Drew Ford

Hi Drew and yes not a bad part of the country to live in and the Casino strip been shorten a fair bit so the hump has become more of a hollow now. Ces & Alf names is not familiar to me as I've only been flying for about 10yrs now. I know a few in the Aeroclub would know them and 1 would be George Sommerville who was the Cfi for many moons. Cheers Guy.

Good one Octave, glad you are enjoying your flying. Just be careful when you visit different areas to fly, for example coming from flat outback flying to now entering hilly mountainous terrain is very different flying and fraught with danger at low altitude. I once flew too low over a ridge at the razorback just south west of Sydney (the Old Hume Highway back then before the M5) and the flow of air pushed me down untill the wheels struck the ground on top of the ridge, fortunately I was able to get  airborne, arriving at The Oaks, I found the left wheel spring bent so badly it was almost horizontal, I actually landed on the right wheel by crossing the controls ever so gently and then at a very low ground speed allowing the Thruster to lower itself on to the damaged wheel resulting in a gentle ground loop.  For practice when I was waiting for Students to turn up for their lesson, I used to take off on one wheel by lowering the windward wing and applying opposite rudder. Word of warning, make sure the holes that go through the springs are counter sunk (beveled both sides of the spring) then reassemble and torque the spring bolts to specifications. Checking to see that the springs are attached tightly, should be part of the daily and preflight check. Otherwise, if you have a heavy landing,  loose leafed springs act like sheers, and will easily snap the large high tensile spring bolts like bolt cutters, but if you bevel both sides of the spring holes with a larger drill size, then its like trying to cut a bolt with blunt shears. Best not to try anything new until you work out all the angles and run it past an experienced Flight Instructor. If there is anything you don't understand, DONT ATTEMPT IT!!  Badly executed manoeuvres which are otherwise safe, can lead to tears, injury, badly damaged aircraft, and death.  Dont be silly, enjoy your flying, after every flight be thankful that you arrived safely and with the aircraft intact. Andrew.