turboplanner

2 hours ago, facthunter said:

Someone called me a dude once.  Nev

Was she good looking?

3 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

Why, Geoff H?   Cos very few have your analytical skills and so they think electric = zero emissions.

But IF you were to charge your car from solar panels, AND if those solar panels were themselves made from green electricity, then the figures for the tesla improve huh.

Correct but the current plans don't think that through and the numbers are based of us somehow doubling out power grid output and running a new 44000 volt grid to supply the 3 phase chargers. Not logic at all.

27 minutes ago, F10 said:

Yeah, I listened to this laughable little report on the ABC, that oh so virtuous propaganda machine of the left, describing a lovely little scene of all these virtuous people re charging their “unaffordable by most” Teslas at all these charging stations between Sydney and Melbourne, you could almost see the dreadlocks blowing in the wind and the barefoot girls in see-through cheesecloth dresses making daisy chains, along the highway verges, whilst out of sight over the horizon, the still standing wind farms and struggling solar panel farms hopelessly overloaded, were saved by a churning ever reliable and all weather coal fired power station, charging all these hundreds of EV’s and wrapping our happy flower children in a comfortable blanket of virtuosity, whilst they championed the satanic evils of coal.

Summed it up quite nicely, although I would like to see a comparison analysis of an electrc chainsaw vs a cow - we may have to ban drinking milk

9 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

Funny how I found out about the plastic bag business here and not from CASA.

You could be 100% correct, but I have a sneaking suspicion that we did find out from ATSB because I vaguely remember some comments on Remote Areas.

........British Raj resolve wilted, and his eyes glazed ove and his mouth watered [and, NES faithful, we are not talking about gin here] and he just had to have one. This usually resulted in Court appearances a few months later, but a Corvette is never reluctant; you press the button and  the big Chev 350 motor starts to rumble; you put your foot down and blue tyre smoke follows you; you .............

6 hours ago, APenNameAndThatA said:

To make a long story short, if you have a tie a 1.8 m by 1 m transparent plastic bag securely around a eucalypt branch, transpiration should produce about 1 L of safe water per day. PVC folds more compactly than polythene. 150 microns is best for PVC and 100 microns is best for polythene. Shelf life of such bags is not infinite. Garbage bags are too thin and the wrong colour. Reference: "Survival Water in Australia's Arid Lands",  B. L. Kavanagh, 1984. The Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Research School of Pacific Studies, ANU, Canberra. That almost sounds practicable for light aircraft, to carry as well as water and an EPIRB. 

When you're forced to land unexpectedly it's about the time when you've just pulled off a precautionary landing, there's no damage to the aircraft, but you were flying over the Outback expecting to be in a town in another hour. The only sound you hear is "tink, tink, tink from the exhaust as you remind yourself to check the fuel before departure next time, only there's not going to be a next time. You do the maths; it's a 50 hour walk to the town and not a sign of habitation.

That's when you tell yourself "If only I'd listened to APen!"

Your water consumption in the southern cities is two litres per day, so check the consumption rate for the area you're going into; in some cases it's a litre an hour, and that will tell you how many bags to take.

The running chainsaw will drop back to zero if you let it go, so throw it or tie a rope on to it and just let it drop,

4 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

Well an electric saw will shut down faster I hope...  Mainly I hope to never find out what it feels like to fall from a tree with a running chainsaw.

You've got that choice.

The arborists are switching to elevating platforms. That way you are always above the tree and can fell a big tree in pieces small enough that they can drop straight down. If the limb jambs, you're above the potential accident. If the whole trunk of whole limb might spin or kick you can cut that off at the pass by lopping the out of balance limbs etc. Got a lot going for it.

Next is buy yourself a harness if you have to get up a tree, and use a step ladder. I did that; first day it took me twenty minutes to work out which straps to put where, but you can get up a ladder as fast as you want to climb. Don't tell anyone this but my first day with the harness I was up about 5 metres in a big pepper corn tree, reached out and cut a limb  which sprang and swiped the ladder along my limb sideways leaving me hanging in space. When the harness locks you can't overcme the locking forece unless you know the magic action, which was in the manual at the bottom of the tree. For a while I though I was going to face the fireys, but with a superhuman effort reached a toe out and flicked the ladder back along the branch. Broken leg without the harness though.

