He's about 300lbs all up, 29m Colorado I'm pretty sure.

Good background!!! Thanks!

I usually put about 3-3.5 gallons in and can fly for 2-3 hours. I only put in about 2.5 gallons the other day and almost flew 2 hours. Probably 5 liters an hour burn with all of me plus my 31m wing. 🙂 I fly on average just over an hour, but that isn't limited due to the gas tank. If I filled it all the way up (17 liters) I could probably go 3-4 hours. But I'd have to pee. 😆

@@ooglek wow, not bad at all. Looks like so much fun

@@jj3266 Can confirm! It's a blast!

Thanks!!! Much appreciated. Always fun, as you well know!!! 🙂

Thank you!!! It was fun making it, even more fun flying it!! 🙂

Dang, sorry mate!!! The Vortex Aero served me well for a solid 100 hours and is still just fine. I'm not sure if babying the exhaust is possible. Metal fatigue is real! Totally worth the $250-300 for a new one to keep flying though. Cheers!

Thanks mate!!! I'll look better with a Secret Squirrel SkyHalo Light Kit! ;-) secret--squirrel.com/products/ols/products/test-one? Cheers!

Awesome!! Where do you live? Both Foot-launch and trike are options for you. The Vittorazi Moster 185 is the most commonly used paramotor motor, and with a few tweaks, should provide you enough power to fly in most conditions. I started on that motor, but with a different drive ratio that gave me more thrust but slightly slower full throttle, and a larger than average 130cm prop vs a 120 or 125cm prop. After 2.5 years I moved up to a Polini Thor 202, which increased thrust by 15%, and 140cm prop, that increased thrust by another 15%, while at the same time reduced my fuel consumption! But it is more powerful than I'd recommend for someone just getting into the sport. Happy to help here, or hit up reddit.com/r/paramotor and post your questions!

Thanks for the info, I live in Southwestern Michigan. I found a place to take a discovery flight, so I’m pretty excited to get to do that soon

@@asclark0970 Excellent! The person who takes you up should have a lot more local knowledge of any trainers in the area, other pilots to connect with and talk to as you get ready to go down the path of learning to paramotor, and should be able to offer you their own knowledge and experience for how they got into the sport. There are many options -- some choose a 2-week really in-depth on site training that OneUp and Aviator offer, but can be pretty expensive when including travel and hotel and food costs. Others choose a "weekend warrior" option -- get a day of training on a Saturday when the weather is good, then go back home for a week or three until the next time both you and your trainer and the weather cooperate. I took this route, and took my first flight about 4 weeks after my first training day, but it was day 3 of training for me. I did a LOT of kiting and learning about airspace and reading a lot while I wasn't in class, so if you are motivated to self-guide your learning between training days, this might be a better and more convenient and less expensive option. Cheers!

@@ooglek thanks man, appreciate the advice. Mind if I pick your brain sometime?

@@asclark0970 Go nuts!

Yeah, it was pretty sweet when I saw it after the flight. The water itself was a bit murky, but it gave an excellent sky reflection!

The winds were only like 2-3 mph when we took off, but when we got back almost 2 hours later they were 8-10mph! This was into the wind, so when I turned around it looked like I was hauling tookus! Which I was I guess... 🙂

Can you provide any evidence of this? I was unaware. I'd love to know more!

@@ooglek For example, this is where fellow measured actual consumption in on and off mode. kzbin.info/www/bejne/eF6Zk6KgjZyJj7M Thing is, when caliper is "turned of" it just turns of the LCD screen which does not take significant power anyways. This measurement is easy to repeat by anyone. I saw other KZbinrs doing the same measurements with the same results.

@@epedja Well hot damn, I learned something! My battery will die faster if left on, but taking out the battery seems to be the move (or building a tab to disconnect the battery). Thanks for the education! Cheers!

