Powered Paragliding Ontario - Paramotoring PPG course - May 24 and 25/03                   

May 25, 2003.       Morning ground school with Sunny and Peter.

Peter and Sunny making notes.

Peter in simulator.

May 25, 2003.       Afternoon ground handling with Paul, Sunny and Peter.

We had an excellent  conditions and completed 4 hours of ground handling. There was, Peter, Paul and Mary. Just kidding there was no Mary. We had Peter, Paul and Sunny.

Peter had a piloting, parasailing and skydiving experience so it did not take long for him to be able to kite the glider like a pro. 

 May 26, 2003.       Glider handling and flight attempt with Peter.

We got together with Peter at 11 am.  Another hour of ground handling and Peter was ready to ground handle with the paramotor on his back.

Meanwhile Mark has stopped by. He has also showed up on Sat morning at Peaks. I think this guy is stalking me... ;-)  Anyway he wanted to see how a man with a big fan strapped to back will get in the air so I took my Simon for a quick spin....

There were some serious thermals so after 4 inflation with glider sitting there completely limp I took of into a major downdraft. Luckily with so much power I have on hand all the time this was not a problem I just powered up my way through it.

Once in the air things smoothed out....

Big ears

In for landing. When I was about 40 ft up this unbelievable thermal/dust devil picked me up and in about 2 seconds threw me back to 200 ft!!! This was quite violent and on the verge of major glider collapse which is not fun this close to the ground. I have managed to keep the glider tame and with a bit of wild horse whispering and landed OK about 100 ft from were I was supposed to land....huch...that was wild...

After the demo bit more handling and Pete was ready for his first solo flight. We have waited for nice steady wind, couple of partial inflations and then it was time to go. Perfect reverse... turn...and.......CLUNK!!!! Prop chips flying everywhere....Yikes! I did not see anything that Peter did wrong so we checked over the machine and it looked like there was no way prop could hit anything. There was large clearance between prop and the cage all around, nothing appeared to be lose or missing. So since the netting on the upper part of cage was torn out we have concluded that one of the netting lines broke and that has caused the prop to disintegrate. 

So I have pulled a spare prop from my trailer and 5 min later we have ready for another try. Peter inflated, turn and CLUNK! There was that clunk like noise again. This time the prop stayed intact. I told Pete to shut the machine off and we have inspected it again. No lose parts, good clearance, it all seemed to be OK. (This is where I should have gone over the whole paramotor inch by inch) Well I did not. I just did a regular preflight inspection and it all seem to be fine. So here we go again. Steady wind, couple of partial inflations, perfect reverse... turn.....and.......CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK!!!! AAAHHHHHHhhhhhhhh.... Second prop busted!!! This is unreal! How did this happen again???!!! 

Well this time I went over everything and discovered that a bottom engine bracket broke.... 

It was clear to us then that day was over. I felt bad for Pate as he was very close to going on his first PPG solo flight but did not get a chance to do so and also for my self as to replace 2 props will cost me close to $ 500... Yikes!

At home I have taken my Spider apart and realized that the bracket was welded from two pieces and it broke in weld. I have checked the Spiders from a batch that came at the end of March to see if the brackets on these are also welded. Well they are not. WJ people must have realized that this is a weak point and improved bottom bracket by manufacturing it from one piece of material.

I have made new bracket on Monday so I am ready to go again. Pete?

Fly safe and do not underestimate an importance of detailed preflight check.   Andre 

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