Phil_P

Surely the intent to be commercial is incidental? I know that even if I was to accidentally photograph a house from the air from a light aircraft, there is no way that I could sell a copy of the picture to the owners of the house, nor could a third party, even if I was not paid for it. It is still classed as aerial work and requires a commercial pilots licence. If for instance the people filming had either some equipment or fuel paid for, this could be interpreted as 'payment in kind' or 'valuable consideration' as defined in the ANO which is also a no-no. As I understand it, the only way you can get round this issue is to publish photographs in a book. Was the advice of the CAA sought on this, or is it just an amateur interpretation of the law? It is also a requirement that a charity flight must have received authorisation from the CAA. See final page; http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/1428/summary_ ... nsport.pdf

It was shot over quite a long period, honestly. My two disasters were on different days. I do occasionally get off the ground now.

Was just thinking about liquid cooling. Something I've come across in the past has been an air cooled barrel and water cooled head. With this in mind, I don't think it would be difficult to covert a standard head to liquid cooling. However, as T Andrews has suggested, it's possible that simple convective cooling wouldn't be sufficient to provide enough flow through the radiator. So my mind is wandering along the path of using a small water pump, driven by a fan, in turn driven by airflow. This isn't a million miles away from some early aero engines without electrics, where battery charge facility has been added by the use of a small turbine. An extra benefit of liquid cooling, is that a small proportion of waste heat can be easily diverted to the carb to prevent icing. I'd use liquid cooling any day as long as the weight penalty wasn't prohibitive.

Must admit, I wondered the same. Is it something to do with the proceeds going to charity?

I feel I have been disproportionately represented in the 'crash' category!!!

Adventure have been in touch and I'll have my new parts by Friday of next week hopefully. Going to have to do a bit of re-wiring, as they have changed the connections to the CDI. I've ordered a new prop shaft main shaft too, as the bearings in the pulley had been spinning on the shaft (as opposed to the two parts of the bearing turning relative to each other). This has worn the shaft so the bearings are loose, although I've fitted a strip of shim steel to take out the play on a temporary basis. Going to try some hybrid ceramic bearings in the prop shaft pulley if they turn up from the USA. Better wear characteristics and heat resistance is claimed. Can't afford to go the whole ceramic hog. Will report on these when I get them up and running.

Woohoo, gonna get me an eye-patch and a parrot and go join the pirates for the weekend (Assuming Adventure get me a new CDI unit by then). Oooo, just read the 'safe' bit. Hope I can get someone to vouch for me!

Araldite is fine. If you can get the old fashioned slow set stuff rather than the 'Rapid' it should be even tougher. Personally, if I could get the two edges very tight together, I'd go for a waterproof wood glue (the waterproof bit doesn't matter if you give the whole plot some clear coat afterwards). Well clamped while setting can even be 'gaffer' tape holding it all together. The well documented 'super-glue and baking powder trick' is brilliant if you have any chunks missing.

here; http://tinyurl.com/9s96yb

Second vote for the Suunto. Very good altimeter, compass is a handy backup to the GPS (remember to recalibrate once in a while) and the barometer function gives you a good idea on trends for weather prediction. The logbook function is handy if you remember to start it, which I never seem to do. It's worthwhile keeping the quick reference card in your pocket, as some of the button presses to access functions can be a little obscure. It may seem bizarre, but I nearly always can be found with my posh watch (Breitling for my 40th birthday) on one wrist, and the Suunto on the other. That way, I never get airborne without a decent altimeter, which in my neck of the woods can be pretty vital (local airfield is only about 1/4 mile from a MATZ stub). It even tells the time with accuracy.

That might be a possibility Leo, but as it HAS been working, and originally was even starting easily and reliably with the factory supplied 12 V battery, there must be an underlying problem, culminating it would seem in terminal failure. There are essentially only four parts to the ignition system; 1) Battery 2) CDI unit 3) Ignition pulser 4) HT coil By a combination of elimination and diagnostic tests, it looks very much as though the finger is being pointed at the CDI. As a rule, the smaller the HT coil, the greater the driver voltage required, hence using CDI for the diddy coil on the F3. It should be chucking out about 100 to 300 Volts, which, judging by the coil resistances would get multiplied up to several tens of kV. On test with the oscilloscope, there seemed to be only 3 Volts at this point, which would only yield about a thousand volts on the HT side, which would never be enough. Also, with electronic ignition, as the primary coil voltage is being produced by the battery and amplification in the CDI, the speed of rotation is relatively unimportant. The CDI only needs to see a small trigger pulse to activate, and only a very low RPM will produce this.

The only difference from my normal reverse launch is the use of the C risers which might be of benefit in strong conditions. Depending on condition, I either bring the wing up with both inner and outer 'A's, or just the inners. As you already have your brakes in your hands, I don't quite understand why the author uses the C risers to steer with rather than the brakes except if very windy, and even then, with the added complication of a throttle, I prefer to hold less rather than more.

It would indeed, but you would still get a healthy spark, just at the wrong point in the cycle (as long as the rotor wasn't stationary). My spark just isn't there now. I remembered that I had an aged oscilloscope down the shed, and dragged it out and hooked it up. From what I can make of the readings (as I don't really know how to use it properly), I'm only getting 3 volts on the primary to the coil from the CDI unit. This would certainly explain a feeble or non existent spark, as you might expect anything up to about 300 volts being delivered at this point from a healthy unit.

Having read more, it would seem it's not a HEIS but a standard CDI electronic ignition. Don't know if you can get HEIS with a charging circuit. I have checked for spark at the plug, and it's present but not strong. Mixture has been fine, was managing to start up till new years eve when it ran ok. Seem to have a full battery voltage at the CDI unit, and good continuity between CDI/coil/starter coil/ground and power. Kill switch is correctly open circuit unless pressed.

