steve342

Well said Dan, I dare say many of the pilots on this forum are probably thinking 'yep, same where I live!' It's probably the top reason why folk give up the sport and sell their gear after relatively few flying hours, more so than even the weather. I'm sure the sport would expand if more predictable sites were available, I guess that's a downside of being fairly unregulated, we don't carry enough clout as a flying community to bag suitable sites for a club vibe. Maybe like most things in life, it needs a load of money thrown at it.....

somewhat assumes you can get into your local A&E and then not catch CV when you're there......... fields are still wet so chance of a prang is prob a bit higher than usual, aviation prangs are also higher after winter lay-offs my own inclination is to avoid for now, gutted though

You could try Brimpton Airfield, just west of Aldermaston village. I had a quick chat with the contact person on their website a few years back and he was open then to a discussion about paramotors 'possibly' flying from there. I didn't follow it up as it's a little too far away for me to use on a regular basis. He did say the other members would have to agree to paramotors once they know a bit more about us, how we'd interact with the GA planes, etc, and that you'd have to take out annual club membership for sure, c. £140 I think it was then. I think they'd had some exposure to paramotors flying through their GA circuit unknowingly, so might be a hard sell. Worth a shout unless anyone knows it's a no go since then.

Hi Jim One of the Basingstoke flyers you've seen is probably me, but there are also quite a few of us in the Basingstoke area. We're in the process of forming a local group of flyers and looking for a fairly permanent base/field to fly from in this area, we've got a few options simmering away on this right now. PM me for more details and other contacts. If you can bring with you a nice 2 acre-ish field of short grass with 360 degree wind coverage, clear of wires, trees, cow poo, Chinooks and horse riders, you'll gain about 10 instant friends!

That's me! Nice photo, thanks. Blew the cobwebs away, nice to get in the air again after winter lay-off. Funny how even after 100s of hours of flying over many years you still have to push through that first few minutes of belly cramp

I'm going down this afternoon (Sat) for a recce and probably meet Barry after a quick chat on the phone this morning, haven't been for a couple of years. Will fly if wind drops a bit, may also be there tomorrow which looks good most of day.

Airfix models and Battle Of Britain film.

Hi Cas, I plan for 4L per hr on the Top80 and usually do slightly better than that, it's probably closer to 3.5L per hr in reality but it gives me a fuel safety margin without doing the contorsionist act with the fuel tank mirror

I'll be there! Do they do mince pies in packs of 1? Steve Parajet V3 Top 80, Syth2.

20-30 hours per year I would think is fairly typical of 'frequent flyers' in this country. Doesn't sound a lot, but on average it's flying around twice a month all year round which is pretty good going given weather & other commitments. What works for me is to fly at least once per month, any longer space between flights and you do get rusty & apprehensive next time you fly, the paramotor is flying you for a few minutes before you get ahead of the curve again, it's not particularly enjoyable for those few minutes. All forms of flying are mentally challenging, the longer you don't fly, the more you come up with reasons why not to. That's when people give up and the kit ends up on eBay.

I use Silkolene fully synth oil with regular unleaded petrol at 50:1. Runs fine, plug colour good, no reason to change.

Top80s have an rubber O ring head gasket, had to replace mine after head bolts came loose after 6 hours from new and hot gases destroyed the O ring, will almost certainly affect starting/compression/running if the O ring is damaged or missing. Maybe depends how old the Top80 is but if it is meant to take an O ring, there is a O ring shaped indent in the mating surfaces of the cylinder head. I think I got mine at http://www.miniplane.co.uk/equipment/head-o-ring/ Steve

My enjoyment of an early evening flight yesterday was interrupted by the sound and feel of my rough running Top 80 engine. Was at 800ft on a very hot & humid Hampshire day c.28C, had just come off 8-10mins of full power throttle on full speedbar, down to 60% throttle for a min or so before applying full throttle and speedbar again only to encounter rough running/vibration and no throttle response beyond 75%. Yikes, so......trims to normal, back on brakes, turn back to t/o point 5 miles away, look for a suitable field for a likely forced landing. Tried full throttle again, no joy, eased back to 60% to maintain level flight, seemed a little bit smoother. Shall I continue and risk damaging engine (possible fuel contamination/blown head gasket/holed piston??) or make a precautionary landing miles away from t/o field? Thought crossed my mind it may be carb icing, had a similar prob on microlights a few times in the past, was maintaining level flight so opted to fly a little longer. Sure enough, a few minutes later I got back throttle response, vibration stopped, all seemed normal again. Took it easy getting back to field and when overhead, gunned the engine up and down the throttle range for a while and all was well, was relieved to land safely after the unexpected bit of excitement. Conclusion? Most likely carb icing I guess due the venturi cooling effect in the carb particularly after a period of high revs - very humid air, happened during a flight transition when light aircraft would normally apply carb heat to counter carb ice risk, alas the Top 80 doesn't have that luxury . Next time I'll blip the throttle a bit more during wind down. Last thing I was expecting on a boiling hot day, useful lesson learnt though!

