My Book Now Available :)

Hello All,

Well it’s been many many months since I last posted on here. Virtually nothing exciting has been happening since the close down of all the Egg projects in 2012/2013. What I have been doing though is making sure the official Eggmotor website and the links therein are as valid and up to date as possible. I’ve changed the format of the site to a more phone-friendly scrollable one page layout. http://eggmotor.atspace.co.uk. There is a new home page (blatantly promoting my new book ‘The Chronicles Of Egg’) with links to order the new book (in both paperback and ebook format) as well as a link with the text to enter the old main Eggmotor site.

My new book is over 70 pages of photos, anecdotes and the background to my desire to make and fly my own paramotor.

The synopsis is as follows:

“The story of the culmination of my desire for powered paragliding flight. A brief insight of the designer, creator and test pilot Robert Shaw followed by the history of the development of his self-coined Eggmotor. This book gets into the nitty-gritty of the engineering, testing and ultimately the successful flights of this home-made, back-to-basics aviation marvel. There is also a plethora of information and relevent resources for any budding D.I.Y. sky hungry folks to follow their dreams and emulate the achievements of the author.”

Amazon link for my paperback book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chronicles-Egg-Robert-Shaw/dp/1446750698/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3HNS3M91UNS7H&keywords=chronicles+of+egg&qid=1705849950&sprefix=chronicles+of+egg%2Caps%2C76&sr=8-1

Lulu link for my paperback book: https://www.lulu.com/shop/robert-shaw/the-chronicles-of-egg/paperback/product-95mmv62.html?q=chronicles%2Bof%2Begg

Link for ebook version: https://www.lulu.com/shop/robert-shaw/the-chronicles-of-egg/ebook/product-v8rrp6d.html?q=chronicles%2Bof%2Begg

A small percentage of each book sale will go towards replenishing my wallet after the years of abuse it suffered from expenditure building the various Eggmotors and so I’d like to say a huge thank you up front.

It Flies!!!

7.11.12: Well, yet again I have to apologize for the delay in updating. Since the last post, the gx200 reduction drive Eggmotor has had it’s first successful test flight. There have been some issues with the exhaust bracket failing but I’m hoping that is now sorted. Also, I have swapped the 1 litre gravity feed test tank to a pulse pump feed 5 litre tank.

Here is the footage taken from the first test flight back in late July 2012. Location is a Cloud Hoppers Club site near High Marnham, Nottinghamshire, England. I’ve roughly estimated climb rate to around 200fpm. Pilot weight of approx. 100kg with a ’27’ Windtech Kinetic non-reflex glider.

Flown The Nest?

8.05.12: Hello again, well unfortunately the latest Egg has yet to fly the nest due primarily to the poor weather so far this year. I also have an intermittent back problem which always seems to flare up when the weather does improve. Since the initial testing back in the Autumn of 2011, I have made some minor tweaks and modifications.

I’ve switched the spark plug to one of those fancy Pulstar Pulse-Plugs, it has a capacitor circuit which apparently creates a much larger, quicker and hotter spark. The manufacturer claims upto 12% more power and torque so I’m now expecting to easily hit the 50kg thrust mark on any future bathroom scales tests as the November 2011 test was just off the mark (48-49kg).

I have also fitted a rubber mounted support bracket to the exhaust as concerns were raised by one or two forum members regarding vibration and premature failure.

Other News: I have revamped both the YouTube channel and the main Eggmotor website, they are both designed around a similar style now. I have also started to re-release classic Eggmotor moments within the new ‘EggTV’ theme. I am aiming to improve the overall quality, exposure and the revenue generated from Google Adsense ads shown during the videos. As a side project, I have been working on a knackered genuine Honda GX270 engine. A play list chronicling the project so far can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5F7932A162B1B90D

Many thanks for following the various TeamEggmotor endeavours so far…

Please Subscribe

Hello All, I would greatly appreciate it if you could subscribed to our YouTube Channel please.

http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=lookupparagliding

Big Egg, Big Thrust

6.11.11: It’s has been a while since I last updated the blog and there is much to mention. The original Loncin gx200 engine now has a new home in a larger stainless steel frame together with a Bailey-Egg reduction kit and a 1.3m prop from D&T Propellers. This machine was originally built for a BIG challenge but due to financial constraints the ‘challenge’ has been abandoned for the foreseeable future. I did initially try a smaller alloy framed design to utilize the redundant fan blade assembly from the defunct Eggmonster project but I was unhappy with the strength and quality of my ‘Durafix’ joints. So I invested in some 16mm stainless steel and made a tube bender to roll the cage sections.

DIY Tube Bender

New Cage Construction

Bare Stainless Cage

Engine Close Up

New Eggmotor

New Eggmotor

Now we have the same thrust of the old Eggmonster but for much less weight. With our bathroom scales we achieved 48-50kg (106-110lb) thrust this afternoon. A few minor niggles to sort out and we will be ready for our maiden test flight.

