alanhinsaudi

Does anyone know who is running the online shop while Simon is away? I still haven't received my tip to tip DVD yet.

[quote Who are they? That kind of service perhaps merits being 'named and famed'..... They are an Italian company called IDM.

A friend of mine asked me to source a new ignition coil for him for his old PAP paramotor. Initially I bought a new one from Sky Dragons but it wasn't the same as the old one and physically didn't fit. The only information I had was the manufacturers name on the old one. I did an internet search to find the company and e-mailed them for info. They replied to my e-mail within a day and asked me to send some photographs which I did. They responded immediately with the details of the ignition coil and they have actually sent me one free of charge (including shipping)! how cool is that. Not many companies will do that these days. Alan

Would love to do the course and should be able to get the time off, however don't have the 70 hours yet. We are desperate for instructors in Saudi so would kill to get a place. Please keep me in mind. Alan

It is a real sh*t thing to do so close to Christmas. I sometimes think the Saudis have the right idea when it comes to justice. You steel you loose your hand, murder or rape etc it's your head! In the UK if you take action against a criminal it is you that is prosecuted. Something wrong with that.

Paul, I'm happy to fill the form in for my near miss as there is no reporting system in place in Saudi. I've read a few references to the incident you had but don't know what it was. Is is explained on the forum somewhere? Alan

I like the HE method and I had planned use this on my PAP. Locking wire would work very well and is used extensively on aircraft but it is sharp and could damage your wing, or your person, if it/you comes into contact with it unless you cover the end with heavy duty electrical heat shrink insulation. I have also seen cable ties used but this is not something I would use myself. Alan

I had a problem with my PAP, no one to blame but myself. Late from work rushed the pre-flight checks that I normally carry out very thoroughly, and launched. Once in the air I usually do a quick once over on everything only to find to my horror that the retaining pin for the left front turnbuckle that attaches the harness to the swinging arm had worked loose and was half out of the hole, only the asymmetric pressure of my weight in the harness against the lift from the wing keeping it in place. A quick circuit to land, keeping a keen eye on the pin, tightened up the pin and launched again. However, this really shook me up and I was extremely angry with myself as I know better than that. Never, never, never short cut your pre-flight checks however little time you have as you may not live to regret it! Also this should not have happened as I always preach the use of secondary locking devices, something I know I should have done(practice what you preach) but I've relied on my pre-flight checks to ensure an incident such as this would not happen. More fool me! This is a classic human factors failure and as a champion human factors training for aircraft maintenance engineers it is extremely embarrassing but reporting incidents such as this is key to making our sport safer. Perhaps secondary locking devices should be fitted as standard from the factory? I know HE now fit a retaining pin on the swing arm retaining bolt to prevent it becoming lose, perhaps PAP might learn from this. Alan

I'm flying from Manchester to Saudi via Zurich so not an option I'm afraid. I'll see if I can find someone who is coming out that can bring them for me. Alan

Simon, that's too late for me! I fly back to Saudi on Tuesday. Can you keep hold of my order until I can get different delivery info as I was getting them sent to my sons school? Best regards Alan

I'm also 105Kg and I fly with a 28 Revolutionand, it gets my vote. Easy to launch easy to land and solid as a rock in the air. I also say bite Simons hand off. I'm going to upgrade to a fusion soon but I'm keeping the Revo to use in the UK as the performance is still good enough for me. Alan

Hi Abudhahi it's Alan. Nice video, are you planning to visit again soon?

Simon, For the trip you are doing I wouldn't leave home without one of these or similar. http://www.preparedpilot.com/product_info.php?products_id=53 I know it is on my Christmas list. Best Regards Alan

Most of year, but it does start getting a bit cold this time of year early morning and late afternoon.

More helmet cam footage this time flying over the thumama escarpment.

I've just read over what I wrote and I think I made it a bit extreme! The dangers are very real but they are not every day occurrences. I think the point I was trying to make (not very successfully) is that it won't be like a Sunday flight in the UK where you are never more than a long glide to the nearest pub. Your ground crew won't have roads to follow you on and driving in the desert is a real skill in itself as it is anything but flat and not vehichle or people friendly. Finding suitable takeoff and landing sites may be problematic. There is one other danger I forgot to mention and that is sand storms. If you remember as a child having a picnic on the beach and sand getting everywhere, multiply that by 1000 as it gets into every orifice it can. I recommend you practice at home by changing your toilet paper for 100grit sand paper! Harden up the cheeks before you go. However, regardless of the dangers, on a clear day there is nothing more exhilarating than flying over a sea of sand, the sense of isolation you feel when you can turn 360Deg and see nothing but sand dunes no habitation, no life at all. It is like you are the only person in existence. The desert at night will take your breath away as you will see a heaven you didn't know existed, the stars are so bright and so clear they could be painted on the sky. You are really going to enjoy your expedition and I wish I was coming with you.

