adamjedgar

hang on gents, he said it has "2D Steering". this means that the outer tip steering lines are not run through any pulleys and are connected direct to the brake toggle. Its only the mains that run through pulleys. when you are flying in full reflex mode, 2d steering setup in the way its shown in the ITV Billy manual is going to use both main and tip steering lines at the same time...so it doesnt matter in reflex what you do. My understanding is that in reflex gliders often the main problem is in using full trimmers + full speedbar + jaming on a heap of brake + turbulence. That is usually the time when a frontal is likely. The solution is to simply not to use both full bar and full trimmers at the same time. High hang point machine...all your wing brake lines, including tip steering, should all be lengthened by at least 100mm (i run even longer on my own units). On the Billy, you need to lengthen by about 150mm to get through lower pulley. Dont try to fly a high hang point unit without lengthening ALL brake lines, its EXTREMELY dangerous to not do this as you will end up stalling your wing.

Hi Paul, I've reinstalled the drive pulley and tensioned it up to correct setting. It's not very high torque though...40n.m I guess I will know soon enough if that isn't good enough...the pulley will slip on the shaft.

thanks Andy...it has never slipped on me yet but i did wonder as my engine rebuilding experience is with model aircraft engines, lawn mowers, motorcycles, cars, and diesel truck engines. Never had anything to do with redrives such as this. Also, for those who may be wondering...the black dust is mostly a result of my incessant spraying wd-40 on electric starter thus collecting dust from anywhere and everywhere.

Hi guys, I pulled apart a belt redrive assembly and noticed the aluminium crankshaft pulley is a tapered fit with no woodruff key. Also, the pulley retaining nut whilst flanged has no washer, so its biting directly onto the alloy damaging the surface finish when being tightened up. Do these two things sound right to you guys? Anyone got pictures of how their belt drive engine pulleys are mounted onto crankshaft I could look at?

The aircraft industry term mechanic is a very awkward way of describing the specialist areas involved in aircraft maintenance and repair. The type of work carried out as alluded too in the above posts are not completed by a single person...They are unique skills in specialist workshops. Even when one looks at the automotive industry, a diesel mechanic does not undertake panel beating, an auto electrician does not fix gearboxes and diffs! Here in our country, the usual thing is for licensed specialist workshops to undertake these specialist roles...you don't, for example, usually see a newly refurbished propellor come out of a standard maintenance hanger! I know this because my dad was formerly both a LAME and diesel mechanic by trade.

All good points Bob...i personally dont view you as a Super Dell plant. However even if you were, i personally take everything i read on its merits as best i can. Some things Dells preaches i agree with, other stuff....if i say what i think it would be a lot of foul language ranting! One thing i will say about the Cima K2 wing...if a "newbie" was to make a mistake in making a wing purchase, it sure is better to make that mistake than go out and buy an apco NRG, Niviuk Doberman, Dudek Hadron, a Snake or the like where they will surely come to grief! There is also no doubt about the strength of the flat top, there is no way i would put my ppg between two supports and stand on it whilst bouncing up and down! Btw, i dissagree to some extent about the crumple zone. Most ppg accidents ive seen have the unit landing tilted forward. This would for the most part bypass the crumple zone because of the angle of impact. That in turn would cause that single support tube to just immediately bend or even snap off! I and i am not even convinced Dells version of comfort bars provides any real protection either...the way they are designed doesnt look to me they would distribute impact forces very well in a crash. When you consider the flat top is heavier than most other modern units (mostly due to supposed safety features), is anything actually being gained by these faulty apparent safety features? I think this is where the skytap does the flat top justice. A much better design. Personally i would never buy a flat top. Anyway, why would i? Dell earbashed Nirvana and i love my Nirvana...hes the devil

