Blackburn Mark

It gets done from time to time but its far from ideal! At best, you will damage a lot of expensive gear. At worst, you could do yourself a lot of damage (or worse) Furthermore, it is very difficult to gain any confidence in the vacuum of solitude. Try to find a local pilot and pick his brain how he got into the air.

That does look a bit steep... Not a million miles away as far as the thrust line goes but I personally prefer to have my prop bolt-upright under power, not as comfy but it has its advantages. A slight angle change between the trike and paramotor using different nylon mounting blocks might help get that wheel down a bit. How does it hang with no fuel in it? Smaller fuel load behind you with a fuel bladder on your lap (I use MSR Dromedary water bags 6L and 10L) "might" help a bit but its not ideal at all! Getting those hang points further back is the way to go if its possible... I have never found the hang points comfortable, always getting bruises on my shoulders due to the limited space but as long as your arms are free to articulate, you ought to be able to get comfy once in the air with your hands on the controls. Not sure you are gaining much with those extensions... Again, once airborne you ought to be able to shimmy the seat-base forward to support your legs/leg When flying my trike, the front wheel only seemed to moved a few inches between legs-up and legs dangling so I don't think your missing leg is the bulk of the issue... Get those hang points back and live with feeling pinched against the frame until you are in the air... You do seem to have quite a large gap between the back of your shoulders and the frame.

I personally would remove the plug washer but I don't really see any issue either way that I can quantify besides the chance of the plug working itself lose more readily if the Temp pickup ring is copper... That would remain true either way. The temperature swings may be enough to slowly compress the copper but be warned, do not over tighten, it wont help and stripping the thread would be a real bitch... Just give it the usual nip and keep an eye on things. Any small depth of the plug change will be very small, even if the piston contacted the plug (very unlikely) it would knock the plug gap closed on the first pull and it wouldn't fire.

One of many I made years ago during my free-flight obsession.. Not quite as chipper as yours Stu but I still kind of like it. A new year does make you think... I want MORE

For those who took an interest: I did commit, on a design (not an easy task), bough all the required materials and started welding / machining: Wing spars were the most pricy item. Unfortunately, I fell quite ill and have been for nearly two years... I had enough energy to knock together a simple hang-glider trike in reasonably short order to get me airborne quickly which is pretty much ready to fly but I am still a bit too weak to deal with the logistics at the moment but I am optimistic I haven't given up the the three axis machine, its more complex than a trike build and I need to get in the air and do a bit of camping before I pop my clogs.... Any surplus energy while its raining will likely focus on the three axis science experiment I might get there!

PS: Learning to paraglide in the lakes... You get to cut your teeth in the mountains which are more complex to fly than flat-land. Many people hop from paragliding to paramotoring without the paramotor training but be warned, the difference can be quite alarming at first

Sorry you haven't had any useful info... Training Paramotoring must be a tough business because they are a tad few and far between. There are other methods if you can romance a "quality" local pilot into offering guidance... But you will need to fit/healthy, up to speed or at least willing to get a grasp of the aerodynamics and weather issues, good at making brews and delivering the butties... Then you will have to live with the additional risks of informal training. If you have already immersed yourself in absorbing all the technical information you can get your hands on regarding how it all works and you are a tad obsessed with getting yourself into the air, you may be a good candidate for the more informal method... If not, I would stick to finding a school. Traveling hundreds of miles and camping in your car for a week to get formal training would be the ideal if the British weather wasn't so fickle! You might get lucky and hit a week with perfect weather but I wouldn't bank on it! I am often tempted to offer some assistance to those who are stuck but you would have to be keen as mustard and all those things mentioned above, unfortunately, I am quite ill now in my old age so I have built a Sub70 trike for a hang glider setup so I am sliding in a slightly different direction (harder setup, easier launch) I hate to see people getting stuck behind the training issue as this is an amazing sport for the 25% / 50% that really take to it... It has its dangers and its up to you to mitigate as many of those as you can. I lost a friend to the sport last Friday, drowned (bit of bad luck mixed with a bit of bad decision making/complacency got the better of him) He had thousands of hours under his belt... Horrible! You could find a paragliding school in the lakes, learn to paraglide first, the two versions of the sport are quite a bit more different than you might expect but its often a great place to start from (ground handling is top of the list for both versions of the sport (excluding weather choices!)

80% sure it will be a standard anticlockwise... you ought to be able to confirm this by looking at the thread extending passed the nut. You are likely to need an impact driver of some sort to shock its tension (the crank will just spin with standard spanner force) A hammer impact driver might not be too healthy for your bearings so try to get your hands on a drill style impact gun. If you are stuck and not a million miles from Blackburn, you can do a drive-by here for a brew and use mine (if the winter has not killed the battery If your logic is sound, picking up the "mechanics" of taking care of your own gear is pretty straight forward.

rasp.stratus.org.uk/app/vb/viewer-basic.php RASP UK No app... Takes a bit of time getting a handle on things but you ought to be able to isolate a couple of useful readings using shortcuts. I never use it for powered flight, if it looks like you are are going to get spanked, you are likely to be correct

