PatPux

Days 33&34 Flights 15&16 May Bank holiday weekend was looming with promise of fair weather for the first part even if Monday was looking a bit blowy. It was a beautiful day which brought everybody out, so it was pretty busy on the airfield https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 5854994168 Before talking about any flying a bit about the weather on the Saturday. WeatherPro was showing a North Easterly 2mph gusting 9 , now that was the first time I had seen such a low wind speed with such high gusting speed. And it definitely felt like strange weather with what looked like high streets of wave cloud ( but I thought you needed Mountains for waves to form?) Anyway as has become the norm recently the wind was a little stronger than the forecast and although was variable in strength it was quite predictable with long spells of next to nothing and then long spells of steady 6-8, so by waiting you could choose to either reverse or go forward. Flight 15 I went reverse and got the wing up nice and easily, turned, with time for a quick steady up overhead before a smooth application to full power. No signals for direction correction from Col, who was spotting, so off I ran. With some major cock ups in the recent past I now have a pathological fear of sitting down too soon, so I try to NOT take off for as long as possible. On this occasion I wasn't feeling the love, so I just kept running, which with the wing taking the load isn't really a chore, but I was reaching terminal velocity for my harness trussed legs, so I tested with a little brake to see if it wanted to unstick and got a bit of a tug, a little bit more and away I came. Not with a spectacular climb, but enough to be safe, nevertheless I was glad I had given it that extra running. I find with my weight ( 16&1/2 stone) with the Macro V2 and the Synth 34 I will keep the throttle absolutely nailed to the stop for the first 2 or 3 minutes to make sure I give myself decent height. I had a nice little 20 minutes around the local area before coming in to land. It was quite bumpy aloft, certainly the most bumpy flight I had experienced. I have landed on a few occasions to hear other pilots say how uncomfortable they had found it, whilst I had noticed it, I hadn't found it disconcerting, this time it was quite pronounced, but at no time did I feel unsafe. I did an intentional low pass on the first run went round and set myself up to land but found I was getting a lot of lift on the approach, either from the berm alongside the runway across which I was approaching or maybe the field, so I was way too long. So I went round again, this time I came in fine , but quite fast , but actually telling myself ....wait.....wait....wait ......for the flare, but I was still a touch early so I got a nice level off but just too high still, so I landed on my feet but crouched to my knees, but I count that as not an arse landing! I've just got to hold on to it even longer, I'm convinced i should be waiting till my feet just about touch the grass before giving I a nice firm deep brake. Still the flight was a good confidence builder, and so with the wind changing to Westerly for Sunday I decided I would prepare for another decent XC and fly from Membury back to Pangbourne . Flight 16 http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=2764998 There was a nice steady 6 or 7 breeze so after my pre-flight check of all the gear.....2gps,camera, chest mounted GoPro, tank mirror, glasses, phone, I was ready to go. Though I say so myself it was text book reverse launch, which was a good start, so with a steady climb out to 500ft ( what would we do without the Membury mast?) I turned NE downwind, let the the trimmers out full ( still not managed that smooth throttle transition after you've parked the brakes) and set off for home. Opened up the flight deck and Turned the GoPro on for some footage, having remember the card this time, but ........oh no .........this time the battery gave out after about 30 seconds................one day! But at least this time I got a few photos. It's only a little Lumix point and shoot which I put a shutter trigger on so you can operate it with gloved hands. But I find it impossible to frame a shot in anyway because the display is just not bright enough to see, so it poit, shoot, hope, take lots and delete lots.

Etrex and GPS 60csx both display height from a barometric altimeter. The A10 will only display GPS derived height, but the new A12 does have a barometric altimeter

If you want better than their background mapping, which is useless for our application, you will need to load some mapping, so if you are buying secondhand make sure it comes with something like GB Topo. But don't expect, even that to look like what you get from OS. You would need a different GPS for that. Tbh, though, I use my Garmin 60Csx ( a slightly higher end model to the Etrex) just for the data read outs and the waypoint following facility , which Garmin call Tracback. For OS mapping I use a Satmap A10 http://www.satmap.co.uk/pdf/SM-USER-ENG ... -10-06.pdf

Wow, that is scary! We know you made it, but you wouldn't have known it from the video

Yes! One thing I learned about 1st aid when I used to keep the refreshers up, was that every time you went back the advice on treatments would change. We don't specify a particular boot, just toe and sole steel protection, good ankle support and NOT RIGGERS!

I'm in construction, 2nd most dangerous industry after Farming, and we banned rigger boots about 5 years because of the lack of ankle support and those sort of injuries have reduced massively. Bad luck, none the less, though. Just have to give it some R.I.C.E

Ouch! They both look painful. Was that done Paramotoring or somethingelse around the farm, James?

