Hann__

Inside the carburetor Is a small mesh gauze To provide basic Filtering - i bet that it is partially blocked with fluff..

I`ve had that pull start not retracting thing on my Moster over the years and have had the start mechanism off a few times to fettle it... How old is your motor - classic or more modern? Like you, i`ve had to do that jiggle where you pull the pull start handle out a tad (and get that noise) then release quickly to try and encourage the cord to get pulled back. Back in the early days Vittorazi issued a kit to fix this problem consisting of a plastic/ptfe washer which fitted between the cord drum and starter cage and which was designed to reduce the friction of the cord drum against the cage. This worked on mine for a while until the vibration and fretting from the engine vibration wore the washers` diameter down and it caused more friction/sticking when it slid out of position. I finally cured it by actually screwing the plastic washer in place (to the starter cage) and it`s been fine for a couple of years now. Also, don`t be tempted to oil the recoil spring - it just causes stiction and exacerbates the problem. Unwind the spring, clean it but install it back with no lube. Basically, just do everything necessary to eliminate all sources of friction in the starter system - does the cord have a straight a pull out of the starter as possible? Is your frame pulley in good shape? Cord not catching on harness etc? The `decompressor` is simply a drilling in the cylinder wall half way up between the exhaust port and the top of the cylinder and exits in the exhaust port itself. In effect it bleeds off compression pressure to the exhaust when starting (when the engine is turning over slowly) but has little to no effect when the engine fires and is at normal running speeds. Maintenence just involves making sure that it is clear - use a steel rod or suitably-sized drill bit and poke it through the hole.. If your engine exhibits unusually high compression only occasionally then it`s probably not this decomp. drilling - they would tend to be either blocked....or not.

Suggests a weak mixture or fuel starvation to me, a strip-down and inspection of the carburetor would be the first thing i`d do - but yours must be under warranty so you can`t touch it? A kinked fuel hose? Filters clean? Could be a piece of dirt/lint that was there during the machines` manufacture has now been drawn into the carb in the first few hours. You`ll have to talk to whoever you bought it from (dealer) and get them to repair under warranty?

Who flew? I got two flights in this afto, spent about 2 and 3/4 hours in the air. The wind aloft was too strong (as forecast) for a classic XC so just headed into wind (a bit slow) until my hands started getting cold then turned back. Had a warm-up then flight number 2 for an hour and a quarter, similar flight to the first. Surprised by thermal activity on occasion - benign, but noticeable. Overall i was quite well insulated, just my hands let me down, surprising how much difference a couple of degrees makes. It was a frosty morning, the first we`ve had down here for a while. My iphone didn`t like it, either - it turned itself of a couple of times (it does tend to do that in the really cold weather) but after in-flight rebooting behaved itself from then on. I`d like Vittorazi to make an option of a small generator to power heated gloves - fix some magnets on the inside of the large reduction pulley with a small stator mounted behind - 12V and 30W would be fine. Could fly in winter for hours, then... Monday is looking very good (for those who don`t have to work)...

Prepare for flight!

The weekend was looking good for us down south this morning. I didn`t get too exited as there is plenty of time in five days for the forecast to change. Sure enough, about an hour later it`d completely changed to un-flyable..! (the calm weather has shrunk and shifted to Monday..) The thing i noticed about last year was the lack of settled, calm weather for extended periods - it seemed to be isolated days here and there and you had to act fast and ready to fly at short(ish) notice, and the forecasts would change radically from day to day if not hour to hour. Andy, yep - sub 6 degrees is cold, 6 - 10 is quite manageable, though i have found.

Lean? if anything it's a tad rich, but the motor appears to be running satisfactorily so leave it be.

Got my first flight of 2020 in today but my god it was murky up there - smooth, but murky!

Of course i went flying! Not only that but managed to stay in the air for 3 hours twenty minutes, my longest flight ever i think. I wore five layers which made it tolerable, no too bad, quite manageable considering the time of year. I was expecting the field to be a bit boggy and it was, i had to stop half way up the sloping field when i started to lose traction in the car which made for an uphill launch and run-out due to the wind direction. Luckily the trusty Lift made it a first-time effort and i was up and away with no issues. The wind direction was always going to be variable today according to which forecast you looked at and at what height, i was 40 miles out from home and downwind, turned around and had to hug the ground a little bit lower than i usually would to make reasonable progress but made it home easily enough - the Moster seemed to like the cool,dense air and i had half a tank to go after 2 hours in the air. I haven`t worked out the burn yet but i think it`ll probably be about ~3.6 - not too bad for me. The Iphone battery gave up after about 2 hours and Flyskyhy showed 60 miles up to that point, i estimate i did another 20+ miles after that. There was a bit of drama leaving the field though, the car got stuck in the mud and i had to use car mats underneath the wheels + plenty of clutch action and revs to get the thing going. That would of made a memorble Xmas - having to phone home to get the rescue party out to give me a push! I hope the farmer ain`t too pissed off about the trenches in the ground..... Early! Not even waiting `til it warms up a bit? Have you used the Penkridge site yet?

