Tyrhone

Hi all, just getting back into PPG after many years, been flying PG in Europe with an IPPI 4 Austrian license. I am a UK citizen but not a resident so not covered by BHPA insurance and many others. AXA will cover me, but it is actually pretty hard to figure out whether that coverage is valid in most countries. The problem lies in that of course you can get covered, no insurance company won't take your money, but trying to find out each countries specific laws and whether they invalidate your insurance is really difficult.

I am in Greece at the moment, and although I have emailed several agencies, no one has replied, and the local pilots suggest that there is no licensing in Greece (which according to AXA, if there are no regulations, then you are covered), but also that you can't be insured, so I am not sure.

Planning on paramotoring in various countries in Europe (Romania, France, Italy, Spain) and outside of EU (Turkey, Montenegro and such) and having the same issue. I just can't figure out whether my insurance from AXA would be valid for these places. And also of course whether I am even allowed to paramotor in these countries.

Do you guys have any details as per the laws and regulations in various countries in and around Europe? Would appreciate any knowledge you can impart, or pointing to somewhere where I can find that knowledge myself.

Happy flying and thanks!

So when you guys say webbing what type of webbing and where do you get it from? Cheers

I had 2 rubber mounts fail on me a couple of weeks ago (they held on the exhaust), they sheared through the middle of the rubber, no sign of cracks beforehand.

Exhaust swung into the prop, with expensive consequences.

As has been already suggested, I'd recommend webbing around the rubber mount, so if it fails, it's not catastrophic.

Simon

Yeah and the engine getting left behind could be a costly endeavor! Has anyone tried shipping by ship? Cheaper and less likely to get booted maybe?

Otherwise thanks for the links and tips, I am going to see what sort of cost I would be looking at and will let you all know if I am succesful in finding out.

Thanks Chilly, any recommendations on companies?

OR... send it air freight by a company that specialises in, or are familiar with dangerous goods. When we shipped our paramotors to China for competition, we did exactly this. No need to dismantle etc as they were in the proper container to satisfy whatever regulations there were at the time. It's not cheap, but is much less risky.

Chilly.

Thanks Pete and Notch,

After reading this article from Jeff Goin http://www.footflyer.com/PPGBibleUpdate ... alight.htm

I would be a bit worried about the engine not making it, and as I wouldn't be in a huge rush I wondered if shipping it by sea might be a safer option? I know it would likely take a month to get to the UK but as long as it got there that would be the main thing.

Also I am really good at taking things apart and really shit at putting them back together, so I would worry about dismantling the engine myself.

Hi all, this will likely only be an issue a year or so from now, but eventually I am going to want to bring my Paramotor (used of course) from the US to the UK (I am a British Citizen), and I was wondering if anyone knows how or what costs it might incur for shipping and also things like import duties and whatever else.

I would be happy shipping by sea if cheaper and more likely to be allowed.

Wondering more if it is possible or if when the time comes I will be better off selling my Paramotor in the US and buying again in the UK?

Appreciate any help as definitive or even close to helpful details on the matter are hard to find.

Cheers

Thanks Alan, good advice mate, I might go up today and try yanking on that brake (if the wind is good) and I will try and feel how the wing is slowing and when enough is enough.

Thanks Alan, at this point I am nervous about pulling too much break and causing a collapse, which is probably very unlikely but it still makes me nervous. Can you pull quite a lot of break to go into a sharper turn?

Thanks for the tips

When going for tighter turns keep a little pressure on the outer brake so you can feel the wing.

Come out of steep turns slowly until you have more experience, otherwise you can get large surges.

Importantly practice these at a safe height, say 1000 feet.

Enjoy,

Alan

Slowly getting more confident and actually able to practice things like low flying and sharper turns instead of just hanging on. So had a great little practice flight on the beautiful beach here in La Penita Mexico. If anyone has tips on hoow to improve my turns, or anything really, I would love to hear it.

http://youtu.be/SeHOKeTKFJQ

Check out my travel and Paramotoring blog: http://tellthemisaidsomething.com/powered-paragliding/

Just a short video of me kiting my Velocity Elektra on the beach in Mexico. The wind wasn't very strong but it was still not a bad session. Although in hindsight I should have waited until the temperature was below a billion degrees. It gets hot in Mexico in the summer...

