cscotthendry

The weather for video has been great these past few weeks and since the plane is much closer to home, I've been taking advantage of it.

Here's the latest, a wander around our "neighborhood".

Recently we moved our plane from Watts Bridge to Heck field at Jacobs Well. YHEC is very close to the Gold Coast, but more important, closer to where we live.

The other day, we had some really good weather and lighting conditions and a new GoPro to test out so we did a fly over the Gold Coast

One of the things I loved about the Nynja was that in turbulence, it was better flown hands off. The more I tried to counter the effects of thermals, the worse I flew. That probably meant it was "stable" but I liked that, especially for long flights. That said, it was still a nimble aircraft. It went where you told it to, when you told it to, no more, no less. It was reasonably light on the controls and responsive.

My current airplane is a bit of a handful in turbulence. The phugoid duration is a bit longer and turbulence tends to set up a bit of a porpoising effect. In thermals, I have to fly the Legend more than I did with the Nynja. However, the Legend is easier to fly due to the placement and layout of the controls. It is also more comfortable and quieter.

For me, that is the difference between "easy" and "nice" to fly.

47 minutes ago, Downunder said:

Do you really think the Libyan's, Turk's, Azeri's and various terrorist organisations roll like that?

These are tactical drones, loitering over the combat zone taking out targets of opportunity. 

The Azeri's are also using Israeli suicide drones. One can be seen early in the video. 

 

We've past the point of "strategic" strikes and assasinations by drones by cashed up western democracies. 

This is new warfare. The wholesale deployment of combat drones 24/7 over the tactical battlefield.

Alot of governments should be shitting their collective pants about how easy and cheap it is to get hold of these drones and the success they acheive.

The last few weeks have shown total battlefield domination by the Azeri's flying these Israeli and Turkish drones.

 

 

 

That's not anything like what John Robert posted and what I was responding to.

For a start, any state owned drones are NOT going to be piloted by pimply computer geeks with grudges. They are going to be serious equipment, operated by serious, trained individuals conducting military operations with significant targets, not just bumping off someone who annoyed them.

Secondly, part of what you're describing falls into the category of improvised weapons. When you go down that path, a sharpened broom handle can become a "weapon" and generalizations about "targets of opportunity" apply but are meaningless in the wider discussion about "drones".

But you're right, "A lot of governments should be ARE shitting their collective pants" about explosive drone improvised devices. They are particularly lethal for ground troops. HOWEVER;

Remotely Piloted, means either radio or wire control. Radio control devices can be radio blasted out of the sky with high powered jamming devices. Wire guided drones aren't very effective because a) the drone has to trail a heavy (relatively) wire while traveling SLOWLY to a target. and b) A drone that size will attract attention and the wire leads straight back to the launcher. *BOOM*

4 hours ago, John Robert said:

 

Picture some little computer geek 20,00Km from the scene guiding a missile to a target that he "thinks" may be the guy who has had the gall to wave 2 fingers at the US. Sadly same little runt will never be in the position to have the fire returned.

John Robert

If you truly believe that is how UAVs are used, you need to do some reading.

”drones” are piloted by professional fighter pilots and targets are studied for months before a strike. Even then, a strike is only authorized at the highest level. After a strike, the pilot and/or weapons officer are counselled and debriefed for the psychological impacts of carrying out an assassination.

Your characterization of computer geeks running rampant and frivolously firing off Hellfire missles at people who've annoyed them is as ignorant as it is offensive.

Quoting Breitbart ..... hmmm
The only thing that would damage a posting's credibility more would be quoting Qanon
Kind of like quoting The Betoota Advocate

Also check blade tracking. Getting the pitch the same on all blades is only half the job.
Chock the aircraft against movement.
Put a chair or a ladder near the prop, but where the prop can be turned without hitting the chair.
Turn the prop bringing each blad near the chair and measure the distance.
There are specs (RA Aus tech manual?) for prop blade runout, radially and axially.
The above is easier to do if you remove 1 spark plug from all cylinders.

But as Mike said, pneumatic synching of the carbs is a major cause of RPM related vibrations.

