Mike Gearon

Build update.

On topic of radio noise. In thr RV6 I have 2 icom radios. 128.00 which is Tyabb frequency is a known problem with these radios. Static that comes and goes. Ended up a few weeks back with static on both radios on any frequency. Had it checked out and didn’t really come up with a solution other than it appeared to be alternator noise. Today both radios were crystal clear and yesterday they were both terrible. That bothers me a lot. Has anyone experienced this?

SAAA Maintenance course. Adelaide at Parafield. Norm, Greg and Martin presented. Must complete this course to sign off annual. Also involves about 3 hours of online exam. Even open book it takes time. First day is a lot of regulations and it’s extremely difficult to stay awake. Norm did his best to make it lively and I don’t think it could have been presented better. The side detours to aircraft war stories make it much more interesting and I think we really benefit from those decades of experience. Second day is a bit more hands on but we don’t get greasy hands. Just writing up info as if we are doing actual maintenance logs. I get it. We become the Lamie/ A&P. It’s a bit like radio calls with who we are, where we are and what we are going to do. In this case it’s roughly….. Why we are qualified to do it. What reg we do it under. Why we are doing what we are doing. What we are doing/ replacing the thing and what maintenance info we referred to. Biggest benefit of doing all this properly is our own reference and a secondary but I ortant consideration is that the aircraft is worth more to sell if the records look good. So, in conclusion it’s a big hassle but worth it! Aircraft 1 is still about to fly, maybe next week. Aircraft 2 is starting to move along. Brake lines, header tank and fuel lines in. Controls mostly complete. Painted most surfaces and tail feathers and engine possibly on next week.

Aircraft 1 Pics below. Test pilot Ben checking detail throughout the aircraft before scheduling a test flight day. I thought it was the test flight day. Makes a whole lot of sense to spend a day thoroughly checking every aspect of the build before venturing into the air. We were lucky to get Ben as test pilot. He spends most of his time flying executive jets around the world. Aircraft 2 It’s the first time for a year that I’ve been able to get stuck full time into the build. It’s a bit like your first day on a new job starting back in. I got off to a rocky start putting fuel tank holes in the wrong spot a few months back. If you don’t do any building you can’t make a mistake. But….slowly got back into it and it’s been very satisfying laying down paint that’s not orange peel. Used to be and the paint shop sold me a HPLV spray gun. What a difference. I apply the paint in 1/4 to 1/3rd runs that isn’t too thick. That way if it’s slightly under or over the paint blends in and it’s near enough to perfect. Put the header tank in with triple and quadruple checks before drilling holes. The manual actually tells you to triple check. Don’t know what I was thinking when I drilled those fuel tank holes wrong. Probably over confident. Fixed that problem now! I’m back to the rhythm I had a year ago. Enthusiastic and putting in 8-11 hour days not including time spent each day on YouTube’s and sitting watching tv while thumbing through Rans parts, text and figure manuals. Nic and I are off to Parafield this weekend for an SAAA course in maintenance. Compulsory if you want to do your own annual etc. 8 participants and apart form the boring regulation stuff it should be fun with fellow builders. I then fly back to Melbourne and immediately board flight up to Taipei for 5 days. ‘Then back into build process only interrupted by hay baling. Nic will work with me on avionics. Expect to have avionics done and Titan engine all plumbed in by years end then maybe January finish up the skylight, windshield, doors and engine cowling. We should be flying Nic’s really soon.

Good catch. I lifted that quote off Wiki. Not a sales brochure. Must admit it seemed a stretch of a statement. Wiki joins the trust but verify list now.

Heart goes out to that family that lost the boys. I’m building an aircraft at the moment and talk with my daughters about one of the three grandchildren maybe taking over the S21 one day. Maybe the motor glider is a better option? I just purchased a Diamond aircraft Super Dimona. Was reading up on the Diamond DA40 accident rate. It’s super low. Read below. No stall related accidents. The flight data when combined with a rough measurement of the turn along with altitude and speed don’t look good. The DA40 has accumulated a very low accident record, particularly with regard to stall and spin accidents. Its overall and fatal accident rates are one-eighth that of the general aviation fleet and include no stall-related accidents. The level of safe operation is attributed to its high aspect ratio wing, low wing loading and benign flight characteristics. The aircraft can be trimmed full nose up, engine set to idle and it will descend at 600–1,200 feet per minute (180–370 m/min) at 48 kn (55 mph; 89 km/h) hands-off, a lower rate of descent than the competitor Cirrus SR22 can achieve with its airframe ballistic parachute deployed.[13]

Glad to hear that. I’ve also seen dark gray in the new car pool. It’s a really popular option. I can’t understand that one at all. Should aircraft builders follow color fashion? I think it was peer group pressure driving down the road and seeing the dark reds one after another. The decider was when I was reviewing old pics and came across this one. Contrast between the inner and outer wasn’t going to work well. Also, I’d put a fair bit of work into the interior paint. Blasting it deep red didn’t seem right. Wing painting today.

