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and in reference to the weight thing , what will they do about all the jabiru trainers which are over mtow unless piloted by 2 jockeys on a diet with 20 lts of fuel. 

15 minutes ago, jackc said:

WHY did RAA drop your MTOW back to 490?

because when the kit was assembled the builder had to give raa a mtow of his own choosing so they used to all put down 544 which was the maximum raa weight at the time.

now raa have decided to go through every aircraft with a fine tooth comb when a condition report comes in and they realised the xair mtow was 450kg overseas and thats what they tried on me until i said no , just cancel the rego instead.

next day the tech boss rings me and says what can we do to make you happy. i said 450 was too low it makes my dual control aircraft a single seater . make it 490kg like it shows on the xair aus website. he agreed and that was that.

jarred said they were only doing it to make flying safer not to annoy anyone.  i agree , i think it would have been too heavy at 544, a hell of a lot of strain on the wing in turbulence.

2 minutes ago, jackc said:

Yes, but it’s not……you should have heard the attitude I got over it, there was no reason to say what they said…….I was talking to an aviator friend about it tonight, he said a few choice words an added, just de register it tell RAA to go jump, and fly the thing.  Shades of FAR Part 103 🤩🤩only I think the Thruster may be too heavy 🤢 I guess I could go VH and tell RAA to go jump?  Now there is a thought 🤩

out of all the flying thrusters i wonder how many are registered anyway. i know if lived at upper fumbukka or timbuktu i would think why am i paying money to people a couple of thousand ks away and i don't go near any towns either.

10 hours ago, Marty_d said:

Pardon my ignorance here as someone who is not yet flying - but if you currently hold an RA-Aus pilot certificate because you fly your Aeropup or Jab or whatever, doesn't that cover a 95.10 aircraft too?  Or do you need type training, and if so, how do you get that in a single seat ultralight anyway?

the auf rules still exist and carry over to raa.  if you own a single seat aircraft they have to train you by radio from the ground if thats what you want. the way it used to be done before thrusters became available.

9 hours ago, jackc said:

RAAus grounded it from training 🤢 Some b/s they are trying to pull on me, that I need to sort out. And IF the crunch comes to the crunch……I have way to fix that too. 👍

they can't stop you from training in a thruster. its a certified trainer. even a flying school can put it online. are they trying to say the engine is time expired or something.

1 minute ago, turboplanner said:

What does your Xair fit in?

 

19 category.  270 kg empty 490 mtow too heavy for part 103.    was 544 mtow but jared at raa changed it to 490 when we did the transfer.

2 minutes ago, turboplanner said:

I did the work to bring our knowledge up to date on the Self Administering Organisations.

Maybe it's the Thruster and Drifter and the other classes guys who should be taking car of this sort of question - you know your sector.

 

 

 

 

 

 

my xair doesn't fit in part 103 but i just think its good idea and is gaining popularity elsewhere.

5 minutes ago, turboplanner said:

CASA is free to choose anything that works well from other countries, and it and its predecessors have done that.

In more recent years both CASA and FAA have changed regulations in line with ICAO and as a result the big gap between FAA and CASA is a lot less, and where people are comparing the rules they might remember, it pays to check both the current CASA regs and current FAA regs so see if they've changed to match ICAO.

casa actually want part 103 from what i have heard but raa have been arguing against because it is a threat to their membership base which they rely on to fund the company.

and i should also say i am not a hater of raa even if it appears that way. i find the staff brilliant to deal with and passionate about aviation, i just think part 103 should be an option for those that want it.

its only going to be a small percentage of fliers anyway.

1 hour ago, turboplanner said:

No, I'm not making any comments on an unlicenced FAR Part 103.

I'm commenting on Australia where we have our own regulations which we have to comply with.

That should be very clear from the heading of this thread.

What people do in other countries around the world is a matter for their jurisdictions.

 

 

so why does casa follow faa then

30 minutes ago, jackc said:

So you begrudge anyone suggesting something in Aviation that we could benefit from?  I might add that we once had?

Just because we don’t have the unlicenced category, you don’t want it?  Well that’s OK, but don’t down others who would want FAR Part 103, I have private conversations and phone calls with people, who think it would be great.

I have to ask Turbs, do you want to actively discourage an adoption of FAR Part 103 in Australia?  

you will never win the argument with him jack. turbo thrives on rules and regulations. usa has a thriving part 103 system yet he is telling us it is somehow different here and we are not up to it.

7 hours ago, Area-51 said:

Nobody has strapped a gen4 to a bedsheet with strings yet 🤔

Yes that's true. I have never heard of a gen 4 powered strap on , it would be quite a sight although eye watering for the receiver.

