coming home early

weather still foggy in san diego. Nick and Whitters are gonna hire the Harleys for a day tomorrow - drive up the coast - stay the night, and come back the next day.

I've done it before though a few times, and am not really too bothered about doing it again - for the money I'll save not doing that I can buy a new carbon propeller for the Bailey. Plus, I don't have any of my gear with me and don't really want to wear one of their badly fitting piss-pots. Plus no leathers at all and I doubt they'll hire them - so it'd be riding in trousers and a regular jacket - not really very good protection - especially on roads you don't know. So I'm gonna give it a miss.

As it is, I've changed my return flight to Wednesday rather than the original Sunday. It'll get me home 4 days early - and who knows - maybe a few spells of decent weather at home will get me out on the bike or into the sky.

I've had a couple of days of thinking about alternatives, and can't really think if anything I really want to do - We might have been able to hire some paramotors in Phoenix, Arizona but it's 400 miles away and would probably have just been flying around an airport. I considered hiring a car and driving up to Lake Havasu (home of the 'London Bridge') for better weather, but it would still have been an extra 5-600 quid or so which could be used for other things if I come home early.

So - a bit of a messy trip really - Some nice flights in the end - I think my total was 5 or 6 long flights. Plus I got a bit better at low level flying. But it wasn't the mecca of paramotoring holidays that I expected it to be.

San Diego

So - I was booked in for another week at the ppg place - but the room was rubbish, and the weather is rubbish so I decided to call it a day.

I'm back in San Diego now with 3 of the others. One guy, Alan,  is flying back tueday and the other two (Nick and Whitters) are here for another week like me.

We don't really know what we're gonna do for a week to be honest. There's talk of hiring some Harley's but we have no kit with us so we'd need to hire all the  stuff too.

Alternatively could just find a nice hotel and chill for a week, but it's not very warm here - not sitting at the pool weather.

Checked into a Holiday Inn Express near the airport for tonight and tomorrow, not cheap, but it's nice to have a clean room with aircon after being constantly damp for a week.

So, the flying bit is over for sure - and was all very much of an anti-climax. I got 6 flights in the end which was nice, but I can't say I learned anything new really.

last day here

well - another long flight - 1 1/2 hours on friday morning. I was hoping to get over to a large jesus statue and fly around it, but I just didn't have enough fuel. I made a call and turned back, and made it down with about a coffee cup of fuel left.

I did do some spirals and wingovers though which was cool.

quad

here's a wee one from riding the quad wednesday and climbing the lighthouse at the end of the marina.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRC3T0QxLZs

sea flying

Here's a few shots I took of one of the guys flying below me.

drying your clothes - mexican style

I wondered what the hell this was - mexican hieroglyphics ?

day5 - fog fog fog

christ almighty I ain't doing another week of this here I'll tell you that.
Yes - it's flyable, but hardly wonderful flying. I think I'll be trying to organise an alternative plan for week 2.

GPS track from today (thursday) flight

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=1333145

fog don't stop me

Here we go - flight numero 4 from yesterday. Flying along the coast, inland a bit and into the cloud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn4oMTjhwyk

Also had another flight today - a long one. 1 1/4 hours along the coast. total of about 45km or so. Not too bad - even made it into the sun for a couple of minutes. Was bloody freezing in the end though. Landed with about 2 litres from a full tank.

day 4 - it's morning in mexico… and it's…. yup: foggy

Right, getting decking sick of this fog now. I think we all might mutiny today….

day 3 - guess what - it's foggy

yup, another foggy cold day in mexico.

The morning was spent helping Jeff shoot a stunt video - with him flying his paramotor and landing it on a moving truck. I was one of the photographers - sitting in a shopping basket in the front of a quad bike while the driver drove it along behind the truck along the beach.