I flew overweight, often deliberately in my free-flight days which were very active conditions. All bets are off on any certified recovery behavior. It never worried me when I was obsessed with flying and my skills were in fine fettle. Obviously, expect any departure from normal flight to be more dynamic which I believe can be very easily offset "if" your skills are current and you have a cool head Having said that, I cant say I fly enough these days to not opt to fly more "conservatively" which we tend to do anyway under power. The only times I have seen anything close a collapse is when I fly through my own wake, fly in strong thermals or fly into rotor.... All of those can be avoided

I once considered using a stripped down 170kv outrunner brushless motor (I think that would have given me 36v @ 5500rpm) The rotor (magnet ring of the outrunner) would be mounted inside the pinion pully and the stator core machined out to allow the 20mm output shaft to clear and mounted on the crank case. An even simpler way may be to mount the outrunner to scavenge output from the drive belt like a simple tensioner pully. Picking an appropriate KV rating would save you from messing around with re-winding! I never explored these options with any great depth but to buy the outrunner and a rectifier for the three phase output... no regulation, charge circuitry or testing so if you do look into implementing something, a nice writeup and pictured would be most welcome Not sure how long the bearings would last if you use the bell itself as your tensioner pully but it would be very simple.

I taught myself to fly 20+ years ago... I don't recommend it but I am loathed to discourage it in those who are determined or stuck... But be warned, there are extra risks that are not insignificant! I advise that you attempt to jump in your car and hunt down one of those who fly over your house and twist their arm with brews and sandwiches (or whatever it takes) to over watch your progress... I have yet to meet a pilot who wont wax lyrical with stories and advice with anyone interested in listening. It wont be as safe as a recognized training school but will likely see off some of the more obvious issues like poor weather choices. My confidence remained quite low until I started flying with others, an experienced pilot is worth his weight in gold so be willing to throw yourself at their mercy if you manage to hunt one down. Good luck.

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19.8kg is a bit disappointing! It looks to be based upon a Yamaha Cygnus Taiwanese after market 4 valve upgrade kit. 16.9kg for the EFI Moster, 14.3kg for a standard Moster.... A "claimed" 14kg for the EOS Quatro mk1 (I am gutted they abandoned this attempt) The Quatro mk2 and the Moster EFI have gained enough weight to somewhat negate the fuel carry argument unless you do VERY long xc flights. The weight is an issue for some of us old timers... The added complexity/abracadabra of EFI is a concern.

If you think you will be more towards the Tucker Gott style of flying, then maybe a two stroke for the extra 5hp... If you think you will be a little more conservative (Long lazy xc flights or camping out) then maybe a Bailey four stroke. I have three Baileys engines with a lot of hours on them, I have never needed to touch the carbs. Fuel pumps (£8 the last time I bought some// generic GY6 parts) Always carry a spare... if it dies just after launch, swap it. The V5,s occasionally burn out their ignition coil £14... Again, generic GY6 part (starts missing when hot) Besides that, they "seem" to go on for ever with very little maintenance. They are heavy

"Paramotoring: The Essential Guide" I haven't used it myself but I am sure it will be full of useful info and insights. There are other options if you google the subject.

As long as your entire kit weighs less than 75kg with a reserve, you are good.

Nice sensible free flight wing, it will be slow compared to some of the current A/B paragliding wings but they can be quite inefficient in exchange for their speed+stability. I would guess it would work, you may be wringing the motors neck in level flight but if it gets you airborne its a win! There is no real way of knowing so get building, mind your fingers and let us know

Marginal but pretty sure it will fly with a reasonably efficient wing... Long takeoff run and slow climb though.

Cant see that being true. Coasts do tend to be smoother if there is an onshore breeze but why waste the challenge of tackling the lumps? It can be choppy or "switchy" this time of year, just find a big open space, make sure the gust don't go over 10mph (ish) and tune your skills. Make sure there is also plenty of room to take a dragging... Big thermal could potentially add 10mph for a short spell Doesn't happen often but it can/does happen and people do get hurt.

That's pretty depressing! A little magnanimous collaboration would have been nice but I guess that's not everyone's cup of tea.

19kg is too heavy. Its very thirsty and very expensive. I own two Baileys V2 engines (18kg)... (The V5s is 16kg and about £3000) I have also been working on a spanking new GY6 with a 63mm cylinder (180cc) that I "think" I could get down to 14kg if I lose the magneto, sprag clutch, starter and use an alloy muffler etc etc.... Time is the issue on that... I prefer flying to machining but that motor only cost me £175 Atom80 is 10kg

The weight issue is a bit of a conundrum.... If you fly long XC flights or camp out, the fuel burn / weight tends to even out a bit between the Bailey and typical two strokes. On the same wings I burn about half the fuel of an Atom80 and I am quite a bit heavier on mine.

That is pretty depressing! I just took delivery of a 160cm E-Prop and got stung for the VAT so be prepared. Either a skid or a wheel on the nose there... Skids on the wingtips. Most of my ideas are stolen from other peoples efforts/success but the aircraft bellow is quite a bit over 70kg so there are some compromises on mine... That's if 70kg can be done at all and remain safe. I could save 4kg using an Atom80 but I REALLY don't want to use a two stroke!

Owch! One of my options for my attempted Sub70kg three axis build was a new Bailey V5s from UKPPG. Can you confirm that UKPPG were offering the V5S or was it the standard V5.....? I never could work it out on their site. I guess I'm sticking to a stripped down V2 or a custom GY6.... Time is short and I have to get this thing done and off the floor at least once before I curl up and die