Paramania Blog

Deano’s Report: Taking 3rd at Slalomania

Posted on August 19, 2012 by Dean Eldridge

Well, after missing out on the podium at the last Slalomania event by just 2 points after a silly mistake at the end, my focus for the latest round – Slalomania series 2 – was consistency throughout and this certainly paid off with me gaining the 3rd spot this time!

I had a few hours of practice around the pylons the day before the comp started and was quite comfortable with all the same equipment used at the British Open so using my beautiful Parajet Zenith with the Polini 200 and my 20m Paramania GTR.

There were a few hot-headed maneuvers by some of the younger participants in the early stages of the comp, resulting in penalties so my strategy was already paying off. By the second day and midway through, I was up to fourth and not too far off 3rd but Mathieu Rouanet was pulling away from me slightly with aggressive flying.

Unfortunately for him, on the Saturday morning, he had a small accident taking him out of 3rd and with no time for any more tasks, the podium spot. I feel very sorry for him as he was attacking for the 2nd position but it reinforced my style for this event to be smooth and not make mistakes. It’s now time for training for the upcoming World Championship ‘classic’ style competition in Spain later in the month and we’ll see if our new found form keeps momentum there too.

Posted in Events, French, GTR, Team Pilots | Leave a comment

Flying the Cochise Stronghold – By Glenn Tupper

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Glenn Tupper

On my way to Tucson recently I stopped at the Cochise Stronghold.

The Cochise Stronghold is located to the West of Sunsites, Arizona in the Dragoon Mountains at an elevation of 5,000 ft. This beautiful woodland area lies in a protective rampart of granite domes and sheer cliffs which were once the refuge of the great Apache Chief, Cochise, and his people.

This rugged natural fortress was, for some 15 years, the home and base of operations for the famed Chiricahua Apache Chief, Cochise. Cochise and about 1,000 of his followers of which 250 were warriors were located here. Sentinels constantly on watch from the towering pinnacles of rock, could spot their enemies in the valley below and sweep down without warning in destructive raids. No man, woman or child within a hundred miles was safe from these attacks.

Born in Arizona, Cochise led the Chiricahua band of the Apache tribe during a period of violent social upheaval. In 1850, the United States took control over the territory that today comprises Arizona and New Mexico. Not hostile to the whites at first, he kept peace with the Anglo-Americans until 1861, when he became their implacable foe because of the blunder of a young U.S. Army officer, Lt. George Bascom.

In that year, Cochise and several of his relatives had gone to an encampment of soldiers in order to deny the accusation that they had abducted a child from a ranch. The boy was later proved to have been kidnapped by another band of Apaches. During the parley, Cochise and his followers were ordered to be held as hostages by Bascom, but Cochise managed to escape almost immediately by cutting a hole in a tent.

Bascom later ordered the other Apache hostages hanged, and the embittered Cochise joined forces with Mangas Coloradas, his father-in-law, in a guerrilla struggle against the American army and settlers. The capture and murder of Mangas Coloradas in 1863 left Cochise as the Apache war chief.

The U.S. Army captured him in 1871 and prepared to transfer the Chiricahua to a reservation hundreds of miles away, but he escaped again and renewed the resistance campaign. The following year after negotiating a new treaty with the help of Thomas Jeffords, his only white friend the band was allowed to stay in their homeland.

Cochise is reputed to have been a master strategist and leader who was never conquered in battle. For ten years Cochise and his warriors harassed the whites by raiding lonely ranches and attacking stagecoaches and miners.

He died peacefully on the newly formed Chiricahua reservation in 1874. His son, Taza succeeded him as chief. Upon his death, he was secretly buried somewhere in or near his impregnable fortress.

The exact location has never been revealed or determined.

Written by Glenn Tupper published by Theron

Posted in Guest Blogger, Pilots, Team Pilots, USA | Leave a comment

Ojovolador to review Paramania Action GTR 24

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Theron

One of most exciting power wings of the moment, the GTR provides the most radically closed turns we have experienced up to now, with immediate response, solidity and poise. All, in a paraglider featuring magnificent profiles and that, surprisingly, also offers very good performance to navigate and short take off. Testing the size 24 footlaunched, we could take off in 4 steps while with the paratrike loading 160 kg we did not need much more.

