Old Koreelah

16 hours ago, Thruster88 said:

My RV6A rudder is not mass balanced and the Vne is some 20 knots lower than the 7, is it unsafe ?, not if flown within the limits.

A good read even if you are not an RV person yet. https://www.vansaircraft.com/safety/

Nobody seems to be jumping into this, T88, so I’ll toss in a few cents worth: I don’t know much about the RV series, but much has been written about mass balancing. I added a small lead mass approximating 1/3 of the extra weight involved in a rearward extension to my all-flying rudder.

I notice your model lacks the rudder “notch” forward of the hinge line of some RVs. That makes mass balancing a bit difficult; if you’re determined to do it, perhaps you could mount a short, forward-facing weighted arm either side of the rudder; you could hide them under the tail plane.

On 05/05/2021 at 6:24 PM, facthunter said:

...You COULD be a VERY good pilot at 400 hours IF you went about it the right way. . You could also be very mediocre with 4,000 hour s or much more..

...Self evaluation requires great honesty.

Good advice, Nev and Butch.

On 05/05/2021 at 5:54 PM, Butch said:

Simple answer! 

 

Don't get yourself into a situation that you need these skills...

To stay safe it seems we should regularly nudge the edges and go outside our comfort zone, just to brush up on what are the actual limits of our aeroplanes...and its pilot; and have plenty of altitude while doing it.

Thanks for your diligence, Kasper. 

So the selected contractor may be in a position to cause changes that severely impact on our flying freedoms and considerable financial cost?

Even wor

1 hour ago, onetrack said:

... the maintenance and operational culture in the Warbirds operation is substandard, and too casual and amateurish - and this will only lead to a disaster whereby more rare warbirds are lost forever, and possibly more innocent fatalities will result...

Perhaps some current maintenance personnel have the attitude they can cut corners as was common in wartime to keep them operational.

Most of these aging warplanes were designed to last only a few months; they were quickly assembled, often by poorly-trained workers, so it’s a tribute to the restorers that they are still flyable 80 years later.

We are lucky to be able to see, hear and even perhaps fly in them, so today’s maintainers need to treat them like the delicate historic treasures they are.

Danny that’s what I thought, until the extent of their negligence was pointed out.

Seems the whole incident could have been easily avoided if they’d just done what sensible pilots normally do.

...and that’s when the fight started!

Just read the RAAus response to Airservices’ second proposal.

Very thorough and professional; RAA should be congratulated on their work.

https://members.raa.asn.au/storage/raaus-organisational-response-to-second-proposal-to-lower-class-e-30apr21.pdf

Almost as good as being there, Scott!
I wish my radio was as clear as those calls.

Crickey! That sounding graph is a bottler!

With all this technology available, how can we stuff it up?

5 hours ago, spacesailor said:

SO !

A Nissan Micro, having a headon smash with a Toyota LandCruiser, will hurt thse in the Big Toyota MORE.

NOT

Sounds reasonable, Spacey, but I’ve seen the opposite: lots of injuries, especially in the knee area, to ‘Cruiser drivers in head-ons. Little cars don’t have much in front of you, but their crumple zone design protects you...

and you would be amazed at the level of protection given by front airbags.

5 hours ago, spacesailor said:

...In Saudi Arabia, those small cars Are BANNED from their roads, for saftey,s sake.

spacesailor

...Probably because the place is full of yank tanks driven by maniacs.

3 hours ago, skippydiesel said:

Attention Radio Guru's - Is a dipole antenna inherently "tuned" and suitable for any transceiver?  or does it need the attention of a SWR meter like a conventional antenna?

Skippy my 20c worth- I guess most people know this, but I didn’t (I’ll blame crook advice): install it vertically.

So it would fit inside the plywood fuselage behind me, I installed my dipole antenna about 30 degrees off vertical.

After years using it like this, an air traffic controller told me my signal was very weak while coming straight in. 

Turns out the damned thing needs to be vertical, as the strongest signal propagates at right angles.

Since it’s now vertical, people 20nm away can hear me clearly.

4 hours ago, Bill said:

Questions please: Old Koreehla - what brand of epoxy did you coat your prop with & what brand - type did you spray (aeorosol?) it with? And Markdun - what brand of epoxy did you use to glue the laminates. Thanks,  Bill

Can’t recall, Bill, but the same epoxy brand I’ve been using for yonks; the spray cans recommended by Jabiru.

