kgwilson

Good article. When I was training crabbiing and rudder to straighten just prior to touchdown was taught. Wing down approach/sideslip was not.

In very windy cross conditions I now do use a bit of wing down when close to the ground but approach to just a few feet off the deck is always a crab. When landing in over demonstrated crosswind limits, the problem is not landing but keeping the aircraft straight once on the ground. As I lose forward momentum the aircraft wants to weathercock and controls become useless. In this situation I always choose the grass (if there is any) as it allows the wheels to slip sideways a bit without digging in. I get a bit of a shudder as the plane skids and skips till slow enough for its weight to keep it fairly straight. I have a castoring nosewheel which helps in when going fast but makes slow crosswind taxiing a bit more challenging.

3 hours ago, Old Koreelah said:

That might be the worst spot, Nev.

I take off ever a paddock where black cattle are regularly hand-fed.
Their hooves have made the surface rough and if I got down safely they’re all likely to crowd around my plane for a rub while I’m away getting the carrier…

My second Hang Glider was a Pacific Kites Lancer 1 and it was 30th of January 1977. I trudged 900 feet up the Kaimai ranges near the Western rail tunnel portal (Kiwis will know where this is) with some mates and took off. It was a 5 minute flight to the bottom. I landed in a paddock that had a heap of cows in it. I unhooked & was getting out of my harness when they all started coming over to check out what was now in their paddock. As they got closer I realised the were not cows & they were not steers, they were all young bulls. They started licking the glider & I chucked the harness over the fence closely followed by me. My logbook entry for the landing is (just looked it up) "2 scary 360s, landed in a paddock full of bulls. Kite covered in genuine bullshit." Once they lost interest I got back over the fence, de-rigged and got out of there.

I have landed in farmers paddocks numerous times during my 20 years hang gliding. Never once asked permission as I couldn't. If the house was near I always went over and knocked on the door. Most of the time there was no-one even at home. When there was someone there they were always happy and no problems etc. Often I got invited for a cup of tea or a beer, invited to use the phone (no mobile in those days), toilet etc. Farming people are among the most hospitable people around.

Several times the farmer saw me land & got his 4WD or ute out, came over & transported me & glider to the road. I once landed in a cornfield & flattened a bit of corn. I was very apologetic and asked what the cost of the loss was likely to be. He just shrugged his shoulders & said something like "In the scheme of things f***k all" & helped me pack the glider up.

One of the most memorable was looking for a paddock & flying low over a house I noticed a couple on their sun lounger going for it by the pool. They never even noticed me & luckily I landed far enough away for it to remain like that.

The brakes on Jabirus are not that flash and I hear a lot of people commenting on their very average performance. They look like pushbike discs to me and that hand operated lever is certainly not my cup of tea though it has a simple handbrake lock function. If I ever built a Jab I'd do what I did when I built my aircraft.

I installed Matco MHE51B Disc brakes with MC 5 individual master cylinders for differential toe brakes when I built the Sierra. They can be coupled with MC 4 slave cylinders for the co-pilot but I didn't bother. With the Matco  wheels I added a bit of weight but that is more than compensated by performance. They cost about $1100 back then I think. Well worth it though. I can lock the wheels on a sealed runway if I want to and of course with a castoring nose wheel it makes turning tightly easy. I can do a 360 turn in the aircrafts own length. With a 24 rego though you won't be able to do this I guess.

Christine Holgate was stood down in October last year due to bullying by Scotty from marketing. She oversaw some excellent improvement in Australia Post and was a champion of the small rural Post Office owners, many of whom were struggling until she did the deal with the banks which also benefitted locals in remote areas. I don't see how you can blame someone who has been out of the job for 11 months for current slow delivery.

I don't know why but I got my Sportpilot almost 2 weeks ago. While there has not been a lot of flying and no real flyins or events to cover due largely to Covid, I found little to interest me. 16 pages are given to regurgitating snippets from old editions, there are no technical articles, a flight test article that said virtually nothing about the aircraft that is not on the manufacturers website, the obligatory boring notes from the RA-Aus hierachy, a travelogue with nothing about flying there & a few other things that are not that interesting.

