Mike Gearon

Picked up the rans S21 kit at Tooradin. Then the barge blew an engine. We made it back on last trip for at least a month very lucky. Build will be in a B&B we haven’t finished as in pic here. Pic of tv showing YouTube S21 build has island resident Steve to right of tv. I had no idea he was retired airforce and specialised in skins until he was watching the video with us. A great resource! Always amazed at our tiny 100 plus island population and their past lives.

I think of this problem like learning to ski. You really don’t want to push the weight into the front of the ski. It is so counterintuitive to push your weight forward down the slope you just finished tumbling down and now you’re trying again. Same happens again on your first black run steep slope. Some 300 hours plus hours in my muscle memory is stick forward and a glance at the ball just to double check nose is where it should be. I tried a 300ft turn emergency turn back in the Nynja some months back. In gliders you tap the altitude at 200ft and verbalise “ 200ft and safe to turn back to runway. At least in USA that’s what you do or fail checkride. Over the bay and I was bloody surprised to find the rudder tightening like it had a mind of its own. I was keeping the nose pointed well down for speed first. Still, I was shocked to see the ball well outside. Exactly the stuff we are taught to never do. Pulled it back to coordinated flight and never in danger. Still, a shock! No way would I have made it back to the beach and in a real emergency flying performance would I expect be significantly downgraded. Simple rules. Aviate, navigate… aviate it first at best glide and coordinated turn then navigate without a fixation on having to get to best landing site. I have no idea how often other pilots practise scenarios. I recite abort point and land ahead each flight as I was taught. I probably don’t practise enough in flight scenarios and never practised a BRS pull…. Next flight!

Same. I’m using an IPad. All works the same..I’d started to write a similar post then wasn’t sure exactly what F10 was asking because I noticed previous quotes where this was deftly handled…. Then, I went to delete and found you can’t so just removed my text then noticed you’d gone grrr in another thread about inability to delete. 😀 Yeah, it’d be nice to have a few minutes to delete. Understood though, the remnants remain in peoples email inboxes.

I flew home last light and yeah, you can see the dirty sky there. I’m burning off (pic below as I heaped the wood up after landing) and last night probably contributed to my dirty flying air for today. Should have RAA retractable endorsement this week if all goes to plan and CASA conversion from FAA still involves more hurdle jumping including my English language proficiency check. I’ve been trying to perfect English for 63 years now so should pass. Clip,was taken with iPhone in one hand and I’m surprised how close the fence and tea tree look. Feels higher. Pretty standard landing without a headwind. With headwind the aircraft is stopped by the shed/ hangar. Without it take a while to pull up on the downhill. I let it dissipate as much energy as possible with elevator all the way up and delay gently braking as long as possible. Tail wheel is the answer! Rans S21, Sinus Flex motor glider (long/ short wing interchange is 5 minutes 1 bolt each) and the quicksilver. Virus SW 121 will likely be sold when the tail wheel Pipistrel arrives later this year from USA. I’ll miss the Nynja……. It’s such a simple easy aircraft to fly. Plenty of nibbles at 48k but no takers yet. Wouldn’t want to be in aircraft sales. Sinus long wing tail wheel sold twice now and yet I still own it! IMG_0371.MOV

Rans S21 with 220hp UL520 and Garmin G3X. Stall 33kn and cruise 135kn with the 180hp so 200hp-220hp Ul520 will push it along a little faster. Particularly if we go the turbo 220hp option. VNE 187Kn so maybe a spread of 33kn stall to 150kn cruise. Take off is genuine STOL around 50ft or so. It’ll look a lot like this pic but maybe green main Color. Can’t decide. we have kit and waiting on new hangar build August/ September then start in. I’m mechanical and my 50/50 build partner is an electrics/ electronics whiz so it should work out 🙂 Visited Rans factory and their stand at OSH Kosh last year and plan a return this year to attend a heap of build forums. Huge knowledge input at OSH Kosh. Kit builder heaven and heaps of forums on safe flying.

