Moneybox

If you are not careful you'll turn an adventure into an organised event. Where's the fun in that?

Yes I'll tag along but I think I'll be joining at the halfway point 😉. Just wait until I get the 912ulf installed or you'll be leaving me behind. After thinking about it for a minute, we could leave at the same time and land together at The Oaks.

I guess you guys have different radio frequencies in close proximity. Perhaps he was tuned into a different channel? No sign of him on your ADSB?

Ok, I haven't seen it done like that. I didn't realise fresh air was supplied to the cuff.

I just watched that video right through. He's one lucky guy to have his plane bring him down in one piece. I'm going to order another carbon monoxide sensor. This happened on my way to Northam, a three hour flight. I ducked into the plumbing supply shop and grabbed a pipe union. And then into Supercheap for a muffler bandage. It was enough to get me back home. I've since replaced the pipe but I smelt the exhaust fumes and didn't realise until I landed in Northam that the Zenith sounded like a tractor when taxiing.

Nev I agree there could be any sort of stray fumes in the engine bay however the muffler is also there on most of these light planes. At least the muff would just be drawing from around the muffler but that's right amongst a lot of exhaust fittings on the Rotax so if there's a leak you're in the right place to pick it up.

From Temu.

I just bought this and we'll have it in the motorhome over the next two weeks. If I get time before we leave I'll try it behind the Honda Quad to see if it actually works.

If you have enough air temperature in the engine bay perhaps a simple Rattrap Vent would be a quick fix?

Keep in mind the government is going to subsidise the cost up to $5000. Why not take advantage of that and improve safety for yourself and everybody else.

I see we now have other aircraft in view in OzRunways. Is this the same as we’d see on ADSB in?

I really wanted to fly down to Perth yesterday. I needed a dentist quickly so I called Meekatharra on Thursday and got a recording saying they’d call when they are back, they never called. Friday I made an appointment for 8:30 this morning but the tooth was giving so much trouble I decided it might not be wise to fly. Mrs M offered me strong painkillers but that would only ad to the risk. I left by car at 11am, got two hours down the road and had to sleep. The phone woke me ten minutes later so I set off again but only for another hour before stopping to put my head back for a bit. That time I slept for an hour and a half. By the time I was half way the sun had set and I was attacked by a huge kangaroo approaching from the right. I was sitting on cruise at 110, swerved the front around him but took it in the side. That was unlikely to happen at 4500’. I stopped an hour from Perth and travelled the rest this morning. Now I’m parked again for the night with about 360km to go. The idea was to get the plane to avoid all the long distance travel but it doesn’t always work out. Perhaps I can talk Mrs M into getting a pilot’s licence 😏.

Silly ol fart…

I've lost confidence in lithium batteries since we lost the Hyundai when the LifePO4 battery blew up and destroyed it. Since then I've kept my eyes open for other options. Today I got these two cranking batteries for our Isuzu bus. They pump out 750CCA and weigh in at 7kg each. No lithium and no acid. These are a little big for my plane but Sodium-Ion may be a great alternative if you're looking for a powerful light weight battery for your plane. I'm replacing two 28kg batteries with two 7kg batteries with theoretically the same CCA output.

The last thing bought was a good example of that. The throttle cable cost $1480 and they didn't even supply the original as ordered. I returned it but all legally purchased parts are the same, over priced and long lead times with every purchase. However the build quality of the Sportstar was superb when compared to the home built I purchased. That's not to say all are equal, I've seen some beautiful home built planes but the factory built is built to a standard design and quality.

Yes Skippy, after my hazardous flight back from Northam in the Zenith we saw the cyclone had altered track so we filled sandbags and strapped the Zenith firmly to the ground. The Sportstar was back at home just covered by shade shade cloth and a tarpaulin. It wore through and snapped the light rope holding both wings and left the scene. It took on Tonka (the 12T CAT Loader) and whatever else it hit I don't know but it ended up parked with the back of the LH wing wrapped around a small tree about 100m from where it started out. The left wing is totally destroyed, the right wing has about 1m of the end badly damaged, the in-flight adjustable prop lost one blade, the Rotax is pushed sideways damaging the firewall, mounting and exhaust and there are a couple of small holes in the fuselage. The Rotax still runs ok but is out of life, I've been advised to check the crank but I doubt it was stressed, the tail wing, rudder and landing gear are undamaged and the canopy is undamaged but overall it too expensive to fix. I asked Evektor if I could buy a set of wings with wing tanks but they reckon they would have to be custom built. I don't know why when the following year and from then on the wing tanks were a standard fitting. My L2 said it can be fixed but you have to weigh up the cost and the final value after it's repaired. It still has an out of life engine, standard gauge pack and a single 65L tank. I'll never repair it but the Zenith might end up with a 912ULS.

Any structure not sufficiently anchored could cause more damage than a bit hail. Our cyclone last month came through at 130kts. We'd anchored the Zenith with sandbags out at the airport but we lost the Sportstar and its shelter.

Apparently structures at the airport require approval.

I can't comment on the radio before that. I was more concerned with the battery charging. It's no trouble to check out or bypass the wiring. The main difficulty is working out in the wind, sun and flies at the airport. I called the shire again this morning regarding my hangar application. If I can get the plane under cover it'll make work a lot easier.

Not good...

Clinton in a Minnie, doesn't bare thinking about....

Thanks, Skippy's diagram is easy to follow. I'll check it out next time I lift the lid. I have a problem with temporary wiring, sometimes it can hang around for years ☺️.

Maybe, I haven't changed the wiring. Just disconnected the old one a month back and it started charging. Left it without a capacitor until the new one came and I connected it to the same wires. Perhaps it was always wrong because he bought a new rectifier in December and obviously never fixed it. My new rectified didn't work until I disconnected the capacitor. Now it has a steady 13.9v charge.

This morning I went out and fitted the new 40v capacitor. The result was as before, no charge. I then disconnected the negative terminal off the capacitor and straight away it was charging again. I took the Zenith up for an hour flight to YRDY and back and the charge never faulted. 13.9v all the way. The capacitor is connected to the positive terminal but the other terminal is disconnected and will remain that way.