Hamishdylan

Eddie at Microavionics has just upgraded my PM100 to add Bluetooth, and removed the permanently fitted second radio 'pigtail' and replaced that with a tiny connector for when I need to use two radios. The audio quality over Bluetooth is absolutely excellent, really good if you are using Zello for pilot to pilot comms via mobile phone. I've also got a helmet power lead, which will allow me to charge it from a li-poly battery when I am away from mains power. Totally chuffed and always a pleasure to do business with MicroAvionics: helpful, great products, quick turnaround and good value for money.

The 'handheld' is technically described as 'transportable' and the £15 is for 5 years, after which it needs renewing. Worth checking that the Yaesu has a certificate of conformity, as you need to include that when you apply for your transportable ticket. It took me quite a few months of negotiating with CAA a few years back, but it was worth it in the end. Just don't get caught out in the pooh trap of callsigns; because we don't have a G registered aircraft we don't have a de facto callsign. I just talk with the local ATC unit by phone beforehand and they invariably agree that 'Paramotor i' is the best option, as it lets other airspace users know what to look out for in the circuit. If there is ever more than one paramotor then they use 'Paramotor i, ii, iii' etc. Originally I fancied something a bit less direct like 'Slowcoach' 'Chainsaw' etc but names as callsigns are largely registered to companies and it just wasn't worth the faff factor. And one final point - it can be quite tricky to get the mounting right so that you can achieve some semblance of all round cover without getting too much interference from the motor, even with shielded HT lead. I have resorted to fitting radio to an upright harness strap and using my body as shielding. Reduces coverage from behind but I largely try to speak to stations that are in front of me...

Challow Paramotor Club was active near Wantage this morning.

I have a Microavionics 360 strobe, powered by a Li ion battery, lasts about 5 hours and is excellent at dawn and dusk. I've not found anything battery powered that will cut the mustard in full daylight. Mine illuminated roadsigns at dusk from about 800'!

Poz, I thought you were pulling my leg but better safe than sorry - you might have been a left-hander with a particularly low pain threshold and a keen sense of determination! Pity it is your right hand or else you could do a wicked Dave Allen impression...

Poz, I'm sorry if I touched a raw nerve with my example but (without wishing to put more petrol on the bonfire) if you did that to yourself with a penknife as a nipper, I salute your determination - you must have really gone for it! Maximum respect.

Nice one Dan - lots of threads of discussion which we could take further, and it shows that this isn't just a simple black and white discussion but one which requires a bit of judgement and consideration (the flying/risk/regulation/legislation piece - not the deliberate and public rule breaking in order to make a high profile political protest). I couldn't agree more about the need for young men (in particular) to take risks, thrill seeking is almost hard wired into the species. But a lot of that can be addressed by perceived risk - something feeling risky or fear-inducing but actually can be objectively quite safe, like bungy jumping (helmet on in case I offend the bungy jumping community)! To get good at real-world risk assessment people need to be exposed to a modicum of hazard so they can make sensible decisions about the actual risk. So when the time was right I gave my youngster a sharp penknife, showed him how to use it safely and then waited for the inevitable learning curve (with some elastoplast handy just in case). Sure, he cut himself a few times whilst he was learning but he is now in his late twenties, has all his fingers and a sensible regard for sharp things; he also isn't afraid of using knives, scissors, saws, etc in order to get things done. He doesn't tolerate blunt tools which IMHO cause more accidents than sharp ones. In our sport, young men tend to be seriously outnumbered by chaps of more mature years. One would hope that life experience(plus good training) has equipped them with the decision making skills to know the difference between hazard, perceived and actual risk. If anything, we always need more practice in making good decisions (dare I say airmanship?) rather more legislation - keeping engaged in discussions such as this one certainly helps.

But not too busy with your life to keep biting though. Paint dry yet?

Gone a bit quiet now. Anyone else got fresh bait?

Sorry I thought you had gone off to paint an Airfix model or something suitably mature...

Glad someone's still got all their fingers; just a big chip on the shoulder is enough for one person to have to bear...

