PMC France Paramotor Holiday 2010.

[Guest]

The boxes are HUGE dude.

LOL

a weeks clothes a wash kit, knife fork spoon, and stuff. Is all that has to fit.

Tents, Sleeping bags, Wings, Flying suites can all be packed together on the van.

Think 'Daily personal box' that you will be reunited with at the end of each moving day and will have all day during static days.

SW

[flyingdoc]

Sounds positively adequate. LOL

Roll on the next few days. Lets get started.

[mike1714]

Sounds like a good plan Whitters. I for one need a lot of practice, especially at the landing bit.

Bring it on!

I can't wait.

Doc,

I bet I can do a crapier landing than you?! Marks on my flying suit are proof to that!!!!!!

I think i will just about shoe-horn most of it in...................I think. ...........now where is the mankini going to fit?

Mike

[flyingdoc]

Now you'll just HAVE to post a photo of the Mankini Mike........

[Guest]

New Rule in force effective now.

no mankini's allowed.

SW

[pete_b]

New Rule in force effective now.

no mankini's allowed.

SW

G strings only

[Guest]

I have tested out our amazing 'field kitchen' today, the results were ace. It's going to be perfect for our trip.

I STILL NEED A LARGE 'GAS' KETTLE THOUGH.

I would like a 5L + one so that we can all fill up a flask cup from one boil.

You would think it was easy to find.

SW

[Guest]

10 days to go

I spoke to Mark Taggart last night from St Andre. I told him to make sure we have some decent weather

So that people know,

There is a ski slope close to his house for anyone who is into that (if the weather is bad) he also has mountain bikes, and some other toys.

Please don't now bring all of your personal ski kit, but do bring some warm kit in case you fancy a go (flying suit would more than likely do the job for a quick blat).

SW

[mike1714]

No room for my snowboard then? ha

Mike

[Guest]

Pete B & Colin B are the blokes to ask / bribe

SW

[asquaddie]

Doc,

I bet I can do a crapier landing than you?! Marks on my flying suit are proof to that!!!!!!

I think i will just about shoe-horn most of it in...................I think. ...........now where is the mankini going to fit?

Mike

Sounds like a good plan Whitters. I for one need a lot of practice, especially at the landing bit.

Bring it on!

I can't wait.

:acro:

Doc,

I bet I can do a crapier landing than you?! Marks on my flying suit are proof to that!!!!!!

I think i will just about shoe-horn most of it in...................I think. ...........now where is the mankini going to fit?

Mike

You guys are so wrong - I have never landed on my feet yet!!!!

My thinking is that when I drop to my kness I am nearer to the ground to kiss

Tony

[alan_k]

To assist with your budgeting chaps here are the current fuel prices in France:

Unleaded is €1.39 a litre at smaller supermarkets and €1.36 at larger ones.

It keeps creeping up (Oil companies extracting the oil...no sorry that should be the pi**).

Rural filling stations tend to be a lot more.

Mineral, semi syth and full synthetic 2 stroke oil is available from the motoring sections of the larger supermarkets, LeClerc, Intermarche, HyperU (U, SuperU, HyperU chain) plus others.

I last paid about €10.60 for 1 litre of Castrol Power1 TTS.

Cheers, Alan

[Guest]

Thanks! thats ace.

SW

[adriane]

Hope your having better weather than here!! Wet wet wet...and windy!! The tracker looks impressive, altough who ever is golfing it seemed to walk around in lots of circles at camp yesterday!

[Guest]

Yippppppeeeeeeee

epic flying is being had whitters is on a mission to go to Italy!!! The weather is a nice 5 mph and the sky is blue. St andrea is just an awesome place!!

We have already decided to have a PMC flyin here

SW

[morgy]

so whats next euro tip to tip

[pete_b]

loads of flying today from the top of the mountain then on to the motors and up again, its sunny and warm and the wines great.

If you ever want to come out here then Marks place is the place to stay.

Im sure the other guys will post when the have had some food and WINE

[norman]

Guys, it sounds fabulous. There is a massive High pressure area moving in across the Atlantic so things hopefully can only get better when the cold front ahead of it has washed through.

Take care out there and have a glass for me.

[adriane]

Looking forward to seeing some pics, the tracker has certainly shown you've travelled well!

Am very jealous!!

