RFguy

Good choice Kiwi . My NZ glider mates tell me that that east coast run is not fun with a westerly blowing, either. If you don't like wind and turb in NZ, you might not fly much. and sfGnome , .,. yes I feel the same way, I'll stay out of my airplane for a couple of weeks . It's not scary, it's just no fun. Maybe its like having a 3 hour colonoscopy or something.

NO, they do not. They do not regulate " (field windings) on a permanent magnet jobby. " Permanent magnet alternators do NOT have field windings ! That's the whole point. Volts in the form of pulses come out of permanent mag alternators whether you want them or not. Permanent magnet alternator regulators have two choices 1) Turn on or off the control device so that more or less of the pulses are passed to the battery. In the case where the battery is full and there is no load, the regulator will be turned off, disconnecting the stator windings from the load (battery) 2) Diversion - (short) load the stator windings. In this case, if the battery is full (no load) , the regulator will place a short across the windings (with load disconnected) . Max current will flow in the windings. IE the power is diverted through the regulator away from the load (battery) (1) is most common.

There's an enormous contrast flying east from Cowra, and flying west. Flying west is hot but there's nothing around, and usually not much moisture. maybe the odd gusty change, and hazardous willy willy near the ground. But flying east... Death is everywhere, rocks in clouds, low ceilings, rising ground, unforgivable terrain , wind and eddys, lots of moisture, and the oceanic effects colliding with the westerlies from the other direction.... I'm sure every region has similarities and can catch people.....The far north Queensland coast and hinterland comes to mind. Who else has their story of this ?

Hi Nev yeah I watched for that with temps hovering around +1 just below the cloud ~ 4k-5k .. ....It certainly causes a rethink of just enjoying flying in one's local region, just to enjoy flying like a bird or , doing long trips that inevitably may suffer bad weather over days and days of the same forecast (that was this case) . I was prepared to turn around and head back anytime, the pinch being Rylstone region. I see there is also an option of going around the top at Gulgong and following the main road. That's all a bit lower, and a bit further north, all helps. The technically difficult nature is one of the things that draws me to flying. A hard task outside my electronics world. I studied the hell out of that route, got lots of info from others , plane prep-ed. But curiosity can also kill the cat. again I think it comes down to being open to turn around or change plan no matter how inconvenient. , and recognising a potentially hazardous scenario unfolding. My 19,000 hour instructor, Rob Glenn, is full of anecdotes and real world examples or things that can happen.

Cowra to Port Macquarie, ( 8 June ) PA28-180. 1 on board. heading up to see some mates and ham radio field day. Never done this route and I have no experience as PIC over to the coast beyond Rylstone. I called up a few locals and got some tips. The GAF was full to the brim with MOD TURB, OVC, DZ, SHSN, BKN ST etc etc FZLVL 5000 Every other long flight I've done the GAF has been empty. Plan was to head up to Rystone cross the gap there, to scone, around north of Barrington and direct to PMQ Got airborne at noonish, fog, low cloud. Took off with no cloud overhead. Went up to have a look . Uh oh, 10 minutes in .... 7500. this really isnt good. This is about to be a problem. Time to dive under that cloud before it becomes a problem. down we go . ceiling 4500. ground ~ 2000. This cloud is not just a bit thick, it's dense and dark. fly along around 1000-1500 above terrain avoiding forested areas where I cant land since at 1500' ,with engine fail, a little over a minute and I am on the ground. 20+ kts tailwind .. bumpy. slowed down to 95-100kts indicated. still 130 with tail wind 🙂 get to Rystone, never flown up here.... bit of training activity going on. head east for a short time then. oh oh (again) . looks like I will have 500' between extremely rugged terrain and the cloud. this looks hazardous. My survival is unlikely if I go in there and have any problem at all. I see a way through this as I can see a a settled valley to the north over a ridge and that valley leads into the hunter valley. looks good. but it will be another one of those engine idle dives to ensure I have plenty of margin around the cloud. I have a quick chat with the locals on CTAF for their suggestions. they concur . Turn left left backwards, back track a bit and head north over the a narrow ridge (which I could descend into farmload either side if trouble ) with 500' in hand on cloud base..... and into the cleared basin on the other side(that's the first northern change in the track above ) this ridgeline is tangental to path, so there is absolutely minimum time getting over it. plenty of engine fail options. Fly along the Bylong Valley Way (and railway from coast to Ulan Coal) ... pick my way around treed areas. Now into the top of the hunter valley .... Not bad via- ceiling 4000, ground ~ 2000' . bumpy. 15 kts tail. very bumpy. still < 100 kts IAS , bumpy Get to Scone , still heading north east....... having a good look, contemplate my direct track north of Barrington Tops.... No F**king way am I going up there ! geezus it looks bad. So, next diversion...... turn right toward Singleton, down the new england highway,,,,,slow right down to 90 kts to give myself some time to figure this out before I hit CTA , no answer on freqs in OZ runways for WIlly Delivery, so look up all the freqs in the ERSA ...... frantically thumb through the ERSA reading up Williamtown procedures and frequencies . all sorted. After listening to ATIS, I get a class C clearance from Singleton to Stroud Road ,intersecting partially up the inland VFR route (railway) . Very nice people at Willy Centre. get a height change to get over the bumps a bit. Nice being watching and cared for in Class C, people shouldnt be scared of it. Then, let off the Class C leash into the valley route. bumpy 2500. get out the top end at Gloucester , cloud clears like magic and nice almost , and then sort of direct to Port from there. tailwind almost gone. Descend into Port midfield X wind 21, into a busy circuit, 4 other planes. no probs. nice touchdown. RETURN, Monday noon. There was LESS overall moisture, cloud ceiling about 5000 and OVC, just not as thick, more like ST than ST CU But the wind. Took off out of Port into 25 kts at 5000. bumpy as hell. wing rollers and uncomfortable turb. Decide go back same way I came up, almost.... it works. Get into Inland route valley. Oh the turb is awful. This valley flying with a wind across the valley is terrible . this is just the pits. This is not fun. slow to ~ 100 kts (95kts ground since wind is currently off my right wing to the west) Get a Class C clearance at Stroud Road again, head to Muswellbrook. nice people again on Willy centre. Now WTF? ! HSI going to 500-750 fpm, up.. Oh now down -500 fpm, and again Mountain Wave ! oh this is NOT FUN. still flying slow at 95-102 kts (80 ground) . 1 hour of this. Brisbane Centre is full of RPT aircraft trying different altitudes to get away from the turb , LOL interesting, a chunk of misty air would go past and simultaneous I'd get a big jolt and roll. not fun. Just south of scone. lots of training going on. Head to back to Bylong, bumpy.... on Bylong Valley Way, cloud getting lower, thicker as I get to the pitch point. Wind a bit better though, I think I'm somehow protection here instead of out in the big hunter valley with rollers coming off the mountains to the west, unimpeded. Over that ridgeline at top of Bylong Valley with not much in hand on ceiling (I'll swap a bit of mist for 10 seconds for another 500' thanks) . and pick my way around the forested areas (flying 1500' AGL) to Cowra. Get west of Bathurst, cloud changes suddenly from OVC to FEW . do a straight-in at Cowra, nobody around. nice landing after 190 minutes of hard work. Pipers are easy to fly and land. fark. that was hard work. I'm pretty tired. Not sure if 3 hours of hard work is more desirable than 7 hours of tedious holiday weekend driving . lots learned. As usual , safe flying is about good decision making. (and early decision making)

