Ultralights

the 250 hrs without de-coking sounds a little worrying, i have just done my 503, it had 147 hrs when i took the tops off and de-coked everything, the piston was about 0.5 mm thick and the cylinder head was about 1mm thick.

Nice shots there of one of my Hawks! how was their display? sadly i have never seen the Hawk display, as its only the Hornets that practice the displays here at williamtown, the Hawks practiced theirs at Albatross.

though before the hawk departed for Avalon, we were treated to a Mach 0.9 pass at 50 ft down the strip!

great Shots, sad i missed it... oh well, there always next time....

sadly i will now have to trailer my Vampire to Narromine, as my ground crew will be in QLD on urgent family business, and hence, no ground transport to take me to accommodation with family in Dubbo... very sad, but seeing as i have to tow her in, i do have a van, so the upside is i still can get accommodation on the airfield if im permitted to sleep in my van?

does anyone know if this is allowed in the car park? i wont have a campsite so to speak, as the van is big enough for a mattress and cooking equipment.. and being so close to the narromine weekend i dont like my chances of getting a spot in the nearest caravan park or campground.

even though the B52 is 50 yrs old, its still a very intimidating looking aicraft..

Understanding Engineers

Understanding Engineers - Take One:

Two engineering students were walking across a university campus when one said, "Where did you get such a great bike?"

The second engineer replied, "Well, I was walking along yesterday, Minding my own business, when a beautiful woman rode up on this bike, threw it to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, "Take what you want."

The second engineer nodded approvingly and said, "Good choice; the clothes probably wouldn't have fit you anyway."

Understanding Engineers - Take Two

To the optimist, the glass is half full. To the pessimist, the glass is half empty. To the engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

Understanding Engineers - Take Three

A priest, a doctor, and an engineer were waiting one morning for a Particularly slow group of golfers.

The engineer fumed, "What's with those blokes? We must have been waiting for fifteen minutes!"

The doctor chimed in, "I don't know, but I've never seen such inept Golf!"

The priest said, "Here comes the greens keeper. Let's have a word with Him."

He said, "Hello, George! What's wrong with that group ahead of us?

They're rather slow, aren't they?"

The greens keeper replied, "Oh, yes. That's a group of blind fire fighters.

They lost their sight saving our clubhouse from a fire last year, so we always let them play for free anytime."

The group fell silent for a moment.

The priest said, "That's so sad. I think I will say a special prayer for them tonight."

The doctor said, "Good idea. I'm going to contact my ophthalmologist colleague and see if there's anything he can do for them."

The engineer said, "Why can't they play at night?"

Understanding Engineers - Take Four

What is the difference between mechanical engineers and civil engineers?

Mechanical engineers build weapons and civil engineers build targets

even $160 an hr is a bit on the expensive side, so a cheaper plane will make a considerable saving! Jabiru dual rates here are $125 hr.

not to bad when you consider what we get for that! if you have CASA licence, its that much just for a medical! then you have to get your BFR then you have to Buy your manuals more $$$ and not to mention talk of making us pay for the Flight safety mag (crash comic)..

i was initially looking for a 701. but decided on a savannah instead, essentially the same aircraft, but all parts have been pre drilled and cut to shape saving a heap of time and less chance of error, also there are a lot more savannahs in oz than 701, with the new VG wing they are faster and have the same STOL capability.. numerous members on this site have savannahs

the bit that sold me on the savannah was all the little unlisted extras are included, such as Instruments, wiring looms, fuel lines, cabin heating ducts,upholstery litereally everything less engine and paint, and the engine will only need to be bolted up as everything will be there.... so ive been told, i haven't bought my kit yet, waiting for a house to sell to finance it..

no, i dont work for savannah and have no interest in the business.

I have some bad news, I wont be able to make it down there this year, and i had a surprised planned, and its not a nice feeling having to tell the RAAus that the Vampire wont be on display for them this year, especially after all the polishing i have done! my arms are still aching!

but all is not lost, i will be flying her into Narromine!! :)

hmmm just thinking, im not sure my Vampire has tie down points?? have to have a look tomorrow, or come to think of it, im not sure if i have tie downs either.... more shopping.

As we all know, in air we travel in 3 dimensions, on earth, its in 2 dimesions.. but what about 5 dimensions??

i found this quite interesting

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070318.html

Does our universe have higher but unusual spatial dimensions? This idea has been gaining popularity to help explain why vastly separated parts of our universe appear so similar, and why the geometry of our universe does not seem to result naturally from the amounts of matter it seems to contain. The idea is also prevalent in modern attempts to combine gravity and quantum mechanics that include M-theory (formally string theory) and Randall-Sundrum theory. Such models involve branes and bulks and frequently attempt to explain, among other things, why some quantum energies and the measured cosmological constant are so small. Above, a dynamic three-dimensional drawing (two spatial plus one time) of a four-dimensional depiction of a five-dimensional cube (a hypercube with four spatial dimensions is also known as a tesseract) is shown. Donning red-blue glasses will give the best multi-dimensional perspective.

you know, just some light reading... and viewing...

