Well, conditions meant that flying was a little
bumpy today. The wind was coming in fairly strong from the east and we decided
that it was still too wet underfoot to try out the new trike system. The
last thing we wanted to do was dig a wheel in on landing and wreck the thing.
Instead we each went for a quick flight. Ian was generous enough to let me try
out his new machine. He hasn't flown it himself yet, but will do as soon as the
field dries out. A previous paragliding ankle injury prevents him from foot
launching a paramotor so he has built his own trike (Pictures
of Ian's home built trike). The Simon RR generates a lot of thrust and I was
able to make some very steeply banked right hand turns.
After a couple of flights just buzzing around the field Andre decided it was
time for an experiment. He wanted to hook up a paraglider to his kite lines. Now
the kite is 3 square metres and the paraglider is 24 square metres....time for
the camcorder. It took a bit of setting up. We set up the speed system on the
paraglider and attached the kite lines to the risers and brake toggles....
It actually worked! Andre managed to get the thing to fly, although at any
position other than directly overhead he seemed to be being dragged around the
field. He actually managed to get airborn for a whole 3 seconds too! So, the
next time you are thinking of flying and find the wind is too strong grab some
kite lines and away you go instead fun. |
