Tell us about your last flight

[rgmwa]

Haven’t seen that type of lock before but as long as it works and doesn’t damage the rudder. I assume the ailerons have locks or the control stick is secured in some way too. 

[Moneybox]

That wasn’t meant to happen.

 

 

It was meant to stick to the coast and miss us. Not good, it’s wild out there.

[danny_galaga]

Take care moneybox!

 

My last flight was today. With passenger #1 ☺️

 

I still haven't done my navs so I'm still just pootling around the area. We flew Boonah, over Moogerah dam, over Kooralbyn, Beaudesert, Lake Wyaralong and then back to Boonah. The area is a great place to be stuck 🙂

 

Might have to go easy depending on this fuel situation though.

[BrendAn]

Did the last flight in the xair yesterday. Sold it and flew it to the new owners farm. But I do get to go and do a few flights with him while he gets used to it.

A sad day but I have another aircraft to pick up later in the year.

Edited Monday at 03:04 AM by BrendAn

[Blueadventures]

I was going to fly mid morning today, but the after burners failed to light up, so did a NASA thing and aborted the flight until 1 April next year😎🙃

[Thruster88]

Speaking of NASA, the Artiemis 2 rocket launches tomorrow 9.24 am eastern australia time. Good luck to all.

[facthunter]

BIG DEAL this one. Hope it goes well. Nev

[peterg]

On 30/3/2026 at 2:02 PM, BrendAn said:

but I have another aircraft to pick up later in the year.

So, what is it?

[BrendAn]

1 hour ago, peterg said:

So, what is it?

912 lightwing

[peterg]

35 minutes ago, BrendAn said:

912 lightwing

blue and white one from Yarram?

 

[BrendAn]

11 minutes ago, peterg said:

blue and white one from Yarram?

 

no not local.

[danny_galaga]

A friend is visiting tomorrow, hoping to take him for a local flight tomorrow. He'll be passenger #2 .

 

Then fill up the fuel tank and pack it away for who knows how long 😔

[BrendAn]

On 01/04/2026 at 9:30 PM, BrendAn said:

912 lightwing

Scratch that post. Lightwing has turned into a zodiac 601 hd.

[BrendAn]

On 27/03/2026 at 12:42 AM, Moneybox said:

I was out there at first light with misty rain and gusty winds. I spoke to my flight instructor last night to get his opinion of fighting a strong crosswind for three hours. His only concern was that the wind velocity was beyond the crosswind capability for my plane to land. I was not concerned about that because I had alternate runways to select at each site.

 

I lifted off at 6:25am, should have seen a sunrise but couldn't even see the horizon. I circled the airport at YNTM until I hit the cloud at 3000'. I leveled the synthetic horizon and dived 700' into clear air and stayed at 2500' for the next hour. It was more like smog than cloud but eventually it cleared enough for me to climb above the  cloud. 

 

 

At 7500' it was bright white everywhere and smooth flying but at 30nm to Paynes Find I needed to get down again.

 

 

There was clear air over that string of dry salt lakes I usually follow so I headed east. It was a decent sized hole but I could see it was closing so I wound up the throttle poked the nose down a bit and sat it on 125kts, just below VNE. I overshot the hole by a bit because the other cloud was at a lower level, then I backed off the throttle did a u-turn while holding about 120kts and dropped through into the dirty air below. From there into Paynes Find I was dodging the heavy downpours but it's a great place to land with two big wide gravel airstrips at 90° to each other.

 

I had to attend to a nature call while I was there so got my back soaked for the few minutes I was outside. I wanted to add some fuel but was reluctant to open the tank in the pouring rain so I took off again heading north. It was not a good decision because visibility was poor and the clouds were low but this is all flat country so it was a case of stay low or try to fly above it. I chose to fly low level all the way into Mount Magnet where I chose the gravel runway that was directly into the wind. I put 20L into the LH tank because it seems to favour that one although the return fuel might be all going to the RH tank, I'll have to check that out and perhaps fit a multi port valve.

 

The trip to Cue was more of the same, howling wind and low cloud. I just zig zagged my way avoiding the downpours dropping from the heavy cloud above. When I got to Cue it was dry and I had a choice of taking the unused gravel runway or the wide sealed runway. The sock was horizontal directly across the runway but here there are may acres of flat nothingness so a good opportunity to try a cross wind landing. It was bouncy final but this plane is really easy to keep heading in the right direction. All went well until I was about 10' off the ground and it dumped me. One bounce and I was on the throttle landing better a hundred metres further on.

 

Mrs M was there waiting. She said "Can you do it again for the camera?" I don't want to do a trip like that ever again.

What's your opinion of the zodiac 601 , mb. 

Edited 13 hours ago by BrendAn

[facthunter]

You are Pushing your Luck, Moneybox with the IMC bit, Particularly.  Nev

[Moneybox]

6 hours ago, BrendAn said:

What's your opinion of the zodiac 601 , mb. 

I don't know if mine is a normal fitout but the canopy opening doesn't allow easy entry and exit. It tilts from either side with a gas strut in the middle. If you want to get in the left you release the left and the right remains hinged, same the other side. If you remove the central gas strut then the whole canopy can be removed simply by unlatching both sides.

 

Apart from the difficulty getting in and out it's good as long as you're not a big guy. There's not much space in the cockpit. It sits more steady in the air than the Sportstar and is very easy to land although it has no flaps. Mine has two joysticks, I think some have a central "Y" stick like a Jabiru. Generally a great little plane and so simple with a fixed prop, no carby heat and no flaps. Not a lot to remember on takeoff and landing. I was told it'd be slow with those big fat wings, it's not. Considering it only has 80hp it performs well but you do need more airstrip than needed with the Sportstar.

[Moneybox]

5 hours ago, facthunter said:

You are Pushing your Luck, Moneybox with the IMC bit, Particularly.  Nev

Yes Nev, I learned a bit on that flight.

[onetrack]

The old saying still holds true - "Good judgement is the result of experience, and experience is the result of bad judgement". 

 

Edited 7 hours ago by onetrack

[BrendAn]

4 hours ago, Moneybox said:

I don't know if mine is a normal fitout but the canopy opening doesn't allow easy entry and exit. It tilts from either side with a gas strut in the middle. If you want to get in the left you release the left and the right remains hinged, same the other side. If you remove the central gas strut then the whole canopy can be removed simply by unlatching both sides.

 

Apart from the difficulty getting in and out it's good as long as you're not a big guy. There's not much space in the cockpit. It sits more steady in the air than the Sportstar and is very easy to land although it has no flaps. Mine has two joysticks, I think some have a central "Y" stick like a Jabiru. Generally a great little plane and so simple with a fixed prop, no carby heat and no flaps. Not a lot to remember on takeoff and landing. I was told it'd be slow with those big fat wings, it's not. Considering it only has 80hp it performs well but you do need more airstrip than needed with the Sportstar.

Excellent, thanks for that. Mine has the central y stick. I like that in the Jabiru so it's a plus for me.

The canopy hinges are different.

There is a video on U tube of a 650 canopy fitted to a 601, it opens forward which makes more sense to me.