I’ve just found this thread via Blueadventures and the E Prop. Didn’t realise you are the Australian agent. I was viewing the whole e prop install with some slight skepticism. Seemed too good to be true and I’d remembered the stolspeed prop comparison and mentioned that…..That was the extent of my knowledge until coming across this thread. Now I see what it’s all about. I fly two current aircraft and for some reason the Rotax gearbox clunk is more pronounced in the Nynja with Bolly. I actively hold the throttle back against stop with just left mag then shut down to minimise this. MT CSU prop without researching it could be lighter, there is no noticeable clunk. So, I get the lighter aspect from just this point of view. Then noise and vibration. Pipistrel is vastly quieter because of slippery frame. It’s like the difference of turning on noise cancelling. So, anything that can reduce the noise level is a huge bonus. Vibration is probably equal between both aircraft. Noticeable and of course reduced vibration equals more mechanically and possibly more people friendly/ reduced fatigue. CSU. I see you mention that above. I’ve not read the whole thread to this point. Will continue but wish to mention my experience with CSU in Pipistrel and upcoming S21 build. CSU in Pipistrel. I set it full fine for take off 5800rpm and pull the flaps and throttle back by say quarter quadrant 26 MAP and set 5400 rpm at around 100ft AGL. 1100-1200fpm climb out at 80kn. Cruise 130-135kn 5400 rpm 26 MAP. Reality is I could set it at 5400 on the ground just like the Nynja and never think about it again. I set it full fine for landing as POH but for a go around I’d be just as happy at the 5400rpm pitch and one less thing to think about climbing out and the go around indicates something went wrong snd you have a bit to think about deal with at that point. This brings me to the S21. We’ve (my build partner and I) decided to go UL520 and probably the turbo 220hp. UL USA say the turbo fits. If it was a choice between CSU benefits for tuning climb out and cruise or turbo then the turbo wins every time. It’s doing a way better job of dealing with air density, altitude and cruise performance as well of course as extra grunt on the climb out. Cost and complexity differences between turbo and CSU. I’m sure that’s a whole topic on its own. At first glance I’d say the turbo is less complex than a CSU and similar or less cost. I’m becoming an e prop fan. Pity they don’t make them for the higher hp aircraft!

At the end of the day it’s climb out FPM and cruise TAS showing consistently better figures over the old prop. Sounds like this is what is going on.

I was concerned looking at that claim of 130mph/ 113kn and how that could be achieved. Reviewed the extensive tests JG has done. I’ll list them here. E prop at the time was very similar. They’ve obviously been developing since.

I think it’s left stick preceding the right wing drop. FullSizeRender.MOV IMG_0355.MOV IMG_0355.MOV

5500rpm and 130mph or in our flying language……113knots…. I’ve left the Nynja exactly as Vince had the Boly ground adjust prop set. Climbs out nicely and WOT 5400-5500rpm is a very consistent 105kn.

Found the little USB. Testing on ferry. Probably too windy to fly later today and ferry captain is warning me we may not return from Phillip island this morning due to forecast 30kn winds. very interesting to see the green from Uavionics more up to date than the blue from Avplan. 700ft higher. 1.3nm further along on a course change. That alone is worth the wires and extra bits.

I’ve just noticed the other clever thing Harry from Iceland has done. The stock Skyranger throttle setup is in the way for entry/ egress. It’s easily bumped wide open by yourself or passengers and I’m probably not alone in finding it doesn’t hold TWO on it’s own. Harry has it solved. Throttle is retained at idle and isn’t in the way and can’t be bumped open. Throttle arm weight is downward and probably as such nicely balanced. Either that or he pegs it wide open. 😳 I’m pretty sure it’s idle. it’s probably the result of those 24 hour days and 24 hour nights and lots of thinking time. I’ve been to Iceland. Nice place to visit but….

So, that’s what’s going on! I was trying to work out why an obviously experienced pilot was asking! I’d love to have that last playback feature. A feature I really like on the Garmin is dual monitoring. Example, I was coming into King Island on Melbourne Center and monitoring King Island CTAF. Heard them talking about me the unverified VFR and then heard one of the 2 pilots also converging on King island at the same ETA. I’d have been way less informed without that feature. Because of dual monitoring I was able to have a site picture of the 2 transport aircraft and they were already talking about who’d be number one and two. I knew my ETA was the same and Melbourne was also telling the 2 I was same ETA. Made it really easy to let them know on CTAF that I’d meander down the coast at 80-90kn and let them go about their commercial business and tourist me would enjoy the view. I’d say to be completely honest it’s a very appropriate thread. I fly most days and 2 aircraft on CTAF are pretty easy. It gets more and more difficult as you add them. Weekend or monthly flights and you’d expect to be a bit rusty! I’m adding ADSB in as mentioned if I can find the f$#@ng little USB stick thing with a sucker on end. My wife claims to have not tidied it up! Add GoPros with headset wires, iPhone, extra phone with Telstra chip for country trips and IPad along with backup batteries for head set and wires to power stuff as needed and it makes you want to fly the quicksilver. Simple seat of the pants flying with a yaw string and airspeed indicator. Low, slow fun flying with the wind full on in your face and practically 360 degree vision.