I am finally somewhere I can fly without excuses, and there have been some great days for it down here in Mexico! So I chucked my Blackhawk BH 125 on the back of the car and had one of my best flying days so far.

I am still pretty new to this and get nervous as hell whenever it comes time to go up, but despite the nerves and fear, as you all know, there is nothing quite like leaving the earth behind and floating through the sky like a really big really noisy bird.

I hope you enjoy the video

http://youtu.be/qsLlCiR2T3s

Check out more powered paragliding stuff at my blog http://tellthemisaidsomething.com/powered-paragliding/

Notch you bloody ripper! Turns out it was the choke, must have gotten bumped in transit and to be honest I didn't know what was engaged or disingaged, went through some old emails from Mike Robinson at Blackhawk Paramotors where he had previously told me, and hey presto, got to 6000 RPM with a lot of throttle still available.

Winds permitting I will be flying on the Pacific Coast of Mexico tomorrow.

Thanks again for your time mate.

Cheers

Ty

Is it running "lumpy" or firing every second cycle (four stroking), with lots of smoke out the exhaust?

If so, you could be running rich?

Is the choke lever disengaged?

If that's not the issue, I would pull the head off and check the cylinder.

Actually feels like it is running really nicely and very little smoke, even a smooth idle, temp also seems good, it just wont go over 5500 rpm, sometimes only 5000rpm.

What should I be looking for with the cylinder? I will try lean it out more and see if that helps, just nervous about overheating after previously blowing a piston. I'll also check the choke lever in the morning as it could have been bumped.

Thanks mate

Is it running "lumpy" or firing every second cycle (four stroking), with lots of smoke out the exhaust?

If so, you could be running rich?

Is the choke lever disengaged?

If that's not the issue, I would pull the head off and check the cylinder.

Hey all, I have hit the Coast of Mexico so no longer at altitude and am prepping to go flying in the next couple days. Anyways I was setting up my Blackhawk BH 125 today and running it through all the checks I know to do, and when actually running the paramotor I found I could not get it higher than 5500 rpm at full throttle.

I checked through the threads and it seems this problem before has been cured by prop changes, but I am using the same prop I have used before and although I hoped I had it on the wrong way round, it is exactly as it was before (but here are a couple pics in case it has been wrong the whole time!)

Hi notch, I spoke to Blackhawk and they said fly it for 10 minutes then check the spark. To be honest I think I just needed to get up in the air after months of nothing but grounded trouble.

If I can't straight out buy the correct base gasket I will try to make one. Only thing is I have no real tools as I am on the road. So if I made do with some basics (say a stanley knife) how accurate does this thing need to be and is there anything else I need to think about (I would likely go 0.8mm, but are all gasket materials the same? Would I likely find it ar a hardware store or bike store? Anything else?)

Thanks all

The 2000m part is what probably saved your engine from melting down. Probably would have been a different story at sea level...

Sweet thanks for the links and advice guys. Flew without today and everything seemed good. Launching at 2000 meters though on an engine made for max 95kg and I'm a fat bastard so it was just a short one.

Probably won't fly again for awhile (not while at altitude) so will likely purchase the right part before getting up. Good advice here for the future though. Thanks agaiin.

That sucks but thanks mate. Would I be able to get a base gasket for my paramotor from a bike shop or are the made specifically for each motor?

Its a bad idea. You will have increased compression, and air leaks, both of which will make your engine far more likely to detonate.

So the yankell from guatemala did not put the base gasket back in place ( I think that is what it is called, thelittle thing that goes around the piston and looks lilikee cardboard with holes in it). Is it ok to tighten everything up and fly my bh 125 like this? Anything to be aware of?

Thanks

I didn't want it to come to this, I was hoping this guy would change his attitude but unfortunately he has gotten worse.

