powerlord

It'll soon be so much better for flying too, once the people have been eliminated.. at least I assume that's the current gov plan..

Updated menu fields to reflect current settings as requested.

https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/10bbeff2-2ab0-4e18-8bb2-b6a3fd808873

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00TH20F20/ref=psdcmw_1939465031_t2_B00B9C170U

Should work fine

Getting the birds

Stu

I was there about 3 years ago, but weather wasn't flyable so ended up having to make do with a cycle around it. Very jealous.

Stu

my second ever flight I did the same. broke my first prop - this was in South Africa in 2005 - luckily we had a spare as there were no other spares in south africa at the time. The standing up straight (dick forward, head back - totally opposite of a paraglider takeoff) and keep running even when airborne trick worked for me. Get into the habit of not even trying to sit down till yer 200 feet up or so. After lots of flights this can change, but until then think about your legs as your undercarriage - and it doesn't get retracted till your pretty high.

I had a similar instinct I really had to work not to do with sky diving, where I couldn't stop landing on one foot then the other - as if I'm paragliding and running it off. That took a fair amount  of jumping off tables to knock my brain into doing it both legs together (so you can do a proper PLF) for skydiving. It's damned weird how you have to teach yer own brain how to do something by using your brain...

Don't worry about straps being loose and not being able to get in your seat - have them loose enough for early flights so there's no pull on your bum to tempt you to bring yer legs up. If that means you hang in the straps- no problem -it encourages you to keep running, land, and go again. Once you've got that in muscle memory, then you can tighten the straps so you can get into your seat easily.

Oh I should say - I constantly have to fight this on landing now - I have week knees (2 ACLs on each knee) - so i sort of default to bending my knees and landing on my arse on hard landings... problem is once you start doing that you start doing it all the time - even when the landing is fine, your brain says 'oh this is where i bend the knees and land him on his arse' - FFS brain - NO..run.. run you fecker.. I mean it does not harm - just looks uncool if got spectators

stu

On 24/09/2020 at 06:39, paraflyer17 said:

Only tried this a couple of times but struggling to get on with it unfortunately. 

First time was ok. 2nd time didn't auto start.

Just playing after the upgrade:

1. Zero Altitude Tog does nothing for me, just stays at circa 160

I should make docs more clearer. Once toggled on, it only starts working from the next time you start the app. It will continue to zero each time you start the app unless you toggle off.

2. If I click Auto Record Tog, it just starts recording. No option as to whether you want auto record or manual record.

It doesn't seem obvious when it is recording and when it isnt. Sometimes it vibrates, sometimes it doesn't. 

if you select autorecord then it will start recording. if you exit the app, and start it again you will see it auto starts recording.

it is recording when the red dot is flashing on and off.

 

And the toggles menus make no sense as they dont tell you whether stuff is on or off. So at any point how do you know you are set for manual or auto.

that's fair, I should update to say. some are obvious (arrows, metric), but some are not. its tricky as you have so little space to write text that makes sense. but that's a good one - I'll fix that next week - thanks for the feedback.

Are you able to advise on the above points? Or link to a full user guide?

The app looks great, I'm just finding it a bit unintuitive, and some of the basics seem a little intermittent. 

Running on a 945.

Thanks

Oh, I should say - its much more clearer if you use the garmin connect app to change the settings - then there are actual toggle switches - so you can see what is on and what is off - but still - I need to make it clear on the watch.

 

 

yeh starts when detects ascent more than 20m. doesn't stop till you stop (or close app)

recorded track though is from time you start recording (or start app if using autorecord) till time you stop recording (or close app).

Idea being time on ground faffing isn't timed, so you know how much time you've actually flew/run the engine.

stu

well, assuming its a 2 stroke everything from the carb down is soaked in petrol+oil.

and the oil stops it evaporating much. So most of smell left is probably coming from carb out through air intake so you could try covering that.

same with exhaust really.

But yer best bet imho would be to get a big 'garden waste' sack - like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/PATIO-PLUS-Rubbish-Waterproof-BLGWB500-2GR/dp/B088M3MFVZ/ref=sr_1_15?dchild=1&keywords=garden+sack+200&qid=1600887774&sr=8-15

just stick it in that and seal the top with a few  bungies. job done.

stu

What’s New

22/09/2020 New Features:

Altitude fixed - it will now display the same altitude as the altitude widget on your phone. This will use barometer and GPS is available, and if you have adjusted it, it will display this adjusted value.

Zero Altitude is now persistent. If you prefer to always start a flight with take off field at 0, set this and every time you start the app it will zero the altitude.

