aj_richo

I have need of a SouthCo stud, Phillips Oval head pt no 82-19-320-20 or -340 for a fuel door.

Rather than suck it up for $25US to post a $1.76 part here, is there a local supplier with a selection available?

Cheers

Here a cockpit view of a similar jump dated 2010... not sure if its the same people

Re Omega Propellers/Thompson-aero.. the new owner has had a few problems with production.

One recent purchaser's write-up here http://www.vwaircraftengines.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=21789

The day some unregulated idiot sends his 2Kg eBay UAV up into the approach lane to a major airport wont be far away.. if people are stupid enough to shine lasers at aircraft, they could have so much more fun scaring the be-jesus out of pilots with a hovering UAV.

Better to keep a lid on them I think!

Still thirsty!

Its usefulness for carrying a payload would be negated by the amount of fuel it would have to carry..

They look like 4 cylinder Hirth 2 strokes, 1 carb per pot.. I reckon around 30-40 litres per hour per engine, 240-320 litres per hour in total !!!!

The noise would be incredible inside the cabin too..!

'How did we get 582's and 2 strokes on a 912 thread???"

Osmosis?

and what ever you do don't mention L2 or you'll get "that" bloke on here.

Beautiful aircraft, saw it in the flesh at Oshkosh, it was even parked on a piece of replica wooden aircraft carrier deck

Nothing new on his website, or Facebook page

Oops, re ops manual - the critical "and" after the section 6.2 paragraph instead of "or"

Do you get the impression the idea is to discourage flight below 500ft regardless of where you are flying?

Yeah but - as Tim owned the land he was inspecting, then technically he didn't require an LL endorsement.

95.55 Section 6.2 covers it.

If Tim was an instructor training others in low level ops, then an LL endorsement would be appropriate?

6.2For the purposes of subparagraph 5.1 (b), the conditions,

1 of which must be complied with for an aeroplane to be flown at less than 500 feet above ground level, are:

(b) the aeroplane must be flying:

(i) over land that is owned by, or under the control of, the pilot or of another person (including the Crown) who, or an agent or employee of whom, has given permission for the flight over the land at such a height; and

(ii) at a distance of at least 100 metres horizontally from any person (other than any person associated with the operation of the aeroplane) and from any public road; or

© the pilot of the aeroplane must be engaged in flying training and the aeroplane must be flying over a part of a flying training area over which CASA has, under subregulation 141 (1) of the Regulations, authorised low flying.

Jim - "Firstly I don't believe Darren Tech Manager will insist you perform 4 x annuals"

Yes he is. Unless anything changes from here, that is exactly what he told me when I rang him.

Just as an aside, AQUIS have been known to demand drilling and pesticide injection into a fibreglass covered wood Sensenich propeller!

Sanity prevailed after many phone calls and explaining the standard of wood required to build said propeller, it was delivered to the relieved owner free of holes and pesticide...

I, like you supplied my licence details and received an unrestricted licence and like you I pick and choose the work I do and who I do it for.

Your argument points to evidenced L2 maintenance or legislation violation/failures but I dont see the reports or investigations into violations coming out of the RAA office or CASA's.

Darren wrote in the recent mag, there are no unrestricted L2's or even LAMEs ! I did note in the letter I received, as you have posted.. he bullet points the requirements for an L4.. must be unrestricted L2!

Does the left hand really know what the right hand is doing?

I spoke with Darren yesterday personally regarding my status as an L2 and why I haven't sent anything in for reassessment the last couple of years.

I explained that I simply hadn't had any extra time from the kitchen boss to help out with maintenance for other aircraft since I was building my Sonex.

I had attended an excellent Jabiru maintenance course a couple of years ago, did a pre-sale inspection on a Sonerai and had submitted a defect report recently to help out our local flying school but not much else apart from the building.

