AndyJ6 Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 (edited) Can anyone enlighten me as to the actual weight of the Parajet Volution 2 Macro, as the Parajet spec says 27.2kg and is reduced by 3kg from the previous version. But I have read several articles from owners that the old model weighed 35.5kg, which would make the new one 32.5kg. If this is right, I'm kind of a bit miffed to be honest, as I'm seriously considering a Beamer II reserve which is rated to 130kg and with my all up weight at 128kg with the Parajet stated 27.2kg and 10.8kg of fuel, etc, etc, that increase upto 32.5 would overload the reserve. Just a note on the Beamer II reserve and why I'm considering it, I am thinking that a reserve is like having insurance, you hope you'll never need it, but if you do, what cover do you have? TPFT as in a round reserve that gets you back on the ground hopefully in one piece, or Fully Comp as in a reserve that flies forward and is steerable, with a choice of landing. I've spoken to a few people concerning this and it's difficult to get an unbiased (commercial interests in a particular brand) comment/advice. I know that many of you would not have the choice due to your AUW, but any advice would be greatly appreciated. Edited May 2, 2011 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Hello Andy, My Parajet Macro weighed in at 35.kg and there is one on Ebay quoted at this weight but dont let it put you off they are really good paramotors with a second to none after sales. I think when they quote the weights it is without a harness? but the new ones are lighter. I would imagine a harness to weigh around 3kg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jock Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Can anyone enlighten me as to the actual weight of the Parajet Volution 2 Macro, as the Parajet spec says 27.2kg and is reduced by 3kg from the previous version. But I have read several articles from owners that the old model weighed 35.5kg, which would make the new one 32.5kg. If this is right, I'm kind of a bit miffed to be honest, as I'm seriously considering a Beamer II reserve which is rated to 130kg and with my all up weight at 128kg with the Parajet stated 27.2kg and 10.8kg of fuel, etc, etc, that increase upto 32.5 would overload the reserve. Just a note on the Beamer II reserve and why I'm considering it, I am thinking that a reserve is like having insurance, you hope you'll never need it, but if you do, what cover do you have? TPFT as in a round reserve that gets you back on the ground hopefully in one piece, or Fully Comp as in a reserve that flies forward and is steerable, with a choice of landing. I've spoken to a few people concerning this and it's difficult to get an unbiased (commercial interests in a particular brand) comment/advice. I know that many of you would not have the choice due to your AUW, but any advice would be greatly appreciated. 128 all up you will need a much bigger reserve than that.dont go by 130kg to get 3.5-4ms a second decent rate.at 128kg you will hit the ground at 7ms sec or a lot more which you wont walk away from.you need 140-150kg reserve at least to be 3.5ms sec descent.if a ppg pilot is over 85kg in the buff then you need a tandum reserve.anything over 3,5 mec a sec on ground impact is going to hurt.the bigger the reserve the safer you will land, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rigger Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Ive got the macro ver 1.0 (great Motor) but having felt the weight of the new macro, I have to say that I was very impressed, the difference was noticeable, best thing to do is to go and see SW and feel the difference for yourself.. Im sure simon wont mind you having a good feel Cheers Rigger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyJ6 Posted May 2, 2011 Author Share Posted May 2, 2011 http://www.flyaboveall.com/beamer2/reserve.htm Here's a site with the details of the Beamer II, spoke to the UK importer and he said that normally you wouldn't load a reserve above 3/4 of max, but with the Beamer II, because it is steerable and flies forward with sink rate of 3.8 at 130 kg, as long as you were no more than max weight it would be fine. The difficulty is in finding anyone with experience and advice, as I haven't been able to find anyone who has a Beamer, deployed one with a motor and there don't appear to be any paramotor vids on YouTube, deploying a reserve. Plenty of paraglider , and Beamer deployments, but not with a motor. Concerning the weight of a paramotor, I see the Bulldog is quoted at 25 ready to fly, the Baileys Thor at 27.2 paramotor dry weight, Parajet volution 2 Macro at weight 27.2, etc, etc. Why doesn't every manufacturer state the ready to fly weight, with say, 4 litres of fuel, then we, the customer can base our decisions on facts rather than (possible) fiction, as it is important that you can calculate your AUW. If the harness isn't included in the stated weight, isn't that rather misleading, as it's an integral part of the Motor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jock Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 http://www.flyaboveall.com/beamer2/reserve.htmHere's a site with the details of the Beamer II, spoke to the