rszemeti

Well, they do say that there is one born every minute .. personally, I think that sometimes there must be gaps and there aren't any idiots born for an hour or so, then they have to send along an extra special one to make up the averages

errm, im probably thick .. but how does that work? its a size too small to be flown at the hill without a motor ... wouldn't that make it way out of weight limit with a motor? or am I missing something?

it will probably only affect people using Internet Explorer on Windows, both sins in need of punishment

There is a decent camp site at Malham Cove, slightly east of Settle, although you may have to plan your landing quite carefully There used to be camping behind the pub on the A65 just north of Settle, at the top of Settle Bank ... can be a bit of a windy spot though.

One of the good things about paying by credit card is that you can *always* do a charge-back to get your money (6 months is often the time limit). Contact your credit card compnay and tell them you wish to do this, and they should make it happen. Some compnaies call it a "purchase cancellation" .. they tend not tomention it too much intheir literature, but its always there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chargeback merchant accounts always have a thing called a "charge back reserve" .. often something like 10% of turnover held back for 6 months, exactly for this sort of reason, and every charge back usually costs the merchant and additional £25 or so too, so you not only get your money back, but they get a fine for being useless too

To be fair, he sounded a pleasant enough chap, and was very helpful etc on the phone. Just hasn't actually managed to ring me like he said he would, ahh well. Maybe thats the downside of being "relaxed" ... I'm sure it would be fine if it actually got organsied, but so far, it hasn't. Looks like a lovely day for it too. I may just go for a bit of a wander about the skies anyway, going to work is not that appealing today

OK, so, i was going to have a couple of days training with Paddysparamotortraining ... but it doesn't seem to be happening, who else is there thats a good independent instructor and within not too many thousand miles of Kidderminster 9thats left of Birmingham to you ..) ?? I'd be up for a couple of days of confidence building fun anyway, and it would get me out of the office.

Just get it welded, any half-competent welder will do it easily. If you want to make his life a bit easier, try to clean as much of the 2 smoke oil out of it as you can. so long as its just snapped from fatigue, rather than rusted through, it is a 10 minute job to weld it up again.

are ... getting to stand up ... and ... the first 3 steps in a nil-wind launch apart from that, you don't need that much strength really. umm, trying to forward launch in anything but a breath of wind might be a bad idea, its easy to get pulled back with the motor on your back, thats how I did my back in apart from that, its fine .. just get going and get up there

My experience with cows (fnarr fnarr) is that the first couple of times they see you in the air, the are a bit jumpy ... 3rd or 4th time they simply dont take any notice. I watched the local herd in the field next to mine as Richard took off. They literally didn't even bother to look up. Same applies to the horses just down the lane, they no longer seem to care in the slightest. you might care to mention that to the farm manager, as the initial reaction of stock is quite different, they get used to us amazingly quickly.

and indeed I did take off ... and then I wanted to get down again still, hope to get out on Monday, wx looks good, have to do family stuff at the weekend. grumble.

Interesting ... I shall have a think about that Ive used a lot of this stuff before but never really needed it in paragliding .. always felt pretty safe and fun up there. I use an "initiator thought" in my rifle shooting. once that sequence is started, the subconcious runs the show and fires the shot, i have to confess my subconcious mind is a way better shot than my concious mind, so I prefer to let my subconcious get on with it I remember a technique from climbing that worked for me, but that was more to do with overcoming specific fears and problems ... if a really hard move psyched you out, put all yur fears and thoughts into an imaginary box .. close the lid, tape it shut, tie a ribbon on it, and pop it into your rucksac. make the move. in reallity, you probably don't have any choice, its either make the move or a much more dangerous descent, even if that is possible. So .. make the move. When its over, after the climb, opne that box and analyse those fears. where they justified? was the move actually easy? you learn a lot for from that

Umm .. I did start in my twenties and I am now in my 40's ... hee hee ... still, I guess just putting some more airtime in will do it

Sigh ... so, after my little unplanned umm "getting to know you" session with a tree, I've got my wing back from The Loft, no damage, and waited for some nice weather ... Richard came over to my place and, as luck would have it, my field had just been cut, ideal for flying Richard got off easily, it took me a couple of goes, nil wind launches are still a bit tricky, I swear this motor gets heavier every time I put it on. Anyway, I got off, but have to confess to feeling quite uncomfortable. Maybe its just not having flown for a month, I dunno, I did a circuit and approach to the field again, too high, went around for another go and landed. The air was mildly bobbly, nothing even close to rough, but I just didn;t feel confident, like I have done in the past. Ho hum. Ah well, at least I got up, which is half the battle I suppose. I think I'll go and find myself an instructor for a day or two, perhaps having someone saying "just get on with it, you're doing fine" in my ear will be all it needs.

