the faulty prop
aye, it was definately fatigued....
paramotoring in South Africa, and paragliding and learning to skydive, oh yeh and a bit of motorcross so far on here. more to come I'm sure
Was supposed to be doing my static jump today, but low cloud closed the DZ
(drop zone) for the day.
However it was ideal conditions for a paramotor. . .
Hmm
well, had a KFC at about 4pm yesterday. By 7 I was on the lav. Pretty much
had to remain there for the next 16 hours... bloody chicken. . its always
chicken. this was the full cold sweats and liquid.. well youve got the
picture.
so it was raining during the night and the plan was for me to do my static
jump today, but seeing as I couldnt be more than 10 feet from a bog until
noon that wasnt really a goer. .
so stayed in my room recovering.
By noon though it seemed to have passed, but the DZ was packing up for the
day as the wind was geting up, so it looked like a wasted day, but Barry
called at 2 to say the wind on the beach was perfect for motoring !
so out with the motor for another go.
During prechecks though I noticed the main engine mounting was missing. . .
oops.
obviously this had detached itself during the previous days incident... so
the only thing holding the engine on was a rubber mounting at the top.
pity I didnt notice this yesterday before I did 2 flight AFTER the crash
with this being the only thing holding it on !!!
anyhoo, got a bolt from a hardware store and fired that in with some washers
and we were back in business.
Up and ready for flight number 6. . and went great. took off cleanly and
landed on my feet for only the second time.
Next flight also good. and again landed right on my feet !
Final flight of the day was a longer one. Had some air traffic during this
one: a huey chopper above me, a small plane coming towards me on my left,
and another paramotor below me.
But no probs, all in control.
barry had me then do a partial clapse of the wing (big ears). this is where
you clapse the wing so only the central part is inflated. Its useful for
coming down quickly if you need to. That went well too.
Finally I touched down for my 3rd landing of the day. and all on my feet !
so. progress definately being made.
tomorrow its over to the airfield to try to get my static jump done, the the
plan is wed: paramotor, thu: sky dive for first time.
<fastshow>today I was mostly eating anything but fecking chicken </fastshow>
Ent out to some africance farm about an hour from cape town to practice
launching with the motor.
In the morning it was almost windless, so there is a fair bit of running
about to get the wing up over your head.
Once I started to get the hang of that it was on with the motor !
spent 2 or 3 hours running about with that on my back doing trial launches..
it was 33 degrees by this time. . . with a 30kg fan strapped to your back.
. while horse flies are drawing blood all over my legs !
But made some good progress and was ready to have my first flght.
However I cocked up the next 2 take offs. BY this time the wind had started
to pick up and it was getting a bit blustery.
Barry took the first flight to check out the thermal activity. I got some
good video of him takin off, and Im glad it wasnt me as he was bobbing up
and down quite a bit in the turbulance.
FOund a wifi hotspot but not working properly. Going down to the beach where
Im told there is another one to try. . .
I saw my first white person walking today along the sidewalk. . . they did
look like they were just on their way to their car, but still . . Ive gone
2 days without a white face walking.
The bus stops are very busy, but are black only really. never seen a single
white person queuing.
all the houses are still surrounded by walls and fences and big signs
proclaiming "armed response unit" security.
The weird thing is that to the locals they dont notice this as its all just
normal for them, so I dont feel I can bring it up in converstion.
Oh yeh, driving through the farms this morning at about 9am, and we passed 3
or 4 bkack wimin in white leather boots. Apparently the passing truck
drivers like a pick me up in the morning !!
Cool ! DAy one was excellent. got into cape town about 8am and was ground
handling my new wing by 10am ! By 12 noon the wind had picked up a bit...
enough to lift me 6 feet or so, and hang for a bit with Barry pushing me.
In the afternoon the wind picked up a bit, so we packed it in about 3pm.
Not before Id had the motor on my back for a bit though to get used to the
weight.
Tomorrow: more ground handling in the morning trying to get full control of
the canopy without running around all over the place... then if I make good
progress, maybe the first flight in the afternoon !
IN a bar called the Primi. Its pretty cool.
Have to say it really takes some getting used to here...
appardheid might be gone, but any bar around here is 100 % white. staff are
100 % black.
One guy just served me a beer with "here you are master"
The whites are very definately in control still. They have that sort of
authoritanian attitude that is simply not challenged by the black pop.
we had longer to drive back today because the local township had riots and
were throwing stones at passing cars.
It is a bit of a stereotype, but all the wimen are gorgeous, all the blokes
are 6 foot tall and fair skinned.
They still have a pretty weird fashion sense that has girls in their 20s
going about in skirts that barely cover their knickers. . . which is nice
:-)
so some scran tonight, and 8.30 tomorrow I start my static line jump
training. . . the first stage of AFF: accelerated freefall.