I often have to force mysef to think and cut, think and cut to avoid kick back and cutting a knee cap off. There are some good manuals which explain how to keep clear of potential trouble.

29 minutes ago, Aero_Medic said:

My first post, what a great forum, very helpful and encouraging for a student pilot….so here is my issue

 

Has anyone had difficulties getting prescription lens fitted to the Flying Eyes frames here in Australia?? 

Recently purchased a pair of ‘Kingfisher’ sunglasses by Flying Eyes who make prescription compatible sunnies for pilots. Absolutely fabulous frames, super lightweight and fit so snug under your headset which is the main reason I bought them….but I can’t use them…Specsavers say they cannot fit my prescription lens to the frames? 

 

Has anyone had success getting a prescription fitted to the Flying Eyes frames? Any Perth based pilots recommend an optometrist that can help?  I haven’t advanced to ‘Jam Jar’ lenses just yet…it’s a basic correction Rx so I don’t see 😄 the problem!

 

Cheers

Try an independent Optician; I think the problem is Specsavers have mass production, where the local guy may be able to take your frames and send them to his lense supplier.

47 minutes ago, kiwiaviator said:

Slight drift off topic question. Does anyone know where I can get location information for AVGAS bowsers on airfields. I dislike taxiing around at an unfamiliar airfield looking for bowsers. All of the FAC and apron charts I look at, have black squares all over it, however no 'X marks the bowser'

I haven't done this but try google earth; resolution may be good enough.

17 minutes ago, BrendAn said:

No sound but I presume it was a clip of a GM . Nothing else sounds as good .

It's a .wav sound file.

On my computer when I click the link, Microsoft music opens and plays the file. If you have a different system you may have to put it in that directory. Worth it for the laughter at the end.

....top on his .................

2 hours ago, BrendAn said:

If you drove 2 stroke GM powered trucks and normal 4 strokes you would see why 4 strokes took over from them.   

WQ10292.wav

.........made the people wonder why Cappy would say such a thing, and people began to whisper that perhaps he had done it to shift suspicion off .................

.......Turbo's name was submitted to the Glasgow COP26 conference as a threat equal to coal to the evils of global warming by the ex-president of Kirribati who had a name for pulling stunts at these conferences, his 2005 effort being to claim they had bought an island from New Zealand becaise their own was sinking, but it didn't sink and he was kicked out and these days moonlights as a Rapper, having been trained at LocksNuthing school of go go dancers. It was a long ............

5 hours ago, spacesailor said:

' Fuel management '.

So an ultralite aircraft consuming 5 Lph with a 20 litre tank, HAS to have 30 minutes  of reserved fuel to !.

Do what ?.  ( over-fill the tank ). Carry 22.5 litres.

spacesailor

No, under VFR Rules you have gross fuel, Usable fuel and 30 minutes reserve fuel.

With a Gross 20 litre tank, there may be some low spots and you may not get the last litre out; you are required by law to have 30 minutes reserve fuel, say 5  litres, when you arrive at your planned destination (reduced from 45 minutes in 2018), which leaves you with 15 litres Usable Fuel which is what you flight plan for climb, cruise and descent of the planned route.

I think Tomo has left is all for dead, paid to train in his teens, then decided to get married at a young age. That's then end of bobbies and flying right?

He hunted around and bought a Piper Pacer. GA affordable flying, none of the engine rebuilds and maintenance costs of the upper end of RA.

Now he owns the Piper for local flying and a Piper Twin Commanche PA30 for cruising.

1 hour ago, BirdDog said:

 

Surely this thread is taking the piss?

 

How is RAA not a cheap way to get flying?  Obviously there are costs, and I actually don't think they are that high!

FIrstly - you need to be trained.  Someone has to buy that aircraft (and keep it safe)  THAT has a cost.

Then, someone needs to pay the instructor (which they still are underpaid) THAT has a cost.

You are going to have to wear those costs - PLUS - The school is in business to make money - not the goodness of their heart - so you are going to have to wear that cost.

