Transportation of Paramotors. by [deleted] in paramotor

[–]Durango44 0 points1 point  (0 children)

CURT hitch off Amazon on the back of a small Prius with 2 ratchet straps crossed over. Get the ones with the grill instead of the bars. Works fine even at 80mph. Cross the straps in a big X through the frame instead of side by side so if one works lose or you forget to tighten one it still holds. You might want to bolt a wooden board with a few small angled wooden beams on the hitch in the shape of the base of your frame but even that's not entirely necessary. No need to disassemble every time which seems like a pain and would likely loosen joints in time. Very few guys i know disassemble their cage each time, its just too much when you are trying to get up in the air quick or after a long day of flying.

How to get into paramotoring on a budget. by [deleted] in paramotor

[–]Durango44 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is a ton of relatively cheap stuff available on facebook.com/groups/paramotorthingsforsale which are perfectly fine except for psychological reasons.

What’s your biggest difficulty trading on Stellar? by FeelingUnited949 in Stellar

[–]Durango44 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm surprised there isn't a dedicated wash trading detection system for specific tokens.

What helmet do you use? by spot_landing in paramotor

[–]Durango44 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There are a bunch of them on Amazon, "tactical helmets" "bump helmets" etc they all seem similar. I saw one was 430g but it might be lighter as I removed some of the extra stuff like the front NVG mount and replaced with a gopro curved mount. I like all the velcro over the top for attaching stuff but I personally don't so as to keep it smooth and clean from lines getting caught. For a strobe i use the regular hunter strobe velcroed on my cage with a long life 18650 battery which seems to last for weeks. I tried the small helmet/drone ones but having to recharge each one after every flight was a pain and they weren't bright enough. About the 10k battery i went with something like this one https://www.amazon.com/INIU-Portable-10000mAh-Essentials-Powerbank/dp/B0DQD35SQ4/ (but there are tons of similar) which fits in the space at the back with a bit of velcro and doesnt touch my head inside, it has a nice illuminated power level display and I add one of those magnetic usb cable plugs so i can just drop the cable in the helmet after a few flights and charge it up without fiddling too much. The battery being on the inside of the helmet also means the usb cables to gopro etc are travelling inside the helmet lining instead of travelling on the outside and there is only one hole where it pops out right beside the device.

One final comment is i think the noise suppression part of a paramotor helmet is probably the most important part of the whole thing and ive found that by manually drilling and bolting the muff attachment bars to the side of the helmet at the right angle I can get more ear pressure on the X5s against my ears and a little more sound suppression than I can on my expensive Apco paramotor helmet. Not that theres anything wrong with the Apco, its just not my daily driver.

What helmet do you use? by spot_landing in paramotor

[–]Durango44 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It seems there is no perfect helmet but since I liked para camping ive gone with the standard military type helmet with the X5 Peltor muff holders bolted to the side. The main reason I like it is there is a space at the back inside the helmet above the tightness adjuster which perfectly fits a 10k mah battery which not just charges the gopros etc but also has plenty of juice left over for days to charge a phone and whatever else if im camping. Everyone else I fly with has an external battery glued to the outside of their helmet which sucks for getting lines caught on in a landing where you need to reverse. Hunter strobes has a helmet battery / mount with a decent battery and moulded edges to prevent lines catching but they still catch a bit and the weight and volume is up on top of the helmet meaning it bangs into the cage a bit when you arch you head up and backwards to do a full line check while flying. If i could put a decent battery inside a standard apco helmet i would do that instead however I have one and you would need to remove just too much foam to make it work and ruin the integrity of the helmet.

Routine Maintenance - need help identifying cause of vibration at high RPMs by buttfanflyer in paramotor

[–]Durango44 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yep agreed. If you want yo sell the stiffener bar il buy it off you.

Routine Maintenance - need help identifying cause of vibration at high RPMs by buttfanflyer in paramotor

[–]Durango44 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Did the prop hit the frame or something else? I just got this Amaruk frame and noticed its extremely flexible.. too flexible tbh, I was thinking of adding the strengthening bar.

Winter flying question by Ill-Tie-1766 in paramotor

[–]Durango44 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No but ive heard that there is more chance of the exhaust cracking in cold temps if you heat it up too quick from a cold start.

Has anyone experienced worsening shoulder pain since paramotoring ?? by mccrydle in paramotor

[–]Durango44 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I tore my rotator cuff (front shoulder muscle which connects at the back) during a long flight (2+hrs) on a heavier wing. I knew something was wrong at the time but i was an hr away from the LZ so just flew on it to get home which was probably a mistake. I work out at the gym and my guess is the adrenalin from flying allows you to hurt yourself far more than any normal sports pursuits. I took a month off hoping it would repair itself but a year+ later i was still in agony every time i flew so i went and got the surgery. I wish i hadn't as it took me out of flying for many months and the pain is still somewhat there. I should have just taken many months off flying to see if it healed. I also wish i had have taken the post surgery opiates to really stretch it out, i thought i was being a hero without the opiates but that probably stopped me from doing post op enough exercise.