Firstly...ive got a headache, hardly slept, have had a child vomiting most of the night which still isnt over yet (its now 5am here), and probably i am rambling as a result...anyway, here goes. Anyone who is deeply religious and a genuine Christian already knows that anyone who claims to be such, whilst at the same time lying as much as he does, taking no responsibility for his mistakes that cause harm to others (ie the guy who died under his instruction), is mostly a fake. I am not sure i understand how anyone who carries on the way he does could actually really be one. Having said that, i believe strongly in Christianity and have a strong faith but im the worst example of a Christian on the planet. I skip church regularly to "go fliing" (as Dell says), i swear when i get angry (i really dissappoint myself in this area), i dont pray regularly (but i talk to myself out aloud all the time...what that means i havent a clue)...anyway, im a crap example to be honest. So who am I to judge! I think we just need to rate his equipment for what it is. Accept that he is a great pilot but that he also spins an awful lot of complete rot in pursuing sales, instead should always get a variety of different experiences in order to better inform ourselves for our paragliding journey and take marketing hype on its merits. What i will say about the dominator (The Cima K2) is that, very few people i fly motors with keep using standard canopy profiles with motors. In all honesty they are hopeless for xcountry flying compared with reflex ones...there is simply no way to argue this point, its a consistently demonstrated fact. Actually, one of Dells own well known students, James Alreid, eventually realised the Dominator BS and moved over to flying reflex gliders. (Niviuk Kouger if memory serves me correct) I do not doubt the inherant safety in standard canopies, but they are not safer at speed. If one compares identical wing sizes between reflex and stardard...well there isnt a comparison to be honest. To fly as fast as a reflex one using a standard free flying profile (wings like dominator, mojo, atlas) you have to dramatically reduce wing size. Smaller wing means more dynamic, faster landing speed, more chance of injury. Its that simple, there is no way to argue against this point other than to say, well dont fly fast! Thats easy to say in principle, however, in practise, when you see "the jones next door" zooming by 10km/hr faster on their reflex glider (which btw is the identical size to your dominator), you're gonna wanna break the 10th commandment "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. ( Exodus 20:17)"! So when you want the slow landing speed and behaviour of my 25m dudek universal, your 25m free flying canopy is going to be painfully slow at xcountry flying unless there is almost zero wind and especially, no lift areas to fly through! Btw, there is a really good way to compare the characterietics of standard canopies and reflex ones...its an absolute no brainer test...next time it blowing 17-20knots on the coast and everyone is flying 17m minwings, ask a ppger with a 22m reflex ppg glider to go free flying...he will be up their asses screaming them to fly faster. Ive flown my 25m dudek in strong conditions with lots of 17-19m miniwings and keep up no problem. I once overtook a low end hang glider into strong headwinds on my dudek (much to my amusement and the complete shock of its pilot). Obviously launching a big wing in strong conditions is very very difficult, however this is the speed test im talking about. We all know that no rational safety conscious guy/gal is regularly going to be pulling up a 22-25m bed sheet in stronger winds, however it is very doable in the hands of a skilled pilot to prove my speedtest point. Sorry for the rant.

The facts are, for the most part, Dell hasn't designed a thing in his life. Everything he does is a rehash and rebirth of something someone else designed previously that is superseded...hence why I think he calls himself "Super Dell". The Flat Top was neither designed by Dell or inspired by him. It has some fundamental flaws that have never been addressed because he isnt capable of addressing them, the dominator design (like the flat top), is a stagnated old design that was safe enough in its day, but incorporates none of the more recent technologies and refinements that make wings what they are today. The fact one of the respondents here has trouble launching it because of tips flying first isn't surprising either...paying $1500 US dollars for an old design and old wing is madness. Having said all of the above, at least Dell flies his own brand, he hasn't died on it yet. 6ou probably wont ever see him go up against more modern technology in competitions though, i notice he is always very careful to avoid that. He also pretends to make competitive tests, however to the trained eye its easy to see how he causes newer wings to perform badly against his own gear. His speed tests are also a complete lie...he overloads his dominators to the absolute shithouse to get them to fly as fast a much larger and therefore safer reflex gliders. Its ridiculous to see him break a so called speed records only to see him cross the threshold on landing at nearly 40km/hr on a wing so small one would have trouble soaring it free flying let alone motoring. Admire his skills, but ignore the marketing hype.