Simon, because of the terrain of the desert any wind can cause significant turbulence, also, as Martin says, we restrict our flying to early morning or late afternoon as the thermals can get quite violent during the mid day sun. I don't know how far you will be from the coast but I would imagine a fair way so you don't get the warming effect of the sea during the winter. Therefore the temperature difference between night and day can be significant. At that time of year the temperature can fall below freezing during the night and get up to 20C to 30C + during the day. We also get thunderstorms and un-announced 'tornado like' winds. It doesn’t rain very often but that is the time of year when we expect it and when it does you know it and flash flooding can be an issue. I know your expedition is being led by an experienced team of desert explorers so I'm sure they are far more aware than I am of the dangers the desert poses at time of year but be careful as it is like flying on mars. The desolation can be mind blowing and if you have to land out it could be hours or days before rescue can get to you find you. There have been a number of cases of Saudis driving into the desert, getting lost and dying of thirst or starvation. If you do land out stay with your kit as it is easy to get disorientated, if you leave it you probably won't find it again (this happened to one of our guys who got lost, walked up a sand dune to get his bearing and then couldn't find his car. He was rescued three days later, near death, by search and rescue. They found his car on day one!). The dangers of the tip to tip pale into insignificance compared with the trip you are undertaking now! Best Regards Alan

Simon, The Empty quarter you are going to fly over is some 3000 miles away from Riyadh (we have an empty quarter in Saudi also), it fact it is a similar distance from us as you are so I don't think you can class us as local. However we are approximately on the same latitude and therefore if the Sahara desert is anything like the desert here at that time of year then it will be cold, windy and probably wet. You will probably feel quite at home! Good luck and best wishes. Alan

I had a problem with my engine this weekend. My pre-flight check did not reveal any issues and there was no noticeable problem in the air but during the post flight check I noticed the spark plug was loose. When I tried to remove the spark plug to check it, it became very tight and it was obviously cross threaded. I know it wasn't cross threaded when I checked the plug during the last engine 5 hourly checks carried out about 31/2 hours ago and therefore the thread must have become damaged due to the plug being loose. When I eventually removed the plug the thread was completely gone and I have to get the cylinder head repaired. I'm not a two stroke expert so is this a common problem or is it a 'one off' problem. I ask the question to determine if I should buy a spare cylinder head in case it happens again.

These have been doing the rounds for some time but there could be someone who hasn't seen them yet! ** SALAD DODGER.* An excellent phrase for an overweight person. ** SWAMP-DONKEY* A deeply unattractive person. ** TESTICULATING.* Waving your arms around and talking bollocks. ** BLAMESTORMING.* Sitting round in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible. ** SEAGULL MANAGER.* A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves. ** SALMON DAY..* The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die. ** CUBE FARM.* An office filled with cubicles. ** PRAIRIE DOGGING.* When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on. (This also applies to applause for a promotion because there may be cake.) ** SINBAD.* Single working girls. Single income, no boyfriend and desperate. ** AEROPLANE BLONDE.* One who has bleached/dyed her hair but still has a 'black box'. ** PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE.* The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again. ** AUSSIE KISS.* Similar to a French Kiss, but given down under. ** OH - NO SECOND.* That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake (e.g. you've hit 'reply all'). ** GREYHOUND SKIRT.* A very short skirt, only an inch from the hare. ** JOHNNY-NO-STARS.* A young man of substandard intelligence, the typical adolescent who works in a burger restaurant. The 'no-stars' comes from the badges displaying stars that staff at fast-food rest au rants often wear to show their level of training. ** MILLENNIUM DOMES.* The contents of a Wonderbra, i.e. extremely impressive when viewed from the outside, but there's actually naught in there worth seeing. ** MONKEY BATH .* A bath so hot, that when lowering yourself in, you go: 'Oo! Oo! Oo! Aa! Aa! Aa!'. ** MYSTERY BUS.* The bus that arrives at the pub on Friday night while you're in the toilet after your 10th pint, and whisks away all the unattractive people so the pub is suddenly packed with stunners when you come back in. ** MYSTERY TAXI.* The taxi that arrives at your place on Saturday morning before you wake up, whisks away the stunner you slept with, and leaves a 10-Pinter in your bed instead. ** BEER COAT.* The invisible but warm coat worn when walking home after a booze cruise At 3:00am . ** BEER COMPASS*. The invisible device that ensures your safe arrival home after booze cruise, even though you're too drunk to remember where you live, how you got here, and where you've come from. ** BREAKING THE SEAL.* Your first pee in the pub, usually after 2 hours of drinking. After breaking the seal of your bladder, repeat visits to the toilet will be required every 10 or 15 minutes for the rest of the night. ** TART FUEL.* Bottled premixed spirits, regularly consumed by young women. ** TRAMP STAMP* Tattoo on a female ** PICASSO BUM*. A woman whose knickers are too small for her, so she looks like she's got 4 buttocks

