cscotthendry

Bit slow getting started but like it said, worth the wait.

The approach to that uphill runway was amazing. A quick flick over the treetops and then plunge for the runway! Yikes

Had something similar happen on our outback trip. We were coming into Broken Hill with a 50+ Kt tailwind from the west and on the ground at BHI, the wind was 20Kt gusting to 30 straight down the cross strip ... except the cross strip was closed and we had to land on the main runway with the wind directly across the runway. Our Legend is rated to 7 kt crosswind component, but I can tell you that with a lot of control twisting and swearing it can manage 20 kt gusting to 30. It wasn't elegant or pretty, but we walked away and the plane was still usable.

Well done! and congratulations. Happy flying.

RJW: Ultimately, turbulence can get strong enough to rip the tail off a Boeing 707 as happened over Mt Fuji in Japan ... But neither you nor I would be flying in those conditions and it's not something to become obsessed with.

A handheld for backup is a really good idea. On a recent trip to the outback, one member of our group suffered a radio failure. Apart from scaring the rest of us half to death worrying whether we'd lost them, there was the problem of what to do for the rest of the trip. Among the group there were several handheld radios carried for just this purpose and the pilot concerned was able to rig one with a lashed up adapter to his headsets and continue the trip with that. It worked well and saved the day.

Hmmm... I wonder ...

Exactly! I only noticed that this morning myself. A failure on my part as well ... "Hatches and harnesses ..." Thanks for the compliments...

After our Lightning Ridge visit, we headed down to Cessnock to have the first 100 hourly done on our plane. That means we've clocked up 100 hours in less than 12 months!

Depending on your electronics ability, I can think of a simple system that wouldn't cost much to make. Using a piezo sensor like in the video posted by Mark, you could amplify that signal through an opamp, then present that amplified signal to a comparator ladder and use the outputs of the comparators to light up an LED bargraph. It might take some trials to get the reference voltages in the comparator ladder set to show something meaningful, but the bargraph display would give a simple readout that would give you trending info. If you went the digital rout with an Arduino or a PIC microcontroller, you could display numeric info, but then you have to READ the meter and interpret the numbers. Of course you could display the numeric info as well as a bargraph on a simple 40character 2 line LCD display, but the project starts to become a career move at that point. PM me if you're interested in more detail of the simple version.

NO, Sorry, Australians are not to be trusted with their own safety. That's why all the carparks are made like little mazes so that no one will go smashing into a row of cars or bowling over little old ladies with their trollies. In the US where I come from, they make carparks with a couple of acres of bitumen with lines painted on it ... And that's all. Somehow we managed for all these years to not have mass carnage in the carparks, but here in Oz, the carpark designers ... GRRR! They give me the irrits... So if we're not to be trusted to drive our own cars in a safe manner, how could we ever be trusted near shiny beautiful airplanes without getting our heads chopped off?

Abso-bloody-lutely! And then some I think. As for the issues around he underwing camping and the seemingly changeable rules, it's my understanding that CASA changed the rules at least once on the weekend. I was told by a reliable source that the rule that no one could be out in the parking area came about sometime on Friday. Those that had to enforce it were sympathetic to those who had to suffer it, but ... What CASA sez, goes... I was one who had to enforce that rule on Sunday, and I'm very pleased to report that I got NO grief whatever from those I had to stop from going through the gate. I thank all concerned for your patience with this and your good humour accepting the rules. Also I thank you on behalf of all of us at Watts Bridge, for coming along and making the event as successful as it was.

Thomas: I agree with Mike completely. I wouldn't repair the GT prop myself. I'm guessing that somewhere somehow, the wooden core of your prop has got moisture in it that may have made it swell, and the swelling and the aerodynamic forces have made the prop shed the coating. I had a Woodcomp prop on my LSA and I changed it for a Bolly, because I'm a bit hesitant about props with wooden cores and laminate sheathing. Also in my factoring, Bolly are local (to Oz) and so it is easy to get service AND they are great people to deal with. In my case, I wrote to the factory of my LSA and sought a letter of approval for the prop swap and they were quite willing to do this. I believe this is all you need for LSA.

Love the pics guys. Hope you stayed for the grande finale, the C17. It was awesome!

Yes, our airshow went off like skyrockets. A great time was had by all. I was doing some marshalling and without exception, everyone I encountered was happy and very positive about the event. The organisers are to be congratulated. You wouldn't believe how much effort they put in, and what was involved to make it what it was, especially ordering the beautiful weather for the 2 days ... THAT took some doing

I agree with the other posters about the weight and balance. It is something that you need to take great care with as it is one issue that can really bite. If I were doing this, my first port of call would be to find a reference for the W&B that is stated in terms of the CofG relative to the main wing. It should also give you a method for setting the plane up (position wise) on the ground to do the weight measurements. Before you make ANY changes, it would be very useful to know how the plane is currently rigged and what effect your weight and a possible passenger's weight will have on the balance of the plane. You say that you fly with lots of up trim. That suggests that there is something not quite right in either the setup, or the rigging of the plane. I would investigate that first before you start making further mods to the plane. I know that you want to get on with this, but when it comes to aviation, faults and mistakes are very unforgiving. Take your time and be careful about this. I don't want to be reading about you or your passenger in the news...