Got some great video of that - but since it's going on Jeff's new DVD I can't really post it. But here's a still:

In the afternoon I went for a bit of a cross country flight - flew over into a valley and spied a bit of sunshine hitting the top of a mountain. So up I went in search of it. When I got into it I could see the sun for the first time (LITERALLY) since leaving the UK. The cloud was more sparse here, so I went for it and flew up through the cloud into the sun. With the sun behind me, my shadow was on the cloud and I had a circular halo rainbow around me!:

It closed in though, and I had to fly down through the cloud to get back down - there was about 10 seconds where I couldn't see a thing, but it was so smooth and benign that I made a call that it was safe…. cough. don't try this at home kids….

anyhoo, got back ok and it was a nice flight. I yup - I landed on my feet again for the 4th time. Getting the hang of this now :-)

3 flights later

yup - got another. thats 3 in a day. not bad. all good takeoffs and landings :-)

best of all, on the last flight, I saw a mother dolphin and 2 babies. and around them were about 30 or 40 little rays (about the size of dinner plates). Obviously dolphins don't eat rays… so that was pretty cool. As I dropped down over the sea closer to them, they came to the surface - I think they must have felt the vibrations of the noise. Sorry no pictures. hopefully when it's sunnier later in week I'll get some pictures.

So, all in all, not a bad day 2 even with the cold and crappy fog. Fingers crossed that tomorrow the weather gets better.

Here's the motor I'm flying. An old fresh breeze thing with a snap100 engine. plenty of power, and quiet - just shitty high hand points.

Day 2 and in the air!

Well - bloody foggy again today, but not as much - so into the air we went!

Fluffed the first forward - wasn't used to the high hang points being soooo high.

Next attempt fine, power on and up I went. I'm flying a snap 100 engined thing. It's actually a very quiet motor, and I only need just more than tick over to fly level.

Once up it was nice and smooth, but visibility was around 500m only.

I stayed up for about 30 mins. And.. wait for it - landed on my feet!!! yeh :-)

A bit later I had another flight - another forward - up first time and had more of a play around. The wind was getting up though, and I was more or less hovering by the end. Which at least made the landed easy. Again managed to land on my feet.

Wind picked up now, and getting a bit more gusty as we sit here having lunch. We'll have to see what the afternoon holds….

hmmm

well. it's 6pm. and it stayed foggy all day. not good.

All we can do is hope that it's a one off -  a week of this and we'll all be well fecked off.

As it is we sort of hung about all day, did some motor hang tests and had some beers at the local bar.

Our instructor, Jeff, arrives tonight. Fingers crossed that tomorrow will NOT be foggy as fuck. This was as clear as it got before it came back in to 50m or so:

Also it's been quite cold. Too cold to fly with shorts and t-shirts anyway , and thats all I've brought. Hopefully one of the guys should be coming back from a shopping trip stateside today with a fleece for me.

So - not a great start to the two weeks - scrappy old paramotors, crap weather, and lacking in organisation a bit - however the week is young - fingers crossed it can only get better!

day1 in mexico

10am in the morning here. We got in last night and settled in.

This morning there is quite a lot of mist, and it's not cleared as of yet - looks like it might hand around all day :-(

We've got a bit of a paramotor shortage though, so probably the best time to have a crap weather day. Michael (the owner) was expecting a bunch of new paramotors apparently, but they've not turned up, so all we've got is a bit of a rag tag bunch of machines gathered from here and there. I think the count is about 6 - with 3 additional ones that are really knackered.

There are 10 of is in total, so I think we'll be fine. It will take a bit of adjusting since they are all high hang point things. We've already adjusted our brakes in readiness.

Jeff Goin (the instructor) is arriving this evening, so today we'll just have to see if the fold burns off and take it from there.

It's not particularly warm it has to be said - and of course I've only packed shorts and t-shirts (it's a holiday!! it's a matter of principle).

anyhoo, hopefully I'll get a flight in by the end of the day.

