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.

hmm. so I tried it yesterday, and can't reproduce bug so far. procedure: 1. I first set garmin to correct alti by going to alti screen, and setting to get alti from GPS (even though I have mine set to auto I've never found it works - today before I did that it was saying alti was -960 feet). Now garmin showing alti as 72 feet which is correct. 2. started stufly (it shows 72 feet, and I set to to zero it, exit app. 3. start stufly again, its zero. flew quad, took it around a bit, and then landed again. watch reporting around 0 feet again, and trace looks as you'd expect: so.. I'll keep trying but getting nowhere so far.

wtf are micro balloons and micro fibres ? I feel I'm missing out on something.. can you make tiny little balloon animals from them ? balloon tardigrades ? edit: just looked them up. disappointed

just realised I can test this by stapping my watch onto one of my drones! should work fine. And ideal task for the weekend if it's dry ! stu

fair enough, I'd have did the same if I'd thought to ask. I had a bunch of old lipos from my diy quadcopter and leccy bikes and stuff, but nothing that small in a 6s. acht well, just less times I need to charge it. spares always good as quick charging usb battery banks anyhoo with a basic usb xt60 adapter. stu

I dunno if this is common knowledge, so sharing just in case. When I was taking off at Simon's my right speed bar clip somehow disconnected (I assume it must have not been fully in though I'd swear it was).. once at take off and once in flight i heard a ping - and sure enough when I landed I could see that the prop had been clipped in two places by it (one in each prop half of course!!). Neither is a massive clip imho so I was happy to repair and keep it as a spare (once I've tested it on the ground at full speed). For wee nicks you've got a few options that I've used in the past at least: 1. regular epoxy I'm not keen on that - it's messy, heavy and not that strong 2. superglue and bicarbonate of soda. that's good for tiny nicks, but nothing too big. I'm not sure it has much strength to it either tbh though I've used on plenty props. 3. Solarez This is a UV curing resin with fibreglass in it for repairing surboards. I've been using the polyester version up till now, but I see they now have an epoxy version too. No mixing required here - you just put in on and work it into the nick and smooth it - move prop into the sun and its rock solid in a few minutes. A bit of sanding later and you're good tro go. With the fibreglass fibres in it, my feeling is it binds better in with the carbon fibres and seems to create a very strong fix. It's also very very light so you're less likely to bugger up the prop balance than if you fill nick with regular epoxy. Anyhoo, it was polyester solarez I used for the nicks, and seem ok. I have purchased some of the blue solarez (epoxy) now though to play with - as it says that's better for carbon fibre but I'm not so sure - as it doesn't seem to have the fibres in it like the yellow (polyester) tubes. Anyway, as always just my 2c but thought it might be useful info. stu

ah, interesting Andy. Yeh, I've sort of went overkill with a 6s 2200 50c - but it still fits in the original fireproof bag and in the same place - so it does sound like that's the one then. As you say, a good quick kick round. Plus, the spark is gonna be proportially higher voltage too of course which is gonna also help. Just waiting for the 9.8mm spade connectors I'll need to fit the 60amp relay then and I should be good to do it. stu

So, lockdown and dark nights - figured I'd do a project. Last few times I've flown when it's cold even with fully charged batteries kept warm inside, the wee 4s 2200 25c lipos that are standard with the nitro have failed to start the nitro. Luckily I had a big 6000 4s for my heated gloves that I strapped on, and with the added max amp and lower voltage drop I manged to get this to start it - just. Talking to @custom-vince lots of folk upgrade to 5s or 6s as the motor itself is 24v so I thought I'd do it too. I'll probably do next week, but thought I'd check if anyone else has done here for tips. My plan is that I've got a 24v 60a relay I might use to upgrade the 12v 30a one, but the tabs are larger than the current ones, so have sourced a 24v 30a too which would be easier - I know the 60a is overkill (fuse is 30a), but u know.. might as well make it last. I'll check out the wiring too, as it looked to me the start wiring into the relay was a lot thinner than the wire from relay to motor which won't help. I got 3 new batteries to play with : a new 3300 4s 60c, 2700 5s 35c and a 2200 6s 50c. All of which are much higher constant discharge amp rating (vs 2.2 x 25 = 55a of the original battery). Though it isn't going to pull more than 30a, a lipo with a discharge massively higher than that with drop voltage much less. So might find the new 4s is fine, especially with thicker wiring and chunkier relay dropping less too. If not, I'll step up through 5s and 6s and see what the differences are and let you know. stu

