Dragonphotographic

Looks like our boy's found himself a new photo. Same lack of location though, and NO-ONE is gonna send a paramotor to USA or Canada for free huh? http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Rad-MXL-paramotor ... dZViewItem

Thursday 5 June, Dave's place. Got an invitiation to go over and meet Bill Heaner, the designer of the Revolution Flat Top. much begging as I persuaded the wife to lend me her car. "I'll be back in an hour or so" Got to Dave's in time to see the newly assembled motor about to be fired up. And what a motor! I'll post some pics later. After this and a hang test, off we all went to the field. Very impressed watching Bill flying in blustery conditions that many less experienced pilots wouldn't dream of! Got my practice wing out of the bag and got a great lesson from Bill himself! Carried on practising as Bill moved on to Sophie, Dave's partner. Things going well until I paid the price for not wearing gloves. In a sudden gust I was taken by surprise as the wing lurched and collapsed around me, one of the mallions tore a strip off my thumb! Because of my high heart rate it bled like a stuck pig! I'll take that as a message from the Arcus, something along the lines of "Look, I'm a lovely old wing but you WILL treat me with respect OK?" Decided I needed a break anyway so went to watch Bill and his mate Jack showing Sophie how to bring the wing up. Dave was taking photos and everyone was having a great time. By the time she finished, Sophie had the biggest grin on her face! Did another 45 minutes or so kiting a bit later, then realised my hour had turned into considerably more so I Thanked Bill and the guys and made a hasty trip home. The trip home is just long enough for the aching legs to start, but I don't care, I'm really getting somewhere now and enjoying every minute of it. Thanks again for a great day Dave, and special thanks to Bill. An excellent instructor. If I can get the car again I'll definately be making an appearance at Dave's hastily arranged Fly-in this weekend

He he, I hope not, after all the digital manipulation it took to try and make him look attractive. In the end I just had to blurr all but the wing, clouds, motor etc Seriously, this was just a first draft. Some graphic designers have contacted me to say it's a horrible piece of work! If there are one or two Revo/Parajet pilots out there who fancy flying around Dartmoor this weekend, I'm sure we can get something really stunning to punt out there. And if any graphic designers feel like chipping in, I'll provide the pic, then it's over to you OK? Needs to be done pretty quick if possible though

Ha ha! 14 day return and Ebay will give you all the money back? Of the dozen or so people who have tried to use 'Ebay protection' that's exactly what it is, to protect Ebay. No-one I have heard of has ever recovered more than 10p in the £ even when the deals have been outright scams. I other words, when Ebay say 'Click here to find out how you're protected' don't bother, their terms and conditions mean it's not worth the effort It will be interesting to see how long this joker waits before listing again huh?

He he, nice train of thought there Francis If anyone has a Revo and Parajet Macro, I will be at Dave's place tomorrow taking photos of the Flat Top motor and Meeting Bill. That is if I can persuade my wife to lend me her car, I've just had to hand in my company car and am now officially redundant

Would appreciate thoughts on this as a header to emails to possible sponsors. In the meantime, please feel free to copy and paste it anywhere and everywhere! Or, in the unlikely event that you cannot see the pic, and the website takes too damn long to respond, it's in my personal gallery

I have spent an interesting afternoon talking to potential sponsors and their advertising agencies. We only have space left on four of the wings, so time is getting short for this premium opportunity! If anyone knows of a firm, of any size, or even a wealthy individual who may be interested, please put them in touch with me as soon as possible so I can take it from there. Once the spaces on the wings have been sold I'll have to look at other space, so who has the biggest boots?

