alan_k

Open air recreation was a bit bumpy this afternoon surprisingly, but very enjoyable all the same. Lots of smoke in the air, no real surprise given the date.

The Bailey V5 is about 20hp, the Moster is 25hp. Generally the 2 strokes will be lighter in weight also. The new EOS 4 stroke is I believe 26hp but is an unproven machine up to yet.

Hi Andy, hope you get to train soon and find that you love it. At your weight I would suggest a 4 stroke is underpowered, I have both and the extra power of the 2 stroke Moster is quite noticeable, giving a much stronger climb rate. I am 2 stone lighter than you so things are in my favour for the lesser powered 4 stroke V5, which I prefer to fly.

Well done on good control Andy, can't be particularly easy for you. Can be surprising what can cause an out, or switch off in this case. On a previous motor I had a very light action kill switch, I took off from a slightly muddy side of a grass runway with a bit of mud on the throttle. Shuffling around in the harness to get more comfortable at height I unknowingly caught the kill switch and the mud held it down. Only found out once landed.

One - Two. One - Two.

Hi Chris, myself and Geoff my flying buddy have done a lot of searching to the West of the Birmingham area with limited success. It is an ongoing quest to try and find a site that could be used by a group of pilots. We both have a personal site but with strict restrictions to numbers for noise/annoyance/conspicuousness reasons. Understandably we don't want to lose these sites.

All noted Stu, not flown in mountainous area but understand the vagaries. I don't fly over water and always check Notams, I wonder how many PPG'ers actually do?

Did the air pressure change during your flight? However that is quite a change (30 feet per millibar aprox).

Sounds like a plan. Geoff my flying buddy has also expressed interest. Just taken this from the North Coast 500 site, I was not aware of this. ‘Wild Camping’ under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 is only allowed when camping by foot, bike or other non-motorised transport. It DOES NOT apply to motorised vehicles such as campervans or motorhomes.

Very interested Andy, keep me in the loop.

Good result, there is a flyer fairly local who has done the same.

Take on the mindset that you 'run into' the air, not 'being lifted'. Put another way don't stop running until you are actually airbourne.

Fuel mixing isn't super critical, the best container to measure the oil is a baby's feeding bottle, as these have to be accurately marked by law. Putting 100ml into a 5 litre petrol container gives you a fuel mix of 2%. Regarding how to start with ground handling I would strongly recommend that you travel to meet a proficient pilot or instructor to get the basics face to face.

No, I have replaced one already on this machine last year (hence I'm getting ticked off). You need to pull the rotor off which is the difficult part, then all is revealed. Bailey fitted a new one recently and I have only had 5 hours flying, so I have sent an email.

Looking now like it is a stator coil failure (AGAIN, this is ticking me off big time). The resistance is only reading about 1/2 of its original resistance.

Well I suppose you could say they are all unexpected, but this one particularly so. I had found a failed plug on my last attempt to fly so had ordered a couple of spares and fitted one to the V5. Took off about 5:20pm and was expecting to have an hour and a half flight, lovely conditions. Had just fitted a brand new spark plug.About half way around felt a couple of little mis-fires, then a couple more. Thought I would go to max revs to gain more height, I was at around 1000 feet.Lots of misfiring up to max revs then 1 second later silence (To put in aviation terms the donkey stopped). This sounds terminal I thought, gave it one pull on the starter but nothing. I was near the river Severn so middle of nowhere, looked around for a farm house with at least a car outside, spotted one and a suitable field opposite. Adjusted to slow trims for max glide distance but still had loads of time to descend, a little S turn to get into the field safely and I was down.Folded the wing up then went and spoke to the farm occupants. Initially they were up for giving me a lift but then decided with the late hour the animals had to be fed before dark. No hassle, friendly people so I called my mate Geoff and he came and rescued me. I am guessing the new plug has failed, I will be investigating later.Now there is a tale for round the camp fire in the future.

That is quite a surprise Andy, just wondering if you are much below the rated weight and what sort of weight of water you took 'on board'?

When I was under tuition I asked the instructor about the layers and clothing in general. His reply was you can never be too wrapped up when you are at height. So far I can't contradict that, in 12 years I have flown in shorts twice

Congratulations on the kit. Fresh Breeze is a well respected make, I had an earlier one as my first motor. A memorable phrase as said by an instructor 'when kiting don't f*ck with the wing, make love to it'. What he meant was use smooth inputs on the controls, hope you get the feel for it quickly.

I'm sure you know this Andy but for the benefit of the newbies: I always have it in mind that when the temperature is high the power output is reduced a little due to less dense air. It is noticeable given the same TO wing/configuration.

Stunning, quite jealous really.

Unfortunately you could be a bit under for your all up weight. You are only allowing 36kg, that needs to include motor, wing weight, clothing, instruments, reserve et al. You would need a Universal 31, fortunately modern wing designs are a lot easier to handle.

Learn about the weather and fly in benign conditions is the safest bet. In 559 flights I have never had even so much as a wing tip tuck. I am probably on the cautious side of piloting but still absolutely love it. I have only suffered minor cuts and bruises in all my time flying and usually learn something from the fact.

The head is generally a good bit below the top of the cage, so I would think there shouldn't be a problem.

I use a BHPA logbook more intended for free flight, even though I am not a member of the BHPA. I record flight number (currently 559), date and time of launch, wing, place of launch, motor type, flight duration and total hours. Rough description of area flown, anything interesting/unusual and finally max height. Good to have a reference of all your flights.