Lighting Up Time - by Steve Wright

Is it just me, or does paramotoring make you paranoid? Or are people just saying that?!! Whatever, I've decided to start making myself a more visible moving object in the sky when 'motoring'. Why? - well, over the past year or so I've become more and more aware of the RAF/military jets using the nearby airspace much more

frequently than before (that is, before I started telling the nice NOTAM people of my t/o & landing grid reference!). In fact I have noted more than once that they've even been using said grid ref. as an intersection for low flypass maneuvers. When I mentioned this to the cheery chappie at the end of the NOTAM line, he “assured" me that this was mere coincidence! Maybe they like to come and see whether they can see any "Bogeys" in Strathbogie, the name of our local district!

Whilst this does not unduly perturb me (after all, they'd not want to prang a £30M+ state of the dog's whatsits jet fighter into my nice little Vortex CorsAir and Powerplay Sting, now, would they?), I thought it'd maybe be about time I tried to make myself more visible, just in case…., so I recently perused the Maplin's catalogue (electronics and electrical parts company), and tracked down a 12volt strobelight unit, complete with fixing nut & washer, and electrical wire for the connections, for the princely sum of £9.99! The unit I bought is white, though one can also purchase a similar strobe unit with either a red or blue lens (for any budding flying fire/policemen out there!)

I thought a while about where to fix the lens on to my paramotor, being pretty wary about not wanting anything to get caught up back behind the cage, with the all too predictable results! I was also concerned that the unit be placed where it would not be too vulnerable to damage whilst in transit, when the cage may be dismantled and laying around either in a trailer or back of a vehicle. I had also previously seen such a strobelight affixed to the top of a friend's unit, but just wasn't completely sold on the idea of having a length of wiring running up the face of the cage upright, again, just in case.... - these things probably never happen, I know, but you may as well do things the way you think best for yourself, if for no other reason than taking responsibility for one's own destiny!

Anyway, there I was, mulling over the idea, and "Well, bless my soul!" It was as if,as if a LIGHT went on in (or more rather on top of) my head! I decided to affix the unit to my helmet, but exactly how? Having considered making a plate to affix it to that could be strapped on to my skid-lid, but subsequently discarding that idea (too much work!), I settled for the rather more direct option - screw it down into the shell itself. I know there are many out there who may not condone the alteration or "damaging" of the helmet's outer shell, but I'd decided that this was going to be the most straight-forward solution in this case for me, and was prepared to live with the results, whatever the eventual outcome.

Next step was 'time for a helping hand'! My long suffering partner Emma was duly summoned, and persuaded to mark the top of my helmet with a felt-tip pen once I was sure I had found my eyeline trained on an imaginary distant horizon (made easier by the use of an eye-level mirror, positioned some metres away from the chair I was sitting on. A quick check for alignment, and it was time to get the drill out. (By the way, if you're doing this as a DIY project, I'd advise the removal of your head from the inside of the helmet at this stage!)

Soon, I had drilled a pilot hole prior to a larger, 9mm dia. hole at the position marked, just allowing adequate clearance for the fairly short threaded stub on the base of the strobelight. I had taken the precaution of moving the padded internal velour covering of the helmet so as not to damage same, and to facilitate the wiring up of the battery terminal, more of which later, though. I was quite surprised to see how thin the protective hard layer of outer shell was on my particular helmet (an Icaro Skyrunner). Still, this was more than made up for by a generous internal compact polystyrene shell, of well over 1cm thick.

From inside the helmet, and around the drilled hole I carefully pared back a slightly larger circle of the compacted polystyrene material, just enough to allow the retaining washer and nut to mate with the innerside of the hard shell of the helmet. The strobelight also comes with a full size pliable washer for protection and/or good mating between the light unit and whatever surface it is connected to. Having fitted this, I then applied a little thread-locking compound to the threaded stub, and carefully finger-tightened the nut, giving it a final tweak with a long-nosed pliers to secure it. I know this may have been a little OTT, as the wiring that comes out of the threaded stub (did I mention that bit is hollow?) would have in any event held the strobe in place, but "If ye're doing a job........ Anyway, the strobe being now secure, it was an easy job to tape the wires on the underside of the polystyrene shell with decent insulation tape, and run the wires to the side of the helmet above the left ear (I'm left-handed, and decided it would be easiest to fix and detach the battery at that side, especially given that the other hand is pretty much kept busy with the throttle!)

I'd earlier admired the strobe light on my friend Jim Addison's 'motor, but had felt that it blinked a tad manically on a 12 volt power charge, whereas 6 volts seemed to give a nice steady frequency, but the blink did not seem quite so bright. Ever on the look for a compromise (and given that the only readily available 6volt batteries are rather large for sticking onto the side of one's helmet!), I settled for a PP3 type 9 Volt battery - small, light and plenty powerful to boot. Anyway, back to the building bit......

On my helmet there are three holes on each side for affixing a visor (something I don't use), and it was an easy operation to find a small drill bit with which to go in through the top most hole, again through the polystyrene (the visor-fixing hole goes all the way through the outer shell anyway), and thus provide a channel through which the wires could be fed.

Once I'd done this, it was a simple task to solder on a PP3 battery clip, and with a bit of heat-shrink tubing to finish the job off. A quick re-adjustment of the wire and tape on the inside, and re-application of the padded velour, and there we have it - a hat fit for a prat!!

For fixing the battery to the side of the helmet, I used stick-on velcro, matching equal parts to both the wider side of the battery and the helmet, and just to make doubly secure (just in case...!) I stuck on the outer side of the battery to the helmet using sticky tape again. I’ve shown it here with see through tape for clarity (of sorts!)

Well, for sure I won't win any prizes for elegance, but who cares? Once you're up more than 10 feet off the ground, nobody sees where the light is, but they do see the periodic flash, which is the bit that matters! Most passers-by probably think we don't look that normal anyway, what with a mess of nylon lines and a bag of washing over a nut with a flymo on their back - so what's a little flashing fairy light at the top going to change?

The way I look at it, if it helps one be seen when airborne a little more than would otherwise be the case, then it can't be bad. I can't really justify a "pukka" strobe at over three figures (or so it seemed at Telford), and I think my own ten quid effort will do the job just about as well.

Answers on a postcard please!