Units have been separated into Distance and Vertical. So you can independently set mph or km/h, feet or meters.

Just go into Garmin Connect, apps, and stufly and 'update'.

And remember down arrow gets you vertical speed graph.

Happy flying.

too fancy for me - I just use google maps - 'measure distance'. has the benefit it even works with airspace provided you use a link with the airspace overlays.

stu

the osmo pocket is pretty bad for vibrations - see folk trying to use it for motorcycling. It not really much good as an action camera/gimbal because of that tbh.

I've got osmo pocket, osmo mobile, probably 10+ gimbals, etc ...last I counted summit like 15 cameras that shoot in 4k... whether quantity makes me an expert is debatable - someone who's profession is photpgraphy/video like @Steve would probably be a better font of knowledge, but I'm a knowledgeable amateur at least.

if yer talking photos - all you need is a standard pocket camera - set it to sport mode so it uses a fast shutter speed. Don't zoom in - that will be a disaster.

for video - I use a custom gimbal with a gopro 8. gives me super smooth video.

If you can't be arse with that ----and frankly i wouldn't advice anyone else to try - it's taken me years to perfect it. The only other person I know that flies with one and gets good results is Gordon Robertson --- you are fine with 1080p as an end result - get an insta360 - it works a treat - no gimbal required.

have a look at my videos on my youtube channel for examples.

https://www.youtube.com/theflyingscotsmantv

liability is the big one - it just takes landing on a field/car/house or an awkward person with an expensive lawyer and you could be talking 10s of thousands.

And having plummeted onto my face in babadag, smashing my nose flat and fracturing my neck - then being taken to the public hospital (like something out of MASH) before playing the 'I have insurance' card - and going to the proper modern one... I'd personally never fly abroad without personal injury insurance.

each to their own risk though - just go in eyes open.

Back in 2005 I went snowboarding in Zermatt - totally forgot to get insurance. 10 mins on slope - fell and broke my collarbone - they wanted to heli me off the mountain as I'd passed out with the pain - I managed to convince them I could sit on a snowski - that plus medical treatment was still 1200 quid. It would have been another 1000 for the chopper.

stu

ah that's good 7300 - exactly same as i get. with air conception saying 7700 i kept thinking i was down on power, but sounds like I'm same as you get.

yeh - no wind days - awesome once airborne - an utter sh1te to get airborne. when I had my top80 i remember once having to run maybe 150m - then climbing crazy slow. When you've so little power to start with, all it takes is a wee bit off on the carb or whatever and it's back to rad days.

I've never measures pop off pressure - what amazon purchases do i need to make ?

stu

hi. yup. try it with a running app or summit. sync with phone and yer track will appear. if you want it in GPX format, just logon to garmin connect website on yer PC and you have the option there to download the raw GPX trace if you want it for plotting on some other app or google earth or whatever.

Stufly creates tracks just like any other app.

there's 3 different things:

=- watch faces: kinda self explanitory.

- fields - there are bits of data that you can then use in any regular garmin app to configure on a custom screen. e.g. say i made a field which was 'double decker buses per minute'. once added you could set that to be your speed readout in any garmin app (e.g. running, walking, cycling, etc)

-widgets - these are the things you get from the watch like temperature, notifications, weather, etc.

- apps - these are fully independent 'coded in code' applications that can do whatever they want within the garmin iq connect SDK - stufly is one of them.

happy flying

stu

I reckon it's fair to say if you are the sort of guy that has no power tools,  gets their dad/father in law/paid handyman in to fit a shelf, doesn't fix their own lawnmower, struggles to change a wheel, then paramotoring is probably not for you.

None of it's rocket science of course, but if you are not the sort of person that kinda just bodges through, learns new skills, etc - expects it to be like owning a Lexus - yer probably gonna be disappointed - these are high output engines made by little companies. stuff goes wrong,  needs adjusting, etc.

So if yer the much in sort of guys, there's plenty of forums (like this one) that will help you get up to speed and fix any issues you come across - don't sweat it.

stu

Another vote for non dominant. I'm a lefty, and have throttle in right hand. Why ? Because it leaves my most 'dexterous?' hand free - so best for fannying around with cameras, gopro, poles, shades, and whatever else the feck I'm buggering about with.

Maybe that's just me. I pretty much never reverse, but as Adam says, if I do, As in are my left, bottom on the right/throttle hand.

Bottom line is nearly all paramotors can switch easy enough - try both, see what works best.

As I say, as lefty sometimes I find stuff I learn later in life ends up being most comfortable in my right, or else I'm as comfortable in either hand (mouse, snowboarding, etc) - so really it's about what feels most natural.

