extralite

I don't talk to them 🙂

Lot of old school fun on the weekend. with 3 Thrusters up and running together. The foreground T300 and two T500's. One of the T500's has batons inside the elevator and rudder skins to tension the fabric. They seem to be made of some sort of foam material. Works well, not sure where that comes from. One of them also has the pitot probe out on the wing that makes a lot more sense than in front of the nose cone. It is the only one with an airspeed indicator that doesn't swing wildly when under full power. 3thusters.webp

Treat them to new cable ties 🙂 Anyway ordered a spare set. I am sure they will come in useful for someone sometime. Can't seem to see anyone making them other than "custom", ie hand made. Wingtech's were machine cut to same spec as originals.

Not sure Facthunter was saying Wingtech;s were loose. The set I had for another were very tight. Well made. IN any case, there are no other sail makers for them are there?

HI all. Is there anyone besides Wingtech that makes skins? Wingtech has been fantastic for me, but they are closing up soon so am wondering if there will be anyone else making them for t300 t500? Maybe in the UK?

Agree that for aircraft, battery power may be a way off except for perhaps some training due to energy density. But it is curious the pushback against batteries because one caught fire. Imagine if we had been using batteries for 60 years and someone was pushing petrol as a new technology. Have you seen that stuff explode? Similarly the often stated argument "But they are charged usually from coal powered power stations." Really? Just have a think about the relative efficiency of a power station compared to everyone driving around with their own little engines, plus the alternatives available. In any case it is all a bit late unfortunately, The tribalism and xenophobic tendencies for us humans probably makes us unsuited to acting collectively to stop the carbon buildup, meanwhile enough ice melted off the greenland icecap a few days ago to cover Florida in 2 inches of water (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/30/greenland-ice-sheet-florida-water-climate-crisis) and almost all the hottest years in record have occurred within the last decade. And it is not up to individuals as we all have individual wants, it really needs to be a government response. Won't happen in my opinion so may as well make the best of what we have for now.

Great, thanks for input. Skin are tight. Pretty new. Everything looks very good on it really. It flies okay other than the yaw, the pitch down was just a surprise. Will investigate further.

Hi Kirk..you will have to come out once we have them together. For Facthunter...it happens even when airborne. It is the 3rd thruster i have flown and while they all are heavy at the front, this one seems to be more so when powered up. Maybe it is a t300 thing with the bigger engine. Combined with it yawing a lot to the left at the moment at any time ( a rudder trim tab that has been fitted might be the wrong way) it made those first hops before we knew these things about it interesting. Another thing, the cables under the front main wing are quite slack on the ground compared to the t500.

Had a first fly of a t300 with a 582 engine and bolly prop after putting the wings back on that had been removed for transport. It seems to pitch down as power increased that made the first take-offs interesting. Once power is reduced to idle it flies beautifully. Possible reasons i can think of are the thrust line pointed down but i can't think of why that would be. Also the thrust line being above the centre of gravity, but it looks like a normal Thruster. Lastly something to do with the tailplane. For example, if the angle of the attack of the tailplane is high, the extra slipstream over the tail causing a pitch down movement. Anyone else got any ideas? We should soon have 3 Thusters in the one shed (Thanks Old Koreelah) and its good fun climbing into them. Cold, noisy, breezy..old school feeling.

HI If there are any good condition t500's lying around not getting flown much, preferably with a 912, please get in touch.

Seems a certain type of space cadet, know it all ever since they did their first solo, chip on shoulders, judgemental types attracted to aviation as well. You weren't there, you probably arent perfect yourself.

Hi. Ive purchased a Thruster TST that needs a bit of TLC after being in storage for a while. Not sure i will find the time but will plug away. The wing support bracket is a bit pitted so ideally i would like to replace that. I am having trouble finding the manufacturer in the UK? Anyone have any ideas how to find a replacement for it? Or will a new one have to be machined from scratch?

Second time someone has said that...second time same answer..you do if you are on an IFR flight plan. "Except in an emergency, a clearance is required for all flights in Classes A, C, and D airspace, restricted areas and for IFR flights in Class E airspace, except when operating in accordance with IFR pick-up procedures. Clearance is not required for VFR flights in Class E airspace." https://vfrg.casa.gov.au/operations/controlled-airspace/general-2/

You do need a clearance if IFR or SVFR.