there is an assumption by the mfr that a small lead acid battery will be used , and the internal resistance and charge consumption will be well bounded. This is not the case for modern batteries ! as a result the regulators can over dissipate and go short, which in turn can short the battery to the stator which in turn results in a fire.

I don't think the earth lead on the starter will make any difference. 10mm2 ? OK so 3 meters worth, 100 amps for a 2200 I think , total 10 milliohms = 1 V drop round trip. ((0.01726 / 10 ) * 6 ) .......10 milli ohms is getting down to connection loss. so that should be fine. lifepo4 can help for long cables since they maintain a higher cranking voltage.

LIFEPO4 batteries wont blow up or fire, but Avoid batteries with built in low voltage disconnect . Having a battery decide to disconnect from the charging system can be VERY bad for the electronics and your airplane, and will also stop you from inflight restarting . avoid on simple , non current limited charging systems , because the lifepo4 battery can drink as much as you can feed it, which ends up overheating the charging system certainly avoid LIFEPO4 battery on std jabiru charging systems. (many people dont take my advice, that's fine) suggest stick with lead acid, they are designed for starting, and do it well. stick with the heavy lead acid because also, your weight and balance is relying on having something heavy in the nose. as for your 3 meter cable issue- you likely need to upsize the copper cross section. simple as that. how much copper is there now ?

Is fuel excise on all petroleum fuels ?

Like Nev said, if people would have their seatbelts on... idiots..... I have zero feelings for the people who got hurt on SQ while sitting in their seats without seatbelts on. I always say to the pax next to me , that it's a good idea to always wear a seatbelt whenever practical in case of explosive decompression, and give examples (pan-am, hawaiian etc). of course if you were on your way to the loo at the time, that's bad luck. wonder how to cabin crew faired ?

the manufacturer's advice. LOL. leads to over and under tensioning. LOL. My measurements and calculations showed that the mfr method leads ot tension errors of up to 50 %. likely +/-30%.... anyway..... yes, initial stretch temp , temperature dependent. There's a bit of a compromise between having enough tension with a crankcase temp of say 30 deg C, and having too much at crankcase temp of say , 90deg C. So, still a good idea to take it easy until oil temp up to operating temp (which means crankcase temp , also, pretty much) . If the cold tension is too high, safer to TO with low crankcase temp. If cold tension too low, the opposite... I don't want to pollute the forum, this is about 914 heads ,just wondered what the stud diameters were. I'll look it up. Looks like 8mm. I would be confident the Rotax engineers got their stud sizes correct. the rest is left to tolerances and install .....

