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.

Day 4

Hmm - not been any updates cause I've been doing FA really.

GOpro wise - yeh - its the curved lens - if I'd brought one of my flat
waterproof cases I'd have been alright. As it is, its useless
underwater this trip.

It has been reaaally windy the last 3 days - I went out snorkeling on
monday, but was lucky to get back of the reef to be honest - the
current was sucking me off it, and then sort of like a washing
machine. After struggling against it for about 15 minutes, I ended up
having to grab the coral with my hands and sort of pull myself along
the bottom, come up for air, and repeat. Was knackered when I got back.

Maybe that was why no one else was snorkeling :-/

Anyhoo, last few days it has been about 30mph+ wind and 5 feet high
swell with 2-3 foot breakers... so NOT snorkeling weather :-)

So - sitting around pool, finished the last book in the Lisbeth
trilogy. Started editing my Las Can video again today.

They are still going out scuba diving twice a day, but to be honest,
I'm not bothered about that at the mo - would rather just relax.

Wifi is available, but very very slow - so the odd email is about all
it's up to.

That's me over half way through my holiday - only 2 days to go!!

IF I was here for a week... but I'm not! yeeeehh... so another 10 days
to go.. sweet.

Maw - if you read this - I have been wearing suncream every day and
have not got in the least burned even thought temp is about 35 (wind
makes it seem deceptively cool). I'm just going nicely brown (not
something you hear a scotsman say very often).

Egypt Again - Dahab

Hot and Windy. Good combination.

Just by the pool today - I'll try snorkelling for the first time tomorrow.

I tried my 'equipment' today - I brought the monopod that I use on the paramotor - it basically allows me to mount my panasonic camera on one side of it, and the gopro on the other side. I thought it would work well in the water.

So tried it in the pool today - checking it worked and was waterproof, etc.

Waterproof wise, it works fine. However the problem is the gopro is a fixed focus fish-eye lense. It _says_ its 60m waterproof... so you'd think/expect it would work underwater.... however it did not mention... that every frame will be blurry as feck.... must be the optics not up to working under water with the refraction. bummer.

Ill have a look on the internet to seeif anyone has a solution

True 3d Movies

So.. I might not have mentioned that I have been shooting most of my video in true 3d.

That is - I have 2 identical HD video cameras mounted next to each other either on my helmet, or on a pole and all video is shot as left and right view.

My hope was that with some experimentation with parallax seperation and tow in, I could create some truely cool 3d paragliding video - maybe the first time it's been done ??

Anyhoo, just got back to blighty today and had a quick play with a few sample clips I took, and bugger me it works amazingly well. I'm using optimised colour magenta/cyan anaglyph technique at the moment (you need a pair of glasses like the latest 3d films use - carolyne, etc). I just watched some of Gericke's point and it truely looks awesome. Some clips will work better than others - I playted quite a bit with the toe-in of the cameras. I should be able to knock together a pretty stunning 3d video in a week or so - you will need glasses to watch, but they can be got for 50p for ebay.

The End of the Hol

Well, all flights accounted for this morning, and I only needed one this morning.

So we went over to the Dunes and I got one in.

Test passed (93%), so I am now an official paraglider pilot with a south african rating. I should be able to convert that to BHPA when I get home.

wahee!

Just call me Commander Stu.

sedgefield ahoy

Well.. 30 mins after the last post the wind changed and we were off to sedgefield in the hope of some thermic flights.

5 hours later, and I've set a new record with Jan of 11 top to bottom sedgefield flights in one day.

I also got 2 >10 min thermic ones in there hopping about the thermals. They were all over the ruddy place right enough. One of the other students took off and landed in the trees. I had a few close shaves too.

So I think I now only need 3 flights to get my certificate which can be wee bunny hops I think. However we've still to check Jan's record of flights with mine, so there is always the possibility of a few ones not recorded.

So.. we will see.

stu