eastmeg2

Likely being less than 70kg empty it probably falls under the Nanolight category, hence requires no rego. Probably adviseable to have a HPL through.

Troy,

Tapered tips reduce tip vortices, contributing to greater efficiency.

PS Have just been advised the following:- The new Aeroshell Oil Sports Plus 4 is available in Australia in cartons of 12 x 1lt. If you have an account with Shell it can be ordered through our customer service centre on 131618 under the product code 300010460.

Surely they jest. - was it 1st April they told you this?

After so much anticipation this is a big disappointment.

Rgds,

Glen

Or, get of of the laser watches from MI-6. As an added bonus you can zap back at anyone on the ground pointing a laser at you:laugh:. Just try not to burn a hole in your canopy while you're at it.:ah_oh:

I still remember the answer given when I asked the same question many years ago when dabbling with Gliders at Bathurst Soaring Club. (Refering to the tug at the time).

I was told that positioning the prop horizontally eliminates the chance of the prop being swung over/driven by the wind. Sounded strange at the time, but if you think about it the ground provides a barrier to vertical air movement. If the prop is placed vertically the wind could achieve optimal angle of incidence to the prop when it blows from a certain direction - although if it blew hard enough to turn the prop over you'd think that would be the last of your worries.

Cheers.

Glen

"Does anybody know exactly what would be required to get it registered in Aus?"

Here in Oz, with a trike you can go with either HGFA or RAAus, your choice would probably be based on whether you wanted to also play with Paragliders & Hang Gliders (HGFA), or have a view to converting to 3-axis U/L's in future (RAAus)

Brent, I suggest you drop an email to each. Conatct details can be found on their websites.

http://www.hgfa.asn.au/

http://www.auf.asn.au/

Rgds,

Glen

"Personally I think that CTA and Formation Flying etc should be kept out of RAA."

I disagree with this point of view. My belief is that if a subset of the Recreational flying community has a desire to carry these types of operations then there should be an avenue for training to be able to do it safely and legally. I'm not saying this should be the case for every type of Operations, I also have difficulty trying to comprehend how most U/L's could safely operate in IFR conditions. However, within reason an RAAus pilot should be able to safely transit CTA given the training and subsequent endorsement for it (+approved motor etc). Formation flying endorsement also should not be so quickly dismissed if with proper training it can help promote Recreational Flying.

Rgds,

Glen

Ahhh , much better, they're much truer now.

Also note that area is Richmond Military airspace. Will need Richmond tower permission, or confirm R451 status with Sydney tower.

If I recall correctly Restricted Zone R451 applies SFC/2500. It'll be on the Sydney VTC & VNC.

I've gotten the distinct impression that the comments have been based on GMT time zone.

Perhaps the question should be rephrased as "why would anyone in their right mind . . ."

Either way it's a good question.

The FRESH!!! air . . . puts hair on your chest . . . the air is smoother the colder it gets (or is it just my arms going numb) . . . the industrial freezer suit rated for -30c I'm wearing is worth it weight in gold . . . as are the polar fleece bar mitts (Thanks Punkinhead) and touring screen (Lore of Flight).

We have seen -9c inside our hangar on a couple of occasions when we used to bunk in there, it's a funny sight looking at each other shivering fully clothed inside a sleeping bag, or getting back from flying and not taking the freezer suit off.

Cheers,

Glen

This new Shell oil was mentioned in the Rotax lecture at Natfly.

There have been other threads here which mention the need to exceed 100c Oil Temp in your 912/914 on a regular basis to boil out any moisture.

With a 912 trike this works fine for most of the year, but around Goulburn in winter have difficulty reaching 100c, even at MTOW on a long climb. Usually in the low 90's on cruise at those times.

Thankfully the humidity is typically fairly low in this area, hopefully it'll keep condensation to a minimum, along with keep it hangared.

Rgds,

Glen

I did manage to fly in, and wore my NT Floppy hat, as promised.

Find a spare kitchen sink and go find the nearest merry-go-round, or find some other way to make the kitchen sink go around in circles.

Oh, and don't forget to bring a bucket for your daughter . . .

Flying a Trike will do it . . .

OMG, The cheap bastards that made my car have substituted an upside down one for the real 710 !!!

Many years back while visiting some mates in Toowoomba, we substitued a cane toad for a potato in a spud gun. It was "Toads in space", but unfortunately for this one the back brick wall of the garage got in the way somehow.:black_eye: SPLAT!!!

I don't think a rabbit would fit in the Spudguns barrell.

Hi Red,

Just my own impression here . . . the 100hp 912s seems to be having more reliability issues than the 80hp 912, ie, requiring heat paste on the spark plugs and the recent gearbox gears replacement AD which did not affect 80hp versions.

