alanhinsaudi

Guys, Does anyone out there own a Baileys V3 paramotor who who would be kind enough to send me some photographs of the fuel system layout? I have inherited one the fuel lines are all over the place, so much that it doesn't make sense to me! Many thanks Alan e-mail is alan_hunter1664@yahoo.co.uk

For over a year Capt Fahad, Capt Awad and I have been trying to organise a Paramotor Club instructor course in Saudi Arabia and just when it seemed we were all set to go the head of our club was killed and his passenger seriously injured in a Paramotor trike accident. This was the 4th fatal accident in less than 6 months and led the Saudi Aviation club (SAC) to ban Paramortor flying in Saudi for over 3 months. These tragic accidents reinforced the need for safe, structured and professional Paramotor training system and I’m pleased to announce that after a significant amount of effort from everyone involved Simon W, Piers D and Pete B all arrived in Riyadh in the early hours of Saturday morning (12th) to deliver the first Paramotor Club Instructor course on Saudi Arabian Soil. The course is being sponsored by the Land Space Aviation Club (LSAC) but the course has had widespread publicity and we have 13 candidate instructors from all over the Middle East. Training started in earnest on Sunday evening with excellent presentations from Norman, who was on a scheduled flight, and his co-pilot Sam Whatmough. Both presenters concentrated on safety, a topic the LSAC and the SAC were very keen for the course to focus on due to the high Paramotor accident rate we have experienced in Saudi. However, when the first flying took place the next morning more than 1 student had to be chastised for being over-confident! But by the afternoon session, after reinforcement of the safety message by the Course Staff and by other candidate instructors, the message was getting through. None of the Candidate Instructors are native English speakers and the level of English varies from none to very good but the boys are doing an outstanding job of getting over this barrier utilising students with more able English to translate. The morale on the course is high and the LSAC are very happy with the way the course is being run. As soon as I have some photos I’ll get them posted. We are trying to make the boys as comfortable as possible and fulfil their every request. I even managed to fulfil Simons request for a 6 foot buxom Swedish blonde. Unfortunately the fussy sod didn’t say they had to be a female! Back to the drawing board with that request then.

It was reported to me yesterday that there has been another paramotoring death in the Middle east (Dubai). I don't know the full details so I don't wish to speculate on the cause but what I do know is the pilot landed in the sea and drowned.

I've decided to sell my UK paramotor as it is just not getting used! Please see ebay advert http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130426069614#ht_500wt_1154 If you are a full member of the paramotor club I have some other items I'll include in the sale including 4L of TTS & some spares. Alan.

Simon, I'm so pleased to see a sectin on currency being included in the manual. Alan

it happend in Saudi at our local flying site.

It is with sadness that I have to report a fatal paramotor (fitted with a trike) accident that happened on Thursday night. I don't have the full details yet but it seems the pilot initiated a spiral dive that he couldn't recover from (reason unknown at this time) and impacted the ground with excessive vertical and horizontal speed. He died instantly. He was an experienced pilot who had performed this manoeuvre many times before. I had left the club about 45 minutes prior to the accident so was lucky not to witness it. Unfortunately many of his friends did. Alan

After a mad dash to heathrow we are now checked in for flight tonight.

Paul, Pleased to hear you are back. I have been given a flight date of the 17th May for a confirmed flight! However, we are wait listed for a flight either Fri, Sat or Sun if they can confirm us on one of them. It is costing me a fortune to keep a hire car at the ready to travel back to London! Alan

