Trickyh

Excellent customer service Clive

Excellent post Carmen. Sorry I missed the Fly-in but I was in Morzine at the time. It sounds like you handled a difficult situation with a cool head and should be commended for it. All good experience on the road to being a full on pilot

It does look awesome! what a great place to fly It does look very awesome, but we cannot fly there as Gary 'Funboy' Freefly OWNS IT and we require his permission first

more fool you then m8... how many have gone bang due to polini's QA or owners not having a clue what they are doing with carb jets and needle settings?

I took that pic, and I can tell you for sure that he was doing a climbing spiral at that angle from launch I had never seen it done before, but the pilot only weighs about 65-75kg with a sodding great Polini 200 on his back! T.

I guess that we would require the requisite insurance (BHPA or other) in order to compete at this event as a team Chilly?

@Donnie Don't forget we're flying Leper and the Somme next year mate! Rich Happy New Year to all!

PM sent

For wings you have to factor in a once every two year check with the manufacturer or one of the independants (The Loft, Aerofix etc) £50-£80 including shipping. The rest of the costs depends entirely on the type of flying you end up doing and even where your flying from, as nice soft grass is far gentler than stubble fields surrounded by barb wire! Biggest unexpected costs seem to come from broken props, serious engine failures or engine problems which are hard to diagnose. Good dealer / manufacturer support comes into it's own when you are trying to diagnose a niggly motor problem which prevents you from flying Engines can let go at any time, but obviously the more hrs you put on it increases the chances of this happening. Some motors rev less and are better at dissipating heat, so they'll have an easier life than a high revving racing motor. 2-strokes are more likely to go bang than a 4-stroke, but are 'generally' easier to repair. You will often hear horror stories of engines letting go at 15hrs, but most modern motors will go waaaay beyond that if looked after with the right oil etc... I think of paramotor 2-strokes as big model airplane engines (which I spent most of my miss-spent youth stripping down, flying into the ground etc) so most maintenence jobs/problems don't phase me. HTH! Rich

I am selling my Kobra Polini 110 on fleabay if anyone is interested in taking a look at it.. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251187625590?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649 Really nice strong and light machine with active swing arms and low hrs Polini 110 motor with spare carb and flash starter. Only selling it as i'm upgrading to a motor with a bit more oomph (but more weight) Open to sensible offers, so pm me if interested Rich

Hmmmm I wonder, if he had said narcissistic it would be a dead cert!! Quote// Incidentally, after spending time with this instructor I have come to see him as a dangerous psychopathic liar. He lied about the "accommodations." He lied saying the Mexico trip was explained on his web-site, (A simple search of the web-site did not find the word "Mexico" on any page). He lied about why one of his instructors quit one day into the training. He lied about the number of instructors he had. In addition to these (and other) lies he was running a business out of a rented beach house in San Diego without a license. The students were told NOT to use the word "instructor" publicly to mask the fact that he was operating illegally. I could list other lies and describe his wild unsafe hot-dog driving stunts in Mexico, but the list would be too long.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2236857/Daredevil-stuck-tree-hours-Somerset-crashing-paramotor.html

I think its about 60hrs (?) and you are right, you do get used to it... One day they will make a perfect powermotor (but it wont have Bailey written on it!)

No they don't, as the Walbro doesn't use the rubber manifold at all and mounts directly to the reed valve via a thick gasket.. TBH I'm thinking of moving back to the Walbro as the advantages (slightly more progressive throttle / better fuel consumption) don't outweigh the negs (can't lay the motor on its back for transport without draining the float / quitting when picking up the risers / splitting manifolds) Unfortunately I modded the throttle cable so its harder to change back Rich

Change it out m8... They only cost about 12quid from Parajet (or other dealers) and take 5mins to change. Luckily I noticed mine had gone when it was still on the ground as I couldnt start it. so it must have been on its way out during the previous flight.. Double check that the air box top support (tie wrap and fuel tube in my case) doesn't put undue stress on the manifold as I think that is what did my one in It's part of my pre-flights and I now check it carefully as part of my routine.. This isn't unique to Polini as anyone familiar with Rotax 912's will know these go regularly as well but they charge you a LOT more for the privelidge!!