58 minutes ago, Area-51 said:

Somebody should build an affordable small two seat LSA trainer that has a small cheap to o/h two stroke engine and open cockpit; something that weighs about 170kg BEW, Vs about 20kt Va about 55kt... You can fly at 200kt for an hour in a big circle, or you can fly at 50kt for an hour in a little circle; its still an hour of flying...

wasn't that called a thruster. the first certified 2 seat ultralight in the world.

44 minutes ago, kgwilson said:

Electro Aero based at Jandakot near Perth manufacture charging equipment for the aviation industry & have had an electric training aircraft since 2018. It is a Pipistrel Alpha. It has 1 hour endurance & recharging takes 45 minutes & costs about $3.00 in electricity for an hours flying. This was the first in the Southern Hemisphere. The technology is not new & the original Alpha was built in 2015. I believe they created a quick replaceable battery pack at some point which takes about 15 minutes to swap.

 

In 2015 watt hours per kg of a Li-ion battery was less than 200. The latest Li-ion  batteries can achieve 360 WH/kg and the new semi solid state battery from TNE can achieve 720 WH/kg. The same weight of battery using the new tech should provide 3-4 hours endurance for the same aircraft. That is pretty good progress and pretty good endurance for this aircraft.

 

 

We had a whole thread on this one a few months back. There is also a video on a school in Sweden that uses them and green power to charge them . Pretty limited though.  I think they get 20 minutes flight time plus taxi and take off.

so should i stay on avgas or not.   maybe run it on unleaded occasionally.

3 hours ago, RFguy said:

mmm

Agree 100% Justin with everything you have written. Yes no issue with Jab airframe- its awesome.

 

yeah (IMO) the AVGAS  de-coke is needed every 400 hours worst case,  for a jab on AVGAS. a solid day's work for a four cylinder. 

It doesn't actually require any parts as such, except for rings, since you're likely to change out the rings if cleaning the ring lands.

You might be able to do it without pulling the pistons off the conrods..... 

Actually a running hot jab engine might burn the avgas better.... so one's mileage may vary. run hard and hot, a gen4 is probably capable of running hot enough (since it doesnt have to live in fear of head recession) of being better with the avgas gunk. I dunno.

As usual, engines that are babied tend to look worse.

 

Jabiru Rings are cheap. $35/set

 

Rotax rings $270/set. WTF ????!!!! Yes $270/set !

 

like I said, Rotax is good if you dont have to fix anything..... 

Jabiru factory is always helpful

I think people need to watch quality of oil filters. there have been a few split. Dunno what the source was of them. 

 

 

 

the older jab rings are vn commodore 40 thou over . 3.8 v6 . rotax are probably designed and made for the one engine model.

All this talk about how reliable gen4 are .  People that own gen1 pushrod motors have the same reliability as well. It was the models between those 2 where things went wrong. The little 2200a in my xair is only up to 381 hrs after 20 years. There are no major repairs in the logbook right back to when it was new. It has always been on avgas so if Rf guy is right maybe I better switch to mogas.

7 minutes ago, spacesailor said:

I like the 'Dovetail ' but it is a " turboprop " .

spacesailor

i think its just a drawing of a kingair but the seaplane looks like it might be the real thing.

17 minutes ago, Freizeitpilot said:

Not at all !  There will be lots of ideas and tentative steps, business ventures, failures and successes. That’s how progress works !

 

I just meant that Aero is an aviation expo where new stuff and conceptual stuff from across Europe is presented to the aviation industry. Just like the motor shows that display ‘concept’ cars, some elements may eventually make it into production. 

 

yes, i will be checking it out on youtube,

11 minutes ago, Freizeitpilot said:

Aero 2024 Friedrichshafen opens tomorrow. That is where you will really see what direction new aviation technology is headed. There will be dozens of YouTube’s out by the end of the week.

then i apologise for starting this thread. i thought it was new technology.

Dovetail opens new facility for electric aircraft development – Australian Aviation.html

10 hours ago, jackc said:

I have spares everywhere, don’t need dealer to reset ECU when I fit a new battery 🤩

that hj47 if thats what it is would sell for 30 to 40 thousand these days. sought after collectors items now.

22 minutes ago, jackc said:

Did not see that one, I bought a set of 903 series manuals from the U.S. when I got my truck.

We had the earlier 855 Series 300hp V8 in our Army 5t LARC V. Landing Craft

they were in army tracked vehicles in the us army. don't know what ones though.

4 hours ago, jackc said:

Cummins developed Military Spec 850hp V903 engines that had 100 hours TBO.

Same basic block was in my W900 series Kenworth 320hp 

they also had an 1100 hp 903 that was rated for 24 hrs service at military power. flat stick i guess that means.