I found the "Whats it like to fly" article quite odd but I did not take offence from it. I've been to dinners where there are overbearing and arrogant people in senior roles who get pissed and think they own the place. I'd have made an excuse and beat a hasty retreat to the dunny if confronted.

I notice my aircraft type (Morgan Sierra) is missing now available from Ray Tolhurst of Wedgetail Aircraft. It was on the old site. There are more than 40 flying in Australia. From the same stable there is the Joey & Joey 2, Super Diamond, Cheetah, Twister & Cougar.

Which is why you have no more to give.

In 1973 I went for my first trip overseas. I had to get vaccinated to visit certain places if I'd been to other certain places. I still have my international vaccination certificate as I was vaccinated against Cholera, Typhoid, Yellow Fever & Smallpox. No-one argued, no-one wanted to know what was in the vaccines, it was the accepted norm and everyone did it. These diseases are vary rare now.

Nearly 40 years later and over a hundred years since the first global pandemic requiring masks and we get hysterical nut jobs, anti vaxxers and a myriad of other so called 'Freedom" mobsters with no or dubious credentials telling the expert epidemiologists and highly qualified medical professionals with peer reviewed and published reports and documents they are wrong.

Where do you drag this up from FR. I looked it up even though I didn't need to.

Of the 7 points listed I agree with the first 3, but 4, 5, & 6 are just BS and 7 is an opinion.

I am person A - fact

I can go anywhere I want - Untrue or Not fact. We are all locked down regardless of vaccination status.

Person A does not have to get tested - Untrue or Not fact. If I have symptoms I should get tested.

On 04/09/2021 at 5:35 PM, FlyBoy1960 said:

 

 

He "claims" to be "the Director" of the company. Recreational Aviation Australia (RA-Aus)    this is not true   https://au.linkedin.com/in/rodney-birrell

 

 

 

 

 

Look at the Contacts page of the RAA-Aus Intranet. He is listed as a Board member.

https://www.raa.asn.au/our-organisation/contact/

CEO: Matt Bouttell

Board: Michael Monck (Chair), Luke Bayly (Deputy Chair), Trevor Bange, Rod Birrell, Barry Windle, Eugene Reid, Andrew Scheiffers

There is nothing you can say to someone whose vision of the world has become so blinkered they are unable to accept that opinion and facts are different things. Opinions are derived from information gained and sometimes factually based but filtered so that they fit the scenario the opinion has established. Facts are information documented and based on irrefutably proven, documented and demonstrated evidence that can be peer reviewed and return identical results every time.

That was a bit of a yawn. No crash at the end.

Back to the lockdown. Over the last 3 weeks the grass has grown at the aerodrome & along with the other bloke that jointly manages South Grafton we spent a couple of days mowing. We have 2 x Iseki SF300 mowers so got the place looking good. We have undertaken to ensure the aerodrome is always maintained for use by emergency services & have the OK from authorities even though I don't live in the LGA. It is classified as work even though I don't get paid.

Once mowing was complete I got the Sierra out, did my preflights & went flying, legally. A beautiful Spring day and nothing on CTAF or Coffs CTR but the odd IFR call on area. Flew over my house & then down the Northern beaches to Coffs & back. Gave them a courtesy call & was invited for some T&Gs but declined. ATC almost sounded excited to hear someone on the radio.

I felt completely rejuvenated after the first flight since 13th August.

You'll have some fun tearing around your property and beyond in that Jack. A mate of mine who owned the hangar next to mine loved his Thrusters. He owned 3 of them, a single seater and 2 x 2 seaters. I went for a few low level jolly's with him & he always had this broad smile on his face the entire flight. Sadly he died from Leukaemia a few years ago and there are no Thrusters at South Grafton any more.

Scomo was fired from the last 2 marketing jobs he had. After being fired from the first he went back into politics for 2 years, had another go & was fired again.

