turboplanner

I have thousands of hrs GA, but all behind certified known engines such as Conty's, Lyc's, Pratt, IAE in heavy jets, just the way I like it..lolThe only other engine I have been behind of late is the Rotax 912ULS, was rather impressed but not the start up or shut down...sounded like it was gunna break!:-):-)

And a whine like a Humber Snipe

 

 

Can someone please tell me the meaning of a caution on my posts?

Yes, it's when there's BS

 

 

Gee some of you guys are experts at engine failures:-) With near 40 yrs driving planes & not one failure, I must be blessed:-)

Nah, just a GA flyer

 

 

Have a think about it guys.."Microlight crashes into a ditch"................... "Microlight taxied into a ditch" Which headline is gunna sell more papers?Sensationalism sells, truth often does not

It rolled on its side; you taxy that way?

 

 

You do have (hopefully) a rev counter, so if the attitude is normal and the revs are normal, you should fall into about the same cruise speed, then there's the sound of the engine.

 

Then, on a long flight, when you'r tired, if you haven't made a practice of pushing the envelope in exaggerated turns, pull ups, wing overs, and complex moves, your body will be conditioned, in normal (cautious normal) flight to feel that fluffy handling that precedes the drop, so anything's possible, bout no way should you set out to cross Bass Strait in something like this.

 

 

Frank , It's a pretty much accepted thing that they are easier to control when the weight is kept off the nosewheel. I thought all instructors on Jabiru's emphasised it. Might be the rearward location of the mainwheels and small wheels generally but students having difficulties with steering it on take off do better with the stick back on initial take off roll and of course land on the mains unless you want a problem. Nev

I think the very short wheelbase and perhaps castor are responsible to a degree, but I see them being landed flat all the time, in which case a bit of Russian Roulette kicks in.

 

 

The RV is designed to be a tail dragger. Just look at a tail wheel RV next to nose wheel one! Ain't they pretty!The RV is a beautiful, relatively cheap aircraft. The nose wheel is not designed to handle the abuse handed out to Cessna 172s and Warriors by their pilots. Just go and watch them landing at your nearest airport. These aircraft can take the abuse and the pilot thinks he can fly because he hasn't broken the plane. If one of these pilots buys an RV he may buy a nose wheel one because he may not be good enough to fly tail wheel. The result is an increase in broken nose wheels. Well, that's my theory anyway!

It's all very well to bag C172 and Warrior pilots, but they aren't the ones snapping nose wheels off.

Those aircraft had millions more dollars poured into fine tuning the designs, and there's a lot more strength in the frames than lighter hand-fabricated aircraft.

 

In GA the more prevalent training is to land on the mains, and FLY the nosewheel on, not drop it by gravity, so the stick will be progressively coming back.

 

There's a surprising volume of trainers in RA who teach point and shoot, where the throttle and elevator functions are reversed, and with the nose pointing down at the runway, the slightest mistake on round out point can see the nose wheel slamming into the ground. Last time I looked at the monthly reports they averaged 1 or 2 per month with, if lucky, the aircraft tipping up on two wheels and one wing tip as it veered off the runway.

 

Equally important is the currency of the pilot; every one of us gets a lot more rusty than we think we do once flying drops below a couple of hours per week.

 

 

What clean oil! I would like you to look at a sample of mine.Did you open up the filter too or is that not due? I cut mine open and there is usually a few flecks of metal.

Also I get some black sludge on the inside of the filter where the magnets are.

You pulled your engine down, and it's near impossible to clear all the metal out without totally disassembling every component, washing the cases in a tub with cleaning solution etc. which would by why you might see flecks even from oil-change day.

Jab said he couldn't see any under his microscope, which could indicate a very clean engine.

 

 

Just a standard light microscope, subject illuminated from below using diffused LED light, hence, bright field illumination. I used 100x and 400x and couldn't see anything. Microscopy is a hobby going back 40 years, but I make no claim as to being an expert.

It might pay to make a call to the technical departments of Shell or BP to find out what magnification they use.

On oil report, you would normally send then a sample of the oil at regular intervals, and they will tell you when to change the oil depending on what they see (not sure if that's the number of metal particles, or the amount of breakdown of the oil). You'd then have a good standard to work from.

