Phil_P

My Arcus in XL size (Same as the Powerplay sting) is up for grabs since the nice postman brought me a black, yellow and crispy present from abroad Have a look at Para2000 to see if it's big enough for your needs. Phil

One heavily discussed point on another forum, is that wings are only certificated in one configuration. Change just about any aspect of the set up and the certification is no longer valid, i.e. a different harness, weight outside placarded limits etc. As many of us fly in circumstances that invalidate the certification, perhaps we should wonder whether it has any real value to us. Just a thought for discussion folks.

The Bailey ran like a very smooth clockwork thing. Despite prop noise being pretty constant regardless of what machine you fly, the Bailey is perceptibly quieter from the pilots perspective than my Solo based Adventure unit. So much so, that the Bailey makes a similar level of noise with just my standard head set, as I was getting with the Adventure with the ANR (active noise reduction) turned on. With the Bailey AND the ANR, it is a positive joy. Chris, it is indeed the 175 unit. I am 102Kg and am currently on a Swing Arcus in XL. I was in cold weather gear plus a goodly weight reserve, so probably around the 160kg all up weight mark when you take into account stuff like suit, boots and helmet. I was on full fast trim for the duration of the flight, with some bursts of speed bar. Bear in mind that I was climbing at full RPM for the majority of the outbound leg, as I had to avoid the MATZ and also dodge some cloud, so I got above about 5000 feet amsl. I was on fumes when I landed, and had had the tank filled to the 10 litre mark on t/o. I could maybe have squeezed in another litre into the tank. Although not quite the 2 litres per hour some people seem to get, it's about half of the consumption of my Adventure so I'm pretty happy. Phil

Sorry, Double post.

Got up to my airfield pretty early (at least for me that is), once Dave was dispatched to school. I thought it was time to give the shiny new Bailey a thorough work out. The wind was pretty much a southerly, and was varying from very light, to just about reverse-launch-able. I reckon you can guess the option I went for. With a southerly, I have to contend with a little bit of rotor off some trees, and today was no exception, with my take off run needing a few extra dabs when I sank a bit. But apart from that, it was fine. I had decided to strike out towards the coast, which would mean contending with a cross wind on both legs of the journey. I wasn't expecting to get as far as the coast, but I thought I would see how it went. As I've got a run of Scampton. Waddington and Cranwell MATZ to contend with to the east, I climbed overhead the field till I was at about three thousand feet, and then set off in an easterly direction to go over the top of the zones. I had a lovely flight, and dodged the clouds around the four thousand feet mark, flying round them and continuing my climb till I was able to ride along above them, obviously still with clear sight of the ground as they were quite scattered, probably about 3-4 octas. I managed to get a sight of three of the old disused RAF airfields that litter this part of the Fens, and even recited to myself 'Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of earth' as I flew over Scopwick village, where the RAF pilot who wrote the poem is buried (I could quite clearly see the cemetery). Back to my departure took a grand total of 2 3/4 hours, covering I guess about 45 miles. My longest distance and greatest duration to date, although not quite my highest flight. The wind had stiffened quite a bit since I took off, so I was really glad I had managed to get in a flight during what looks to have been the best part of the day.

Has enough been said? Am I missing something or isn't the guy looking for advice? The best advice might be to suggest talking to an instructor about it, but 'nuff said'? Phil PS Para 2000 web site is a good resource for info on wings.

And if they don't open, the spot is about two feet deep (don't ask me how I know if you are at all squeamish).

I got one from them for my Adventure. Quality seems generally ok, surface finish was poor.

One problem is that paraglider wings are not designed to absorb the sort of shock loads that a sudden deployment causes, nor do they incorporate the devices that minimize these forces. Typically a sport parachute might experience 3 to 5 g deceleration when deployed. I'm not sure what figure paraglider wings are tested to, but I seem to recall an 8g figure. That doesn't give an over-large margin of safety, especially if you've done it more than once and the various destructive forces are starting to have a cumulative effect.

Sorry, my 150 Li days were a LONG time ago. The good thing about scooters is that they handle just as well in the wet as they do in the dry. The bad thing is that they handle c**p in the dry!

Walbro carbs and spares are also available from Rowena (I think they do tillotson and other stuff). Again, stunning service, decent prices (£45 ish for the new Walbro for my Adventure).

