bushcaddy105

Thanks Ian I forgot how much better the old site was (is) until it returned! I'm only speaking from the users end - it may well be more difficult for you, so I thank you for your efforts.

I have recently looked at 2 different seven stage, computer controlled, "smart chargers", one I bought new and the smart bit didn't work - it charged flat out no matter what. I returned it for a refund, grudgingly given. The second one was an up-market (expensive) brand 15 amp unit owned by a friend. Same story, no smarts, only full charge. So I still use an old (probably 20+ years) Caddymate charger from a golf cart. All it does is charge at 2.8 amps until the battery is full charge and then reverts to constant voltage float charge suitable for long term maintenance. It isn't "smart", but just works well without the fancy add-ons -i.e. no computer! Just tried and proven analogue control.

We are in the Midnorth of South Australia, where windfarms are growing like weeds. (And we have the highest retail prices in the world). Plans have just been lodged for yet another one in the Southern Flinders Ranges, the nearest turbine being only 3.5 Km from the main street of Crystal Brook and 2 Km from the edge of town. The development application calls for 4.8 Megawatt turbines, 240 metres from ground to top of blade arc. They are approx. 3 times taller than the hills they will sit on. If this goes ahead we will not be out of sight of wind turbines for the first 100 Km of our drive to Adelaide. Sure, we need renewable energy but where will it all end? General Electric have already developed a 12 Megawatt turbine for offshore use, but about 5 years ago their 4.8 Mw turbine was the largest offshore unit - now used on land. I routinely overfly turbines, but want at least 500 feet clearance. Looks like I'll have to fly higher in future! Interestingly, the Snowtown windfarm often has low cloud downwind, reaching to ground level of the hills. Does the turbulence cause precipitation of moisture? The low cloud only extends to the end of the row of turbines.

Thanks Blueadventures for your reply I don't have the room in my panel for a round or square radio as the Icoms are only about 35mm high. I also find that reading those tiny radios is difficult with my aging eyes - hence the appeal of the much larger readout of the Icom I'm used to using. If all else fails I'll just keep using old faithful until (or if) it dies.

Thanks Mark There's still the question of whether the non-TSO version is actually approved for use in Australia. As you have said, the rules are rather muddy (if able to be found anywhere) and authorative interpretation of them is hidden in the mud!

Picking up on this thread:- I'm considering replacing my faithful Icom A200 with a new radio with dual watch capability, seeing that Icom now list the A200 as no longer able to be serviced. I'm committed to the format of the Icom as my panel was originally designed around that profile without much room for change. The Icom A220 would obviously fit my needs, but there doesn't seem to be any reliable info as to whether it is Australian approved in a non-TSO'd version. These are available for less than half the cost of the TSO'd one, and I haven't been able to find out just what is the technical difference between them. The old A200 is non-TSO and has performed admirably for the last 12 years. Can anyone please enlighten me?

Late to read the thread but I have never used additives after a mate's experience in the early 1970's. Old Landcruiser, 135 F engine (yes, that old!) was starting to use oil. After seeing a demo of STP using the pressure-on-the-roller trick he added it to the engine. Next day the engine stopped with a bang. I got to strip it down to investigate. Short answer - one or more cam followers had seized which in turn reduced the camshaft to 3 pieces. It appeared that the gooey STP had blocked the small oil feed holes from the gallery which fed the followers. Co-incidence? I don't believe so, particularly since this was a high mileage engine which was well run in. To this day I only use a recognized brand of oil of a grade as specified by the engine maker. Never had a problem. It's over-extending the change intervals that does the damage IMHO.

One of the reasons I chose my number was to have single-syllable digits, so "4 5 6 4" is easier and faster to say than " 45 64" . Four syllables against six. Now I'm not sure whether "Forty-five sixty-four" isn't easier to pick up and understand on the other end of the communication. What are your thoughts?

At risk of being accused of living in the past:- When I started flying in the early 1990's, we used to drive to the FLY-INS at Mangalore and then Narromine. After building my own wings in the early 2000's I flew to the FLY-INS at Narromine and then Temora. What corporate funding did these require? Any commercial enterprises wishing to advertise their wares paid for a site, local enterprises and charity groups profited from the catering, and we had hundreds of aircraft fly in and we all had a good time. Any "airshow" was impromptu and cost nothing. Each 2 years we went to the AIRSHOW at Avalon to see the big (read "expensive") displays both static and airborne. I flew in to 3 Avalons and thoroughly enjoyed them for what they were. The 2 events were distinct and separate and served different purposes. The above formula worked well , so how and why did we get to the current farcical situation? I did fly in to OzKosh 2016, and thought that perhaps we were heading back in the right direction. I had planned to be at Airventure Australia 2017 in the hope of it being bigger and better than last year, but in light of recent developments and lack of transparent organization I have cancelled these plans. Sorry folks, but I think we have collectively lost the plot.

Depends on the type of kit - A kit with every last component supplied (RV12?) could benefit from sub-assembly packaging, but with a few extra applicable rivets in each pack. A materials kit would be better off with bulk packaging of each different fastener type. This makes it easier for individual variations on design, eg panel, alternative engines, nav light options, etc. Other issue - Has there ever been a kit with perfect instructions and/or every drawing correctly notated?

My first 35 hours was almost exclusively in a Lightwing 582. This gave me the appreciation of tailwheelers which led to my building one, and to my opinion that the tailwheel rudder is THE most important control. Hundreds of tailwheel hours later, I am still learning from my experiences when conditions are less than ideal.