So, what I need from you guys (meant to test last week when had flight on wed just before lockdown, but forgot watch!): - before you start app, what altitude does the watch say it is (on the inbuilt altitude watch face) - after you close the app (when it's got wrong altitude), what altitude does the watch say it is (on the inbuilt altitude watch face) Looking at paraflyer's track its like during flight its all fine, but then at the end it's a straight line slope far too far down. and I can't for the life of me think wtf I could have done in the app for that - as all I do in app is display altitude (after converting to units of choice). Unless it's something to do with the zeroing. So can I just check: are both of you that have this issue using the zeroing thing ? If that's definately the thing in common, I'll concentrate on looking at the code there.

Hmm, sorry about that chaps. It's a problem testing this stuff, as the simulator is not wonderful so I rely on your flight tests for bugs like this, To help track down the bug, does the reading (-330 or 500) mean anything to you ? i.e. did you take off at 500 feet, etc ? i.e. what is you garmin alti face saying the altitude is ? And is it just a bug for those using the zero altitude feature ? I never use it, so might be why I've not noticed. Save/discard: I'll think about it. It's one thing I don't like on garmin apps, as I've chose the wrong thing and lost a track sometimes walking, etc. So I made it that way.

Hi chaps, I dunno if I'll be up there then, but if I am, I'd be keen to join for a few flights. Alan - motorhome camping wise - it's very different from england - where every car park has no overnight signs, and if you somehow manage to find somewhere you think should be ok, you get horns tooted at you at 2am and folk treat you like a pikey. In scotland, provided you are sensible, don't make a nusience and clean up after yerself there are loads of car parks and spots at harbours, coastlines, etc where you can park up. No one bothers. The 500 though was probably the worst thing imho to happen - as you get pricks in 8m long double axle hymers driving around 1 track roads, etc - frankly I wish it hadn't been a thing...if I wiz you I'd make a route that isn't on there for the most part - though there's certainly some bits you don't want to miss. As for flying - all I'll say is because there is right to roam across scotland, in my experience most land owners when approached are happy to let you take off and land when asked as they're already primed to expect people on land. But do ask - right to roam doesn't mean 'right to set up and fly my paramotor'. However as you go further north and the farmland disappears you get into land with no boundaries, etc. It's still owned (mostly by some english lord dick), and may have beasts grazing, etc - but as long as yer considerate you should be fine taking off/landing. What I will say, is that if you are not experienced flying in mountiains, please take care. Wind direction is rarely what the weather says, and in anything over 5mph wind, being too close to a mountain at the wrong bit can see you in serious turbulance or worse. Also, bare in mind that a land out might leave you miles from a living soul, with no mobile signal. I fly always fly with a PLB, foil blanket, etc just in case. And remember water kills... the loch's aint knee high like in suffolk, they's 100s of meters deep. And check yer NOTAMs - the NW is the low flying playground of the RAF and USAF.. And be on the look out anyway, as they don't always file them (as I found out myself a few years back). Lastly, please don't fly like a prick. There's not many pilots fly the highlands regularily. and some places have very limited places you can take off. So all it takes is a few arseholes flying 20 feet off the ground worrying sheep, buzzing houses, flying low along a beach with dog walkers, etc to mean the land owners is unlikely to be as accomodating to the next guy that turns up... watch the paramania idiots flying up there for avlesson in what not to do (e.g. flying 1 foot above the train at the GlenFinnan Viaduct, etc.