Phil_P

I like the idea of having my reserve 'hand' unencumbered by the throttle. On mine, the throttle has a strap to hold it to your hand, which to my mind might make it problematic to drop the throttle to grab the reserve handle.

You could do what I did, and go and have a chat with a local farmer. Explain what you're doing, and ask him if there are any fields that he would consider letting you use. Stuble, set aside, pasture that's resting all provide opportunities. I'm lucky that the first farmer I approached was incredibly co-operative, I could hardly believe it. I now have field that give me an into-wind take off no matter what the wind direction, and a downhill slope on some of them, which can be a bonus. A small gift at Christmas might just help keep things sweet for the coming year, and the fact you have third part insurance can help swing it.

My Swing Arcus has a series of tip lines that are incorporated in the normal brake line system. The later Arcus models have a true stabilo line system with the tip lines being on an independent riser. Would it work if I was to run an extra line from the free pulley on the risers up to the upper cascades where the line splits off for the tips, thus giving me a tip steering system? I'm thinking that this extra line would tend to only actuate the tips and not put on the brakes on the rest of the wings width. [edit] Francis, I missed your post regarding the Arcus. It would seem from your description of the brake action, that my idea would be superfluous. [/edit]

Cut one line and nicked another on Sunday. Phoned Aerofix yesterday, told them what wing and what lines were required. The replacements were delivered today (£6.50 each). I laid the wing out on the ground and traced the route of the line, then removed the old line and fitted the new ones. Followed the exact same routing through the maillon and 'O' ring and everything was done in ten minutes.

The way I read it seems to match Francis' interpretation. An 'ACCIDENT' to be reportable, must take place in the course of a flight. An 'INCIDENT' can occur at any time. If we were constrained to reporting incidents that only took place during flight, then by that reasoning, if an engine dropped off a 747 when it was say in a hangar, then that wouldn't be reportable. I doubt if that is the case.

Damaged two lines Sunday afternoon. Phoned Aerofix Monday morning. Two new lines through the letterbox Tuesday lunchtime. Wing repaired Tuesday afternoon! Big thumbs up for Aerofix.

Well, rather than posting in the general section, I thought it was about time I started a bit of a training 'blog'. I've had my share of untoward occurrences, and yesterday seemed to be continuing the trend. SWMBO had decided she wanted to go and ride the horse after she came back from doing a bit of shopping, but I persuaded her that she wanted to let me go fly early in the afternoon instead. I packed up the bit's that weren't already in the car and shot off to one of my farmers' local fields Everything set up and the motor warmed up and we were set to go. There was a nice breeze, although it seemed to keep shifting direction a bit, but the space I had available let me have a run into wind whichever way it was blowing. Following my last abortive attempt in too gusty conditions, I had been left with very bent 'comfort arms' in the harness. A trip to a local tube supplier saw me kitted out out with some new stainless parts, drilled fitted and pop riveted into place. As I was struggling to bend them to exactly the same shape, I was actually left with a set up that allowed me to get into the harness rather easier than previously, which was a bonus. Well to cut a long story short, I had three really good take off runs, and failed to get off the ground. Everything seemed to be in my favour, but I got the feeling that my motor was just running a little short of peak performance. I stopped trying and had a look at the motor. Everything seemed to be as it should, but I was right. A check on the tacho at full revs saw it only turning at 6700 rpm, quite a bit short of the normal level where it would be creeping over the 7000 rpm level. Those missing 300 rpm might be making the difference for my oversized body. Suffice to say, I decided to have another go, despite the shortage of revs, and of course this was a mistake. Not because the motor played up ironically, but just because I had a very dodgy inflation that saw the wing coming down hard and fast and my thumb was a fraction slow on the kill button, and two of the 'D' lines had a close encounter of the propeller kind. One line was severed completely, and the other received a nick, going about half way through. Thankfully the prop was unmarked. Anyway, pack up and off home prematurely. I suppose the upshot of all this was that Nikki got to go for her ride after all. I sat myself down once I got home on the back doorstep, and started to pull the carburettor apart. I already had a full service kit for the Walbro, so decided now was a good time to fit it. I left the needle and spring in place, as I didn't want to have to set up the pop off pressure again. Everything else, including the various filters, diaphragms and gaskets were replaced and the whole plot put back together again. I also fitted a new spark plug, as these are notorious for letting down two stroke motors. By the time I had finished it was getting a little late, and I didn't want to start it up to check it, for fear of disturbing the neighbours youngsters, so a test was deferred until this morning. Once my young 'un was off to school, I dragged the motor out, primed it up and it started but died straight away. I wasn't too worried, as I guessed it might take a few turns to get petrol back to everywhere it was meant to be. I pressed the primer another couple of times and restarted. Again the engine started, and this time with a little throttle juggling she kept running. After a couple of minutes warming up it settled into a really even idle, a little higher than previously. A bit more warming up at mid rpm, then I decided to give it full throttle. Much to my astonishment it shot straight up to 7200 rpm! this was the best I have seen from the solo, although probably about what it should be generating. I'm not sure which bit of the maintenance did the trick, but I'm more than happy with the results. Also, a phone call to Aerofix this morning saw two new lines ordered, with a promise of them being in the post this afternoon for delivery tomorrow.