Scotland 2011 Paramotor Trip

It looked promising weather for the week, but then it did last August when I went up for 7 days and only got 2 flights in.

I'd spent the previous 3 or 4 weeks 'converting' the X5 to be a camper van… top box, lots of storage drawers fitted in, fitted flat bed I made from plywood and memory mattress foam, etc.

I even sorted out a power system - a big 110ah leisure battery, with wiring into the car electrics - charging it when the car is on. All boxed up with 12v and 240v outputs, power, volt and even 'amp hours used' meters.

I trialled it all for 3 nights up at Northrepps, and with a few modifications I was pretty confident I'd be comfortable.

The plan was fluid, and weather dependent. Drive up to my parents in Kilncadzow, Lanarkshire on the thursday. Spend friday there, and fly if possible, then start the tour saturday.

I had over a week if I wanted it - not needing to be back at work till a week on tuesday. I expected to be spending a lot of time watching rain battering off the windscreen, so I had plenty to read, plenty to watch (on the laptop) and plenty to play (I brought my electric guitar).

The plan up till friday night had me driving up to 'Rest and Be Thankful' - a famous rest spot on the A83. Named by the road builders in 1753. However, the weather was changing and it now seemed like it would not be flyable there for 2 or 3 days.

A last minute hunt around various weather sites and a decision to try the Fife coast on sat/sun was made. From there I could travel over to the west (through stirling) and north later in the week hopefully.

I parked in a small car park on the coast at Lower Largo saturday lunchtime.

Almost immediately it started to rain, and proceeded to piss down for the next 2 or 3 hours. arse. An acrimonious start.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h84euU0xLGk

After downing several glasses of wine from the fridge (hell - the battery ain't there for show! ) I was amazed when the sun came out at 6ish. By 7 it was lovely for an evening flight, however I'd had too much to drink and had to leave it till the next day.

Sunday was lovely. Blue skies and no wind. I mean - not a peep, at least at the coast where I was.

I hoped to take off from the beach, but the tide was in, so I had to look for somewhere else. I got in the car, and drove around a bit, finally finding an empty field sloping towards the coast.

My windsock was almost completely limp, but not quite, with a very slight onshore breeze. So I had a direction.

Set up for a forward launch, and since I was on a slight incline figured that I wouldn't need _that_ much of a runway.

However, I had to run like buggery, nearly ran out of field and had to promptly turn right after take off to avoid the road.

I flew down to the coast and headed east up to Anstruther.

I was flying much closer to the ground than I usually do, and was impressed with the sense of speed, however I had not switched on my GPS/iphone at this point. I had a great flight along the coast, crossing over little bits of water, taking photos, and enjoying the 'still' air. It was only when I got to Anstruther and attempted a 360 to have another pass over the town that I realised that the non-existent wind.. existed… and was blowing at 20mph+… hence the impressive ground speed.

Facing the wind I was making 1 or 2 mph. Onto fast trim and full speed bar made about 6 or 7mph. Arse. where the hell had that come from. I'd been flying for 45 mins, and had only put about 5 litres of fuel in, thinking that that would be plenty.

I had no choice but to head back, and make a direct line of sight flight back to Lower Largo, rather than going around the coast. With full speedbar I made a steady 6 or 7 mph… and it was about 6 or 7 miles back. I tried going higher and lower, but around 4-500 feet seemed to be the sweet spot.

I spent the next hour on full speed bar, my legs aching, waiting for my engine to stutter on it's last dregs of fuel.

The last 10 mins were the worst - seeing my take off field and wondering if I was gonna make it or not.

I played it safe landing wise as I was sure the wind was playing funny buggers - my wind sock was still showing no wind!!!

I came in on an approach which would land me very short with 3/4 of the field spare (where my wind sock was) IF the wind stayed constant, but if it dropped away in the last 30 or 40 feet, I'd have space to glide forward.

Sure enough, 50 feet or so from the ground, suddenly I started to accelerate (I was now on +3 trim) and ended up landing right next to my wind sock.