Mine were done by a chap called James Davies 01509 233399, who made a very decent job of them, not that cheap though. He has been in hospital recently, so may be out of the game at the moment. I then bought another set, which I needed to refurb a bit and balance, which I did myself. I think if I had a damaged set again( maybe I should have said......when) I would do them myself, but I would only do my own I'm afraid.

Fine, I've haven't noticed mine getting in the way, I must say, but was just interested to see what he meant. By the way, because it is difficult to judge just from the written word, and to be clear, none of this , the comments or counter comments have had any affect on my confidence or caused me any concern, it's just the engineer' s inquisitive nature and I treat it all as part of the learning process.

Morgys, thanks, I'm OK with the fixing stuff, but interested to understand, what you mean by lower down. You have yours suspended from the arm but on longer straps or webbing? Any chance of a photo?

Simon, I'm quite happy and I don't want any tinsel or fluffy stuff! I'm no expert , in the Paramotoring field, but I am an Engineer with 35 years experience. The bag needs to be fixed to support its own weight (including the weight of the reserve), not be dislodged by the normal use of the paramotor including lugging it in and out of transport, to offer enough resistance to have the handle pulled without becoming dislodged and finally to be fixed in a way that will not allow accidental deployment of the reserve. It's fixed with the clips provided for the purpose and for good measure it's fixed with a further 3 pairs of cable ties. That would seem adequate to me.

Don't know what to say really and don't want to start a spat between "experts"............but this is how my instructor installed it.

Over 8000m, 26,000ft. The Death Zone! So a bit to go, but he would be feeling it

Great it worked so well first time. Interested to hear all the answers to the question asked above. Will be doing this for sure, but not until I've stopped making mistakes on take off.

Bob,Great blog entry, I just wish I was posting the same sort of thing. Epic journey to work! I felt similarly when I managed to fly back the 30 miles from the training field at Membury to the field near home in Pangbourne. It felt like a big milestone, but since then, in January only managed one pootle round the training field. Great, beating the traffic jam. Happy Days!

Same AUW, same wing, but low hang point Parajet Macro. I have felt the same about speed and brake authority in the flare, that often had me skidding in for an arse landing. My last landing on which I ended up very gently landing on my feet, I put the trims to full slow, ie minus 1 or 2. George1966 suggested I tried this, after he started to use it and got him landing upright every time.

I'm on a synth 34, as my first wing, solid as a rock, can't compare to anything else, of course, but it's one that is commonly endorsed as a beginners wing, whenever the question comes up.

Had an interesting approach from the local Estate Manager whose field I have permission to fly from, that might either lead to payback for permissions on flying sites already granted or a good lever in seeking permission. He asked whether the next time I flew from there, I could take some photographs of the fields down by the Thames which were flooded and now will not crop in large areas where the water laid for 2 or 3 weeks. All for insurance purposes, I suppose. So maybe something to offer, if you know your farmers fields were flooded.

Great Blog, always look forward to the next episode.

Well, they're in addition to the clips, so should be fine.

Well, as I say, they are a lot stronger than what they give you to put it on with, it's how it was recommended to me at the school.

Yes, I thought that. But two things , you can use the clips they provide aswell (actually the clips don't look nearly as manly as a few heavy duty cable ties.) and secondly, obviously this is only the container not the reserve itself. All it's got to do is hold the weight of the reserve and stay put if you have to tug the handle. BTW,the clip is that plastic luggage type fastener you can see in the middle and there's another at the LH end, a bit more hidden

13/4/14 Day 32 Back to Membury this morning after a little spin out there yesterday afternoon to watch a Spitfire displaying nearby. WeatherPro promised 7 to 8 mph early on but getting too strong later, so I knew it was a case of being ready to go early, if there was going to be any chance of getting in the air. Turned up at 8:30 and already it looked a bit livelier than promised, but I wanted to get the wing out anyway to replace the temporary D line I had in for the previously damaged one. So out it came for a bit of kiting, which I did. And then tried my ground handling harness, which hadn't been out for a while. Had a few decent reverses in the ever increasing breeze I didn't take me long to realise that , while flying was going to be possible, because the air was fairly laminar,you were just going to be hanging there going nowhere. And pretty soon it strengthened a bit more. So I made my decision not to fly and was gratified to know my judgement had been endorsed by SW by the time I got back to the car. I hope it's not tempting fate to say, but I'm pretty confident that I can read flyable conditions, now. Probably on the conservative side, but , hey, that's the right side to be. So , I replaced my line,- by far too much of an expert at that , now! Kited a bit more to dry the dew off and packed up.

Not from me, I'm afraid. I tried, but it's "GoPro Speck in the Distance" stuff

Yes, always great to see those fantastic machines,and as you say,it's the sound that gets you.