powerlord

Might have posted this before - a new year makes you think though - HNY all, and lang may yer lums reek

woops. sorry, forgot to update link to new one. folk were moaning about my music, so I re-edited: https://youtu.be/qiNRNJJFmcU

lucky to be alive after hitting that wire. numpty

sorry chaps, just saw these. error wise - nope - could never find the cause for you - sorry. works fine every time I try it. calories wise - no. does this with me too when I'm on electric bike. It's not something I have control over. stu

i had a bailey v5 before the nitro 200. i was worried id miss the fuel economy. ive had the nitro 3 years now, and have only once been over 3lr/hour. almost always i get around 2.5. AND i get loads od thrust and a machine thats starts easy and doesnt weigh a ton. i did like the solid enigineering of Pauls (i had a one off 1.3m jpx330 80kg thrust machine as well), but really imho the 4 stroke experiment was an interesting failed experiment. stu

So.. monday morning 22nd , blue skies and low wind. Yet again, I cursed lockdown and wondered when we'd be allowed to fly again. I went to the BHPA site to see what the latest news was - only the read that as far as they are concerned we were ok to fly from 8th March !!! It looked great at 8.30am but stuff can change, and it's not exactly been dry recently so I figured best get up early - a quick run around to get a charged gopro battery, double check I've not forgotten soemthing I need (ever got to the field and realised your helmet is at home?) - and off I went to the field. Conditions lovely there - nice smooth 5-6mph SW coming in. Wind sock up, and set up paramotor. I never bother about 'stale fuel' so the 5 litres in the tank has been in there for the last 5 months. I top it up to 8 litres (always fly with 8 'just in case'). This will be first flight starting with my 6s lipo and relay - it's only 4 degrees, so though probably now not recessary, the battery was disconnected before I left homme and stuffed down my pants and is still there warming up. I've got lots of laters on and my Dickies suit over the top, balaclava, thin gloves, and another thick set to put on over the top of em once Im in the air, so should be toasty. Wing out, double check I've got everything and walk motor over to wing. Only now, get battery out and fit it. After priming, air conception starts no problem at all - and so much more positively with the 6s. By the time engine has warmed up, wind has moved round a bit to the south, so I move my wind sock a bit, and go back to lay out wing, check lines, and connect for forward launch. First flight in 5 months so a bit nervous I'm rushing things - so calm down, go through everything again in my head and step back for a good positive inflation. A push forward and my dudek ReportAir 22 pops up, 3 steps forward and I'm in the air. After a second or two of not really lifting much (top of a hill) , it climbs up nicely. Woohoo 5 dry months over. I can't fly SW really or I hit a MATZ, so though not ideal, I head downwind and travel east to Ipswich, turning 360 a few times to guage the wind at various altitudes, but stay below 1000 feet as it's cold enough frankly. I skirt to the south of Ipswich at 1200 feet or so and head over to the Orwell Bridge and along the river Orwell, popping over a few mates' houses but they don't see me, and I decide to draw the line at buzzing them or farting around with trying to whatsapp em. By now, I can sense the wind has crept up a bit to 10mph or so, and clouds are forming quite quickly so I decide to head back, skirting north of Ipswich this time, but at around 600 feet and clear of the built up area as it's getting pretty damn bumpy. Making around 15 mph, but sometimes as low as 10 and really getting chucked around by the thermals. Nothing clean - all bitty stuff - lots of maybe 3000 cloud base little cumulus bursting up. I consider going onto speedbar, but I'm in no rush, and it's bumpy, but not dangerously so - just try to stay clear of dark ground. It stays about the same all the way back, but the wind building a little. By the time I get back to the field the sock is straight out - maybe 12-14mph. As field is top of a hill, I go for a few engine-on low passes just to see what the air is like - it's definately lower pressure/windier at top of hill in last 50 feet or so. I play it safe - much prefer landing up hill than downhill (it's not that much of a hill), and come in for landing. sure enough, the wind drops my forward speed off in the last 50 feet, but rather that than get a lull in the wind and end on the down slope - and I land 100 feet or so from the motorhome. Just as I'm walking back to the car John, a local flier turns up - he'd seen me flying. We have a chat about how he was thinking of going up (again first time in 5-6 months), but by the time he'd decided the wind had gotten up - looks like I was right to get up as early as I could. We chat about paramotors, wings. He has a go walking about with my air conception, and ground handling my reportAir. I say goodbye, pack the motor and wing up and head home (remembering to pick up the wind sock just as I drive away). Feels like life is returing to normal again. It can't come soon enough. stu

and u were flying with that ? christ. well, tbh I think there's even odds that lockdown won't have lifted too long before that anyhoo Andy - so maybe you won't miss anything. hope it goes well. stu

which campsite's that Andy if you don't mind me asking ? Other options I'd suggest are - there's 2 carparks that allow camping for walkers just north of fort william. you can't fly from there, but last time I was up there, I flew from this old playing field - which for some reason is not used now and is overgrown - no fences, etc so I assumed common land. https://goo.gl/maps/CyyF8RnWhBmvjr2v9 you also get to see the 'hogarts express' if yer lucky and could follow that to Glenfinnan i'd imagine. Campsites wise, I've flown (and camped) from here a few times, but it depends on whether there's sheep in the fields, etc as to whether they allow or not. https://goo.gl/maps/dXhhHKMyfgSSrK3g6 stu

ok, in danger of this getting moved to non paramotor related.. but it's lockdown - whit u gonna do. So, here's my moon effort from the back garden last night.

i got myself a motorized telescope fer xmas! shot a few pics of mars last week, and tonight I'm hoping to get some of the moon as forecast is for clear sky. I imagine like Iceland, the main problem is managing to stay outside taking pictures long enough without your knackers freezing off... Mine is a wee bit smaller - got so I could have it in the motorhome for clear nights out in the wilderness. Here in town, light pollution is crappy but still got some decent mars pics* so hoping can get summit tonight. stu *probably pretty crap to most folk - but to me...thinking about photons having being emitted from the sun in all directions. 150 million miles later a tiny fraction hit mars, AND at just the right angle so they reflect off, travel another 60 million miles or so, a tiny fraction not only hitting earth, but hitting it just right to that they can travel through the atmosphere, down my telescope and be absorbed by my eye/camera. fecking mental. anyway.. here it is - single shot as tracking not working yet. When it it I will be stacking and getting far clearer shots.

Ywh I had a mono wheel in 2013/14. It was cool before it broke.

The website reads like utter marketing w4nk and 3d renders. And I really don't see how making the fuel tank the frame makes anything better. I imagine like the scout, whose features also seem to be based on marketing mince it will be a massive success.

Though hired ones are in lots of UK towns: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/e-scooter-trials-guidance-for-users I think the arguments are: 1. Its a trial 2. As mentioned, it's impossible to police private ones.. Which I sort of get but it's the easy way out. I've been building my own electric bikes for about 15 years now. I do think the law is moronic. For a start pedalec is dumb. If you want folk out their cars don't add unnecessary mince like 'the more you pedal the more help you get' - what f*ckwit thought of that. Don't dictate how an individual uses their transport. If they want a throttle and to never turn a pedal and it keeps them out a car, why is that bad? It's cycling nazism. And the 15mph limit is also stupid. 25-30 and it becomes a far more viable method of transport.. And unlike cars, 70+% of the electric effort is used to move you. In an electric car, with its usual single occupant, 4% of the energy is used to move you, the other 96% to move the one and a half ton of car around. Its madness.