Hi Steve, I've got 100 hours on my R2 and I love it to bits. I'm often flying in thermic conditions when my chums are on the ground saying that it is too lumpy for them. Yes, when needing to fly actively in really dynamic conditions, it can roll a little but nothing you can't handle with a little bit of active brake control (depending on the size of your cajones/comfort budget). I get great fuel economy on XC trips too. If you aren't won over on your R3 then get in touch - we can meet and you can test fly my R2 and we can do a part exchange after I've given my wing a service and Loft assessment just to give you peace of mind. PM if you want to take this further but I suspect you will be fine once you have flown it a couple of times (more is the pity...). Just as long as you haven't ordered gopping colours!

Before we all book our First Class tickets on the outrage bus, just take a deep breath and have a look at the CAA website/Summer edition of Clued Up safety magazine. There are plenty of fully qualified PPL pilots who inadvertently bust controlled airspace; just look at the prosecutions and remedial training courses. It is largely a matter of education and CAA should be commended for their positive and supportive approach on preventing recurrences through better training and education. It is a different matter entirely to deliberately bust restricted airspace to make a protest; it matters not one jot whether it was done in a paramotor, paraglider, light aircraft towing a banner or a sled pulled by red-nosed reindeer. The issue here is that the protesters couldn't get close on the ground so they did it in the air - the means of transport is almost immaterial, although using a paramotor meant that the banner was in camera shot for longer because the aircraft was moving slowly. Anything faster/more threatening stood a good chance of being shot down (from the ground or from the air). Greenpeace are no no novices in planning high profile protests, be that against whale hunters, nuclear submarines or orange-faced, small-handed politicians. They notified the Police & ATC just in time to decrease the risk but with not enough time to prevent the protest. I'm sure the TV stations would have been tipped off just in time too. Remember the kn*b who repeatedly bust the airspace at Glastonbury? They prosecuted his @rse and rightly so. For this incident, a 55-year old is in custody and will be before the Sheriff in the morning for the Trump fiasco; let's just let justice run its course and not jump to conclusions - eh? Perhaps the prediction that this is the end of our sport as we currently know it is just a little premature.... when we see the outcome we can debate if more Draconian licensing would make any difference at all. Will he prove to be BHPA/IPPI/YouTube trained? Will it make a difference? PS: car drivers are licensed in this country - has this stopped speeding/drunk driving/using mobile phones at the wheel? No, I thought not....

Some competition guys add additional trim lines to help them fly hands free; I note the chap in the photo has a map board and comp fuel bottle set up.

Thanks for bringing this to everyone's attention. Just think you might want to double check timings: 1300 UTC = 1300 GMT = 1400 BST/Local. Best, HD

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-wiltshire-44334816/military-jet-has-near-miss-with-paragliders-in-wiltshire Do you think CANP would have helped?

hi GR002, Squelch setting depends on the level of interference you experience; it is just a variable filter to stop interference. It should be as low as possible (to prevent you not hearing transmissions you want to hear) but sufficiently high to stop break through interference annoying you. Try turning it down as low as you can until you get some 'mush' on the radio, then just turn it back up a tadge. Then try it whilst you are in your paramotor with the engine running - chances are your motor will generate interference and you will need to increase the setting a little to get rid of the mush. The higher the gap between 'cutting off the mush' and your final setting, the greater chance that you will not hear weak or distant stations. Hope this helps HD

Nice job! If you were at all concerned about weakening the straps by screwing through them, a small piece of wood covering them and screwed either side of the strap would keep it in place but not eat into the load strength of the strap.