I went for a fly on Friday which was the first time since lockdown. I monitored Area while on CTAF & then changed to Coffs when in/under their CTR while continuing to monitor area. In just over an hour there were 2 calls on area to IFR flights & that was it. Just because I heard nothing I did not assume there to be no-one so I made my normal 10 mile inbound with ETA and 1500 foot joining call. While these are not mandatory it is the only way I am going to find out if there is anyone else around (that has a radio turned on to the right frequency and is listening). Before takeoff I always make an entering/lineup/backtrack call and a rolling call. These calls are "MY" mandatory calls. I don't have a transponder and have no intention of fitting this ancient technology but will likely get a SE2 or equivalent at some stage.

And it is 100% politics that has got us into this mess. Our slow vaccination start was obviously known right from the start but Scomo chose to lie by big noting himself about the millions of doses he'd secured and everyone would be fully vaccinated by October. Then he said shipments had been delayed. Total BS he never even had a delivery schedule when making those big noting announcements.

NZ had an equally slow vaccination start but it was based on supply not orders and their top priority was all front line workers. There is a plan and they were at 100 to 102% of the plan from the start with all front line workers vaccinated before Delta arrived. 

We are at the bottom of the world with small populations and at the time were almost Covid free. The Vaccine producers were in the Covid ravaged places in the heavily populated Europe and N America. Obviously that is where the priority for vaccine delivery was going to be but don't let reality get in the way of self promotion. Then start changing advice almost daily when a side effect issue appears, blow it out of all proportion with the press sow the seeds of fear in sectors of the public & then try to remove all that. A lot of people used to call Trump a F***ing moron, now we have one.

Now that NSW & Victoria have admitted defeat on controlling the virus the Pollies have unsurprisingly changed tune again. Aren't we doing well with the vaccination numbers. Don't mention front line workers, exhausted paramedics, Emergency Room and ICU staff as well as inadequate facilities.

1 hour ago, Marty_d said:

Here's one for the anti-vaxxers.

 

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/countless-antivaxxers-and-covid19-hoax-believers-dying-from-the-virus/news-story/081c41083f36cf121a495bafa243e7b5

 

And all these express regret at their original stance but what I still find amazing is that there are masses of anti vaxers who ignore these obvious failures of their beliefs and keep on repeating the same old BS. Some in the US even refused to believe they had Covid with their dying breath. According to another crazy story everyone is being injected with a microchip that is hidden in the vaccine to somehow control us. That means I've got 2 of them now. That's good. If I get lost they will know which Kennel I came from and where to send me home to.

I watched the 2 part doco "Fox & the big Lie" & while some will say it is Leftie propaganda it was obvious from the interviews that there are still masses of people in the US who have that indoctrinated and intrenched view & nothing will change their minds. They continue to say the evidence is about to be released, 10 months after they lost all the court cases because they could not produce a shred of evidence. This is the same sort of dogmatic viewpoint of those in the video "Dying in the name of Vaccine freedom" yet this viewpoint is still promoted by senior Republican politicians in the US.

There are plenty of supporters of this "idealogical freedom" idea everywhere & it baffles me how they are able to ignore all evidence that is produced and cherry pick tiny pieces of information by someone or some organisation to bolster their view even after that has been debunked. The only thing that I can agree with them on is the often confusing and contradictory information coming from our politicians who twist health advice to suit their own political agendas.

8 minutes ago, red750 said:

https://au.yahoo.com/news/dad-of-four-30-who-organised-anti-covid-rally-dies-from-virus-054746631.html

Well he was from Texas which is full of conspiracists, anti vaxers and retrumplicans so his unfortunate fate will be ignored by most of them.

I have had both Bruce but SP wasn't asking us.

23 minutes ago, skippydiesel said:

Exactly what I didn't want to do - create new passwords etc

 

Will think on it.

Just use the same Username and password as Rec Flying.

It is the bottom option on the side bar menu. You will need to create a login once you get there.

14 hours ago, Garfly said:

By the way, you can get ADSB-IN on your EFB for a lot less than the $900 for an IN/OUT SkyEcho2.

The uAvionix Ping (IN only) is around $300.     https://www.ozrunways.com/store/adsb/ping.jsp

OK if you want to remain invisible. Not so good if all the traffic has these and none have ADSB out.