Patrick1

Thanks so much for this - legendary!

I'm going to start running the motor in this evening, hopefully I'll be able to fly at the weekend. I'll let you know how I get on.

I would wade in if I were you. Whoever is supposed to be serving the UK doesn't seem to be very visible or pro-active. I looked around the internet for a few hours trying to work out how to buy one and sent emails in various directions. Eventually, I contacted the factory and asked how to buy one in the UK, they sold me one but didn't mention a UK dealer and there are no links to anyone in the UK that I could find on their site.

There must be space for more than one dealer to hold their stock.

In the mean time, it's actually quite a good exercise, my parajet was totally squared away when I got it and they even fitted the reserve for me. Going through the process of putting this mini plane together is forcing me to get to know it a bit better. It's actually only the exhaust and harness that I've had to connect but for a techno biff like me, that's a major challenge!

I've already got the machine - I'm sure I'll cope, there's plenty of online resource and it aint rocket science.

I actually found it quite hard to get my hands on one - I bought straight from the factory in the end, there doesn't seem to be a UK dealer, not that I could find anyway. There was a guy in Ireland but he can't ship to the England.

So, just took delivery of a miniplane. Well, not exactly a miniplane, more a box of components that are spread across my living room.

There are no assembly instructions but I think I've worked out how to put it together using various online resources and youtube video's but I have a couple of questions:

Prop - I have a prop, a large spacer a small disk and a rubber disk. I'm assuming I put the large spacer in, then the prop, then the disk, then put the screws in but is that right? And where does the rubber disk go?

Harness - I've got the standard miniplane harness, how do you attach the bottom of the harness to the bottom of the frame? There are two small straps with plastic buckles that I've wrapped around the frame which looks alright but I am not sure if that's 100% correct.

Whilst I'm putting it together, I'd appreciate any other advice or common mistakes - I've read that you should never try and start it without the spark plug in (or earthed) and I've also worked out what the random bottle of oil is for (gear box fluid), anything else I should know?

Thanks!

The fly in sounds good but my best mate has selfishly picked that weekend to get married!

If you want some smoke, this is the stuff: http://www.chutingstar.com/skydive/skydiver-smoke

Thanks for posting - it would be easy to pretend that didn't happen but this will help the rest of us avoid doing the same so good for you and thanks.

However, maybe this wasn't such a bad landing, you are ok, your machine is ok and you missed the fence, I'd classify that as a success

Nice practical question! So, my relatively ill educated thought process goes like this; cumulous clouds means thermals, I'm guessing the thermic conditions are contributing something to the gusts - all in all lots of moving air. I'd be concerned about ground rotor low down, increased turbulence higher with rising/falling air threatening a bumpy ride and with the wind gradient meaning more wind speed at altitude, I would worry I would be flying backwards at a safe height. If it was afternoon, I'd wait for the wind to calm down as the thermals cooled.. If it was morning I would pack up as conditions are only going to decline. I wouldn't write the whole day off though.. Am I close? Or do I need to read up on my met?! Great exercise btw Simon!

I think it's about time I got the reserve re-packed.. Does any one know of a re pack event coming up? Or failing that, does anyone else on here want to club together and pay for someone qualified to do a mini repack session?

If I popped my reserve tomorrow, I'd half expect a family of mice to come tumbling out with a moth eaten rag close behind them.. It's been a while!

I had an engine out on my previous but one flight but I was at 500 feet above familiar ground so it was okay - my spark plug cable had popped off.

This was my last flight - skip to the last 60 seconds, I nearly ploughed into my friends on landing! I was actually quite chuffed with the level of accuracy.. though next time I will pick a spot to the flank of where people are watching!

Outstanding post! We've all had flights like that. The key points are a) you're okay and b) you've acquired more knowledge.

When things go wrong it feels scary as hell but you probably weren't actually in that much danger - stiff drink, a bit of analysis and move on.. and if you can share on here, so much the better because it gives us all a laugh but also means we can learn from your mistake too.

I try and learn something from every flight and it's the dodgy flights that yield the most learning..

