phil1975

Here is a short video of my first flight on MY Bulldog yesterday. http://vimeo.com/27861450 The new motor is working well & we had a good flight around Guildford which was really enjoyable. It seems almost sad to say it but I suppose this is the end of the road for the training blog. Looking forwards to posting future video's etc with the big boys now! A big thank you to Steve & also to everyone for the positive comments on the blog... If you're thinking of giving Paramotoring a go, just do it - you will NOT regret it!

Thanks for the positive comments. I've spent so long reading everyone else's posts (they helped keep my interest going when I was saving for the kit), hopefully mine can do the same for someone else! Just to keep the story going a bit more... Here she is Looking forwards to my first flight tomorrow morning, followed by as many as i can squeeze in over the next few weeks. Weather is looking good so fingers crossed

That's my kind of chick, if only I were 50 years younger. But then again she may still be presentable??

I'll be in the area (on holiday) between Saturday (20th) & the following Thursday. Would be good to meet some of you for a couple of flights. Hopefully the weather will do what it's forecast to - looks like some good weather heading our way!

No. Have been annoying Steve asking when it's going to be ready as I'm itching to go flying. Looks like tomorrow is the day, which will give me a couple of days to run it in before the weather picks up again. I've got 2 weeks off work, so I can chase the good weather & go enjoy myself. How's the training going? Am guessing you have your motor now, so not long before you're flying?? Will have to meet up for a jolly sometime soon.

Wow. Impressive, so does it actually make pies too or is it just for flying??

Count me in for this, looks like it could be a winner!

mmmmmmmmm pies Now I'm interested Where, when ???

stevo0000, I wouldn't even start to look at kit before you're well into your training. I THOUGHT that I knew what I needed but this totally changed & I ended up buying something totally different! Any decent instructor will have kit for you to use to get you started. Then if you decide Paramotoring is for you then you can buy something suitable! Could be very expensive buying the wrong equipment.

I would rather the sport remain deregulated, but at some point (living in such a nanny state) it seems likely to happen at some point. If that's the case then surely we should pre-empt it happening. If we do so then it may help to avoid the issue at all? As I'm sure you know from reading my posts I'm new to the sport & still looking in from the sidelines to a degree, but the following seem like a start to me? 1. If PPG instructors were to sit down together (putting all personal agendas to one side) & agree a standardized syllabus surely that could only be beneficial & not too difficult to put into place. An example is the PMC syllabus itself, which was not a walk in the park (especially the exam), but I now feel fully informed & ready to fly safely. This could be taken to the BMAA to demonstrate the high level of training that we have CHOSEN to undergo before taking to the skies (& if regulation were to happen could only help ease the transition as the trained pilots could be more quickly & easily identified). Everyone going through that training would be known to be at the same, high standard. I know there is no requirement to have any training but by undergoing some form of recognised, standardised training we are demonstrating our willingness to fly safely. I would assume that no one would be particularly happy to fly with an untrained pilot & site restrictions would be easier to apply making it harder for new untrained pilots to fly in those circumstances. 2. Wing registratiions. Although I am against this, it's something else we could start to do ourselves now on a voluntary basis, avoiding the beaurocracy (& hopefully a lot of the expense). We could start to hold a register of wing markings (I'll volunteer to do it myself if anyone wants to do it). Who says they need to be 4/5 letters or expensive? Could we not come up with a bulk deal with a wing marking company whereby we had any name or logo (company logo, training school name etc) of OUR CHOICE put on at a reasonable cost. At least WE would then have the say in how this works & the system would be much cheaper than if something were forced upon us? If we made ourselves identifiable surely it would not make any difference to us as everyone flies within the rules anyhow! And before you ask, yes I am seriously considering having something put onto my wing to identify me. Do we really need to do anything more at present? I think not. I know not everyone will agree with this. I'm just throwing my thoughts out there, but I would think that just doing the above we would not be ruining the sport but we would be showing a willingness to go out of our way to keep the sport as safe as possible & doing it on OUR terms. This would hopefully keep things as they are now without the evils of red tape, pink cotton wool & the huge expense that, I think we all agree, could kill the sport off & isn't something anyone wants.

