BurnieM

Two points; I have never received complete or relevant information from a company in receivership. Never. Interesting that Sling Aircraft are addressing their recent massively increased demand by expanding their in house manufacturing facilities. Yes they are a smaller company but appear to have a more strategic management. Not saying they are perfect.

Lets see what happens with basic 5 medical. They could end up being very similar.

While current kit builders will pay whatever they have to, I don't see many new kits being sold in the next 2-3 years. This willl create further problems.

The NSW Fuelcheck app is handy to have on your phone. It will give you locations and current pricing.

Agreed but with basic 5 likely to be restricted to 1 passenger, how is this different to what we have now with RPC ? If anything the number of crashes with DAME signed off pilots appears to be higher. Not suggesting that this is a factor but am suggesting that self declared is an extremely small factor. Yes you are legally covered but in many (most?) aircraft scenarios you are dead.

I purchased Garmin Pilot for Australia in January and it did location based display of Notams then. What took OzRunways so long ?

So what are the numbers for the 912 ULS (on the market for 24 years) and the 912 IS (on the market for 11 years). These are pretty reasonable time periods and would have thought we would all have a pretty good warm fuzzy feeling by now.

Agreed. You would need to modify the design. These 4 manufacturers all have the expertise and facilities to do this but they haven't. Rotax was not a aviation engine manufacturer for 60 years until it was.

Yes, the current enigines produced by these Japanese manufacturers are not ideal for aviation use (but they are close). These manufacturers all have the expertise and manufacturing control to design and produce an aviation suitable engine to match and better (power, reliability, long life) Rotax. The question is why have they not done this ?

Rotax are primarily a snowmobile/motorcycle engine manufacturer. Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki and Kawasaki all have significant engine development/manufacturing divisions but seem to have choosen not to go into aviation. Too much legal risk for not enough volume ?

? The same as it does for RPC. The same as it does in the UK for PPL. The same as it does in the US for SportsPilot. Worldwide CASA type authorities have always shat on the pilot first, second .....

Seems to me that class 5 is all about removing objections to RPC having controlled aerodrome/airspace endorsements so CASA would probably be forced to make it more leinent than they want to. I expect a PPL with class 5 will be; VFR only 10,000 ft only 1 passenger pretty much the same as a RPC with self declared medical. PS I also expect RPC controlled endorsements to happen reasonably quickly due to pressure from YWSI restrictions if it does not. PPS Sort of makes you wonder what will happen in the near future if RPC and PPL (class 5) effectively become the same.

Starting with the very basis of the ASIC card; I understand its purpose is to deny airside access to non-authorised persons. Yet there is nothing in place to stop any pilot from landing and taxiing airside without an ASIC card. Further there appears to be no power given to airport security (except AFP) to take any action except perhaps denying access to RPT terminals and gate codes (the opposite of its stated purpose). There also appears to be no negative consequences at all from this lack of power for security to take any action. Stating the obvious; ASIC cards have absolutely failed in their stated purpose. So why is this money still being stolen from us ?

Tried to find an old paper (with no luck) that suggested that small sky view could still produce a good fix with low horizontal errors. Cannot remember what they said about vertical errors. With the current 31 operational GPS satellites I believe you can get low error positions with less than 50% skyview. Certainly observation in commercial jets thru a very small window suggests you can get good postions with signifcantly less than this. Yes, a good spread of satellites is required but with 31 operational this is only rarely not available. I have never opened a SkyEcho but some reported issues surprise me. Its odd when good quality GPS receiver/antennas can be purchased for less than US$15. Tried to find the GPS specs but they do not even quote the number of channels. Pulled out an old car GPS (Garmin Nuvi 50) from 2012 with 12 channel receiver. This is in my front yard with 30 degree shading to the north, 20 degree shading to the east and west and -20 degree to the south (yes I am on a hill). By shading I mean from horizon to say 20 above horizon is not visible to the receiver. At my home in northern suburbs of Sydney I am receiving 10 satellites and it is indicating a horizontal error of 4m. The only time I have seen large errors in the last 10 years is when driving thru the Sydney CBD.

Generally you should see a horizontal error less than 10m and a vertical error less than 20m on a consumer grade GPS. Consumer chipsets typically calculate position once a second altho for slightly more chipsets that calculate position 5 times a second are available. I would consider a vertical error of 100m to be extreme and in most circumstances would expect moving map software to either ignore the position or display a large warning message. Depending on what you are trying to do you could display without message or do averaging. In critical use I would not do either but in aviation I would probably still display it with a very visible warning. Every consumer GPS I have seen calcuates its own potential error.

In a previous life I worked for a specialist GPS retailer (not aviation) and took Garmin hiking GPSs on 737/747 flights many times. Even thru their small windows with earlier model GPS chipsets (15+ years ago) I very rarely saw major errors. I find a 1500 ft error (even a vertical error) on a calculated position with a modern GPS chipset to be troubling.

Just confirming I have got this right; there was a 1500 ft vertical error in the GPS position sent from the Skyecho ? This appears to be nothing to do with potential errors between baro and GPS attitude and everything to do with poor satellite spread or number of received satellites and either; 1. the high potential error calculated not being passed to the moving map software or 2. the moving map software ignoring the potential error and displaying position without a warning. (apparently Skydemon does display an potential error but not promenently). The UAvionix response in the video is misleading to say the least .

Not saying 'electrically dependant' is not an issue to be remediated but is it actually a bigger risk than carbs/magnetos ? The 912IS requires battery power to start but not to run. The IS has two alternators with the first being 10?amps for engine (ecu/fuel pumps/spark). If this fails the ecu can switch everything automatically to the second 30?amp alternator (normally used for avionics/battery charging only). If the second alternator fails then the engine will stop. Reconnecting the start power will allow you to restart the engine but it is recommended to reduce the avionics load and land with 30 minutes. This seems like a pretty fair level of redundancy to me. You can also fit a third external 30amp alternator but this can only be used for avionics/main battery charging.

The Rotax 912ULS and 912IS of similar vintages are pretty similar in climb and cruise preformance. The IS is more fuel efficient in cruise. Is the 914 still an option ? Look at the 915 for a fair bit more in cost. The power requirement/backup issues of the IS seem well known and allowed for and the 912IS has been flying for 12 years. The both versions of the 912 seem ideally suited for either 600 or 760kg. Are you really looking at high attitudes ? A lot of these aircraft have limits of 13,000ft (ish) The Sling 2 is both an LSA at 600kg and a VLA at 700kg and was flown around the world in 2009 at 900kg each day for 40 days. It used a 912ULS. With this aircraft going to class G this will now (soon?) allow you to take 2 people with full tanks. If you want to fly both engines then Fly Illawarra have an Evektor Sportstar with a 912ULS and a Evektor Harmony with a 912IS.

With Group G looking to have similar maint requirements to GA perhaps group G owners will stay with Casa if they can self assess (and some VLAs ie Sling 2 may go back). Interesting timing on these 3 (PPL self assess, RAA group 4 and RPC controlled endorsement). I guess as long as more people can fly more places with more fuel its all good (if/when it actually happens).

Possibly VFR up to 10,000 only with Class 5 PPL (guessing from no night VFR) and controlled endorsement with RPC at about the same time to reduce arguments. Anybody have any more info. If CASA don’t stuff it up and make it too restrictive would this make RAA less attractive ?

The Travel John semes to be designed for exactly this situation; https://www.platinumhealthsupply.com.au/products/traveljohn