 

 

really? can you tell us about the incident?

I had just soloed, and a couple of lessons later the instructor took me out to the training area to celebrate. He did a barrel roll on the way out, followed by a flight up one of the local drains, below ground level, a general look around the boundaries, and then I was free to solo out in the Training Area. As soon as I got out there down went the nose and I was flying across a swamp about six feet above the ground looking down at the ground as you do. Suddenly I realised I was coming to the bank of the swamp. Not only that, but there was a row of pine trees around the bank. I was too close to risk a sharp turn, so I gave it full throttle and pulled back on the stick. The nose rose for a while, then, at flying speed, wouldn't come up any higher than about half way up the trees. I was intrigued at how long it was going to take to die compared to a car crash, and the usual life flashing before your eyes occurred. As luck would have it, we were doing our BAK in night classes ahead of our actual flying, and suddenly out of my head came "full flap produces best lift and slowest forward speed". I yanked the flap lever up to full flap, the aircraft rose like a lift, easily clearing the trees, and I'd learnt a lifetime lesson not to engage in low flying.

Caution: I lucky enough to pull it off because full flap position on the V115 was limited to allow it. There are other aircraft, like the C172 with full flap angles that would cause the aircraft to bog down and stay more or less at the same level, so I wouldn't recommend trying it.

 

 

I decided to have a close look at the oil I drained from my Jab this weekend just past. It's done about 12 hours. By close look, I mean really close so I dragged out the microscope. I examined a drop of oil from the oil filter and a drop of new oil. Nothing to be seen, not a sausage. Both looked the same. Now we're talking about an engine that's done < 150 hours, still in diapers so to speak. I'll do the same at 500 hours (at the rate I'm flying, that will be 2057) and see what the oil looks like then.

A lot of transport operators take advantage of oil analysis, particularly where one cylinder costs about the same as a Jab engine; the're aiming to get about 1.5 million kilometres out of the engine, and it's worthwhile if microscopic metal particles are showing up to address the issue, even if it's only a minor issue on one cylinder.

This is usually a measurement of wear, or premature wear rather than catastrophic combustion chamber failure.

 

 

next time I'm in the jab I'll check that lug. I always give the lever a little jiggle every time I move it to ensure the lug is properly engaged. I've never known it to pop out of 2, but I'll bear this in mind.one reason I like mechanical flaps is that in a forced (unpowered) approach using 1 stage I could quickly pull in 2 stages of flap to clear an obstacle, like EK Gann at the Taj Mahal. I know I could do this because I've practised this maneuver.

It saved my life in a Victa

 

 

Since when has running in to a ditch while taxying be classed as crashingOh I know when the dipstick useless media wants to dramatise stuff

Some should just not report

If its engine stopped or it ran out of fuel, that would be a forced landing.

If it ran into a ditch and rolled over, I would call that a crash.

 

The word taxying might be putting into peoples' minds a lazy walking pace roll along the runway, but it may also been a botched landing and relatively high speed excursion, like the hundreds that have been reported by RAA over the years.

 

The disptick useless media almost always show up with a shorthand pad, and take down what someone on the scene says, write that up as a story, and give it to the editor.

 

They are constantly under attack by people like yourself regarding aviation terms, by sheep owners angrily phoning to say they sold POLL dorsets, cattle owners saying the animal was a HEIFFER, not a cow, and so on. We recently had one of the expert aviators on this site referring to a forced landing as an "outlanding", and he wasn't a dipstick journalist.

 

 

My flap detente works ok jetjr. The fit of the plastic is tight and the arm is springy with extra slots sawn into the moulded cover bit. I'll take a picture later today.I do need to push it in firmly when selecting #2 , in fact sometimes if high, I use 2 hands.

Actually it is good to know that it will only slide back to #1 if it slips out. Wow the bang would give me a fright too, and I would agree with going to electric flap actuation. It is only the weight penalty which stops me now.