My enjoyment of an early evening flight yesterday was interrupted by the sound and feel of my rough running Top 80 engine. Was at 800ft on a very hot & humid Hampshire day c.28C, had just come off 8-10mins of full power throttle on full speedbar, down to 60% throttle for a min or so before applying full throttle and speedbar again only to encounter rough running/vibration and no throttle response beyond 75%. Yikes, so......trims to normal, back on brakes, turn back to t/o point 5 miles away, look for a suitable field for a likely forced landing. Tried full throttle again, no joy, eased back to 60% to maintain level flight, seemed a little bit smoother. Shall I continue and risk damaging engine (possible fuel contamination/blown head gasket/holed piston??) or make a precautionary landing miles away from t/o field? Thought crossed my mind it may be carb icing, had a similar prob on microlights a few times in the past, was maintaining level flight so opted to fly a little longer. Sure enough, a few minutes later I got back throttle response, vibration stopped, all seemed normal again. Took it easy getting back to field and when overhead, gunned the engine up and down the throttle range for a while and all was well, was relieved to land safely after the unexpected bit of excitement. Conclusion? Most likely carb icing I guess due the venturi cooling effect in the carb particularly after a period of high revs - very humid air, happened during a flight transition when light aircraft would normally apply carb heat to counter carb ice risk, alas the Top 80 doesn't have that luxury . Next time I'll blip the throttle a bit more during wind down. Last thing I was expecting on a boiling hot day, useful lesson learnt though!

MetOffice aviation forecasts are a pretty reliable source of weather info, they do location/area balloon forecasts which on the day are generally spot on. If the balloons are up, it's usually good enough for us. http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/ga-briefing-services. Aerodrome actuals are also accurate in real time. Particularly useful for forecast winds at 1000ft and 2000ft which can often be considerably higher than ground level, not much fun soon after taking off from what appears to be light wind conditions at ground level.

brave of you Cas, let us know how you get on dodging the thunderstorms and flying backward in this wind today..... tomorrow first thing or late afternoon looks possible.

Nearly did this weekend Cas, but been cultivating a local farmer contact to use a field of his and so far looks OK, albeit like probably most other flyers on this forum, jealously guarded & not for wider sharing I'm afraid. Issues are noise (nowhere near as bad as expected), neighbours & horses (don't fly anywhere near them), crops/livestock (rotate sites as required), be responsible (t/o and depart, no circuits, no low flying in the vicinity), no raves (1-2 pilots max). Kinda makes for interesting evasive manoeuvres depending on wind direction. But it's local, so worth the effort. You London based chaps should try a few farmers close to the M25 where maybe noise isn't such a problem, most farmers I've spoken to are actually quite curious about the sport, suggest you do a trial flight for them from a suitable field, you can normally get the OK for 2 of you to fly on the basis of safety (not good form to spend the night bust up in their field ).

Surely not, but as another user of the site Barry does insist on a copy of your insurance as a condition of flying there. Not sure even PMC insurance though would cover tangling with one of those fancy Learjets out of Farnborough.

totally agree, I come from a microlight background and checklists were drummed into you from the start, and well proven (saved many a 'full throttle' engine start-up). Interesting though that paramotoring feels less structured in this respect, more automatic thought or free-spirited I guess. No doubt part of it's attraction, but I do sometimes think on climb-out 's***, bit late to run thru the pre-start checklist....!'

Beats Basingstoke that's for sure. As a matter of interest, are you ever worried or bothered by turbulence from all those mountains? I'd like to fly in similar areas in the future.

Me I think. Bit scratchy at ground level but smoother higher up but fairly stiff breeze, 15mph into wind, 40mph d/wind, yahoo. Saw someone kiting on the common near the M3, shame we can't t/o and land there.

try Miniplane France

Agree entirely. Normally start my pull-start Top80 on the ground first without the prop and just on idle power so as not to over-rev even though it's clutched. Provided you don't flood the engine, which is easy to do (stop the initial prime with the squeezer bulb just as the fuel enters the carb), it normally starts after a few pulls and often without any choke. Once the prop is fitted, always starts on my back first or second pull for the rest of the day.

count me in

Hi Mike, there's a few of us in the area around Basingstoke/Hook scouting sites. Barrys field for sure is an option, we checked it out a few weeks ago and grass needs cut, PM me for further info on that and other possibles. Steve