Moneybox

I had a late decision to fly to perth this afternoon. At 1:00pm I had an appointment set for a 10am meeting with the mines department in Perth. At 2:00pm I flew out packed for a couple of days in the big smoke. The 259nm took exactly three hours, not fast but a lot better than the usual 8hr drive. The plug in temperature gauge was showing 44.8 degrees cabin temperature by the time I lifted off from Cue. The iPad lasted all of 10 minutes dying as I passed over the dry Lake Austin just south of town. The screen just showed a thermometer stating “your iPad must cool down before it can be used”. The climb to 4500’ took right on 10nm but from there it climbed quickly to 6500’. Again I flew my compass and landmarks but it was a little more difficult going in the opposite direction. I managed to fumble through the MLG controls and found YNTM so it was good to see that instrument come alive to guide me here. Tomorrow I drive into Perth where the Mines Department has allocated me a parking space. 😀

That little rock paid for my new Honda Quad bike but I'd like to have it back at today's gold prices.

I had to pass this link onto my Pommy friends who print anything and everything.

HaHa.... You think she'd pass it over? She just slipped me this one to keep my mouth shut.

If you find one of those passengers acting suspiciously and the weight just doesn't seem quite right you must demand to check their pockets. You could tell from the smirk on her face she was hiding something...

Does that require a new W&B calculation prior to each lift off. 😅

Today was quite pleasant with a steady breeze all day. The forecast of 40°C seemed too high until I got into the plane to fly. The real temperature out at the airport was 41.8°C so it was no surprise that the little 80hp Rotax was a bit sluggish on the climb out. It didn't even want to leap off the tarmac as I expected it to. It struggled to climb so I only went to 2500' which is only circuit height when your airstrip is 1450' to start with but it made good viewing of the local gold mining areas. I couldn't identify many of the mines so I need to do a little more research to workout what I'm flying over. It was really just an exercise to try out my new seatbelts, rectifier and ANC earphones. Nobody was around to talk to me but the ANC certainly cuts out the engine noise easily as well as the Bose A20's. They are a tighter fit so that might be a problem on a long flight but time will tell. I bought them for the passenger anyway when I get ready to take somebody up.

This is the Rotax rectifier I bought from AliExpress. It's a direct plug and play replacing the original Ducati for a fraction of the price.

I've been out to the Zenith this morning and fitted up a decent set of seat belts. These go over both shoulders and across the waist. I didn't feel safe in the poorly fitted automotive style belts. I had to pull some covers off so that I could get inside the fuselage to fit a doubler plate. The biggest worry was if I'd ever get out again or they'd find my dehydrated remains when somebody eventually came looking. I fitted the rectifier while I was there so now I have battery charge. I'm not too sure of the figures because I ran it up without the canopy fitted so I was trying to see through the blast of sand and sunshine. I think I had 3180 RPM and 13.8v. The voltage was accurate but I couldn't see the tacho clearly.

I haven't fitted my Chinese copy yet so it'll go into the Zenith. It certainly looks like it's worth the $44.77 paid including freight. It has everything apart from the Ducati brand name.

Never mind, there's enough fossil fuel to turn it around in years to come. Remember the 70's when we were in panic mode because we were running out of fossil fuel? The whole thing is a gigantic political stunt.

They might be good when they eventually get here but the reports I saw meant that most of us will be pushing up daisies before they are installed.

How is the power generated to supply all these environmentally friendly Australian mining vehicles?

Yes we used to use these crimpers on some GM work, awful expensive tool so I doubt many armature builders would have one. I don't have one since it went missing along with all my Facom handtools, my Tech-ll scan tool and a lot more.

I didn't buy that fuel, it was on the monitor when Mrs M went up to the counter to pay for her $100 worth. She was listening to them bitching about somebody taking $480 worth of fuel and creating a shortage for everybody else. If somebody is going to take $22,000 worth in one swipe what difference would it make for an individual to take $480 worth?

Fuel costs could be an issue. We had to fill up today, we're planning to be in Brisbane over Easter and Shark bay in mid May. Too much travel to risk running short. This should carry us over the present crisis.

Sure, as long as you built it. 😉

No I bought the SS framed Polaris some years after it did some sort of a promotion lifting off from the Swan river here in Perth. It was mounted on a dingy, I only bought it with the trike. It has an 11.5m wingspan, Rotax 503 mounted upside down and a 60" three blade porpeller. If I get around to reviving it I'd fit the electric starter. There's a 503 on this site that I should buy but the finance manager/wife reckons I don't need it.