I have reached the end!! Or maybe I should say the start?? I went over to Steve's house to sit my written exam this evening. I've had my head in the books over the past couple of days to try to cram everything in so I was as well prepared as I could be. I thought steve was joking when he said the exam was 100 questions (OK maybe I wasn't that prepared), but very quickly learned that he wasn't! I have never written so much in such a short time & am now nursing an aching hand. I have to apologize to Sarah for taking so long & leaving her without a fiancee to sort her dinner when she arrived home from work! However all's well that ends well & I managed to pass (despite annoyingly managing to completely forget a couple of really basic things - don't you hate it when you know something in your head but just cannot find the words). Fortunately I also managed to drag a couple of answers right from the back of my mind & actually impressed myself that I had got a couple of the answers after staring hard enough at the wall for long enough. I have got to wait a few weeks (busy time at work coming up) then hopefully the arrival of my motor will coincide with my sumer holiday & I will be able to get out & flying. If anyone in Surrey or Wiltshire doesn't mind flying with a newcomer then it would be great to be able to meet some new friends & start flying with some of you out there. Thanks to Steve for his patience with my verbal diahorrea, rapidly failing brain & lack of flaring but still safely getting me into the air. Really happy tonight!

Another thing I've been waiting years to do ... post a film of me flying!!! http://www.vimeo.com/25940738

Cubix don't give up. It does get better. I was scared sh**less the first time I went up & I don't mind admitting that. It's something that the sensible bit of your brain tells you is wrong. But you learn to have confidence in the kit after a few goes. Landings took me much longer to get the hang of than they should have, but I just couldn't compute what to do to get them right - All credit goes to Steve here for explaining what was going wrong & trying to coax me through my mistakes. One of the things I did was bell ringing on final approach (I think this is quite common in beginners & is something you do because you're nervous), which sounds like what you were doing too. Basically this sets you up for a bad landing, I also found it a struggle to judge the landing as it just seemed that bit too fast for me to be able to cope with, this is partly because i have a Synth which is apparently quite a fast landing wing (It's all i've ever flown so I have nothing to compare it with). Despite all this once it starts to come together it's a really fantastic feeling & totally addictive, but It's really something you need a good instructor to help you work through & well worth spending the money on. On the flying side I was fortunate enough to be able to get a second go at my nav task tonight & I was in the mood to nail it this time. Had an awesome flight & really enjoyed the views (also found my way around OK). Steve joined me for a while & it was quite a surreal feeling to be floating along at 1000 feet with someone else up there for company. My wife came down to the field too to see what this Paramotoring that I've been boring her rigid with is like, so no pressure to get the dreaded landing right (almost, but at least it was on my feet). That's all the flying side of things done so i just need to get my head into the books & revise for the written exam, then I'm signed off. Then It's the wait for the Bulldog to arrive before I'm free to join the rest of you for some quality flying.

As I am now realistically approaching the end of my training I'm starting to look at where I could fly from & also to meet up with some local pilots. I work in Surrey so Steve Haze is sorting me at this end, but I live near Bath so I am just putting out the feelers to see if there is anyone who flies near there or somewhere reasonably local for the times I am back at home. I remember seeing a youtube video of someone flying near Bradford on Avon - anyone on here?? I live right next to a site that would be a fantastic flying site - I'm just waiting to fully complete my training (tomorrow, fingers crossed) before approaching the owners to see if they would be happy to let people fly from there. Looking forwards to meeting some new faces in the near future.

That looks awesome, special mention to the bloke taking cover at 0:23 & the other quickly trying to gather his wing at 1:17 - both of which made me giggle. Also loving the soundtrack - bringing back memories of Kevin & Perry. Am so doing a bunk off work & coming down to the next fly in!

Well the day has finally come when I managed every landing on my feet!!! ( all 6 of em - might have been 7, I was enjoying myself too much to care really!!). The Bulldog lives on. This morning was a bit too gusty for me to go up & judging by how much Steve was getting hit by the gusts when he went up to test the air I was more than happy to stay on the ground. The sun was out, so as I slowly started to burn myself to a deep lobster red, I was treated to some classy entertainment involving 2 of the other trainees running down the field, one under a wing & the other discovering he could run backwards at speed, trying to have a race to a soundtrack of "run Forrest RUN' & "oh look I can run backwards as well". As the wind slowly started to die down I started to get set up for some more practice flights. I honestly can't remember how many I did (think it was 4 but could have been 5), but I did manage to land every one of them on my feet - so at last I seem to be getting the idea. About bloody time - I could almost hear Steve sigh with relief each time. I also managed to land on a variety of spots on the field, none of which were quite where I had aimed to be, but again I was starting to get closer - apparently landing at the bottom of the field, running to the correct spot & then dropping the wing doesn't count? There were some balloons starting to appear in the distance so Steve let me go for a bit of a potter around with my GoPro on which was just fantastic & one of the things that I have always wanted to do since I first decided to take up paramotoring. I also managed to let the trims out, zoom around at high speed for a bit, bring the trims in & come in for my best effort at hitting the correct landing spot yet. I'm really chuffed with that video! My final flight was a stab at the navigation task which taught me that I really need to learn to program my GPS, however I wasn't upset as I should be that I made a complete cock up because I had a completely awesome 20-30 minutes of pottering around a beautiful piece of calm,sunny sky counting the hot air balloons (8 of them!!) & just taking in the view. I will have a better attempt next time though. Overall I managed to achieve everything that I had hoped to & then some, in absolutely beautiful conditions. The beer is now cracked open & I am listening to my face slowly sucking in vast amounts of after sun cream. I will be going to sleep tonight a happy man.