Canberra airport, 4k/year for parking and all you can eat aircraft movements is good value for money I think. A hangar will cost ya another 10k. The problem is that without a hangar, I suspect minor regular (pilot) maintenance doesn't get done when it sits in the middle of the grass a few hundred meters from the gate . I consider that if I moved the piper to Cbr, then I'd still need a hangar somewhere to pop into do upkeep maintenance between annuals and 100 hourlys. If the Canberra aeroclub had a hangar space for members to do general upkeep, I'd probably join.

Interesting. I've done the calcs on thru bolts etc for jabs, and I assembled my engine(s) on thru bolt stretch, not torque. However, that's more difficult to do with a stud ! what's the diameter of the studs ? FWIW 100hp Rotax hp /litre/rpm is about the same as the Jab. Jab has 6 head screws (5/16" from memory) . FWIW the jab 7/16" thru bolts dont have much leeway between required preload tension at cold,, the tension at hot (with crankcase expansion) and yield. However, all my numbers were done on min yield specs, so the yield point was likely higher. The Jab head bolts , six of them, there's plenty of tension in hand there.

These are the better ones- again - photoelectric $130. but dual sensor so they know the air density etc also. comes in various gas falvours. https://au.mouser.com/datasheet/2/447/KEM_SE0213_QGC-3317038.pdf

So, something to keep in mind. Most of the "CO" sensors at the low end are actually "air quality monitoring " sensors CO is just one of the detected gases.... you need to spend more money to get a pure gas sensor. but of course there shoul;d be only air in your cabin. cheap one - dual gas https://www.winsen-sensor.com/sensors/mems-gas-sensor/gm702b.html https://www.winsen-sensor.com/product/gm-702b.html for the new solid polymer sensors https://www.sgxsensortech.com/solid-polymer-sensors Here is an affordable one USD15 https://www.sgxsensortech.com/sensor/mics-4514 https://www.sgxsensortech.com/uploads/f_note/0278_Datasheet-MiCS-4514-rev-16.pdf amongst https://www.winsen-sensor.com/co-sensor/

CO2 sorry got mixed up LOL. I'm tired.

given that the atmospheric CO2 concentration is about 400ppm, I'm guessing it is displaying concentration above 400ppm. or a complete BS reading.... still, an increasing number is all that's really required. there should be no CO2 in the cabin. Newer sensors are instant on. but the sensors, even wholesale in large quantity are USD$12-20, which isnt going to sell at BWS for less than $100 for that sort.

but "you guys" don't listen to the cricket

Hi Nev, thanks for the comments . I got tossed in the jabiru 90deg to the ground once, that wasnt fun. Some people would say what do you put yourself through it ? Well, I beleive all good pilots are compelled to confront their demons. It's no fun though. And Young with its rising ground around the AD and hills is full of demons. If my adrelaline hadnt been so high, I would have had another go from the other direction, different hills affect the other end. But I'd need ot be on my game when climbing out through the demons at the other end.

Went flying yesterday, while only 10 kts on the ground from the east , much more once in the air , needed 10 degrees to hold off the drift ..... Got to destination , a known bumpy AD to shoot a few Xwinds ,AWIS said 11 kts and pure Xwind... this AD is in a shallow valley..... and I was so shaken up on final on both passes due to very uncomfortable turbulence I found had no appetite for putting the plane down once over the threshold. Did two. So I went back home. and listened to another airplane go into the same AD and go-around twice and then choose the opposite direction..... I guess they got down. landing in same Xwind component but at Cowra approaches are smooth if when windy and landing in same Xwind like it was a non event....perfect nice 10 deg flap flare and landing. was demonstration grade ! This was a specific flavour of turbulence I have encountered rarely There really are different flavours of turbulence, aren't there.... Some more uncomfortable than others. Clearly, more work required more often. and I was quite surprised to be so shaken up in the circuit that it severely affected my appetite for landing. It's not scary. the airplane is not going to break and the airplane is not goign to get tossed upsidedown. It's just very uncomfortable, creating adrelaline, anxietry etc etc ***Does a human body get better with this when it's of a certain flavour ??????? . anxiety levels were still running after back landing at CWR.

so, you'll need to solder up a few wires. battery will probably need to stay. older ones are heater/catalyst type, they have lifespan the way these systems get LONG lifespan is they usually only sample a few times per hour. I have a CO2 monitor that has a lifespan of 500 hours and provides twice a minute updates. Newer sensors are either micro versions of same with long life sensors, or photometry type that measure absorption spectra. I wonder which type this is.

also, it might not function correctly without th ebattery installed- the battery might need to stay, so we also generate a power off closure on power down.

on the switch is one side of the switch at ground , or battery , or neither ? detemrine with a multimeter what we need to do is put a small circuit in there to generate a contact closure on power up If you push the ON button as the power is applied, and hold for 5 seconds, does it turn on ? Or do you have to plug in, wait x seconds, then hold the power button down ?

how do you usually turn it on ?

Without an ADF radio, how are you going to listen to the cricket ? For nav. There are plenty of ADF nav beacons around. and they are easy to use. but if you have a suite of dual GPS systems + VOR, no practical need