Does a fibreglass spa leak after its broken?

opps, wrong spa®

Cheque please!

nice, but still looks like a toy plane that expanded when it got wet with that red prop... :big_grin:

its still $1.30 in newcastle... and diesel is at $1.40

I have a dri-rider suit, and never though of using it as a flight suite, there is no cab heating in the vampire.. and winters coming,

but what is a dri-riders fire resistance like?

I know dedicated flight suites meet certain fire resistance regulations... but what about dri-riders?

with income tax, GST, Stamp duties, levies, and all other taxes on everything, i would be surprised if something near 70% of what we earn ends up back in government consolidated revenue.

sometimes i think our country and eceonomy do well just to spite all the govt fees and red tape...

fortunatly for me i run a courier company, so all my fuel is GST free... but still thats only 10% saving...

Just finished watching the news, Oil is now $57 a barrel, hmm looking back over my historical chart, petrol SHOULD be $1.03 a Ltr!!!!! :mad :mad :mad

another factor i have noticed is the OPEC nations themselves, the price of Oil was headed for the $50 barrel mark. whoohoo i was thinking, fuel to drop below $1! YAY, sadly not to be, the OPEC nations cant have that! reduce production! keep the price up....

wonder what would happen in the coal boom at the moment, why cant we form a Coal cartel, and when the boom starts to subside, we just stop production of coal... keep the price up...

In some ways im looking forward to the Oil running out (though it probably wont happen in my lifetime i remeber being told the oil would run dry in 2000, then 2010 etc etc.) as it will take the power away from the Middle east cartels... come to think of it, the war on terror might end then as well, with no oil, the western world will just pretty much ignore the middle east regions...

fortunatly there is a big enoug market in the car industry to make alternative tecnologies and fuels cheap, but what about out beloved aircraft??? thats what im really worried about....

on a side note, at a party last week, my partners friend, being the environmental type, declared me an environmental vandal for flying aircraft!! putting too much carbon into the air etc etc, of course, telling them the facts could not be done..... aircraft are evil, simple as that....very sad..

there was a report somewhere i read that a 747-400 series aircraft, loaded with 200Tonnes cargo, and 450 Pax (passengers) from Syd to London used the equivelent of 2.8 Ltrs of fuel per 100 Km per person.. How many cars are running around getting that kind of efficiency??? even my vampire will cover 170 Km in 1 hr for 11 ltrs of fuel.. or approx 6 ltrs per 100 km still better than my partners greenie friends Nissan Xtrail........

rant over...

Why are there big X's on the runway thresholds?? is the runway closed?

Ill be there for BAE, so i might get some time to come and say HI!

I had a similar problem with mine, the CHT went up to 800 C, with no increase in EGT, pulling the throttle back to descend on base and the CHT fell in line with the throttle, when throttle was added when flap was lowered the CHT increased as well.

sorry i couldnt help with your problem, but after that short flight i have now pulled the engine down for a 150 hr inspection, and noticed the CHT sender looked pretty ratty and i have since replaced the sender, though haven't flown the aircraft yet so i cant tell if it was the sender causing the issue,

though pulling the engine apart showed No evidence whatsoever of running to 800 deg C.

Nb my engine is a 503 DCDI.

in was thinking a single seat, fully encolsed weight shift aircraft... but using a conventional stick control... pull back to climb, left stick to roll left etc etc..

hahaha, interview with the Rotax, funnily enough i am getting up close and very personal with the rotax at the moment...

Not bad for 150 hrs!

though i have been thinking of a name, only 1 so far...

Temptress Two.

Was todays weather simp[ly brilliant for flying today or what!!

took the Jab for a 2 hr spin (well not spin) down the coast at 500 from the central coast to wollongong and back, i would have stopped in at the Oaks but didnt have the fuel to make it without busting reserves..

smooth as a babies bottom.. from 2500 ft in the LOE to 500 ft down the cost... and countless yachts as well.

caltex is the only oil mob up here...

woke this morning, drove to the servo to fill my Diesel van, $1.55

a record $100 a tank! not bad for 70 ltrs!! not only that its a 10% BIODEISEL MIX! so the oil companies sell 10% less diesel and charge the same price.....

so of course when i get home, check oil prices, In Singapore, only to see the price has risen just $1.60 a barrel, or about 5 cents per litre. How on earth do they justify an increase of 26 cents then????

i have never stolen anything in my life (except a pen once) but i was tempted to fill up and drive off, whats good for the goose right!

and the oil companies have the arrogance to tell us THEY are suffering....

it wasnt long ago Oil was at $70 a barrel and fuel priced didnt get this high, today its at just over $60.......

rant off.....

ps, i think i might sell some Maquarie bank shares and start accumulating Oil company stock....