Patrick1

I’m not convinced it’s really of interest to anyone outside of the forum to be honest. I’ve seen half a dozen cyclists go through my village this morning, same number of horses and a couple of motorbikes.. none of them should be out either but I doubt anyone is filing complaints or calling the press. To Jo public, they probably don’t see the difference between those activities and ours. In the scheme of things, a bloke alone in the corner of a field in the middle of no-where with a 2 stroke engine isn’t really a live issue for the uk population at the mo. Of course, that changes when same bloke chops his hand off on a prop and takes an icu bed which.. as I’ve mentioned that’s when you cross the line from rule bender to selfish c**t. On a positive note, I have noticed that there are no longer any walkers driving their cars out from the local towns, local lay byes and carparks are empty so the message is getting through. Though a house construction site near me is still crawling with trades and delivery vans. I guess they’ve got to eat.. Anyway, crappy weather means we are no longer missing out. Can’t fly anyway.

Kiwi K.. I’m confused, are you saying we should fly or shouldn’t? Get off the fence man.

I see that the police in Cumbria have been flying a drone around the lakes to see if people are out on the hills and publishing footage on twitter to raise awareness. Great idea, however, with police resources stretched thin, shouldn’t one of us shoulder the burden for them? It’s a major sacrifice, but if we mobilised pilots to fly around UK beauty spots with go pros, it might free police resources.

All very laudable and who could possibly disagree. In line with the current prevailing winds of self a sacrifice for the greater good, I did NOT fly this evening, despite the glorious weather I did NOT sneak a flight in. Had I done so, I probably would have discovered that there was a little too much wind aloft and landed back after a short 5 min flight. I would then probably have packed away and headed home for a pint. None of these things happened because, as I’ve said before, I’m better than you.

I’m willing to bet money that anyone who is thinking on balance, it’s best to stay on the ground will be flying by June.

..does look nice though doesn’t it. I mean, hypothetically, would be a lovely evening for a flight.

The dog walker sounds like a dick. Getting that close means he rather missed the point. We probably shouldn’t fly, I am in total support of BoJo policy. It works if we all join in. If you cant fly without going near anyone, without going to a fuel station for example, or rubbing shoulders in a tight car park or touching a gate then you should probably give it a miss. However, if you have a quiet little spot (and we all do don’t we?) and a fuel can in the shed then the separation thing isn’t an issue. Maybe just Sneak off and fill your boots. BUT be under no illusions, if you have to go into A and E or take an icu bed, you will have been selfish and everyone will call you a c**t. But there’s a potential solution to that too, don’t fly like a dick, don’t be a dell, don’t break anything and you won’t have to. Bit of context, I think people getting the tube to non essential jobs and company’s still insisting non essential staff come to the office (there are lots) is far more reckless than a cheeky bimble. I also think you pie eating fat boys, alcoholics and smokers are more likely to need Hospital support this summer than a ppg pilot. In conclusion, probably best not to but if you do, be even more careful than usual not to screw up. Its all good fun til you end up taking a hospital bed. I obviously did not sneak out of a hidden field and have a glorious hour long cross country this evening because I’m better than you.

Ok. Have thought about this and I will definitely NOT be flying at 4pm, I will de NOT be enjoying the empty blue sky, wind on my face, watching the deer bound across the fields below me, the golden sunset lighting up the tress and making the fields look like they are glowing. I will not sneakily land back, pack it all away and have a glass of wine in the garden. So, that’s clear then.

...also, food retailers being left open, does that mean I can I still get take away beers out of the back door of my local pub? Asking for a friend.

I’m inclined to go for it on the basis my field is v close to home and I go alone. However, my pause for thought is the idea that if I prang it and break a leg then I’d feel a proper selfish twat if I ended up in A&E..

Discuss.

You should consult your instructor but I did my ppg training on a hook2 10 years ago and bought one at the end of my course and still fly it. I think it’s a 27 or 28, I am just over 80kg on the bathroom scales and it’s absolutely fine. Being a bit heavy on the wing tends to make it more stable. As well as flying a hook 2 with paramotor I have also used it for paragliding and did an SIV course on it and found it very stable and well behaved, a good wing.

Reserves are for amateurs. Just kidding, though I do know someone who doesn’t bother with one. I would send your reserve to a professional packer such as ‘the loft’ to get it packed, see google. As for attaching it, what machine/harness do you have? What reserve do you have? Have you tried YouTube? I’m sure skyschool would talk you through it over a video or FaceTime call if they are out of country.