UK importer and he said that normally you wouldn't load a reserve above 3/4 of max, but with the Beamer II, because it is steerable and flies forward with sink rate of 3.8 at 130 kg, as long as you were no more than max weight it would be fine. The difficulty is in finding anyone with experience and advice, as I haven't been able to find anyone who has a Beamer, deployed one with a motor and there don't appear to be any paramotor vids on YouTube, deploying a reserve. Plenty of paraglider , and Beamer deployments, but not with a motor. Concerning the weight of a paramotor, I see the Bulldog is quoted at 25 ready to fly, the Baileys Thor at 27.2 paramotor dry weight, Parajet volution 2 Macro at weight 27.2, etc, etc. Why doesn't every manufacturer state the ready to fly weight, with say, 4 litres of fuel, then we, the customer can base our decisions on facts rather than (possible) fiction, as it is important that you can calculate your AUW. If the harness isn't included in the stated weight, isn't that rather misleading, as it's an integral part of the Motor. And you will be on or over the max weight, ask the importer was it tested with a human or a bag of sand at the max weight when it hit the ground.hes right about the 3/4 roughly 75percent of max load.its the 25percent extra weight, metres per second you hit the ground and it wont be 3.5 ms.as to forward speed its whatever way the wind is blowing you will go in........cheers.get a bigger reserve.lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricky Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 To give you some idea, I put mine on my digital fishing scales which I know are cock on but only go up to 30kg and it bottomed them out with a litre of fuel in. I got the feeling it was only just bottoming them out. I only did it out of curiosity not because I had any issue with the weight of it. It’s my first motor so I’ve nothing to compare it to but I did try PeteB’s volution 1 once and it “feels” massively lighter. More than 3kg anyway and I’m chuffed with it. I’m only 57kg soaking wet and I don’t find it overly heavy. I have only had 2 short flights with it though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquatix Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 Andy, I've witnessed a fair few rogallo deployments - mostly by acro pilots over water when they've made a total mess of the wing. In those cases they are great for steering back to the beach (or at least closer) but they come in extremely fast (like a skydiving canopy). Many of them carry a standard round canopy as a second reserve. Not sure I would want to carry that forward speed into an emergency landing with a paramotor on my back, or if a steerable reserve would be much benefit. Given sufficient height I would first be trying to get my wing sorted and flying again, which is always much safer than throwing the laundry. If the sh*t hit the fan at a lower height and I had to throw, I doubt there would be much time to unclip the steering toggles, control my wing so it wasn't fighting it, and pick a suitable spot (judging it would be hard given the massively diffferent sink rate and glide ratio). Personally I don't know anyone (free flying or motor) who carries a rogallo chute. Instead I would rather trust a round canopy to slow my descent while preparing for a PLF (the cage would take a fair bit of the impact). If over water I would rather use the time to unbuckle everything except for one leg loop, ready for a fast exit. That said, there are extremely few documented paramotor reserve deployments and like most I would hope never to use it. The Beamer II should be as good as any since it gives a standard vertical descent until you unclip the steering lines. I'm near the top weight for my reserve so would probably come down close to 5.5m/s - the equivalent of jumping off a 20 foot roof ! - surviiveable but almost certain to get some sort of injury..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skybound Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 Maybe wrong, but........EN 12491:2001: sink rate max. 5.5 m / s corresponds to a jump from a height of 1.54m or around 5' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquatix Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 Perhaps on paper or in perfect still air conditions (when you are unlikely to use one), with the main wing bundled away. That is still 5 times the normal paraglider descent rate - with no flare to soften the landing .... In reality the main wing is likely to be diving about or disrupting the reserve and causing it to swing about to some extent (losing efficiency), even if it is not fully inflated. Anyone I know who has thrown one has said it was a VERY fast descent and hard landing. The splashdowns I've seen on water look more like a jump off a high diving board, but I'm hoping not to test this personally any time soon .... A rogallo type chute appears to give a slower vertical descent by transfering some of the energy into horizontal forward speed - but would still have a similar total energy on impact with the ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skybound Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 Paper or still air have nothing to do with it, 