metanoia

Hiyah All, Just wanted to pop my head up and say hi! after a bit of a hiatus... I'm back in the air again, and when I'm not practising stalls or doing circuits, I'm loving it ;) ;)

Hi All, Have a look at this article about the Pacific Aerospace P-750. The second video gives you an idea of its short field capabilities - which are incredible: FlightGlobal article on p-750

That was great... I found another snippet on youTube about Vmu testing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwQMXz9PbrY&feature=related. Now... to find the rest of that documentary :-)

It is a hardy aircraft, even if it is somewhat cantankerous to start - I hope that when its career is over it is given an honourable sendoff :) Flying is out for me this week, and probably next as well. Oh well...

The first 18 or so hours of my flying career were spent in the venerable 55-0940, a rather old Jabiru LSA/55. Today, I had a flight in the new Jabiru 170 that has turned up at the flying school. Even though they're from the same stable, there is a world of difference between the two aircraft. The J-170 is a much more comfortable aircraft, and it is obvious that a lot more thought has gone into its ergonomics. This makes a big difference for a pilot/student like me - given that I am a little on the short side. Four things stand out: 1) The throttle is much better placed. In the Jabiru LSA/55, the throttle is placed between one's legs - and I always found that my view out of the windscreen changed when I was moving the throttle to or from full power. The J-170 has a panel mounted throttle - which I am still getting used to - but the beautiful thing about it is that my perspective does not change when the power does. Excellent :) 2) With a decent (and Jab-supplied cushion), the rudder peddles are much easier to reach and use. I used to use two cushions in the Jabiru LSA/55 and still found that it wasn't easy to get full rudder. In the J-170, if anything, I am finding that it is too easy to get full rudder. 3) The J-170 comes with a Y-shaped stick that does not seem to travel quite as far in the pitch or roll dimensions as the stick in the Jabiru LSA/55, and it seems that the controls are quite a lot more sensitive - something took quite a bit of getting used to. 4) While it can be a little more difficult to see what's happening in a turn to the left due to the longer wings, one gets a much better view out of the windscreen - especially if one is of shorter stature such as me. The view as I was turning from base to final for first time kind of shocked me actually... I didn't realise that there was so much to see outside! :) If I have a complaint about the new jab, it would be with the placement of the flaps switch - in this aircraft. It is just forward of the stick, which means that setting flaps for landing means that I have to move my left arm across my body to reach the switch, whilst looking left occasionally to see where the flap is. If I had a choice, I think that I would have placed the flaps switch next to the throttle - and having two switches (one for the left seat, one for the right) if needs be. Having said that, it is much easier to use than the crappy flaps lever that is found in the Jabiru LSA/55. All in all... while I hope to love a lot more aircraft yet, I have to say I want to spend a lot more time getting to know this beautiful aircraft :-)

It could be a Horton H. IV: There's a rather nice snap of one in Wikipedia: Horten H.IV - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

At SJFS? If so... Yes, go the J170 path - it seems a much nicer aircraft than the old J 55/LSA!

It could... On the other hand, I'm short (5'6), and I have to say that I prefer landings with 1 stage of flap rather than 2 stages. I find that my visibility is fine, and the Jab is much easier to handle. I've not actually performed a flapless landing as yet - once I have, I'll let you know what I think of them.

You'd definitely want to be using MOGAS and not 100LL :)

Hah! :) Have you seen Stavatti's proposed SM-27? It's pretty cool - it's a fighter with two contra-rotating props in pusher configuration. They've not built one yet, but apparently they have pitched them to a few airforces. (AND you can fly one in x-plane :)) The plane that I most want to see is an Ion:

Up until today, I've been using full flap, except for when there's a lot of turbulence and/or crosswind. Today I set 1 stage of flaps in late downwind and maintained 65kts all the way through base and final. Guess what? My first very nice landing. Even my instructor was impressed. Second circuit I set 1 stage of flaps in late downwind and then full on final to lose some height. The Jabbie became somewhat more of a handful to fly and land. Once we were back in the air again, I queried this with my instructor. He seemed to be very much of the "flaps as required" opinion, and said that 55/LSAs can be trickier to land with full flap and that for the most part, it was ok to stay using 1 stage. I think that I'll stick with this as it seems to work for me - which is not to say that I won't also practice with full flaps (and none, of course).

Electric flaps I've not had the pleasure (or otherwise) of using as yet - I'm learning in a Jabiru 55/LSA which has manual flaps. Have to say tho - the thought of flying in a totally glass cockpit doesn't do it for me. There's something reassuring about all the old steam gauges... If nothing else, they're nowhere near as distracting as some of the glass displays strike me as being. On the 1 vs 2 stages of flaps question - After trying a few landings of each, I have to say that 2 stages of flaps is much more difficult to land in the 55/LSA.

Yuppers... but it did something even more interesting than crossing the atlantic. (It really does look like a flying bath tub doesn't it? :))

Ok... how about this one... Ok... a new plane... how about this one. extra points for listing something interesting done in it :)

Um... no... there was a steam powered plane posted a while's back that could reverse with the engine engaged :)