ptwizz

Hi Kevin and welcome to the group. I am also just starting out. I've had 2 days training so far - see 'Pete's Progess' in training blogs. I'm travelling some way to train at a school which was personally recommended by my brother. In the absence of a compelling reason to pick a distant school, use one within easy range. If you can be available at short notice, you can take advantage of suitable weather and avoid long gaps in your training. Happy flying, Pete.

I came across a commercial product last year which was a wrist warmer (not specifically for flying) and was marketed as warming the blood entering the hands, obviously just marketing bullshit then. Yep. The body is quite good at keeping whatever heat it has within the important bits (core temperature). This is achieved by restricting blood flow close to the skin, reducing heat loss to the surroundings. You may have noticed (depending on your age etc.) that the blood vessels you can see just under the skin are all blue. These are viens, returning de-oxygenated blood to the heart and lungs. Arteries are located deeper in the tissue, giving support against internal pressure, protection from damage and insulation from cold. The wrist warmers probably have more effect due to filling the gap between glove and sleeve than due to actual thermal transfer. Pete.

I can't see embedded video in postings. I've got flash player installed, but video appears as a plain white square. If I right click on the square, I get a short menu which says "movie not loaded" and "about Adobe Flash player 11........." Any ideas? Cheers, Pete.

My first two days of training with Andy and Rick at Airways Airsports: Day 1 - started with a frost on the ground but a warm welcome from the staff, followed by the expected paperwork. A surprisingly short session in the classroom, going over the basics of the wing and airfield practise was followed by some PLF practise and before I knew it I was walking onto the field with a harness and wing. Rick took me through the procedure for checking the wing, lines and harness before strapping in and a few forward launches. I was surprised at how easily the wing (Ozone Element 2) came up time after time. It's either a very easy wing to launch, or (less likely) I have some talent. Within 2 1/2 hours of arriving on my first day, I found myself attached to the winch line, checking above and behind before calling "all out, all out, all out" and lifting off for my first flight. My best attempt at describing the experience can only be by comparison to the first time I rode my own motorcycle. When I touched down, still on the winch line after a straight and level flight at 10 - 20 ft. altitude, I didn't know if I'd been in the air for 5 seconds or 5 minutes. The direction of the (very slight) wind allowed for flights diagonally across the field; about 60 seconds in the air without releasing. By the end of day 1 I was up to 50 ft. I must say I felt much happier higher up and further away from the big round rock, which was still white with frost. Govt. surplus tank suit liner and vehicle gloves kept me comfortably warm all day. Day 2 started with a thicker layer of frost. Wind had swung round to Easterly, meaning we had to winch across the width of the field, so flights were a bit shorter. After checking the kit, we were soon racking up flights. After a couple of 50ft straight and level flights on the tow line, I was ready for a release. At 60ft on the winch, everything was nice and straight and steady. I took both brakes in my left hand and grappled for a moment to find the release with my right. Once off the line, it was a gentle glide back to earth with only minor corrections to keep the wing square on to the wind. The excercise was repeated a couple of times as the wind picked up to 5-6kt. The next two flights were at 80ft, releasing the line and making a couple of turns, 45° off line and then back into the wind before landing. The sun was sinking below the horizon as we packed up at the end of a thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying weekend. Flying the school wing in very good conditions was considerably easier than I had wound myself up to believe. The whole experience was very sedate and I came away with a great deal more confidence in my ability than I previously had. The most challenging part of the whole procedure for me was getting the wing down neatly after landing. Once I worked out that I should turn to face the wing immediately I had touched down and stopped, things became easier and I spent less time untangling lines between launches. Now I can't wait to get back up and start doing some higher launches and circuits.

I'm guessing from the description that the listing is intended to warn others off that particular manufacturer. Either that, or the seller is the worlds worst (i.e. most honest) salesman. Pete.

If the engine is not grossly flooding (fuel dribbling from the spark plug hole when cranking) then the issue must be with the starter / connections /battery. Check connections to battery, starter switch or relay and starter motor. Both cable and earth connections need checking. If you have an electrical meter you could make the following checks while cranking: Voltage across starter motor Voltage across starter relay or switch Voltage across battery. If there is full battery voltage right up to the starter, then the starter is suspect. Otherwise, the location of voltage drop should indicate where the trouble is. Pete.

I welcome any opportunity to meet up with experienced flyers. See you Saturday if all goes to plan. Pete.

Blood flow into the hands is via the arteries, which are buried deep between the tendons. A hand warmer on the wrist will mainly heat blood returning to the heart. A hand warmer under the armpit might do better, as the arteries there are closer to the surface. In either case, blood temperature should be pretty close to core temperature. It is the flow of blood that effects heating of the hands. Wind proofing is most important. When I was younger and more stupid, I rode motorcycles all through the winters. A pair of trail bike style finger guards (big plastic thingies in front of the grips) made more difference than any heated grips. May your extremeties be forever toasty. Pete.

From WeatherWeb.net: High pressure centred over Britain through Friday and Saturday, front heading Eastwards on Sunday. Winds F1/F2 increasing to F3/F4 on Sunday. Looking good for the weekend!

Here we go.. I'm booked in with Andy Snell at Airways Airsports to begin training next Weekend (14th & 15th Jan). I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas

With the current level of press paranoia and the apparent ban on the implimentation of common sense, I suspect smoke systems will quickly come under fire for being a source of unnecessary emergency calls. It seems the general public already can't tell the difference between a distress flare and one of those Chinese hot air balloon things. Hollywood has taught us that all aircraft problems involve a trail of smoke. I'm sure you can see where this is going..... I wasn't born this cynical - it comes from many years of experience.