I couldn't believe that it's almost been a month since I last managed to get off the ground. At last the run of bad weather has let up so I quickly managed to haggle another couple of days off work so that I could get back under a wing. It was also good to catch up with some recognizable faces that are now starting to become a bit more familiar. My first flight this morning felt like my first ever flight & was a great lesson in how not to do it - it was a major step backwards & not a great start to the day. Steve kept going with me though & put me back up straight away & after a few more flights things were starting to gradually click again. At least by the time I'd finished I had managed to stop landing on the motor, my knees & anywhere else I wouldn't recommend & was no longer using my face as a brake. I'm now being left to my own devices a bit more when it comes to taking off & planning my landings. Take offs are something I seem able to do reasonably well, it's just the landings that I've really got to get nailed down, so I know where I have to concentrate the hardest. Paramotoring, more than anything else I've ever done, is definitely something you have to keep doing as much as possible to keep at a proficient level. The afternoon was spent on Epsom Downs, where the wind conditions were perfect. It was a real confidence booster to be able to really get a grip of the wings & prove to myself that I could still control it. Now that my brain is in the right place I'm looking forwards to another good day flying tomorrow.

All I've heard is good things about the fly in. Hopefully I'll be through my training & have my kit so I can fly in & see what everyone is talking about!

Steve, I think you can. I remember reading something about doing it on mine. Is this what you're after?? http://www.brauniger.com/download/IQ-CO ... 4005_E.pdf Last sentence on page 17 & first paragraph of page 18 (sensor correction) How sad is that I'm turning into an anorak.

Bob, I have been keeping a training blog which I have been keeping up to date as my training progresses. This is still progressing as I do. I am more than happy to chat about my training/Paramotoring in general, just PM me. Phil

I'm training with Steve at the moment. Look forwards to meeting you. Hopefully the weather will sort itself out soon. Phil

Yeah, loving the photo's! Can't wait to be taking some myself. Fingers crossed for the weather to sort itself out so we can get signed off & start joining trips like this!

Hi Nigel, I'm learning with Steve Haze at the moment. If you want any info or have any questions I'm happy to give you my side of things, just PM me. Phil

Cool It'll be good to see you again Steve. The flying just gets better & better (not so much me, but the enjoyment). I'll try to add some photo's if I can get it to work, Computers are not my strong point. Here we go ...

Today was the second day we spent down Barry's field, however the perfect conditions of yesterday were not quite so perfect today. I still managed a couple of flights this morning. My total number of flights is now just into double figures, so a little milestone reached. I'm now also over 50% successful at landing on my feet, but to be honest I think Steve's being a bit generous here, however I'll take it (one today was a bit of a stumble). Today's first mission was a mid air engine restart which went without a hitch & actually didn't scare me as much as I thought it might, my trust in the equipment is increasing more & more every time I fly. Flight 2 & Steve told me that I was to try to plan my own approach, which is actually a lot easier said than done: Attempt 1 & I erred on the side of caution & had a nice high altitude pass of the field. Attempt 2 was too short & was a nice low level pass of the field (a foot drag was tempting). Attempt 3 & I think Steve was getting worried that I might run out of fuel soon (I started with plenty), & that the thermals were starting to kick off so he talked me downas he could see that one getting ballsed up too. Still at least I landed on my feet! Both today's take offs were reverse launches, my first flights taking off like that & both went fairly well. So overall a lot of good experience gained. It was also more lively in the air than I had felt before but this was actually really enjoyable & added to the whole flying experience for me. The rest of the day was spent ground handling the Synth & having a play on the mini wings (such good fun!) & working on my tan. The weather isn't looking too good for a while now so it looks like I'll be grounded for a bit, so I'll take the opportunity to get lots more ground handling practice in until the weather becomes flyable again, fingers crossed that happens soon. I'll see if I've got any decent photo's & bung then on here too.