More of a GA issue when flying IFR. If a clearance cannot be obtained on the ground in places where ATC can't be reached on the ground, won't it involve having to stay under 1500ft until a clearance can be obtained? Depending on radio traffic and ATC load, this can take some time. So on an IFR flight plan, possibly with low cloud, can't ensure terrain clearance by planning a departure within the splay set out in ersa, or reverse approach etc. If cloud is a factor, i think it would mean having to maneuver clear of cloud within the circling area which is not really idea. Or is there another approach?

Thanks..I have spoken personally to two pilots who used to fly and hangar their aircraft at Evans Head and have been in their words "kicked out". Last I checked the access gate was also locked at the perimeter. Wondering how that fits in to the above blurb about aviation. I find it hard to take anything there at face value really. $3m for the whole airfield, no tender process at least in seven years. Its a huge parcel of land but its sale was kept pretty quiet. Apparently for the former flying residents, the new owners pretty much said get out.

Thats ancient history unfortunately and Peter Lynch died in the Mallard accident in Perth. Consortium who took over estate did the negotiation to get the land. Plan now seems to be close it, put housing blocks on it as land values are very high. Happy to be contradicted though. I used to love flying to Evans Head.

Quite a few might have visited Evans Head airfield for their annual airshow. Large ex-military strip on the North Coast popular with RA now. It was quietly sold earlier this year by RIchmond Valley Council. North Coast land values are very high now. The airfield already has developments on the perimeter. It is flat, has infrastructure including a main sewer line and roads into it. I'd estimate it to be 30 hectares of very desirable land. It has a heritage hangar. It was quietly sold by Richmond Valley Council. The details are buried on page 76 of the May minutes. https://richmondvalley.nsw.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Agenda-19-May-2020.pdf But it got sold for $3million. No tender for it that i could find in the last 7 years. I wrote to Richmond Council to see if they got more than one valuation as this seems absurdly low and a tender i am quite sure would have got multiples of $3m. Thais only about 6 housing blocks up this way. Got the standard "commercial in confidence'. Agreements around the "heritage" aspect of it also seem a bit opaque now. Chatting with a couple of people who used to hangar aircraft there, they have apparently been booted already. The rumor is the land is now being readied to be on sold to developers. Anyone from here at Evans who can confirm if the airfield is closing? The sale process for this land seems very strange. No recent tender. No publicity. Maybe one valuation but that unclear also. And finally a price that is not much more than half a dozen housing blocks, for a very big parcel of land.

Thanks Gazunda for writing that out. Really helpful. Yes not the most efficient machines to go from A to B but i dont suppose that is the point of buying them.

Pickles has another 7 CT4's for sale. Most are pretty long in the tooth. (14000 to 17 000 hours). Does anyone know the traps to owning one of those? (I understand the PC'9s just sold will almost certainly not fly again).

OKay will do. Was there a couple of years ago. They were okay as long as they were contacted so they could pass on the cattle in the paddock situation and paid a landing fee which was quite reasonable. Good strip when i was there.

HI..have heard it was closed. Just wanted to check or if anyone has the contact for the airport il ask. Thanks.

Bit tongue in cheek but flying back in yesterday and getting approached by security i realized just how many documents they could have asked for. I live in Northern NSW and hangar a aircraft on the Gold Coast. Listed below in order of worthileness in my opinion. Seven of them! 1. My license and logbook. 2 years IFR renewals plus currency for the various approaches, night, landings etc. Yeah okay. 2. My medical. Class 2. Renewed every 2 years. Guess that's important too. 3. Aircraft registration. Fair enough also. 4. ASIC Card. Something to dick around every 2 years those who need access to the airport legitimately. People wanting to access the airport for illegal reasons don't need one. 5. Authority to Operate Airside sticker (AUA) Private hangars are literally within 100m of the entry gate. But need to show $10million dollars liability insurance on the vehicle. In addition to disclaimer saying we wont hold them accountable anyway so whats the point. Proof of rego. just in case we drive all the way to our aircraft hangars in an unregistered vehicle. 6. Authority to Drive Airside Card. (ADA) A little online driving test done every 2 years. Even though we can drive to the airport, that last 100m in a straight line is apparently the tricky bit. It is illegal to go outside the private hangar precinct without a reason anyway. 7. COVID Entry Pass. Meaningless bit of paper that you get by spending 3 minutes on a website self declaring why you need to go from NSW to QLD. You guessed it. The last one is the one they needed to see and discuss about photographing to make sure i had it, even though i literally completed in while in the line of traffic at the border and showed on my phone. IS there any pastime more bureaucratic than that?