Not a peep of wind the ground.

It stayed like that for the rest of the morning back at the car park - seemingly no wind whatsoever - no clouds in the sky to say differently, but I knew that 50-100 feet up it was blowing 20mph. very weird.

Had about an egg cup of fuel left in the tank. I'd had to spent the last hour on nearly full power, being on fast trim and full bar. So pretty amazed to have done nearly 2 hours with over half on full power on 5 litres, but then again, I don't seem to be able to use more than 2/5litres an hour whatever I do on to top80.

I decided that future flights would carry a bit more fuel in reserve…

http://powerlord.smugmug.com/Paramotor/Scotland-2011-Fife/

Monday looked good for Stirling, but not good yet for the North West. So I headed over to Stirling hoping to achieve one of my 'flight wishes' - to fly over stirling castle.

I arrived at Stirling around 11am and conditions were perfect, I found a large empty field with great access and quickly set up.

Forward again, but up in 10 steps or so this time (good for me). I had a great 45 min flight over the castle and the wallace monument (where you can see William Wallace's sword). A glorious day, lots of tourists waving and some great piccies.

Coming back to land was a bit more tricky as my field was surrounded by roads and street lights… plus I had a few cars stop and watch the 'entertainment'…. came in fine, but was so busy appealing to the spectators I forgot to kill the engine and managed to actually blip the throttle on landing, sending myself several feet back up into the air. However, came down again fine, and all was well.

http://powerlord.smugmug.com/Paramotor/scotland-2011-stirling-castle/

Now, time to head further North. I travelled through Callander which was mobbed with tourists, but for good reason - the hills around it look great and would look even better from the air… but where to take off ?

About 3 miles after Callander, there was an empty field on the right. Still very much in a deep valley though with mountains on both sides.

I stuck the wind sock up and it made a pretty good impression of being 'random direction indicator'. Covering the whole 360 every 5 mins or so… but not with much strength behind it - 2 or 3 mph max.

If I wanted a flight at Callander it was the only place I could possibly take off from so I decided to have a go.

My thoughts were, I set up for a forward, wait for the wind to be the right direction, and get up in the air before it changes. I'm clearly just getting rotar from all the hills, so once I make some 'bumpy' height I should be in clear air…..

An hour of sweating, running, laying out my wing, trying reverses, etc and I realised I was being a muppet. It was pointless - Taking off on a field dominated by rotar was pretty stupid. I learned my lesson, packed up and continued north to Fort William.

At Fort William I met up with my parents, who were climbing corbetts (after finishing all the Monros last year). We wild camped on a deserted road, watching the sun set over Ben Nevis. It was looking good for tomorrow.

http://powerlord.smugmug.com/Paramotor/Scotland-2011-On-the-way-to/

The next morning was perfect, we headed over the Glen Nevis and found an ideal take off field - a field the owner keeps cut, and opens to folk for walking and picnics. The owner turned up and we had a chat with him. He had no problem with my taking off, and would I please send him the pictures! Now why does that not happen in england??

Again, there was no wind, but by the time I set up there was an inclination of the windsock to favour one side of the stick… nothing you could feel, but it was enough to have a go.

The grass was soaken with moisture, so I had a heavy wet wing, and no wind… joy of joys.

Still, set up, took a bit of a run, hauled the wing up and ran like a b4stard. My trustily reaction took it in its stride. My massive run, took me right to a small stream though, so I had to pull the breaks at the last minute and hope to get over it. It worked, and I was away, some manoeuvring through the surrounding trees till I got height and I was on full power to climb.

11 minutes later I was at 2000 feet. The air as smooth as a baby's bum. I called my mum on my iphone (with my home made headphones) and told her all was going well.

This really was the best flight I've ever had. Such amazing scenery, such clear skies, such smooth air. Absolutely fecking awesome.

