Thalass

It'd be interesting to see flying. This is one of the things where an RC-style fly by wire system would be advantageous - whether you trust it in an ultralight is another thing of course. An Ardupilot board could handle the coordination of the control surfaces, you just have to give it some stick/rudder input and it'll tell the (probably large and heavy) servos what to do. Just carry an extra battery to act as backup in case of engine (and therefore generator) failure. :P

hahaha well as i said my daughter likes to 'help', but i'll redraw some and throw them up. The smaller ones are more airship-caravan (like on Top Gear), up to an air-yacht with a composite type envelope hull.

Old Kereelah: I love that trailor of yours. Very neat! The D9 looks like a pretty good aircraft, too. I keep sketching aircraft when the mojo strikes me and i have time. But at the moment it's not possible to actually develop any of them. I keep switching from a 1920s style amphibian, early DeHaviland aircraft (i'm a fan of the Chipmunk), and crazy futuristic airships... hah. It doesn't help that my daughter keeps trying to help me colour them in! But no rush.

As far as an electronic AoA/LRI goes, it shouldn't be too tricky. A potentiometer with a normal wedge-shaped vane would work, with some kind of microcontroller to trigger the output stall warn/ident lights and sounds. Such a thing could even have an input from the flap selector to alter the levels, as well as an input from airspeed if you're going that fast. But to get the reliability and precision you need for aircraft (even a single seater homebuilt) you're looking at a fairly complex system with layers of redundancy. Even a homebrew one would start to be expensive! And being such a vital system you'd have a hard time finding someone to put their name on it!

news.com.au report that it was a 'home made' helicopter that crashed - making it sound like it was some dodgy back shed job, but that's what the media do. I hope Neville and his passenger recover quickly!

Very interesting. I don't have any code-fu belts myself, though i have tinkered with learning Python in-between AME exams and such, and i've been involved in the open source community for a while. Mostly as a user or tester. I was asked last year if i could figure a way to build a CDI type thing to make it easier to interpret a hand held moving map gps. I'm certain i could do it with a picaxe chip and a bunch of LEDs. Though i've not tried yet. Surely a similar HSI/CDI type thing could be integrated into this project. Probably better, too. I'm told that sometimes a simple pointer is better than a complex moving map. But that would depend on the pilot.

I'm an AME for a company that does FIFO flights an also has the contract to operate and maintain the Qantaslink 717s. It's just a hard slog attempting to fill out my SOE at the moment. But i'll get there one day! haha

Hear hear! As a man on the ground i was rendered speechless when a pilot once said to me "No offence, but as a minor part of operations..." I couldn't believe it!

I like the mini-imp! It looks like it would be ripe for electric conversion, with the engine bay full of batteries and the motor a bit behind it... Damn i wish i had money. :P Looking forward to seeing this beastie fly one day.

Awesome!

Man that's a major airport design failure!Or tow-route planning failure haha

Oh damn. My thoughts for the family. :(

Hey guys. I saw this online last night, and while it looks pretty awesome i think it'll never fly in Australia. CASA will take one look and freak out - just like with the Martin Jetpack. haha! http://www.hover-bike.com/ is the website. It definitely looks awesome!

It is possible to gain an airship endorsement (CAO 40.8.3) but of course it is an extension of the PPL. It'd be nice if there was an RA version - with a mass (not weight haha) limit, blimp not rigid, etc. I'd love an airship caravan - i'm sure i could do better than Top Gear! Something you tow to the airfield like a caravan, inflate the envelope and off you go! Though it'd be nice if you could have two engines (or at least two props) - the main problem with the top gear airship was that the prop was right behind the square stern, i think.

Yeah i wasn't allowed to show my dad around kingsford-smith airport despite my dad having millitary id. Stupid, really.

Great work! I can't wait to see it built.

Seems ok, to me. Airliners use AoA and Airspeed to vary the point at which the stick shakers start up. I don't think the ones i work on have an actual indication - Airline pilots fly to set figures in a book rather than their pants so they don't really need to know their AoA. As long as they fly the numbers they'll be fine. Of course i've only worked on a few aircraft types, so i'm sure there are others out there that do. I kind of like this thing. I would probably prefer a proper electronic indicator with AoA and Airspeed inputs, but i'm avionics and airline so i'm weird like that. It seems it measures the differential pressure between the two holes on the probe. During cruise the forward one will see nearly 100% pitot and the downward one would almost be a static port. As you get slower the pitot pressure on the forward one decreases, and as your AoA increases the pressure on the downward one would get higher. So i guess it's a reconfigured airspeed indicator. Kinda neat. It probably shouldn't replace a pilot knowing his/her aircraft. They do tell you when they don't want to fly anymore. But everything helps!

*bump* Looks like they've updated their website, and there are more details on the Bushman too. It looks pretty good - though a bit more bubble-shaped than i thought from that initial picture hahaha. Still very neato. I'd like to see one flying.

I just love how delicately he treats it. Halfway through an auto shutdown he kicks it in the **** and fires it up again. Doesn't wait for it to stop or anything hahaha.

hahaha "Bus drivers". Bus drivers actually drive their buses. ;) *runs away*

Dan: Thanks! I was hoping it'd be fairly easy - Australia and Canada are both Commonwealth countries, and my wife's immigration was easier than a friend's immigration from the USA, so it ought to be similar with other things. Also, since i'm an aircraft maintenance engineer, i hope my licenses (when i get one) will transfer over without much fuss. I need a decently paying job! haha. And you're right. Canadians are very similar to Australians, except the french-speaking and the snow. That'll take some getting used to haha. ticketyboo: My wife is from Sudbury, Ontario, so hopefully somewhere around there. I would like to get a job with Porter or Air Canada Jazz at Sudbury airport, but that's not likely. Anything will do as long as i don't have to work on Metros. *shudder*. But that's a few years away anyway. I need a Dash8 or Q400 type license first, to be worth employing. And so i don't have to work for minimum wage (How can anyone live on $7.80 or whatever it is nowdays?)

I'm fairly sure you go right down to the ground on approach...

An interesting concept, but i don't see it as the ultimate in propulsion. That, to me, is electric! haha. But i would be interested to see it work, and perhaps how it goes coupled to a generator. I don't know how they can say it has low vibration. It's a single cylinder! Fair enough there'd be no vibration left-to-right, or up-and-down, but there certainly should be vibration forwards and backwards.

Strengthened cockpit doors. hahaha! If this wasn't a public forum, i could comment. But anyway... :P

Surely with a decent gps (even an intergrated EFIS type gps thingo) you should be able to manually enter your own objects. Waypoints, obviously, but also things like airstrips. Even if it's not through the device's interface, but a config file you access through your computer or somesuch. At least if i designed the system that's how it'd work :P