PPG helmet with earmuffs - DIY

Hi,

Yesterday I made a paramotor helmet with proper earmuffs to protect my hearing when flying.
I ordered snowboard helmet and Peltor Optime III earmuffs. It took a bit of preparation, fitting, drilling some holes and screwing.
Everything looks and fits good. Can't wait to try it out :)

Here is a manual in Polish which I used as a guidence.

Dudek Synthesis coastal flying

Hey!

I had a couple of opportunities to fly coastal cliffs in Stanwell Park with Dudek Synthesis in free flight configuration  (without paramotor and with standard harness).

My take off weight is c.a. 90 kg. The wing size is 25 so it is 25m^2 wing.

On the one hand it is a bit small for me but on the other I have Sigma 6 which is 28m^2 and I am a bit light to fly it. Depending on the wind conditions I can switch wings and most of the time both are out and ready to fly on the hill.

The take off

I was taking off only in the classic way (i.e. standing front to the wing) because of strong wind on the site in Stanwell Park. There were no problems with rising the glider over the head. With Synthesis I am not afraid of overshooting and total front collapsing during inflation period. Reflex wings are resistant to this which I can confirm.

Ground handling is easier then with Sigma, glider wants to stay above you.

The flight

Right after take off I was sinking down like stone unlike the others who were gaining height. Sink rate is significantly greater even with fully closed trimmers in comparison to Sigma and other pilots flying that day. The knowledge about the site was helpful and I gained height quickly. However I was still the lowest flying paraglider pilot that day.

What happens when you fully open the trimmers?

You can fell the acceleration. Woah! It is so fast, almost like hang glider. I was overtaking every single PG pilot on the site. Sink rate increases even more but with strong wind conditions you want to fly in this configuration. It is the safest and fastest one.
The breaks become heavier and it is convenient to steer with small balls to make a turn (line is going to the tip of the wing). They are surprisingly effective. On speedbar the wing becomes 60+km/h fast but the sink rate... you know what happens ;) ... I did not want to end up on the beach just because of playing around with the speedbar.

The landing

I did the top landings only. With use of trimmers it is easy to maintain level flight during the approach (Stanwell Park site is quite specific for top landing). In the final  moment I pull the trimmers totally to slow down the wing (not too late!) and decrease the sink rate. Then stalling the wing is as easy as that and you are on the ground.

Is it good coastal flying wing? 

In my opinion it is good wing for strong wind conditions when you would no be flying normal (non-reflex) wing. I am happy to keep both wings for different weather conditions.

Here is movie of Martin Wysocki (a.k.a Hollywood) landing in Stanwell Park on Synthesis.

 

My travel with a paramotor by airline

How to transport paramotor (powered paraglider) in airlines?

First of all I want you to be aware that there are no strict rules saying if you can transport paramotor on the commercial aircraft or not. It all depends on safety officer who is on duty that day day and it is "case by case" issue.

I transported my paramotor from Poland to Sydney (Australia).

The journey started in Kolobrzeg. I traveled by train to Gdansk with one stop (c.a. 350km). Then I had flight from Gdansk to Frankfurt, from Frankfurt to Shanghai and finally from Shanghai to Sydney. To be honest I was worried the most about the german part of the journey.

I started preparing my paramotor one day before. The paramotor was flown so you could have smell the petrol. I cleaned carefully the whole engine and harness. It is not easy to get rid of the petrol's smell. I cleaned the tank and carburator and finally  made sure that there is no fuel left.

Next I bought huge 'gipsy bag', plenty of bubble wrap and black stretch foil. I put black foil and bubble wrap all around the paramotor to make sure there was no smell anymore.

Detailed description how I prepared the paramotor to travel will be posted soon.
 
Paramotor fit in the bag. I secured all the vulnerable elements (like air intake filter) with cardboard since the bag is not rigid.

   

Final step was to put as much foam and paper protection as I could fit inside the bag.
   
Paramotor's cage was protected with pipe-foams and hold together with zip-ties. The wing fit inside the inner part of the cage's halves. Then this whole 'sandwitch' was wreped with black stretch foil.

In this way I had two pieces of luggage. Two HUGE pieces of luggage. See below:         

Did it work?

   
Yes, it did. Paramotor in a bag was declared as my personal luggage and the cage with wing was as the sport equipment.

The greatest trouble I had in Gdansk. Security officers paid to much attention to my luggage. They called me by speakers and interviewed in security room. I had to destroy the paramotor foil cover from inside the bag and show that there is no petrol. Fortunately there was no fuel smell which could have make them stubborn about the safety.

After this incident there was no further issue with the luggage. It landed safetly in Sydney. No one was interested in it anymore (according to my knowledge).
     

Costs:   

Sport equipment LOT Polish Airlines GDA->FRA: 37Euro
Sport equipment China Eastern FRA->SYD: 100 Euro

TOTAL 137 Euro
 
      
and that is it! No additional fees for oversized luggage (which surely was!).

Good luck with your paramotor journeys! 

Free flying and team paramotoring

Saturday, the 24th of November looked very promising In the forecast.
Stanwell Park (Bald Hill) seemed to be working for the whole day. Unfortunately the wind turned northerly in the middle of the day so a few of us decided to go paramotoring in Woonona. It was good to get to know other paramotor pilots from Sydney area.
Soaring in Stanwell was good, smooth and pleasant at the beginning. Then the more northerly the winds become, the less lifty and more turbulent it was. Bubbling thermals were not helping as well.
Paramotoring was great. We took a trip down south to Wollongong and back. Very nice one hour flight.
I had to replace one of the muffler holders in my paramotor because during the flight one of them cracked.
Fortunately I had spare one.