20 minutes later I was at 4800 feet or so, high enough to clear the summit. I had great fun flying around the summit, taking photos, waving to the early birds on the top. In the end I climbed up to 6000 feet. It was still quite warm up there and still totally windless (I could tell from my GPS speed). How many times does Britain's highest mountain get these conditions ??

I called my mum again to say I was over the top, etc, and I'd be down in 20 mins or so.

I then got a telemarketing call about my motorcycle insurance. "rem… I can't really speak to you just now, I'm flying a paraglider at 6000 feet over Ben Nevis"….

I let the motor tick over, and slowly descended from 6000 feet, finally coming to land within 5 feet of my windsock (where there was now a 1-2mph breeze in the opposite direction).

My parents immediately ran over, with my mum looking a bit distressed - apparently I was out of sight from the Glen, looking east over the Ben for much of the flight, she had called and I had answered (must have been automatic as I hadn't) - she had heard me grunt and moan I decided that I had crashed… they had ran back to the car and were searching for mountain rescue numbers when I landed next to them…. why they hadn't just turned around to the north and saw me spiralling down for the last 20 mins I don't know.

Anyhoo, a wonderful flight, 2 of my 'dream flights' not crossed off my list. sweet.

http://powerlord.smugmug.com/Paramotor/Scotland-2011-Ben-Nevis/

I used one of the new features of my Sony A55-V on this flight - automatic panoramas. I've tried taking panoramas before when flying with little success - lining them up and getting them horizontal is really tricky. With the sony, you just press the shutter, and sweep the camera around - as it takes 10 pics a second it gets all the data it needs, and stitches it all together itself into an 8000x2000 pixel panorama.

So I've given them their own gallery:

http://powerlord.smugmug.com/Paramotor/Scotland-2011-Nevis-Panoramas/

We stayed in Glen Nevis that night, and the next day I headed down to Glencoe (dream flight idea no.3).

This was not going to be so easy…the wind was blowing over Rannoch Moor, and the Moor itself far too boggy and bumpy to take off. I took a drive down Glen Etive and each small clearing I came to the wind was blowing a different direction: south, north, east, west.. the lot. Some valleys a breeze, some 40-50kph….. there was clearly a wind. And i was getting tunnelled down the valleys of Glencoe all over the place.

I wasn't going to miss an opportunity to fly Glencoe though, so drove up it again hoping to find the biggest flattest bit of the valley I could find.

Eventually I found what I was looking for - a nice flat field in the widest part of the valley (still only 200m or so wide). The wind seemed to be stableish - coming from the south… though the wind sock was waving about a fair bit.

Also, the field had sheep in it, though luckily for me at the other end of the field. Sheep ain't horses, and don't go too mental with a parameter, so I thought I'd risk it.

I got all my stuff sorted and got setup.. I got to the stage of setting out my wing, looked at the wind sock and it was now a northerly.

£$%@GF!±±±

Ok I expected as much - its moving around depending on the prevailing strongest bit coming over one of the mountains. However, I figured unlike Callander, this wasn't rotar - it was a steady wind changing around sometimes. I watched it for 5 mins it stayed north.

I decided to go for it, quickly set the wing out, checked it was still north and took off.

Pretty bumpy, but I expected that at first, I expected after 500 feet or so it would calm down….

2000 feet and now over Glencoe village. It hasn't calmed down. In fact I am getting chucked all over the sky like a rag doll.

My stomach is in my mouth and I feel about to puke up at any minute…however I'm damned if I'm landing yet.

It's pretty warm by now too (1pm or so), and I'm hitting thermals that are chucking me around too. I climb to 3800 feet. Enough to see over the top of aonach eagach ridge, and along Glencoe. I took no pictures as it was all I could do to control my breathing and avoid puking.

Bugger this, I need to land - I came in on tick over, losing speed as quick as I could, but no 360s - that would have ended my battle with puking.