The thing that really troubles me is how most of the Republican party have become a Trump cult. They support him in great numbers IN SPITE of the Republican party having no policies or vision for the country for Trump's next term in office. The official RNC policy for this election is something like “To enthusiastically support 100% of what President Trump wants to do.”
How to explain people voting for that, other than being part of a cult of personality?

Oneetrack:
I wasn't given any more details than what I posted so I can't confirm that is the same crash, but ...
The circumstances sound similar and I imagine there aren't that many Sling 4s about, particularly ones that have been crashed.

14 hours ago, Flying Binghi said:

 

cscotthendry I see many claims though no actual evidence presented.

 

 

"Living is easy with eyes closed,"

"Misunderstanding all you see..."

Apologies to Lennon and McCartney.

Re-read my post about WHY "no evidence" has been uncovered ... yet.

Who “hasn't” flown overweight?
I haven't.

I saw the result of doiing that just the other day. A Sling 4 was being rebuilt at our airfield. It was flown with 4 adults on board (+ luggage?) and stalled on short final. It went into the ground nose down, upside down.
I don't know what became of the occupants.

When I had the Nynja, it had a fuselage tank behind the seats. That required constant retrimming every 10 to 15 minutes.
The plane I have now has wing tanks. I don't notice needing to trim the elevator, but I have to manually manage the fuel to keep the lateral balance.

5 hours ago, Flying Binghi said:

Hmmm... so far we have no actual evidence of Trump committing a crime in relation to his personal income tax.

 

Trump likely has little personal income to be taxed. Any tax payable likely came out of his company’s.

 

Seems all Trump did before his current job were traveling around in his jet doing business. All business expenses in the USA are tax deductible as far as I know.

 

I await any actual evidence of Trump committing a tax crime.....

 

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

 

Michael Cohen laid out several crimes in front of the impeachment investigation. As for there not being any evidence ... Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence and when we witness the extraordinary lengths Trump and the Republicans have gone to, to prevent ANY examination of his finances, it begs the question "why?".

I don't know if he'll be charged for tax violations, but there are a multitude of other offences he has committed while in office and in the run up.

Campaign finance violations: Payments to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal for a start. Then there's the mystery of the sudden $10 million in unaccountable funds that went into his 2016 campaign just before the election. Then there's the money he bragged about having LOTS of early on in this campaign, on the order of hundreds of millions, but now he claims his campaign is broke???

Emoluments clause of the Constitution: The constitution prohibits a sitting POTUS from receiving money from foreign entities and governments by any means. It's why presidents have always put their business interests at "arms length" during their terms in the presidency. Trump has steadfastly refused to do this and daily benefits from dignitaries and government officials staying in his resorts. He even tried to get the G7 meeting held at one of his resorts. He also tried to pressure the UK government to move the British Open golf tournament to his one of golf courses.

Extortion: Trump tried to use foreign aid payments to an allied nation (Ukraine) as leverage to induce that government to create a smear against his main political rival. That he didn't succeed doesn't erase the crime. The attempt was a crime in and of itself.

Possible espionage: Early on in his presidency, Trump divulged sensitive intelligence sourced from the Israelis, to Russian agents. This intelligence put the lives of soldiers and friendly agents in jeopardy and the Israelis were thoroughly pissed.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump's campaign officials were in constant contact with Russian government agents. That is what started the Mueller investigation. Obama didn't start the investigation, the counter-intelligence unit of the FBI did that on their own because of the communications they were seeing between Trump's campaign people and the Russians. What we now know for sure is that NOTHING happens in Trump's orbit without Trump's knowledge and approval. Anything that does happen without his approval is grounds for instant dismissal, right down to not kissing Trump's orange arse enough.

Crimes against humanity: So far 220,000 Americans have died from COVID 19. Trump was warned in February that the pandemic would be bad and Obama had left him a team and a plan to deal with such matters. Trump chose to a) Do nothing about it because he thought it would hinder the economy and hurt his reelection prospects, b) Warn investor friends who sold stock like the world was about to end, thereby avoiding losses (insider trading), c) actively subverting efforts to contain the spread of the virus by disbanding the team and ignoring the plans while hindering efforts to test for it and provide PPE for healthcare staff and patients. As a result, official SCIENTIFIC estimates are that nearly half of the deaths from the virus could have been prevented had he done what a president is supposed to do. He STILL refuses to wear a mask and holds super spreader rallies because he is narcissistic and craves the attention.

