My First Paramotor X-Country  by John Wheeler

It was a spur of the moment decision at 2.00 pm on Saturday the 6 July to travel the 2 miles from my house, to my T/O field to hopefully do some practice T/Os, as even though I have been hill flying for 5 years with 50+ plus hours, I had only 30 mins; on a Paramotor, it was a fairly overcast, with occasional sunny periods type of Saturday, winds were light but variable but mainly from a westerly direction, which is what my T/O field needs.

I loaded everything into the car and dragged a semi protesting wife along for safety, on arrival at the T/O the conditions were just right, nice gentle westerly winds which occasionally swung northerly, thermic activity was also light because of the cloud cover.

We unloaded everything from the car and lifted it over the steel gate that has been welded shut to keep out travellers, (the wife is very good at holding and balancing a 30 Kg Paramotor perched on a three foot high steel gate,).

I went through the usual checks and prepared to T/O, after three attempts I managed to lift off and have a very uncomfortable test flight around the field, the reason being was that I could not get into the harness and was just hanging by the nut straps for the whole duration, anyway, after 30 mins; of eye watering discomfort I decided to land, the landing wasn’t very clever either as I managed to over run myself and ended up on my belly, still! Better than belly up.

I unstrapped and approached my wife who was sat looking a bit worried at my heavyish landing, I asked her in a very high pitched Soprano voice if she could go fetch some more petrol while I carried out a few minor adjustments to the harness and carburetion, when the wife arrived back and I came to fill up the tank I realised that I had not packed the oil measure container, so I had to dash off back home to fetch it, by the time I got back it was about 4pm and the wind had picked up slightly, undeterred I filled her up, (the Paramotor that is,) and prepared for T/O, on about the tenth attempt I finally took off, it was a slow and painful accent to 600’ as I had still not managed to get into the harness again, after several circuits of the field and with some effort I eventually sat back comfortably into the harness, I was by this time 900’ and making hardly any forward progress because of the stronger headwind, I then decided to go downwind to take a look at a cricket match in which a mate was possible playing, I also wanted to look at the Sainsbury supermarket where my wife worked just so I could tell her how wonderful it looked from the air? All the time I was getting further and further away from the T/O and was beginning to realise there was no getting back, I traversed downwind alongside the A34 for about another ½ mile then decided to head across open fields towards my house, where I knew there were some LZs that I could use, my height was now 1500’ and the air was starting to feel a bit bumpy at times, when I looked behind me I could see off in the distance what looked like a rain front, so I decided it was maybe time to think about landing, I managed to get across the fields from the A34 to the edge of the northern ring road which encircles Oxford heading south towards Marston and home, I could see the tall buildings of the John Radcliffe Hospital in the distance and knew that was what to head for, after what seemed like an age I eventually saw what I needed, a lovely smooth L/Z only about 500 yds; from my house, it was only when I lost a bit more height that I realised it was the Oxford City football ground, fortunately they must have been playing away or something as it was deserted , there is a large level recreational grass area outside the actual stadium which were also deserted so I made a beeline for that, after a few S manoeuvres I’d lost enough height to make the perfect landing, gently down and still standing, Excellent! Brilliant! WOW! My first XC.

I was suddenly surrounded by a group of curious young lads who had appeared from no where, and who were anxious to know where I had come from and why had I landed there, having satisfied there curiosity and questions they cleared off to let me start packing up, suddenly! My mobile rang, it was my plumber mate who had been coincidentally driving down the ring road to my house to do a job for me, he said “was that you I just saw flying” I confirmed it was and asked if he could he pick me up, ten minutes later the wife also arrived and back home we all went, after the plumber had fixed my boiler, and I had finished telling a couple of fellow pilots by phone of my exploits we all sat down to chicken Tika Masala and a few cans of Grolsh, what a brilliant end to what was a spur of the moment decision.

It was an enjoyable/exciting, sometimes a bit scary and interesting first XC flight, it wasn’t very far (about 2 miles? possibly more) but it’s a start,

anyway, the tank was just about empty so it was just as well I had landed when I did, plus it’s another 1 ½ hours to put in the log book, I can’t wait for the next flyable day.

Happy flying.

John Wheeler