That's what we did with a camera scammer once. By the time his camera had reached £500K he had to withdraw it because the ebay final value fee was massive! I'm currently the high bidder btw, you'll have to stump up at least £6K to beat me Updated 1906: Dave, Looks like it worked, I've just had a message from Ebay saying they have pulled the auction. Well done mate

Over recent weeks I have seen the same Parajet Whisper listed on Ebay several times. Each time with a different seller ID always brand new and registered just before the start of the auction. Another suspect practice with this is anonymous bidding. In high value items such as cameras for instance, a common scam is sellers advertise a non-existant item, usually at a bargain price, then protect themselves by making the bidding anonymous. That way, anyone who hase been previously conned cannot contact any other bidder to warn them. Then, the seller usually contacts each bidder in turn and offers to end the auction early in return for an immediate cash payment 'Off Ebay' to 'save Ebay Fees' I'm not saying this is definately a rogue seller, it may be genuine. BUT, why 4 successive owners of this motor would immediately relist it under an assumed ID and using exactly the same photo again does tend to make one suspicious of either the motor and/or the seller. Just thought I'd offer a heads up for those who maybe don't use Ebay often and may be tempted

Hi Andy You've come to the right place When confused with the jargon, bedazzled by the kit etc, it's always a good idea to step back and find someone to teach you. As you get more into it and meet more folks involved, like me you will be able to start narrowing down to a final shortlist of the kit that's right for you. It beats going out and spending thousands on something that with a bit more experience you would have known wasn't quite right. This site has access to some excellent instructors, and I'm sure as soon as the wind blows a bit harder this afternoon, someone will let you know of one near you. A lot of folks are at the National Championships this weekend, so if you don't get a reply until tuesday or so please don't be discouraged. Good luck

Do what I do, tell her you found it at the tip and with a bit of modification it could be usable Good luck

Stunning photo anyone would be proud of

I drove past our henge site very early this morning on my way to Kent. They are setting up for the Sunrise Festival. I forgot about that. Oh well, another plan for the weekend scuppered. Anyone got a field we can borrow? We'll bring it back, honest ;0)

Halfords and some specialist cycling shops do lines of velcroed tube covers. May be worth having a look Failing that, it one of your neighbours' kids gets a bike for his birthday, nick the trims when he's not looking My son works at Bikus in Bovey tracey and reckons if you email them with what you want, they can order them in www.bikus.co.uk

23-25th May Farmer Dave's place, Devon I arrived around 1800 to find a bloke flat on his back in a field with a large wing just dancing gracefully in the blustery wind above him. This turned out to be Dave, and whitters and Dan the camera man turned up at the same time as I did. It was a pleasure to finally put faces to names, and I apologise in advance if I can't remember your name next time! Anyway, back to the wing. I was quite surprised by the number of folks who lined up to play with this wing, even before they unpacked any kit etc. Soon it was my turn, after seeing Whitters kite it with relative ease, even given it's habit of asymetrical collapse on the right side, I was hoping I wasn't going to make too big a fool of myself The wing is a DHV 2 and I was keen to feel the difference with my own practice wing. What a difference! given the aforementioned habit of collapse, when it was fully inflated it was very fast and whippy. At first I had it lurching up and down like something out of a B horror movie. Then I managed to get it off the ground for even more fun and frollicks! if as a beginner someone offers you a DHV2 wing, please don't be tempted. Even if it's a flyable model, at best you would probably end up frightening yourself into investigating philately for a second time After half an hour or so I felt like I was getting somewhere when a gust took me about 5 inches off the ground before the now familiar starboard asymetrical dumped me firmly on my backside in a heap I quickly checked to see how many had watched it fully expecting everyone to be in 'point and laugh' mode I was in luck, by this time others had arrived and everyone was far too busy assembling motors and talking about new modifications to Pap, Parajets, Walkerjets etc etc etc. I unclipped from the harness and sidled away to my car to count the bruises and catch my breath. Saturday was quite litterally blown out, but that was OK, I had prior engagements that afternoon anyway. Sunday evening however was a different matter. After a very wet start to the day, I spotted on the chart a high pressure moving south that was due to settle over us in the evening. I arrived at Dave's to find everyone else had given up and gone home. I don't really blame them. A big open field close to Dartmoor is not the best place to be when it's blowing a hoolie! They did however, miss the best weather of the weekend. Dave and I kited around the field for an hour waiting for it to die down a bit which it duly did. The DHV2 wing, which I had now nicknamed the GBS or 'Giant Blue Slug' was up to it's usual tricks, but I was much better prepared for it this time and kept it aloft for longer periods and also got the hang of flying it back over itself to straighten up and start again. Dave impressed the hell out of me. He is, like me, of the larger pilot variety, but to see him dance around the field controlling the beast was amazing After a while he suggested trying out his Genie L flying wing. This I found much easier. It was much more stable at the top and with a much gentler action was very satisfying to control. Even managed a few bunny hops down the sloping end of the field. While I was happily kiting away Simon turned up and he and Dave started planning a XC flight to take advantage of the now perfect weather. I watched with envy as they set off into the serene blue sky. I consoled myself on the long walk back to the yard to pick up my car with the thought that I had made good progress and am that much closer to achieveing the goal. Thanks Dave. excellent weekend

