Mark Pugh Posted November 28, 2023 Share Posted November 28, 2023 I bought a new Ozone Sirocco 3 wing for paramotoring with my Zenith and Polini Thor 130. It was brilliant, flew very well and I could throw it around the sky with never a ripple in the fabric. BUT, I then had a hip replacement and decided running to launch in nil wind and landing on my feet with the weight on my back was no longer a great option. I wanted to continue flying so bought a very light trike (Bailey Quatro Plus) with a Polini Thor 110 attached to it. I have now had 6 flights and they all went very well, 6 first time launches even in nil wind and 6 good landings...the last one was a bit on the heavy side! PERFECT. Accept, I've bought a new weighing scale to get the correct size reserve and slightly over-estimating on everything, the all up weight was 70kg for the trike with fuel and old reserve, 90 kg pilot and 5 kg for the wing. That's a total of just under 165kg; so I bought a reserve suitable for 180kg, it was a good bit lighter than my old reserve, but the all up weight is still about 160kg. My Ozone Sirocco 3 is a size 26 and the PPG weight range is 80-145kg. There is no way I can lose 15kg on a diet, even if I flew naked with no helmet, radio, tablet, vario, altimeter, camera, etc. I'm still well over the recommended weight range. In all honesty I was surprised the trike weighed in at just under 70kg, barely legal. It is a small trike with mounting made specifically by Bailey for their PPG. I'm not throwing the trike around like I would my previous back mounted Zenith, I rarely even change the trimmers from launch position, but my mates now find it hard to catch up with me even on full trimmers, I have to do a few 360 circuits to let them catch up again. Should I be worried I'm over weight? Or just fly conservatively until I can ditch the wheels again? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackburn Mark Posted November 29, 2023 Share Posted November 29, 2023 10 hours ago, Mark Pugh said: Should I be worried I'm over weight? Or just fly conservatively until I can ditch the wheels again? I flew overweight, often deliberately in my free-flight days which were very active conditions. All bets are off on any certified recovery behavior. It never worried me when I was obsessed with flying and my skills were in fine fettle. Obviously, expect any departure from normal flight to be more dynamic which I believe can be very easily offset "if" your skills are current and you have a cool head Having said that, I cant say I fly enough these days to not opt to fly more "conservatively" which we tend to do anyway under power. The only times I have seen anything close a collapse is when I fly through my own wake, fly in strong thermals or fly into rotor.... All of those can be avoided 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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