That’s so detailed. He’s done an extraordinary job including the LED lights for flap indication on dash. radio up high has given him space on the dash for iPhone and iPad. Brilliant! I like the pilot and passenger heaters. Prob not needed in Australia if we aren’t flying winter in southern states. Just more water hoses and electrics to have potential problems. Iceland different story! I heard him mention thermostat. I have no idea if we have water or oil thermostats in 912. I just know they take ages to heat up and I do runups facing away from wind and opposite to what I’d do in air cooled engines. Learned to start the engine before doing anything else. Start then close door, seat belts and checks. Even then it’s just wait and wait for temp before takeoff.

Yesterday Nic and I flew to Tooradin on a shopping mission. During return we spotted a 3 day old fire flared up again and I called it in to our local CFA. Landed, drove to intercept the fire truck and 30 minutes later we were mopping up. Good public relations on French Island from that fire spotting. The fire was very close to escaping into bush to the west. There are occasionally aircraft that really abuse the privilege of the French Island training area and The 2 pilots based on the island were being blamed. For example my near neighbour recently asked why I had circled their house about 6 times. Was I trying to intimidate them? I felt terrible for her and apologised on behalf of the pilots responsible. Pics. Spotted the fire. 2 minutes later our ground crew had hangar doors and farm gates sorted and not long after that on scene! 3 hours later and dark and we were still spotting red glows and mopping up.

I think it’s taught but you’re overwhelmed with everything else going on in the learning process. I’m 3 years into my flying and early days I’d be in the car and pretend the intersection coming up had wind and landing directions along with traffic to remember. I’ve just purchased this https://uavionix.com/products/pingusb/#416120cea4ad7a2c9 Brings in UAT 978 and 1090 but not weather. In the USA I have Sentry. It’s ADSB into ForeFlight, USA weather along with CO2 monitoring. Not compatible with AvPlan unfortunately. Looking forward to getting it and adding to AVPlan aircraft picture of the surrounding airspace as an adjunct to listening and building a traffic picture. This product no doubt keeps going once you leave mobile coverage. I’ve just learned something while looking up how Avplan brings data in…..Cellular are blue and ADSB receiver green. from avplan…. Our cellular based traffic system, AvPlan Live, also includes feeds from ground based ADSB and FLARM receivers. Traffic received by these ground units is also displayed on AvPlan EFB. If you also have an ADSB-in receiver, the traffic via the attached device will replace that received from the ground. Traffic targets in AvPlan EFB show aircraft callsigns (where available), current altitude and groundspeed. The altitude has an arrow indicating if the target is climbing or descending. The velocity vector indicates the position that the target will be located at in 1 minute in the future. Targets via cellular are blue, and targets via an attached ADSB receiver are green. Targets are not displayed if the data for the target is older than 90 seconds. To summarise, there is no one affordable solution which will provide full coverage;

“Tell us about your last flight” This is really telling yourself about your last flight! I can’t see it as helpful. My flying has improved dramatically the past year based on being lucky enough to fly a large variety of aircraft including floats and gliders. Biggest thing I’ve brought to my flying is to leave the little and even the bigger mistakes behind during the flight. Examine them afterward for sure. While flying aviate, navigate and communicate. No dwelling on any negatives during a flight. That’s by far the biggest change. I’ve also realised as I talk to other pilots we all get nervous to some extent at different phases of flight. For me it’s when I’m approaching a busy CTAF and trying to get a picture of the helicopter, the 3 warbirds and a Cessna all deciding to arrive at the same time. I can feel my hands and feet stiffen on the controls and try to relax and aviate while communicating. That was a lesson from gliders in USA. I flew with an American aerobatic champion and he was tough. At one stage he said “I can see that left shoulder rising, relax” I guess we all have instructor comments that stick. So, how again is that comment helpful? If it’s to make sure you always bring your A game I can see it. Blokes and Aches. That’s funny. Just found it on the map. 8,000ft. That’s some serious elevation to live at.