Daniel Crespo and the Ojovolador team will be soon post a full review on Ojovolador.com, stay tuned!

Paramania Action GTR 24.

Content and photos Ojovolador and Daniel Crespo

Posted in Country, satisfied customers, Spain, Spanish | Leave a comment

Clearing up some questions: GTR; Economy Flying, Unsheathed lines, and trim system.

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Theron

As the Paramania GTR becomes mainstream the questions flood in, here I answer some questions.

You can use your brakes with trim fully out on the GTR. Although, if you do use brakes while in reflex it does take out the “reflex technology” this is why we have WTS (Wing Tip Steering). A pilot can also use speed bar in full slow trim, and you can use brakes while on speed bar. Basically, all combinations of brakes, speedbar, and wing tip steering can be used.

As far as stability go’s, I am at Slalomania in France right now and a perfect example is a task we are currently going through where we have to make two spins around a pylon on both sides of a figure 8. Now I do not expect any pilot except our pro pilots to do a task like this but shows the stability factor of the GTR. With a combination of trim out, breaks, WTS and possibly using the PK system (as the pilot chooses to use it) the GTR has not seen a wing tip flutter where competing brands of wings have had partial wing collapses. I am not saying this for any reason just to tell the facts and this is what is happening; going through our own turbulence a second time around the pylon has not made a wing tip flutter out of the GTR.

Wing testing, when is it in reflex?

People always have the question so I will try and clarify; when any wing is tested it is tested with trim in and this is considered a paraglider, they do not test with trim out and this changes the wing. Essentially, trim in no reflex, trim out reflex. And you can steer a reflex wing with reflex on i.e. trim out – but is easier with the WTS when in reflex mode.

For Paramania the GTR and Revo2 are he only gliders you can do this with.

We have built the GTR for pylon racing, where even though the stability might be bad in the air you can still feel safe flying low and fast with trim out. Although I would not recommend this it is necessary for events like Parabatix where the conditions might not be the best but you still have to fly at a designated time.

This is the built in quality Mike Campbell-Jones desired because he knew his pilots would be flying inches off the ground at full speed and needed this as a safety factor.

We are finding with the GTR it is efficient.

Dean Eldridge just won first place with his GTR 20 at the UK Nationals, this was a classic comp where they can choose one wing and motor for the whole event; navigation and distance tasks, economy tasks and precision tasks. This wing is impressing us with it’s economy abilities plus its precision attacks, the stability and efficiency at speed and found to be competitive at all around [general] flying. Look at the UK National stats the numbers are clear.

Unsheathed lines

We produce the GTR with unsheathed lines on the upper cascades because it lessons the “parasitic drag” for our competition pilots to fly with more efficiency. We leave the lower cascades sheathed because there is more chance for a prop strike and for the lower cascades to get damaged. Although, unsheathed lines are more susceptible to the elements, so make sure and do through pre-flight and post-flight checks on your wings. This includes the risers, maillons, lines and canopy.

We can provide the GTR with fully sheathed lines just talk to Bobby Benn our USA Paramania Manager and he can help you out, his number is 239-980-2681 Call him and ask questions, he has all three sizes of GTR and flies them all, the 18, 20, and 24.

GTR wing speed and agility

All the concern for the wings speed and agility depends on how you are loaded on the wing. If you are very lightly loaded it will not be as dramatic as if you are heavily loaded. This is assuming you know how to manage a wing.

For an example, Bobby has been giving this wing to most pilots after a quick briefing and all seem to be comfortable and instantly confident, plus have a great time. The speed is fast, which helps with safety, but is also slows right down for a swoop landing.

It has an impressive speed range.

Paramania prides itself in creating wings that will keep you very happy for more then just a short time. For example; the Revo2. I have flown the Revo2 as a beginner and was my first wing. Just when I began to understand the wing I have unlocked a new key, like letting out the trim and then using the WTS and with the speedbar. From the Revo2 I have now flown the GTR 20 and 24. What I am saying is in my personal experience I have flown the Revo2 up to a point where I have good experience, good enough to fly the GTR 20 and 24.

Paramania is the only manufacturer that is 100% focused on building wings for power.

We are in fact, the only manufacturer building wings only for powered flight. As I speak Mike Campbell-Jones, the designer, is currently flying his GTR 20 in the Slalomania competition and is out there learning more about our wings every day.