@@ooglek I used to have small plastic bit that I place under battery to disconnect it when not using it. I believe this guy also posted video how he modified this caliper to be able to switch on and off battery power. Not hard modification.

kzbin.info/www/bejne/fZTShpd_n7-isLs

Well hot damn! Welcome! It seems to be still popular despite its age. DHCP is fine, the IP the device receives is unimportant. The important thing is to learn the IP address that the device is attempting to request when it boots, assuming it is in a mode where it checks to see if a new binary config file is available and that it will automatically update if present or it has changed. This requires some sniffing of the network! If your laptop / desktop is providing DHCP and is acting as the router here, then all packets will be sent to your computer, and you can use tcpdump or similar programs to receive/sniff every packet it sends. If you're connected through a switch, you'll PROBABLY see all the requests, but it is possible that you might miss some. My assumption is that "Customization: Pending" is that the device is attempting to reach a URL that does not exist or is not responding. It is also possible that it is NOT reaching out at all and that your device is unable to pull a new config at boot from the Internet, at which point you're kinda hosed, unless you're ready to figure out how to factory reset the device that would remove the custom config entirely (not sure this is easy or even possible). The IP on the router was set to ensure that the SPA-2102 would only send requests to the local network, rather than the Internet. You can set the IP on the router to 192.168.0.0/24 to start, then sniff the TCP traffic where the web request might occur. One challenge is that if the config uses a hostname, you'll have to run a DNS server too. BUT then you can return whatever IP you want for that hostname, even 192.168.0.33, and the SPA-2102 should request the config from that IP, since you control DNS. But as far as I know, the only way to learn the URL that the SPA-2102 is requesting is to sniff the network traffic from the device to the "Internet." Search KZbin or the web for "sniffing HTTP requests" or substitute "TCP" for HTTP.

​@@ooglekI finally got a chance to dig into this deeper and try your suggestions. No luck, but curious of your thoughts if this is a valid test. (See video in my channel) kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZS1gICJqdh3p8k

@@CCP187 (crossposting) Do you have a valid and working DNS server accessible to that device that is delivered via DHCP? Watching for DNS traffic might help. It is also possible that the download-config-on-boot-if-available function is NOT enabled on the device you have. And in that case, you're kinda hosed, at least from the standpoint of being able to get software onto the device. Maybe a factory reset would force it to? I see a bunch of traffic from 10.10.10.1 but none from the IP address assigned to the SPA2102-R, so I cannot tell you more. Also, you need to have your sniffer BETWEEN the SPA2102-R and your router; it seems like it might be, just checking to make sure. Not all switches will forward all traffic to all ports. If you have a dumb hub, that might ensure that you see all the traffic on the hub between both the SPA2102, the router, and your listening PC.

@@ooglek thanks for all your help with this. I tried with a DNS server too, but no clues of IPs or domains that it is trying to reach. I think i'm going to punt this thing to the trash, especially now that i see they have "unlocked" ones on ebay for $17. Thank you for your help

@@CCP187 Sure thing! Sorry it didn't work out. If the device is doing any DNS lookups, you should see that in your DNS server logs (if you have a logging DNS server) or in the UDP traffic (NOT TCP) from the device. You'd need to wireshark the UDP traffic to see the DNS query, UDP port 53, if it is doing so at all. Not all devices will. It was just a known thing with the SunRocket/Teleblend devices that they were configured to get the config on every boot. I show in the video how to disable it. I believe that these devices will download from a TFTP server, but you'd need to dig into how that works specifically, and I think the mac address needs to be the filename. community.cisco.com/t5/voice-systems-and-accessories-small-business/please-help-spa2102-firmware-upgrade/td-p/1342839 csr248.wilogic.com/prov/fw/www.vpnbest.com/download/firmware/spa/SPA2102/spa2102-5-2-12/index.html

Thanks! Tried to make it chill and not annoying, glad I managed to get it right. Cheers!

Thanks mate! ;-) It's a tough business, paramotor videos... Glad to have ya. Cheers!

