Captain

Pete et al

Had an email back from Mick Poole to say that he will make contact again with the BOM and see where they are up to with this.

Thanks Mick.

Regards Geoff

So for Tumut to Tocumwal there is approximately no markers for a reference....... I can picture the GA pilots looking down every 10 minutes and saying " absolutely nothing on the map, and absolutely nothing down there; we're on course"If the GPS went out there, I would have had to turn south until I find the Murray, then follow it westward to Tocumwal........

If he thinks there is nothing between Tumut & Toc, he mustn't be looking out the window. Try for the Hume Hwy (although I know that in places it is only a 4 lane expressway under construction), try for "The Rock" which only sticks up to about 2000 ft, or have a look for a heap of small towns.

Mr Worth should try a nav between Toc and Hay without a GPS and he will see what a lack of ref points is all about .......... but there are still enough to get reasonable checks.

That Caroline seems to be a pretty smart girl.

PS ... Will Mr Worth please also advise what time he plans to arrive at Narromine next Easter, so that I can plan accordingly. (And as a Nav-tip for that trip ..... if you get to the Qld or South Australian border you have gone too far).

Well done Steve, the only thing better then the trip home from Bundy, is your next trip BACK.kev

Great photos & story too Steve, Thanks. Always good fun overtaking 172's, isn't it.

Ian

I find with mine that I need to have the ball right in the guts for a while, then look up to the sight gauges. Have you tried that?

Regards Geoff

G'day Pete,

I have sent a followup note to Mick Poole today to see if he can take this up with the BOM again and give us an update on progress. Will pass an anything that I hear. If you have time it would be good if you can contact him again too, to reinforce the request, same like we both did originally. You always have more pull than me, anyway.

Best regards Geoff

PS ... I note in the new Airsafety Digest that there are new or changed abbreviations in SIGMETS. And just when I was getting fluent in Sigmet speak too.

Or as us SIGMETISTS so often say: Nt ASg N abr Sig J W FL GTGSig S @ 2 alpha YSWG wthr Sh-house, & dnt tch it or yu'll go blind.

PPS .. YEAH, WHOOPIE ... 90% in favour of the alternative plain-speak being available in SIGMETS .... YEAH

Mine reads similar to Derby's, but from about 2000 up.

David ........... I have a PowerMate fitted to the 3300 in my J230 (and am very happy with it) so I have the standard voltage regulator still in the shed unused. Drop me a PM if you want me to dig it out & stick it into the mail to you (gratis of course).

Regards Geoff

I was involved with a job in India about 10 years ago and there was a young kid who did that just down the street from the Oberoi Hotel in Calcutta.

He made a fortune (relatively speaking).

That could be the same guy, but he is hard to identify as his feet have aged a fair bit.

I was tempted to arrange a franchise on his act and his "hole-in-the-pavement" patent, and then open a branch outside the Casinos in Melbourne & Sydney, but his lawyers never got back to me.

Regards Geoff

Hi CaptainI think I might have seen your dog sitting on a box North of Gundagai waiting for the diurnal wind change when his sail plane driver master usually turns up very late in the afternoon.

 

Regards

They have changed the words to the song to:

"And the dog sits by the Cobra Trailer.

While his boss waits for a retrieve.

200 miles from To-cum-wal"

Best regards Geoff

Here is an example of the way the wind dies around here sometimes/most times near dawn. This is today and is courtesy of Weatherzone, so thanks to them.

Those of you who are considering flying into the Avalon Airshow in March will have had a look at the new regs for RAA aircraft .... as on the Airshow website.

My particular concern was with missing slots on the way in or out due to weather, or being stuck there at the end for the same reason, or for those of us why are flying a long way and need to sneak in late-ish in the day.

I have been talking with the organisers and they have advised the following reply which I thought might be of interest to some forum members.

Mick has suggested that if any of you have any questions, feel free to give him a call or an email. He is a pleasure to deal with.

Hope you find this of use.

Regards Geoff

Geoff,

Sorry to have taken so long to get back to you.

Regarding the new restrictions - it’s not quite as bad as it seems. Whilst CASA require us to provide details of all non-VH registered aircraft, for authorising operation in controlled airspace, it really doesn’t matter if you cannot make your designated ‘slot’ time. If delayed, just let us know by e-mail or phone and we will re-schedule you at a time to suit both parties.

Having looked at a picture of your rather ‘sexy’ aircraft type (and having been with us in 2005), could you advise us what assistance you had/require from us to transit from your landing position to the static park; e.g. wing walkers etc. I can then put the information on your file once fully registered.

