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Gabe article on last years Telford show

TELFORD Air Show – November 30 th / December 1^st 2002 TELFORD, ENGLAND

I was lucky enough to be in the U.K.  The day after Thanksgiving this year. A new direct flight from San Diego to London, Heathrow made it financially feasible, though some promotional tickets British Airways sold.

While Americans are celebrating Thanksgiving weekend; paragliding, hangliding and micro-lighting enthusiasts from all over Britain are converging on the picturesque town of Telford in Southwest England. The Telford Air Show is the largest foot launched and micro-lighting exhibition in the U.K. With a membership (hang/para) of just over ½ of that of the States I was expecting a smallish outdoors event like demo days in Utah or our own Expo at Torrey Pines.

The plan was to meet up with friend and Scottish pilot extraordinaire Murray “fotoglider” Hay, Murray runs a number of thought provoking U.K. paragliding sites, one example is  www.paraboffin.info He is also promoting both ‘Paraglider Magazine’ & ‘the ‘Paraglider Show’ in the U.K. as well a being a regular caller on the internet radio show hosted by my father and I, on worldtalkradio.com the world wide leader in internet talk

We were to suss out the Air show, report on new and interesting products (or people), then get some flying in Scotland.

I arrived in Telford, Saturday evening towards the close of day one of the show and got a peek inside at the show area which was actually taking up 2 ½ exhibition halls in the Telford concourse!

The show was much bigger than imagined almost the size of the Free Flight Festival in Garmisch and the beauty here was that the masses would be speaking English. I couldn’t wait to visit the show the next day with that camera laden Scotsman in a kilt and a press pass!

We arrived at about 10:30 am the next morning and bypassed the long line, with those press passes Murray had arranged with Merv Turner of the BHPA (who we can’t thank enough). In all honesty I think nobody wanted to argue with a 6” Scotsman in a kilt + 50lbS of camera gear! They just let us through into a billowing throng of people (do all pilots billow or is that just hang glider pilots with VB’s?) pushing and shoving their way into the main concourse areas. Hundreds of aviation enthusiasts were already wheeling and dealing their way through various vendors of every para / hang / microlite accessory imaginable. Would you like to shop for Icom radios, female paramotors, battery heated underwear (great for Californians in Scotland!), stunt kites, aviation manuals, personal gyro-copters, etc. etc. It was overwhelming without my first cup of coffee and a bit jet lag.

Luckily my partner in crime was not suffering from my symptoms and he was off introducing me to various BHPA officials, product vendors and pilots. If ½ the British PG and HG community was not subscribers of Paraglider Magazine or listeners to the Paraglider Show – they are now. Actually I was amazed by how many people were aware of our efforts in Southern California.

But alas onto some of the exciting products I saw or bought…. he he, business expense right?

One  of the first products that caught my eye was COMPE GPS software . This clever bit of programming should already be known to competitors in the World Air Games. This is a soft-ware program that allows you to download 3-Dimensional scale maps from anywhere in the world on to your PC. You can then input your GPS track log and variometer (optional) data into these 3-D maps to get a real time view of your flight. It’s absolutely awesome because the maps are to scale and can take the form of wire frame models, topos, street maps, etc. You can add additional data such as wind direction; climb rates, etc. into the model. You are then able to play back the whole flight at any speed and any zoom strength; the flight can be viewed from God’s eye view or pilot view. Multiple pilots can download their data so the entire comp could be recreated. Various factors like weather, terrains, etc. can also be manipulated for greater realism.

I am looking at it as an awesome teaching tool that can visually depict how things like wind, terrain, lift, sink, rotor, etc. would affect flight. Check out the Torrey Pines web store www.flytorrey.com online for more details and order information.

Motors, motors, motors, seemed to be the theme for what the British see as the next big thing. Several motor manufacturers were present and a quick summary of their new products are here;

Paramotoring.com was present with an innovative perspective on using some newer materials. New materials being some very light and strong metal fuel tanks with bead blasted logos…very cool look. New Swedish motor and new tuned exhaust systems for the popular Simonini.

RAD Paramotoring also had some fresh approaches to motoring. RAD specializes in lightweight motors and they are nearly complete with the design for a woman’s only model. This model will feature a lighter motor which produces a bit less thrust, but the real improvement for her lies in the new harness adjusted specifically for ladies. It promises to be more comfortable in the chest and hip area. I applaud any company making PG products for ladies - We   even volunteered our services in the selection and training of the ladies. RAD has also developed a variable pitch prop. It’s basically the prop housing which allows you to adjust the pitch angle of the prop. This is awesome because you could change pitch to produce more thrust, reduce noise, conserve fuel, etc.