After what seemed an eternity (actually less than 10 minutes) I got back to the landing site, the wind had again moved through 180 degrees, and I landed next to my wind sock.

what a fecking horrible flight. However, I got some video, and I'd 'done' Glencoe….

After 20 mins of lying on the grass glad to still be alive, I headed south to Lochearnhead.

Lochearnhead sits on the back of Loch Earn - a very picturesque location - amazingly only an hour and a half from glasgow.

They was a nice free car park at the loch, and a cafe too. A scotch pie, chips and beans and a few pints of guiness later and I'd recovered from Glencoe.

There was no way I was flying again today… hell the idea of flying again ever was not something I wanted to think much about at that point, so I was happy to relax in the sun.

The next morning, thursday, was going to be my last flyable day - the weather was changing, with the wind forecast to pick up late thursday, and by friday be 50kph+ over the whole of scotland, where it was forecast to remain over the weekend.

To my surprise I was raring for another flight. Right opposite the car park was a lovely flat field owned by the cafe. I'd asked them the previous days about taking off their and they were fine with it.

The wind was a steady southerly. Perfect.

A forward take off in 10 steps or so and I was away. I had a great hour and a half flight going all the way around Loch Earn, up to St Fillans, over Beinn Fuath (where I got a bit of bumpy ridge lift), and up the northern road to Glencoe a bit.

Finally landing back where I started, where I was approached by the pilot of the local amphibian plane for a chat about parameters, how much they cost and where he can train.

http://powerlord.smugmug.com/Paramotor/Loch-Earn/

A great end to a great week.

stu

Thats all folks

Well, not bad weather last day - not enough wind though, so just top to bottoms on the map.

I saw some big crickets/grasshoppers though, and a mongoose on my bedroom roof.

I've also added a picture of the 'map of africa' I keep talking about - as you can see - it is well named.

http://powerlord.smugmug.com/Paramotor/South-Africa-2011/

Grounded with the weather

Rained a lot this morning. Still overcast and windy, so no flying today.

I'ved added a few piccies I've taken in the last few days of the moon, stars and a wild tortoise we found at the landing site, etc:

http://powerlord.smugmug.com/Paramotor/South-Africa-2011/

last day tomorrow - fingers crossed for some decent weather.

Sedgefield Again

Flying at Sedge again today. No clouds this time, just some nice thermic flying. Bloody rough though - folk were having asymmetric collapses and full frontals.

I was flying one of the school Advance Sigma 5s..and after take off realised that one of the brake lines had snapped and tangled around one of the Ds - so I had a bit of a kink on the trailing edge of my wing... not too serious though.

Flew for about 20 minutes, but it was chucking me about quite a bit so came in for a top landing.

Had another flight later with my reaction which faired well. In the end though, just as I was coming back round to top land the thermal moved and I couldn't find enough lift it time - so down to the bottom to land.

The Map Again

Not much wind today - had a few flights off the map, but not enough wind to stay up for long or top land.

Ended up in the bar at 4pm, then back out in the evening, so a bit of a drunken day in the end.

Sedgefield Flying in the Clouds

12 of us take to the sky above Sedgefield in South Africa - pretty bumpy but enjoyable flight until the clouds start forming all around us - took the opportunity to dive for the LZ when I could see it through the cloud - lots of turbulence on landing but I got down in the end.

Here's a wee 3 minute edited video of the flight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgaO_NVGmAw

Long Long Flight

Well, after yesterday's rain today was looking nice. We went up to the map, and it was pretty windy (too windy for students), but reaction took off fine and I was soaring. In the end I was flying for around 2 hours at least before the wind died down and I was forced to land on the beach.

Lovely smooth flight, only hampered by the fact that half way through I managed to drop my goproHD video camera and pole into the middle of the forrest I was flying over....

It WAS attached to a landyard, but it came loose and before I knew it I was watching £300 of video camera plummeting 200 feet down into the ground. arse.