Bewdley ... bit north of ya

Awesome ... just as the weather looks good, and every field on the area is knee-deep in grass ... my local friendly farmer turns up and cuts my field for me w00t! .. now if I can just get out of the tedious visit to the inlaws at the weekend, we are up up and away Richard et al, feel free to help yourselves if I'm not about you know where it is. Looks like hes going to do hay with it, but that is usually fairly fast, esp. if its haylage, shoud be gone by the weekend with a bit of luck.

I'm up for that

I was thinking of popping along this weekend, now that I have my wing back

interesting one .. with a motor, i am coming to the conclusion that in weight range is not actually a great place to be .. the thing ends up rahter slow and sluggish, and when you apply lots of thrust, ends up dropping back too far. I suspect with a motor, you want to be at the top, or a little over the weight range, unless its a naturally fast wing I note the paramania gliders have ranges specified for with/withiut a motor, the "with motor" weights being well in excess of the normal ones ...

Strangely enough .. during the poo weather, I like to make plans to emigrate I swear we've had about half a dozen nice days this year only, and its nearly June for pitys sake!

I give in .. who was the band?

Gimme a shout if you do, I'll bumble along and flop about in the air with you Will be a good chance to see if this new speed bar is set up right too ... I never seem to be able to get the stirrup set to the right length first time out. On a cheery note, it looks like our cat has been sick in the middle of the carpet. Lovely.

Anyone planning on flying over the bank holiday? I got my wing back and have inflated it, looks fine, ready to go again now. Sadly the grass in my field is just a bit too long now, grumble grumble, must get someone to silage it. Anyway, if there is some fling going on, let me know and I'll come out and play. PS. Just got a TinyTach for my motor ... from http://www.tinytachuk.com/ what a great service! ... that guy deserves to do well! ordered some leading-edge tape tape too, from http://www.av8-pilotshop.co.uk/3m-prop-tape-1x12yd-328-p.asp to try and keep that prop nice and shiny

Just out of interest, why the need for 4x4 vehicles? I would have thought a pickup or a large estate car more suitable, no? I'm still trying to imagine a situation where a 4x4 would come in useful .. not likely to snow is it? ... If the pilot lands a LONG way from the road, is it likely you'll be able to get to them with a 4x4? access is usually quite hard to arrange, and in open country, well, you will probably spend the rest of the day getting the 4x4 out of the bog/stream/boulder field you got it stuck in ... surely just picking landing spots reasonably close to the road is the answer? if you fail to make the spot and end up in open country without fuel, the chances of being able to negotiate vehicular access at extremely short notice are close to zero? shoot me down in flames, its not my project, personally, I would go for a couple of big estate cars or pick-ups, faster down the motorways, use less fuel, more comfy for kipping in, cheaper and easier to get hold of. hmmm ... 10 ltrs, 2.5 hours flying at about 50 kmh ... (optimistic) ... about 12.5 km/ltr ... lets call it 1500 km end to end, because you wont be going in that straight a line .... 120 litres of fuel per machine for the trip? 20 litres a day per machine? ...

Just for info, because i found all this out when i used to race bikes ... and I have a number of microlighting friends who have run into these issues as well, particularly the one on the bottom of the post .. read on. legally, inside a vehicle you may not carry more than either: 2 x 5L containers (plastic) or 2 x 10L containers (metal) basically, to be within the law, 20L jerry cans need to be carried outside the vehicle, the limit is quite large then, up to 333L counts as a "small load" .. you need to have the right stickers and a 2kg fire extinguisher if exceeding the 2x5L or 2x10L point ... increasingly, you may find that garages refuse to fill 20L jerry cans, even though legally you may fill them and carry them in the back of your pick up truck, it is now a common additional condition when granting the licence to the station operator to impose this restriction, and 2x 5L or 2 x 10L(metal) is the usual rule they set. Just a point to bear in mind, its not the petrol station owner being arsy, he/she has just been restricted in what they can do, thats all.