paulh

Nope to the Drifter question but welcome

Looks good, tandem seating must be a little less draggy than side by side and the frame is virtually a protection cage, would improve safety in a less than optimal arrival, (not that it would happen of course) nice colours too

Usually spelt Rime apparently but a bit like other weird words like "girt" by sea 1. A coating of ice, as on grass and trees, formed when extremely cold water droplets freeze almost instantly on a cold surface.

Looks like Murgon had good weather for their fly in, not much good in Brisbane this afternoon, anybody YCAB home bound might have problems. The airfield looks good, nice grass cover. The old wood stove in the club house brings back memories of grannies kitchen!

Well I read this forum and magazines etc, go look at the sky when I hear an aircraft ( lucky for me I live near a flight path plus see the tiger moths taking joy flights on the weekends) Do some chair practice as my instructor recommended when I haven't flown for while ie do circuits or forced landings in an office chair visualising the scene etc , don't laugh it works for Matt Hall so it must help. ( I don't recommend chair practice whilst driving the car as the rudder pedals don't seem to have the correct effect) Day dream when the never ending to do list allows and then when you get back in the cockpit, savour every moment, cause it really is a privilege to fly just for fun pretty much where ever we want. (Excluding of course controlled airspace)

Hi Howard, can you please elaborate on why you have found the mini more useful than the bigger version. I use an iPad 2 for non flying work purposes etc and find the screen size quite good including viewing plans and drawings etc. be interested if the smaller one was just as useful, is the smaller size just better in the limited space in the cockpit? Or other reasons? Glare in strong daylight is a problem, and an anti glare shield is necessary.

There is no greater sacrifice than one who risks their life for another

Ok what is it then with paragliding? Flying like an eagle sounds great but you need a good ridge with a take off point, prevailing breeze in the right direction and hopefully don't just glide down to the bottom of the hill and need to get a ride back up. I would have thought that adding a motor allows take off from level ground and to find thermals? Or even the ability to cruise about a bit. Upon reading my post it wasn't worded particularly well, having never been paragliding or hang gliding I was assuming what it was like, and trying to figure out the driver for it. Must be the pure joy of the silent flight, albeit very dependant on the conditions and proximity to suitable sites

... you write aviation forum posts at 12:36am when non afflicted people are asleep or only dreaming about that perfect flare

Nice, getting into the beautiful Qld autum weather now, perfect for flying like this, gee if Mal puts a GoPro on his Skyranger you could get some Nynja/ Skyranger in flight fun video ( not suggesting any unapproved formation flying of course!)

As an observation I find choosing a candidate at voting time difficult as unless you have met them or they are generally well known the only info a member has is the short bio published in the mag. This is not the best system and susceptible to the slant from the writer, ie the spiel could be overly modest about the candidates skills and abilities, or worse overstates same. I have no suggestions for improvement to the voting system but hope to see forward looking candidates for the board with suitable business or professional skills or lots of relevant experience.

Tried that, trouble is I couldn't get it to fly, so back to spending hard earned cash on things with wings

Paraglider falls to death on Bribie beach From:CourierMail April 15, 2013 A FRIEND and a fellow paraglider were forced to watch as a 29-year-old man fell to his death on a Bribie Island beach Sunday night. Alternatively, you can copy and paste this link into your browser: http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/man-29-dies-as-paraglider-plunges-on-to-beach-at-bribie-island-north-of-brisbane/story-e6freon6-1226620332974 Photo of paramotor on beach with article - Sunday started out a nice day weather wise after yet more rain here, would have encouraged flyers to take the opportunity to go for a fly. damn shame fellow was only 29

I suggest that the club/property owner/organiser of the open day or fly in would need to ensure that their public liability insurance was up to scratch for the normal every day stuff ie a visiting pilot or passenger trips over say some stairs or something whilst using the toilet, hurts themselves, decides that someone was negligent and should pay the medical bills. My organisation of about 50 people has I think $5M PL insurance which is only just enough.