Here is a video from that day:


Free flying and team paramotoring from lukastu on Vimeo.

A lot of fun in Stanwell Park

Hey!

My last visit to Stanwell Park was full of fun.
I have tried to fly Omega 8 (Thanks Toni!), U-turn Passion and podharness (thanks Mitsi!).
I enjoyed Passion much more then Omega but I was a bit more scared on Omega since it is EN D.
Pod harness makes a real difference in flying comfort - it feels so warm inside... need to get one sometime.
I had opportunity to practice top landings, take offs and a bit of thermalling.
Bottom landing next to the kiosk reminded me how to setup a proper landing approach.
At the end of the day Stanwell Paragliding and Hang Gliding Club sponsored barbecue. Luckily we have chefs in between the pilots so steaks were awesome!

Only two minutes movie since I tried to make it more dynamic then the previous ones. Enjoy!



2012/11/18 Having fun in Stanwell (AU) from lukastu on Vimeo.

2012/11/11 Woonona Paramotoring

Hey!

The Saturday the 10th of November was very enjoyable.
I spent the whole day in Woonona. In the morning I had nice paramotor flight about 10am when the wind was not too strong. In the air I realised that the wind has picked up and the landing was with zero ground speed (trimmers fully closed, my mistake).
Next few hours I spend on the beach walking, swimming in the ocean and sunbathing. I had plenty of time to do total pre/post flight check of my paramotor. Everything was good.
In the afternoon when the wind has dropped again I had three paramotor flights. Very nice scenery, warm air, sun, ocean and friendly people made this day.
Eventually tired but very happy I was on my way back to Sydney about 8pm.


2012/11/10 PPG in Woonona from lukastu on Vimeo.


Me putting together the paramotor:

Paramotor ready to go, Synthesis in the background:

South Woonona beach:

Woonona swimming pool, parking and taking-off site:

Beautiful beach:

Another picture of Woonona swimming pool B&W this time:

2012/11/10 Stanwell Park Soaring

Here is a short movie from last flying in Stanwell Park. At the end of the day beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky.



2012/11/04 Stanwell Park soaring from lukastu on Vimeo.

2012/11/03 Paramotoring in Wonnona

Hi,

Last Saturday I had opportunity to fly my paramotor in Wonnona. The wind was not strong enough to fly Stanwell cliffs so I decided to have a go with PPG. Wonnona site is only a few minutes drive from Stanwell Park.
Great thanks to Tony for advices and tips related to this site. The flight was about 20 minutes long but very pleasant over the NSW' beaches.

A few pictures taken by Tony and Tony's friend. Thanks a lot!

Very interesting spot indeed!

New passenger on the back seat ;)

2012/10/30 Stanwell Park soaring

Hi!

During last few days I had some opportunity to fly Stanwell Park again. I did a bit of testing upon camera position mounted on the monopod.
Wind was not strong enough to stay in the air easily so I had chance to practice scratching and top landings since I was not interested in landing on the beach :)

A few pictures:

2012/10/21 WASP (Osa) paramotor review

Hi!


There is not much about this paramotor on the internet.

I decided to write this WASP paramotor review.

The first version was published in polish paramotor.com.pl blog.

I saw a few youtube videos showing it. Well known paramotor pilot is an author of one them so I knew that the source is not manipulated. In the video maximum thrust obtained is 55kg and weight is c.a. 19kg (with no fuel). Very nice indeed!

The price for OSA basic set is 9500 PLN = 3012 USD. Centrifugal clutch and prop covers are included. You can buy simplified version of prop pin for additional 500PLN and spare prop for 800PLN.

I am not very experienced PPG pilot but I like simple and reliable solutions. I weight 70kg naked. Some time ago I had adventure with paramotor based on Solo 210 engine and Sky Fides 2S wing. This set was slow and kind of boring. I decided to have  another go with paramotor - but this time with proper gear.

And I am sick of parawaiting...

When the wind direction is not good enough I would like to get under the cloud in some other way and fly away. This is the main reason why I decided to take one more attempt.

I admire sellers who respect their clients. I could not get in touch enough with techno-fly sellers. This scared me even more when I was thinking the service - if I cannot get in touch with them when I want to but their product what will happen when I will need their support?

I ordered WASP (osa) paramotor from AirAction paragliding school. From the very first moment I was surprised how easy it is to contact Walter (the owner of airaction). I payed with use of PayPal.

I ordered the frame divided into 3 parts and centrifugal clutch - so the very basic set. Later on I regret that I haven't decided to go with 5 parts frame - this would simplify airline paramotor transport to Sydney (from Poland). At the end of the day I managed to transport it but with a lot of hassle.

First 10L of the fuel needs to be mixed with oil in 1:25 ratio. After this period the mixture is to be 1:40. I decided to but dynamo-metrical screwdriver to be sure that all screws are in properly. For example the prop is to be screwed with 6Nm (newton-meter) momentum at first and 10Nm afterwards. I would not be able to do it just by the feeling.  

The most critical moment of flying was always starting the engine to me. Solo without decomposer required lot of force to start. I am not very well build so it was critical. Walter confirmed by email that WASP starts easily. And it is true! What a nice surprise.

When the paramotor is warm i.e. it is running for 10-15 minutes on middle RPM I can feel that the power is increased and I need less RPM to keep the level flight.

I will be happy to share my experiences after  50h in the air.

So far I am very satified and cannot wait to fly it more!