This is all interesting stuff, as I plan to use my Triumph Spitfire to carry a paramotor and wing. To this end, I obtained a substantial boot rack and tested it by driving to work and back for a week with 40kg of workshop detritus strapped to it. Nothing fell off, but it doesn't help the Spitfires already dubious handling characteristics! For Tricky's rattly trailer syndrome, here's a lesson from riding old bikes: Tools will rattle - wrap them in an old shirt or other rag. After a few hundred miles,, you will have shiny, clean tools and a box of rag dust. Empty out the dust an substitute a new rag. Pete.

I had this problem too.... when attempting to log in, the login page is displayed again, but there is no 'invalid password' message. Delete cookies (Tools/internet options/delete cookies), restart browser and log in. Good luck, Pete.

Ha - Simon beat me to it! The issue I had was that the site failed to direct me to the PayPal page when I selected full member subscription. I tried again a couple of hours later and all was OK. Given the intermittent nature of the problem, it's unikely to be something wrong with the site itself, more likely that one of the servers between you and this site is blocking. Keep trying. Pete.

//bits and peices you mite want to take, GPS, radio, fags etc// Fags? - it's hard enough to roll one up on the bike. How much of your 'baccy ends up going through the prop? Pete.

After reading much about the benefits and pitfalls of reflex wings, I would like some opinions on which one should learn with. I would intend to buy and fly a reflex wing once my training is complete. I understand some schools prefer to teach new pilots using conventional paraglider wings. What do the instructors and recently fledged pilots think? Pete.

Subscription has worked now - all done, thanks Simon. Pete.

//What do people in Spain get?// Better weather and more hours of daylight.

Ok - you've convinced me that this site is worth £30 pa. I've just tried to upgrade to full membership. Gone to the 'My Subscriptions page', selected the 'Add/Renew Subscriptions' tab, selected full membership, clicked Order and.... Nothing. Is there a non-intuitive mechanism by which to upgrade, or am I missing something? Pete.

The clear, protective tape used for this purpose is also referred to as 'helicopter tape'. It is used on the leading edges of rotor blades. The implication is that whatever it costs in thrust reduction is outweighed by the benefits in blade longevity. If it works for a helicopter (100% thrust dependent) it could reasonably be expected to work for a paramotor. All this despite the fact that helicopters can't actually fly - they are simply so ugly that the earth repels them Pete.

Does paramotoring count as a 'mid life crisis' activity when one has been riding motorcycles forever, bouncing Landrovers off the countryside, rebuilding and driving a sports car and generally getting on with interesting stuff at every opportunity throughout one's adult life? Or is it only a mid life crisis if you think you've wasted most of your time so far?

Running in and warming up are both about balance. It is true that an engine wears more when cold, but it will wear much more if run hard when cold. Oil in a cold engine will not move around so easily as in a hot engine, so some areas of a bearing will be starved of lubrication. Under low load, the area which is lubricated may be sufficient to support the whole bearing and virtually eliminate the metal to metal contact which causes wear. Correct running clearances are only achieved when the whole engine is up to temperature. A fast warm up will heat some parts (e.g. piston crown) quicker than others (e.g. cylinder) causing incorrect clearances and increased wear. There are at least two approaches to running in. Race engines are often pre-heated before starting, then run hard immediately. This seems to work if the goal is to get maximum power from the engine, possibly at the expense of reliability. I would expect that reliability is more important to us. With this in mind, it is probably better to follow a gentle build up strategy, warming the engine under minimal load and increasing load / rpm over a period. Engines supplied as 'run in prior to shipment' have had the first and most sensitive part of this process carried out. Pete.

Would this be open to the not-yet-flying? If it makes any difference, I would turn up on a motorcycle (the road equivalent of a paramotor). For events such as this, I can thoroughly recommend a govt. surplus tank suit. Warm, lots of pockets and about £30! Pete.

While I am not flying yet, I do know a bit about engines. An aircraft engine has different requirements to a motorcycle engine. A motorcycle engine is required to make useful power from relatively low RPM, while an aero engine (with a fixed pitch prop) is mostly required to make power only in the higher RPM range. All the paramotors I have seen use a reduction gear or belt drive to keep the prop speed down (so that the tip's don't exceed the speed of sound). It is this gearing which matches the engine's peak power RPM to the prop load. Thus, it is possible to use the peak output of any engine by gearing to an appropriately sized prop. Aero engines are also typically used at higher RPM for long periods. A 15HP motorcycle engine will spend much of it's life running at about 10 to 12 HP (about 60-70mph on a small bike) and will be geared to 'cruise' at about 1/2 it's peak RPM. Overall, there is a trade-off between maximum power and torque spread. The motorcycle engine is likely to be set up for a better torque spread than a similar aero engine, so will probably offer a lower power to weight ratio. Listen to the people with lots of flying experience - especially those who have been flying since the early development of paramotors. They will be able to tell you who tried what engine and how it turned out. Much cheaper and less hassle than repeating the experiments yourself. Pete.

Just got a copy of "Paramotoring from the ground up". What an excellent introduction to paragliders and motors. For those who haven't read it (and I guess that can't be many on this forum) the book contains exactly the information I had hoped for, presented in a logical order and written in a way that allows me to visualise what is being described. I also found an online paragliding 'simulator' that uses google earth. While the software in no way attempts to simulate the mechanism of controlling a paraglider, it does offer an opportunity to preview flying sites from the pilot's perspective. And that's how another few hours of my life passed by.