@@ooglek where are you flying from? Missouri here

@@TonyEssig Northern VA, Maryland mostly.

A pretty big tree fell right at the beginning when the power went out. It was about 4 blocks away. There was a few other trees that fell down in our neighborhood, and we were without power for 24 hours. NOAA called it a "Quasi-Linear Convective System (QLCS)." I did not notice any shingles gone, but as it was 3 years ago and I wasn't looking for them, I cannot say for sure. 68 mph gusts were recorded at Reagan National Airport (DCA), about 10 miles southeast of my location. Definitely a crazy storm! Washington Post Coverage: www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2019/05/23/power-outages-road-closures-storms-move-through-dc-region/ The storm caused an EF1 Tornado in Howard County, MD with 95 mph peak winds. www.weather.gov/lwx/ef1howardcounty NOAA recorded a similar storm on the same day in Indiana, 70 to 80 mph gusts with 60 mph average. www.weather.gov/iwx/20190523_DamagingWinds

@@ooglek I can believe it. By the way, a QLCS is also sometimes called a Squall Line or just a line of strong thunderstorms. They are usually associated with frontal boundaries. Because I live down in southwest Florida, ours usually aren't as strong as yours, but back in March 2021 I got one which produced gusts into the 50s for about 2 or 3 hours. Back in 2016 in january, one produced a gust to 84 at the airport 6 miles to my west with estimated winds at 90 mph in my area. Those can really pack a punch!

@@tvold9204 Thanks for the info! I know have a fancy term for Squall Line or gust front. ;-) I'm sure I'll impress all my friends. heheh 2-3 hours at 50mph?!? Holy crow, that's practically a light hurricane! That's nutty. I guess it only gets more crazy from here since we're not doing much to limit our impact on climate. Grab the popcorn!

@@ooglek That storm produced most of the wind out ahead of itself. So, when the rain came, the wind weakened, but I would say the gusts of 40 or higher lasted from about 8:30 AM that day to about 12:30. More intense gusts started around 9:30 and went till 12:30.

Aye, you were lucky! I think a solid 250,000 Dominion customers were not, us included! Only a 24 hour outage.

@@ooglek my power flickered that day but didn’t completely go kaput thankfully. My neighborhood was spared from all of the power outages at that time but people living on the right side of me weren’t as lucky that night and had a hard time sleeping because is was so hot and there was no air conditioning and it was especially tough for the kids that had to go to school the next day because the day of the storm was Thursday so the next day was Friday which means a-lot of tired kids in school the next day.

Thanks David!! I'll try to get some more edits up. They definitely take a lot more time to cut and publish than one might intuit. An editor friend of mine said to plan on 30-60 minutes per 1 minute of edited final video. Wheee! Cheers

Me too!!!

I was glad I had chosen the upgraded ear protection option on my helmet in that moment, it was really loud! The GoPro audio does not do it any justice. :-)

Thanks Steve! There's a pretty active train line near most of my regular LZs. I should probably try to do more train-focused flights! I was a little lax on some of my choices e.g. can I get out safely if my motor dies, and had a few watchers point this out. Hopefully I'll make improved choices the next time I fly! My argument was that I've had two motor outs in 126 hours of flying, one I was 700 feet up, the other was 30 feet up, and both I landed without an issue. The likelihood of me not having a good (or any) out, which is not often because I'm constantly thinking about it, and my motor going out in those moments, is pretty spectacularly low. Just not impossible, and I'm not invincible. So I'll probably still fly in ways that I have no outs, just for very VERY short periods of time, and hope the die roll keeps coming up in my favor. Cheers!

Hit me up, I'm hopefully flying from Purcellville, VA tomorrow. The wind will determine if I fly north to Brunswick or a different direction. Or if the rain sucks the fun out of the day. :-)

Looks like you are in MD north of Brunswick. We may run into each other!