All that said - $4000 to $6000 is not what I would call expensive to be trained in decent aircraft to have your arse in a chair in the sky and stay alive.

Next - your aircraft of choice.  

 

You can spend cock all - like above 6 grand and away you go!  Put Mogas in it.  Maintain it yourself, and it's cheaper to run than your family car.  What more could you ask for!!

 

If you want to spend big and get a fancy machine with glass etc, because you can - Excellent!!!  I congratulate you on working hard and rewarding yourself in life (as I have)

 

Why does everything in life have to be cheap!  LOL!  Things cost money.  That's how it is.  You can't get it all for free.  Personally I don't think it's expensive - but there are expenses along the way you will have to pay!  That's the way the world works.

 

I am SUPER happy that RAA gave me the opportunity to get into aviation at a level that is above wood and paper mache glued together on a prayer.  I fly a pretty sophisticated machine at a price point that I think is decent, without the complex crap of GA, and I can maintain it myself - WINNING!

 

As far as CTA.  I converted to also hold a Part61 RPL, and went and did the CTA endorsements!  It's easy, and not that expensive.  Now I can fly into anywhere!  How could I possibly complain!

 

Good to see a few positive thinkers among Dad's Army.

[Turbo deeply apologises for any offence the above photo may have caused to NES readers; he was sitting the the left rear seat, and unfortuately had eaten a bad oyster in Dubai]

52 minutes ago, naremman said:

Sorry guys, but you have missed the apex of affordable aviation by about 40 years!!

 

In 1974 you could buy a new Cessna 172M for $17,000, four times the cost of a Holden Kingswood. The current automobile equivalent has improved incredibly in standards and comfort, compared with the same airframe possibly with a bit of glass, and certainly way beyond the four times cost multiple.

 

As for my circumstances. Learnt to fly in 1973 at $18 an hour, purchased a Victa Airtourer for $3,500 in 1975, based it at the farm, hangared, and close to a couple of thousand hours logged. Could I replicate that experience today, or tomorrow. Impossible, sadly!

My uncle once refused $400.00  to buy a Tiger Moth.

You can go back to those days, but still find that only one person in the surrounding district owned an aircraft.

The basic wage in 1973 was $1.93/hour, in 2021 it's $20.33 = 10.59 multiplication factor.

In 1973 GA aircraft hire was $18/hr, in 2021 it's $266/hr  = 14.77 multiplication factor

It's more complex these days because people want better products; they wouldn't fly a Victa these days, yet I used to go out at 7 am before work once a week and do limited aerobatics. But it didn't have glass.

In 1973 I was selling Mercedes Benz Coaches with air conditioning and on-board toilet for $45,000, in 2021 it's $1.2 million = multiplication factor 27

I can recall in the early 1980s the typical Holden/Falcon size car went from $5,000.00 to $20,000 due to specification

It all really depends on how you package your thoughts.

Today we work 2 hours a week less than we did in 1973, so that can be converted to overtime or a second job.

Take a look at the outer suburbs; today the typical workers home is two story, admittedly build on a postage stamp, and the family will own two cars, but that's because both husband and wife earn incomes.

One experience got me thinking about runaway costs; A Melbourne bus operator rolled one of his coaches, ripped the body off and salvaged the chassis. It was a 4x2 with a rear mounted Detroit 8V92 two stroke diesel engine and Allison automatic transmission. I had to get it from the repair shop to a truck depot to be taken to Brisbane for a body. They'd wired on a plastic lunch room chair for me to drive, and I realised that without all that body mass this would be a high performance machine. As I pulled up to the lights a Kenworth semi slid up beside me and the Type A personality took over. I tramped the foot and could hear the 8V92 responding but nothing happened. What I didn't know was the engine was digging down behind the rear axle and the chassis was humping up in the middle. When sufficient pre-tension was reached it let go and slammed the front axle and the lunch room chair, and fortunately me, forward almost the length of the Kenworth cab and I streaked away from him. Later, as heavy truck operators complained about the high cost of trucks and how they were going broke I did a detailed exercise on taking out omponents and systems that were not necessary for the task; aluminium fuel tanks, mudguards to splashguards), bull bar, radio/sound system, CB, glove box and tool locker, cab lining and carpets, steel sleeper to folding canvas, full width cab to driver cowl, power steering, 18 speed transmission, auto-greasing, 30% power, pretty much everything back to 1913 except the solid tyres. When I costed it out I'd taken twenty years of costs out, so I presented it to the operators at a meeting. I'll leave it to you to guess whether their thumbs were pointed up or down at the end, so we went back to the up to the minute technology.