There I was, all set for a nice reverse launch. The wing pop's up nice and easy, but minor c**k up, I turn the wrong way and twist the risers. Just a moment to do a full 360, but it was long enough for the wing to drop behind me. It's at this point that the wind God's decided to have a laugh at my expense and blew a quick hooley my way. It started to pick me up so I hit the gas (which gave me just a fraction of a second of thinking time. I then hit the kill switch, about a nano-second before landing flat on my back like the proverbial dying fly. Not content with that, I start to get dragged too. Almost instinctively I released one of the carabiners, as pulling the brakes was doing nothing. Having got everything under control and extracted myself from the motor, there was good news and bad news; The good news was that the cage was only slightly out of shape, and the only marks on the prop were from being dragged (I'd hit the kill button not a moment too soon). The bad news is that the 'comfort' J bars that plug into the monocoque, despite being steel, are bent to hell and back, so replacements are required. Bother damn and blast!

Francis, maybe I'm being dim (or perhaps colour blind) but to me, the 'other' trace looks to be the red one, which is the highest, aircraft orange, lowest most of the time. and helicopters in the middle, yellow.

Seconded. Nowt wrong with a 1:50,000 O/S map for local flying. Great for topo information, and stuff like church spires/towers Personally, as a lot of the time you are running at a fairly constant high(ish) RPM on our various little two strokes, I'd go with the protection of a good synthetic, just as I used to on my trials bike. Castrol TTS has a good following, although I believe there is one manufacturer who specifically says NOT to use it. YamahaLube (or is it YamaLube) has some good reports too.

Well, once I'm at the stage where carting stuff into the air in addition to myself doesn't feel so daunting, the plan is for my 'avionics stack' to consist of; Garmin GPS Map 295 with current aviation database (a little bulky, but an ace GPS) ICOM IC A24 Airband Nav/Com handheld transceiver. Yaesu Vertex VX2R VHF/UHF transceiver Becker Mode C transponder (see posting in comms section for more info). Brauniger IQ Motor Vario/Altimeter/Tacho/CHT gauge Suunto X-Lander wristwatch Compass/altimeter The two radios will be monitored simultaneously with a PTT for each, possibly on brake handles. And yes, I am a frustrated PPL/Wannabee airline pilot/techno-geek. I reckon if I can lose 2 stone (which is a realistic target for my lardy a**e), then AUW will be fine. All will run on self contained batteries rather than the onboard power to avoid a lack of spark situation, and also to cut down on interference issues.

I tried carrier pigeons for a while, but they kept on trying to fly through the prop disc.

If you find that the new bars are too much for you at the moment, I could run up a pair of bushes to press into your old arms if you give me dimensions. Regards

Agreed, those lows are really dominating the picture at the moment, and have been for ages. I never used to pay much attention to weather forecasts and charts, even when flying PPL, but now I'm absolutely fixated by the darned things. Seriously thinking of buying myself a small weather station and learning even more about the subject.

Well, I have never had the misconception that my ICOM was approvable (it's an A24, so not type approved). My understanding of the installation licence provision, is that a handheld set can obtain an 'installation' certificate for use in several aircraft. When I read the required paperwork, there was no requirement to enter an aircraft registration. Therefore, a type approved set can be granted a 'removable' installation certificate. have a look here; http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid ... 2#aircraft under option 3 I may of course be wrong, but then I don't give a wet slap I think you and I will have to agree to differ regarding the price differential between ICOM and Yaesu equipment. I still think the ICOM is a superior piece of equipment and worth the extra.

As Ian has pointed out, the two modes of transmission are AM (amplitude modulation) and FM (frequency modulation). It is important to realise that the two are NOT compatible. Airband is exclusively AM, nearly all reasonably priced 2m (144 mHz) transceivers are FM sets. Does the VX 7R actually transmit in AM Ian? I know that my VX 2R switches to AM when on the airband frequencies, but that is only in the receive mode. If you transmit on that frequency, it still transmits on FM despite the display showing AM in the mode.

