ratbag

I was wondering if there were still any Quicksilver MX pilots out there and if so I would like to here from them. This great little "ultralight" seems to be forgotten about with all the quicker stuff getting about these days. Regards Mark

Some interesting comments, my thoughts are that shutting the engine down should be part of training provided it is done by an approved person [instructor etc]. It is a very different experience the first time "the fan" stops for real or by choice. My first engine failure happened on my first flight in my own plane after getting my license and although I didn't think so at the time, looking back now it was probably the best thing that could have happened. I learnt more in the next 30 seconds than I had learnt in the previous 20 hours. I have to say that I nearly didn't fly again but it has made me very cautious about flying anywhere where there isn't somewhere to go if things go quiet. I practice engine outs on a regular basis and providing you are sensible it is quite safe. I wouldn't do it on a public aerodrome as it is illeagle to do it but it gives me peace of mind that I know my plane and I also know that I can handle the situation if it crops up. In my opinion if you know you can land the plane without the motor, you will be less stressed and less likely to make a stupid decision that might result in damage to the plane and more importantly the pilot when the situation arises. Engine failures ,while they are not that common an occurence, should be viewed as an inevatable factor in flying not a 'one day it might happen'. The longer you go without one, the closer you are getting to one so "be prepared" is my motto. Regards Mark

I was just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on leaving a 503 fan forced on thrusters instead of free air. Not having had much to do with this sort of thing but from speaking to people, fan forced motors seem to last a little longer and not give as many problems. Recently a mate of mine put a new 503 on a single seat thruster and left if fan forced and put a scoop on it and it seems to be working very well andis running quite cool. Just curious if anyone else had tried this and / or had any thoughts?

Hi all, It seems to be a sad fact of life that poor airmanship seems to be on the increase. With more people finding out about the joys of flying, i can only see the problem getting worse as more planes are using the same airspace. You would think that it would be a case of "treat others as you would like to be treated" but it seems that these people just do not care or do not realise what they are doing wrong. I would like to know whether flying schools are not teaching airmanship or once these people get their license they think they can do what they want. I have reported several instancesthatI considered to be very unsafe over the last couple of years but it seems to me that the relevant authoritys in these cases didn'teven wan't to know let alone do anything about them. In one case the relevant authority saw the incident in question and even admitted this to me and all he had to say was "yeah, the cheeky bugger". If the people who have the authority to enforcearen't prepared to to do so then the problem is only going to get worse. Something has to be done for not only the safety of these ratbags [scuse the pun] but also the pilot doing the right thing who just wants to enjoybeing "up there". The problem is that the pilot that does the right thing is seldom noticed but the one that does the wrong thing will be rembered for all the wrong reasons, reflecting badly on the rest of us. Mark

Hi John, Hoping to get over there for the flyin. Hoping the weather is going to be favourable (not like the windy days this last week). Regards Mark

You could try Jim Cuthillwho is about 30kms east of Shepperton.0418500723 Regards Mark