BrendAn

2 minutes ago, Thruster88 said:

Within RAAus if you own the aircraft which is not used in a flying school and you have an L1 certificate then you can maintain the aircraft. If the aircraft is used in a school then only an L2 can maintain.  

Thanks t. 

Are you allowed to overhaul the carby if the plane is certified.

Without lame qualifications.

13 minutes ago, JC4 said:

It must be the SK then. It was definitely a home built. I know whom it belonged to, it had two owners since being completed probably 6 years ago. 

Bruce tuncks , a member on here is an SK expert.  He can tell you about the Handling characteristics if he sees this.

8 minutes ago, JC4 said:

Found this forum searching for information about this incident, thanks for sharing your knowledge. 
The plane in the incident was sold on gumtree not too long ago, I think it is a SK, not a UL, probably similar to a UL,I’m not sure.

What I do know is that it had a very small tail fin and rudder, much smaller than the J120, and needed a lot of rudder input controlling it at slower speeds, during landing especially. It could be a handful for a pilot unfamiliar with this plane. It was a 20kt croswind at Caiguna airstrip, the J120 with bigger rudder can handle 12kts safely according to the operating manual, not sure about the SK.

It had a Jabiru 2200 engine. To my knowledge the airframe and engine had less than 100hours total, it was not used much during it’s life, a few hours every year.  It was only a cheap aircraft, 20K or so, can’t expect it not to be ‘rough’ I guess. 
 

at this stage we dont know if the incident happened at the runway or not? 

SK is the homebuilt version of an lsa55.  UL has the big wing.longer fuse and bigger tail.  

44 minutes ago, kgwilson said:

From the initial description of the faults with the Jabiru LSA-55 it sounds like prior maintenance had been lacking. Delaminating wooden props has been an issue for many years but there are usually signs which should be picked up during inspections & if any of the sheathing is missing it should be grounded immediately. The imbalance will eventually shake the thing to bits under power.

 

The LSA-55 was Jabirus first aircraft beginning production in 1991 originally with a KFM 60 HP engine.

Mine is the first production 55 . The kfm was swapped to rotax ul

4 hours ago, Blueadventures said:

Great Wx at Mackay area early in the morning before 1100 hours; thunderstorms late afternoon.  Images from today's flight 16th December 2022.  Typical summer season.

nice photos

28 minutes ago, red750 said:

Navy jet crashes in Fort Worth; pilot ejects 'successfully'. It appears that the plane made a vertical 'hover' descent, touching down hard and bouncing. The fore and aft verical thrusters got out of sync, forcing the nose down and breaking off the nose undercarriage, causing the plane to slew across thr ground.

 

Watch video here.

i posted the same thing red, can you delete my post please

On 14/12/2022 at 8:34 PM, jackc said:

Some experience that was, left eye needs slight correction and right eye good so I told the Optometrist I wanted bifocal lenses for reading instrument panel etc and that saved me perching a $9 pair of magnifiers on the end of my nose! and having to look over them when looking outside. 

Big problem now is what shade/colour of tint to use for the second pair as Sunglasses?   He knows nothing of the best solution for an Aviator?  So in the end I will end up with 2 pairs and a haemorrhaging health fund 🙂  I will end up with 1 clear set and one tinted set.  So, any suggested colour of tint for flying, please?

Well you did better than my visit to the optometrist. Mine just took me outside and said can you see the sun ,I said yes and he replied well how bloody far so you want to see.😁

52 minutes ago, Arron25 said:

Longreach Qld..  Has 'cooled' down... Was 40+ last week

33 looks good. hope we get that soon.

Just now, sfGnome said:

Bairnsdale. Pouring & freezing (apparently 😛). 

i am only 50 km from bairnsdale.  summer is usually good here. i  am in melbourne 5 days a week for work and there is a completely different weather pattern in east gippsland to melbourne. although its all horrible atm. the wet construction sites are sending us broke. hoping for dry weather after christmas.

every part of australia has something good about it.  we are lucky to live in this country.

