cscotthendry

Mike:
I put a strip of LEDs behind the sight tube gauge on my Nynja tank. I had a push button to light up the LEDs rather than just leave them on all the time.
That helped a lot with reading the level even when the tube started to discolor a bit. I tried the little floats but didn't have much success with them.

I've just noticed this thread so forgive me if I repeat something someone else already posted.
If what I'm seeing here is right, then CASA is trying to align our airspaces to what they do in the US. In the US, class E starts at 1200’ AGL in most of the country. There are places where it goes down to 700’ but that is noted on their “sectionals” which are similar to our charts all combined into one.
But there is this: we hardly have a fraction of the air traffic the US has AND we have NO potential to have that much traffic EVER. So I fail to see the justification or need for this other than aligning regulations with the US.

On 23/01/2021 at 9:35 AM, old man emu said:

As an aside, if the airframe was used as the conduit to completed the circuit, wouldn't that set up a magnetic field that would affect a compass? I know that such effect can be accounted for by doing a compass swing, but you have to have a reason for doing the swing. The first reason is obviously the magnetic effects of the airframe, engine and other components, but are the effects of electrical current flow another?

That's a very interesting question and I don't have an answer for it.

I think it's possible that the currents might cause EM fields that could affect the compass.

New2flying
As others have said, you're well shot of her. Learning to fly can be stressful and you really need a cooperative partner in the cockpit while you're doing it, not an adversary.
I lost quite a number of flying years because of previous instructors like your Susan.
The guy who got me in the air gave me this piece of sage advice;
“Flying is just another mechanical skill like driving or riding a bike. Anyone can do it, but you have to stick with it. Also, a lot of people reach a point in their training where they think ‘I can't make this work, I can't learn to fly’. But they can if they stock with it.”
That part about “I can't make this work, I can't learn to fly” cost me 10 wasted flying years because of a previous instructor. As soon as my instructor mentioned that part, lightbulbs were flashing everywhere for me.

Stick with it. Don't get discouraged and don't give up. Be prepared to change instructors as often as necessary until you find one who your comfortable with in the cockpit. The end result is worth all the money and hard work. Believe me!

Check, as Mike suggested, whether you have a large filter capacitor connected to your engine's voltage regulator. Look in the Rotax documentation in the electrical circuit diagrams. The Rotax charging system is notorious for generating electrical noise and the capacitor helps reduce it somewhat.
Also, you should dig into all the negative return wires from everything electrical on your aircraft. All of the negative return wires MUST be returned to ONE common point. The system must not rely on frame returns to the negative of the electrical system as is done in cars. I repeat, the negative return of every electrical device MUST be connected to only ONE point DIRECTLY. Not doing this is usually the worst source of electrical noise in audio and radio equipment.

YAHOO!!!!!
Wouldn't miss it for quids!

When I was learning to fly I couldn't wait to be free of the instructor's yoke.
Been flying 10 years+ and I actually look forward to flying with an instructor for my BFRs.
1) I expect them to pick up on any bad habits I've developed.
2) It forces me to practice a forced landing, which I avoid doing because it gives me the shivers.
3) Flying with a very experienced pilot is like having a security blanket. It's one of the few times I can totally relax in the cockpit.

On 02/12/2020 at 2:21 PM, NT5224 said:

Scott 

 

That's a wonderful video!  Its a very beautiful neighborhood  you have there, and the production quality of the clip was high. Great job!

 

 Three questions:

 

What's the Legend like to Fly?  Its got a whiff of Cessna about its appearance. Does that carry over to flight characteristics?   Just a two seater, right? Its a nice looking aircraft.

 

Second, can you tell us anything about your external camera mount? It seems to work really well. 

 

Finally, do you fly far enough over the soup to need to carry a life raft and buoyancy aids? Or are you staying within glide of the coast?  if the former can you tell me about what safety equipment you carry and how much it weighs...

 

Cheers

 

Alan   

 

 

 

 

 

Hi Alan;

Sorry for the delay in answering here.

Answers to the three questions

Q1) The Legend was designed to look like an 80% scale C182. So yes, there's more than a whiff of Cessna about it. I haven't flown any real Cessnas so I can't compare the flying characteristics. What I can tell you is that it is very forgiving if you let the airspeed get out of whack. I did, and it “dropped a wing” which took the form of a gentle uncommanded left bank. I corrected it by pushing the nose over and full throttle which brought it back to controlled flight instantly. It is a two seat LSA. My wife and I can fly with full fuel (120L) and 32Kg of luggage. Where the back seat would be in a C182 is the luggage area and it has more space than you can carry, unless it's bulky light stuff like bedding. Also, as for flying characteristics, I observed a C152 take off from my local field the other day and they struggled to clear the trees at the end of a runway that we lift off about 1/3 the way down the runway and clear those trees by about 300 - 400ft.

Q2) I have a couple of types of external camera mounts. The Legend is composite, so I can't bolt or rivet anything to it. I use GoPro surfboard mounts on the ends of the wings. I got approval from the manufacturer for these as it's an LSA. Not all GoPro mount bases are the same and you can see in the Gold Coast video the right wing cam wobbles. I've since remedied that by using a different base that fits tighter in the mount. The other camera mount straps to the wing strut. I made the mount from some sheet aluminium. If you PM me I can send you some pics. They're easy to make with simple hand tools.  The inside camera is mounted on a suction mount on the inside of the windscreen.

Q3) When we fly over water, we wear inflatable life vests. If you have a look at our Sydney Victor 1 video you'll see them. Around here, we stay within gliding range of solid ground. You'd be surprised how far that is though. I don't have solid numbers to relate, I determine my safe distance by eye, based on wind direction and height above the water. The life vests weigh about 1/2 kg I think. I bought them from a boating place. They have dual inflation with CO2 bottle and oral inflator.

HTH

I have a Flight Data GT50. It has a clock, voltmeter, flight timer, G meter and resettable timer. I use the resettable timer to time my tanks. The GT 50 fits in the small standard instrument hole. It's cheap and has a lot of functions that I think are useful, especially the G meter with max G recording.

I bought it for the G meter because I used to have a turbulence phobia and wanted to know if the bumps were going to rip the wings off. Thanks to the GT50 I don't worry about that anymore.

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.