That’s true. Here’s an example. I flew through here Nebraska to Arizona. Well, a little further south and a little lower. Still pushed well above FL105. It’s terrain. Still remains a fact that somebody or group of somebodies sat around a meeting table in Australia and set it at FL100 when it could so easily have been compromised at half way to USA 29.92 1013.2 …FL140 and above. I wonder if I can call Melbourne Center as per 1.2.1 non mandatory radio call with position, tracking, type and POB and request east FL105 1013.2 qnh until descending to the bass strait island of choice? Say 10nm off the coast at Anglesea it’s only 20-25 minutes flying time to King Island at 130kn Not worth having scheduled reports. Definitely worth the extra glide height if 2000ft available. Re deploying a chute over Bass strait. That’s interesting. First, one would hope to not be flying in gale or near gale conditions. Second. Conduct a sea landing as if landing normally, that’s how it’s done right and at minimum speed above stall obviously. Still going to be a hard forced stop and just how hard is unknown. Even in windy conditions based on flying paraglides and you fly within the parcel of air regardless of its speed so it’s the same deal right. Your aircraft under a chute doesn’t know about its horizontal speed until contact with the surface. likely to be say 20kn or less and the waves would be travelling with you in that direction. I don’t think it’s helpful to examine too deeply or you’d never take off in the first place. I think the risks are manageable with IMSAFE and all examinations of weather and aircraft prep with Bass Strait obviously a higher risk due to ditching/ hypothermia.

Reasons to go tail wheel reducing order of importance in my humble estimation… No nose wheel to worry about during landings on bush strip with concerns for . First contact with the ground and how big the bumps and ruts are. . First contact with ground by nose wheel or tail wheel. Definitely tail wheel wins big here. It’s in the back and can just harmlessly be bumped a bit into the air by a rabbit hole etc that may take the nose wheel right off. Tail wheel still needs protecting of course. Slammed into the ground and stuff can break. . Crosswind. Nice to be able to plant the aircraft nicely on the ground where the aircraft isn’t easily thrown back into the air. A nose wheel is after rears make contact with the ground going to be gently skimming the ground or still not in contact. Easily thrown up into the air on the necessarily faster crosswind landing. I, again do this occasionally at the hilltop and being slow and back in the air I’m sometimes either at add throttle or keep off ailerons and mostly ruder so a wing isn’t dragged downward by the long flaperon. Tail wheel at this point is firmly in contact with the ground and really not a factor. . Braking. I’m doing this almost daily and really dislike it twice. First time is I settle the nose wheel down. I have an uphill and downhill component. If I’m late I have to try to settle the nose wheel gently then eventually brake while going downhill. Just not a factor in a tail wheel. Second is again being a little late and being forced to use more brake than you’d like because the fence is not that far away. Again, tail wheel wins hugely here. Just brake as hard as you like with little left and right corrections as needed to keep the nose very interested in the Center line and back off if the tails coming up. Worst case it’s started to go to crap and you apply power and correct or very worst case go around. . Reduced drag and increased speed and fuel efficiency. . it looks cool. I admit to liking the tail dragger look with the big tundra tyres. At OSH Kosh 2021 this Pipistrel Virus tail wheel was my pick of all aircraft at the show just based on refinement and efficiency in flight followed by the Rans S21 for its STOL and high speed cruise capabilities. pics below are the Pipistrel Virus that looks heaps better in tail wheel and RANS S21 which I think looks cool either tricycle or tail and those big tundra tyres in tricycle you’d think would handle anything. Makes me want to assemble tricycle first…. We will see. Reasons not to go tail wheel. So much less to worry about after a long fatiguing flight or not on your best game. I flew the Pipistrel to Tyabb yesterday and swapped out for the Nynja Even tricycle the Pipistrel Virus has a lot going on. CSU, airbrake and long wings. Flying the tricycle Nynja home with 20kn winds was almost go to sleep easy to land on the bush strip. Very happy to have the option with the Rans S21 build. It’s relatively easy to swap out if everything is prepared correctly during build (I’m told this is the case anyway). Same tundra tyres and a third one in front and move the wheels back.

