slim

Let's hope our expedition is less - er - deadly

Video Projector? Done. No problem mate.

Phil, et al, The Globalstar constellation is only depleted for their 2-way services. Simplex services (like SPOT) are unaffected. Stuart P.S. I have stock again. If you've ordered from me then your unit is in the post now (except yours SimonW because I'm hand carrying it to you - what service )

Hi Karan, Welcome. I have a number of friends in Nepal and I'd love to go and visit them and do some flying too You've come to the right place for contacts and advice. People here are working on a complete operations manual for paramotoring clubs that can be used as the basis for anything you set up. Stuart

I think it is worth pointing out that the various insurance policies available to paramotor pilots at the moment are not the same. I'm going to summarise my understanding - I may be wrong. If you know otherwise then please point me in the right direction for the relevant documents. With BHPA membership you get 3rd party insurance. If you land on someone's roof and knock the chimney off then the insurance will pay for the roof. You and your equipment are not covered. Also listed on the BHPA web site are Airsports Insurance Bureaux Ltd who offer: Travel insurance which can include paramotoring. This covers medical bills and "get you home" costs if you have an accident whilst on holiday outside the UK as well as 3rd party and limited equipment cover whilst you are on holiday Equipment insurance which does include air sports but not whilst actually in use I think (can anyone confirm or deny this please?) Outside the BHPA - OnRisk offer 3rd party and equipment cover for paramotoring but again, the equipment is not covered whilst flying. I'm pretty sure that OnRisk also offer travel insurance similar to Airsports Insurance Bureaux Ltd. As I understand it the insurance cover that will be available to PMC members will at least cover: 3rd party risks Equipment theft/damage whilst being stored and transported Equipment damage whilst in use and personal accident whilst flying. This, I think, is a key differentiator and is only possible because of the Ops Manual etc. There will also be options for travel medical expenses and equipment cover. I've deliberately kept clear of the instructors' insurance because that is less relevant to most of us.

Well done Frazer. Welcome to the happy band.

Click here for the mp3 file of Colin's show to download and listen to when it is raining or dark It's 10 megs so will take a little while. Their website with archived shows is here Enjoy. Stuart

Having seen some of the drafts on the way through I'd like to say congratulations to Norman and all those involved for an outstanding piece of work. When they write the histories of Paramotoring this will be one of the milestones. Now let's all get on with the flying Stuart

I disagree. If people don't get proper instruction then they will screw up more often than if they do get proper instruction. It is a simple fact of life. Some self taught fool will have a bad accident into a crowded school playground and we'll find ourselves regulated out of the sky. Yes, you are free to just go and do it but please think about the rest of the sport. In any walk of life, government stays out of the way until the cost of regulation becomes less than the cost of the accidents. There were no speed limits on British motorways until people started killing themselves, and others, by trying to drive faster than the other guy. Wilbur and Orville Wright didn't have pilots' licenses - nobody did until governments realised that too many people were dying. We stay unregulated only as long as we act responsibly. Self teaching is irresponsible for most people because most people won't teach themselves effectively. There is a lot of research to show that the least competent performers inflate their abilities the most and that the reason for the over-inflation is ignorance. In short words: If you think you can do it you're probably too thick to do it. If you want to teach yourself then go ahead but please do it a long way away from everyone else and make sure you learn all the bits of air law that do cover paramotoring in this country. Stuart

It has never worked for me either and no, my ISP isn't blocking the emails - I run my own mail server.