I suppose you poor righties though are more limited, what with your lower intelligence, lack of creativity and ambitiousness though.

stu

On 03/09/2020 at 14:29, AndyB said:

Exactly. I have over 100 RC planes and drones. Every one now has to have my registration number on, but the muppets don't bother. Also, if I was a terrorist with an agricultural drone (capable of carrying a 27 kg payload and auto flying a predetermined flight path/height, at predetermined time ie when I was not in the country) I would not bother registering either. So, I am not sure what the drone registration scheme is trying to achieve.  

 

quite. It's one thing that's surprised me tbh is how there havn't been loads of folk doing terrorist stuff with em... I mean - 500 quid you could be flying a drone into trump/johnson/whomever's face live on tv... 30 mins of basic RC extras and you've got a payload to drop. Maybe terrorists are just thick as sh1t.. but thick as they may be, they ain't gonna go 'oh I better register my drone before I fly it over heathrow main runway'... load of old bollocks imho. I wasn't going to register - I bought a mavic mini and was gonna sell my mavic pro.. but in the end I couldn't part with it - it's just too much fun so had to bite the bullet and register

100... you've definitely got me beat there Andy !

Nothing new though, we were all saying the same thing 15 years ago when stuff started appearing on ebay and it seemed every nob end was buying some ancient piece of crap and try to take off from his local playing field. But really, it was a few idiots who soon lost interest or saw the sense in doing things right.

15 years later, I think the majority of pilots still keep thier noses clean. Almost all issues are with low flying - not everyone appreciates been given a photo opportunity of you flying by 100 feet away from them (hands up - I've done it myself when I've been low flying, came around a corner at the coast and been low over a dog walker, etc) - and some will  really get the hump - it's easy to forget with ear protectors on just how annoying a nastly 2 stroke can be 100 feet from you when yer out enjoying a quiet walk, or worse, 'birding'..especiallly if it's a bit windy and yer hovering above them for 10 minutes.

As Mark says, as long as we self police with a light hand, we keep the powers that be happy and in turn they will be happy to renew the ANO. Like it or not, CAA's main goto is the BHPA, and any anti-social flying is likely to be reported their too... and then it's likely to be treated with a not so light hand.

As a quadcopter/drone flier (and registered), I hope it won't come to that here - the entry cost (training and equipment) is small there - so I can see the neeed to have registration to an extent*. It's a much higher cost of entry for us.

*still don't like it - as chances are any bad drone flying within 10 miles of my house means muggins gets the visit from the bottom inspectors and has to prove it wasn't him - hence the dumbness of a registration system imho - the muppets won't bother registering.

ah ok. might as well wait for a proper version then. plenty of other aircraft to enjoy.

is it something you can share ? the converted paramotor model I mean ?

Hi chaps,

Just thought I'd mention if you have a decent fast PC, the new Flight Simulator 2020 is fecking amazing.

There's no paramotors or gliders out yet, but they'll come soon enough.

It uses real streaming bing maps satellite data and 'AIs' it into 3d on the fly.

We're pretty much at photo realism now. XBOX Live PC Beta allows you do subscribe for 1 quid first month, 4 quid each month after to get access to 100 games, including FS2020 so cheap to give it a try too. Just be aware, obviously this sort of graphics needs a sh1t hot PC.

I'm gonna fly a wee plane around my local haunts, see my house, etc

quite. having spent 30 minutes searching a field for recognizable bits of fingers after a fellow stuck his through the prop (and failing - it was all just little bits of grissle) - it does make you wonder how this bloke managed to grow to adult size...

A tie wrap through it also works. Just regularily check they are all there.

Looks like u have Swan necks? They are in a semi sheer load - pushing against the frame. Massively strong. When under tension it would be solid even without both those pins IMHO.

do check the mallions regularily, but you'll find Paul fits baring sheaths I think through the swing arm so the load is spread across the arm. You could probably hang a car off one of em.

stu

I use 25 litre metal gerry can. I mix oil as soon as I fill it, and I write on can when I filled, and what ratio I used.

Sometime it might sit in there for 6 months (as some of it had flight before last when I finished it and had to refill.

I've never had any problems from 'old' fuel or degrading mixed oil that folk go on about.

I use a standard glass ball jiggle syphon. A few shake starts it, then I hold the gerry can up high to increase flow. fills in no time.

take out of gerry can first, and allow fuel in pipe to flow into tank. remove pipe, and leave out to dry while you fly (so no stinky fuel smell in vehicle). no spillages, no hassle really.