Hohocc

Thanks gents! It's becoming apparent my knowledge of tyres is pretty sparse, the links/leads you have provided are quite an education as well as being progress in the right direction. I've stumbled across a couple of wheels that seem to fit the bill as a result of the above, but should anyone have further info please feel free to add it! That Wagga Bike Tyres site is a tyre encyclopedia in itself, and written in a language I can understand, thanks Blueadventures for suggesting it.

Morning all. I've recently bought a D11 in NZ which has the 420x150 Auster/Chipmunk tyres fitted. While they are in reasonable shape they look to be about $1000 each as very few aircraft use them. A couple of Jodel owners in the UK refer to using a 4.80/4.00-8 Kenda 371 trailer tyre, which appears to fit a different wheel, but is about 10% of the price and has some track record on Jodels. It's also easy to get on ebay whereas no doubt the aeroplane tyre will be "out of stock" should I want to get them locally. The plans for my aeroplane are from Frank Rogers, and in them he refers to the wheels as "Austral wheel co pty ltd BH72", aluminium alloy construction,and provides an address in Melbourne. The wheel part number, business, and address all seem to have faded into history from my limited searching online. Well the address exists, but it's almost CBD Melbourne so there's not going to be a wheel factory there! Measurements on the plans suggest the Kenda tyre may be a close fit to the BH72 wheel. Artificial stupidity says a BH72 wheel is from a wheelbarrow. At least it did last night, now all wheelbarrow references seem to have gone... Looking at pics of D11s in Australia, it appears some have the Auster/Chippy tyre, and others may well have trailer tyres. Would anyone on here be party to what tyre and wheel options are used on Jodels in Australia? If there's an option to get a wheel which matches the plans I have, which would likely fit the Kenda tyres I'd be very interested to hear about it. At some point in the near future I'm likely to want to make a set of wheel spats that fit a bit better than the current examples, so prior to that I would like to establish if I'm stuck with the current tyres or not, as the tyres used will clearly affect the fit of any wheel spats I make. Thanks in advance for any info folks.

I took a look at Nigel Arnotts site and was very surprised to see the video of his Sukhoi demo at Wanaka in 1998, I was there that day and remember it well. It was the first time I'd seen a modern monoplane display, everything up to that point had been Pitts displays (which were also great), but this was another league. I think his display was to Queens "Having a good time", but can't pick it out from the video, maybe I've imagined that bit! Thanks for the info chaps!

Well thanks for the info folks! That's given me a couple of very interesting spots to put on the agenda, and I've also had a generous offer from a forum member to go for a ride from Jacobs Well, I'm not sure if the boss will approve of my sneaking away but will see how negotiations go... If anyone has any other suggestions please do post them, I can't be the only visitor to the Gold Coast who is keen to see more than just the theme parks! Thanks, Craig

Hi there, I'm visiting Surfers in a couple of weeks and wondered if there are any places of interest for light aircraft spotting? Am aware of Southport Airfield, Jacobs Well Airfield, and Murwillumbah, not aware if they are welcoming of visitors or not. Any others worth looking up? I'm thinking up to an hour and a half drive or thereabouts. Thanks.