Hehehehe True, unfortunately our lot size and situation would require us to use the whole back yard for it, or build a giant one blocking the house. It's a trade-off, location for no garage. Oh well!

It's definitely a challenge for everything to align! Trains don't tend to follow predictable schedules, though Amtrak I guess would. There isn't an easy way to track trains though. I'll count myself lucky!

@@ooglek I know someone who works for Santa Fe. I am told the schedules of freight trains are intentionally random for security reasons. Awesome if it works though!

@@robertgoodale7204 Dang. Yeah, there is some amateur trackers that track trains using a slowly-being-phased-out system, lines go offline regularly. Maybe we just need to build lots of small IOT devices to track them!

Thanks Lt Dan! Glad you survived your face-down landing a few weeks back, we've all been there!

That sounds like a whole pile of fun! I should find if there are any rail yards near me that are flyable. I'd like to poke around Brunswick more, maybe catch more traffic in and out of there sometime. Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, PA looks amazing, but not a lot of safe outs near there! You'd have to fly high or take the risk of a motor out. Maybe take off from Mitchell Farms (with permission) or Blue Knob Valley Airport. LMK if you want to go fly it, I can drive there in a few hours.

Thanks!! I'm always a fan (hahaha) of trains, from the ground or the air. I haven't flown west of the Mississippi yet, it's on my list! Cheers

@@ooglek if you're ever out in Arizona hit me up, we'll do some desert train chasing

@@thatflyingpole I'm down! I'll hit you up.

Burning it in this weekend. I feel like I should have 10 flights before i compare and contrast. The frame is Power2Fly Titan XL (154cm hoop). I’m 6’4” 270 lbs so I need (ok, want) more power than most.

@@ooglek I agree with the more power thing, rather have it and not need it then need it and not have it

I now can tell you 6 months later that I wildly prefer the 202! More thrust, same weight, 1/3rd to 1/2 the fuel consumption. It is fantastic!

@@ooglek thanks for the feedback

I know it. I told the frame manufacturer the same, they claimed they couldn't and put a reinforcing rod from the top of the piston mount to the top of the radiator bracket, and said it will hold. If not, I'll have to have a custom bracket made, as the Polini-provided mount doesn't provide the clearance needed. I've heard that another frame manufacturer made their own custom mount for the radiator for their frame... I wish they sold it or had some specs on it!

6 months into flying, it hasn't broken. Seems to be working. I haven't designed a motor mount for my frame, but I may want to, I can move the motor closer to my back, moving the CG closer.

It's been 14 years since I posted this. Whatever files I had then I have lost to time! If you do end up finding the file, please post it somewhere, and update your comment. I'll download it and put it in a safer place and try to keep it available for people who reach the video. Cheers!

Found it! www.mediafire.com/file/ebjrshlivlk/linksys2102-sunrocket.cfg.gz/file <- then click download at the top right. I downloaded it and I'll put it in a safe place in case it gets lost again.

I've never seen a tornado in person, and I don't know that this was one, but I have to imagine it might be like this!

Flying for two years now. You have to look at the US FAA Aeronautical Charts to determine where you can fly without permission and where you need permission and where you simply cannot fly. Check out Interactive Charts here -- www.iflightplanner.com/AviationCharts/ Under FAR Part 103, ultralights, which paramotors are designated, can fly without restriction or permission in Class E and Class G Airspace. We can fly in Class B, C, and D Airspace WITH EXPLICIT PERMISSION, but usually we just stay out and away or under. Big red Circle -- you likely cannot fly, see NOTAM Solid Blue Circle around an airport -- Class B Airspace. You cannot fly there unless you have permission from the controlling authority. Usually you cannot get permission on a paramotor Solid magenta circle around airport -- Class B Airspace. You cannot fly there unless you have permission from the controlling authority. Sometimes you can get permission. Shaded magenta shape around an area -- Class E Airspace above 700 feet AGL, Class G Airspace Below. Dotted magenta area -- Class E Airspace from ground to 18,000 feet MSL No shapes -- Class G from ground to 1,200 feet AGL, Class E from 1,200 feet AGL to 18,000 feet AGL

Nice! It was a really nice plane. A lot more expensive than flying my paramotor though. I think the passenger was an instructor out of Leesburg at the time we hung out. Maybe I'll see you there sometime!