I think it was my very first 'solo' flight when I heard a 'thwack thwack thwack' coming from behind me, it was the strap from my reserve which had become loose, slipped through my cage and was bouncing off of my prop... mental pictures of my semi severed reserve getting deployed by mistake first time up.

Hi Simon,

I had something very similar a couple of years ago. I have a Volution Macro and I had smoke coming from the inside of the electrical compartment - I was on the ground at the time.

Now, forgive my lack of appropriate vocabulary, I don't know what the bit was called but the top left hand side of the electrical compartment as you look at it has a small sealed metal box with houses some wires/junctions and 'ting - I think it feeds power to the starter motor. In my case, this was where the smoke was coming from and it was the plastic coasting on the wiring melting.

I think what was happening was too much electricity flowing through the wires and the plastic coating on the wiring was melting, causing smoke. There was NO flames. At the time, I was having problems with a faulty starter motor and I was turning the starter motor over quite a lot so I wonder if what ever regulates the voltage got fried and gave up. I would point out that the smoke continued until I disconnected the battery, turning the on/off switch didn't stop it.. in retrospect I wonder if there was a short circuit somewhere, a loose wire perhaps.

Anyway, I'm not very technical so I simply sent it back to Parajet and they fixed it for me and I'm 99% certain they didn't charge me.

I did wonder if there was any serious risk if that was to occur at 5,000 feet, and I'd welcome your thoughts. My Personal assessment was that it would be unlikely to occur after take off, it happened the second I started the engine. I also think I'd have noticed the smoke and landed very quickly. If I was in the air and hadn't noticed it, I don't think it likely to cause any burning and would have stopped once the plastic had melted.. though I guess there could be sparks from non insulated wires.

I'd be interested to see if your issue came from a similar cause and your thoughts.

Not surprised that shook your confidence. I had a lot of problems early on with my machine but it was a case of not starting rather than dying. You want to focus on the flying the wing and worrying about your engine is a distraction.

Does anyone here fly near Barmouth? Do you get many restrictions or regular notams?

Last time I was there I noted quite a bit of fast jet activity in land and an raf runway along the coast.. I wondered how welcome ppg's would be. V nice bit of coast line though.

Thought this was worth sharing, I had an engine out last weekend.

The spark plug cap pinged off midflight. It's a standard pre flight check but worth being extra vigilant if you are flying low or over water where loss of power might be less than helpful.

My spark cap has a rubber collar to hold it over the spark plug, the collar stayed in place on the spark plug but the cap became unstuck from its rubber collar.

Thankfully, I had a good instructor who suggested that one should always fly in anticipation of an engine failure and I tend to avoid low altitude and water. I glided to a perfect halt near a road and called home for a pick up!

Apart from this, my only other engine failure was running out of gas over a beach in Wales earlier this year which was semi intentional, trying to squueeze a few more minutes out of my tank!

Anyone else have any engine failure stories?

Hi,

I fly near Basingstoke, there are quite a few wings around the area.

I enjoyed reading the write up on the last one. I'd be keen to join the flight but might be too light on experience this summer. Keep us all posted.

Thanks,

Some excellent advice! Much appreciated.

Thanks Dave,

Appreciate your quick answer.

Hi All,

I'm relatively new to the sport and am just finding my feet, I have a question on my recent landing site selection.

I was flying on Wednesday evening in pretty benign low wind conditions, after a relatively short flight, about 10 minutes, I landed on a cricket pitch with plenty of space. Happy to report is was a sound landing and no problems. However, I over-flew my anticipated landing spot by about 30 metres which meant I was landing within the rotor shadow of a tree line. Basically, I was landing into wind with trees in front of me.

I wanted to ask how dangerous this is? It was almost still air so the risk would have been reduced but if I did the same thing again in a slightly stonger wind, it strikes me that I could risk an asymmetric frontal collapse as I enter the rotor shadow when I'm pretty low?

I'm content that I should always avoid landing in rotor zones - that's not in question but I'm interested in measuring how much risk I'm exposing myself too in this context?

Before you ask, I have trained with a BHPA instructor and have also emailed him to ask advice and yes, will be doing some continuation training over the summer.