According to this months Paramotor mag the GTX is going to be a dedicated cross country wing .. max stability with minimum input.. So prob the opposite of what you're after Carl. How about a Hadron? I reckon we need a demo day m8

I'm still out near St Albans Dave... I just got back from an amazing week of beach flying in Southern Spain... There 'might' be something happening North of our great county m8... PM me for deets

August to November is when I did the bulk of my training... The biggest problem are the shorter days, there's nothing more annoying than getting thru those first powered runs and thinking the next one you're gonna go for it and run out of light Start getting good at reading weather sites like xcweather, rasp tables, metar/taf etc. Its not as critical to get the weather spot on when your training as the majority will be on the ground anyway (well it should be!). Your instructor will know when you are ready and know when the conditions are right to let you go on that all important first flight Its important that you AND your instructor are available at fairly short notice and be in a position to take advantage of weather windows. Theres nothing more frustrating than having an ideal set of days come up, arrange work around it and find your instructor has effed off! (i suppose they might have lives...) but I wasted 6 months chasing after a bloke (not Simon!)who was never available and eventually binned him for another outfit who were absolutely brilliant Rich

Hi Darren Welcome m8! Hope you mean Hang test and not Hand test! Us paramotoring lot get very squeamish about hands in props etc! Rich.

Bailey - One man band with a four stroke crusade out of Cambridge Polini - International motor manufacturer selling thousands of units worldwide with international dealer network (even my scooter shop down the road can get me Polini bits if needed) Bailey - Limited choice of frames and hang points Polini - 2011 figures showing 20 out of 60 independant manufacturers using Polini 110 (this is before the 200 was released) Source : Directory of free flight 2011 Bailey - 5600 pounds and up Polini - 3500 pounds and up depending on frame choice and manufacturer Bailey - 20.5 horses Polini - 110 version 20.5 horses Bailey - Crankshaft mod, carb mod, fuel tank mod, moving to fuel injection Polini - Exhaust manifold mod, Use extra locktight on screws Bailey - 15.8kg Polini - 110 weight 13.8kg (2x litres extra fuel for same all up weight) Bailey - Belt driven Polini - Helical geared reduction box with centrifugal clutch Bailey - Throttle from a modified bmx brake lever and lots of high quality heat shrink Polini - Bespoke lightweight injection moulded unit with optional CHT/Revs and hr meter HTH!

Yeah, his figures don't add up... 25 horses and 76lbs thrust I hope for his sake he means kilo's

I prefer clutched motors, and since moving from a Bailey (JPX) to a Polini, I find it an added bonus and was part of my decision process when opting for the Polini.. I never liked the fact that the Bailey was direct driven and was a bit of a beast on start up. The Polini clutch just makes things more refined. You wouldnt start a chainsaw or brush cutter without a centrifugal clutch would you ? Any negs would be extra complication and possibility of clutch slip when worn, but the Polini is a proven unit now. I do like dropping to idle and just let the prop windmill while sniffing out the odd thermal..

I've been following the development of this for a while. Ozone say it is going to be for a niche market only.. Mainly climbers and mountaineers who prefer the low weight (1,345 Kg in size 19) to the performance drop. That said, it was one of the many gliders which top landed Mont Blanc a couple of weeks ago! I think Ozone might release it to a wider market if the interest is there http://www.flyozone.com/paragliders/en/news/headlines/20544

Get into a routine and stick to it. ie just before launch, last check Boots Harness Caribeners zips trimmers speed bar helmet strap lines and brakes centred to the wing

Shamelessly lifted from another website, but best to get this out to as wide an audience as possible:- http://www.weatherweb.net/wxwebtvsimonnew.php?ID=456 This musing is of most interest to pilots who plan to fly late this evening or early on Saturday morning, but I hope that those of you who love meteorology will be fascinated by these features too. After a hot day during the spring and autumn months temperatures can fall quickly. This results in a inversion forming (where temperatures actually rise with height as opposed to the usual falling with height). Now, inversions are nothing unusual and they will form on most cool nights. What is different about the type of inversion that we will see tonight is the sharpness of the temperature gradient across it (~8C tonight). This sharp gradient tends to occur at very low levels, usually within the lower few hundred feet of the atmosphere. With the colder air at the surface being dense, and the warmer air above the surface being less dense, this gradient increases wind speeds markedly across the top of the inversion. Conditions across southern England are near perfect tonight for the formation of a sharp inversion. This will lead to an increase in wind speed in the first few hundred feet from the surface, perhaps to be in excess of 20kts; we call this a low level jetstream (LLJ). Now 20kts is not a particularly fast speed, but if a change in speed from say 1kt at the surface to 20kt at 100ft occurs, then this can cause particular problems for those need to fly within this zone. This puts balloons at particular risk, as it is these which need to fly when the winds are lightest, usually in the early morning and late evening. As the ground warms in the morning the inversion will collapse. We then sometimes feel this at the surface as a period of a few minutes of gusty winds, and those of you in southern England may feel that between around 8am and 9am on Saturday morning. For me I wouldnt like to launch into what seemed like calm air into a 20knt jetstream at 100ft! Safe flying this weekend guys!