9 minutes ago, sfGnome said:

Just spent the last week down around Albany. Came dressed for Perth weather. Didn’t realise how much colder Albany would be. 🥶 Still, nothing on the Gippsland temperatures that my daughter is reporting to us. 

what part of gippsland is your daughter in.

3 hours ago, facthunter said:

13 projected here. A bit of height is always cooler. .  Nev

gisborne is a nice town, i was up there a couple weeks back. delivering timber

4 minutes ago, sfGnome said:

Just spent the last week down around Albany. Came dressed for Perth weather. Didn’t realise how much colder Albany would be. 🥶 Still, nothing on the Gippsland temperatures that my daughter is reporting to us. 

a cold morning in albany is 12 deg. over here its 5 or 6. after moving back to vic i will never complain about albany weather again.

you probably want to move down there now. 100 times better than perth. 😁

4 hours ago, rgmwa said:

Balmy 18 deg, nice sunny morning in the Perth Hills. Working from home listening to the birds outside.

gotta love perth weather. except the 40 plus days.  every time we said we were from albany, perth people would say its freezing down there . albany is tropical compared to this place.

Just now, BrendAn said:

Pilot:  Passenger:  Site: on beach just south of Turingal Head in Bournda National Park, NSW Immediately after the event. Emergency Services and Police contacted by mother of surfer Mrs Ballard. Police indicated if no serious injuries it was just a procedural matter. National Parks and Wildlife contacted re the logistics of getting the gyro off the beach in terms of access. Witnesses included mother of surfer Bill Ballard. Pilot contacted ASRA operations manager Jeff Blunt to report the occurrence. I was tracking 500 feet above the beach with a passenger (Alison Tygh) looking for whales. The beach and the ditch site are marked on the photo above. We sighted a pod of dolphins rounding up fish, and nearby, and close to the shore break, a large shark (twice the length of the nearby dolphins I would estimate) – possibly a white pointer – this can be confirmed by my passenger Alison, but unfortunately my GoPro is in the sea somewhere. When I first saw the shark from a distance I asked my passenger if it was a whale, and she indicated it was a shark, and on closer inspection it was a very large shark. As I circled back the shark was heading straight towards a sole surfer paddling out. That set me up circling, with my passenger and I both waving frantically and pointing down to the surfboard rider, and also to the beach bystanders at the river mouth. I got totally fixated on the need to warn the surfer and took my concentration off the flying. Because I was looking and signalling to the bystanders at the river mouth I thought I was higher than I was. After coming out of a turn to turn back towards the surfboard rider, and having spent time frantically signalling during the turn to bystanders on the beach near the river exit, I realised that I had lost significant altitude with the circling. Presumably, when frantically signalling to the bystanders with my right hand, I had back stick motion with my left. I came out of the turn downwind pointing at the beach, low airspeed 35 to 40 kts and sinking. I lowered the nose and put power on as I was behind the power curve. There was a delay in response with me sensing I was sinking. (After the event I realised I was not only behind the power curve, but I had a light tailwind and the weight of a passenger with almost a full tank of fuel when departing for the flight causing lift issues). Although I was flying not far above the water at this stage, the view straight ahead revealed the bush just off the beach behind the sand wall to be well above me, and the sand wall in turn was quite high. This can be confirmed by the attached photo on page 11, where the damaged gyro has been pulled out of the water and positioned near the sand bank. Thus followed a rush of decisions. I looked left thinking if I could turn left and get over the beach and then climb, but I was too low to turn to get parallel to the beach, and my gyro instructors (Willi and Neil) had stressed repeatedly no turns below 300 feet, so I thankfully quit that idea. Next, I thought if I have nose down and full power on will I build up airspeed quickly enough, with the distance to obstacles ahead, to pull into a steep climb and clear the sandbank and the trees just beyond? But the thought came quickly “I’m probably not going to make it above those trees ahead and if I hit them my passenger and I are unlikely to survive.” So at this stage the decision was made - I had to do a controlled landing heading straight ahead on the beach. It is funny how many thoughts race through your mind in what must be only seconds. I didn’t want to land and hit the sand bank and at that stage two thoughts came to mind – “Sully and passengers, and Allan, all survived a water landing”, so I did a controlled landing into the water just shy of the beach. I remember the last moments before touching down thinking to make sure I was parallel as possible to the water, stick centred ready to pull back if I overshot to the beach and needed the rotor brake, throttle power fully off as I settled for the landing, and the pilot teaching – engine failure on takeoff below 50 feet land straight ahead. There was a bang when the gyro touched down and the water soon filled the cockpit. But it was when the cockpit was filled with water, and the passenger and I were still seated, that the rotors struck the water with a bang. I suspect our weight and the water kept the gyro.