Once again, if I can be of any further help please don’t hesitate to call.

Regards

Mick

Mick Jennings

Aircraft Operations

Avalon 2009

Australian International Airshow & Aerospace Defence Exposition

PO Box 4095

GEELONG VIC 3220

Telephone: +61 3-5282 0543

Facsimile: +61 3-52823 4455

Mobile: +61 (0)4484 85692

Email: [email protected]

Email: [email protected]

As to the wind dying down at night, the geographical location near hills and mountains can affect ground level flows a great deal but for the most part the dying away of convection and therefore of the mixing of the lower layers allows the "drag" of the ground surface to slow wind speeds down near ground level with a change in near ground air temperatures and a consequent stratification of the air layers.

Re your above para .... why then does the breeze also die a little before and after dawn?

And I notice that it also often gets colder a little after dawn. Do you have an answer to that too, or are these issues just all about boundary layers moving up and down?

You are right about pilots having more knowledge of what goes on in the atmosphere. I also fly sailplanes and I was fascinated to learn that nobody really knew about the mechanism that causes thermals & Cu's until the 1930's.

Regards

..... but our activity has greatly changed the environment and even if it is not the sole cause of our problems, it would surely help to limit our excesses. Even better limit our population, before Mother Nature does it for us, with another flu epidemic or SARS, or maybe something even worse. Should we go back to the days of World Wars, or even all behave as they do in Africa and parts of Europe.

That is laudable, but what is the point in OZ doing it when the bulk of the world population, which are relatively close to us, probably will not? I have worked in India and China and our population and emissions are insignificant in comparison.

And how do you propose that "our" population be "limited"? Are you speaking for the Skippys or the world as a whole?

Re your final sentence above, watch this space. If you think that those days are behind us you are kidding yourself. Our generation(s) have lived in a utopia for the past 60 years or so without a major world conflict and that, most likely, will not continue forever.

That is why we must fly and have fun as often as we can.

Regards Geoff

Hi there geoff, In answer to your 3 questions, Firstly as the sun goes down the localised atmospheric activity will also decrease giving a less intense wind activity close to the ground (what motzartmerv said earlier).

What is so significant to our winds about the sun crossing the horizon in both directions, which appears to calm the wind for a couple of hours or sometimes less?

Welcome Bruce

What you will find with this site is that if you initiate the threads, and they are interesting, you will get the replies which will hopefully be of use to you and others.

Go for it, mate.

I look forward to seeing your contributions to this excellent site.

Regards Geoff

Does anyone east of Adelaide have gusts less than 30 knots today?

And did anyone fly today? If so .......... details please?

Good suggestions there PPPPete & PPPPlaney

Re Planeys points on Narromine:

• Geeeeez the Easter Bunny must have a quid (or a shipload of Euros stashed away in a Banke Accounte de Swisse) if he lobs in an MM.
   
  
• I will contact Julie Andrews (and Anthony) to see if they are interested in a kip under the wing and to share a sleeping bag with Le Crappee.
   
  
• If they can't come, does anyone have a JA style wig for Planey to wear?
   
  
• Will also see if JA can hook us a St George Dragon suit in Ian's size.
   
  
• I leave it for PPPPPPPete to negotiate with the RRRRRiverland GGGGirl.
   
  
• Do you think thre is any merit in the NES contributors grabbing 5 parking spots together so we can all laugh at each other's jokes and the others won't get bored with that? (We can also all chip in and paint Geoff 160 while we are there).
   
  

Re PPPPete's ppppoints re Aaaaavalon:

• I'm gunna fly in but have been speaking with one of the Airshow Peas and he is looking into it further as flying in all looks a bit hard based on the changed regs .... like all sneaking in super early each day, which is hard if you are coming any distance, and like you have to stay until Sunday night if you accept their invite to display (so you won't get home until Monday and might be stuck at Avalon if the weather turns sour, so how do you get out if stuck there until Wed and the TWR is back in full swing etc).
   
  
• Yes we should all meet up down there. I'll bring some Iced Vovos.
   
  
• Yes to Lara if the above can be resolved.
   
  
• Yes also to name tags, but aren't you a bit worried about walking round with BigPete on your left breast.
   
  
• A definite Yes to all meeting up. I wonder if Jabiru will let us have some space ... or we can maybe drive the RAA mad in their tent. We can perhaps start each meeting by talking about Ian.
   