Might seem unorthodox...ive seen some guys try to drag their feet on ground after lift off (Tucker Gott comes to mind) Perhaps this might help with the mind wanting to immediately pick feet up? Of course if you sink back down again, feet can get caught underneath...so it isnt necessarily a great habit either.

You would be suprised at how much force the wing and therefore risers are capable of exerting on the cage ring...its a really big amount that most cages simply cannot resist. If you look at tandem trikes, they have added cables between trike and cage to help this issue as well as hooks high up on cage for risers to sit on. If your lines were so slack they got sucked into the propellor i find that difficult to see happening when you are moving forward pulling wing up unless you were turned somewhat sideways before you added power. To be honest, if you can forward launch without power, you can power launch...its pretty easy. As i and others have said, the trick is not over throttling early on in the pull up. this part just takes practise and a committment to the early part of launch. If you dont committ and the wing starts to loose it rising momentum, it will want to fall back to the ground. If you try to force it to fly at this point by continuing with even more power, it will quickly go parachutal, at this point you're stuffed and very likely to compress cage. When i first started motoring i was always worried about how to get the wing to launch straight ..i worried so much i stuffed my launches repeatedly. The thing is, forget about any of that and just pull the damn thing up...it wants to fly straight, the only reason a wing doesnt is because the pilot over thinks starts concentrating more on steering doesnt maintain the initial launch momentum and tries too hard to fail. They start giving up on the launch before the wing has even got 4 feet off the ground. The wing immediately starts to loose its launch momentum just as the pilot realises something has gone wrong (but isnt really sure what or why), the wing starts to go offline because its no longer flying, pilot starts to pull now whilst also throttling up further, only its too late and wing is rapidly starting to go parachutal... Most lower end wings require very little pull to get them to come up off the ground, however, once that process is initiated, pilot must keep it going, keep the momentum happening. Btw, dont be hard on yourself when you blow a launch...it happens all the time in nil wind for a lot of reasons. Another thing to keep in mind (i forgot to mention this before), quite often nil wind isnt nil wind. You may actually have tried to launch in a moment where the faintest tail wind was blowing. This is very common on light days where winds tend to be variable direction or when flying just before sunset when catabatic conditions are very common. I recently had a launch where wind well above tree line was clearly east, however after failing 3 launches...wing just had zero pressure and refused to fly, i decided to go to opposite end of the park, face west and launch in what i was sure was a tail wind...perfect launch straight away... i couldnt believe it unless id seen it with my own eyes...the catabatic from west was coming in underneath the easterly above and sinking down over the front of the tree line to the west of me. Once i was well above tree line i flew straight into the easterly again...i thought this kind of thing only happened in really hilly terrain (like around mountains) but clearly i was wrong!

I power launch all my paramotors...i was forced to learn this way because i wasnt strong enough to forward launch without power. I have a little tip for you (pardon the pun)... When power launching its vital that you only use a small amount of power initially whilst pulling wing up. Over throttling causes the risers to squeeze against the cage deforming it (unless you have a really strong cage). This deformation results in one of two outcomes.. 1. prop hits the cage 2. lines are caught by propellor tips. in your case, because you have a single ring cage, and a rather large prop, i am almost certain that number 2 above is exactly what has happened to you. I have a youtube video where i overthrottled power launching with a brand spanking new 3 blade propellor (a long time ago but i think it cost something like $800 AUD). In my case the result of overthrottling was number 1 above...prop hit cage (i have dual ring cages on my units) Took 25mm off all three tips on first attempt at launching with it. In my case it was just a muscle memory issue with throttle setting...the two blade prop i had before didnt respond as well and so my automatic throttle input was the same with the 3 blade prop. the engine revved up really quickly and bam!!! see short youtube video here... out Next time you power launch, make sure that you do not use much throttle initially whilst wing is coming up off the ground. Your cage unfortunately i do not believe is a good type of cage for power launching...its only a single ring and the propellor is very exposed. Second, its also vital when power launching that you DO NOT LEAN FORWARD during launch!!! I cannot stress this highly enough, you must stand very upright and move forward with the push of the engine. Standing upright helps allow the lines to clear the cage very early on in the glider pull up. Its not that you should be jamming legs into the ground in front of you against the thrust of the engine...just make sure you stand very upright as soon as you can. hope this helps

