and landing. It all went really well and I was looking forward to doing a circuit on my next session. The weekend was coming and the forecast was looking good! I started getting butterflies. I contacted Alex who replied “I can’t make this weekend, I’m flying in France”. Noooooooooooo! What am I going to do. Sunday afternoon came, the weather was perfect with a steady 5mph breeze and I was gutted. I then got a text from someone I’d met through a friend. He was going flying and I normally go along to do some ground handling. I took my kit along, did some ground handling and watched him take off into the sunset. Right, I’ll just try a powered run and not think about taking off. (Don’t think about elephants!). I set up for a forward launch and heaved the wing up. I glanced up – it was perfectly square and just about to overtake me. I squeezed on some throttle and walked forward. I eased a bit more throttle and everything started getting light. This was decision time, although, if truth be known, there was only one way I was going to go. UP! The next 5 mins was one of the most scary and magical moments of my life. A bit like my first parachute jump but without the paralyzing terror! I realized I was not on full throttle so gradually eased on some power and slipped back in my seat. This was easy enough but I did feel as though I was perched there. The harness has additional seta straps to lift up a lip for comfort, but there was no way I was going to let go of the brakes. As far as I was concerned holding them was keeping me in the air. I did 2 circuits of the field and came in for a perfect flare and landing. I landed much further up the field than I thought but the field was massive, so no problems. These wings glide a lot better than 7 cell skydive canopies! I think my skydiving canopy control – although a long time ago, made the flare instinctive. I was absolutely buzzing. I did one more flight before the sun set and went for the tastiest beer I’ve had! This Monday, I met up with Alex and completed my official 3 circuits which was equally enjoyable, but missing some of the terror! The beer afterwards still tasted good. I sometimes wonder whether I should have flown alone, but at the time, everything felt so right, and Alex had given me the training and confidence to go for it. I even managed to remember all the pre-flight and landing checks. Alex has a policy of making the ground to air transition as smooth and controlled as possible before the actually flying, with gradual throttle control and wing management and it certainly pays dividends. My thanks to him for getting me flying before winter proper, which was my goal. What’s the weather doing this weekend? Steve

Hi. I’ve just ordered a Garmin Foretrex 401 (price has come down to £124.00 on Amazon). I’m trying to get my head around how GPS units cope with the the fact that our heading is almost always different to our ground track? If I take the extreme example of flying into a 30mph headwind, heading north, (no I’m not about to do that), my ground track will be southerly at say 10mph. As the unit expects the display to be facing the direction of travel (as in a car) then it will show South at the top of the compass. Will I need to orientate the unit relative to my ground track for it to make sense? How will this affect the bearing pointer? The unit does have an electronic compass, but this is notoriously unreliable, and in any case I think it is over-ridden by the GPS compass over a certain speed. Also, what is the best way of entering waypoints into it, other than manually by Long/Lat? I can see ways of downloading waypoints and tracks to Google Earth or other software, but doing it vice-versa seems a lot more complicated. Thanks, Steve

Hi. I’ve just taken delivery of my Icaro Fly UL and I’m very pleased with it. Just wondered if it is possible to remove and replace the supplied ear defenders. Icaro’s website states it is virtually impossible. I guess they are screwed into some captive bolt set up built into the padding?