5.5 m/s is the same velocity and energy as stepping of a static heigh of 5 feet. Additional drag from other items may slow the decent further as long as they don't interfere with the primary function. Lateral speed from drift has no detrimental effect other than executing the desired landing without being dragged. If there decent looked to fast it most probably was when using fashionably small and light weight old citified equipment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aquatix Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 Problem is that unless properly controlled the main wing often WILL have a detrimental effect on the reserve if it is allowed to spin or dive. The forward speed was in reference to the steerable rogallo chutes, not wind drift with a round canopy. I saw 6 deployments at the air games in Turkey last November and 2 at Annecy the month before (all from SIV or acro) and all were current model certified reserves. 3 were rogallo's, 2 of which made it safely to the beach while one fell slightly short. Most likely they were very experienced pilots who had thrown reserves several times previously. Those on round canopies all had wet landings, 2 of them with wings that had reinflated and were diving forwards, pulling the reserve over at quite an angle with increased descent rate (probably their first deployment). All were uninjured bar one who was briefly knocked unconscious when hitting the water. PS - yes, 5.5 m/s corresponds to a jump from a height of 1.54 m. I'll have to go on another repacking course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyJ6 Posted May 3, 2011 Author Share Posted May 3, 2011 Thanks for all your replies on these two subjects, but I'm still rather confused about the comments about sink rate, the stated sink rate at 130 kg is 3.8, so surely that's far better than 5.5 and having watched a few YouTube vids, The landings don't appear too hard, although we have no way of knowing their weight. Obviously, if there's a 10 mph wind, you probably won't be flying forwards into it, but surely it's far better to be facing into wind rather than being blown down wind? Why do the acro pilots have two reserves? I can't imagine it's because of the type of reserve they would throw first, I would have thought it was purely due to the high risk of entanglement through extreme flying. The main point and why I am interested in the Beamer is the fact that it's steerable, you have some input into where you might land, even if it's only limited choice. It wouldn't be that great if you were going to land on a road, reasonably safely, only to get run over by a car or a truck, just as your feet touch the ground or power lines, when you could possibly turn away from them. But sadly, my choice may have, well, looks to have been already decided because I now find I'm over the max weight if the volution 2 weighs more than the advertised 27.2 kg. I have just noticed on the Parajet web site that the volution Thor has 2 weights quoted, one without a harness 26.1 kg and complete, 27.6 kg, so the harness weighs 1.5 kg. I'll have to try and call Parajet to get a definitive answer. Thanks everyone, I'm more enlightened in my knowledge, but not sure/convinced wether, if weight permitting, it's good or bad to go with the Beamer II. The importer is a very experienced paraglider and paramotor pilot/instructor, paragliding champion and was a BHPA safety officer, or whatever the title is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jock Posted May 3, 2011 Share Posted May 3, 2011 Thanks for all your replies on these two subjects, but I'm still rather confused about the comments about sink rate, the stated sink rate at 130 kg is 3.8, so surely that's far better than 5.5 and having watched a few YouTube vids, Sink rate can vary quite a bit depending on what your wing is doing when you throw a reserve.you must kill the the wing and try your best to haul it in,if you do nothing your wing can start to do all sorts of nasty things,tangle up in your reserve.wrap you up in it.if it starts to renflate you can end up haveing both the reserve and wing clashing putting you at an angle meanining you are on your back comming down at a far more sink rate than you want. it is very important to kill and haul your wing in dont just leave it to do what it wants,even if it means cutting your wing away,acro pilots fly with 2 reserves for if they tangle and they need to cut away they have another back up reserve.hell acro pilots need as many reserves as they can get.lol..remember you cant have to big of a reserve but you can have to small of one.as females say bigger is better.lol....luckly ppg pilots dont throw reserve as much as free flyers......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyJ6 Posted May 4, 2011 Author Share Posted May 4, 2011 The ready to fly weight of a Volution 2 Macro as confirmed by Parajet today is 27.2 kg. That includes the harness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyJ6 Posted May 10, 2011 Author Share Posted May 10, 2011 For anyone who is interested, new info from Parajet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwISODTdUQU Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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