GTR is easy to launch
Extremely solid in turbulence
and is proving itself in precision as well as economy tasks

I hope this helps anyone our there considering a new wing. Again, contact Bobbie Benn, he has wings to demo and could possibly meet up with you for you to try one of our wings. His number again is 239-980-2681

Cheers, Theron

Posted in GTR, News, Wings | Tagged GTR, paramania, paramania gtr, paramania gtr 20, paramotor, Slalomania, UK nationals | Leave a comment

UK Nationals, Dean Eldridge takes first and second with the GTR

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Dean Eldridge

Having built a fresh Parajet Zenith paramotor just a few days before and without having any time to test with it due to our inclement British weather, I arrived at the 2012 British Paramotor Competition with a little bit of trepidation.

Rule of thumb, don’t change anything right before a competition!

However, having the same geometry as my previous prototype machine but with the additional power of the bigger Polini 200 motor I had some idea that things would be OK. And the week previous I had gained useful information about my Paramania GTR20 while working with Lolo Salinas and Mike Campbell-Jones at the French Open competition.

With a break in the weather on the Saturday evening we started the comp. I also came armed with points gained from the previous 2 league events where I came in 2nd. Consistency through tasks is the name of the game for a good result in a championship and that was my focus, to do well in each task and not do anything silly.

I managed good, solid and consistent results and was elevated to 1st place where I stayed for the rest of the competition by keeping at the intensity and focus. My Paramania GTR 20 was the perfect choice for this competition giving wonderfully safe, agile handling in the slalom tasks and being fast, solid and incredibly efficient in the economy and navigation tasks.

A British Championship title for me and the first ‘classic’ style competition win for the GTR, Polini 200 and Parajet Zeneth with many more comps and wins to follow.

Posted in Events, Guest Blogger, News, Team Pilots, UK | Tagged dean eldridge, GTR, Paramaia team pilots, UK Nationals PPG, UK paramotor | Leave a comment

Paramania Australia – uses the GTR 24

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Theron

About 6 months ago Paramania sent a GTR 24 to Australia as a demo, we wanted to see how the pilots would react to such a wing when most normally they enjoy cross country flight.

Here is the feedback from Andrew.

The GTR is going great. I have been taking it around to fly-in’s whenever they have been on. It is on it’s way to a Queensland fly-in (2,000km’s north) with one of my sponsored pilots (Rick Clarke) this week so it can be demo’ed and displayed at the event.

Personally I find the GTR very nice to fly. It’s great down low flying along the dry creek beds and around trees in the paddocks here. Very responsive and still very stable.

Andrew concluded by saying.

I can only compare the fuel economy with the Revo2 I had been flying with my newest paramotor (TOP80) and it seems to be about the same. Having said this I am flying the GTR more aggressively than I would the Revo2 and still using the same amount of fuel. I am impressed with this, and the lift, given the GTR is 2 sq meters smaller than wings I usually fly.

Posted in Australia, Country, News, Pilots, Wings | Leave a comment

Paintball Warfare – Epic Paintball Battle – YouTube

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Theron

Our Paramania GTR Team pilot Glenn Tupper takes it to the next level with this exciting video. Already with 2,500,000 hits we are excited to see a paramotor get so much publicity.
Enjoy!

Paintball Warfare – Epic Paintball Battle – YouTube.

Posted in Events, Team Pilots, USA, USA Events, Video | Tagged capture the flag, death trap, devinsupertramp, dirt race, Glenn Tupper, GTR, jumping cars, paintball, Paintball war | Leave a comment

Amazed by Paramania and the GTR by Glenn Tupper

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Glenn Tupper

After flying the Paramania GTR 24 for about six months it was time to migrate to the GTR 20. I received the 20 a few weeks ago and enjoyed her blazing fast speed around a few pylons in El Paso, Texas.

I had to return to Colorado Springs for work but I came armed with my GTR 20 and my Parajet Volution Thor 100. If you don’t know Colorado Springs it is in the middle of the United States in the eastern edge of the Southern Rocky Mountains at an elevation of 6,035 feet (1839 m).