At 02:30hrs on Thursday morning we began our trip back to Saudi. This was to be achieved by a car drive from Lytham, our home, to catch the 12:30hrs Saudia flight to Riyadh from Heathrow. On the journey down we heard radio reports that Aberdeen airport was closed but this did not raise our concerns! We arrived at Heathrow at 07:00hrs to return the hire car and waited in terminal 3 until the Saudia check in desk opened at 09:00hrs. After successful check in we proceeded to the Virgin Lounge (surprisingly used by Saudia also) and proceeded to have what we thought would be our last pork breakfast for some time. At check-in the staff had told us the flight was going to depart early as there was a possibility the dust might affect flights so we proceeded to the gate, along with other business class passengers, after the announcement in the lounge advised us to do. Our concern was raised when we arrived at the gate and it was deserted! There were about 5 groups of passengers, about 20 in total with puzzled looks on their faces. It transpired that our flight had been cancelled but that they had neglected to inform B class passengers in the lounge. Anyway we collected our bags and were booted out of the airport along with everyone else. The time as now about 12:00hrs and there was no indication of when the flight would be re-instated. My wife & I debated what to do so, get a hotel or hire a car and drive back home. After looking at the queue for hotels I used my new Iphone (this has been indispensable in the last couple of days) to call Hertz to arrange a hire car. We hit the road back to Lytham at about 14:00hrs just under twelve hours after setting off. We arrived home about 19:00hrs and were all absolutely knackered! Saudia information advised us that the flight would be at 17:00 on the Friday so I though a good nights sleep and head back to Heathrow the next day. I was just dosing off when at 21:00hrs I receive a call from Saudia stating the flight would be at 11:00hrs on the Friday morning so still completely knackered we loaded the car again and set of at 03:00hrs on Friday morning confident we would get some sleep on the plane. At about 06:00hrs, about an hour from Heathrow on the M40, we received a call from Saudia stating the flight had been cancelled and they could give no information on when it would be re-scheduled! This was a sucker punch as once again we were in a dilemma. Do we drive back home, another 3 hours drive, or find somewhere to stay? I was that tired the decision was easy! I asked the Sat-Nav to find the closest accommodation and within 5 minutes we were at a Holiday Inn express (this was excellent value at £64 for three of us for a night. The staffs were also excellent and understanding of our plight giving us a room immediately). We spend most of Friday sleeping and hoping the information would become clearer on Sat Morning. We were close to the airport if the flight was re-scheduled at short notice. However the information Sat morning was further cancellations so rather than wait in a hotel room we extended the car hire and drove back home where we await further info with no clue as to when we are likely to travel! I'm sure there are many thousands of us with similar stories. Alan

However, After 5 red stripes I'm not sure where I am!

Sorry, Should have been more specific. I'm in Farnborough Hampshire. Alan

Are there any pilots in the Farnborough are who would like a swift half on Thursday night? I'm in the area on business and looking for something to do!

This level of debate is great to see. The two points I would add to all the above is *get good training* and having invested in the training ensure you remain current. The more flying you can do the better. Skills fade is an issue when the weather limits your flying so if you have been grounded for a month or two get checked out by an instructor. You would be surprised by how much you forget! Alan

It is unfortunate but accidents happen and as an Engineer I regularly have to read air incident/accident reports both civil and military, and most are horrific. A consequence is that every time I step onto a civil aircraft the what if scenarios go through my head, I know what can go wrong. However, it never prevents me from getting on board! The same is true for all the aircrew I know. This is because we have faith in the systems that regulates and controls the aviation industry that have reduced the risk of an accident happening to as low as is reasonably practical (ALARP). Also, the open, honest and independent approach to air incident/accident investigation/reporting ensures these systems are continually being improved. It is this mindset that must be applied to our sport. To try and put your mind at rest you are doing everything right. You have undertaken training with a well known instructor, have bought good equipment and read the forums looking for advice and guidance. You have reduced your risk to ALARP. If you still have any doubts talk to your instructor he is perfectly placed to give you the advice and guidance you need and will guide you through your first flights until you build your experience and confidence. Believe me it is well worth it and once you have the experience you will read the report above with different eyes. Alan

Norman, I have no axe to grind with the BHPA! It is my considered, un biased, opinion that the report is not well done and has missed an opportunity to enhance flight safety for paramotor Pilots. One good result from the report is that it is getting pilots to talk about and question flight safety. Simon, Thanks, you got my point. The lack of any safety recommendations is outrageous. An accident report that just records the facts is worthless! Even thought any recommendations made would not be mandated, it would have given pilots un-ambiguous areas for development or caution rather than them having to decipher the report and come to their own conclusions. This in itself is a flight safety issue. Alan