Its a real shane that my love of an airborne dirt bike (paramotor), is not also the love of bystanders. Some do whqtever they can to make my life difficult...even inte tionally putting themselves in my line when im wanting to take off...even when thats from an approved ppg launch area. Seems that some people just dont care for other peoples fun, so they seek opportunities to have it canned. Ive even had a tradie rush out of a new house being built and hurl a rock over a cliff at me flying a paraglider (not even powered).

And there is the reason why you have this entire thread...on the one hand a person complains about a pilot doing the wrong thing, likely a result of limited regulation and training, and on the other hand, you dont want any control because of money. I have interests in both sides of the argument, i really do, however in all honesty even i have come to accept that we cannot have it both ways, its either one or the other. If people were capable of doing the right thing without any form of regulation, i dont think a police force would exist anywhere in the world (extreme example i know, i know). I envy your system because here in Australia we are highly regulated in ppg. Having said that, its not expensive considering how much people spend on buying coffee each year. The immediate cost of regulation is training ( It provides an income for instructors and helps improve safety standards and skills a lot...so its worthwhile) and Federation membership ($365 per year). The main downside of regulation for me is the loss of being able to fly low and slow at all in Australia. We basically cannot fly below 300ft now unless we are on private property with written permission...it sucks. Launching now is almost getting to the point where an airport is tye only option unless you wanna risk being suspended if someone complains. I have experuenced suspension 3 years ago...so i know first hand how regulation restricts this sport in Australia at least.

The question is, does a paramotor or a paraglider fall into the category of an aircraft? To my way of thinking the underlying problem is no requirement for a license or registration. That puts it in the category of a pushbike that flies.

Firstly, is there a law against low flying paramotors in the UK? Forgive my ignorance of UK regulations in this sport.... You guys dont have mandatory ppg licensing do you? If not, then its not a controlled sport...so with the exception to obvious regs for restricted and controlled airspace, aviation rules for registered aircraft with licensed pilots wouldnt apply...therein lieth the problem i think.

Hi guys, Is ironic this topic should come up...i had a fellow pg pilot who is getting a ppg endorsement ask me that question a week ago. I think ppgers sometimes forget all about the likelihood of reverse launching so i add the following because it is very often a factor... The main reason for choosing one over the other for me is determined by my reverse launch technique when flying motors in wind. Because i reverse launch holding A's in one hand, i always put throttle in opposite hand to the one i use to pull up glider...so in my case, throttle goes in left hand because i reverse launch with right hand on A's. So why does that make a difference? Because the last thing you want to happen whilst hauling on the A's when reverse launching in wind is for the lines also to pull on throttle and rev the engine up. Thats only going to be exacerbated by wind also pulling on wing which has A lines now pulling on throttle. The result is pilot and motor ending up going for an uncontrolled worm burn ground run downwind into a nasty and costly "prang" (Aussie for accident btw) By having throttle in bottom hand that is just used for rear line control, the throttle lever is also well clear of lines as its in the bottom hand. If you reverse launch using two hands and individual A's (which i personally wouldnt do) then it probably doesnt matter. Hope this helps other guys who arent sure which way to go.