This is only what we know for a fact now. Given the pathological dishonesty of Trump, I believe this is only the tiny tip of a very large iceberg and that it is why he's so protective of his finances.

And finally, what we do know is that Trump is in debt to the tune of $421 million to "someone" but we don't know who. My bet is the Russians and the Saudis. That kind of debt is an instant dis-qualifier for anyone to obtain any type of security clearance at all, never mind having the nuclear launch codes.

That is all apart from the nepotism, corruption, lies and malfeasance that has passed for his presidency.

OK, Rant over.

“I don't care who does the electing, as long as I get to do the nominating” William M Tweed

You needn't look any further than that to find out why such duds as Trump become our political “leaders”.

In the US, since the Citizens United case in the Supreme Court, a tsunami of dark cash has sloshed through the electoral system. When the case was being argued, the conservative judges were warned that this would be the result if the case was decided in favor of the (misnamed) Citizens United group*. Those conservative judges tied themselves in logical knots to arrive at an answer their ideology demanded and Donald Trump is the natural result of a political system run, by and for, oligarchs and large corporations.
But lest we get too smug here in Oz, the same financial pressures are being brought to bear here by those with deep pockets. And hardly a day goes by that another exposure of the lengths these people will go to, to skirt the checks and laws turns up on our evening news. The current scandal in NSW being case in point.

But what can be done about this when those who benefit from the system, control the rules?
It's surprising what a thousand letters to a politician can accomplish. But getting a thousand individuals to write those letters is nigh on impossible.
We get the government we vote for.

*Citizens United was a group of mostly corporates and corporate backed individuals set up to fight for the “rights” of corporations to donate money to political campaigns. The name is a spectacular success of deceptive marketing.

IMO a “good” pilot is one who doesn't take unnecessary risks.
Flying, for humans, is dangerous enough as it is. Why make it more so?
That said, there are pilots whose jobs are to take those risks. They're called “test pilots”. Read anything by or about them and you'll quickly find the lengths they go to, to minimize the risks they must take and the mechanisms and procedures they put in place to protect themselves when a risk becomes a reality.
Pilots who do risky stuff (like flying a trike 6 inches over the surface of a lake) are, IMO, NOT “good pilots”. Those who do risky stuff with passengers on board are, again IMO, “bad pilots”.
I wouldn't presume to judge the pilot in the video by looking at one video. But what happened to him also happened to me. It wasn't risk taking. It was loss of focus on a critical flight parameter ... pilot error.

I had the exact same thing happen to me (without the crash) when I took a friend up for a flight.

It was a windy, gusty day and I got to the point he describes where you're so close to the runway, you start to concentrate on the runway and lose focus on the airspeed. 
Either my aircraft is more forgiving than his, or I reacted quicker because I managed to recover my situation with full throttle and pushing the nose over.

In retrospect, I think I flew through about a 10kt wind shear and my airspeed must have been close enough to stall speed that when we flew out of the gust, the left wing stalled and started to drop. At first it felt like an uncommanded left turn bank. I put a little pressure on the ailerons (wrong thing to do, I know) and the plane didn't respond as I expected, so I immediately firewalled the throttle and pushed the nose over. Thank goodness for training.

Now, I watch the airspeed like a hawk on short finals.

10 hours ago, ClintonB said:

Pretty poor friends to endorse such behaviour, he appeared to be playing up for the crowd.

with bad results. This is where you want mates to pull you up before something stupid kills you.

 

Hmmm, why should “mates” be responsible for policing other peoples' behaviour? Every time I've tried that I end up being “the bad guy”.

If someone does something stupid, I'm just going to get as far away from them as possible because they're likely to end up like the guy in the video and I can't be bothered performing CPR on suicide attempts.

Kasper:
I wrote to Aeropilot and they sent me a letter of approval for the prop change. I'm not sure what other paperwork I'll need to do when I go to sell the aircraft. The local dealer made an arrangement with Aeropilot after I fitted my Bolly, to list those props as an official “option” here in Oz.