Hi Dave, I have a tie down scheme for my motor in a trailer, but unfortunately can't post pictures here for some reason. Regardless of what scheme you use to secure eye bolts etc to the baseboard of your carrier (I use two strips of load lock load restraint track https://www.nationwide-trailer-parts.co.uk/collections/track-load-restraint and position the motor inside it, with ratchet straps down either side of the motor into the load lock) I would urge caution about how you secure the ratchet straps to the actual motor. Metal to metal contact will result in vibration and after 1800 km I'm pretty sure the ratchet hooks will have worn away parts of your precious motor. I use two short (12 inch) double slings of proper paracord which I pass round a horizontal part of the frame on port and starboard (the points you show using in the photos would be ideal). To each of these loops, I clip a decent sized carabiner to secure the loop and then pass the ratchet strap through the carabiner, with the 'claw' of the strap going back down to the load restraint track, so both ends of the ratchet strap are secured to the base board. This means that the paramotor has frame-to-paracord loop (i.e. no metal to metal ), the ratchet strap goes strap-to-carabiner, so no metal to metal or paracord to strap (so no sawing through or friction). I can then tension really hard with the ratchet, knowing that I won't break the frame, there is a built in (but strong) weak link of paracord or if you use an open carabiner rather than a climbing one, the jaws of the carabiner will gradually bend if you put an incredible amount of tension on the ratchet strap (not sure if this physically possible in this set up but I have done it when securing other loads to the trailer). If you were really fussed, you could put a bit of cloth under the paracord to stop it polishing the frame, but after 3 years of using this scheme I've noticed absolutely no detriment to the frame, and I secured the motor rock steady to the trailer. The more secure it, the less vibration and friction there is through the tie down, so less chance of damage. I stop after 15 minutes and double check all the lashings but there is seldom any slack, but better safe than sorry. Hope this is useful...

Hi Connor, Hang on in there and every best wish for a full and speedy recovery. Thank you for having the grace to share the video of your accident; post accident analysis is so helpful for other pilots who can go through the 'what would I do if this happened to me?' consideration. Life is too short to make every mistake yourself so it really helps to learn from others. Best wishes HD

Looks really interesting - let's see how quickly the clips start coming. (Thinks - what old footage of the A exercises have I already got and I can edit whilst the weather is typically pants...?)

Thanks for the further explanation - good luck with your tests and plans. It's a pity you live so far from me or I'd happily let you try the Icaro for size and fit. I note from the Members' Map that there are quite a few members in the towns local to you; if you don't have much joy with your Bolle helmet conversion you could PM them and see if you could meet and try on their helmets (ooh er Matron - behave yourself!). As you know, most paramotorists are happy for 'show and tell' with kit, especially in the winter and even more so if there is hop-flavoured fluids involved. PS When I free fly I use a Salomon ski helmet - can't beat it for fit and comfort - so i know where you are coming from. Granny says don't forget to tape up the goggle strap retainer at the back or you might catch a line and end up facing the wrong way after take off! HD

Hi Andy, Yeah, I get it - you know what your doing but if you need a bit of help sucking eggs you make sure you get back in touch I think you might be setting yourself a real challenge to get the sizing and mounting right. I've got an Icaro Solar X and the visor mounting has two very short threaded sockets moulded into the helmet shell. The one to the rear takes the big diameter 'thumbscrew' which acts both as the pivot and the friction device to keep it in place - it's quite sensitive to get the grip right so it stays up when you want it to, but doesn't blow upwards in fast flight. The small one a little further forward is a rolling pivot which controls the range of movement. As well as the screws there are small nylon washers which allow the visor to move freely and they are critically matched to the thickness of the visor; if one gets it wrong the 'perspex' will be subject to too much stress and it will craze or shatter. Even though I had the helmet and the visor from the manufacturer and they were designed for each other, it was a bloody fiddle to fit it. https://flybubble.com/icaro-solar-x-visor-fixing-system https://flybubble.com/icaro-scarab-solar-x-visor-long Get back in touch if you want me to take some measurements from my Icaro if that might help. Not taking the proverbial, but have you considered just using ski goggles, as they should fit well onto a ski helmet? I know, you've thought about it already... I'll get my hat and coat...

Thanks for your comments - I've looked more closely now and see that I was wrong about the doubled up batteries; just didn't notice them on the photos with your review (I blame old age and looking on my phone and not a decent sized PC screen!). Because glove sizing and fit can vary so much between manufacturers, I'm thinking about taking a trip around local motorcycle clothing suppliers for a real-world try on and then see if perhaps Santa might be persuaded to add some on his sleigh for me. I might try to persuade SWMBO that they would be "essential for home snow clearance, winter gardening etc and oh, they might also be quite handy for a spot of paramotoring - hadn't thought of that... "

Good drills! Never underestimate the power of drag... Behind the car is well protected (possibly even a low pressure area) but it does get cruddy with spray so it sounds like you have made the best compromise.