@@ooglek haha yeah I fly out of Leesburg to train. And yes it's expensive, so I usually train on the cheaper N825AK, the SR20 G2 😄

@@hotshot4512 Keep on flying mate! I had a close flyby by two single engine planes last weekend flying nearly wingtip to wingtip. I started diving because I was below them and since they were almost on top of me I figured they couldn't or wouldn't see me. The GoPro doesn't do the distance justice... Maybe I should post that clip. It's only about a minute as they were doing probably 120-180mph. You really do have to keep your head on a swivel to avoid getting hit! I was about 1.5 miles south of "Downtown" Bluemont, VA over 626 near Red Gate Farm when they flew by. imgur.com/gallery/OtKYJgi

It definitely got to a point where I wondered. NWS did not declare it a tornado though, so likely a downburst or microburst. I wasn't here during the June 2012 derecho, but it was similarly powerful!

@@ooglek I think the derecho was a bit stronger, just by a little bit, but that also lasted longer. This was definitely an intense wind event however to say the least. The tree debris flying through the air was amazing!

@@tvold9204 Aye, the 2012 June derecho in DC was really bad. This definitely packed a punch but was not as devastating. The tree debris may have been amazing, but my Tesla had just been delivered, so it was giving me anxiety the whole time!!! Glass roof and all... ;-)

Flying leaves are normal, but not when they are blowing at 100km/h! The electrical lines, colloquially called telephone poles, stayed up, though a tree did crush a nearby pole and knocked out our power for about 24 hours. Lá bay là bình thường, nhưng không phải khi chúng đang thổi ở tốc độ 100km / h! Các đường dây điện, thường được gọi là cột điện thoại, vẫn giữ nguyên, mặc dù một cái cây đã đè lên cột gần đó và làm mất điện của chúng tôi trong khoảng 24 giờ.

hahaha yeah it was pretty awesome and amusing! :-D

Thanks! OK they are more reversing turns than wingovers... we try. :-)

Hahahah there are definitely many places where the US can improve. But when you have 350 million citizens and a land area the size of Australia or all of Europe (about 3.9 million square miles or 8.08 million square kilometers), it takes many decades to upgrade existing infrastructure. The incentive to do so doesn't exist, as the status quo works. Additionally, while still not ideal, local transmission lines (the small line at the very top of the pole) is likely 13.8kV, about 8x lower than your estimate. Still high, still will kill you, but the wood poles do get inspected for rot and bugs every 10 years. It hasn't fallen over yet. :-D

@@ooglek Oog Lek means Eye Leak in Dutch. That's funny. But anyway, we in Holland decided right after WW2 when our country was a mess, to dig in all utility lines. Phone, electricity, gas and now also glass fiber. We knew it would cost a fortune but we did the math and found out that on the long term it was way cheaper than to rebuild the preexisting overhead grid. Especially when you put economic loss due to power outages into the equation. And so we build _indoor_ step down transformer and switching facilities and dug trenches to bury all of our 10kV and 380V power lines and closed them afterward, never to be opened again.. The result? If you didn't knew any better you'd think we don't use electricity at all. Weather plays no role because nothing ever happens down there if you do it right. And so, the last outage I experienced was over twenty five years ago (1994) and lasted about an hour. That's all and I'm walking around since 1960.