Have you checked whether Foxcon are still making belt drives? I've been flying behind one on a Subaru EA81 for the last 11 years

Greg has already PM'd me for information about my EA81'd BushCaddy.

If the winds at Clare last night were anything like they were here, only a large buried concrete tie down point would have had any hope of holding a lifting surface down. A huge blue gum in our front yard was torn out roots and all, and that was growing in rocky ground. Went out with SES this evening to a farmhouse which had 70% of its roof dumped in the yard, timbers and all. True cyclone conditions. As a fellow 19- builder, I share your heartache at seeing the above result.

Many thanks to all who have contributed to my initial post. Now for an update - I have been using the loan aids for over a month, and last week bought them. They are just so good! I keep hearing subtle noises that I hadn't been aware of missing (like hearing my boots crunching on gravel, and the variety of bird calls in the background). Conversations with a table of people in a noisy pub are now easy, and the aids aren't just focussed on where I am looking. I hear conversations behind me as well. At first they were not good with the ANR headset, producing a background hissing noise. The Audiologist added an automatic feedback suppression program and all is well now. The only minor issue remaining is that my own voice sounds different to me. I'll have to get used to that. As a bonus, I have set my phone to ring and send audio straight to the hearing aids, (great for flying) and music bluetoothed (now with correction for my hearing) straight to the aids sounds fantastic. The biggest regret is that I should have done it 5 years ago when aids were first suggested, and not listened to mates who told horror stories about how impossible aids were.

Anyone having trouble getting access to the L1 on-line learning site? A week ago I tried to have a look at what it is all about, but the username and password sent to me wouldn't work. Assuming I had stuffed up I requested another password, which also didn't work. Next step:- I sent an email to RaAus with their automated password message attached and requested help. As of today there has been no reply to my email. My current train of thought is that I made an honest attempt to use their imposed system (which I consider to be a slap in the face for a 19 builder who previously held an L2 rating), so I will just wait for the reply and carry on regardless doing what I have always done - even if past the required date next year. Any thoughts?

I flew over on Thursday, had a great day Friday, but chose to leave on Saturday morning rather than Sunday as planned due to South Australia's weather forecast. Glad I did! Today's weather here certainly would have made it difficult to say the least. Two other upper Spencer Gulf flyers who attended made the same decision. We had 30 knots on the nose as far as Cobar, but it progressively dropped off after that. We listened to the radio traffic while on this leg and it was non-stop arrivals, so Saturday must have been huge. My impression was that it reminded me of the early Natflys at Narromine - the place was just buzzing and the freedom to wander amongst all the aircraft in an easily accessible space was welcome. The catering by the Aero club, the Gliding club, Rotary and private vendors was excellent and affordable, the trade displays were well presented and well attended, and the showers were steaming hot no matter how well used. The two forums I attended were well worthwhile. Even the brown snake we chased away from between aircraft must have been having a good look! Well done organizers, we have been missing an annual event of this calibre.

Thanks all for your input Yes, the wizzbang aids I've ordered have 16 programmable frequency bands and will be adjusted to provide the amplification needed for each of these bands. They also have some mechanism for being able to adjust for sound direction. I will also be able to use an iPhone app to adjust them myself if I need to. I'm pleased to hear that I should be able to wear them under my existing ANR headset. I'll let you know when I've tried them.

Many thanks Frank. I appreciate your efforts.

Thank you for the offer, Frank. Please may I have a copy. Having flown in to Maralinga from Coober Pedy I can appreciate the terrain and how easy it would be to lose ground reference. [email protected]

Old age and industrial deafness have caught up. With not inconsiderable nagging from the family I have at last ordered new wizz-bang hearing aids. Can anyone help with advice about how to best incorporate aviation headsets with hearing aids? I currently use an ANR adapted Pilot brand headset run from aircraft power, but without Bluetooth. The new aids are designed to work with iPhones and iPads via Bluetooth. All ideas gratefully received!

Saw it 2 days ago. If you take it for what is intended (a great story BASED on fact), it is extremely well done. Meant a lot to us as Sully and Skiles were guest speakers at the International visitors welcome at Airventure 2009 - barely 6 months after the event. It was awe-inspiring to hear their story first-hand.

Some sections now coming up, others e.g. food, underwing camping still not found. Bed time, so will try tomorrow!

Anyone else having trouble with ozkosh.com.au? All I get is "This website can't be reached" Given the advertising in Sport Pilot and the links in Ra-Aus emails, I would have expected info to be available by now. I had planned to go, but without any information available I am re-considering.

I'm a firm believer in the science through related experience. My 1923 vintage car has wood spoke wheels and 3 1/2 inch wide tyres. When first restored there was a real problem with wheel balance. Not having any shock absorbers made it worse. The front wheels in particular would jump up and down while driving. The traditional approach was to locate an old on-the-car wheel balancer and use sheet lead wrapped around the spokes as weights. Some web trawling revealed that many members of the Model T Ford club in the US were using a system of glass beads inside the tubes as a dynamic balancer. I bought a kit from the States as an experiment, and yes, it works superbly. With the car on a hoist (so no weight on the wheel) the beads are all at the bottom of the tyre and if you spin up the wheel by hand the up and down motion reduces as the speed increases to the point where their is no vibration. The beads are distributed around the circumference as needed to balance the rotating mass and are then held there by centrifugal force until the rotation stops. About 5,000 km later the tyres are worn in a completely uniform manner. From memory, it was only 6 ounces of beads per wheel. I have since heard that steering wheels on prime movers use the same system. A plastic bag of beads is placed in the tubeless tyre when fitted to the rim and it breaks open as soon as the wheel rotates.