Having said all that, this exercise would be most productive looking at your nice and deciding how you can make it more affordable. In most cases it will be shorter, more frequent flights.

3 hours ago, spacesailor said:

Don,t forget those BUREAUOCRATES, Sitting in their offices dreaming of more restrictions, for you.

spacesailor

 

You've been offered help multiple times; don't blame the bureaucrats.

On 12/11/2021 at 2:31 PM, Bruce Tuncks said:

If the RAAUs was developed to foster affordable flying, I reckon the stupidity of the population has beaten them.

First, a digression:  Gliding was once the cheapest way to get into the air, and it still can be if you will accept winch launches in a wooden glider. Very few do this.

The result is,  if you look at glider sales nowadays, you will see a tiny number of 1/2 million dollar things being imported by the rich.

The scene I grew up with, where working guys could buy a syndicate glass 15m glider, has also gone by.

 

When I bought my Jabiru kit, it was cheaper than the sales tax on a self-launch 17m glider.... so now RAAus had the cheapest flying for me.

But the new aircraft mainly seem to be factory built 1/4 million things for the rich.

What is happening?  Why do the younger generation seem to only want things they can't afford?

As a GM Director once said when the dealers wanted GM to fix something, like reducing the price by 30%:

"If you're looking for sympathy it's in the dictionary between sh!t and syphill!s.

The dealers went on to take market leadership of that product.

1 hour ago, Flightrite said:

The AUF then RA was born out of people wanting a cheaper simpler choice to fly, same as the LCC (low cost carrier) concept but like the LCC which people wanted more frills but keep the cheap fares the basic/cheap end of flying got expensive as people simply wanted more, more frills and oh how the plastic fantastics have boomed! It’s a dog chasing it’s tail!

I would agree with that general theme, but somewhere buried within RAA is the magic solution because RAA are still claiming a membership of around 10,000 with 3.500 aircraft. Whatever it is those members aren't talking on social media.

The first Ultralight flew in 1907, the Demoiselle in France - 20 hp engine, 56 kg tare wt incl. fuel

In Australia:

The Dickeson wing appeared in 1963

Bill Moyes free flight 1968

Wheeler Scout, 8 hp Victa lawnmower engine 1974

CAO 95.10 1976

AUF formed early 1980s, 2000 members by 1985

At the present time it's still a success story, and the dog chasing its tail syndrome can be fixed by setting up maybe ten distinct classes.

Then some will fire up, and others will wither, but it will get rid of the sport-wide whining that goes on and drag new entrants down.

1 hour ago, dreemhi said:

This would be my idea of affordable flying but I doubt it will ever happen again around Sydney. 

 

Probably not.

1 hour ago, kgwilson said:

What is needed is access to CTA for RA pilots who are rated or endorsed to do so. This is the case in NZ. I trained in and flew out of a towered airport (Hamilton) with GA, then in the early noughties various new RA aircraft began to appear mostly with an instructor going through the CTA rating for the RA student. Our clubhouse was on the opposite side of the main runway right next to the tower & we had a grass east-west cross strip and parallel grass strip next to the main RPT strip. We mixed with International  flights of up to 767 size and domestic RPT and there was a British training school with 40 Diamonds training 6 days a week. It was busy but you sure learned how to deal with lots of traffic and instructions and make correctly constructed radio calls. Proper use of the radio is very poor these days not only amongst RA but also GA and especially training of foreign students with accents so thick they are virtually unintelligible.

City students are learning in CTA in Melbourne and Sydney.

If there was a CTA rating for RA, what are the other impediments?

Pilot loses rating after training?

Engine?