Thanks for the quick reply. Of all the videos on that page, it is the only one that won't play on my iPad

Couldn't find that. Can you post a link to it pls?

I'm very interested in the Balance Masters, concept, but the prospect of having a large quantity of mercury on my plane worries me. Here's a couple of things that I think need to be considered; 1) How robust is the containment system in the Balance Masters? 2) Would it withstand a crash scenario? 3) If it failed in a crash or just in normal usage, it would spray liquid mercury in all directions. Who would be responsible for the clean up? 4) How well do they work at lower temperatures (ie what is the freezing point of mercury)? 5) What is the Aus government's rules on these types of devices? They are banned in New York State already and there are moves to further ban or restrict them in the US and other places. I believe after doing some reading that they actually do work, but I'm a bit concerned about the practicalities / legalities. I might contact the guy in Dalby and investigate more about this.

In Michael Monck’s article in the Sport Pilot magazine, he appears to be advocating a culture change in the organization of RA Aus, to something which looks to me like Managerialism. He states that as a consultant, he thinks that “People hate consultants.” And that “People think that I’m going to steal their watch and charge them to tell them the time.” He argues that “It does demonstrate that people are resistant to change.” The defense that “people are resistant to change” is often used to fend off dissent. The dissenters may disagree with the changes being proposed, but to characterize them as being resistant to change is wrong. He then goes on to propose “But pilots aren’t what RA Aus needs at the moment.” I agree that the organization needs improvement, but being run solely by professional “managers” will see the philosophy of the organization morph from a focus on aviation, to a focus on administration. I’ve seen it happen. I worked for TAFE in Qld and saw a managerialism culture take root there. When I started, TAFE was run by educators. There were two people between me (a beginning instructor) and the college director, and our section had 24 teachers/instructors, teaching an intake of around 120 students per semester plus ongoing students. When I left TAFE was run by “professional managers” and there were no less than six levels of bureaucracy between me and the college director. Our section had been reduced to seven teachers/instructors teaching an intake of around 32 students per semester. This was for the computing and electronics sections, but other sections suffered the same fate. Every time there was a budget cut, the numbers of administration staff grew and the numbers of teachers shrank… Every time! Michael then goes on to assert “We’ve had a bunch of aviators looking after what is essentially a large business…” When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When your primary focus is “business” then everything looks like a “business”. In fact, RA Aus does resemble a business in some ways, but it is most definitely NOT a business. It must be able to pay its way and conduct operations, but it is NOT a for-profit enterprise (the common concept of a “business”), and I would argue that it should not be. In business, policy is developed from the top down with little or no input from employees or customers. Again, customers and employees, have no say whatever in who runs the business. And there are other aspects of “business” that are (or should be) a very poor fit for our organization. Another quote from the article “Aviators are mostly good at aviation. They’re not always so good at management. And that’s what RA Aus does it manages.” But that’s not ALL that RA Aus does. But again, when all you’ve got is a hammer … I agree that the management of RA Aus has been due for criticism in some areas, but that is not a reason to shun pilots from the management roles or to turn our aviation organization into a “business” staffed by “professional managers” focused primarily on administration. Think about your vote. Read the proposals of the candidates carefully and think about what RA Aus should be focused on going forward. Should it be primarily focused on flying, or business? I believe that what RA Aus needs is people who are pilots first and managers second, not the other way around. Otherwise it may end up a CASA clone, or go the way of TAFE.

Anywhere on the Qld-Northern NSW coast when the whales are running.

Riley: Depending on your schedule, the Brisbane Valley Airshow will be on this coming weekend. I have volunteered (as I'm a member at Watts) and from the looks of the planning, it's going to be bigger than Ben Hur. A definite must for aviation tragics and wanna-be's alike. There will be warbirds, and supposedly a low pass by an Amberley C17, aerobatics displays, vintage aircraft and cars etc, etc.

We've just returned from a trip to Lightning Ridge and back home via Cessnock. We were surprised how green it was at Lightning Ridge. On the run into Cessnock, we went over the coal mines, northwest of Singleton. The wide angle GoPro lenses don't do justice to the scale of these coal mines. They are enormous. I wondeer what will become of these obscene holes in the ground when the mining companies walk away from them.

I wonder why RA Aus teach us about forced landings. Could it be that our aircraft do actually require us to do them sometimes? If you assume it's never going to happen, then when, not if, it does happen, you'll be totally unprepared. Me, I assume that when I have to put my airplane in a paddock one day, it WILL end up on its roof. From thousands of feet up, those paddocks look nice and smooth. Driving alongside those paddocks on the way to the airfield disabuses me of that notion. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

It's also partly why I fly high wing, that and not having a wing in the way of my flightseeing. There have been a couple of cases that I know of where the occupants of a forced landing flipover have survived the landing and flipover, only to perish in the subsequent fire as they were trapped by the canopy.