For what it was worth, when I did land I trecked up into the jungle/forrest to try to find it - over an hour later I'd searched all over where I thought it had dropped; crawled through bramble bushes with thorns over an inch long, walking up a river, stumbled upon a bee hive and then had to try to placate a bunch of bees swarmed all over my hair (in the end they were intent on staying in there and I got 2 stings: let me tell you - an african bee sting is SORE... I had to sit down for 10 minutes while I felt my head was exploding).

In the end, I gave up... it was a long shot... and tbh even if I found it there's a good chance it would have impaled itself 3 feet into the ground and smashed the camera to smithereens....

sigh.

So so far:

1 prop : 2-300 quid

a camera: 300 quid.

still... got some good piccies on my DSLR. I've added 3 to the gallery:

http://powerlord.smugmug.com/Paramotor/South-Africa-2011/

arse!

So.. no wind and down on the beach for a paramotor take off.

wing comes up, I start to run, but not fast enough what with there being no wind - wing goes off to one side so I want to abort - and for some reason my brain decides to take these 100ms to fart and tell me that to abort it is imperative that I hit the kill switch.... not take my hand of the throttle mind - just try to find the kill switch...

result - lose my balance and fall - prop joins the great prop graveyard of the sky.

arse. arse. arse.

To rub it in, I then watch the best sunset so far from my balcony.

So - now need to hope we can find a new prop which will probably cost me 300 quid.

that's the first prop I've done in over 3 1/2 years. :-(

changin' weather

yesterday it was raining and cold - today it is blue skies and roasting.

Some of the guys went over to Sedgefield this morning to do some thermal flying, but I didn't fancy it - thermals not really my bag, and felt a bit rough from the night before (one of the guys was handing out tequila shots...)

Now 4pm and nothing but a very light breeze so I don't think 'the map' will be flyable - I was gonna go up and check but decided on a burger and chips instead. Will pop up top afterwards and see what the score is. It maybe a good night for an evening paramotor flight - too hot just now and probably bumpy with the thermals, but maybe around 6/7pm it could be nice.

I've stuck a new tank on the paramotor, so it should be ready to go. Only thing is that one of the clutch spring clips has broken off - it is still starting fine - just not sure if there is maybe something loose inside the thing now....

First powered flight!

Peeing rain all morning, but dried out in the afternoon - still 100% clouds and lots of rain looking clouds, but we went up to 'the map' with the motor - fuel tank only half filled since it still leaks.

Anyhoo - windy - windy enough to ridge soar - but I went for it anyhoo. Khobi asked me to take off with no power and only power up when I got up a bit - so did that - first time I've taken off in a paramotor with no power!

flew along the coast - but it got increasingly windy and misty and miserable. After 25 minutes I'd only made it 3km up the coast and by then I was pretty much hovering.

So, turned back and headed back to the map to land. When I got back there though the PGers were having trouble top landing with the wind, so Khobi waved me away.

Another 15 minutes to travel 1km along the beach to land - and I was pretty much going backwards as I came into the beach.

As I landed I tried to turn to the wing, but the wind gusted up and I was dragged along the beach on my face for 50m or so. arse. sand everywhere. sand up my nose, sand in my SLR camera, sand in the sand.

So - first flight: 50 odd minutes - not very enjoyable, stayed around 500-700 feet ASL. miniplane was fine though - plenty power.

I think I'll not bother motor flying if its windy again - stick to free flying. If there's no wind - I'll drag the motor out again.

Still - first powered flight at Wilderness at last on day 4 so I'll celebrate with a bottle of wine tonight!

Hot Glue and Petrol don't mix

Hmm... so went to bed at 9pm - tank now in paramotor in house with 4 litres in it. all is well.

wake up at 12.30am and go for pee - funny smell of petrol....

downstairs the tank is empty and the hot glue on the bottom has been eaten by the petrol. arse.

luckily (?) the petrol was confined by some wood and a rag, so it was absorbed and evaporated before it could flow along the floor into the bunch of paragliders.

cock.