this is part of the pilots explanation about this crash. out of gyro news. it was as expected, he got too low and slow. once you get behind the power curve there is little chance of recovery if your close to the ground.

Pilot:  Passenger:  Site: on beach just south of Turingal Head in Bournda National Park, NSW Immediately after the event. Emergency Services and Police contacted by mother of surfer Mrs Ballard. Police indicated if no serious injuries it was just a procedural matter. National Parks and Wildlife contacted re the logistics of getting the gyro off the beach in terms of access. Witnesses included mother of surfer Bill Ballard. Pilot contacted ASRA operations manager Jeff Blunt to report the occurrence. I was tracking 500 feet above the beach with a passenger (Alison Tygh) looking for whales. The beach and the ditch site are marked on the photo above. We sighted a pod of dolphins rounding up fish, and nearby, and close to the shore break, a large shark (twice the length of the nearby dolphins I would estimate) – possibly a white pointer – this can be confirmed by my passenger Alison, but unfortunately my GoPro is in the sea somewhere. When I first saw the shark from a distance I asked my passenger if it was a whale, and she indicated it was a shark, and on closer inspection it was a very large shark. As I circled back the shark was heading straight towards a sole surfer paddling out. That set me up circling, with my passenger and I both waving frantically and pointing down to the surfboard rider, and also to the beach bystanders at the river mouth. I got totally fixated on the need to warn the surfer and took my concentration off the flying. Because I was looking and signalling to the bystanders at the river mouth I thought I was higher than I was. After coming out of a turn to turn back towards the surfboard rider, and having spent time frantically signalling during the turn to bystanders on the beach near the river exit, I realised that I had lost significant altitude with the circling. Presumably, when frantically signalling to the bystanders with my right hand, I had back stick motion with my left. I came out of the turn downwind pointing at the beach, low airspeed 35 to 40 kts and sinking. I lowered the nose and put power on as I was behind the power curve. There was a delay in response with me sensing I was sinking. (After the event I realised I was not only behind the power curve, but I had a light tailwind and the weight of a passenger with almost a full tank of fuel when departing for the flight causing lift issues). Although I was flying not far above the water at this stage, the view straight ahead revealed the bush just off the beach behind the sand wall to be well above me, and the sand wall in turn was quite high. This can be confirmed by the attached photo on page 11, where the damaged gyro has been pulled out of the water and positioned near the sand bank. Thus followed a rush of decisions. I looked left thinking if I could turn left and get over the beach and then climb, but I was too low to turn to get parallel to the beach, and my gyro instructors (Willi and Neil) had stressed repeatedly no turns below 300 feet, so I thankfully quit that idea. Next, I thought if I have nose down and full power on will I build up airspeed quickly enough, with the distance to obstacles ahead, to pull into a steep climb and clear the sandbank and the trees just beyond? But the thought came quickly “I’m probably not going to make it above those trees ahead and if I hit them my passenger and I are unlikely to survive.” So at this stage the decision was made - I had to do a controlled landing heading straight ahead on the beach. It is funny how many thoughts race through your mind in what must be only seconds. I didn’t want to land and hit the sand bank and at that stage two thoughts came to mind – “Sully and passengers, and Allan, all survived a water landing”, so I did a controlled landing into the water just shy of the beach. I remember the last moments before touching down thinking to make sure I was parallel as possible to the water, stick centred ready to pull back if I overshot to the beach and needed the rotor brake, throttle power fully off as I settled for the landing, and the pilot teaching – engine failure on takeoff below 50 feet land straight ahead. There was a bang when the gyro touched down and the water soon filled the cockpit. But it was when the cockpit was filled with water, and the passenger and I were still seated, that the rotors struck the water with a bang. I suspect our weight and the water kept the gyro.