Having not flown with a motor yet I too am finding this extremely useful. Thank you Ian and others. Being someone who likes to plan ahead, I had noticed the inherrent potential problems, and also read various reports etc. Ian's application of tape to ease a forward launch is very similar to something I had spotted early on, and had confirmed this weekend when I saw more than a couple of pilots have to abort forward launches due to line fouling, particularly around the neck in a couple of instances! I was thinking about a method I have seen in videos of trike launches. On setting out of the wing and trike, I noticed that many of the pilots have a guide mechanism that seems to be nothing more than a short piece of drinking straw taped to the frame at each side on the 90 degree axis. The lines are then fed so they sit in the V between the frame and the straw. The benefits of reduced line abrasion as they come up and around the frame are of course obvious. Having now done a few forward launches (without motor) I can see how a simple system like this could also help those who for whatever reason find it difficult to hold the lines far enough apart so they clear the motor frame easily whilst retaining adequate control. Yes I am a beginner, so I recognise that others may have tried this and found it lacking. I await the input of far more experience than my own

Funnily enough Dave, that's exactly what I was thinking

Oh sod it! I'm tired and I give up! Please go to www.flickr.com On there do a search for Dragonphotographic Life's too damn short for some things!

A little bit of local knowledge, micrometeorology, watching that high pressure coming in from Wales AND a modicum of luck really paid off today. From 1700 to 2130 hours was perfect flying weather here I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this evening. (Mainly because I'm not allowed to ) Thanks once again to Farmer Dave I saw all manner of creatures this weekend. Drowned rats, foxes and Hares. Then tonight, a new one for my collection, a turtle! Did a couple of hours ground handling with both a DHV1 and a DHV2 wing (The DHV 2 is the one I have called the Giant Blue Slug, but it's anything but sluggish!) Got loads of pics, so I'm uploading a few as I go. It's taking time because even though I have resized all the images to within the limits, AND kept all file sizes to 90KB or less, I keep getting the file size too large message! Grrr

Well, the Lemmings camping weekend is under way Everyone is having a good time, even the kids. Great flying once the wind had died down. I was even persuaded to do a bit of groundhandling with Dave's wayward training wing! (Like I needed a second invitation ) Great bunch of folks. Not sure if I can make it back tomorrow because two of my daughters are presenting a boquet to a local TV celeb at some point and I have been called on the get the pics. Weather not looking too good anyway. Definately up for Sunday though. See ya nice and early

When planning to eat out in Exeter, please choose your venue carefully. I hear it costs a bomb in some of the new restaurants in Princesshay!

Glycerol is the by-product of bio-diesel making. If you have someone locally who converts bio diesel you would probably get as much glycerol as you want for nothing. My local guy has to pay for it to be taken away

Just to let you know guys, my internet connection is finally up and running again. It took a while, but I finally convinced BT that a home hub that was emitting thick black smoke CANNOT be revived with a software upgrade!

Dave, when I told the kids you were going to be flying over they were all excited. We stood out in our car park to wait. By the time you got here we had quite a crowd assembled. (Neighbours are far too bleedin nosy) i'm surprised you didn't hear the cheer when you flew over our house! I would have got some good photos, but we are surrounded by a nest of phone cables etc. maybe next time.

Hmm, the website claims to have ALL of the aviation market represented. That'll be an interesting one to test I've just registered for my free ticket, see ya there Stuart