Ummm, why? If it is a type approved set and has the appropriate paperwork done (eg an Icom A22), and you have a FRTL, why would that not be legal?

I'm currently working on a transponder installation. Living and flying as I do on the edge of the Lincs. AIAA with RAF Tornados coming over my house quite regularly at between 200 and 500 feet, I have absolutely no desire to have a close encounter of the afterburner kind. The installation is based around a Becker remote head transponder with an AmeriKing altitude encoder that will provide mode C altitude reporting. The whole kit is very compact and light. I intend powering it from a 4 cell lithium polymer battery, giving 14.8v and 3000mAh. Current drain is only about 600mA except when being interrogated, at which time it rises to about 1.5A (but this is for a very short duty cycle). I am working on getting about 5 hours use from a full charge. The main unit, encoder and batteries will be housed in a 'Pelican' waterproof case which will hang from the side of the harness, or alternatively into the underseat compartment. The remote head will mount so that I have easy access in flight. The current antenna mounting is to an alloy plate, pop-riveted to the top of the cage. Although there is a school of thought that thinks the high power microwave output (250 watts on this unit) poses a health risk, when the figures are analysed it would seem that worries are exaggerated, at least I'm quite happy. The mounting will put about 24 inches between the antenna and the closest part of my anatomy (my head) and a substantial distance from my nether regions. For those interested enough to have got this far, if you want to have a look at some pictures, click here; http://s34.photobucket.com/albums/d139/ ... mview=grid

There are no radios that we have been able to find that cover both VHF and airband that will give you the required AM transmission required on airband. This is a subject that has been covered in previous threads if you do a search of the forum, and opinions are divided. Those with an aviation background seem to tend to favour airband, whilst those who would have to go through the hassle of the FRTL course tend to prefer VHF. There is a select band of geeks who will try to use both , with an interface to allow both to be hooked up to your headset.

It is a motorcycle engine.... with very heavy weight on...not suitable for paramtoring... It made in Thailand, my friends got one..... Actually they list both Simonini and Solo engines as available options, both of which are extremely suitable.

There is a corking Wankel kart engine that looks like it might be a great powerplant. Do a Google on the Aixro XR50. Wankels are a sort of hybrid 2/4 stroke I suppose. Isn't Gilo developing his version?

The Arcus power risers (Powerplay) do indeed have the two sets of rollers. I ran into exactly the same issue regarding brakes being too high with high harness mounts on my Arcus with Powerplay's. I measured the distance between the two rollers and then moved the lines to the lower roller, and moved the brake handle down by the distance corresponding to the distance between the rollers. There was just sufficient spare line length to allow me to do so. Thus the effective line length has remained the same. From a practical point of view, I can see no reason why you couldn't just add a second brake handle, effectively tied onto the first. As long as you have the same brake line length when the brake is fully up, there shouldn't be a problem (with the possible exception, that the free brake line extension would increase the chance of the handle going back into the prop). It would perhaps be a good idea to fit some extra parking magnets or poppers.

It's like many aspects of our pastime Leo, this would be yet another 'get out' clause for the insurance crowd, should it come to light in the event of an incident. Just saying this to raise awareness, not out of any desire to stop you doing it. PS, please forgive me adding some punctuation to your posting, I'm hoping I've done it in a way that conveys what you were trying to say, and I only did it to make it easier for others to read, not being critical, at all. Half the time my spelling etc leaves a lot to be desired.

Technically there is I'm afraid Dan, this is considered payment 'in kind'. You could probably successfully argue that the farmer is letting you use the land gratis, and the pictures given are likewise free. If the farmer let you off rent for a couple of months in exchange for the pictures, it would be a no-no. I used to run into the same sort of issue if I took any mates up in a plane for a buzz around, or once doing someone a favour of getting them from a horse show in Stratford in the morning, to their son's wedding in Blackpool in the afternoon. I was only permitted to accept a pro rata contribution towards the cost of fuel for the aircraft, they weren't permitted to pay for the whole flight, or to make gifts that might be seen as payment in kind.

For you and your paramotor there may not be one, with the exception of instructing. Doesn't stop you becoming a commercial pilot if you want to make money from flying though. Exactly the same situation with scuba diving, you need to be a commie diver before you can make money from it. Why should it be right for any man jack to make money, when there are those who have gone down the legitimate route who have spent hundreds of hours at their chosen profession and become licensed/insured etc? That would strike me as fundamentally unfair. Isn't there a loophole that says you can publish a book with photographs?