“Once she is inflated it is as if you are flying a “fixed wing” aircraft”

I was a bit worried about climb performance and how hard it was going to be to take off at such an altitude, but the GTR never fails to amaze. My first attempt was this past Friday, on my 28^th Birthday, I set out determined to fly next to the Garden of the Gods.

colorado_springs_first_flight_paramania

After leaving work at about three in the afternoon I headed out for a takeoff spot that I reckoned on Google Earth just about a mile northeast of the red rocks. The temperature was about 20 degrees C and the wind was gusting about 20 knots, thermals everywhere but it was time to fly. I really wasn’t worried about anything as I knew how solid the GTR 24 was after flying it in some of the worst turbulence of my life at the Grand Canyon, the GTR 20 would be even more reliable.

smokin_pylons

“I was being bounced around every which way but not even a wing tip collapse.”

Sure enough, the wing even at over a mile high popped straight up over my head, the easiest wing I have ever launched and off I went. I probably should have waited for the thermals to die down but my confidence was high that this wing would be like a rock in the air, once she is inflated it is as if you are flying a “fixed wing” aircraft. I flew over and along the red rocks of the Garden of the Gods, it was spectacular to see from the air, but I was unable to take my hands off the controls to take pictures the conditions were so rough. I was being bounced around every which way but not even a wing tip collapse.

paramania_powergliders_USA_glenn_tupper

After this day I have full confidence in the abilities of the GTR and the technology that has been placed in her, she is solid and faithful, and even at over a mile high with a 85 k pilot and a measly Thor 100 engine she still wants to fly, and fly as fast as ever. Stay tuned for more mile high adventures!!

Glenn Tupper

Posted in Guest Blogger, Team Pilots, USA | Tagged Colorado, Colorado Springs, Garden of the Gods, Glenn Tupper, GTR, Paramania Pilot, USA | Leave a comment

British Team Flyin – GTR proves it’s self, Deano is Ready for the Season

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Dean Eldridge

Some fantastic weather in the south of the UK enabled members of the UK Paramotor squad to come and join me for a training weekend in Dorset near the Parajet factory to blast away the winter rust and get some competition style training done.

With the superb handling of my Paramania GTR20 wing coupled with my Parajet/Polini 110 Custom motor, I managed to top the timesheets in all the slalom style tasks.

I had to slow down on the ‘declared-speed-navigation-task’ as I was quite a bit faster than I had anticipated, mostly due to the GTR cutting through turbulence like it didn’t exist.

It was great to see all the makes and models of wing, motor/ chassis and how the GTR ranked up against them.

paramania_GTR_20

On the Sunday it was enforced how fast and rock solid the GTR really is as we saw some collapses and crashes from others on the low level slalom tasks whereas I just blasted through and set fastest times!

I can’t wait for the competition season to start, everything is ready!!.. Watch out!

-Deano

Posted in Guest Blogger, Team Pilots | Tagged crash, dean eldridge, deano, faster, GTR, gtr20, team pilot, timesheet, UK | 1 Comment

Washing Your Wing

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Theron

I recently received a question from a customer; he has a good condition Paramania wing and had the porosity checked but the wing is a bit dirty. He asked how to take care for and wash the wing…

Thanks for your question.

The best is to wash on a warm day, outside, out of the sun. It is OK to use a light detergent and just give your new beauty a sponge bath from head to tow. I usually take the spray nozzle from a garden hose to do this and just spray one area at a time and also have a bucket of lightly soapy water.

You probably do not need to worry about washing the inside of the cells. Nor will you need to scrub it in most places, trying to keep all of the natural factory materials as they are.

It is also OK to wash the lines by running the sponge over them but do not soak the lines in water.

After the light detergent, do it again with just plain water to rinse it off.

The easiest time I have had with washing is laying the wing over a fence that is just above waist high, using a fence that does not have anything sharp on it, especially on the top. I would not suggest; wood, or chain-link types of fences but something that is metal smooth and painted . Lay the wing over the fence so it is split in half horizontally and wash one half of the wing; go to the other side of the fence and wash the other half. Flip the whole thing over (you might need some help with this and can also wait until it has dried a bit) and do the other side.

You can leave it on the fence to dry after this as long as it is not in the sun. When it is almost dry you can also kite the wing and it will get the last bits of moisture out of the wing.

Make sure to keep the risers pulled out towards the trailing edge and untangled because once you get your wing clean I’m sure the next thing you will want to do is go fly!

Hope that helps, let me know if you have more questions.

-Theron