pmccarthy

I remember being told when established on final to leave the stick alone and fly with throttle and rudder only.

No square corners in my circuits. I keep them smooth and continuously banked until lined up for final. Just works for me.

I love the Goose since I built an Airfix model of it in about 1965.

Didn’t they just release the cleric bombing maniac? Surely a link is possible, his mates letting us know they are still in business.

I remember a single Comanche with tip tanks that went very quiet one day.

Who can tell us about wing designs? I know little about them, except most wing cross sections were designed in the early 1930s and we just choose one of them. It must be more complicated.

That thrust line problem would seem fairly obvious.

That looks like so much fun! My only gliding experience is out of a station strip south of Broken Hill in summer. Hardly an experience to get you into gliding!

Instead of internal fins there could be convoluted shapes in the casting to (say) double the internal surface area of the sump. Just a ripple would do. But more weight. Another trade off.

After 50 years I still enjoy it and always learn something. It is a good thing.

A second view.

Twister lost his engine at about 4.45 mins. Do you think he entered a high-speed stall just before impact?

And a very happy New Year to you from cool summery Oz. We have missed your charming smile.

Yes I have. Very interesting. A friend imported a lovely Bonanza from the USA when the A$ Was strong and did very well, but only because he is a LAME and did all the work himself.

There is something strange about the headline photo of 28. There seems to be no inboard wing on the RHS, so it looks asymmetric. I know it is just the photo, but cant is figure out why it looks that way.

I bought one the other day. Perfectly fine for private flying. My first new logbook since 1970..

This post was six days late.

I landed my PA-28 today in a crosswind and remarked that I would be hopeless in a tail dragger, barely competent now after many hundreds of hours.

Aviataion Classifieds listed 30-40 aircraft just a couple of years ago. It is down to 13 today on a steady trend. It will be gone entirely within months if this trend continues.

You were conned, as I am sure you know, the SE5A did not have a rotary. But I am still envious.

All good, but remember being overweight is not a choice. I would be RAA tomorrow if my wife and I, luggage and fuel, would fit 600kg MTOW.

The next day but one I flew back to Kirkuk to collect my kit, and, if possible, my motorbike. This presented a bit of a problem but eventually we solved it by removing the wheels and stowing them in the rear seat, then we roped the frame of the machine to the Scarff gun mounting above the seat. I was about to rope my roll of camp kit plus one suitcase to the bomb racks, when I was asked to fly back as escort to Cordingley, who was returning an aircraft to Baghdad for a change of engine. The engine of Cordingley’s aircraft was slowly leaking water from a defective cylinder water jacket, so would in consequence need careful ‘nursing’ on the flight, so I offered to take his kit in order to minimise the weight in his Bristol. As my rear seat was full of motor bike, Cordingley’s kit had to go on my third bomb rack. When eventually ready for flight, my Bristol Fighter seemed festooned like a Christmas tree. Most of the bike was ‘outboard’ above the fuselage, a large suitcase under the bottom centre section and two valises containing camp beds, blankets, etc, beneath the bottom planes. Such was my profound faith in the flying qualities of the Brisfit, that I did not really anticipate any serious difficulty in flying to Baghdad with this untidily disposed load. I should have known better. That take-off was a shattering experience. I had taken the precaution of taxying well beyond the normal boundary of the airfield before turning into wind, but when I opened her up the machine ran on and on, without gaining speed, and showing no immediate inclination to leave mother earth. I eventually reached the end of the take-off area, well clear of the further boundary when, in desperation I yanked back fairly sharply on the stick. The machine responded valiantly and staggered into the air, the turbulence caused by the dangling baggage setting up violent buffeting around the tail. Well, it was one thing to get airborne but quite another to gain some altitude. It seemed quickly evident that the 275 hp of the Rolls-Royce Falcon engine would be severely overtaxed in attaining either speed or height. I finally managed a very wide gradual turn to the south not daring to throttle back, and decided that any attempt at landing back at Kirkuk would risk a serious crash. There was nothing for it but to head for Baghdad, with my airspeed indicator registering between 50 and 60 mph. Every time I eased the stick forward to gain a bit more speed, we just went down hill. The aircraft just scraped over the Gebil Hamrin and two and a half hours later, still flying at full throttle, I found myself at 1,000 feet over Baquba, thirty miles north of Baghdad. As the fuel was practically exhausted and with a wide expanse of level desert below, I made a fast approach with plenty of engine and returned to earth without further trouble. I contacted Baghdad and a supply of fuel arrived late in the evening. Thus ended a rather stupid episode. When I got back to base the following morning, I found that Cordingley had had an uneventful flight back but could not understand why he had seen nothing of his escort. — My Golden Flying Years: From 1918 over France, Through Iraq in the 1920s, to the Schneider Trophy: From 1918 over France, Through Iraq in the 1920s, to the Schneider Trophy Race of 1927 by D'Arcy Greig,

Takeoff out of that gully would be a challenge for a prototype.

I want one but that extra 5kg makes it impossible.