Hi all, my Adventure F3 with electric start and HEIS has become unstartable. The spark seems to be very weak, although it does seem to be present. After a bit of cranking, the spark plug becomes saturated with fuel. I have changed plugs, and plug caps, the carb has been recently serviced with all new diaphragms, filters and gaskets, and today I have swapped the carb needle, just in case it was leaking and flooding the plot. The battery has been fully charged, and I've even jumped it off a car battery. While cranking this morning, I got a couple of backfires but no start. It wouldn't even start after a squirt of 'Easy Start' The engine has progressively got worse at starting since I got it, although usually, once warm it would start after a few cranks. The resistance on the coil seems about right, and there is no evidence of the HT tracking round the coil or plug lead, but I've added a bit of sealant and shrink sleeving just in case. The flywheel generator seems to be doing it's job, as when the motor has been running the battery has been get recharged. I have an alternative coil on order to try swapping out, but the 'black box' is completely sealed and potted in resin and I don't want to order one of them unless I can truly diagnose it as faulty.

Try cutting and pasting the following; http://paramotorclub.org/forum/album_pic.php?pic_id=677

A piece of cornflake packet and a smear of Blue Hylomar sealant. Worked on motorbikes when I was a broke student, no reason it won't still work.

I'd give it a go, but would definitely require refuel points. I'm rather surprised there don't seem to be any planned in. Even if I somehow managed to stretch my endurance to two hours, then 25 ish mph isn't going to cut it. If I use 'bar to increase speed, there is no way I will get that two hour endurance. Either everyone is flying much more efficient wings than me, or there are an awful lot of over ten litre tanks. Oh if the devil were to cast his net on THAT day!

An Arcus in XL and a 44 inch GSC ground adjustable set at about 12 degrees to give me 7200 rpm. I do have the tuned pipe and oversize head though. I am now down to 105 kg, which is almost bang on 16 stone (naked). Boots, helmet and other clothing will add about 5kg, avionics and reserve another 5 kg. A full fuel load of 10 litres, plus another 4 litres reserve comes in at 10kg The motor itself, empty about 32 kg This gives an all up weight of 157 kg, translating to 345 lbs, or a little over 24 1/2 Stone

My Solo powered Adventure F3 got me off the ground, pre weight loss at about 18 stone.

Fuel tank with cage/frame vibration fretting abrasion. I suspect the black deposit is aluminium oxide/crud combination.

Hey Leo, I don't think anyone on this forum minds bad spelling and poor grammar slipping into posts. Unfortunately, while you understand exactly what you are saying (well you would I guess), without some attempt at punctuation, the meaning of what you are trying to say, can become distorted to the extent that it seems you are saying the complete opposite of what you want. The only reason my own spelling comes anywhere near, is because I run a permanent spool chucker on all my postings, and sometimes I have to try really hard with grammar too. Please don't take it as an affront, people are genuinely interested in what you have to say, and we all want to make sure that we get the gist of your postings. Anyone interested in grammatical excellence, track down a book called 'Eats Shoots and Leaves'. PS, Leo, check your messages.

Simon, it is very hard to generalise about what people need, as humans differ so much physiologically. Some people have a really good circulation to their extremities, such that even when the temperature drops to a point where you might expect their bodies to direct the blood to core organs, they continue getting nice warm blood delivered to their finger tips. The down side of this, is that these same folks will slip into hypothermia sooner even though they don't get frost bite. In extremis, there are people who's circulation is inadequate in anything other than warm weather, and who can develop frost bite very easily. Two conditions that can accelerate this are Raynauds' disease and diabetes. An individuals tolerance to discomfort/pain also varies wildly. Whilst some people can get away with good quality ordinary gloves, functional heated gloves can be a real boon for those who need them, and this is one 'gadget' that I don't think should be dismissed out of hand (sorry) . There is also the potential benefit that, if you are using electric heating, you can reduce insulation bulk and hence retain a really good feel on the controls (especially those little push buttons on your GPS)

Silk glove liners can make a difference that is totally out of proportion to their weight and thickness. My daughter bought me a pair of electrically heated gloves for Christmas, and they seem to work pretty well. I certainly noticed when one of the power plugs got inadvertently unplugged. Probably been flying at, or possibly below zero a couple of times, and they kept me toastie. The gloves in question are Chinese made, with a logo of a 'script' letter 'Z' on the back, with two wavy lines through the vertical portion of the letter. Powered by three AA batteries, I can't tell the life yet, as I left them on by mistake last time I used them (and this will probably be an ongoing problem). Probably fairly generic and inexpensive, as I know my daughter doesn't have much extra cash. I guess they might fall apart in no time, but if they do, I'll probably fit the heating wire into some better gloves. If you want to go upmaket, then gloves like the Gerbers are really good, but you'll need to hook up a total loss power supply. I don't know what current they draw, but one possibility might be the Li-On 12v battery packs you can buy on that well known auction site. About the size of a pack of king size and come complete with charger. Some also have a USB socket so will run USB powered kit too, charge your phone etc. As the Gerbers have heat controllers, they won't be drawing full power all the time (I'm guessing at some sort of pulse width control), so a 2500mAh pack should give a reasonable run time, if say, a pair of gloves draw 5 Amps, then a battery for each one would give you an hours use at full blast. Used intermittently, or on low settings, you would probably have plenty for a couple of hours. Just my home experimenters brain working here, please excuse.

Sounds too good to miss and well worth a journey. It'd be rude to not come I reckon Happy new year all (just posted that here, cos it's probably my last post of the year). Phil 'PK' Passmore