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!