eastmeg2

Jeeeeeeze, This threads getting as bad as that Southpark episode where everyone got Toyota Prius's and ruined the environment with all their "SMUG". They just weren't ready. Are we? Seriously though. Work bought me an iPhone 3G a few months ago to replace my ageing Blackberry Pearl. I find the iPhone slow to respond but compared to the Blackberry Pearl it makes up for it in functionality, except that it lacks voice dialing.thumb_down Cheers, Glen:rotary: PS. I'm starting to worry about Darky and Tomo . . .

I bet the airlines could have used a few thousand of these around Europe during the last month or so, piston engines being less susceptible to volcanic ash than jets . . . 'wonder if there were some operating while the jets were grounded - or was it airspace closed - period.

We got the problem with te modulated oscillation sorted out today. Firstly, the things which did not fix it. 1. Earthing the keel extension tube. 2. Lowering the gain of the microphone pre-amp by about 4dB. What did work was creating some space between the radio and the microphone pre-amp (Aluminium) box. As I had velcroed and cable tied the pre-amp box onto the left side of the radio there must have been some capacitive feedback. There is now a 1/4 inch thick slab of wood with velcro either side, in between. Subsequent airborne radio test gave 5/5. From a couple of km away in the air I had a clear conversation with another trike on the ground next to the hangar. The panel is also now looking much tidier with the trim around the outside again gracing its edges. JR, the old M760 is living the good life again . . . Cheers, Glen

So, who's going to own up to being the one who asked in the Jabiru forum at Natfly when they're going to make Rotax engine mounts available? I recall the response being something like, "Don't be a miserable XXXX", or something along those lines. I take it the answer was in the negative. As a trike pilot I found it rather amusing.

It might well be worth asking the Aussie importer for a revised price, since last time we asked AUD = 0.45 GBP approx and it's now about GBP 0.60

Hi IB, What you suggest in post #264 is what I tried with my cheap chinese 4.3" GPS which is basically a touch-screen PDA running windows CE6.0 with a GPS built in. It turned out the 4.0GB SD card had some sort of copywrite protection. Not only could I not back it up onto my PC (although at first it appeared I did as all the folders appeared in the backup destination, its just that they were empty), but I also could not write OziExplorerCE onto the 4GB SD card even though it had more than 2GB of free space. My futile attempts eventually corrupted the card and I had to order a replacement SD card from the eBay vendor for $40 to be able to continue using it as a road GPS. In the end I have to swap cards to change from road to aviation use or vice versa. Just something to be aware of, unless you have the hack for the road GPS card. Cheers, Glen

Here's a couple of shots of the Buzzard radio installation I took on the weekend. I don't think I'll be fitting much more onto the panel. There's a matchbox-sized microphone pre-amp velcroed and cable tied to the side of the radio behind the panel. and I suspect it's the source of the oscillation. I've seen i couple of Airborne SST's with similar antenna mountings on their keel tube extensions. Panel still looks a bit untidy as I'll be modifying the gain in the mike pre-amp as soon as I can get some more bits from Jaycar and make another visit. Then I put the trim around the edges again. Cheers, Glen

I forgot to mention that the volume of the modulated oscillation remained constant when I adjusted the radio volume during transmission - so it's potentially an issue with the microphone pre-amp I'm using, which I'm going to lower the gain on at the next opportunity.

Hi Scott, Thanks for your thoughts, there are photo's of the keel extension and aerial in post #8 of this thread. I'll see how I go with grounding it and go from there.

I've finally gotten around to installing the Microair in the instrument panel of the Buzzard and the Antenna on the keel extension. It receives fine, but produces a modulated oscillation when transmitting. I suspect it's due to the keel extension not being very well connected electrically to the rest of the wing, producing a very poor ground plane. It seemed to improved when the motor was started but never completely went away - I suspect due to engine vibrations intermittently improving the electrical connection of the keel extension. Len, I saw a keel extension mounted aerial on your trike but not sure if I remember if you did anything special to earth your keel extension tube, or am I imagining. Cheers, Glen

Seemed like a case of "Writing Under the Influence", of some substance that started hitting his brain cell (singular) half way down the 2nd column. ;-(

Isn't WingTech a separate company that makes all the sails for Airborne HG's & Trikes? If you could get the sail detailed design from P&M they might be able to make one up for you.