I always have the iPhone and iPad open as part of a checklist. iPhone connected to Bluetooth BoseA20 as another communication method when in range. Wish the iPhone had dual sim like android. Optus and Telstra. Have to settle for Telstra card in iPad. iPhone backup to iPad with overheat/ battery problem in mind AvPlan or ForeFlight open on iPhone. . Yes, also lost the iPad to overheat. Definitely not reliable and don’t want a cooling backing fan or such. Already enough going on.

I had this exact conversation with a fellow pilot over lunch. Will do so!

I am just about to order a finishing kit for the S21. It’s currently TD and as it’s a shared build my buddy wants TD but not flown yet. We will add the nose wheel as option and understand the tail needs a bit of reinforcing. Yes, insurance is more. Not sure here but I Pay 3k a year in USA or roughly 4.3k AUD. Is here more expensive? I’m flying the tricycle Pipistrel here and miss the TD. Especially when needing to pull up hard on a rough bush strip and holding the elevator back knowing it won’t help much. TD just throw the anchors out, watch the tail isn’t coming up and concentrate on small left right corrections all the way until fully stopped. I’ve managed a tail loop so semi qualified to discuss. 😀

Yes, thanks for that. I did drop into a flying school and spent time with one of the instructors familiar with the crossing. Discussed weather and procedures at King Island. The crossing procedure you’ve referenced also helps. I’ll lodge flight plan next time maybe or sounds simpler to just report to Center after departure and at arriving coast. They certainly weren’t busy yesterday. The Pipistrel’s 17:1 glide at 9500ft is approx/ roughly 25NM. Ditching at sea would involve pulling the chute at say 1-2000ft. Center certainly knew about the unverified VFR flight as they talked with the two incoming transport aircraft. 25nm at 70kn best glide is say 20 minutes. That’s enough time to talk to Center and discuss glide direction and perhaps shipping to ditch nearby. I was surprised at the number of different vessels and oil platforms along the way. Out at 8500 and return at 9500. You’d be really pissed off with the regulators if the engine went out on a 8500 elevation that could have been 10500. It’s very nice in the states to fly at your chosen elevation subject to oxygen requirements. Those 2000ft at 17:1 represent some 5 or so NM if my maths correct. 34,000ft divided by 6000 . Yeah, you’d be pissed off a couple of miles short of a flat sandy beach! Who was it decided 10500 wasn’t available? You’d definitely want to meet them and discuss. Note…. I had no reception on King Island. Optus. Definitely have to put a Telstra card in dual sim phone for country operation. I purchased one and too cheap to activate the 60 dollar a month plan. Might have to find it and activate. Departing aircraft heard my taxiway call and told me he’d left on 35. Those guys were helpful and friendly on way in and way out! I think I did okay in decision making after hearing this in calling I was returning to apron. That was when I found no chart or option to work out taxiways etc because of Optus and AvPlan wasn’t feeding me anything new. Note to self…..always sketch the whole thing with taxiways as well,as elevation, radio notams etc… I’d become a bit too reliant on the iPad. anyway, I proceeded again. Called taxi on 10 because I was sure it was having landed on it. Turned left on 35 Not sure if it was a taxiway. Decided it was a runway being wide and long and all went smoothly from there. Next time will fly in better weather. Had a full rudder correction and had to pickup taxi speed yesterday after landing. Not ideal but it is bass strait! My daily view and in fact right now… you can see why it’s tempting and no, I don’t want to bob around in bass strait. Will repeat with due caution and maybe 3 islands over a few days.

King island today. French island to Tyabb for life jacket then south. I’ve been looking south from French island for 12 years. Today was the day to fly it. Well, calm early and it changed to windy later. Cloud looked like it was going to clear and I had a turn around plan the moment it didn’t look completely okay. Very relieved to hear central talking to pilots and finding out the cloud was burning off. 50 minutes at gs144kn TAS130. Coming home a lot longer! 2 regional were coming in at the same time. I heard central reporting my position and arrival time (same) and then one of the jets contacted me on CTAF. They were really good. We just agreed it was my first visit to King Island and I’d dawdle down the coast doing a bit of sight seeing. Hence the green squiggle on way in. I then spotted the second on final for 10 and made it easy to spot the airport. 20kn cross was interesting with the Pipistrel’s large wing. Just kept the airspeed at 70kn and first flaps only. Return to French island wasn’t much better. It handles the cross as long as 2nd flaps aren’t engaged and speed is. Way too much drag from those long flaperons for 2nd setting in turbulent cross wind conditions for corrections. Next time will fly in company and hire a car with overnight stay.