nirmal

I would agree with the needle bearing suggestion. It is extremely unlikely for a piece of metal that size to get past the air filter and reed valve. It would be interesting to see the state of the bearings when you strip the engine.

I'll take one if they are 2m radios of a reputable brand.

Whilst on the subject of wings, has anyone tried the Apco Vista HP? It seems to tick a lot of boxes on paper.

It's good to hear that you are doing well with your RAD. Just a note of caution; be very very meticulous in your daily inspection. One of the chaps who trained with me used to fly a very old RAD. I hope quality has improved since because he had problems with welded joints cracking both on the chassis and exhaust. He managed quite well because his wife is a welder for Rolls Royce (her work is the best I've ever seen; more like a die cast than a weld!). Just out of curiosity; did you consider the Miniplane when shortlisting or were you put off by the fibreglass cage? It ticks the same boxes but is arguably more developed.

Thanks Simon. Unfortunately I already ordered one on e-bay, which was delivered this afternoon.

Thanks for the info Pete. Do Parajets have the tank filter in addition to an in-line filter? I reckon a Kart filter should be okay on a Top80 on the basis that the fuel flow in an average Kart is likely to be far higher than in a paramotor. What do you think?

I have on one occasion had to make a semi-emergency landing during an XC because of loss of power. On stripping the carb, it was obvious that the little mesh filter inside the carb was completely clogged, despite the in-line fuel filter being clean. I am thinking of replacing the brass clunk on the end of the fuel uptake tube inside the tank with a sintered bronze filter of the type used in Karts. Fuel starvation with two filters in the line is a bit of a worry. I have heard that Parajet use a similar type of filter for their products. Can someone confirm whether this is true or not? What are peoples experiences with Tygon tubing? Is it better than the traditional reinforced black fuel tubing? I am thinking of replacing all the fuel lines with tygon. I have had problems with the outer layers of traditional fuel tubing disintegrating with time where it comes into contact with fuel and oil. The nylon reinforcement and inner layer remain okay.

How close was the police helicopter to you? Were you affected by the wash from it's rotors? Wouldn't chasing a paramotor constitute 'reckless endangerment of life'.

Gosh. That is pretty damning Fanman . On the one occasion I have had to use the services of Aerofix; the quality of work was truly outstanding, the cost very reasonable and communication excellent.

The forecast is for showers on friday evening and saturday evening , so you are not missing anything really. We should all get together at some point to push this club idea forward.

An update on the airfield. The owners are happy to let us use Chirk airfield for paramotoring. They don't want any payment for its use unless we are having large gatherings. They are happy to let paramotorists use it even on saturdays and sunday evenings as long as we keep well away from the car-boot sale at the bottom of the field but it will probably be better for us to wait till the car-boot sales end, so that there are less people around. It gets quite thermic there on warm afternoons even on low wind days because of all the roads, buildings and roundabouts around. I tried unsuccessfully to launch in very low winds yesterday, but the direction kept switching from east to south and even to the west every few seconds. I gave up and called it a day after 3 failed launches. No damage to either me or the kit. If anyone feels up to trying it out on friday evening, I am game.

Most modern propellers on larger aircraft have adjustable pitch in-flight. Wouldn't winglets would completely mess up the aerodynamics of an aerofoil with pitch adjustable to the same extent as a modern propeller.

I couldn't make it to the nats. Very late night yesterday, and I didn't feel rested enough to drive. If you are free on tuesday or wednesday morning or afternoon and fancy a drive down to Chirk, we could try out this airfield.

Actually, I have just found that they have a website but it is not very informative. http://www.chirkairfield.co.uk/

Macey, It is about 45 miles from you. It is outside the ''above 3500' class A airspace'' that lies above northwales and west cheshire. I will try to get there tomorrow and speak to the owner about groups turning up. Would everyone be happy to pay a small amount to use the place if that is what it takes to convince them? It would be an ideal base from which to fly over north wales.

Hi Helo1 Welcome to the forum. Paramotoring has an enviable safety record in the UK. Accidents happen mostly when people push their limits like performing aerobatics or flying in less than ideal conditions. There is little to choose from performance and safety wise between the leading brands of paramotors and wings. The choice boils down to personal preferences like whether you prefer electric starters to manual starters despite the added weight or clutch drives to clutch-less drives etc etc. As long as you don't buy a high performance wing or an outdated wing to start with, you should be okay. Generally speaking, a reflex wing will give you greater speed and penetration into wind, at the cost of increased fuel consumption, lower glide ratio and faster landing speeds. A paragliding wing will be slower, but landing speeds will also be slower and you can use it for free flying too. People will generally recommend the kit they own for the little features on them that they prefer. It is up to you to decide if those features are more important to you than others offered by other manufacturers.

