kgwilson

When I decided to build an aircraft back in 2010 I tossed up between experimental GA & RA. RA won on simplicity, self declaration of medicals, overall and on-going cost. I have now let my Class 2 medical lapse & technically can no longer fly in to or land at controlled airports. I still do with the approval of the controller. I used to fly 1970s Piper Archers & Cessnas. I now fly my own bulid 2015 modern aircraft that is cheaper to operate, has better performance but only has 2 seats. The number of times all 4 seats of the Archer were filled way back when I can count on my hands. Getting back to Bankstown, it seems to me most new pilots, even those with an Aviation career in mind start with a RA pilot certificate so the amount of ab initio training in GA is noweher near what it used to be.

The price of a new 916is is $US49,500.00, thats $AU73,832.00 at todays conversion rate. I can't see too many being installed here. The buy price today (AUD or USD) is around $75,000.00, then there is freight & duties. Then it has to be installed. I reckon the final cost would be about $90,000.00, not that far short of a brand new base level Jabiru 230.

I was driving and heard the interview with the pilot on the radio yesterday. When he said the trim pushed me nose first in to the ground (or words to that effect). I said out loud "absolute BS". He has made up a story to make it all seem plausible. There is no way in the world that the trim in a recreational aircraft is ever able to overpower a pilots input. The original report is pretty right. Flying low to the ground doing a beat up of the film set & hit the power lines. It is that simple.

The black ones are the only sort to buy. They have a conductive carbon pigment in the plastic so they are not susceptible to static electricity. Details attached. MR FUNNEL AUSTRALIA SAFETY INFO FLYER.pdf

As far as I know it only happens for single seat BFRs.

A good reminder why you should make sure there is nothing that can interefere with controls even what you are wearing. Of course he was way too low with no chance of recovery if something went wrong as it did.

There is no such thing as a Justice System, there is only a Legal System.

The suction cup is fine so long as there is not much if any curvature of the acrylic surface and the acrylic has no scratches on the mounting location. The cup must be kept very clean but never moistened. Mine has never fallen off.

It isn't meaningless to me. I don't care about range so long as I can see anything in my vicinity and whether we are likely to be in conflict.

I just stuck mine on the LH side of my bubble canopy just in front of me & I get coverage from about 0 to 140 deg to the right and about 190 to 360 deg to the left so only about 50 deg that it can't see. It's easy to test. If an ADSB out equipped aircaft comes in to view on the left just make a shallow RH turn till it disappears & do the same in reverse if one appears on the right. A lot of the GA training aircraft around here have ADSB out installed with their Mode S ES transponder so I see them around all the time.

The antenna is omnidirectional but the signal is line of sight so it needs a clear view forwards & sideways to provide good coverage & also needs a clear view of the sky for the GPS. Exerpt from the manual below. 7.1 Installation SkyEcho is a completely self-contained portable device with no required installation for external antenna, power source, or physical installation into the aircraft. Transmission and reception performance are affected by antenna placement within the aircraft and is subject to airframe shadowing. Best performance is achieved when the SkyEcho is placed vertically orientated on the aircraft window mounted with the suction cup mount in a forward or side facing window with clear line of sight visibility in the direction of travel and clear visibility to the sky for GPS reception.

There was a Navajo crash near Hamilton Airport in NZ back in the 90s. It ran out of fuel and killed the young pilot. The investigation found full tip tanks and the selector switched to an empty inner tank

A 180 was not an option. I'd descended through a hole in thickening cloud to find myself in a valley with all the tops of the hills in cloud. Up was the only option. The Archer 2 I was flying was fully IFR but I had no IFR training except the under the hood stuff. At the time it didn't seem a problem & I had 2 passengers with me & they trusted me emphatically. It was only later after returning from our destination later that I realised how lucky we'd been.

I flew deliberately into IMC once. There were valid reasons I won't elaborate on. The 5 hours "Under the Hood" training were invaluable. I set my heading & looked only at the panel saying to myself in my head "Believe the instruments" all the time. I popped out into bright sunshine at 9500 feet after an 8000 foot climb & then called CH-CH centre. It works but feels wrong.

You say Nothing a la Sgt Schultz from Hogans heroes. I have heard many stories of pilots informing the DAME/CASA about an issue that was but is no longer & tens of thousands of dollars later they are still awaiting a decision.