All good on iPad2 - nice music by the way

Interestingly a friend who has licences for and drives most vehicles - car boat motorcycle loaders forklifts excavators trucks right up to B Doubles says that learning to fly was by far the most challenging. A good mechanical appreciation certainly helps I think, but the extra dimension in the sky coupled with the secondary effects of controls etc is a whole extra level of learning.

I see the common thread in HITC's incidents, electrical or mechanical stuff, maybe I could take up paragliding with only a bunch of fancy fabric and string to worry about. (could however end with undercarriage failure at some time)

Dunno maybe (iPhone doesn't seem to like these weird little yellow guys)

If I seem a bit snappy sometimes I assure you it's just a carry over from those other fields and I'm trying hard to change Nah it's just the curse of lengthy typed conversations engaging multiple participants without the benefit of facial expression and body language etc., what may be perceived as a little harsh in an email or forum post may be quite different said face to face, then again some seem to enjoy a dig now and then to 'stimulate' debate

Now don't get all defensive, I mean if a business person / company sees a potential business opportunity ie in this case wants to make aero engines and they don't yet do so they will need engineering people with suitable skills and experience to avoid spending years and a lot of money learning what is required to design and manufacture a good product, hence the need to hire in expertise. This could of course come from anywhere. Products like Rotax engines have years of experience behind them, loads of cash in R&D to end up with a reliable quality engine. Anyway, would be good to have more serious competition for reliable affordable engines

So if the Chinese are getting ready to manufacture aircraft engines suitable for ultralights and LSA's etc does it follow that in a few years time we could have low cost new technology engines that can be affordably replaced at the end of their lifespan a bit like how the consumer products i.e. flat screen tv's etc we all have at home have gone? If some Chinese business people choose to put up the cash I'm sure good engineering design work, metallurgy etc can be procured. And then someone will have to pay for all the testing and quality assurance etc. before the aviation establishment embrace new engines, time will tell I suppose. I wonder how rotax will respond?

Question Further to the accident analysis kindly presented by Mr Bandit (post 27) is it possible to undertake analysis on crashes with reference to aircraft type similar to the Safety Is No Accident article by Ron Wanttaja in March 2011 Kit planes magazine (hope it’s ok to refer to an aviation print publication) – i.e. low wing/high wing and wing loading/cruise speed etc. and also connected to pilot hours on that aircraft type? From the seeming lack of reliable crash information available this may not be possible without a significant research effort. However is there some correlation between pilot error in the stall/spin type of crash and the aircraft type. Similarly the “danger zone” as stated by others when a pilot gets to 100hrs or so then buys a faster/cooler aircraft that is less forgiving that the trainer type he/she is used to? It seems to me that the majority of the RAA tragic crashes are the higher performance aircraft types not the low and slow aircraft, with little of the very low inertia aircraft i.e. 95:10 types (possibly due to lower numbers flying, and annual hours flown) Is this combination of pilot/aircraft type not a major contributing factor or is human factors, pilot skill and decision making still the biggest issue? This may be painfully obvious to you experienced flyers, not so to me.

Lovely looking aircraft, surely there is a market for single and two seat motor gliders that are not as expensive as the imported craft

Flown a bit in Echo's and a Sierra, the Echo with those long wings is slower than a Sierra with the laminar flow airfoil but in my limited experience the Echo has safe forgiving handling, nice balanced controls, positive control response, good short field ability, tough undercarriage. The seating position puts the pilots sight line up near the wing root so visibility upwards to the side is restricted a bit by the wing root, need to duck your head a bit to have a good look. A nice well built aircraft. A 100hp Echo is happy at 95kts IAS 5000rpm

Darn, I was being naive or inexperienced in forums to think I wouldn't get people upset by starting this thread. It was meant, if you reread it, as a compliment to the Savannah, how good it flys and how much fun potential they have. Forums should also be about the positives of your special flying machine as well as all the information sharing etc. I don't care if it is LP or HP as I now have both endorsements for a small cost Just enjoy flying them