Sitting here in the west of Melbourne waiting for the rain to stop. Wondering what the weather is like in other parts of aus. We have a nice summer in Vic. 10deg here ATM.😁

2 hours ago, skippydiesel said:

Maaaate! tut tut, etc etc BUT you are not so far out IF you are not trying to race around the circuit AND your climb out to 1000ft is around the 22-24L/Hr AND your low speed cruise is about the 10-12L/hr 

Seriously,did you not see my post where I said I was joking . Like I said. I can take a photo of the aircraft log for f**ks sake.  Why wouldn't it be 10 lph . Climb out to 1200 ft. Cruise the circuit at 4500rpm. Descend on idle.  Stall practice we climb to 3000 ft and back up again after each stall. Cruise at 4500 rpm also. Rf is convinced I am wrong but I know I am not. The plane is not being thrashed around at high rpm so it gets great economy.

6 minutes ago, RFguy said:

"Yes . I made it up."  tut tut ! at least you admit it. 

the J160 should be better  overall .  a more slippery plane.  just the way it is being flown I suspect. J160 also have smaller donk.

 

That was a joke. I didn't make it up.next lesson I will take a photo of the log.

3 hours ago, RFguy said:

10lph average sounds a bit low for a ol tecnam.

well what do we have,  TO roll, climb to 1000' in favourable condix , total 90 seconds at 27 lph. = 675mL

probably low cruise 65% for 120 second  at 15lph = 0.5L

base, final average 30% for 150 seconds  maybe 8 lph =333mL
total time 360 seconds, total fuel 1.508L. equates to 15.08lph

well that's my guess, anyway .

 

Yes . I made it up. I didn't really check the fuel computer and dip the tanks . I was surprised at how good it is in fuel. Better than the j160 I had been in before.

36 minutes ago, RFguy said:

so its mostly descending.....

Well circuits are descending and climbing aren't they. Even cruising at 90 knots it is excellent on fuel. Faster means more fuel of course.

and the tecnam returns consistently around 10lph during training.

4 hours ago, IBob said:

BrendAn, I believe Rotax recently lifted their initial warmup recommendation to 2200RPM, and certainly mine has always felt 'happier' at that initially. Once warmed, I pull it back to 2000RPM, I don't usually go below that.

As for warming up, it depends what you are referring to: while the head coolant temperatures in mine come up fairly promptly, the oil temp is much slower. This seems to be usual, and some fit a thermostatic bypass to the oil radiator, with varying results as the oil tank still requires a fair bit of warming.

ts and ps in the green after taxi to runup bay. cfi is an l4 that does a lot of work on rotax engines , he is a good operator.

On 11/12/2022 at 8:28 AM, RFguy said:

The rotax is pretty forgiving of misalignment of ... everything... at cruise and WOT settings.

 

It does not however, like idle settings. the inlet manifold is suboptimal, the gearbox doesnt like it.

 

However, that's hardly an operational  disadvantage to all the other fine attributes of the engine. 

 

I'd suggest warm up oil cooler bypass  and water cooler bypass, to limit the warm up idle time where the engine is unhappy.
Or a sheet of cardboard.....

On warm up, I idle the club rotax at the top end of the rotax permitted warmup RPM , and use a sheet of cardboard on both coolers.

 

 

is that because of the cooler weather in canberra, because the tecnam i have been doing lessons in warms up to operating temps while we taxi out to the runup bay. on first startup he runs it at about 2200 rpm while we do the first checks then back to idle before taxi .