Saturday flying

Saturday was one of these days when you just want to fly... warm, sunny with a good company.
Almost no breeze made take offs very difficult. Especially preparing for take off in 41 degrees Celsius was demanding.
Up in the air we had pleasant 21 C. I have flown 5 times with chase camera.
There were rowing competitions on the beach with plenty of colorful tents, people waving and smiling...
A few memories from that day:

Inflating the glider:

Flying above surfers:

Step to heaven:

Pool with free entrance:

Sunbathing people:

Aboriginal houses:

In a turn:

Rowing competitions:

People enjoying beautiful day on the beach:

Paramotoring along the beaches with chase camera

Hi!

Today I flew paramotor with Tony along the beaches. Light breeze made the take offs easier.
I decided to test the chase camera. All together we have flown for about 3 hours today and GoPro was taking a picture every 5s. I ended up having 2000+ pictures to go through. 9 the best shots you can see below with the descriptions. The chase camera is stable in the air. I have to improve the angle a bit more but it is better then I expected so far. Because it is attached to the wing tip it is causing the tendency to turn which can be overcome by opening the trimmers.

This was beautiful, sunny and warm day with plenty of flying. I am tired but happy.

Take off:

Cruising along with Tony:

Surfers on the beach:

300m altitude on the way back from Stanwell:

People on the beach are very friendly. Everyone is waving:

Low flying along the water. I like this picture because of Synthesis' colorful reflection in the wet sand:

The waves crashing on the rocks and Tony in the background:

Landing:

And the author happy after last landing:

Stanwell soaring with chase camera

On Wednesday evening I had chance to test the chase camera prototype.
I was a bit worried how it is going to behave in the air so I took reserve with me.
As I took off the camera was surprisingly stable without tendency to get into the lines. I did not try any wingovers. GoPro was set to take a photo every 5s. so I ended up having heaps of pictures.
All of them were pretty much the same because I have flown the south (short) ridge of Stanwell.
After all I am very satisfied with the result. Just have to change the angle of the camera to point it a bit higher over the horizon. 

Sunrise paramotor flight

Hi!

Yesterday I got a call and was asked if I am keen to fly tomorrow at the very morning. Of course I was.
I was meant to be at Prospect Reservoir (ca 40km west from Sydney) at 0700.
At this time five pilots including me were on the site. We all spread our wings and warmed up the motors.
There were two trikes and three foot launch paramotors in between us. I took photo camera with me to the air. So much fun with nice light conditions.
The flight was very pleasant with a few small bumps which Synthesis handled without any problems. I basically did one huge circle around the reservoir. Pilots were everywhere. Beautiful view at Sydney sky-scarpers on the horizon was a great reward for getting up so early on Sunday.
After one hour I decided to land because the sun had already warmed up the launching site and I wanted avoid bumpy (thermal) landing since the area is all grey/black. Nil wind landing was a bit fast as usual but I touched down without any issues.
It was great to meet new pilots flying paramotors in Sydney area. Plenty of pictures from today. Enjoy!


Sydney's skyscrapers on the horizon:

Nucleon in the air:

Tony with Nirvana & U-Turn reflex wing:

Chasing camera prototype

Hi!

When being back home I had chance to use my Dad's workshop.

I found plenty of tutorials in the internet showing chasing camera DIY for paragliding purposes.

I decided to use different ideas to make chasing camera as simple as possible.

In my version you can set two angles of the camera. The funnel is 2L Sprite bottle used.

The rest is pretty well seen in the pictures.

Hopefully I will be able to try it out very soon!