Hi Meds, Haven't seen you on the forum for a while. Hope all is well. I am up for it on monday daytime if you are free. I am working nights next week. I have been talking to someone who owns an old airfield. It is a good 40 mile drive from your place. The initial reaction from the owners son who is an ex pilot has been positive but I haven't spoken to the owner yet. If you are free and feel up to it, we could test the waters (or should I say air). It might provide us with a long term solution if all works out well. Are you going down to the nationals at Worcester? I will probably be going down there tomorrow.

It was supposed to mean someone of non-european/ western origin. I am the 'asian' bloke. Foreign looking is perhaps not the right term, considering todays society. I haven't seen or met anyone yet, from a so called ethnic minority group paramotoring hence the phrase. Pete; I am sure I will give you stiff competition for the ugly title Do you have to register for the competition on friday to fly? Would day visitors be permitted to fly outside the competition just for pleasure? Looking at the forecast, only early sunday, monday and tuesday look promising. Nirmal

Hope to see you there Pete. I will be the foreign looking bloke with a goatee driving a grey Suzuki grand Vitara.

Hi Doc, On which days will you be at the nationals? We could meet there and put faces to names. I might go down on either saturday or sunday to cheer on my flying buddy who is competing. He has been trying to persuade me to sign up to compete too, but taking the time off work at such short notice is going to be difficult. Will you be flying there? cheers, Nirmal

It is well established that Advance's winglets did not have the desired effect, but it became such a distinctive feature, that they now retain it for marketing and advertising purposes. The winglets on their competition gliders are miniscule. The only paraglider to provide any convincing evidence that their winglets work are Bio Air Technology (BAT). There was an interesting discussion on the paragliding forum sometime back.

Add me in. 1. Flying Doc 2. Nirmal If everyone is up for it, We could meet in person, perhaps this weekend (it looks too blown out to do any flying) and try to get some sort of plan in place. Potentially contentious issues are a lot easier to debate face to face.

That is a fair comment, but on the other hand I have met some people who are deeply suspicious of what we do. When approaching a complete stranger, some token of what appears to be legitamacy might be helpful in softening their stance. Anyway, if we have a significant number of potential members who don't want to be associated with the BHPA, we will have to look into alternative arrangements. A question for Simon; does a club that does not train members have to have insurance or is individual insurance taken out by members sufficient?

Do clubs have anything to do with the BHPA at grass root level? If non BHPA pilots had their own insurance, would there be any reason for the BHPA to object to them being part of a club? We could try getting in touch with the 'Yorkshire Owls or Lemmings and see how they went about sorting this issue. Alternatively, there is a scheme for experienced non-BHPA pilots to get BHPA endorsement after a one day assessment by a BHPA certified instructor and a short MCQ test on air laws etc. If anyone is interested in this, I can put you in touch with a chap who would be happy to do this. If there are enough people around, we could try to get him up here to to assess people on their home turf. I understand some people want to have nothing to do with the BHPA, but others might benefit from this scheme. People tend to take things more seriously if you show them some sort of licence (even if it isn't worth the card it is printed on) and insurance. It projects a sense of responsibility which will aid negotiations with land owners and the public. Fortunately or unfortunately, the BHPA has become widely accepted as the regulating body. If there are there any other ideas for sorting out this issue, please post.

When I climbed snowdon last, I camped here http://www.campinginllanberis.com/ They have several small fields, but there are usually lost of tents and people which is never good, but there are a couple of farms up the road from there which looked like they could be suitable (you could look up the terrain / satellite image on Google maps). It is entirely another matter whether the land owner will permit you to take off from there or not. If you takeoff from somewhere near there, I would suggest that you fly this route http://picasaweb.google.com/nrml76/Snow ... 6725817138 There is lots of grassy space for emergency landings all along the whole way, but you will be affected by valley breeze if you descend into the valley to land. There is lots of bare rock, all along the way, so big thermals and lots of rotor are to be expected. If I were flying there, I would try to fly in nil wind non thermic conditions. PS: I haven't actually flown snowdon. These are the observations and mental notes I made while climbing snowdon. Hope this helps.