Well boys and girls, it has been a while since I posted on my training blog but today had a couple of milestones so I'll spill the beans.... Work and the weather have really conspired against me for the last few months so flying has been minimal. Now that I'm "between jobs" I've got a bit more freedom so when Simon said it was flyable today I headed over to the Flagpole Field to meet up. My Chelsea Tractor made it up the slippery hill (what fun) and I just assumed that everyone else was delayed so I got ready and did some ground handling. Several reverse launches later I warmed up the engine and clipped in just in time for ... the wind to drop. I decided that I couldn't be bothered to reset for a forward launch so I committed hard and nailed the reverse launch in low wind. Gently climbing I decided to fly along the road and watch for Simon or Col coming along. Heading up through the inversion I came across a few fluffy clouds. Oh what fun! Flying round, over and through. I could do it all day long. By the time I'd finished messing around I spotted a couple of wings laid out in Simon's back field - oh so that's where everyone is! Apparently nobody else's vehicles could get up the hill. I headed over to take a look in time to see Simon take off. We headed over to the ridgeway together. I've not flown with other people in the air much and it's a different experience. Need to remember about prop wash - thanks mate! I left Simon to photograph the free flyer over the white horse and headed back to Simon's back field. I've not flown in or out of it before so I did a couple of tours to work out how to approach without hacking off the neighbours too much. I decided that coming in over the trees to the South West and then a sharp left turn into the wind should provide the best noise abatement approach. It worked really well and a near perfect landing followed That was my first cross country flight - well, ok, it wasn't that far but it was the first time I took off in one place and landed in another! Col was just taking off so I chatted to FlappaPappa for a while. Simon and Col came back and FP did some of his first forward launches (well done. You did good) I unhooked my Dudek Reaction and unpacked the demo Paramania Fusion 29. After a quick brief on what to expect I tried a forward launch and overcooked it badly. That Fusion comes up fast, you don't need to pull as hard! Ok, reset and try again - this time not enough effort. Third time lucky? Nope. Not nearly enough leaning back and running fast - I'm beginning to feel like my old demons are back. By this point the wind has dropped to zero and it is getting late. I have to make a choice - hitch a ride back to the Flag Pole field or get this thing off the ground. I'm not sure why I find it so hard but after a rest and some patient advice from Simon and Col (shame there isn't a smiley for sarcasm guys) I decided to give it another go. This was a true nil wind forward launch! I tempered the initial pull and the wing came up straight, feed in the power gently rather than all in one go and the torque steer didn't pull me off line. Run - just f*****g run, long strides, lean back - yes, lift, I can feel the motor going light as the wing lifts. Feed in some brake, then more, then even more - at this point I realised that the brake lines were probably strung a bit long because I'd got my arms all the way down and it felt too light but I was off the ground even if only just. I had to make a quick decision... legs down and cut the motor or stick with it. I thought about letting the brakes up and seeing if the extra speed would help but I decided to keep my arms by my sides and go for it. Good call. With the handles tied a bit long I was hardly putting any brake on at all so the wing was lifting me anyway even with no headwind. I climbed out and then let myself play for a bit. It is a very different feel to the Reaction. I think it would take a while to get used to and adjusting the brakes would make a huge difference. At about 1000 feet I let the trimmers out all the way. Wow it's fast. Back over to my car in no time. What I should have done is wound the brake lines around a couple of times to take up the slack but I wasn't thinking about it so - remembering to pull the trimmers back in to landing setting - I watched the windsock I'd set up in the morning and came in for a landing into what little wind there was. Flare! Flare! Flare now - oh yes, the brake lines are too long (doh) so it wasn't the neatest landing in the world but it certainly wasn't a bad one. I was just packing everything up when Simon called on the mobile to check I was ok - ahhhhh. So, two point to point flights in a day and a nil wind launch and my first flight on a different wing. Cool. And now? Time for some sleep - I'm exhausted Stuart

See my training blog for more details (in a few minutes when I've written it up) but I forward launched the Fusion 29 in nil wind this afternoon using my RAD Javelin for power. For those of you who know how tricky I find taking off let alone nil wind it demonstrates how good this wing is. I had a great fly with it. Very responsive and no nasty surprises. Thanks for the loan Simon (and Paramania). Stuart

Hi Guys, Here's the scoop from my perspective... Basically they've been backtracking on agreements I had with them in May because key members of staff have left. I've been chasing them daily for an update on the units that I have orders for. Today, after Simon sent them a stroppy email, I get this... I'm not impressed but there is very little I can do. I think it is a cracking piece of kit and the live service is great but the sales support is poo. If they can get that sorted out then we'll set up a dealership for the paramotorclub.org shop but not until we can be confident of timely delivery. All I can do is apologise to those of you who are waiting and ask you to let me know as soon as you have a box in your hands just as I'll let you each know as soon as I have FedEx tracking numbers for you. Stuart

The reality is that, because it cannot transmit AM on airband you won't be able to talk to anyone. All they'll hear, unless they detune their radio slightly (as Alan said), is fuzz and most likely they won't think to detune their radio so you'll just be pissing people off. If all you're trying to do is talk to your flying buddies then use FM on 2m. If you need to talk to ATC then you'll be needing an airband AM transmission capable radio. There isn't a usable workaround. As a bit of a teaser, I spent a lot of time at SPLASH yesterday talking to the CAA guys about radios and Mode-S transponders. I'll summarise the results in another post later. Stuart

Is there anyone not going to SPLASH on Saturday interested in a fly at the Flagpole field in the morning? It is going to be Brass Monkeys weather but looks ok otherwise as long as the freezing fog lifts. Stuart

I've just had to make 11 out of 14 employees redundant and my business partner and I haven't been paid in 3 months so we're effectively looking for work too. It isn't fun at all out there.

