kgwilson

Anything that has hoses and radiators that are separate from the engine internals has the capability of failure. The quality of the components and the regime of preventative maintenance reduces the risk of failure to a very small value. This is why failures are rare. But there will always be that 1 in a xxxx chance it will happen & in this case it did. Same with anything as has been found after an investigation. For example why did a jet engine blow up. A hairline crack in a compressor vane developed from a slightly imperfect casting that was found to be perfect when originally xrayed etc when installed was all it needed. Routine maintenance inspections failed to pick it up & then whammo. I have reduced all of the investigative detail down to two words. "SH!T HAPPENS"

My Jab3300 engine has the original plenums with the leads on the outside. This was mainly due to the fact that the later larger ones would not fit under my cowl as they were too tall. I do have custom made intakes but my engine has always run cool. I did spend considerable time on cooling (read the NASA Research report CR3405, 152 pages on Aerodynamics and cooling of an air cooled horizontally opposed aircraft engine installation) and the air exhaust at the bottom is over a metre wide with a lip to provide suction. The minimum rule of thumb is 3 x the area of exhaust to intake. Intake area must also include the oil cooler unless it has a separate intake NACA duct and exhaust as mine has.

The early Jabs had a really small cooling air exhaust & Jabiru came up with a Lip kit to improve suction for those aircraft

I find the stats really hard to believe. I fly about 50 hrs a year & most aircraft around here fly a lot less other than the flying school. The system has ignored my GA experience which I originally loaded & shows I have an average of 1.8 hours over the last 5 years which is complete rubbish. I enter my hours annually when I renew my membership in July.

16 servos, retractables & lights on a small 2600 mAH liPo battery giving a total flight time of 10 minutes. Total weight 4KGs. Absolutely amazing.

Permatex is indeed a great fuel resistant sealant. I used it on all of the threads etc in fuel line nipples from fuel pumps and I have never had a problem. Without it even though the brass fittings have tapered threads they leaked.

CASA seems to have more of a problem with controlled airspace so self declared fit RA pilots are excluded. If they have a class 2 & are flying a RA aircraft with a transponder then that seems acceptable. I have not bothered to renew my PPL but I reckon I'd pass the Class 2 if I had to. Compared to NZ where I did most of my GA flying controlled airspace is rare in Australia. In NSW there are only 6 & 3 of these are in Sydney. There are 19 in NZ & whether that has anything to do with the more relaxed rules there I don't know. As an RA pilot in NZ you need to have an aircraft with a Transponder and a Controlled airspace endorsement & that's it. You self certify your fitness to fly. Simple & they don't have people dying all over the place just as we don't here.

I couldn't give a rats about the weight increase but understand it would be useful for others. My aircraft outperforms a lot of GA singles but does have some weather implications like crosswinds etc that heavier aircraft can handle & only 2 seats. In over 20 years I only had more than 1 passenger a dozen or so times when flying for pleasure. This excludes the time I was the Company air taxi taking colleagues to our other factory. It would be handy though to be able to transit through CTR & perhaps stop on occasions for fuel or food or even as a destination. I just do not understand why it is perceived as a major problem. 

Well, this doesn't seem to happen in other countries nor Australia for RA pilots who self declare that they are fit to drive a motor vehicle. In the UK they found that pilots who felt unwell or perceived they had an issue generally didn't fly. Even if you passed your last Class 2 you can still have an issue as demonstrated in WA. It is though entirely possible that a complete idiot will declare him/her self fit to fly & go for it. That possibility has always been there anyway regardless of rules and regulations.

The thing with proposed medical changes and whatever is based on perceived risk which is not evidential. Where are all the RA pilots who self certify falling out of the sky? There is enough history to determine what if any issues there are. The instructor who had a seizure on a training flight in WA recently demonstrates the flaws of the medical standard that he had passed. It was only good for the time he was at the doctors surgery.

When the  UK got rid of medicals for PPLs (only for non EASA aircraft) they initially surveyed all pilots, then looked at causes of all fatal accidents over a long period of time & eventually found none directly attributable to medical incapacitation and only 4 that may have had an impact but there was no conclusive evidence of this. No one or organisation in this country seems to be able to lobby government or CASA for genuine change based on facts.

What does a high or low IQ got to do with common sense. There are plenty of people who are highly intelligent with very little common sense. Drivers with good common sense are safer than those with bugger all.

(edited...mod)

Good to see Bex on the mend. What an extraordinary series of bad luck injuries. Best wishes for a full recovery mate.

I left South Grafton for Parkes via Quirindi where I knew it was a cloudless morning at around 8am on Friday 20th. I climbed to cruise altitude of 8500 passing over the Dorrigo Plateau & SE of Armidale before dropping to 6500 under the second step south of Tamworth It was 8/8 cloud cover at 8:30am to the east (west of Coffs) and past Armidale as well. It was clear not far SW of Armidale. Tops at that time of the day were 6-7000. It was forecast to worsen during the day.

Not unfair when you get them both down safely compared to killing or maiming both of them..

NBN with a 50 to 100 year lifespan? It will be lucky to last 5 to 10 years. Australia has the slowest fibre network around with a max of 100 megabits/second for private users. In NZ you can get 20 times faster 1Gbps for the same price. 5G wireless is already much faster and potentially has the capacity to run at 20Gbps, 200 times faster. 100 Mbps was good when the NBN was conceived back in the Rudd era. The cost blew out, Turnbull stuffed it up & now it's a white elephant that we are all paying for.