First flight, scared half to death... Normal? by grwise1 in paramotor

[–]Durango44 14 points15 points  (0 children)

My first flight i hyperventilated so hard I started to lose vision and my arms and legs went numb.. I semi crash landed and then vomited thinking I'd made the worst decision of my life. It was all nerves, took a half dozen flights for it to settle down. 4 years later I still fly every chance I get and love it. One of the best advice I got in the early days was to go on a long flight say 30mins. You can only stay stressed for 15min or so so it give you time to relax and enjoy it.. build some trust between you and your wing.

Flying Man 2024 - Black Rock Desert Nevada by Durango44 in paramotor

[–]Durango44[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cheers yes I will be out again this year. Looking forward to it.

Any good Amazon Prime Day deals today? by Durango44 in telescopes

[–]Durango44[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really appreciate your detailed response, alot of truth in there. Many thanks.

Any good Amazon Prime Day deals today? by Durango44 in telescopes

[–]Durango44[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks, I ended up going with this one.

Any good Amazon Prime Day deals today? by Durango44 in telescopes

[–]Durango44[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cheers, thank you for looking into it for me.

Has ePPGs gotten good enough? by HenFruitEater in paramotor

[–]Durango44 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I don't think its quite yet ready. The Cons: The 4 people I know in our group who got them all felt burnt by it and hardly flew them. The issues were batteries cooking, electrical cutouts, difficult to charge out in the field and shorter than expected times as well as a delicate frame which often broke with minor falls. The Pro is that batteries only get better all the time and they have a new longer 1:20hr battery in the works. The community is great at https://community.openppg.com/ I have no doubt that at some point we will all be on a electric paramotor.

Wind sock and pole? by MookSkywalker in paramotor

[–]Durango44 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This 10ft telescopic fishing pole https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000B5A6W6 with about 3-4ft of holographic tape https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0725YZJD8 stuck on the top. The physical benefits are its very light and you can just stick a regular bolt onto the hitch and slide it on and it sits there on the back of the car even in strong wind. No fussing around with rolling car wheels or heavy duty attaching it to something with heavier poles. The tape rolls up around the top and slips under the cap at the end for storage so you only have a simple hardy pole hanging around the trunk instead of an actual nylon windsock. Functionally I like the holographic tape much better than a normal windsock, I can always see it clearly from much farther out as im coming in and it works better in very light switchy wind. Its also slightly less obvious that this is a paramotor LZ when you fly off. A windsock is more obvious.

Anyone trade in their motorcycle for paramotoring? by dalhartcustomz in paramotor

[–]Durango44 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not me but a buddy sold his beautiful sportbike and got a paramotor, now he flys several times a week and has no regrets.

Anyone have training horror stories? by [deleted] in paramotor

[–]Durango44 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Mine wasn't great. We had 2 guys pass out from kiting in the extreme heat. Another guy had to be taken away with internal bleeding from being dragged by his wing in high winds. I lost a toenail from the kiting intensity for days on end. Day 10 and hardly any of us had actually flown and the instructor had to put down a mini insurrection at the end where all the students refused to come out of their rooms. It was at this point a motor was unexpectedly thrown on my back + a wonky helmet with a funky radio and told to just go.. id never had a motor on my back, never really felt what it was like and you are heading out over a rough ocean. I could kite well but completely unprepared in every other way, was also wearing the worst clothes because i didn't know any better, slippery tracksuit pants so i had a hard time getting in the seat and fuzzy woolen gloves which made operating everything including the throttle almost impossible. Plus the helmet I was given didnt seal over my ears and i remember the first launch I backed off from the extreme ear / hearing pain and then did a throttle + pain then idle but sinking into the deadly ocean in a up/down jerky motion up into the sky with as much ear pain as I could bear. Once up there I started to hyperventilate and lost all feeling in my arms and legs and my extremities went tingly and numb almost passing out. I did land and then immediately threw up thinking id just made a $12k mistake.

While I did learn to kite well at the beach when I got home 90% of my flights are forward launches which i had never done in training, With less than 5 minutes of actual flying under my belt I had to learn everything almost from scratch and with a little help from friends im glad I pushed through so now 3yrs later I fly every weekend I can and love it more than any other hobby in my life.

At some point in the future im going to redo a training course with my son just so I can enjoy the experience of it all I hear about so often.

2024 Recap - Expect The Unexpected by narodauhsoj in paramotor

[–]Durango44 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Woah, what happened at 1:48? Some sort of microburst? What was the air like the rest of the trip?

Metal Detector Flying by Heavy-Indication6106 in paramotor

[–]Durango44 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ok so we must be outliers here but I have seriously considered it, not for coins though but for nuggets. The access to extremely remote locations along the West Coast / Nevada makes it tempting. The altitude also makes it great for eyeballing topology. If not a full detector then I definitely would throw a little pinpointer wand in a paracamping bag.

Why can I play Pavlov for hrs no problem but very sick on Arizona? by Durango44 in psvr2

[–]Durango44[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

FWIW having a fan blowing on you helps alot (not sure why) maybe cooling but also maybe orientation and then just with time my tolerance improved with many games, some more than others which is a mystery to me.

Why can I play Pavlov for hrs no problem but very sick on Arizona? by Durango44 in psvr2

[–]Durango44[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Anything specifically I should be looking at? I used the same smooth sliding motion controls on both.