Even though I was building I was still keeping my skills up on the tools, researching AC43- and so on, and Darren commended me on being a builder saying that we need more builders with experience, then went on to say he wouldn't view that experience favourably for L2 re-assessment?? I could contact him later and my L2 would be "suspended" in the mean time. A very poor choice of word I might add, since it implies a wrongdoing!!!! To become "unsuspended" perform the 4 annuals in a year, no problem submit for reassessment.

I suggested that a suspended L2 would be in a catch 22 situation, not able to do any maintenance because I would be SUSPENDED. Not so, go thorough a process of contacting the techman, informing of the pending inspection, gain permission to carry out with another L2 or the owner. Have owner or L2 co-sign. Somehow I think this will still be open to dis-honesty if that is the concern with the current system.

(L2s signing paperwork without doing the inspection)

He also said that there were members crying out for L2's to do maintenance but couldn't find any, even though there are about 1000 on the books for 3500 aircraft.. (his numbers) something wasn't right and he needed to establish who was legitimate and who wasn't.

I suspect the push is for commercial maintenance operators only and do away with guys like myself who really only do it for the challenge, stimulation and enjoyment of just being around aircraft and helping out other pilots.

Oh yeah, forgot to add, he also wanted to weed out any LAMEs that had never lifted a spanner on a RAus registered aircraft..

"Trained for flight" 2 days training? Probably how to navigate the main spar carrying a tray of coffee for the flight crew

Don't fence me in.....Alan.

Never heard of removing a tuned exhaust to get better fuel consumption, 2-strokes by nature are thirsty. I did fit an basic untuned exhaust system to a Robin 440 2-stroke once, to prove there was actually something wrong with the tuned exhaust a mate made for it (long story but the pipe plan dimensions were incorrectly translated)

It was LOUD, UGLY and tellingly, p*ss poor fuel consumption but it did run consistantly, the tuned exhaust actually restricted power and eventually melted a piston.

Is everything properly tuned.. ignition timed correctly, air filters clean/new, plugs good colour, jet sizes correct?

I'd start on that side of the engine :)

Cheers

Absolutely Nev, power on and go around, the Sonex is pretty forgiving unless its a crosswind... then it can be entertaining

must have bounced at least twice and probably a third to do the damage to the airframe and pilot

Ooo bugga, big job to fix. Sonex are built like brick poo houses but can be rebuilt. The plans are designed for scratch builders but I'd be worried about the main spars as they would be a bitch to rebuild if you had to import new spar extrusions.

Mine is almost ready for a first flight, so this is a timely reminder!

Maybe a website malfunction, if you go to flysafe.raa.asn.au directly, you the same "forbidden" message as from the Ra Aus website link.

I can get to here, but no further... http://flysafe.raa.asn.au/copyright.html

BLA, there is a Sonex kit available at the RAA Members Market... if you'd prefer to build in metal rather than tube and fabric and can handle a 4-stroke like real aviators. LOL

They are pretty good bang for buck, especially with a Jab3300. Some enterprising types have fitted and flown a Rotax 912 successfully.

This one includes an Aerovee VW conversion as well.

http://www.raa.asn.au/market/ad.php?id=3915

Perhaps an empty offer but if all else fails, you can have free access to my 912GR and a reasonably tame S.I. if you wanna come out West for a weekend. Dunno what a rtn cheapie fare is fm Ad/Per but probably wouldn't be too much more than you'd pay a FTF for an hour's BFR in an unfamiliar aircraft. Keep it in mind. cheers Riley.

Guys, thanks for the other replies, I'll check out those leads as well. John the Stirling North club might be the go, thanks for the phone number.

This might be a source of newer skins plus spares for your project?

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/brahma-lodge/other-sports-fitness/aircraft-t300-thruster/1037653178

Hi,

Is there anyone left in SA that has a Lightwing Tailwheel available for a training/checkflight?

Have asked James at RPA but all that appears to be left are Sportcubs at Aldinga. I have done a couple of BFR's in Lightwings over the years so looking for a checkflight in one of those preferably. RAAus wont recognise 130 hrs of single seat tail dragger time, including Lightwing BFRs to replace the missing TW letters on my certificate.

Cheers

Richo