Update Aircraft 1 We hope to be flying today. Test pilot visiting and if all go we fly. We are higher temp on cylinders 3 and 4 on high rev taxi so this could influence our decision making. Nic was very certain we wouldn’t have a vacuum explosion when vacuuming out the tanks with a little gas in the bottom. Thankfully he was correct. I must admit I was a little chicken and stayed back out of shrapnel range. Aircraft 2 I had a moment where deep red seemed the modern option looking at the latest car colors. Returned to a more traditional fire engine red. Which red is better? I still don’t know 🙂 We are thinking of leaving the wings off aircraft 2 and maybe even the wheels to make interior/ avionics easier to work on. Sit the fuselage on a box about half what it’d be on wheels and no climbing over wheels or ducking under wing to work. Only disadvantage I can see is it won’t be looking as finished and exciting as sitting on wheels with wings on. little yellow balloon stayed up for 24 hours on 1 wing tank without deflating. Made it through 6 hours on tank 2. No visible leaks with soap test so I think okay. No proseal used between gasket and tank. Proseal between gasket and wing skin.

We have had one guy in the island threaten to shoot at aircraft. We had another guy threatened to bomb the ferry. Police came and took his firearms away. Overall it’s pretty safe.

French Island runway extension. Early in this thread I was considering runway locations. Up the hill was discounted and now I’ve added it. Just waiting on the grass to grow and the soil to consolidate for landings. Also, I have trees in north to take out. About 5 pine trees that are considered to be weeds on French island. Need a strong northerly to cut them down so they fall my way. Note the 2 cape barren north of the larger hanger. Just shows a low flight doesn’t scare them off. I to land before or after them. The longer runway really helps to pick a spot.

That’s reasonable if say it’s a BRS and you’re making a purchase for own risk management. We are talking about shared airspace here and risk minimisation for everyone. That being said I guess there’s a 5k factor in owning a 20k aircraft. That’d be understandable and hang the sign up. But…. There’s the sky echo. 1k or less is very cheap insurance and helps everyone see and avoid.

Recently…..Taking a friend sightseeing so a departure straight out to Phillip Island. Tried not to be distracted but I didn’t call altitude on departure call. Noted it on sign off but didn’t update the call. Glad I had ADSB in. I could see an aircraft that was going to track north directly over the top of me. That aircraft was 2500ft and had been my intended altitude. I think we’d have very nicely met up at 2500ft without ADSB in and out. I called with altitude at that point and kept it low as they passed directly overhead heading north. Also, while this was going on Tyabb had 17 and 35 circuit calls same time and the corresponding flurry of calls to sort that out. My friend was very interested in taking up flying. That is right up until the combination of aircraft over the top of us and 2 circuit aircraft aimed at each other all happening at once seemed to put him right off! I assured him nothing like that had ever happened before and not to worry about it. The concurrent situations were both primarily related to radio calls and corresponding actions. ADSB was a good backup. Calls to “confirm so and so” as Facthunter mentions weren’t in my playbook. Say again certainly was. I’ll use “confirm” where appropriate in future and juggle that with not jamming up radio with unnecessary calls. As the story above shows it’s unusual but not I’mpossible to have a number of potential conflicts happen at once. My friend stayed 3 days and situation was second day. Had him light on controls behind me last day of flight including turns, ascents and descents while turning etc and interest returned….I think.

I used to go and see other pilots. Now not so much. What happens in the air stays in the air.

Yes, and it’s important to keep in mind that for single pilot aircraft it’s a glance for situational awareness at the screen. Add it to radio calls received and it’s kind of nice to think you heard say GUF then “glance” at the screen and confirm call sign, altitude, speed, position and direction of travel. When you look at that huge data dump for a screen glance one can wonder…..Why isn’t it mandatory for school aircraft and why there isn’t a closing window on compulsory ADASB out?

I’m not naming names or locations. That’s definitely going to cause problems. Put it this way, it wasn’t recently. It was in Australia.