IBob

At a BBQ in town some 40yrs ago, we got a lovely low fast banked pass from a Spitfire. We were all amazed and delighted, most of us had never even seen one. About an hour later we heard he was down in a paddock. Apparently he ran out of fuel....or ran out of accessible fuel: had more in wing tank/s (?) but the engine has to be running to pump it across. So once the music stopped, that was it.....

I would say quite likely in skydive operations, where the emphasis is on minimum flight time. Certainly there are pics out there of freefall jumpers with Porters in the background in pointing straight down....that would a descent rate of 10,000fpm. However, that's certainly not to say this accident aircraft was flown in that way.

Could be, Nev. Jumped a Porter at Peterborough in the UK, late '70s. We later heard that when in when the pilot selected Beta shortly after takeoff. I have no idea if that is likely or correct, but certainly the aircraft was written off. Oh, hold on, that's all wrong: aileron/s separated during descent, here is the report: https://www.baaa-acro.com/crash/crash-pilatus-pc-6b2-h2-turbo-porter-near-peterborough

I'd say it was the perfect loo with a view???

There was some guy in the US, during the barnstorming days, used to exhibition jump with a little set of moth-shaped wings strapped on. I believe he came to grief after striking the aircraft somehow on exit, presumably damaging the wings which would have had no quick release. If I jumped a wingsuit, I'd want to be very sure that none of the stitching or fabric could fail...........but I guess they will be very strongly constructed with modern materials. As for conventional skydiving: I was recently told that there are now more accidents and fatalities due to poor landing of high speed canopies than there are to gear malfunctions.

Nev, there are....or were.........various types of malfunction: bag-lock, line over, inversion, streamer etc. What was called a roman candle, or more usually a streamer, was where the lines and canopy came out okay, but the whole lot then streamed instead of opening. I don't think that happens with the ramair canopies now used.

I just searched that. It sounds like wingsuit fliers can have both main and reserve canopy, but with wingsuits for base jumping (off solid objects) there is just the main canopy. The reason being that there would generally be insufficient time/altitude to operate a reserve? That suggests canopies must be a great deal more reliable nowadays, and it does say they are optimised for reliability.

I'm with you on that, sfGnome. And while there seem to have been a fair few fatalities (it would be interesting to know what the actual figures are on that) I'm pretty sure it could be done quite safely: not all of us need to fly as close to the rocks as possible.

It seems they get a glide ratio of about 3, which is pretty good. 'Old school' skydiving has an arms back legs out 'tracking' position, typically used to gain horizontal separation from other jumpers just prior to opening. I believe a sustained track can generate something like 60mph horizontally, but with the rate of descent increasing to about 180mph. So a glide ratio of approx 0.3

That or hypoxia: 'It's all cool, man.................'

Marty, re the 912 oil pressure: Originally Rotax fitted a VDO (or VDO type) sensor. These put out a voltage, but were prone to failure. They then moved to a sensor that puts out 4-20mA, which is far more reliable. However, you need the right gauge to go with whichever sensor you have: they are not interchangeable.

Apologies if I've misunderstood: You should have coolant already in the overflow, with the overflow pipe going down to the bottom of that. I ran with my overflow about 50%full when cold. As for this first run: you quite possibly had air in the system, so I would not expect to see coolant passing immediately into the overflow.

Excellent, Marty! And Blueadventures is right. I think Rotax now reccomend initial warmup at 2200RPM, easing back to 2000RPM after some minutes. And mine always felt good at those cold to warm settings. As for getting the oil temp up with a ground run, you may well have to blank off part of the radiator. The 912 is very slow to warm the oil regardless...

Looking great, Marty! I fired mine up with the cowls off, allows an observer to check for leaks during the initial run, I had a fuel leak at the splitter. Also for any pipework or wiring etc that is vibrating and requires further securing.

My test pilot grabbed the cowl through the front airholes and checked it for movement. That was added to my own walkround......