Blackburn Mark

A double edge sword.... On the one hand, the best looking landscape in the UK to fly over and on the other, miles away from anywhere! The Scottish weather window might be a bit narrower than it is for most of us and you have the mountains churning the wind into lumps on their lea side.... I personally would still want to get airborne up there given half the chance... You are likely to going to need to obsess more than most over weather details. I really hope you crack this, it would be nice to have someone on Skye reporting back here with mind boggling photos

There are very few places I am willing to use without permission... Remote, scrubby open access or "common" land, I will use when it is obvious that there is no "reasonable" argument against it.... I tend to launch and stay well away from that spot to minimize any attention. You cant beat having permission though, park up, make a brew, jibber jabber with others, fly, land, more jibber jabber

Some people travel to various launch sights, some stay local, some do 100 miles on an XC, some are happy with a 60 min circuit. I started off with a motor but fell in love with free-flight, did that for many years then got back into paramotoring.... Its hard to say what you will take to so be as cautious as you can with the cash in your attempts to find out If you are after "sightseeing" then a paramotor is hard to beat!

!!!ESTIMATE!!! Assuming about 12/15hp, I would think a 3:1 (ish) reduction at 7 degrees of pitch on a 130cm prop diameter. I think! Too low a ratio and your motor would be unable to spin up the prop to the motors max power // Too high a ratio and the motor would hit its max revs without the prop taking a good bite at the air. It does get done from time to time but the easier option would be to try to get your hands on a damaged/dead machine.

Being a skinflint and a bodger, ill second that No images of your build exploits Mike? There are too few on here with grubby hands! Promise not to laugh at your welds

I would assume it would be easer to find the throttle than find the off switch (I ought to practice finding the switch now that I think about it) My cable is only just long enough to cover the arc of my arm and the net gaps have been closed with extra lacing (Learned the hard way and lost a prop to a cable//prop-strike) It doesn't really matter what others might do, you have now had the experience, escaped with all your fingers and toes intact.... What would YOU do in that situation?

Ah... tricky! I've had rubber mounts give by at least 50mm (clipped prop on a stumble) I would assume the cable pulled the frame into the prop (or prop into frame) If you follow the path of force... From the prop hub, the cable would pull lengthways "along" the re-drive bracket, it would be a straight on tug of war between the frame, netting or carb cable fittings and that thick re-drive bracket.... which one do you think would win and why? My money is on the bracket being stronger than any of those three buy a factor of 20+ Maybe something did get under the belt... I could see that snapping the bracket.

Good luck and fingers crossed If you are doing a course, you don't have too much to be nervous about.... by the time you "get your feet off the floor" you will be good and ready.

Owch! I don't think the cable broke that bracket in any tourniquet style event: Something got between the belt and the pully (doubt it though) The massive imbalance of the broken prop at high revs hit a resonant sweat spot (Possible but there is a more likely cause) The shock of the prop hitting the cage at high rpm would have sent a HUGE force through the bracket in the opposite direction to the strike. If you decide to weld it, it might be worth adding a plate so that if the main welds fails, the plate will give enough to unload the belt but not enough to allow another prop strike. You can afford an extra bit of weight on such a light motor

Not sure I would want to put my mouth anywhere near that! Looks like the type of thing a female sailplane pilot might find useful on extra long flights!

I am right with you these days.... Give me a simple meander in smooooth air over rivers and meadows with a jam buttie in one hand and a pop in the other and I am done.... 0G is just about right

Yea, looks like a different place! They must be pulling some money in to splash the cash like that! Not keen on that sofa.... I'm all for acting the goat, its the spice of life but that thing made me pretty uncomfortable!

Haha.... yep, I know exactly where you are coming from! There is some margin though: With some rough calculations, using only A and B lines, 60% would still give me approx. 10G before line failure... Call it 6G because of the bias on the center A lines. A nose down spiral might be 3 or 4G maybe a tad more in a SAT entry so there is some wiggle room but 60% was enough to make me splash the cash on a new set (£100 if my memory serves me right)

This is true (mostly) all my friends used to love getting new wings... I personally didn't like having to surrender all that experience so would fly one until I lost faith in its ability to survive a nose down spiral or SAT... I even bought a new line set for one when they started breaking at 60% under load test.... That was back in the days when Ozone used to use that rubberized, long lasting wing material. I'm not sure if its old age or the fact I am now on a reflex wing but I am seldom as comfy as I used to be when it gets hairy