The Carbon Sting which went down near Goulburn had a 100hp 912s, which if I recall the report correctly broke a conrod and sheared the crank.

Just my 2c worth.

Rgds,

Glen

Hi Len,

Well now I've finally seen what your new XT looks like. I'm sure it's a slightly darker shade of blue than your previous one, and mine. I trust it will serve you well.

I think you should give Carl a trophy for making it to Tumut in those conditions (which I narrowly dodged the very worst of myself by flying north).

Cheers,

Glen

Just send her up for a flight in a trike in winter and she'll never complain about the Gazelle being cold, ever again.

I wear an industrial freezer suit rated for -30 centigrade. Combined with the touring screen and polar fleece bar-mitts I'm still not cold when flying in -1 centigrade air at 55 knots.

Cheers,

Glen

FANTASTIC !!!

That's a great result. I'll spread the good word amongst the other property-with-airstrip owner/pilots I know in the area.

Cheers,:big_grin:

Glen

Ross,

I'm sure we'll see each other at Goulburn some time, though I don't fly in there very often. I'll probably be wearing my Northern Territory floppy hat. Probably at one of the monthly BBQ's. Which weekend of the month are they on again, Sat/Sun?

And I did stop by to admire your Cheetah at Natfly. Drink Ian's tea and eat his biscuits.

Cheers,

Glen

Well done Chris,

I hope that it all goes well for you and the strip fits.

Was in half a mind to drop in at your place on the way to Narromine last Thursday, but the conditions were a bit challenging and your place a bit east of track and further into the hills, so decided to stick with the task at hand - getting to Narromine.

Are you still keeping your trike for when you're in the mood for "Low-N-Slow", or passing it along to help fund your new Jab?

I've not sat in a J160 yet, but did sit in the J120 and J170 at Narromine and found the J120 a bit squeezy getting in & out and only about 1 inch between my dome and the roof. The J170 was more agreeable to my size (181cm 100kg) and had an extra inch or 2 above my head.

Would be interested to hear of any Jab-Warming party you might have planned for a fly-in.

Cheers,

Glen

This was my 2nd year at Natfly and the first time I flew there in my trike.

Flying from our private strip south of Goulburn, getting out early while I could before the wind came down to the ground (20kts headwind from NW @ 500ft AGL when I took off) I met up with Ian Willis and his son Matt in their trike (From Nowra) at Crookwell. We managed to get up high out of the stronger headwinds and increase our groundspeed from 30kts to 40kts (for 60kts IAS) and landed at Cudal to eat our sandwiches and drink hot tea from my thermas. A quick assesment of our fuel showed that I might make it the remaining 70Nm to Narromine, but Ian would not. So we diverted to Parkes. Parkes advisory radio on the CTAF was very accommodating and gave us a straight in approach low level on RWY22. Now one of the great things about 4 stroke trikes compared to the 2 strokes we used to fly was the ability to taxy up to the Avgas bowser and "fillerup". I'm not complaining about the 171.9c/l price with that kind of convenience.

To that point we'd flown in what was probably the worst conditions I've flown x-country in in a trike for headwinds and bumps.

Parkes-Narromine was easy.

Flying time 5.5hrs for 200Nm.

I won't write about the time spent at Narromine since others have already covered that off.

I originally intended to make the return flight either Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning. The weather dictated that it was Sunday morning. After packing up my soaking wet tent and watching the weather gradually clear from the North I got in the trike and taxied out, to queue up for departure. Even on a Megafauna fly away I have not seen so many aircraft queued up on the taxyway. I was impressed.

From takeoff I quickly climbed to 1000ft AGL, still over the runway and turned south. This time the GPS ground speed was 70kts and stayed at 70kts all the way past Parkes, Forbes, Grenfell and Young. It was not until I got to about Binalong that my ground speed started to drop below 65kts and the smooth air stopped.

Tracked north of Yass, north of Gundaroo (staying outside Canberra 3500ft CTA step), across lake George and before I knew it was doing my low level downwind over our strip to scare away to Roo's, then turned back to land upwind.

Flight time was 3.5hrs for 200Nm - 2 hrs less than before.

Have seen the DFS trikes website.

The problem with Single seat trikes in USA is that they fly under FAA Part 103 which does not require and licensing or registration of UL's & trikes that are less than 112kg empty weight. Kind of like Nanolight trikes under 70kg empty weight here in Oz. So unless the empty weight limit on nanolight trikes here in Oz also comes up to 112kg you're asking for a lot of paperwork for a "maybe".

I've looked into this and with the current rules you would have to try to register one under CAO95.10, which may or may not be allowed depending on what approvals the manufacturer has with their country's aviation governing body. The only glimmer of hope I've seen is that one of the USA FAA Part103 trike manufacturers is working on an FAA approved 51% kit and this should satisfy CAO95.10 requirements.