Note to self - after last winter's wing repair bill remember not to ground handle on a field with the sharp flints frozen to the ground! Otherwise I'll be flying whenever I can and now that I've just made myself redundant it might be a bit more often than it was Stuart

Hi Alan, Thanks for the offer. There are two ICs on the circuit board that seem to provide an integrated receive and speed control function for the main prop and servo control for the steering. Both of them have lost their tops in a catastrophic explosion. I could replace them if I knew what they were Stuart

Hi all, I've got one of the cheap and not very cheerful Parachute Sky radio controlled paramotor toys. The RC receiver has gone pop and now it is dead I was about to throw it in the bin in disgust but then I wondered if anyone else has one that has broken in a different way? Maybe we could combine the bits and end up with one working thing. Anyone? Thanks, Stuart

My vote is to do it in their winter then - less extreme heat to deal with

Sometime when everyone is suffering from insomnia I'll give a lecture on radio tracking and identification. Every transmitter has little flaws that shape the signal just like a fingerprint. Oh, and I forgot to say which bit of the MoD owns the 143-144MHz waveband. If they want it unused by other people they'll stop it being used by other people. I was there the day they sent a chopper full of blokes to cut down a perfectly legal transmitter that just happened to be in the way of something. Fly in, hover, abseil down a rope, angle grinder to the antenna tower, fly off into the sunset. All that on top of a building in this country not many miles from where I live. Of course, they're a bit busy elsewhere right now But seriously... If we all act responsibly we're more likely to be allocated our own bit of waveband. Stuart

Watch me

Hi Gazza, Almost any radio can be made to work with almost any headset. I've got a SpeedAir helmet with built in headsets and I use it with my Kenwood radio. The Jing Tong is a perfectly adequate radio. It is usually just a question of getting the right connectors wired in the right way. With any communications system that operates in extreme environments there are two main places that improvements can be made and both involve the interface with the air. The first is the antenna - the interface between the radio waves and the radio. Most stock aerials that come with radios as standard are pretty poor so almost anything you buy will be better than the one that came with the radio. The thing to look for is the gain. The higher the gain the better as long as it is listed on the right band (an antenna with a gain of 3db on 70cm is useless on 2m but many are designed as dual band). Most handhelds havean SMA connector for the antenna. This is an international standard so they are usually interchangeable. The other air interface is the microphone and speakers. You'd be amazed how good a cheap radio can sound with decent speakers and a good microphone I know I haven't specifically addressed your detailed questions. That's because I'm not really familiar with the Jing Tong range or the Goldstar. What I will do is track down a half way decent antenna like the Maldol AS-30F (that I use) and see if we can get SimonW to add it to the Paramotor Club shop. Stuart

Some clues on make and model would help but even then I'd still be trying to find a manual. There are so many different makes and models out there and somehow everyone thinks they've come up with a better user interface than the last bunch so they all work differently. The key things to find out are: 1) how to change the frequency so you can set it to the same frequency as your mates 2) how to change the power output so you can set it as low as possible for what you're doing 3) where the push to talk button (PTT) is so you can talk to people 4) where the volume control is so you can hear people 5) where the squelch control is so that you only have to listen to proper transmissions and not loads of static noise The thing that everyone forgets is that once you press the PTT you need to wait just a moment to allow your transmitter to stabilise and the squelch control on the other end to open before talking. If you don't then the guys at the other end only ever hear the end of your sentence. You asked how far radio waves travel. The answer is ... a long way except when there's stuff in the way. With a 5w hand held you can easily talk to astronauts on the space station but you can just as easily have trouble talking to someone a couple of miles away on the other side of town. If there is line of site between you and the person you're talking to then you need very little power. If there is a hill in the way then no amount of power will get through it. 2m doesn't bounce over hills at all well. If you're ground based and trying to get hold of a pilot who's landed out in the next valley, the best thing you can do is get on top of the hill. There - weeks of radio training in a paragraph Happy to answer specific questions.. Stuart

We laughed so much we bought the T-shirt