  

Does this help?

Regarde

Le Crapp

Could it be "Farming is the Most Respected form of Gambling" ?Hope the wind turns around and returns your Dog ! and did she shat on the "Tucker Box" while there?

 

Was meant to be goint to Tyabb this weekend myself, just checked the weather, lovely head wind and absolute charlie rap. Is it still pooy in Wagga?

 

Cheers Guy

Yesterday @ Wagga airport the Met recorded 26 knts gusting 42 and today it has abated all the way down to 24 gusting 34 from W/SW when I checked it just now .... and I understand that the mountains are white. So I hope none of our guys tried to get into the Mt Beauty or Corryong Fly-Ins yesterday. It would have been a bit interesting up there in those mountain valleys.

Have tied the dog to the shearing shed for safety and she has only dragged it a metre or so overnight once the chain had stretched. She looks a bit like one of those kite surfers, except the kite has legs.

Best regards Geoff

PS Re Motza's post #8, I don't know the scientific detail, but I do know that the science of "global warming" is not absolute, yet most greens portray it as so and the pathetic gutless (manage the country by press release) polys seem to accept it as so. We even have some whacko down here spending money on TV adverts urging the population to "Go Veg" so that there will be less demand for meat and less cattle pharting will decrease methane levels. One final point is that with the huge masses of people to our Nth in Indonesia, China and India I see little gain for the Aussie population to beat itself to a pulp, and raise its own costs, over issues like coal burning power stations when any improvement we make will mean bugger all in the overall scheme of things.

Ah ... I love the smell of AvGas in the mornings.

What model dog do you have and how long have you been flying him. What is his range and can he take passengers?

G'day Paley. The dog is a lab/kelpie cross and I calculate her glide ratio to be about 6:1, with a heal biting ratio of just 2:1 when she gets really cross.

Mike. I understand that the wind is solar powered, but why does it drop for those couple of hours when the sun goes both ways over the horizon? It is not an old wives tail, as it appears to happen most days that it becomes calm(ish) around dawn and dusk ... (but not always).

Regards Geoff

BUT WHY?

I have 3 questions for the learned members of the Forum:

BACKGROUND: There is a substantial weather event here this weekend and we have had strong winds overnight such that my dog got blown down to Gundagai, and today will be totally unflyable with strong winds predicted, the freezing level will be down from 12000 ft yesterday arvo to 4000 today and we have snow predicted on the mountains and blizzard conditions in the warnings.

QUESTIONS

1 Given all of the above, why did the wind still drop at dawn and dusk, same like it usually does?

2 It is an obvious and incontrevertable fact that conditions as I have described above only happen when a group have spent immeasurable effort on organising a Fly-In, as they have in Corryong and Mount Beauty this weekend. So what is the firm & causal link between Fly-Ins and crappy weather? (The link is so direct that there just has to be an optic fibre cable somewhere in the mix for this to be so definite?)

3 Why is it that when the Cockies crank up their Headers at harvest time, the clouds get greyer?

Please help.

Regards Geoff

Great insight into what is going on. Thanks for the post Michael.

Regards Geoff

A form of precipitation consisting of water droplets ranging from 1 to 5 mm in diameter.

And is it bigger or smaller than a "drop"?

"

EG A "farmlet" is smaller than most "farms", yet a "toylet" is bigger than most toys (except our aircraft, of course).

Regards Geoff

Try M & C Tyres, who have advertised in past RAA Magazines.

They supplied Trelleborg 10 ply tyres for my 230 and while I can't say what they have for your size, their service was great and they would be worth a quick bell at 03 5447 1377.

Let us all know how you go.

I need to head into the far northern suburbs of Melbourne some time in the next couple of weeks and would appreciate suggestions of what RAA accessible strip would be best and closest to Craigieburn.

Is Wallan now out of the question or did it get a reprieve even though it is not in the ERSA?

Would welcome any suggestions.

Geoff

G'day. I am planning to try to attend both Mt Beauty and Corryong in a J230 if the weather is sweet & a few from Wagga Aero Club are also looking at going this year ........... but we have just 35 mins flying from here to Corryong. Where are you planning on staying on Friday evening? Regards Geoff

Helloooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Is anybody there ererererererer?

Or is there perhaps another Never Ending Story? As this one appears to have defied its name ............................................. or have you blokes all buggered off to another thread and haven't told your faithful Skipper? (Not that I'm paranoid or haemaroid or anything).

Regards regards regards regards regards