Hi guys, glad for this thread as i got a highly unusual email...(see below) fortunately, i am used to hackers sending out this kind of stuff (i own my own webhosting VPS and administer it and this stuff happens a lot). What i find interesting about such emails, when i read stuff like the following, the alarm bells start ringing immediately... "If you've met Simon, you know he varies from polite and energetic to abusive and immature....Simon had an abusive childhood, even though hes not allowed to work with children" The idea that another business would put something like this out there in the public domain is hugely foolish, indeed even business suicide. Simon, my hope is that if this is an attempt at payback, you sue the crap out of the mongrels who did this when they are caught! From: www.Paramotorclub.org <noreply@invisioncloudcommunity.com>

I just use glass bubbles (micro balloons) in my epoxy resin mix. Very light and produces a pretty decent sandable repair for even fingernail sized chips. Strands are stronger obviously...but micro balloons are very light. Obviously, a lot of carbon props are hollow, so the depth of chip and/or crack has to be considered, however ive repaired some bad ones using this method but only when damage is out nearer to the tip.

Once i dropped the throttle, i couldn't fart hard enough to gain altitude So 200 feet was all i had to work with.

Hi AndyB, I am also leaning towards that outcome as well. guys with the power of hindsight, i am now wondering whether or not i made the right decision at lowish altitude, in not attempting to recover the throttle whilst i was still airborne! What would you guys have done in my situation? Would you have landed as i did, or would you have attempted to fish around trying to recover the throttle. Please also keep in mind, the golf course below had a local competition running and there were players on practically every hole on the course at the time. A propellor flying through the air from altitude could easily kill someone, obviously coming off and going straight into ground was a good outcome and where i landed there were no golfers for at least 150-200m. Obviously apart from the golden rule...dont drop the throttle... What are the pros and cons of either option (land or recover throttle) at lowish altitude?

as i said, it is not possible for the propeller or the cage in that location to flex enough for prop to be pulled into the cage (or vice versa). If you were able to see the upper re drive pulley, you will notice it has been sliced like an apple core around approx 3 inches of its diameter by the steel throttle cable in a direction parallel with the direction of rotation of the pulley. The belt has also snapped at this point and i could feel the moment when the entire housing failed. Also, in the scenario Blackburn Mark has outlined, if the housing had failed whilst the motor was still running, then i would have immediately had a runaway engine...ie belt re-drive engines (and certainly this engine) relies on the propeller for its flywheel! As soon as the propeller housing departs the engine say for example due to imbalance, as soon as the propeller housing broke away and flywheel effect is lost, then the engine (which due to throttle cable being pulled was already revving prior to this failure event) would have immediately gone to full throttle with no means of shutting it down, and self destructed internally...which it has not done at all...so that scenario is not supported by the evidence either. The propeller housing snapped in two because of the sudden stop and massive load caused by the throttle cable jamming in the upper pulley. This immediately stopped the engine dead, and boom...snapped the housing, sending the prop down through the bottom of the frame and into the ground. Definitely, the propeller was also extensively damaged by the throttle hand-grip and cable prior to the housing failure...i felt that at the time.

Its not possible for this prop to hit the cage down there unless the frame is deformed at least 100mm (4 inches)...its a cage for a 1350mm prop and this prop is a small one. so the prop strike happened after the redrive failure had already happened. The failre was definately caused by the throttle cable wrapping around the upper pulley and belt, there are no other witness marks on the cable anywhere near on the frame so its entirely centerred around the redrive itself...its incredible really. Im pretty pissed off that the redrive housing failed so easily, its clearly not designed well enough. Having said that, it is what it is! Im not going to weld it, aluminium castings dont weld particularly well for this kind of application...i would rather just replace the redrive housing with a new one. The DLE engine itself is great. I have never had to touch any carby setting on it since it was run in over 100 hours ago. Its always the same, hot or cold...flick on choke, wind over a couple of times until it pops, turn off choke, it fires up instantly. Its electric start only, i would prefer if it also had a secondary pull starter. I dont like the mufflers on it at all, they are crap but light i suppose. Its a little low on torque and horsepower for a 200 (21hp), i think it also uses more fuel than my simonini mini 2 plus, but very reliable. I am going to throw a carbon fibre prop on it after this, that should make a huge difference...the timber one is a bit low on thrust, pitched in the wrong rev range for the engine (on the edge of the power band at cruise with trimmers closed on my wing), is noisy and annoys the bystanders a bit.