The Bolly people were brilliant to deal with. They asked me a series of questions and that led to a reccomendation. They shipped the prop, hub and spinner very quickly.

I purchased the reccomended prop and then set it up. It took a couple of gos to get the right pitch for our aircraft, but that's pretty normal.

Skippy:
I don't have many facts to rely on, but here's some opinion.
My aircraft came with a Woodcomp prop. On our first major cross country, we got a largish chip in the leading edge, beyond the coverage of the metal protector strip. My concern was that having a wooden core, the core would soak up moisture from the air and change dimensionally enough to crack the composite covering. Sooo, I changed to a solid composite prop (Bolly). The Bolly is also locally made and supported which was a big factor in my choice. The other big factor was Woodcomp's policy that any repairs required returning the prop to the factory. That had the potential of almost permanently grounding the aircraft.

Having said that, I think an obvious factor would be price and weight change. If you add a kilo way out at the front of the plane, you're going to have to offset that by adding or moving some other weight.

I'd like to do a low 'n slow over the Serengetti wildlife park in Africa, or fly into Oshkosh or Sun 'n Fun.
OME, Victor 1 isn't as scary as I thought it would be. At 80KIAS it took just 18 minutes from Long Reef to Jibbon Pt.
Don't dream it, do it!

You never know what is going on in other peoples' cockpits.
We went to a popular fly in brekky a couple of weeks ago and arrived about 8:30 am. The airfield has parallel runways, 12-30. All the traffic were using 12 and there was lots of activity. We were number 3 on 12L and there was another aircraft behind us. On 12R I saw atleast two aircraft in circuit, one of which was on final when we were.
As we wererolling out on 12L, I saw an aircraft taking off on 30L against the traffic flow! The radio burst into life with pilots calling the offending aircraft but no response. As I was taxying to the parking area, the miscreant FINALLY made a radio call to turn base on 30L again. I got on the radio and blasted out a “You're going the wrong way!” To try and headoff a disaster.
I never figured out how this moron didn't see all the airplanes landing on two runways in the other direction, nor how he managed to taxypast all the traffic on the taxiways going the other way, nor how he didn't hear all the radio calls announcing everyone's activity. This guy had no business being in the air that morning.

I started on this site when I was building the Nynja kit plane. I found it very valuable for info about how aircraft work and about aviation regs etc. Since I finished and sold the Nynja, my interest in the site has waned a bit, but I still visit regularly. The guy who was the Skyranger dealer told me that interest in kit building had dropped so low that he effectively stopped the dealership. It was costing him a lot of money for advertising and insurance and the kits weren't selling.

I wonder if the drop in interest in building is related to increasing regulation of recreational aircraft and that in turn is related to a drop in interest in the forums.

BTW, I have noticed an increase in discussions about regulations in a lot of the threads I read, but that is just anecdotal evidence not backed by any statistical analysis.

I tried one of t hose cables that charges the gopro and taps off the audio. The gopro has an avc function on the audio that (at leaston my old gopros) can't be turned off. That automatic volume control would crank the volume up when there wasn't any talky-talk going on and all it did was to amplify the electrical noise to nuisance levels.

Sooooo...

I reverted back to my digital voice recorder. I have to sync the audio to the video when I'm editing, but my video editor software makes that pretty easy.

The cruise speed of a given engine has as much to do with the dragginess of the airframe and the pitch of the prop as horse power.

You say the 100hp Rotax cruises at 80kt? It must be towing a fairly draggy airframe. Mine cruises at 110kt in my aircraft.

In any case, I don't see comparing two completely different engines as likely to give meaningful answers.

Don't forget, these are the same people who pronounce "nuclear" as "noo-kal-ear", and aluminium as "aloo-min-um".

 

I guess, despite the accents and local terminology and differing pronunciations, we can at least usually understand each other. But I had a Scot, a parts interpreter, on the phone the other day - and I couldna' unnerstan' the laddie!

 

This, despite my mother being Scottish!! She was always surprised that people would still say, "Oh, you're Scottish", as soon as she spoke, even after she'd been living in Australia for 60 years.

I know quite a number of aussies that pronounce “nuclear” as “ nuke you lar”

Hmmm, so you lot aren't perfect either.

Enough with the grammar policing eh?