Yankell Echeverria does paramotor training in Guatemala, and I have just had the misfortune of being his student slash personal bank account.

Although my training started off great, he quickly became lazy and greedy, pulling out extra charges after he had supposedly provided a service. His training sessions meant to be a day barely made it to 2 hours, and to top it off, it has become painfully apparent that Yankell is the reason my paramotor engine blew.

After charging me $75 to break it in and set it up, the engine blew while I was completely alone as he prepared his gear to fly. He first blamed the sand, then he blamed the companies Blackhawk Paramotors and HE saying they used cheap parts (he then started being a distributor for HE, funny that). As it turns out, he kept flooding my engine even when I told him how I had seen it started, he then forgot or didn't bother checking head bolts and chucked in 3 turns on the carb and attached a rev counter I told him I could not see.

After that he ordered parts for an HE engine from PAP to get a discount for himself, the parts of course did not fit so there goes $600 out of my pocket. Without my say so he orders new parts from HE and then charges me for both parts including delivery and taxes. He charges me $150 for what should be a 15 minute repair, and then adds on all sorts of ridiculous charges for things like picking up the parts.

End of the day I paiid him $650 for the privilage of blowing my engine and got the hell out of Guatemala. He is trying to get another $600 - $1000 out of me, and because I wont pay it, is threatening me with stealing my motor, swearing at me in facebook, and now spreading all sorts of crap about me around the net.

It is a hard lesson to learn, but just because he seemed nice I trusted him. Believe me, stay away from Yankell Echeverria of http://www.ppgguatemala.com

https://www.facebook.com/yankell.echeverria

This guy will bleed you dry.

At the end of my kiting session the other day, I accidently flipped my Paramotor wing onto its leading edge. I took this as a great opportunity to kite the wing upside down and clean out the debris which had built up inside the cells.

I also happened to be recording it so I put together a little video of how to clean you Powered Paragliding wing by kiting it upside down.

I hope it helps someone. Cheers

Ty

Muchos Gracias! Appreciate the heads up. Hopefully tomorrow I can get this sucker up and running again.

Cheers Simon

In a nutshell, yes.

Any new rings / piston will benefit from a good run in procedure.

SW

Hi guys,

As the title says, my new piston has arrived in Guatemala (for the Blackhawk BH 125 Paramotor), and I was wondering if I need to break in the engine again just for a new piston? Better to be safe and do so?

Cheers

Thanks Notch,

The new piston has arrived and hopefully I can put it together tomorrow. I will try and keep all these bits in mind and make sure I have more control over what he does this time.

So 1.5 turns more or less, locktite and make sure bolts are tight on head gasket, and take it easy at first.

Just a tip - put locktite on your head bolts to make sure they don't come loose. They screw down onto a soft aluminium head, as well as a soft base gasket, so will come loose after a few hours.

So, make sure you re- torque them after ~3 hours running. However, don't over tighten them as this will cause the base gasket to break apart (been there done that).

Then, as part of your post flight checks, check for oil around the base gasket - if there is any, it probably means you need a new gasket, or the head bolts need re-torquing.

I also use gasket sealant on my bask gasket to improve its sealing ability, after finding air leaks there with just the standard gasket.

Yep, I know that now. But what I am unsure about is if the parts I mentioned will fit my Blackhawk paramotor, or like the piston be too different.

I have had training from 2 seperate schools for a total of about 7 days training, and I would have had a terrible time of getting in the air or kiting without it, in fact I would probably have quit!

That being said, Youtube is your friend and over the last couple months I have watched at least a hundred videos multiple times, read the powered paragliding bible twice, and practiced on the ground every chance I get (my engine blew).

As mentioned there are so many videos on youtube to help you get started, and the great thing is that for ground handling you can also watch paragliding ground handling videos.

Just to get you started here is a great one for reverse launching

And here is a great one for what you can aspire to

And on my site I have been putting up kiting videos which might help http://tellthemisaidsomething.com/powered-paragliding/

Good luck mate, practice makes perfect!