fanman

I fly both with and without a motor. IMO you have made a mistake. You came and posted on this forum because you crave the freedom of power most, the idea of free flight is just an added benefit, right? You'll spend the winter getting frustrated because the wind will be too strong/too light/too easterly/too northerly/too westerly/too southerly for your lack of experience and then you'll realise that if you had just gone for the motor from the start you could have been flying throughout the whole period.

I'd have to disagree with Gary, don't 'get all the power you can', get the right power for your all up weight. Too much power (especially when combined with any of the following: wet conditions, improper set up, old or porous wing, gusty conditions, poor piloting, etc) can put you uncomfortably close to the stall.

It's an option on a Bailey.

IMO the Flat Top is very good but there are a couple of reasons why I think the Kobra and the FB are better. the key one is the way they modify the motor to make it less stressed than how it is in its natural form in the FT. Personal opinion only. I was going to say that I think the FT with the new more powerful EVO version of the Simo is IMO the best option for the truly heavy pilot (as opposed to medium/heavy as I mentioned earlier).

IMO these are the 2 best paramotors out there for medium/heavy pilots. Tough choice... both manufacturers modify the standard mini2 to iron out the deficiencies and make it a superb motor.

AFAIK Bob turned back around the Roedean area while Steve continued on alone.

Trying to remember what type of motor you are talking about, was it a Simo? We have been running a FB Simo for over 40 hours now at 60:1 and are contemplating going to 65:1 as it is so throttled back it still shows signs of fouling. You are currently planning 40:1 and imply that you also add a bit 'for wife and kids'. No wonder it smkokes and chucks out oil. By the way, PAP says to run a Ros at 40:1, we run them at 50:1. PAP say to run a Top80 at 50:1, we run them at 65:1. Diego Cecceto, the Top80 designer runs his even leaner on oil than that. If a leaner mix doesn't resolve the issue then I'd be looking at too low reseat pressure in the carb (assuming its a diaphragm carb). Does it tend to run rich?

Primary means of updating commercial aircraft inertial navigation systems is by GPS these days. Use it as a primary means so long as you are always verifying the output it produces. If you cannot verify the data the GPS is giving on a map then don't continue until you can.

One of those that have gone back to the 10L for that reason is the current world champ! Although it is in the area behind the pilot it blocks the space that the airflow would have had to 'get itself back together' before going through that part of the prop disc.

No one should be worried about saying GPS is their primary means of navigation as long as it is backed up by a known position fix from either map reading (preferable in this game) or radio nav aid.

Some of the guys I know who have run the 15L tank on the Bailey have gone back to the 10L because it causes too much prop blanking.

Actually edwardc, the point that is so very very important that is not registering is that your personal procedures seem to require you to feel resistance from brake lines in your hands before remembering to let go of them to get in the seat. If you need to use hands to help yourself into the seat then your routine should involve parking the brakes and letting go of them before moving your hands down. That is the point I am trying to make and while you may not like hearing it as you have reached the dizzy heights of PPG1 (whatever that means) it might just be the thing that saves your neck. You declared something that is a flight safety issue, sweep it under the carpet if you like but although you say you don't usually do it you have ACTUALLY done it without intending so redrilling yourself (either personally or through instruction) has been proven to be needed. Just because your skin is thick doesn't mean it won't hurt when you hit the ground.

Not interested Norman. This is a question of understanding the situation from a flight safety perspective. We should all have a personal discipline in the way we get into our seat. It works differently for different people based on many things such as experience, harness, clothing, ability, physique, etc, etc. The common thread with everybodies technique must be that if hands are required then they must not have the brakes in them. This is totally irrespective of if the brake lines are too short, right length or too long.

It's important for a buyer to understand that this prop will not perform the same as an original 110cm Fresh Breeze propeller. The larger diameter prop has a lower pitch. Someone needing a 110cm prop would over-rev and be down on thrust on this unit when compared to a proper 110cm equivalent. Buyer beware. I run a 125cm prop on another machine with fantastic thrust. Once I tested an identical prop that had been damaged but the owner had cleanly cut 5cm off each tip (and profiled and balanced it). Instead of cruising at my usual 2/3 throttle I had to run at full power the whole time and my fuel burn went up by over a half. Take off was too marginal and climb rate was poor. I dread to think what was happening to the CHT. As I seller you'll be upset with what I'm saying but the buyer must know what he might be getting.

It may not be what you normally do but if I found myself doing something as potentially dangerous as this I'd be asking myself if I hadn't paid enough attention during my training. If you want to avoid being a statistic then you MUST reappraise your personal drill for getting into the seat. I don't care if this post is not cuddly enough, your life is more important than feelings. Get re-training if neccessary.

Was this originally 110cm diameter or was it a 122cm cut down to 110 after the tip damage was repaired?

Contra-rotating props has been done before with a single Top80. There is/was a youtube video. Guy ditched it in the end as it wasn't worth the complexity. 2 engines just makes it 4 times more complex.

Actually not all the manufacturers use the same definition on what makes up their weight ranges so you need to check each ones definition. Most include everything except fuel which means including the weight of the wing itself.

...or the viewpoint of someone who spent most of his life legless!

Have you tried going direct? http://www.rosmotor.it/PRODOTTI.htm or this lot are better... http://www.marcmotor.com/sito/eng/mail.htm My mate got a pull start unit sent from Marcmotor and it arrived very quickly.

fraid I'm a pullstart man thru and thru. took the leccy start, battery, voltage regulator, starter relay and wiring off a motor of mine recently and saved 2.5kg. If it don't pullstart in the first couple of pulls then somethings wrong with the set up. Electric start allows you to get away with an imperfect set up which would be better off getting sorted. If the pull start causes improper balance then that needs sorting too. FB do the Simo with pull start only so I presume its just FT that dont supply it.

The mix of power and autonomy is absolutely vital in my book for exactly the reasons Dave mentions above. It's mostly the lardies who can't fly a lightweight machine that tell you weight doesn't matter! I am starting to think that the Flat Top is actually one of the best options out there at the moment. What is the true weight of yours with no reserve and no fuel but including harness Dave? Can you get one that's pull start only?

Less gravity in Spain doncha know!

9 litres of fuel weighs 6.5kg and your reserve probably comes in at 3.5kg when mounted in its container. That means your paramotor weighs 31kg which is quite heavy bearing in mind that presumably because you are only turning a 99cm prop you are probably running a small sized cage. The BD is a thirsty engine so I dread to think what your fuel burn is being that heavy on that size wing on that size prop on that motor! Also Airfer make paramotors and so do PXP so surely it is one or the other, not both.

Mk2 with alloy cage and larger of the 2 frame sizes with no fuel or reserve but including harness - 34kg actual.