I like electric trim, because you can just give a lazy flick of the finger as you fly along, based on the way the controls feel, however, with electric flap, you have a long wait before the flaps get to where you want them, and in the Jab you need to be on the mark with the visual market to avoid over-running the position you wanted. On the PA 28, mechanical allows you to do something much faster, and the mechanical locks allow you to do it without having to look at anything. I can't remember the LSA55 manual flaps, so they may not have the same type of locks.

I haven't looked at the Jab rod design, but I have had a lot to do with rod ends over the years and seen many bent. Almost always this is because there is fouling of the linkage at some point, and the person operating the control manages to get it to work, but via the screw section bending rather than the linkage turning the eye.

 

If you have to push the flap lever in firmly, that could be the cause and is worth examining, perhaps with the flap cranks disconnected.

 

If you're pushing a detent button, disregard.

 

 

It's not only maintenance. How many of us insist quiet from our passengers at critical flight times?

Let's stick with maintenance before opening a whole new subject of pilots (of which tens of thousands also do not get involved in pilot-fault forced landings and crashes, lost positions and fuel exhaustion).

The picture you're painting points to taking maintenance authority off RA pilots, primarily using the academic statements of someone who may or may not have had practical experience, whereas the true picture, when you look at RAA statistics is that the overwhelming majority of owners and pilots are doing the right thing.

 

 

It's about the money Turbs.In some types of operation there are inspectors for every step.

Perhaps more resources spent on inspection and checking than on doing the job.

 

But in the sort of place we would use, there would normally be just one mechanic assigned to a job. Imagine he is interrupted to check out an unrelated parts delivery and then it is lunch time and he forgets that sump-plug. After all, it was finger tight so it looked alright.

If this is the norm for your operations its time to change them.

The vast majority of mechanics are careful, and don't do their work with their mates chattering around them; that's the point I made in my last post.

 

 

Workshops a bad place to service and repair aircraft? Makes you wonder how the tens of thousands of other aircraft live out their uneventful life cycles.

 

 

I was going to say I wonder how you land it. Be rather touchy wouldn't it? Nev

Not necessarily; I have a tiny helicopter which is very stable and I can fly it around people's living rooms, much to their concern.

 

 

how many knots does does the Ferguson cruise at? And with these old plugs, are you happy with its rate of climb?

It does a lot of knots downhill in angel gear, and its rate of climb is spectacular - steeper than a Jab

With a heavy implement load, like a mould board plough, the governor will open, the engine will bellow, and it will run under load like that all day in any ambient temperature.

 

 

That runs well with reliability based maintenance. When an engine is new the likelehood of failure is good. After some time the likelehood of failure lessens considerably and remains so for most of its life span (the "reliable zone") . ONLY if you don't mess with it.......... Everytime it's worked on the chance of failure goes up for a while, until you are back in the "reliable zone" again.....This clashes with some of the more common engines maintenance shedules. My thoughts? Observe and detect, ( I like solid lifters for that reason) don't do unneccessary work..get an oil analysis. Test compressions and leakdown, look inside the oil filter, look inside the bores, ....

Now then, we don't want any of this common-sense stuff!

 

 

My Mitsubishi Triton just ticked over 4500hrs and it's on its 3rd set of plugs.

My Ferguson's in its 61st year on the original engine, which has never been pulled down, and it's still ticking over nicely too.

 

 

Yes, they are the incidents they always hide.

 

 

And he died doing what he loved most . Crashing in he beloved Cessna. How he managed to avoid the children with both wings off the plane is a testimony to his great skill as a pilot..Nev

Don't forget that he was a great guy and wonderful family man, and an exceptionally safe pilot, and although none of us knew him, we'll miss our brother flyer for the rest of our days!

 

 

If it's only you using it, couldn't you write the owner a letter absolving him of responsibility/liability? (Perhaps with legal help). You will still have your own third party insurance which would cover any damage you cause should the worst happen.

You can't hand off a tort.

 

 

I'm surprised that pilots flew over the high country in anything but ideal weather. A diversion inland wouldn't have added much to the trip.

I think it's the scarcity of passes. I can remember the brothers who flew from the coast to western NSW on Christmas Eve/Day in a 210 to check the stock troughs and hit the ground on the way back, the bookies, and one lit who iced up and lost control 4 minutes from the let down point into Canberra, miraculously saving it.