The weather down here has been absolutely dire - i haven`t flown since October 22. With the end of BST flying windows have to coincide with weekends. With the Xmas break i have nearly twelve days off work - you`d think that there would be a flying opportunity in twelve days, wouldn`t you? And there is - tomorrow, Xmas day! Fly/no fly?

Yep, keeping your hands out of the wind makes a big difference to how long you can endure those long, cold, wintry XC flights. Those brake mittens look rather cumbersome and awkward (are they permanently fixed to the brake handles? Having to `thread` your hands up and into the mitten when brakes are required sharpish may be a concern? Would magnets be strong enough to go through the mitten to hold the brakes on the keepers? They may be OK for PG where brakes are rarely parked?). I knocked up this home-made muff from a sheet of neoprene, some sewing tape and a couple of buckles. It attaches to my harness and sits in my lap in front of the reserve. My hands are easily `in and out-able` even with ski gloves and throttle. It extends my flying time considerably before i have to land and warm up (i suffer from cold hands and seem to have to wear fingerless gloves for about 9 months of the year whether flying or not!).

I got a 2.25-hour flight in this afternoon but it wasn`t quite as epic as i had hoped for. The clear skies and sun i was promised disappeared in the afto to be replaced by low cloud, and a somewhat dull, and in places, moody skyscape. I was hoping to get to the Isle of Widget but just short of the water at Hurst Castle it started spitting with rain so i did a u-turn sharpish and hightailed it outta` there.There were areas of sun inland (at my home town where i`d took off!) so headed for there instead and did a bit of local stuff. `Spose it`ll be quite a few weeks until the next flying opportunity for me now that BST is ending and the weather window has to coincide with the weekends. We were spoilt by the epic summer/autumn of 2018...

Hehe, tomorrow has been forecast good for a while and i have been thinking exactly the same (sickie) for the last few days.... However, being the upstanding employee that i am i have got permission to leave a couple of hours early and make the time up. I haven`t flown for nearly 5 weeks, the weather has been utter pants down here.

Lee, can`t remember if i asked you this during our PM conversation about wings but does the Snake require significantly more power and engine speed to stay level compared to the Nuc?

Would a site in Penkridge be too far for you guys? I know of a very accommodating farmer who doesn't mind a bit of diversification as far as use of his land goes..

Cats are devious creatures who can never be trusted and it's obvious that one has been using your paramotor whilst you are at work. if I were you I'd up my garage security and install CCTV. A Labrador? Nah, a Labby would only want to fly tandem accompanied by his master, and who has ever heard of flying Guinea pigs, that'd be ridiculous.

Yes, do you or any of your immediate neighbours own a cat?

Your in-carb filter/gauze may be bunged up with cat hair....

That`ll be a nice place to fly from (around) once you`ve got your training done, coastal flying is really great. I quite often fly from the mainland to the island, most recently was last Friday - did you see me!? (whereabouts on the island are you?)

Picking up on a few points that stood out; Yep, 6.9L/hr for that motor is far too much. Do makes lie? Maybe not lie but their figures are probably on a test bed not during actual flying, not that it should make that much difference because a PPG motor putting out 30kg on the ground will be very similar to it doing it in the air (as long as you keep a constant speed and not constantly climbing/losing altitude) How are you doing your plug chops? To get an accurate indication you`ll have to run the motor at cruising speeds for a while, then kill the engine and glide down so that the plug shows the actual running conditions during cruising speeds not just the last 2 minutes when you were at idle/low speeds lining up for a landing. Is it a Synthesis LT (original Synth)? They were renowned for being a bit of a lardy ol` bus with similar efficiency.. Once your feet leave the ground there is no `wind` - you are simply flying in a moving air mass - flying into or with the wind only affects your ground speed, your air speed on a PPG is always the same (for any given trim setting). Have you got a tacho fitted? Knowing where you are in the engine power/speed range might help. I suspect that your motor is not as well tuned as you think - an engine temp of 120-125 is very low and is an indication of a very rich mixture.....

I bet that wasn`t a carabina failure, more likely to be a weightshift-style chassis swingarm fracture or associated fixing. I really don`t like those swingarms, they look very vulnerable to me. Those type of failures are known about and have been the failure mode on quite a few reported accidents..........

They`re OK for the price but they are not multi-laminated like a `quality` prop - probably only have ~4 layers of wood. And the wood is fairly soft and `compresses` at the hub so be sure to check the bolt torque frequently in the first hours of use otherwise the bolts may come loose and fall out........shearing the remaining two bolts when you apply full throttle...........mashing the pulley bolt hole threads and sending your new 1.5 hour-old prop fluttering earthwards......... Loctite.

I use one of these, slightly modified, and it clips on to the Bulldogs spreader bars. https://www.thomann.de/gb/millenium_iphone_clamp.htm

What are these `smart watches` of which you speak? I use a 1971 Omega flightmaster - you have to wind it up.....

Virtually every two-stroke engine in existence has roller bearings on the crank - deep groove radial for the mains and a needle roller for the big-end.