​@@FrankHeuvelman I know it! I grew up in Holland. OK, Holland, Michigan, but I'm 75% Dutch and our marching band wore wooden shoes... so close. ;-) ooglek was randomly generated in 1994 when I needed an online username. It's a mere coincidence that I am also Dutch and my username has a Dutch meaning. Weird. At 16,040 square miles vs 3.9 million square miles, or roughly 243 times larger, it would likely cost us a lot more to do what you did. My power company is starting to bury lines, but in the stupidest places, like neighborhoods where there are still communication lines on the poles, and they aren't burying the main lines from the substation. Plus they demand a 15 foot easement for the rest of time to do so. America generally isn't very smart about long-term thinking and spending. It's sad. When given the option to bury my lines, I did my research -- 21 outages in 11 years. Drop the outages that would have been prevented by having the proposed lines buried, and it drops to 7 outages in 11 years, less than 24 hours total. That's pretty good for $0.12 per kWh. How much is electricity in the Netherlands? Are you in The Hague? Amsterdam? Elsewhere?

@@ooglek Our marching bands never wear wooden shoes, hahahaha! So close, but yet so far... Have you ever been in the Netherlands, Eye Leak?

@@ooglek _"My power company is starting to bury lines, but in the stupidest places, like neighborhoods "_ Well, that's what you can expect when you base your whole economy on greed instead of modesty, competition instead of cooperation and where big corporations rule the country and own the politicians. When we needed to dig in our fiberglass cables round 2005, all participants worked together on a plan to use one and the same trench so the sidewalks only had to be opened ones, instead of five times over.... _"That's pretty good for $0.12 per kWh."_ We pay on average €0.22 per kWh but we don't have companies like ENRON to fuck the consumer or have lack of legislation like in Texas. where the whole fucking grid went off line and the market made that the few people who still had power in Texas had to pay thousands of dollars per kWh during the crises. And I don't even start about the difference in cost for medical insurance or the cost of living in general. You pay two to three times as much for consumer products like food and clothing We also don't have to deal with internet providers who all have a monopoly in their respective regions, Talking about a free market. Below is a link to the channel of an American expat who decided to say goodbye to America to come and live in the Netherlands. Click:kzbin.info/www/bejne/oYWZoWasZrWLqpY No offense.

Thanks! It's a generic frame, Vittorazi Moster 185 Dark Evolution, and a MacPara Charger 31m wing. I'm a big dude, most of the frames and harnesses fit more average sized people.

Skymax with a Moster 185

Indeed. Reddit IS Gold.

Wicked! Love it

Thanks!!! If you wanna send your view I’ll add it! I know you were watching…. 🤣

Awwww thanks mate!!

Glad you liked it! This was my first experience having someone I don't know post a public video of me flying and then seeing it. It made me grin!

reddit!

@@priyapepsi Reddit?

Ribbit

reddit!

Thanks Joseph! If you have the money ($10-15k), I'm happy to help you find a good, responsible, and knowledgeable instructor! It is advisable to purchase equipment through the instructor as they can both get discounts as well as properly size you for your equipment. It is definitely as amazing as it looks, maybe even moreso. Cheers!

@@ooglek thank you very much, I have basically found a great instructor in Shrewsbury PA. I'm near BWI. I have even purchased and read Goin's PPG Bible, I have EVEN purchased and watched the airspace and Paramotor basics DVD's! And if that wasn't enough I literally purchased one of Schanze's old speed wings for practice. (Dood literally signed it <eye roll> lol) I am on the precipice... just that 10-15k and clearance from the wife that she won't serve me papers if I pull the trigger, so close I can taste it!!! Watching this video is bittersweet, I go backpacking in that region and literally was out that way that weekend! Amazing weather I remember. Thank you so much, one day when I get my wings I'll have to hit you up and fly this area with you!

@@josephottey1890 Goff is great! Highly recommended, that's where I learned too. Kite your heart out. It truly does make you a better pilot and get you in the air faster and more safely. That name of which your practice wing has come may never be mentioned here! ;-) I'll probably come up to Shoestring later this summer, hopefully will see you there!

Hahaha I didn't look!!! I hope I ended a few though. I'll hit you up next time we go out there.