I've had a GRS450 on my trike for about 5 years now. There was some wise advice in the manual, "treat like a loaded gun". Then a good analogy could be, would you go hiking in Alaska without a firearm? I'm personally not satisfied with RAAus fatal crash reports, both in 3-axis and trikes (This sentence is self-moderated and very truncated, have seen a friend take off on a flight he didn't complete - even though a BRS was fitted). The areas I regularly fly over don't always have really big open paddocks within glide. So the GRS has been considered a good insurance policy, though one that needs to be treated with respect. When it expires I'll finally be able to answer the question most asked, "have you tested it yet?" Cheers, Glen

Another way to be legal with 3 POB in RAAus is for one of them not to be born yet.

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Hi Crusty, I assume your talking about camera selection by "switching box". If you are, I have used a video switch box in the past and it worked great. They typically switch the connector on one side to any one of 3 or 4 connectors on the other side. I velcroed mine to the inside floor of the pod on my trike. They can be had for $10-$20 from Dick Smith, Jaycar and probably anywhere that sells TV's like Harvey Norman, Big W, Kmart etc . . . Cheers, Glen

Should we be holding our collective breath? :kboom:

Some of the photo's from last months fly-away to Murray Bridge.

Hi David, It's true that it's just not practical to have loose items like rulers and protractors in an open cockpit enviroment, but we can at least have access to maps and ERSA pages in our kneeboards which can still be glanced even while the control bar is going the full 12 rounds.:black_eye: There are knee-boards in the Clear-Prop shop, though I use the one from Punkinhead. Accessories Cont.. I have even slipped my Slarti-aviation-converted-automotive-GPS into the front sleeve as a backup GPS on one occasion. Cheers, Glen

That would be an interesting option to explore - trying to import Slarti's waypoints into my Garmin 296, though I don't recall what the maximum number of user waypoints is that the 296 can store I suspect Slarti's might be too many.

Hi Bluey, That's great to hear that you made it somewhere and am still here to tell the story. I've had GPS's fail on two occasions while flying trikes x-country but fortunately had other navigation means I could revert to in both instances. While we can't always rely on GPS's, it's nice to know that if we do encounter low cloud blocking our way there's a "Find Nearest" button to list distance and bearing to the 20 or so nearest airports. Slarti's converted Automotive units can do it too but it's not the same single press of a button as on a Garmin 296. In favour of Slarti's units though his list of Australian airstrip waypoints is more comprehensive than the Jeppesen database in the Garmin. I was also flying my trike out of Cootamundra on Friday & Saturday on the Easter weekend as a base for flying to Temora and some other flying we did. Just wondering if we met at Cootamundra. . . Cheers, Glen

It was nearly even, but I see I've extended the lead for "Natfly". I think that "Aus-Kosh" would project the image of larger GA and up type aircraft whereas Natfly is about the recreational end of the spectrum and run by RAAus. Natfly is enough of a success to make its own name without having to borrow from somewhere else.

Hi Tomo, Reading your post #6, it sounds more like you encountered a headwind gust rather than a thermal and it was the extra airspeed that provided the extra lift rather than any rising air. Seeing your ASI spike like yours did is the usual giveaway for the gust rather than lift scenario. I'm a bit suprised that none of the glider pilots have pointed this out yet since they aim for total energy management. Then there are other tricky things to try to work out, like whether the turbulence you're experiencing is due to thermals, terrain or wind sheer. Cheers, Glen

Hmmmm that is interesting as I've experienced something like that with my (nearly) 2 year old P series Micro M760, but so far its always come good again after a short time or a reboot on the couple of occasions it occurred. As I'll be away flying ALL next week I think I'll take a spare with me. (JR's old Microair M760)

Somewhere in the past I'd gotten the impression that you could not register more than one wing with your trike under RAAus and that only HGFA would accommodate this. Does anyone have more than one wing registered with their trike under RAAus? Also, RAAus seemed rather adverse to swapping wings between your trikes even if all the trike/wing combinations are manufacturer approved.