sfGnome

Sorry to maintain the thread drift, but this reminded me of some that really surprised me recently. My son took a photo of me checking the oil during the preflight, and posted same on facebook. One of the comments (from a paraglider pilot, of all people) was "that can't be good if he's looking under the bonnet!". It had never occurred to me that an onlooker may consider that inspecting the engine would be an indication of something wrong rather than being good practice, but now I explain *why* I'm "looking under the bonnet". Oh, and two other things. If I have someone who's never landed in a light plane before, then long before I get to the airport (generally around the 10 mile inbound call) I talk about how I slow the plane down a lot in the circuit and demonstrate how it doesn't fall out of the sky when the engine goes to idle. Last thing I want is someone getting a sudden shock and reacting badly at circuit height. The other is that I always start my pax briefing with "I'm required by law to tell you that smoking is not permitted in this aircraft, and in the event of an emergency, the exits are there and there". It always seems to relax them and then they listen to the real briefing. :)

Got a happy surprise to see 4669 in amongst the photos. That was the aircraft I learned in. It was converted to Rotax when Paul had something like (I think) 4 engine failures in 2 years. Cost a bomb to do because he had to go the full engineering route to maintain its '24' status. Good to see it again. :)

This dipstick managed to leave our calibrated dipstick on the wing during the preflight yesterday. Sadly an extensive search of the surrounds didn't locate it, so I'm faced with the task of making a new one. To hopefully save me from laborously draining and refilling the tanks, does anyone have a marked dipstick for a Sierra with 100L wing tanks. If so, could you please tell me the measurements of the markings? Thanks!

Well, I just downloaded it on an iPad, opened it in iBooks and it's all good. It's only slightly smaller than a page of the printed version, and it's easy to zoom if required. No problem.

Sadly, my wife almost always refused to pillion. She reckoned that there was no point looking at the back of my head when she could be riding her own Super Sports...

Thanks Kaz. Sadly, it looks like I'll have to wait another 2 years before I give it a shot. I'm gunna get there one day!

Doing a bit of idle Sunday night dreaming/scheming/planning... If I were to fly from Bairnsdale to the Avalon east for the airshow, is it better to come via Portsea to the reporting point at Clifton Springs, or via the coastal route under Moorabbin and around the top of Port Philip to the other entry point over Point Cook? To explain a little more, lots of "personal minimums" thinking has left me with a distinct desire to not fly over water - exiting a low wing, bubble canopy aircraft after it flips when the wheels touch the water doesn't seem like a terribly likely prospect. Anyhow, the south route over Clifton Springs requires travel over between 5 and 8nm of water at 1000ft which doesn't sound good. The apparent alternative - the coastal route south of Melbourne - at least allows up to 2500ft, but I suspect that there is precious little to glide to along there without landing in someone's front garden. I guess I could also skirt around to the north of the class C steps, but that would add a lot of time that I wouldn't really have to spare. So, for the aquaphobic, which is the better solution? Is there one? p.s. I presume from the lack of detail on the VTC that the coastal route is not as heavily prescribed as Sydney's Victor 1 route?

Why do I fly? Perhaps this may provide the answer... I was reading a message from our daughter on my wife's phone (with her permission, I hasten to add) when I noticed a message that my wife had recently sent to her. "You father's grumpy because <blah blah>, but he's going flying this afternoon so he'll be OK". Think she knows me well??

There's an important difference between normal battery chargers (be they lead acid or NiCad or whatever) and iPhone/Pad chargers. In the former case, the charger is driving a constant current (up to a certain voltage limit) directly into the battery. In that case, the charger is, indeed, in charge. However, in the case of the phone and pad (and many other small electronic devices), the "charger" that we have been discussing is actually just a constant voltage power supply. The part that is controlling the battery charging is built into the phone, because lithium batteries are too dangerous to leave to the great unwashed to connect any old charger to... :)

As the wise man said, "Opinions are like arseholes - everybody has one. However, unlike arseholes, you should get yours out every once in a while and give them a thorough examination under a strong light". Simplistically, you can always supply a lower-drawing load from a higher-capacity supply. This is because the high capacity is merely a measure of how much current it can supply before the voltage starts to droop. If a supply is rated at 2.5A, that doesn't mean that it forces 2.5A into the load; merely that it can supply it if the load wants. In the case of your phone, it doesn't want to draw more than 1A, so that's all the supply will give it. Now, before the smart folk leap in with a 'yes-but', yes, it is possible with a really (really!) poorly designed power supply that under-loading it will cause it to go unstable, but even with the poorest of poor, the load has to be in the order of under 10% of rated (ie in this case, under 250mA) before it would start playing up. If you're using such a supply, your phone is going to die from the high transients that the crappy supply lets straight through when your motor starts or stops, so instability is the least of your problems. What to do? Start by purchasing a charger from Apple (they're actually made by Belkin) and make sure that you don't buy one on super special from a dubious source. Then, if you really want to be sure, unplug the phone/iPad while you start and stop the motor. If you're lucky, your 12V outlet will be switched on your avionics switch, and you always turn it off when starting or stopping the motor (don't you? ).