I go with facthunter on this. I've spent many years working on automotive, mostly 4WD mining and tourist vehicles and whenever there's been a high resistance connector it's been a faulty crimp. I've never seen a soldered wire break and I'm talking thousands of wires over decades on Australian bush tracks. I had a serious warranty issue with a 6.6L Isuzu powered GM built Hummer where they strapped a massive harness to the chassis and the engine. Engine torque ripped several wires apart and took many long hours of diagnosis to find. This was a fault designed by experts in automotive technology. Many manuals and procedures are written by people who've never held a spanner in their hand. In this case I soldered the end of the wires into the spade terminal with the secondary crimp holding the insulated portion of the wire. If it's going to flex it won't be anywhere near the solder. I don't trust crimped connectors in wiring exposed to the weather.

I just brought an amateur built aircraft home. The first thing I noticed was the poorly installed car type seatbelt. It's absolutely useless, very difficult to adjust and due to the location of the fixtures provides poor upper body restraint. The very first and in my opinion important change will be fitting some good four-point harnesses. Items such as this such as this can add to the possibility of serious injury in an accident.

Yeah, Mrs M has been on at me to get the Polaris microlite down from hanging in the shed but where do you park them all? I desperately need a hangar. This one is 19-**** that allows me to work with it. The Sportstar is a 24 and very difficult to work with. I can't fit the AP I want, I can't fit the instruments I want and the parts are a rip-off. I wanted to change the throttle cable from the ratchet/locking type to a friction type. I did the right thing and asked Evektor, no problem it can be changed so they supplied the part numbers of the two little grommets and the cable. I ordered it through the Australian dealer in SA and accepted the ridiculous price of $1480. Well that was until I received the cable, they supplied a locally sourced McFarlane cable that I could buy from Aircraft Spruce for less than half the price. I felt like going back to Evektor with a complaint but I might need the dealer one day for something important. I returned the cable for credit. This plane has the same type of throttle cable but it seems to work much better than the difficult to operate throttle control in the Sportstar. I've only left the ground and landed it three times but I had no trouble at all with the throttle.

I had a 4.5hr flight home yesterday in the Zenith Zodiac 601hd. Now I know what you're trying to fix with the rudder trim, I had to keep constant pressure on the RH side of the stick. I left Murray Field Airport heading NW to Northam. I had cloud at 3000' over the scarp so just enough clearance to stay in clear air over some very rugged country with lots of hills, valleys and water reservoirs. It was a bit choppy but not bad considering the 30kmh gusts from the SE. I filled the 100L tanks in Northam for the rest of the trip almost directly north from there. The first hour is over farming before nothing, no roads, tracks or rail lines. I deviated from my course a little to keep a long string of dry lakes in sight. They could be soft and muddy but surely a better landing than dense low shrubs. Just on 10nm from Paynes Find the iPad blacked out. I'd had it on charge from the cigarette lighter socket but the MGL instrument was flashing Low Power Supply. I landed in Paynes Find and found the little Temp and Voltage indicator that he had plugged into the cigarette lighter. It showed 11.4v, just like last trip. The MGL instrument was showing the tanks still near full so I wanted to dip them, and almost impossible task with the Rotax running and no park brake. I took the chance and shut it down, there was plenty of fuel in fact the instrument reading was spot-on so I never added anything from the 20L I had strapped into the RH seatbelt. Fortunately the engine fired up instantly so I headed for home just using the compass reading and visual markers from my previous trip. I landed with 11.3v and tied it down. This morning I checked the Stator voltage was good but those two wires just pulled right out of the multiplug where it connects to the rectifier. I've soldered them into the spade terminals now but I haven't run it yet to see if it's charging. I've got the battery charger running on the little Yamaha generator. I have to go back out there and top up the fuel to see how much it consumed but seems like not much.

Every industry used to have their apprentices and trainees, in most cases they start out sweeping floors, emptying bins, defending themselves from tricksters and usually poorly supervised. If the video is anything to go by these kids may have been thrown in at the deep end but with good supervision, training and procedures. Don't forget we're comparing this build to the average homebuilt where the workflow is often non-existent, guidance often poor and skill levels of somebody with great expectations and limited experience.

I'd feel quite confident after seeing the quality control an supervision. Nothing would be hidden, every difficulty along the way would have a solution worked out by a group of experienced aviators. It's great to see this sort of initiative. Programs such as this should have full government support in a wide range of industries.

I do have OzRunways in the iPhone and YCUE as a waypoint in my GPS but my magnetic compass is only good in smooth flight.