I just reviewed my flight log & there were times on the way home I got really trashed & slowed down to 70 knots to reduce stress on the airframe (and me). I tried flying hemispherical at 7500 but adjusted a number of times to get into better air. My highest ground speed was 171 knots & 9951 feet over the Bees Nest bushfire. I saw it in front of me from just NE of Tamworth & the closer I got the more ominous it looked & decided initially to track around it to the north as the way forward was a wall of grey haze. In the end I continued with reasonable visibility & fast descent to Nymboida & home. Flight time from Parkes to South Grafton 2 hrs 40.

It's a wonder he can spare the time with 2 families to look after and more kids on the way. He's not too good at fixing relationships.

I flew down on Friday morning & stopped in Quirindi where forumite Old K was waiting & we flew to Parkes. The air was pretty good at about 8500 but after beginning to descend after Wellington it got a bit choppy. I made my 10 mile inbound call & Unicom advised 04 was in use. Called downwind & base where I was getting tossed around like a rag doll & found the wind had become quite cross from 360 so was pushed out of line. No problem though as everyone was doing it. Putting the tent up was an exercise in almost futile persistence. There was no way I could do it on my own in the gusty conditions. Old K came to the rescue & it was up, sort of. There were dunnys everywhere but no-one could find the showers. They were eventually located about 500 metres away across the apron. The only problem was that the bloke who started the generators slept in on Saturday so I had a 6am cold wash instead. The wind howled and I reckon I got less that an hours sleep on Friday night with the tent threatening to lay down & it kept hitting my head & the noise from the flapping was deafening.

The food was good except for the Greek stuff that had Chinese people doing it. I went to a couple of seminars on Saturday but the wind got stronger & the dust came, then it got worse & they decided the site had to be evacuated. Some of us rode it out at the Aero Club & it was there I bumped in to T88. Spent some time at the HARS Museum which was good but it was raining mud. When we got back the plane was a real mess. It rained on and off all night but at least the wind was gone.

I spent about 2 hours on Sunday morning washing the plane. I pinched some empty water bottles from the yellow bins & filled them at the basins at the toilets. What a mission. That red dust gets in everywhere. After Id washed it and it dried it still looked terrible but CASA came to the rescue as they were giving away promotional chamois so I grabbed a couple & eventually it looked presentable again. The seminars were excellent and well attended and although Saturday afternoon was a dust out, the evening was good with a few beers & good food & the presentations were made. The show was pretty good. Matt Hall was sensational as always & the F18 deafening. Monday looked better for the trip home as the weather was forecast to be better. Sunday night was freezing. We woke up to ice on the wings. The site was virtually deserted apart for those who stayed another night. The trip home was a bit hairy but there was a good tailwind & lots of smoke the closer I got.

Was it worthwhile. Absolutely despite the weather bits. It was well organised, & the company great.

Photos

1 Bushcat under assembly

2 Dust storm just before evacuation, Seminar tents

3 Camping area

4 Food & drinks & socialising covered area 

5 Main exhibitor hall

6 Exhibits

7 Aircraft parking, camping behind & main site in the background

I have only ever seen Wilgas once & that was at the World Precision Flying Champs about 20 years ago in Hamilton NZ. I always thought they looked a bit like a Praying Mantis.The slow flying ability and accuracy of the pilots who flew them was astounding.

So down to only 100kts GS, oh you poor thing?

 

I prefer to cruise at around 110kts & burn 17-18 lph. At 120kts I burn 24-25 lph & the bumps are harder.

I plan to leave after the airshow & it looks like there will be a 20 knot NW headwind all the way home if Windy is right. Oh well "Time to spare go by air"

So far just me & Bubbleboy. Old K is going AFAIK. The weather for the flight down from South Grafton on Friday looks good. Tailwind all they way if it is right

Councils eyes all glazed over with the faint hope that the students and school will spend heaps of money in town. There will be no facts to back this up, just empty promises.

With paid up capital of only 20 grand they will need to borrow money for the hangar as well as all the other set up costs etc. They will likely be just like Adani & try to get the funding from council or state. Banks & venture capitalists would't touch Adani nor would the Feds so the billionaire had to front will a couple of Billion even thought it will cost over $16.5 bill. This mob will need a benefactor with deep pockets if it gets off the ground.

There is a free smartphone app called Runwaymap which has over 20,000 airports listed so this & perhaps other like it are taking over from websites like airport-data. It is still there though.

A friend of mine showed me some pics of his Cherokee 140 with a 360 camera mounted on a short rod mounted about mid wing. The software seems to edit the rod out and it looks like the photo is taken from another aircraft. Same with yours. You can sort of see the mounting but it is only the shadow on the beach that really gives it away. In a couple of the shots it looks like you are yawing like crazy coming in to land but I guess that is the angle of the camera to the fuselage giving that optical illusion. Awesome stitching software. I have no idea how good they are but you can buy these things really cheap now as well as pay $600.00 or more.

I wanted to fly from a very young age & went up in a tiger moth when I was about 8. Then came model aircraft, motorbikes and women then hang gliding took off in the 70s & I was hooked. Built my first with disastrous results but flew to the 90s upgrading 8 times. In the early 80s I flew a weight shift Quicksilver but I was not impressed as it was noisy & slow. Then as disposable income improved I got my PPL & flew GA till I retired & by then there were numerous kits available. I like the ability to go places, comfort, speed, handling, reliability, strength. I flew a Bantam, Xair, Thruster & a couple of other rag & tube aircraft but they are just not my thing & I suspect that with all the choice available now the majority of budding pilots have similar feelings.