Hi guys, had not long taken off in the DLE 200 a few days ago when I noticed I had a brake line wrap. I usually fly with brake toggle in the palm of my hand and throttle over the top of it (was trained that way). I gained a little height, and in the process of swapping the toggle/throttle configuration around so I could then unwrap the brake line, I dropped the throttle. That in itself was nothing more than an inconvenience initially as I was directly above a golf course and so I decided to simply land on the golf course and sort out the dropped throttle issue once I landed. As soon as I touched down, the throttle was swallowed by the propellor (not sure exactly where is went through but I think It was through cage netting), wrapped itself around the upper redrive pulley, revved the engine temporarily, then instantly stopped then engine when it pull tight, causing the re-drive to snap in half and the propellor and upper bearing house to separate from the engine and bury itself into the ground behind me on the golf course fairway. I am amazed that the cable being swallowed by the propellor has snapped the redrive housing in two...I would never have expected this could happen. I have thought of a couple of future modifications 1. ensure that all my paramotor units always have a secondary kill switch that is not also mounted on the throttle 2. a bungie to prevent dropped throttle from being able to go against cage netting and possibly through it

I have been really focusing on trimmer out landings for inland flying over the last few months. You dont have to let them out much. The object of the exercise is to replicate what GA aircraft pilots do. Its all about groundspeed. You see when one has a 10 knot headwind, and comes down near the ground, that headwind may suddenly dissappear for whatever reason (obstacles, themic activity, wind gust cycles etc). You should always try to land with a ground speed that matches your wings minimum flying speed at your weight range. This is more important inland than on the coast i think. However the rule of thumb is to always let out trimmers when landing in wind. How much only comes from practise...but at least 25% i think. Also you never want to descend down through tree height slow on brakes. You are going to go through wind shadow so faster is important...otherwise you become a brick. So for me, when i had to deal with this emergency landing i had the following thoughts 1. Golf course 2. How strong is the wind...(golf courses always have flags to look at) 3. How much trimmer out will i need 4. Which fairway is going to be the flattest (this is actually really difficult to pick...golf course fairways are really hard to ascertain the flattness of from even low altitude...they are full of little humps and drains that may be only a foot high/deep but can be catestrophic when landing) 5. Out of the flattest looking fairways, which one is most direct into wind 6. Out of the most direct into wind, which one is nearest to rescue and people seeing me in the event i crash. There were practially no golfers on the course at the time so i wasnt worried about hitting anyone of a golf ball hitting me. I endedup picking the fairway closest to to road because i knew the slope of the road well and guessed that was my best knowledge of the slope of the golf course fairway options available to me. Im glad i did to, onece i was on the ground i realised some of the other choices would have been awful ones. Also by coming in faster, i was able to alter my glide angle during flare to match the changing slope of the fairway. This is really important.

sorry i havent replied in a few days guys...busy. What i have found consistently interesting with this motor is that from new, it has always rejected fuel out through the intake...the air filter is the standard simonini mini2plus one and its always wet...even on the day it siezed. I am thinking that perhaps i might also get a replacement set of reed valves....i dunno i cant figure out why the engine is rejecting fuel through intake, unless the Nirvana "Tuned Exhaust" is in reality not so tuned? another photo added here, although you guys have already seen the worst of it i think. You can clearly see how the needle roller bearing has completely collapsed on the connecting rod. A complete engine rebuild incl bottom end unfortunately. About Euro 400 in parts at this stage. Thats almost $700 AUD...costly mistake. what really sucks is that i also have the Japenese DLE 200 twin on another paramotor. I havent touched the mixture on that engine since i bought it 5 years ago...i have run 6 month old fuel in it...left it sit in the shed with old fuel in it...i get it out, prime, hit the starter with choke on for a handleful of revolutions until she pops, turn off choke, and voila...it fires up everytime and never misses a beat! Clearly Japanese stuff is by far the way to go even compared with European engines. No surprise really considering how many 2 stroke engines are built in Japan for Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha etc.