So... back to the drawing board and waiting for the new fuel tank to arrive.

On the plus side - its raining just now (8.30am thursday) so I wouldn't be flying anywhere anyway.

Ready to go !

Well - today was a day of fettling with the paramotor (miniplane) to get it ship shape.

the petrol tanks leaks like a sieve and the spare does too - one has been ordered but who knows when it will arrive + it might be the wrong one...

So down to the hardware shop for supplies.

A ton of hot glue later and the tank which was split at the bottom seems to be tight - been full for 4 hours now and no leaks.

I needed to replace all the fuel pipe too - it was buggered and air leaking in - that's been done and also appears to be fine now -albeit we had to just put the old crap fuel filter back in, since the one I got leaked air too.

Finally all together, and it starts easy enough (though don't fancy having to start it in air, and not sure how to adjust tick over on the miniplane - will need to ask on the forum) but wasn't getting any power out it - just stuttering once the power comes in.

Plug nice and biscuity brown, so adjusted the plug gap very scientifically by pushing it in exactly one 'wee bit'*.

Now full power no problem, so good to go.

However, the 'bucky' (4x4 pickup) is out tonight so can't fly till tomorrow. Tomorrow morning we'll get the back cab off the bucky, load it up and see if I can take off with the thing.

fingered cross the fuel pipes and tank will hold or I'll be a burning inferno - folk will be claiming to have seen a weird meteor falling to the ground....

First Video

Here's the first video - my first flight down 'The Map'. First free flight ever on the reaction.

flight video

Day 2

There is another couple staying with Jan at the moment, Terry and Sasha. Terry is starting the PG course today down the dunes. I tagged along to take some piccies. Not flying there - didn't fancy the walk back up to the top of the dune everytime. I'm hoping to get flying in the afternoon.

I've stuck some pictures I took from the morning here on smugmug(day1 gallery) - Terry is the one having his first flight (and first walk back up the top!).

Day 1 Arrived !

Arrived ! in the 20s, pretty cloudy and they've had a lot of rain the last few days, but fingers crossed - should get some flying done.

Jan's letting me hire his paramotor (miniplane) so the plan will be to paramotor some, and paraglide some. That's about as deep as the plan gets at the mo.

If it looks really nice and soarable over Gerick's point, then I'll PG. Maybe Map of Africa too - otherwise I'll get some PPG in.

I want to fly all along the coast - there is a beach almost all the way - so no problems if I need to land out.

Well... expect that I'll then be on a beach miles from the nearest road - but I'll worry about that if it happens.

Feeling pretty knackered though - so need a good nights sleep then we'll see what the weather brings tomorrow (monday).

took a few shots with the DSLR of the burds in the tree outside my window - I tried the same thing last year with the Panny FZ30 bridge camera and almost all of them were blurry. With the faster focusing, faster lenses and larger sensor of the DSLR, I got a few good shots.

Day 1

Well, I've arrived. Working through the flights, I think this is my 7th trip to South Africa, but only my 3rd for 'pleasure' purposes.

Virgin this time - never flown them before - always BA or once KLM. Got what is apparently the best economy seat on the place - 63a according to reviews on the net. Have to say it was not bad - loads of leg room + lots of space between me and the window. I'd say roughly on par with business class on KLM tbh.

Hoped there might be a chance that paramotoring Ian might be flying the thing, but no such luck.

Impressed with Virgin - one thing noticeable is that it all full size bottles of alcohol on board - no wee bottles of wine. Which was a cunning move I reckon - you need to walk up to the galley for a drink otherwise and they don't exactly advertise the fact.

It's 00:44 when I write this. I reckon a few more G+Ts and I might sleep a bit before we get to Joburg.

4 hours at joburg before the connection, so plenty time.