outkast

I am the person in blue, one in the funny hat is Simon, Colin is the one in the cowboy hat and the one with the pink motor,sorry dont know the guys name in the blue jacket, I think Ben just called him bailey guy LOL,the guy in the black and blue flying suite is the other colin (weesplat), theres a couple of Alistair ground handling and then theres a couple of Ben.

I agree the top one is best,without the kangaroo though, we all know kangaroos cant fly paramotors as their arms are too short to reach the brakes

WAAAHOOOO! just in time for christmas

How about introducing a regime of preflight and post flight checks, always seemed good practice to me to check something before using it and after using it.

just like to add a big thanks to Nick wood,(woody) who taught me how to ground handle, cheers mate.

Priceless, just priceless

Thanks lads, if I could have just got in the seat it would have been perfect, dont get me wrong it was still awesome, cant wait to get back up there now, I have spent all day today telling everybody I know every little detail of my "heroic trip" LOL, it made all those days trudging up and down the field at westmill worth it, it was kinda strange when it happened as I thought I may have been more nervous but I think the fact I got into a positive mind state helped a lot, for all those newbies who are at the ground handling stage and are itching to fly I can say only one thing, dont ever give up because the reward far outwieghs the effort you have put in to get there. Keep reaching for the skys fellas Safe flying Dave.

Ben we will get you out over the hols and we will all crack on with some groundhandling, dont be too down on yourself as you have to remember that myself and Frazer have done a lot more groundhandling than you, as others have said, theres nothing natural about man flying, we rely on a number of factors coming together at just the right time to make it posible, sometimes that happens and sometimes it dont, you will get there mate and it will feel all the sweeter when you do.

Thanks chaps, next time will be much better I am sure

Cheers mate, that second bottle is sliding down

well chaps, I have just logged on after a 2 hour drive, a nice hot bath, a chinese takeaway washed down with a nice large bottle of becks, wich was just enough to make my tummy happy first off, Ben down get disheartened mate you came so close to getting it nailed, you will get there mate just get as much groundhandling in as you can. I drove down to the flagpole early this morning through the thick fog hoping the weather would cheer up, it did and I Met Simon at the entrance road about 9.30, we managed to get his vehicle up the hill and get ourselves sorted, started off by doing some groundhandling wich went well and was starting to feel real good about the days procedings, after some time Simon asked me if I wanted to do some with the motor on my back, so I strapped on the Parajet and did a pretty good forward launch with the motor off, gathered my wing and struggled back to the top of the hill, it was at that point Simon said, you mite as well go for a fly then and said I would be better off doing a reverse due to the windspeed, no pressure then , I put on my head set and got sorted, well the wing came up pretty square with Simon telling me I only needed a bit of left brake, I turned and hit full throttle, I must have made no more than five steps and I was airbourne and climbing fast, right thats the launch sorted time to get comfortable, one problem, no matter how hard i tried I could not get seated, I managed to get half way in but that was less comfortable than hanging in the leg straps, I even let go of the left brake and tried pushing myself in but it just was not going to happen, so by this point i was about halfway around a right hand circiut of the field, Simon came on the radio telling me to back off the throttle a bit and aim for level flight, he asked if I wanted to land or carry on, I so wanted to carry on but without beig seated I opted to land, Simon giuded me down towards him,my wing being quite a slow on was surprisingly stable when gliding down, I flared at about 15 feet from the ground, a little early but got away with it by landing nicely on my feet, but I had forgot to turn and the wind caught the wing and pulled my down on my bum I wont try and convey how I felt during the flight or how I feel now as I dont think there are any words that can realy capture it, its one of those things you just have to experience Big thanks to Simon and Colin for all your help today and thanks also to the other guys there with their words of encouragement, big congrats also to the guy with the Bailey who I understand was on his first flight too. I think Ben took some pics so hopefully he will post them up soon. Now its back to the fridge to get that second bottle of Becks MMMMMMMMHHHH!

I have one of those in silver, the biuld quality is outstanding, I cant fault it, from the strong glass fibre shell to the fully adjustable inner real leather lining, I am going to by some comms and fit it out, where your ears are they have a nice place to put some small speakers, I would definately recomend one to anybody.

talking of expeditions http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=BdMV42czPCI

Fortunately I have both leccy and pull start, what Gordon was talking about can be found on ebay, just type in optimate 3, these are excelent and usually come with a lead wich permantly attaches to the battery saving you from having remove the battery each time you charge it. the optimate will charge the battery fully it will then go into a monitoring stage where it will determin the condition of the cells in the battery and wether it is loosing any charge.

Thanks chaps, I still have the original battery on mine and I dont rate them much, I was thinking of converting it to take a 12v battery like the ones used in karting.

Hi chaps, I have a pap 1100 as with a solo 210 engine, can anyone tell me if the electric starter on it is 6 volt or twelve volt? Thanks, chaps, Dave

No worries mate, I think i may have a lead on a potential new flying site

whilst you are looking you know you are always welcome to use my motor/wing

You would have if my car could get up that hill it's covered in mud now, even the roof - had to ask nicely for a spare field nearer the road. Then my engine was off tune and the pull start jammed turning my quick lunch break flight into a non starter, luckily Sally-Ann made up for it with coffee and a hot mince pie - thanks you got a pull start on your car? you reallly must sell that old trabant and get with the times mate

Gaz, not long now and we should all be airbourne, would love to come up to royston and see you guys as Frazer has said, got my motor sorted now too so I am basicaly ready to go

do a search on ebay, theres loads on there, I found my log book from when I was training to fly a microlight the other day and had a read through it, thats why I prefer a hard copy type rather than a PC based one, one day when you are old and crusty you can have a glance through your log book and think of all the wonderfull times you had flying, you wont do that with a PC based one.

sounds great, me and Frazer were doing some ground handling over at westmill and we commented on how perfect the conditions were about an hour before sunset, the sky here was pretty clear with any cloud being way up high and a beautiful red sunset wich light up the sky, would have made for some cracking photos.

looks good mate, how many days of flying weather do you get out there?

Check your private messages

call it £5 ?