Phil_P

Well, nothing is going to actually make things brighter, although yellow does tend to make it look so, and is really good on slightly duller days. Whatever you use will always be reducing to some extent the amount of light that is transmitted to the eyes, although what the value of this is for these particular visors I couldn't say, but they won't be quite as effective as a neutral tint visor at a similar sort of apparent density as they will be removing a narrower band of light wavelengths. Different people tolerate differing amounts of bright sun, so it would be quite subjective as to whether the density was sufficient for an individual. One option would be to use the yellow visor, but to add a strip of the sort of filter material used on car windscreens (or even the mirror film) along the top edge, much like a tinted car windscreen. It is fairly easy to position it so that in normal use it doesn't come into your line of sight, but a small tilt of your head forward will make it do so. Phil

Yellow/orange visors block blue colours so enhance contrast between sky and clouds. Your eyes/brain soon adjust and you are just aware that the day looks bright. Other than a neutral tint, it would be my number one choice for flying.

And as I'm sure all pilots are aware, we shouldn't use GPS as our primary means of navigation, should we Just playing Devil's Advocate a little there, so don't get stressed.

You can bend quite accurate hoops by the suitable application of mild brute force, at least on 0,6mm water pipe (stainless) (Good enough to get a compliment off Paul Bailey. ). For these sort of wall thickness's, I've also been thinking of knocking up a ring roller out of some ply and three bicycle wheels.

Sorry Simon, but I thought I had recollections of you discussing a new up and coming insurance for Paramotor Club 'members' back in Dec. '08. Perhaps this was purely instructor cover, although I thought there was talk about flexibility of cover. I didn't mean to imply that two weeks was a long time, it's just I thought this had been on the cards longer than that. Phil

Come on Simon, you have been making 'almost' promises for some time now, but nothing has yet materialised. If you want to catch the proverbial worm of the jilted On Risk clientèle, I suspect your bird may have to show up pretty early. There are many, myself included who want to get back on the insurance wagon (mine lapsed due to fubared hip making it pretty superfluous). Phil

I like my Crispi's. There are some who will say that proper hang/paragliding boots are an unnecessary luxury, personally, I like to stack the deck in my favour.

And just for future reference, the ratings are in kN (kilo Newtons) or Tonnes (alright, one is mass and the other is force, but in our application they are pretty interchangeable. (sorry, pedantic autistic side coming out) Oh, and they are called 'D' shackles. And if we assume a pretty hefty 200kg weight of pilot, motor etc, we would have to be executing a 5G manoeuvre to reach the max. safe working load of a single 10kN shackle (1 tonne). Even then, this is likely to be way below the likely failure limit which is probably 1.5 to 2 times the safe working limit.

The tube is 15mm 0.6mm (not 100% sure on wall thickness, it was the thinner offering). MIG welds fine, no exotic gas required. Bending the main hoops was slightly problematic without a ring roller, but by the judicial application of brute force between several large heavy objects, a roughly circular shape prevailed. Will try and get a picture or two Oh, and made it in two, rather than four segments to increase strength. Phil

Unfortunately it's the result of NO medication! Been off all my pain killers since Monday trying to get this damned monkey off my back (over 3 years of opiates). Almost total insomnia at the mo, check out the times of some of my postings I've had the full spread of withdrawal symptoms including mild hallucinations, so I might have just been hearing an echo...echo...echo... Last night it got VERY silly when I was considering cranking over my motor in a very crowded utility room (I didn't).

Dude, think (covert) PLEASE don't tell the world you have your kit in your van!!!! Look what happend to Pete B!! You remove yours, and I will remove this one SW Best tip I've seen if you leave a wing in a vehicle, is don't bag it up. Let's the air circulate, and can you imagine trying to do a runner with it like that?

Hi Mark, the Thule backrack has a removable 'A' frame almost directly above the tow ball, which you would normally use for support and anchorage. On my Ford Maverick (Nissan Terrano) all I did was dispensed with the 'A' frame and used a ratchet strap round the spare wheel, plus another to the trailing edge of the rack. If you're lucky, you won't even need to pad the spare, as the tyre makes a brill shock mounting for the motor. Not sure, but I think the Thule is larger in the fore aft direction than the other well praised brand on here, so plenty of space to work with. If you'd like, I'll do some measuring tomorrow. and could perhaps do a pic or two. Phil Phil Phil

Wonder if I could make up a frame out of stainless water tube, similar to the Bailey frame. Worked a treat on the cage I knocked up, but those anchor points would have to be good. The cage cost me about £30 including the strimmer line, and even PB himself said nice things about it (bar the pigeon sh*t welding).

Simplest solution to this one, is to always thread the loop on one riser into the loop on the other when packing away (join them as soon as you take the wing of your motor on landing). Then lay your risers on top of your wing when packing, unless you have the advantage of a little pocket to tuck the risers in. Worst that can happen is that the risers will drop through a few lines, but the tangles are inconsequential and easy to solve Phil

I felt like that for the first twelve months too. The missus complained though, cos I wanted to do it in the house!