That's always a good sign

Short story: More than twenty years ago, I scoured the Loot (anyone remember that rag?) and bought a solo 210cc paramotor with a Airwave Harmony (safe simple wing) and taught myself to fly (NOT recommended, I was younger and still made of rubber back then) Think I payed £2000 all in and the gear was mint. It was a reasonably lucky buy because I didn't know enough about gear (or more importantly, good weather conditions) I didn't really take to powered flight but fell in love with free-flight, sold the motor and got fifteen years of obsessed joy out of that.... Then got a bit bored and flew occasionally until I decided to give power another twirl Fell in love with flying power this time. Bought a smashed Bailey's (four stroke // very efficient good for long xc flights) £1300, rebuilt it and I already had a wing with a value of maybe £300 and I enjoyed the sport that much I splashed another £1700 on a Kougar 2 wing. It can be done reasonably cheaply (especially if you have lots of tools and a bit of know-how) Its tough to know how you will respond to the sport. I don't recommend teaching yourself! I don't recommend buying gear until you know you are hooked. I am "almost" loathed to say get training because it can be pricey and "might" be wasted.... But I couldn't recommend anything else and maintain a clear conscience. Bit of a rock and a hard place. Paramotoring (and free-flight) are a pretty frustrating sports, peppered with disappointment, occasionally terrifying even after thousands of hours experience, smelly, heavy, noisy, a tad dangerous.... But every now and again, you will find yourself thousands of feet above the ground tiptoeing the tops of clouds or skimming a mountain 50 miles from home.... it can be BLISS.

Ah... I thought you had decided. Getting yourself to the right place at the right time for a jibber jabber might be a bit trickier than you think. Weather windows can be narrow and short notice meaning pilots might only know they are flying five minutes before they set off to their field. Have a look at the members map to see if there is anyone within a reasonably short drive, twist their arm for their launch site, watch the weather for sub 10mph winds and loiter https://www.xcweather.co.uk/ Pilots tend to be quiet and detached before launch but I have yet to meet a pilot who wont talk your ear off if you catch one after they have just landed!

There were a couple of guys around Dumfries jibber jabbering on here about getting airborne a while ago... Not sure how far they got. A trike might not be a terrible idea if you are unfit but foot launching is way more versatile if you can still run at a reasonable lick My legs are getting old so I'm not far from needing a trike myself. I don't envy anyone trying to get into the sport these days as training schools seem to be sparse.... Training is the most bombproof way of staying safe and getting airborne (at our age ) so personally, I would forgo getting any gear and find a school if you can face the cost and pain of intermittent weather windows // travel. IF you then catch the bug, you will find the cost of gear reasonably easy to stomach and you will be better armed for selecting suitable kit. If you are set on getting it done, the hardest part is being you >>>>> EDIT: The hardest part is *Behind* you... lol although "being" you might well be a handful<<<<<<

The early Bailey motors are a much more generic version of the GY6 motor so parts for those are very cheap. The latter V5 versions and the EOS are based upon a Taiwanese aftermarket GY6 upgrade kit (67mm piston//stroker crank//decompression cam).... quite pricey. 27hp on the EOS has me thinking the cylinder and piston are going to have a harder life than any of the Baileys so assuming reliability might not be sound. Some more power and less weight would be very nice but the 2.2 liters/hour and cheap parts has me trapped lugging 40kg+..... nice once you are off the floor though

It does surprise me that we don't get any tiny engines with 160cm props I guess the benefits just don't offset the pain in the ass such a large hoop would be

I couldn't find a 150cm prop miniplane, only a 140cm prop in a 150cm frame

Large portions of UK airspace is VFR (class G airspace) in which we can fly. Its not super complex but its easy to mess it up if you are not mindful of where you are and what you are doing. I guess there are two rules in the sport that you cannot afford to mess with: 1) Airspace law (BIG trouble if you do) 2) The law of gravity Besides the air law and weather considerations, Its a "reasonably" relaxed and simple form of aviation.

Good point If you can weld aluminum, you can weld Ti... by all accounts, its a bit fussier then aluminum (back-purge)... I have yet to try it myself. That's the question... Ti has some favorable fatigue qualities IF you can stay within its spring limits... that's where I have my doubts... a paramotor exhaust has a pretty rough life. If its a drop in exhaust, you are very unlikely to lose any performance or damage your engine, if its Ti, it ought to be lighter. Unfortunately, you will be playing the scientist on its durability unless someone has any direct experience. I would be disappointed if it didn't outlast an original, I would hope it was designed to take advantage of titanium's better fatigue qualities.

For anyone over 40.... I would place weight at number 1 Spares second to that For anyone under 40... I would place spares at number 1 and weight second to that And that's if you can afford to be fussy! £5000+ is a large stack of cash so "fussy" only extended to "reparability" for me (aluminum frame // GY6 engine).... heavy, ugly, gutless but very cheap spares.... Gets me into the air for the odd 100 mile xc now and again Atom 80 weight would be utter BLISS!

No direct experience I would assume it has a negligible performance loss gain with it being a drop in (unless it comes with a set of jets....?) It ought (in principle) be lighter. IF it was very fatigue resistant, you would expect a long warranty. Pricey Two schools of thought (I guess) A) Give me something I can fix with some cheek and two packets of hobnobs B) Give me some Bling... ill throw cash at any problems A lightweight, beautifully designed and built paramotor is a thing to behold... But for some of us mere mortals, something we can fix with a hammer and a shoe lace will still see us to cloud-base