Ganbatte

I've heard people speak well of gaggle, and have peeked at the site, but not seen it in operation. I do have a question: I've been thinking about adding the eyeride (eye-lights.com) HUD to my helmet. Transparent displays like that usually work best with relatively simple graphics. Is there or could there be a display mode with only the most basic data available for when I don't want to pull out the phone to fiddle with it, eg altitude, ground speed, bearing/range to next waypoint and to start point, maybe fuel estimate? possibly some warning about nearby airspaces, but not with a lot of map graphics? I actually bought my garmin watch solely because of stufly, but it would be nice to have 2 instruments (against any failure issue), and a HUD displaying a phone's screen would allow a bit more data to be displayed than the garmin's screen size permits. Thanks!

Has anyone ever made a flash starter for mosters?

Generalizing from a small sample space is always tricky, but let's keep in mind the fact that "reliable 2-stroke" is an oxymoron. If you're considering a Mav, you might care to price its replacement netting, and extrapolate from there the cost of other replacement parts.

I've noticed that in the manual, and have gone out of my way to find pure gasoline, since nearly everything in the US is E10. OTOH, I've never heard of anyone being refused warranty for running pump gas. My speculation is the strongest effect anyone's likely to notice is the frequency at which they have to replace the carburetor diaphragm. (They get flabby faster when exposed to ethanol.) Maybe a few % less fuel consumption, since ethanol has less energy per weight than gas.

What the heck is a "jam buttie"? Y'all tawk fuuuuuny over thar!

Best to choose an instructor before thinking hard about equipment; you don't yet have any of the physical feel of the gear to inform any subsequent decisions. Most likely the first time you put on a motor and goose the throttle, you'll think "geez, this thing's heavy" and "urg, what a violent beast", even if it's a light frame and small engine. You haven't yet calibrated the sensations. After a bit of hands-on, you'll have a better idea of your relative priorities: power, weight, build quality, comfort of different harnesses etc. Your instructor can add their opinions to your store of lore (aka technical gossip) and that too will help you make a decision.

Okay, so I got a little bit of relevant data from Dudek. On the chance it'll help someone else in similar situation, they say: "For Powerseat Comfort S / M, the container capacity is: min 4300 cm3, max > 5400 cm3, and for L / XL it is min 4600 cm3, max 5800 cm3." That's not a perfect guarantee this or that reserve will fit, but it gets us much closer.

That's a data point, so it helps, ty!

I have a power comfort harness, came with a right side reserve bag. I'm heavy enough I'm looking at reserves in the larger end of the range, so wondering if one I pick based on weight range will even fit in that pocket. They're listed by packed volume. Does anyone know the volume of that Dudek reserve pocket, so I have a chance of determining if side pocket is feasible for me?

Can you make the problem appear while on the ground, so a friend can watch for bubbles in the fuel line?

Just to confuse the issue a bit (g), consider two possibilities, both conceivable with electrics, neither feasible with shaky ICE engines: either counter-rotating props or ducted fan. Neither would produce any steady state torque (well, ducted might need laminating vanes behind the prop). Ducted would also have a benefit in that what noise is emitted would be primarily back from the motor, rather than radiating out to the sides. Current torque compensation strategies rely on airfoil struts (scout/nirvana), lamels (draggy little things, but easily retrofitted) or various flavors of weight shifting, which distorts the wing, effectively moving the wasteful drag up to the wing and away from the motor. Both noise and torque compensation options would open up if we got well balanced, smoothly running electrics.

Actually, prop noise has been addressed by the gyrocopter people by bending the tip of the prop 90 degrees (making it reach back further from the netting, if you used it on a paramotor). That breaks the tip vortex and greatly reduces noise. No such props I know of for ppg, and the ones for gyros are crazy expensive, but the design/test work has been done. If the sp140 were a stocked item, I'd have one en route as we speak. But I'm not willing to wait until fall.

I suspect that if we got merely 2:1 energy density vs current batteries, the SP140 would start flying off the shelf (no pun intended). Even if electrics appealed to only 10% of the market, that'd be a lot. Get a few extra batteries and they'd be perfect for schools; not necessarily all their stock, but one electric in the stable. Biggest operating cost right now is amortization of the batteries, which is largely a function of their cost.

Well yes and no; new technologies find a niche, then propagate outwards from that first toehold on the market. Witness early cell phones that cost $1 a minute for talk time, and now. A nominal 30 minutes (maybe 20 real world) is enough for short range putter-abouts, and launch/land practice. Also sufficient for people who use just enough power to find a thermal, then get back home. Electrics have the virtue of running only when you want them to; no issue with restarting in flight; just throttle up when you want power, release to turn off. And the negligible maintenance aspect is unique, compared to our cranky 2-strokes. No landlord issues for apartment dwellers looking for a place to store their fuel-dependent devices, either.

I think the limited excitement behind electrics boils down to battery technology being just barely good enough right now. Openppg is close to shipping its batch 2 of the SP140 and hopes to make it a stocked item; if it were stocked today, I'd order one today, though with the small batteries only. 53# and 30 minutes nominal is just barely within the envelope of acceptable for some usage, but instant on/off and near zero maintenance are attractive, and that time/weight is competitive with lightly fueled gas motors now. Sadly, capacitors will have to improve about 10X to compete with lithium, but then offer near infinite service life and charge times limited by one's electrical outlet. If electrics got to dual motors with coaxial shafts, then varying the speed of counterrotating props could replace or supplement weight shift... another interesting concept! But sadly not imminent.

Have a look here, but i disagree with them about using a drill bit; I strongly recommend against using one. https://www.southwestairsports.com/ppgtechinfo/general/decompression_port/cleaning_decomp_port.htm

Then I'd be examining the cylinder walls in excruciating detail, looking for any tiny, unassuming hole. If you do find one, clear it carefully with a bit of wire and maybe solvent, NOT a drill bit.

It wouldn't mention if it were triggered by a starter mechanism in some fashion.

Oh, and OP: did you clean off all the carbon or other debris, every single speck from the cylinder head? A port of some sort would be tiny, and could be hiding under something that just looks like a smudge.

Yes, the parajet volution manual doesn't go into much detail about engine service, so I didn't mention that one. He may have to contact parajet to see if they still have a pdf for the volution 2's engine.

I looked online for a manual for your engine, but didn't find one. I found one that *may* be similar at https://prodocs24.com/device/montanari-marco/evolution-130/ Is that the same company? If so, notice part #22, a decompressor valve. Does your engine have anything similar?

Some engines have a decompression port for starting; could yours have one and it's plugged up?

I'm getting pretty close to pulling the trigger on a motor; considering two options. Either will use a moster engine, was wondering if anyone here had experience, opinion, advice, whatever I might consider in making the choice. Please disregard cost; that's my problem to deal with. Option 1 would be a skymax star with dudek harness Option 2 would be a fly products Eclipse; I'd accept their factory harness, and if in time I hate it, might swap in a dudek harness. It's not feasible for me to travel about to butt test those two options. Thoughts, experiences, factors to consider, anyone? Thanks!

cool

Nicos: Any additional hours on your exhaust yet? Anything new to add? (Shut down for winter here, but watching the calendar...)