First nice day back at the beach…70 degrees and the wind out of the south. 
Although the X4 has a shorter flight time, it is a Great machine!
Flying season is near!!
Bill
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I took my single skin Independence Grasshopper up on a windy day at the beach…turned out to be a good flight! 
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I was unfolding my X4 the other day…and instead of flipping it over like I usually do, I stuck a couple of fingers through the back plate “triangle”. I immediately felt the 4 throttle wires pull out of the 2.5mm JST XH plug in the flight controller board. 
No flying for me that day!! I did manage to get some kiting in though.
I took the easy way out and ordered a 3S lipoly balance connector to replace it. At least it is now silicone wire instead of the original plastic.
My Batch 3 flight controller plug (from top to bottom) wires are: Red, Black, Yellow and White. I didn’t want to take the props off, so, tomorrow I will perform the “Smoke” test at the LZ, but I should be ok. 
While I had the back plate off anyway, I made a “Jeff Goin” “mod” that I have seen on a GliderSports paramotor too. I have never seen an arm bolt break…but redundant is always good…especially when it adds almost no weight. I took a 30" section of 3/16" Dyneema and created a very small non-slip Brummel loop in one end…looped it around the upper arm and fed the other end down through a small hole I drilled and deburred in the top of the “arm block”. I terminated that end of the Dyneema with a “barrel knot”. (Repeated for the other arm.)
I had no issues folding the X4 after adding the Dyneema links. The weather is suppose to be good tomorrow and my X4 should be 100% once again!! 
Bill
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Windy day at the beach with my X4 and my “single skin” Independence Grasshopper 26.
I finally returned to my favorite LZ to fly with my PPG friends! This X4 flight was my first flight in almost two months.
It was great to get back into the air! So far, I have flown my X4 and SP140 every day this week.
The weather has been very good in the FL Panhandle beginning about noon each day. It has been an OpenPPG week!!
Bill
…and this was my 4th flight this week.
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Here’s a quick video from back in May that was taken by my friend, Ethan, at the Harriet Alexander Airport in Salida, Colorado. With no wind and an elevation over 7500’, this was my 3rd and last attempt of the day. I hadn’t blown a launch in a very long time, but this day I had 2 in a row.
It took my single skin Grasshopper and my SP140 in Sport mode to get me off of the ground. Sport mode felt like a weak Chill mode at that elevation.
Bill
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Late afternoon Memorial Day flight on my X4 “Angry Bees” and my Independence Grasshopper 26. It was my first time in the air in over a month. It made my day!! My wife heard me “Buzzing” by the house and took the quick video.
Bill
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