Very good question that I’ve thought about before. A lot of fixed wing aircraft are set up so if the throttle cable fails, it goes into full revs as the idea is to stay in the air until you can flick off the fuel and land. The paramotor engines I have seen are the reverse, If the cable snaps on my mini plane, the engine goes to idle. However, it’s a very useful thing to think through. Has this ever happened to anyone? I doubt I could reach the spark plug cable but I’d try.. or pull the fuel line out of the tank.. could possibly get hold of the fuel line near the filter. Throwing reserve would bring you down but would be foolhardy. The main issue is altitude, I think I’d just enjoy a long flight and use big ears and B-line deflation if I needed to reduce altitude from time to time.. I’ve done b-line deflation in glider but never under power but i suspect it would be the easiest way of staying low, anyone here tried it? Anyone tried big ears under power? If you have trims, letting them out would reduce climb rate too.. Spiralling to reduce altitude under full power is unadvisable, too much g force, risk of black out or losing control of the glider getting locked in. In conclusion, if I couldnt get the spark lead or fuel pipe, I’d style it out and reacquaint myself with b-line deflation technique.. Ps - choke on mini plane would prob kill engine or reduce power but mine is disconnected

My first engine had a good amount of power, helps to get you in the air and away from the ground quickly but once I knew what I was doing and had some experience, the overwhelming priority was low weight and high reliability so I switched, in my case to a top 80 mini plane which is a joy. However, in still air and on a hot day when I have a failed take off three times in a row, I do wish I had more power.

Of course some pilots fly 80cc MiniPlanes #justsaying

Hi Tony, Blue and white wing, that was the one. I was in the Mariners pub in Rock.. surely you weren’t at the next table?!

I’ve been down in Cornwall this week, the weather has been perfect but sadly, my gear is at home, apparently the dog and kids were more important.. anyway, I’ve been watching someone cruising along the Camel estuary for the past two evenings. Whoever you are, and you know who you are, you’ve been making me jealous..do you have any camera footage? The view must have been incredible.

The pilot who posted this on YouTube deserves praise, it’s by sharing these things that others learn. I hope he has a speedy recovery and at least he’s now got a cool story to tell in the pub. Watching the video, I honestly don’t think that was pilot induced in any way, it was a nightmare scenario and to some extent he was just unlucky. At the end of the day, he survived which is reassuring, however, it’s possible that there are some things that other pilots could do to mitigate and reduce the risk of this happening to them. - Height. Height is your friend, this gear generally sorts itself out if you have enough height and it gives you time to throw a reserve. Flying low is fun but comes at a cost so save low flight for benign conditions. - Glider. I don’t know what version of a sky flux he had, or if another glider would have behaved differently but generally speaking, a more advanced glider will be far less forgiving. Think carefully if you really need a more advanced wing. - Speedbar/trimmers. I have to confess, I don’t have trimmers and have no training on them so I’m willing to be corrected on this but assuming they behave like a speedbar, applying trimmers makes the wing less likely to collapse, but when it does go, it really will go. In the video comments, our man says he let the trimmers out and that would have made a collapse much more pronounced. To that end, don’t put trimmers out when low unless in clean air, even then, think twice. Again, height is your friend. - Conditions. The narrative on the video noted the wind at take of was benign but it got knarly quite quickly. That also appears to be the case on the chase cam which is all over the place. Bad air increases risk of a collapse. In summary; this was shitty luck and my worst night mare but even so, he survived so there. If you want to avoid a similar situation maybe fly higher, leave trimmers in if low, particularly if you are being bumped all over the place in bad air. I broke my back flying (pilot error, I was too low, it was only a minor fracture). My back surgeon gave me some good advice along the lines of, “don’t stop flying, most of the people I see fall in the shower, there’s risk in everything”.

Anyone fancy giving it a go this weekend?

You can also side slip a paramotor wing by first inducing a torque induced twist through sudden application of throttle and then pulling the opposite side steering line quite hard. This allows the wing to descend quite rapidly sure enough, Its a neat trick, but you can only ever do it once.

I once had a belt buckle pop open high up over the Alps. As I was already back in the seat it wasn’t really an issue but it was a bit disconcerting.

My advice would be to close your eyes.

Here we go.. I can’t help myself. It’s not so much the equipment as the person who sells it. Dude, us Brits are a bit subtle and no one on this forum likes to be a dick and speak Ill of people but... well, let me speak bluntly. Experienced folks will generally tell you that there are two people who you should probably avoid - Mr Dell schanz and Mr Fister. Both will say and do anything to make money from you, both have negative attention. Fister is just a little bit dodgy like a car salesman but dell is dodgy and dangerous. One sells fresh breeze, the other sells Flat top. Not sure there is any thing majorly wrong with either a fresh breeze or a flat top from a technical or safety perspective (though there are probably better machines out there) the issue is the people who sell them. Both these characters are good at marketing and get hold of newbies who buy their sales pitch (which is mostly total bullshit). Both make great videos which we all enjoy and I’m sure they both have some some happy students somewhere but they also have too many black marks and crossed too many people. Basically, I’d recommend avoiding their gear and training based on neg experiences of others.