petetheprinta

I have recently sold off my boys toys....why? It suddenly struck me i wasn't using them anymore. At 64 years young I rode my Harley's maybe once a month if the weather was fine. Having $100,000 of motorcycles sitting in a shed was ludicrous even I could see that. My cruiser costing me $400 a week just to maintain and sit in the marina? Another waste of money. Large 4WD used to go bush maybe 2-3 times a year, I use another car for every day usage and then there was my wife's car. Therefore Giant 4WD...gone too, use maybe 6 weeks a year. I can justify the selling off because I can hire whatever I want whenever I want at a fraction of the cost of owning them. Not that the expense is a problem, it's just a total waste, I have long passed the time in my life where I need to brag my Harley is better than yours or my boat is bigger than yours or "what...you don't own an aeroplane?"

I had great intentions to buy my own plane, in light of the above and now knowing people who do own their own planes I decided against it. I know several pilots at the ASC who have owned their aircraft for several years and have a whole 100 hours up. IMHO, waste of a perfectly good aircraft. Don't get me wrong, the choice is theirs and they are happy with that choice and more power to them.

So I decided to hire and fly, at the ASC I CAN get an aircraft whenever I want to (weather permitting) there are half a dozen aircraft available to hire pretty well 7 days a week. Saturday and wednesday are a struggle due to training days. As a retired gentleman of leisure I can go just about any time I wish. THE BIGGEST ADVANTAGE, no ongoing costs I pay my $120 per flying hour and never have to worry about fuel, oil, maintenance, insurance, repairs, hanger fees etc etc. 50 hrs a year (more hours than a lot of owners I know) costs me a grand total of $6000. Less than the cost of insurance and hanger fees. I couldn't own/run a plane for anywhere near that cost for 12 months. 10 years hiring is less than the cost to purchase never mind run a plane. IMHO, the only way to fly.

Having said all that, if I had a property somewhere with enough room for an airstrip, I wouldn't hesitate to get an aircraft (maybe 2, one as a spare)

TUESDAY 7/8/2012

"In flying I have learned that carelessness and overconfidence are usually far more dangerous than deliberately accepted risks. -"

Wilbur Wright in a letter to his father, September 1900

MONDAY 6/8/2012

"The scientific theory I like best is that the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage."

Mark Russel

Bummer!!!

SUNDAY 5/8/2012

"Every one already knows the definition of a 'good' landing is one from which you can walk away. But very few know the definition of a 'great landing.' It's one after which you can use the airplane another time."

RFC instructor France 1916

SATURDAY 4/8/2012

"And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the very first Fokker airplane built in the world. The Dutch call it the mother Fokker."

Curator Amsterdam aviation museum

FRIDAY 3/8/2012

"Birthdays are good for you, statistics show that people who have the most live the longest"

Larry Lorenzoni

I have seen several references in various forums to the Adelaide Soaring Club at Gawler. I am wondering who are members besides myself and the few I already know. It would be nice to put a face to the "nom de plume"

I have glued velcro to the back of mine and sewn the other half of the velcro onto a couple of pairs of daks I use for flying (both knees). works well for me,

Thank you for the well presented and thought out answer. So much nicer than the usual diatribe against Jabiru.

mmm mm mm mm mm mm mm mmm, .........

No it's more like mmmm m m m m mm mmmmm

Nobody here likes the problems with Jabiru engines (or the perceived problems that some people like to say ).All I wish for, is for people who spend alot of their hard earned cash on a australian product.To be happy.I am for one thing, sick of hearing the same old excuses from Jabiru saying "there is nothing wrong with our engines, it is the lack of maintenance or maintenance being performed incorrectly. WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP. How the F&^%K can they blame a pilot for a engine shiTTing itself in under 25 hours.How can they blame Mozt's mechanic for F&%^king up. Not likely.

This Sh*& happen to me when the first "reliable" 2.2 litre came out after the 1.6 litre boat anchor.Back in 1997 0r 1998.

 

Until a certain person and his daughter pulls their heads in and stop blaming everybody else for his bad design.Nothing will change.Arrogance gets people killed.Hasnt happened yet but it will sooner or later.

 

BTW- out sourcing the engine manufacturing to some other F%$Ked company doesnt fix things.

 

There are alot of guys here on this site who know how to fix and/or make these engines more reliable.Jabiru just have to listen to them.(they wont but, because they think it is the operators fault.)

 

Peeps who try and compare the reliability of the 912 against the Jabiru by using numbers.Will not work. You will find that Rotax has over 40 000 engines out there with a lot higher MTBF.

 

Just sayin

 

Like I said.I wish that the Jabby engines where just as reliable as the Rotax 912 and more so.That is not the case.I wish it was.

Love it... gotta find the music now to add to my collection

And nothing more stirring than there two

Thanks to corvairkr for showing me how to get this up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIxm0Th55Iw

I can't access corvairkr's or Howard Hughs YouTube videos (start button with a line through it) but don' t have a problem with anyone's else's. Is it just me??

Thanks for the comments and I will probably go OZ runways but I just thought I would invite comments before I spent the $1000.00 I liked what I saw but other experiences are worth hearing.FrankM

Further back than I thought, it was 2006

5th Dimension "up up and away" AKA the TAA song.

OK I give up, how do I post a you tube clip? Anyone please.

How sad, I met him at the Jamestown air show in 2008 I think it was. A lovely gentleman. I have some photos of him and his aircraft I will post when I get home. If not appropriate, let me know.

My wife is more terrified of flying than I am!!!

I did a bit of a review on this aircraft, see :-

http://www.recreationalflying.com/threads/first-impressions-of-the-fk9.37874/#post-212932

Thanks to skeptic36 AKA Bill for showing me how to create a link to the correct post.

Contact ALdinga, I believe there is space becoming available there. Good luck!'

That seems a lot of runway for a 230, do you use that distance because you touch down well past the threshold, or does it just take a long time for you to pull up. The 230 I fly lands comfortably in 1200 to 1500 feet approach speeds and flaps as per yours. Are you rounding out too high and using up runway by "floating"?

I have a 100 hours flying experience? since I got my ticket. I often feel it's the same hour done 100 times. IMHO, at my flying club at least, there has to be more work done on improving/furthering the skills/experience of people like me other than letting them fend for themselves. "Why don't you do it yourself?" I hear you ask I would love to know how I could accomplish that without killing myself. I read a lot about all matters flying, but putting it into practise without someone with experience sitting in the right hand seat is nigh on impossible.