I only have one, a curtis type & I have had to replace the O-ring once so far after it started leaking about 1 drip every couple of minutes. I doesn't sound like much but that is 720 drips a day & 5040 drips a week. The stain on the floor & the smell as soon as I opened the door gave it away immediately.. The good thing is that to drain the tank you just have to push it up & twist it to lock & then let the fuel empty in to a container.

Well what if it's true?

In the UK there was a survey of pilots in July 2015 regarding medical requirements for a PPL. In April 2016 UK CAP 1397 was released & recommendaytions were adopted. They were PPL holders are required to self declare medical fitness once up to the age of 70 & every 3 years after that. Medical requirements were that the person was medically fit to drive a standard motor car. They found in 10 years of data only 20 of 151 fatalities may have had a medical factor but none were found to be the major contributing cause. The issues included hypoxia, fatigue, dehydration, alcohol & suidide as well. None of the 20 could conclusively be atributed to a medical issue which was only suspected. They looked at risk to those on the ground as well & found only 6 accidents in 10 years & there were no fatalities of 3rd parties. They looked at the risk of incapacitation in flight (siezure, heart attack, etc) where the pilot would be unaware of the issue prior to flight & found that the risk was 2 per year, up from 1 when pilots underwent full medicals & decided the risk was so low as to be insignificant. That's what it takes in a country of 68 million with massively more aircaft density to come up with a sensible regulation. Not so here though. Look at the RPL originally designed to allow ageing pilots to continue to fly without the need to hold a class 2 medical. It took 90 days to approve in NZ & here it took 10 years and is so complex it is not valid anywhere else in the world. Where does the responsibility and lack of action lie, clearly with CASA. Will things ever change? Never with such an ingrained rigid culture CASA has.

Just ensure the RA syllabus covers the appropritae aspects. Training is an area that needs a bit more scrutiny as it appears to vary by Instructor and whether they are flying at an uncontrolled aerodrome in Class G or in controlled airspace. Jabirus, Slings etc are completely different in flying characteristics, power and controls than Trikes, Drifters, Thrusters etc. Coffs is the same. Class G till 8am, then class C/D till 5pm. Training continues in RA registered aircraft all day. The instructor must have a PPL. The whole process is BS. In NZ where RA has always had access to CTR there used to be an RA CTR rating & that is no longer a requirement. Now all aircraft in CTR must have ADSB out as a minimum. The rules are a crock. At 4.59pm it is illegal for an RA aircraft/pilot to be in CTR at Coffs but at 5.01pm it is perfectly legal & RPT and all other operations continue seamlessly, just without a controller.

I'd say the market is pretty small so there is not enough demand for a side filling option. They also don't seem to have any competitors so that is reflected in the price. If somebody else made a teflon coated 50 micron gauze filter that worked the same, there'd be some competition & the price would drop. If there was a big enough market the Chinese would have been pumping them out before now. They do make a flexible extension hose for the F3 & F8 models available from Bunnings for an extra $13.50. I am surprised at how they have more than doubled in price in 8 years though.

At only 3km from Archerfield fuel starvation is a likely cause. One engine may have completely stopped & the other just sputtering with the last few drops of fuel producing virtually no power. We will find out in due course.

CASA created the bureaucracy and has stoked the fire ever since. Any of their proposals to simplify things have always ended up building an even bigger bureaucratic mess.

Nowhere near as bad as pumping tonnes of poisonous lead into the atmosphere from Avgas and I don't have to use herbicide to kill the weeds or spend time I don't have to spare pulling them out.

I've had mine since 2015. Never had a problem. Sits perfectly in all 3 tank filler openings. The sump has a purpose, that is why it is there. It is the recepticle for any dirt or water. It is a F8 model about 210mm in diameter with a flow rate of 19 L/min & is black which contains injected carbon to conduct static electricity. Cost about $35.00 when I bought it on Ebay in 2015. I was a bit sceptical so I put 100 ml of water in 5 litres of fuel & shook it up & put the fuel through the Mr Funnel into another container & got the 100 ml of water back. After refuelling I use what is left in the sump to kill the weeds by the hangar door. So far I have never seen any contaminants left after refuelling, though it is possible that there have been because after a few fills I stopped looking.

I have my own Mister funnel & take it with me when I go XC. Anyone who is concerned should do the same.