fly_tornado

I don't understand why you wouldn't want to learn in a Drifter???

If you build a copy of a 912S you have a market for your engine. There are a ton of airframes that already support the 912S which means there is a market for your engine. Most of those Italian designs will require a new cowling and engine mount to fit.

The RAA is its now orientated to supporting flying schools and not clubs or owner/fliers.

If you have a 2% increase in costs and a 2% decrease in customers you are starting to look @ a decent jump of 4% in cost to your customers. Do that 5 years in a row and your cheap hobby is no longer so cheap.

Its interesting how the hourly cost of RAA training has catching up to GA. I wonder what effect on growth that will have.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in the rag and tube flying any more.

Every couple of months some new Italian company comes out with a promising new design which never makes commercial production. So its not just Australia that can't make a good alternative to Jabiru.

The smart money would be to build a copy of the 912S in China. That would make commercial sense.

OME, if your boss doesn't need the Jab business, why is he taking it?

My answer: anything that can take the new 912IS

timely!

enjoy

Even if Jabiru never sold another engine, its still going to take 20 years for all the engines to do a natural death. A lot easier for your boss to find another industry to work in.

I was reading an AOPA report on the state of the flying school industry in the US, 2000 they did 110,000 licences, that pre dates the sport pilot licence and now they are down to only 50,000. So they must be doing something right.

Does anyone know how many RAA pilots are produced each year? It could be a bit hard to tell when the RAA don't seem to know how many pilots they look after.

The yanks are smart they attach flying schools to universities.

I would say graduate as its a tertiary education. You say passing because its like the money pot is "passing on"?

Not graduating pilots would be a bad thing. I've heard quiet a few people walk away from flying because the school was mucking them around. I wonder how many of those people would be flying today if the school had encouraged them.

The easy way to work out if your school is a good one is too ask how many pilots graduated in the last year. If the instructor can't give you an instant number, you know they don't consider graduating as a school priority.

I already have two planes.

That explains a lot, I wondered why a young female pilot would choose Trevor's school. Most of the scholarship winners are never seen or heard from once they get their certificates/money runs out.

Is Kylie still flying?

My mate the Charlie the engine rebuilder reckons that the vast majority of the time the filter is running with the bypass valve open. The oil filter only really works when the engine is < ~1500 rpm.

Can I ask a stupid question, does 100wt oil need a different filter than one designed for multi-grade oil? I would have thought that the 100wt oil cold wouldn't get through most automotive filters.

Carbon fibre has been around for a while, you assume that its been tried before...

I think the inability to determine fatigue could be an issue. The Tornado uses 1.5" desiccated fibreglass struts which give a lot of spring compared to the alloy and titanium legs that are also fitted. The fibreglass starts to split once its getting old.

There are a couple of reasons why the US has cheaper flying lessons. One is that the same school does the sport pilot as GA, so no duplication of infrastructure and assets, no duplication of insurance policies and maintenance facilities. The path from sport pilot to GA is lesser, none of the BS about GA schools not acknowledging hours spent flying ultralights. So no duplication is certification for instructors.

It seems that the RAA model has created its own overheads which will lift the cost of learning.

Do you have a price list of the parts? Things like canopies, cowlings and welded parts speed up the build.

I found a school in Arizona offering the c120 for $50 an hour. Probably done a million hours but its better than catching the bus.

won't carbon fibre be really stiff and brittle? I can see you bouncing 20' if it doesn't collapse

Don't forget the retractable undercarriage is also not allowed in LSA. Fun times ahead for all those owners of European designs with fast props and retracts registered as LSAs.