Pictures, as they say, speak a thousand words. If you have access to power-point, run something up on that. By using bullet points, you can expand on areas a bit like having cue cards. It's very easy to use and you can incorporate text, pictures, movies and sounds. eg History Equipment Safety Events Records The Future Use a couple of pictures in each category. Disasters are usually good for getting attention, so throw in the odd amputation and scar. KISS Invite questions, if you don't know an answer, don't waffle, say you'll try to find out for them. You might surprise yourself when you run out of time because you are enjoying yourself so much. Phil

I'm sure they can get it to work just fine. Whether they can make it run for longer than ten minutes without breaking or wearing one of those moving parts, I somehow doubt.

You will probably find that they help at the point of landing, when the wing starts to unload. If the shoulder straps aren't in the right place, the whole plot can drop down.

My F3 harness, I believe is the 'de-luxe' model, and it only has the one metal main chest/waist strap. I wouldn't worry too much about the extra one, as being plastic, it's obviously not meant to be load bearing. In fact, if it's limiting how far apart the two sides of the harness can be, you might find it self destructs when loaded up under the wing and doing a few turns. Just my take on things, I've only been flying about 6 months, so take what I say with a pinch or two of salt. Phil

Thanks for the update Pete.

Just for info, unless things have changed recently, remember that the use of cell phones while airborne is not legal. There is not only the issue of interference in commercial aircraft (a non-issue in my opinion), but if I understand what I have read before correctly, when airborne, a phone can 'see' many more cell sites than when on the ground, and this can cause network issues. Your phone is talking to the cells, even when a call is not being made, so it is conceivable that a network provider would pick up on this, and if you look at the terms of your contract, could pull your connection.

I am ready to be proven wrong, but I would suspect that reserves will be rated at their maximum weight for the quoted descent rate, otherwise putting any other value on is completely worthless. The five point something descent rate I seem to recall from my repack training was expected to be survivable with minor injuries, so it is actually something like a standard figure and the maximum descent rate you could expect from a given reserve, being used within it's weight range. Something worth looking up, are the equivalent values for descent rates when given as the same as stepping off a wall, x feet high, it is quite scary. I've a feeling Dudek have a new reserve, markedly larger, that has a lower quoted descent rate, to improve the injury rate.

Thanks to Simon Payne who met up with me this morning near Warwick, I am now the VERY proud owner of a Bailey 175. I don't care WHAT the various tests and numbers say, this has got WAY more thrust than my F3. I think I'm in love.

Yeh, wish the darned female could get out the way so we could see it properly!

I think in many respects, the result is better than if you had just quietly gone to ParaJet and they had quietly sorted your problem. This way, everyone heard about the problem, and has now very publicly been made aware of the high quality customer relations that are being applied. Kudos to ParaJet by the way. Oh, and Kudos to you too for removing the foot you planted in your mouth

Slant visibility can often be very much worse than vertical vis. You might find if you were able to look straight down in the first picture that the ground is quite visible.

Gordon, up till recently I have been having the devil's own job with air bubbles. It would seem that most of them were arising from joints, specifically where I had used a zip tie to secure the pipe. Zip ties exert a very uneven pressure round the pipe, and can if anything actually cause an air leak rather than prevent one. I have found the situation to be massively improved since using proper fuel line clamps that have a full circumference of metal, on every joint. Also, if you use any quick connects in your fuel line, these I have found also can allow in an astonishing amount of air. Replacement 'O' rings sometimes help, as they are prone to getting nicked, and a smear of thick grease can provide a short term (ie flight by flight) solution. The use of a header tank will only help for as long as it contains fuel. Once sufficient air has got into the system to displace the volume of the header, you are back at square one. Just my thoughts, hope they help a little. Phil

And Nathalie sounds kinda sweet too

I know Mark was getting very frustrated with Adventure at one stage, as they weren't supplying stuff fast enough to him. I doubt very much that he will have stuff like that as a stock item, as he is a relatively small concern, and focussd mainly on free flight. Dave, I have a K&N filter on mine, the standard one on Adventures is a coarse foam element, and frankly a piece of poo. It was simply fitted using a flat plate, about the most inefficient shape for an air intake. I machined a bit of Delrin to the right diameter for the K&N I happened to have got cheap, then machined a smooth tapered intake trumpet into the centre, which perfectly matches the Walbro intake. Phil