Not Quite Oomph!!!

30.03.11: Sam and I conducted another bathroom scales test at the weekend and amazingly and also annoyingly only achieved around 35kg thrust??? I’m not sure how accurate this method is but the carb jetting is much better/richer now than the last recent scales test when we got around 38-40kg thrust (see previous video). I can only speculate that is type of testing is quite flawed……… Well that’s what I’m hoping any way.

So to try and get some accurate information regarding the prop’s performance I’ve pestered Xoar again for some technical data for the 36x10PJD-P prop. When I asked them for the data a good year or so ago they didn’t have any. Thankfully they now have the relevant information and Rebecca from Xoar emailed me the PJD-P 36×10 data yesterday. (I also have the ‘old’ PJD-P 34×10 available too for those of you who may require it)

Unfortunately, when I checked the data, the 4900rpm I achieved in the garage a week or two ago doesn’t equate to the 45kg thrust I was expecting with my own calculations. It is more like a meagre 42kg thrust instead. I need to achieve 14.5hp/5000rpm in order to get the 45kg (44.7kg according to data) performance I’m wanting, the 4900rpm we got only equates to 13.5hp.

I’ve ordered a Pulstar pulse plug to try and achieve improved combustion and may be squeeze an extra fraction of thrust.

I will update soon…..

Extra Oomph???

23.03.11: Well we finally got to thrust test the Egg with the new head and carburettor combo a couple of weekends ago and things didn’t go to plan. As you can see from the video below, we only peaked 38kg thrust which is 2kg less than with the previous cylinder head and stock carb. I wasn’t sure where the problem might have lay and so doing some quick, rough calculations it appeared we were only getting about 4500rpm.

Any way, I took the spark plug out as I suspected it might be running lean with the stock jet fitted (size about 0.88mm) and after I uploaded an image of the plug to a couple of forums the general concensus was that it was quite lean indeed. I had a spare 1.00mm jet lying around and so I fitted it and did a quick rpm test in the garage and I achieved 4900rpm. Yippee!!! If those previous rpm/thrust calculations are correct then that shows that the Egg should now be pushing about 45kg(99lb) thrust.

I then checked the plug again and it still looks a little lean so I contacted Shane at AGK stating the engine specification and asking what would be the best jet size and he reckons about 1.05-1.1mm. So I’ve ordered and now received some suitably sized drill bits and I will be drilling the jet out to probably 1.1mm either tomorrow or the weekend. I might even squeeze a few more rpms and a smidge more thrust too.

So watch this space, the Eggmotor could soon be exceeding 45kg thrust. Lets hope reliability holds up 🙂 New thrust test will be taking place very shortly.

On Wheels

22.02.11: Well I’ve now fitted the new crankcase cover gasket and while I was in the garage I decided to see if the frame dimensions were close enough to the Monster’s specification to see if it would fit on the quad attachment,……. it did.

I just needed to drill a couple of holes for the securing nuts and it was a tight squeeze with the fuel tank cradle but all went well. With the harness connected up I sat in it and performed the starting procedure to have a short, part throttle bash. With the ignition already set to ‘ON’, I reached my left hand behind me and made sure the choke lever was set to ‘CLOSED’. Then while applying half throttle with the control in my left hand I sharply pulled the recoil cord from behind my head, over my left shoulder and down towards my legs. After three or four attempts she roared into life. I then ease open the choke. Now that the prop is back on the throttle response seems very sluggish and tends to bog if quick throttle adjustments are made. Just like the short run previous, the idle is lumpy and it can only be the large GX390 carb causing it. I didn’t rev up in the garage in case debris on the floor got sucked through the prop. Hopefully there will be plenty of power in the top end to give the requisite increase in expected thrust. I have purchased a new GX270 carburettor quite cheaply as according to ‘C-Line‘ in America the GX270 carb produces a significant power increase to a stock degoverned GX200 engine. If the 390 carb is too much trouble then I will swap over and see what happens.

I have also weighed the complete Eggmotor with harness and three litres of fuel and it tops out at 28.5kg.

Alive Again

05.01.11: The engine is complete again, albeit with a leaking crankcase gasket. That’s no surprise though as I have re-used it several times now. I’ve a new gasket now and will be fitting it asap. I have had it running as it is and it started fairly easily once I worked out the best choke and throttle settings. I’m still a little concerned about the con-rod bolt torque but we’ll see if she destroys herself with a full power test when the propeller is back on.

I’m still expecting 15-16hp at loaded maximum rpm (~5000rpm) and about 45kg(99lb) thrust if the larger carburettor suits the engine and other mods.

Partial Rebuild

25.01.11: While waiting for the new con rod bolts to arrive I thought I may as well build up the top end and figure out a new throttle set up as the gx390 carburettor throttle butterfly turns the opposite way to the gx200 butterfly. The video explains in more detail.