30 minutes ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

Interesting, but the main thing I have got is to be grateful for the old solid lifters in my engine. Sure they need checking, but the need for an adjustment tells you stuff.

Can you chuck out the hydraulic ones?  My guess is that other things were changed to suit the hydraulic lifters and this would be a risky thing to do.

I have hydraulics and sure don’t miss the regular adjustments of tappet clearances. That exercise is good at keeping you in touch with how your engine is trending, but my preflight prop pull-throughs (I like to do ten blades on my 4 cyl.) give me a feel for how it’s going. 

I recently repaired my standard Jab hoop pine prop after it copped some minor surface damage.

Very easy to gently sand the glass layer and add a coating of epoxy, sand that smooth then apply a few coats from a can to get a good, silky finish. Static balancing might be time consuming, but it’s easy and the prop is smoother than it ever was.

Must agree with Bruce that despite their lesser efficiency, I prefer the simplicity and reliability of the wood.

Yesterday the weather was perfect and as compensation for my flight to the Warrumbungles event being washed out, I took off for a flight over our town.

After a couple of turns over the Bowling Club where my wife was waving at me, I took a tour around the valley.

Little plane is running smoothly with even temps.

Steered clear of the gun club, where the large number of cars indicated a major shoot was under way. (How high do those 12-gauge pellets fly?)

Early this morning my darling wife nudged me awake. No, I wasn’t about to get lucky. She (the one in charge of my delicate ego) wanted me to tell her all about my flight, because she needed to get back to sleep.

B I TCH !

1 hour ago, RFguy said:

... I would think it would be most vulnerable during slow cruise or  descent (lots of airspeed and cooling, low power setting) and going to WOT.

I try to use my cowl flaps to keep CHT’s within a safe band, but to do that I have to close off almost all airflow during idling descent.

33 minutes ago, facthunter said:

...You don't get more seizures when the engine is too cold. You WILL get them if you leave the cowl gills closed on a plane.

Nice to Know, Nev. I have sometimes forgotten to open my cowl flaps during a go-around until the CHT gauge starts flashing its red light at me.

Thankfully, the cooling process seems to have a time lag of a minute or more: no matter how wide the cowl flaps on climb-out, CHT’s hit my warning limit  of 150C and stay there for a couple of minutes after I’ve leveled off and eased off power to 2750 revs. 

6 hours ago, kgwilson said:

Carbs on top of the engine is a disaster waiting to happen..

My first engine (VW-type) had the carb on top, plus a drain tube to take overflowing fuel away.
When I noticed petrol spilling down onto the hot bits I discovered that a previous owner (one was a LAME) had cut this tube off and never replaced it.

On 26/02/2021 at 7:43 PM, kiwiaviator said:

Middle Earth Peter?

Yep, and full of bunny holes.

6 hours ago, onetrack said:

How can a fuel hose just "come off"? Surely, you make 101% sure these connections are totally secure, when you're doing checks?

This discussion is based on second-hand information; perhaps we should wait until the pilot of the aircraft in question makes a contribution.

A simple fuel injection system would solve many Jab engine problems, but EFIs are dependent on a totally reliable battery. 

Old-fashioned mechanical fuel injection might be a better alternative, if only one could be found.

2 hours ago, facthunter said:

Then you have  "spritzig" Shiraz...

That would be nice, but I should have been more specific, Nev.

I squirt the CO2 into the bottle above the wine; as you’d know from your winery days, it should keep overnight.

11 minutes ago, facthunter said:

They don't get images constantly. There's a delay and that must make it interesting. Nev

Yep. Because of the 20 minute signal delay, they have to just trust the robot to straighten up and fly right.

2 hours ago, Mike Gearon said:

Bottles, yes, just not drinking enough to justify...

Mike if you don’t want to drink a whole bottle of good wine in one session, just squirt a little CO2 into it from a Soda Stream and cap it tell the next night.

8 minutes ago, facthunter said:

 ... Even seaplanes can't handle Rough water. You have to make them fly real slow to have a hope. 

In rough water the traditional seaplane design, with floats far below the CoG, might be almost as prone to tipping over as fixed wheels.

It occurs to me that one of the design features that might have been built into this naval aircraft is the ability to safely ditch in rough, deep water.