pmccarthy

Have seen some crazy looking ones in the USA. Makes you realise that there is more to flying than performance.

For some reason this was the most appealing of all the planes that Biggles flew.

I landed a Cherokee at Alice once had guns pointed at me. It was just after the famous hijacking in November 1972. Perhaps they are still nervous.

Even 50kg increase would make a huge difference in useability. New designs don’t have to deliver 760kg MTOW just increase it to whatever stall limit applies within the new envelope. Minor wing design changes or trade-offs including vg's will determine what is possible.

The best example is the J230. It is a strong capable airframe and could immediately be transformed from a marginal load carrier to a very useful machine.

That is good lateral thinking.

When 760kg comes along it will make a huge difference. We will be able to develop safer planes with a useful working load capacity. I look forward to it.

I’m happy to say that I took the photo myself.

Granddaughter was copilot but it is a tiring job,

Santos Dumont is correct. It is the Skonkwerks 24 Bis, a tribute to Dumont.

So how about this for an easy one?

OK, 11 days have passed, it is a Hanriot H110 from France, 1930.

Nearly three years ago now. The agreement is that it never flies again.

Bloke walks into a Caltex station with a BP mower fuel can and says “ Can a BP”. The attendant replies “ I don’t know but fish can fart, I've seen the bubbles”.

I flew a bubble canopy for five years and was very happy with it in all weathers. It can be hot on the ground, but is fine once you are up and flying. I would be more concerned that it had a good rollover bar built in.

The word deflection would be more appropriate than lift. Many control surfaces have no significant aerofoil , but can be considered as flat plates. So they produce forces due to deflection of the airstream and drag.

I understood that you needed to train in rag and tube types to be allowed to fly them under RAA. If you train in the high performance types you have to do extra training to fly something like a Drifter. Has that changed?

A spare tube, pump, spark plugs, lock wire, gaffer tape, insulation tape, plug spanner, spanners/Allen keys to change a wheel, oil, etc etc.

I did training in a Drifter with AUF thirty years ago, but I don’t remember what it cost per hour. So the problem is not owning and operating, but training? Around here instructors seem to charge about $100 per hour for their time. Unfortunately electricians and plumbers are the same. I guess if an instructor could get 3 hours work per day, 5 days per week, 47 weeks per year his gross income would be around $70,000 per year. The difficulty would be finding the students.

There is nothing stopping anyone buying and operating a cheap aircraft. I have seen them advertised in the $10-15,000 range recently. What is it about the recreational scene that is upsetting people who want to do that?

I have never been inside a Jabiru but I did research this question and the J230 came out on top. Practical and good load capacity. At the time there were several relatively new ones to be had around $90 k but I suspect they are not so available now. Autopilot would be very handy. Otherwise instruments don’t matter, steam gauges are fine, navigate with the iPad.

And this?

A separate category makes sense.

Tugan Gannet

Once you have learned, it is as easy as driving a car well.