[dantheman]

Teaser pic from Mark Taggart, I'm not jelous at all

[adriane]

Was that taken at the flagpole?

[norman]

Come on you lot, think of those stuck at home or away - we need information!

[Guest]

Sooooo sorry at the lack of any info from the guys...

We have been Flying, Sleeping or Driving for MANY hours....

There is a video http://vimeo.com/10715368 to bring you up to speed a little more.

I am SURE the lads will start to post when well slept.

SW

[Guest]

To all who were on the France trip.

Please can you PM me or post here, a short review for the website.

Thanks in advance!

SW

[flyingdoc]

OK Folks,

Now fully rested, here is my brief review of the France Trip and some unfortunate consequences for me.

Started very early on the Thursday morning, up at 3.00am to break camp and fill the minibus and the van. Picking up two stragglers on the way we caught the Ferry at Dover for Calais.

In flight briefing on board showed a very ambitious proposed flying route but we were all excited and raring to go.

Unfortunately the weather was not on our side and after a long first day trip to Airvault we started the following morning with some spitting rain and wind that left us without opportunity for any air time. We were reminded of our dependance on good weather for the next few days as we drove down to Dune De Pyla for some spectacular scenes on an enormous 40 to 60ft sand dune. It was good to see some paragliders attempting to ground handle practice wings. Lots of good videos and pics.

Further minibus trips took us to St Andre des Alpes and the first decent opportunity for some good flying.

The first flights of the morning were very much nil wind and down slope with some slight variable cross wind just for good measure. Simon was the first into the air to show us all how it is done. Whitters took to the skies with his usual aplomb and Alan managed to give us a spectacular take off between the trees. (Other videos are available) Unfortunately my first attempt at a nil wind forwards launch at 3000ft was utter rubbish and I managed to catch two lines into the prop which p***ed me off.

By the time I had replaced the lines for another go the wind had picked up nicely and I though at reverse was in order. A few practice launches with just the wing went pretty good and I was starting to feel a little more confident.

Everything now warmed up and connected the wing came up nice and smooth (after some technique suggestions from Simon) I turned and took off pretty well I thought. I noticed that we weren't climbing very well (due to the height and thus lack of thrust???) but everything was going swimmingly.

A gentle circle back over the take off zone to gain more height before disappearing off seemed like a good idea. (This proved fortuitous...)

At roughly 80 to 100 feet above take off I had an engine out!

No time to try to restart it or fiddle about with anything much, just look for somewhere to put it down.

Now afterwards it is always easy to decide things that you could have done better. So as soon as the engine stopped there was a field out to the right which with the benefit of hindsight might have been a better choice but I thought I was close enough to the take off field to try to land back there.

I turned back towards the field and made my second relatively poor decision. I should have done S turns but I elected to try a 360 to bring me back into wind for the main field.

This 360 lost me too much height and when I was back aimed at the take off zone it became very obvious that the power lines running along the edge of the field were now very much IN THE WAY....

Some more power lines ran to my left but these were sloping downhill gently and thus a little lower than the ones in front. I guessed I could make it over these lines and fortunately I guessed right, by about 1 to 2 feet only.....

I am now roughly 25 to 30 feet up cross wind approaching a down sloping field of rocks and stubble, but there were no more options. Put it down as gently as possible and see what happens............

I hit the dirt a little fast (Crosswind not into wind) I rolled head over heals twice (Down slope landing too fast), but eventually came to a halt.

So I am sitting there counting limbs and fingers and toes when the guys come rushing to my aid.

All limbs attached, slight sprain to my right ankle (which still aches a bit) and bruised right calf/shin but otherwise OK. I was able to stand up and walk away from the scene unaided and I did not get a free trip down the mountain in a helicopter. So technically an 'OK' landing.

Unfortunately when the guys checked over my motor I had a small but very significant hole in the piston and thus my flying was over for this trip...........

Still the next few days the rest of the team did get in some spectacular flying and it was really nice to watch (Barrstards!!!) Just before we set off for home we delivered 15GB of photos and videos to Simon so I am sure some of these will eventually appear on the forum.

All in all most of the guys got some unique experience of flying in the French Alps and even I managed a few minutes too.

The weather was not our friend but the camp fire chat and the friends we made went a good way to making it a very memorable trip

Thanks Simon and Pete and Whitters for the trip.