Paramaina.com also had some fantastic innovations. They have created what could be the first true weight shift motor harness. They’ve done this by rethinking the motor and frame setup slightly, brining the harness hang points (karabiners) down closer to your hips… more like a non-powered PG harness, the new arrangement places the ‘carbs on a forward facing arm which can swing vertically on the main frame, the front of the arm attached by webbing to the seat board, this also brings the thrust line (vector) in line with the hang points. Difficult to explain … but hopefully our pictures and a visit to their web site will do the trick. They have an awesome tandem setup that incorporates this as well.

Perhaps the most exciting motor products came from Sperdwill Industries. Their innovations maybe too many to list, but here’s a try. They have developed a new modular motor which will work in a paramotoring frame or in the new Mosquito NRG which they are licensed to manufacture. This is a huge plus for pilots who are biwingual – one motor, two frames = two aircraft. It looked awesome and really simple. They are casting the motors differently so that the plate that would bolt into a PG harness with 4 bolts or a Mosquito harness using 2 bolts are already cast into the engine. This reduces the number of parts and weight of the overall motor assembly.

The automotive style rubber mounts that separate/connect the motor to the chassis have been replaced with a design suited to aviation use, reducing vibration and frequency and avoiding the risk of mounts splitting. A vapor trap has been added to catch excess fuel that is often emitted from a 2 stroke engine. Any serious motor pilot has a flight suit covered in petrol and 2-stroke oil. This trap should reduce or even end this.

The 3-prop Sprewell designs are modular so individual blades can be replaced as apposed to the whole prop. A folding prop for the Mosquito was based on a centrifuge design so that when the engine is idle the prop is folded increasing aerodynamic efficiency and reducing drag in the hang glider. The airframe of the Mosquito has also been reinforced using higher grade aluminium which instead of being ‘painted’ is run through a series of baths which coat it by molecular bonding so it will not chip or scratch, all of which can lead to ‘rust’ and jeopardize the integrity of the airframe. Their method allows them to give the new airframe a 25 year warranty. Now that’s quality!

Other exciting products we saw included the AFE series of books.  These are highly recommended by Murray and range from Human Performance & Limitations through to Aircraft Technical etc. Understanding your own personal limitation along with the inbuilt limits of the human body is just another step to enjoying a long happy flying life. The author, Jeremy Pratt has written them for GA pilot training but they are oh so pertinent to our sport. The books also include aerodynamics, aviation weather (and recourses), flight skills, etc. I have just started reading book 1 and I tell you it’s better than anything currently available targeted at freeflight.

 Finally some interesting trends I noticed at the show. Almost every paragliding school / shop also sells products like kite buggies, surfboards, mountain boards, etc Murray suggested that this was boosted by the need to diversify as a result of last years F &M disease in the U.K. to stay in business.

New products in this area include the “Blokart” and similar which look like a wind surfing sail attached to a 3 wheel cart (a mini land yacht that fits the boot of your car in 5 mins!)

Jockey Sanderson was there promoting not only his excellent video’s “Security in Flight” and “Speed to Fly” but also his world wide xc clinics and SIV courses. Rumour is part of his springtime schedule this year will include a trip to Southern California to co-host xc clinics with Torrey Pines Gliderport. Jockey is apparently very enthusiastic about the new Paraglider Magazine and is a participant on the Paraglider Radio Show.

That’s about the short and long of it. I think the show was a tremendous success; I will definitely be looking for another cheap flight this time next year, a couple of things that would have been nice to see, is more participation from the wing Manufactures them selves.

I know many are regrouping after the French Festival Coupe d’ Icare , but it would be great for the English speaking world to see more of these guys.

And of coarse my biggest qualm at all these events to which I travel is……… why the heck are they always planned when the flying sucks?

A special thanks to the British Hang gliding & Paragliding Association (BHPA) and the British Microlight Association (BMA) for giving Murray and I press passes, also special thanks to Murray “fotoglider” (that’s his ICAO Callsign by the way!) for helping with technical and other details in this article, for showing a lad a hell of a time in Scotland (another story), for pushing the limits of freeflight aviation knowledge and a shocking display of fashion which brought more creditability to our names!

     Cheers

Gabriel Jebb

Ps apparently he does some times fly wearing the kilt!

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Last modified: 12/13/07