AndyB

Nice. Bet that was chilly. -7 DegC at that height here today!

16 hours ago, powerlord said:

wtf are micro balloons and micro fibres ? I feel I'm missing out on something.. can you make tiny little balloon animals from them ? balloon tardigrades ?

 

edit: just looked them up. disappointed

Keep doing your "flog", it is always great to read. I am a little obsessed with recording flights as well. I used to record take-off and landing errors...but then stopped making any. In the past 18 months I have fallen onto my left knee once and failed no launches! Here is the last bit of my log.....

The regular epoxy is brill....if you mix it with "micro fibres" and "micro balloons". The fibres make it super tough and the balloons make it much lighter. I use equal amounts of fibres/balloons and keep adding until I have a really thick mix that will not run. I learnt about this stuff from repairing my dad's fibreglass sailing boat - he was always dinging the centre board and rudder. This stuff gives a real composite repair and you can easily fill quite big chunks.

I fly RC planes so tried a 2200 that I already had first. After finding it hardly used any mah's to start I bought the smaller ones.

I use a Turnigy 6 cell, 1000mah, 50c. Super light. It will do between 30 and 40 starts. I have 2 of them, so always keep the spare handy. I use a cell voltage checker and when any cell volts is 3.8 (so less than 3.9!) I then re-charge it. The reason such a small battery can do so many starts is that the higher voltage spins the motor much quicker and it starts instantly. If you get the prime right it starts in under half a second, every time, even after a month!

ps. AC supply them with 6 cell now, but also use a high current relay...which I fitted to mine.

I feel no difference at all between 26m and 28m wing. The only difference is that I go 2mph faster on the smaller wing....which I can only tell in the air from an instrument. Landings are obviously 2mph faster, which is only noticeable in zero wind landings, which require a faster run-off.

21 minutes ago, Marcelo Benzaquen said:

Thank you for your reply, I think I'm missing something, you said on you 26m you're 15kg over the max, in my case I will be between 5kg and 10kg over the max, so why would that be more dangerous than I  your case?

You were talking about doing tandem.

Many people fly overweight on a wing, I am over on a 26m by about 15 kg and just under on my 28m wing. It would not be a good idea to go as far over as you are considering and I think it could well be dangerous. The wing loading will be way over and it's flying speed will also be much higher than designed for. 

1 hour ago, asquaddie said:

Best option would be both farmers get together for a beer and decide that they can land and take off, up to 28 days a year and the other one can have access to the land - both win win   Happy days.

 

The one having ppg's land is not a farmer. He is someone who bought what is probably an ex farm house. Farmers don't generally like these people with money, even though it is the farmers that sell the property! 

The rules are simple, he has to have permission to land on private land. If he does not talk to the farmer ad agree an amicable arrangement (usually involving whisky) then he will end up in trouble.

ps. I have 2 farmers who let me land in any of their fields. I am friends with them on FB and see all their chat. They often talk in jest, just like that posted thread! 

1 hour ago, Abaatabit said:

Police have been given this advice on enforcement

Most significant is last slide

No enforcement action for not following guidance only breaching regulations

https://paas-s3-broker-prod-lon-6453d964-1d1a-432a-9260-5e0ba7d2fc51.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2020-11/COVID-19-England-No4-Regulations.pdf

 

That's what I keep telling people. Only the law can be enforced.

I found Skyschool very competent and I have been on one of their flying trips each year since.......so their instructors can continue to chastise me! The D-day trip this year was awesome. Here's the American cemetery...

Perfect. I usually spend 6 months a year in Spain (Manilva), but not now! 

2 hours ago, Kev Moore said:

Sounds fun I’d be up for it

 

Great. Might be 5 or 6 of us now. I'll start putting some thoughts together in the next month for us all to mull over. 

I trained in Spain with Skyschool and loved it. It took 2 separate 1 week trips. Some people try to do it on one week, but that is really ambitious. After my first week I knew enough to buy my kit and the second week I was trained on my own gear. You will find lots of previous discussions on here about doing trips abroad for training and all the pros/cons (good weather vs no follow up training etc) so I would read those as well.

Hi, I have never met Brad Quinn, but I once had a guy come to fly with me who was trained by Brad. To put it bluntly, he was dangerous and I told him he needed to and get trained properly before flying with me again. After talking with my flying friend about what his training had involved, it was very different to the training I had received and very lacking in many areas. This was 2 years ago - so might have improved now?  

When looking for training I would look for someone who trains to a recognised training scheme. You should also ask for feedback on the trainers on the FB forum "UK Paramotor". 

There was only one half mile stretch of beach where I could go low because all the dog walkers were out. Epic flying. Zero wind to 1500' then 35 mph above that. One of the smoothest flights I've had.

I run mine until it stops. It stops very quickly.

I printed out the two parts of the law that apply, removed all the unnecessary bits and keep it in my wallet for when we meet the policeman........

Exceptions: leaving home 6.(1) Exception 1: leaving home necessary for certain purposes (2) Exception 1 is that it is reasonably necessary for the person concerned (“P”) to leave or be outside the place where P is living, (c) to take exercise outside. (d) to visit a public outdoor place for the purposes of open air recreation.

Yes, fantastic area. 6 miles south are the 550 meter near sheer drop cliffs at Saltburn. Flat fields of crops at the top and you can literally just fly over the edge. I have also managed to soar for half an hour on the top of the cliffs with engine off.

I have read the law, not the guidance. The gov keeps putting much of the stuff it would like you to do in guidance as this stuff would not get passed into law and would be too difficult to draft eg. did you know that the law does not even say you have to scan QR codes into the NHS app?...it just says you either scan the code (into whatever app you like, like a QR code scanner) or give your details to an establishment - so now you know how to remain anonymous! I would have no problem arguing that I can do the point below as that is what the law says. The guidance is NOT enforceable and this point from the law is very helpful to us.....

• You can exercise or visit outdoor public places with people from your household or support bubble, or one person from another household.

Might be able to have more than 4....was just going listening to someone who said some of the places have limited space. If we plan where we are going well beforehand we could be a bigger group. I went across France with 13 vehicles last year!

I think get together all those interested first and see how we go.

I haven't finalised anything yet. I was waiting to identify those interested then sort out what we fancy doing. I think 2 to 4 vehicles could work. More could get tricky in finding locations to stay.  I have a car with a tent on the roof - like a camper van, but smaller and without all the facilities!

Looking good up here in the North as soon as lock-down starts.....