Last night one of the guys flying a trike managed to hit the top of a palm tree. His wing collapsed and the trike fell 30 feet to the ground hitting front wheel first and flipping onto its back. Luckily, the young boy who was a passenger walked away without injury and pilot only sustained minor cuts and abrasions. The trike itself sustained major damage but I'm convinced its design is what saved the pilot and passenger. How anyone walked away from it beats me. The trike is similar to the one shown in my album but I’m told was an American import. The pilot was a novice and decided to fly without an instructor being present. Need I say more!

Something I missed of the original post is that if the Pilot was able to strap himself back into a paramotor harness and fly he would! That is the passion for the sport that most of us have. Everything we do has risk attached to it, how much risk is determined by the individuals choices. In our case this is down to the equipment we buy, where and how we fly. I for one always fly with a reserve chute and a hook knife and we also now have a large fire extinguisher on the ground! you can minimise the risk but you can't remove it completely. If we could what reason would we have for getting out of bed! Alan

All About six months ago we had a paramotor accident here in Saudi and although I let people know privately I didn't want to go into writing because of the sensitivities of the parties involved. Today however I spoke to the Pilot involved and got his permission to inform you all on this site. He told me his recollections of the accident and an eye witness also filled me in on some of the details. The Pilot, with over two years paramotor experience, had attempted two previous lauches before successfully getting airborne from a tarmac surface using a HE220 paramotor with a Paramania revolution 28 Wing. The equipment was new and owned by a less experienced friend of the pilot and he was checking the set up of the equipment before the owner flew with it. The wind was estimated to be about 15kms/h with minimal gusts. The take off direction took him immediately over some single story buildings and over these buildings he was seen to do a sharp right turn through 180deg taking him directly down wind. The pilot stated the reason for this was he began to loose thrust and needed to land. However once travelling down wind he lost altitude quickly, possibly due to turbulence from the buildings, and impacted the ground, the bottom of the cage striking first. The eye witness stated that at this point the pilot had full power applied. The impact with the ground burst the fuel tank spraying fuel over the harness and pilot. The cage bounced and again impacted the ground generating sparks from the steel cage on the tarmac surface. The sparks ignited the fuel and engulfed the paramotor and pilot in flames! This all happened in less than a minute of him getting airborne. Initially the position of the pilot on the ground made getting him out of his harness impossible and while the paramotor and pilot were on fire, and at great risk to themselves, pilots on the ground re-positioned him in order to release him from his harness. After freeing him from the harness the pilot was I quote "on fire from his feet to his head" and it took some time to extinguish the flames. The Pilot lived but he is injuries were horrific and he was hospitalised for sometime. I met him for the first time today and saw first hand the extent of his injuries. He has lost most of his fingers from his right hand, his face arms & legs are all badly scared and disfigured and he is only just mobile and is still heavily bandaged in places. However, he is in good spirits and was in the desert with us today assisting where he could on ground. I don't intend to make a statement as the cause of the accident as I was not there and did not investigate it, I just wanted to outline the facts as they were explained to me to heighten people’s awareness of how quickly our chosen sport can turn and bite us.

Simon, Slightly confused. Is the visa application form above what you need or do you still want me to contact the embassy? your lawyer is more than welcome to contact me (if it is me you are referring to) and I will do what I can to assist but not sure what else I could add unless you want the visas processed here also. Alan

OK, I'll let you know on Sat if I get one.