Something to make you feel good! :)

Morning or afternoon? I went up at about 6:30pm for a little sight-see with a mate over Newcastle and the coast, and it was still really hot until we had climbed sufficiently. For all that, the air was relatively smooth - better than expected anyway. :)

During my last BFR, I took advantage of having a CFI on board and spent some time doing power-on, climbing, slipping stalls and power-on, climbing, skidding stalls. Apart from being lots of fun (with an instructor!!), it also clarified and confirmed lots of stuff I'd read about how the plane - and the pilot - should react.

Ah, but maybe that's because Awaba St in Mosman is pronounced Awarrba by the locals (but then most of them pronounce Mosman as Mozman, so what would they know... )

I have twice weekly meetings with business partners in the US via conference calls with shared screens, and video if required (thankfully not normally, given that I do many of them from home in my dressing gown ), but sometimes you just make much more progress when you're all in the same room. I can't speak for the board, but I find business trips (and RAA board meetings are simply that) to be no fun at all. Just the insides of airports, taxis and hotel rooms. At least phone link-ups make life easier than 20 years ago when I had to go to Europe for 3 days every three months! :sleep:When people called that a junket, I just wanted scream.

So *that's* why there were so many flying over our place this afternoon! Very different sound to the normal Cessnas, Pipers, et al.

Yours too!?? I can't understand how, with that beautiful panorama stretched out ahead of us, a scattering of light white fluffies below and all's well with the world, she can slumber on regardless.

This is nothing to do with the content of the video, but while I was watching it, I discovered the 'sub-titles' button on the U-tube player. Turn them on. The errors will make your day!

Yep, having seen what a fast electric sports model does to the side of someone's head (weeks in ICU for a start), having a club, insurance and some level of field control can only be a good thing.

When I started flying models (without tuition/assistance), it took me about a year before I got to bring the model home in one piece. I used to fly it each weekend until it crashed, rebuild it during the week, and repeat ad nauseum. Got a bit wiser on the second attempt a few years later and joined a club. Then I only crashed every second weekend! :)

The amusing aspect of using a soft plastic bottle comes later. The combination of the warm contents cooling and the altitude dropping from 7000 ft to sea level - it's only half the bottle it used to be!

My copilot manages to sleep on every long trip, regardless of the beauty of the scenery or the sheer joy of being aloft. Don't understand it myself, but I guess that it's better her than me sleeping, and I suppose I could take it as a vote of confidence in my flying skills.

Another advantage would be that, as you are measuring the resonant frequency of the container, there should be no need to penetrate the tank. A sensor attached to one wall would do the job. However on further thought, I have my doubts that the frequency wouldn't change with orientation; ie with a long flat tank, that there wouldn't be a change when the fuel moved to the back of the tank (pitch change) or to one side (roll) or both (yaw). Sadly, it won't be me who is going to research it; it seems that when I'm not at work () or maintaining the Domestic Harmony Quotient (), then the only thing I'm researching is the inside of my eyelids ()!

There's another problem with the belite fuel sensor. It works on the pressure (or weight) of fuel, which varies depending on fuel type. If you always use mogas or avgas, then no worries, but if you swap between the two depending on availability, then you'll never be sure. I guess in that case you could calibrate with the heavier fuel then the lighter fuel will under-read - ie there will be more fuel than indicated which has to be better than the alternative... Hmmm... Here's a thought. You know if you blow across the top of a bottle, then the sound changes depending on how much fluid is in it. Likewise if you tap a glass. The resonant frequency of the container changes with the volume of the contents. So, if you set up a sensor to measure the resonant frequency of a rigid tank (wouldn't work on bladders), that should give you a measurement that is independent of both the fuel type and tank shape, and it should be independent of contaminants too. Just like the Belite pressure sensor, the instantaneous reading would vary wildly, but filtered with a time constant of something like a minute, it should read very well. I wonder??

Hey! I resemble that remark! Actually, I fly in bifocal sunnies where the lower part is focused at arm's length, so I have no problems at all with the mini. It is panel mounted so I don't have to have the touch screen lock turned on, meaning that if I want to read something more closely, it's one 2-finger salute to make the writing as large or small as I want. Works well (and there's another full size pad in the flight bag as backup, and printed maps if it's a major cross country as well. Belt *and* braces!). Actually, I'll modify that "no problems at all" slightly. I've taken to wearing dark coloured shirts because the reflection of a white shirt on the iPad screen makes it a tad hard to read. The joys of a low wing conveyance.