frustrations wiped out by glorious flight

Finally, after hours of rigging hassle yesterday, I flew......and the sheer pleasure of independence in the air wiped out all the frustrations on the ground.

I had just about rigged my wing by the time Steve landed at Rougham and I felt I was making good progress, though I regretted using the semi-tensioned method which I had forgotten had been such a hassle before, and had to take several battens out to allow me to cam-over the tip-wands.

Steve landing in G-IWIZ

Poor, long-suffering Steve should have flown on by!

Once committed to lending a hand, he became caught up in my problems rigging my trike. I think essentially that the short rig is just not suited to out-of-hangar rigging....the hint of wind on one wing-tip is enough to twist the base of the monopole so that it grazes the plastic bearing sheet inside the trike splints and rips and buckes it.

The twisting is quite horrible to watch, Steve says. I had to lower the wing and then remove the plastic at the base. Then, when Steve raised the wing again I couldn't get the monopole holes to line up....incredibly frustrating. I was all set to give up and go home, but Steve saved the day, not for the first time, by suggesting we try a seat-break rigging, which is the way it was originally designed to be done....before the short-rig was designed to enable users to keep their panels on their Dragonflies.

When he must have been regretting having landed, Steve was treated to the sight of me falling flat on my face in the mud in my idiotic propeller beanie, when I tripped on a cable. I think that must have cheered him up.

Steve demonstrated the seat-break method....and it was so much easier! Fact is, I like the seat-break.....it really is great design...and so much more stable. It worked great! Steve flew back to Honington before I started flying and once I had flown I had the challenge of de-rigging without his assistance. Splitting the seat tubes is a smooth process. It went fine.

Steve is feeling very pleased indeed that he didn't bother with panels, and I can now see why. That said, once you have your seat on again, fitting panels would not be too much bother really...and not nearly as time-consuming as other processes involved.

Flying was glorious! Having boshed just about everything up on rigging, I decided not to push my luck and raise my undercarriage, but all the same, the flight ticked all the boxes. I flew three extended circuits, skirting Bury St Edmunds, did three sweet landings and one too-high go-around...and left the circuit heading North for a little while, just bimbling about. Wonderful. (total 1hr 10)

De-rigging, as I say, was straightforward, though I finished off in the dark. I made a neat job of packing the wing; I'd thought that would be one of the hardest parts when it was first demonstrated, but I make a decent job of it now.

A long day, but I realised as I soaked in the bath, that even when it was going badly, I had enjoyed every bit of it.

a big hello to Jason at school!


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a cure for wind

The BMAA magazine carried an article a month or two ago, which caught my imagination: what if it is too windy to fly? Why not exploit that wind and sail....ON THE AIRFIELD!

I love it! It is inspired!

At the Flying Show I met Jane and Mike, who sell the X Sail land-yacht, and a very tidy bit of design it is! Lizzie and I have given serious thought since to buying one together, though it will only be practical if I am able to persuade Rougham Estates to let me "fly" it there, as I don't know if there is anywhere more suitable nearby. It may not be practical, as grass is not the ideal surface (friction)....but tempting nonetheless.

The whole yacht assembles without tools and breaks down into a bag which can be carried in the boot of a car...and for those of us with bad backs, it can be pulled along on its own wheels, as the bag wraps around the knocked-down fuselage - ingenious!

As a design graduate I love clever design! Have a look.

See you all at the NEC this weekend

See you all at The Flying Show

Extreme Tea Drinking - at 500' !

Here is a must-see from Ben Ashman's YouTube channel.

experiments with a map on one leg

I have been experimenting with ways to navigate using only one leg for my map....and the simplest is to photocopy 1:1 my map and assemble and laminate a slice 17cm (approx 25 st.miles) deep x 60cm in length (allowing for a flight of 75 st. miles E-W or vice versa) and wrap it around my leg (and ends joined with velcro) in a tube which can be rotated around my leg.

I have also made a prototype "window", secured to my flying suited leg top and bottom, which will direct airflow over the map to stop it lifting, but which could also have scale on it, and which could provide, as this trial does, a 1/2 hr or 17mile (at trim speed) view. It is made from A5 laminate sheet and secured with sticky-backed velcro.The window might over-complicate things though.

To keep your place you could even have a magnetic circle on the window-top and a metal disc inside the window, then slide the circle to approx position before doing other things.

This slice allows for a flight from Rougham to Sywell, taking in Sutton Meadows and Sackville.

Note
Incidentally, no map was harmed in the making of this prototype. (well, strictly speaking, a 2006 map of Poland was sacrificed. It was rescued from a Flylight skip after the championships)


Another method would have to be employed if flying a similar distance N-S. I have a few cunning plans in mind, like a variation on this instructable, which I have made, which takes up a space on the leg of roughly A6 *(see note), yet can accommodate 75 miles in any direction. But this can get complicated to use, and will need development ....especially if I am to use it with gloves on). It involves flaps folding left to right or up and down, variously.

* Note
ref A6. This is the size of A4 folded in half twice; I have also folded an A3 map to do something similar - though in both cases this solution requires more folds than that and includes a cut or two, so don't use originals unless you are a wealthy flier

RT kit

I am blogging less, as sitting here is bad for my back...and I want to save that for when it is less windy!

But while not flying I have been thinking about communications. Buying RT kit is a nightmare of variables and expense. First you need the right radio, then, they will tell you, an interface (at a further couple of hundred pounds), then headphones....the whole lot costing easily £600 or so. - and no two pieces of kit necessarily automatically compatible with each other...so you have to think well ahead. Well, here I tried to think outside the box, and with friends' advice, concluded that an SSDR pilot is really a slightly scaled up paramotor pilot, so I don't need an interface. I just need paramotoring headphones with a two pin plug which connects straight to a radio.

I have bought a second hand, but very well regarded Icom IC-A22E and after a very great deal of to and froing, bought an ex-demo pair of Microavionics headphones, with side tone (so you can hear your own voice transmitting - therefore no need to shout) and with a year's guarantee and the assurance that any mods or alterations to be done by the manufacturers will be FoC! That great deal comes from Alan Thomson, a fellow teacher, as it happens.

RT comes in at well under £300, even having bought a charger from ICOM, which is quite a result! I haven't transmitted yet, but enjoyed monitoring Lizzie's radio calls when she was doing circuits a couple of weekends ago.

And along the way I have made a new mate, Steve Taft, who responded to my Mayday on the BMAA forum and has provided reassuring and sensible advice. And while most others responded by offering to sell me something, Steve offered the loan of some of his kit to experiment with and decide what sort of set-up I really want. I didn't take him up on his offer, but what a generous one it was.