Norman, you took the words out of my mouth. The ethical principle of the AAIB, a publicly funded organisation, given delegated authority to a private organisation to investigate serious air accidents is questionable. Any involvement of the BHPA should have been under the umbrella of an AAIB investigation. The report would have been written, vetted and published by the AAIB in to the public domain. I would like to give my condolences to the family and friends of the Pilot. It is always the case in fatal Air accident investigations the events are talked about with seeming disregard to the feeling of the loved ones and friends of the deceased. I can assure you that this is only so that lessons can be learned and safety improvements made to ensure similar accidents do not happen again. The report, apart from being BHPA self-indulgent, is factual in nature and does identify a number of causal factors for the accident but not the root cause. It does not explore or determine if the failure of the pilot to understand the local weather conditions and his failure to dampen the surge caused by the self induced sudden loss of power were due to training failures or to degradation of knowledge and skill over time due to his low accumulation of flying hours since completing his training or a combination of both. I think this is an opportunity lost as it is in this area where a number of safety recommendations could have been made. Although not relevant to the investigation, I am disappointed that the report has been written with a BHPA bias as there are number of areas where reference to the BHPA was superfluous and indulgent. Any organisation that has responsibilities for air accident investigations should not be parochial when it comes to such serious matters. Alan

I have a Pap with the reserve fitted behind my head and I've practiced pulling the reserve from the holder without throwing it many times. I would suggest you do the same as the reserve took considerably more force to remove from the holder than I was anticipating. I have tried two handed and single left/right pulls and I quite often practice emergencies and just reach for the handle while in flight to confirm my hand goes directly to it. In an actual emergency you want your hand to go straight to the Handle without thought so you can be concentrate on where to throw it. Alan

A shackle is a U shaped piece of metal with a pin that slots through the open end. The pin is threaded at one end. The shackles that concern us are used to secure the carabineers, and hence the wing, to the swinging arm on the motor. Any failure of the shackle pin will result in you having a bad day. There are a number of failure modes for the pin but the most likely are:- 1. Vibrating loose. 2. Metal fatigue 3. Excessive wear. These failure modes can easily be mitigated by ensuring you use a secondary locking mechanism (key ring, locking wire or tie wrap), carry out regular checks on the pins to ensure no wear and only use manufacturer approved parts if you need to replace one. My policy is to replace shackles & carabineers no later than 50 flight hours to keep the risk ALARP. Alan

Why fly for real when you can do it in the comfort of your own home on your Computer or PS3! I've been trying to get my 17 year old son interested in paramotroring but he is allergic to any activity where he has to move more than just his thumbs (any activities I'm aware of anyway ). I would imagine that in a few years time when virtual reality hits the home market, our sport will be for the die hards only. Just imagine all the thrills of flying knowing that you don’t have to suffer the cold, your engine will always start and never break down and, if you fancy a change of scenery, just pop in another disk! If that is the future we have to look forward to you can kill me now.

Hi, I live in Lytham St Anne’s just a stone’s throw from Blackpool but work in Saudi most of the time although I'll be in the UK for the Easter holidays and I'm always looking out for people to fly with in the area. I'll be in France for some of the time but if you are flying by then or still looking to learn to fly Paramotors PM me your contact details. Alan

Happy new year from sunny Saudi. We're on the down slope to the France trip! Only three months to go. Alan

Ticket claimed. have a beer for me! Alan

Bought a ticket as I was due to be in the UK over the time of the party but the trip has been cancelled. Therefore if anyone wants a free ticket it's yours, as long as Simon will accept the e-mail receipt as proof as the actual ticket will be in the ever increasing pile of mail on my door mat! Alan.

Just made my final payment. Can't wait! Alan