cscotthendry

Sorry to hear about your eye troubles Ian. They sound serious. I have had a few issues with my eyes, but they have all been treated successfully. It was only when I started having these issues (torn retina and wet Macular Degeneration) that I really started to value my sight. Fortunately for me, laser treatment welded my retinas back and I'm currently having injections in the eyeball for the MD. When we were kids, we had an oath to swear that what we were saying was true; "Cross my heart and hope to die. Stick a needle in my eye." Having a needle stuck in my eye was about the worst thing I could ever imagine. It turns out that I'll tolerate some unimaginable stuff to keep my sight. And it turns out having an injection in your eyeball is not quite as bad as it sounds. The laser treatment though, is another matter entirely. One of the worst experiences in my life. Again, sorry to hear about your troubles.

There is another possibility here and of course this is just speculation. It is whale season and maybe they were looking for or at whales and just got that little bit too close to the water. I say this, because it happened to me the other day up off the beach south of Double Island point. I let my attention wander for just a second while my wife was filming a whale and when I looked back to the front the plane was in a nose down attitude headed for the water. I won't say what height we were at, but it was a wake up call.

Have a look through the Rotax SBs. I seem to recall a SB that came out shortly after the new style heads were introduced that had something to do with where the temp sensor went in. I think some heads were over drilled or something like that.

Mike: That's really exciting news! I would be interested to know what you have to change to get the uprated MTOW.

An example of how little things can bring a plane down. It also raises the question of whether someone who isn't going to be flying in the plane will do maintenance as carefully as the person who will be in the plane. I know that I feel safer doing my own maintenance after seeing how some mechanics go about their work.

That's the third plane I know of to go in the water in that area. Is this a Bermuda triangle for aviation? Also, all of the planes that went in there have been aerobatic types.

Richard: RA-AUS have a certification called "L1". With that you can maintain your own aircraft. The restriction is that an L1 maintained aircraft cannot be used for commercial purposes, ie rented to a flying school. If your intent is solely to fly the plane for your own enjoyment and take some friends up flying, you're good to go with an L1. As I understand it, an L1 authority allows you to maintain your aircraft, but not modify it, unless you are the original builder. On the question of speed. As you rightly spotted, some aircraft are more draggy than others, depending on the wing profile and the general design and construction. As a general rule, with a 100HP Rotax you can usually expect 78 knots or more (usually more). That translates to about 150Kph at the minimum. Remember that that is in a straight line with no stopping for traffic lights or slowing down through one-horse towns. You can cover a lot of ground at that speed on a cross country flight. If you build something that goes faster than the 78Kts, you'll find that it ultimately doesn't make a huge difference in travel time for the average 1-1/2 to 2 hour flight leg. Plan for that and you'll have comfortable flying. Our current plane flies at 110Kts and we regularly fly with a couple of Savannahs that cruise around the 78 Kts. If we all start together, the Savs arrive around 15-20 minutes after us. Usually, we're still refuelling when they arrive. On the question of fuel burn. The fuel consumption is related to the engine horsepower. A 100HP Rotax will burn around 20Lph at cruise throttle regardless of what it's towing around the sky. What changes with drag is the resulting airspeed and consequently the time it takes to get from A to B, but as I mentioned before, not as much difference as you might think. Finally, in case I didn't make the point earlier clear enough, if you decide to build, I strongly reccomend a quick build kit so that you can get up and flying soonest with the least amount of extra expense renting. Leave thinking about a "flash" airplane for when you've got more flying experience and know more about what you want from your flying. Take the easiest, quickest route into flying. Don't buy a kit that might take you 7 years to complete; you most likely won't finish it. As another shameless plug for the Nynja, mine took me 11 months to build and I took it very slowly. The dealer, Greg Robertson, built his Nynja in 10 weeks, but then he had built a Skyranger Swift before that so he was very familiar with the kit. As always, blue skies and tailwinds.

Hi Bruce: we did Lake Eyre a couple of years ago and it had water in it then. We stayed at the William Creek pub. It's a short hop from the pub to the southern end of the lake and the pub has avgas AND the young cuties come out and pump it for you! William Creek has a sealed all weather runway so if there has been rain in the area you can still land and take off there.

iBob: If you're looking for 1.5mm tinted Lexan in this country, forget about it. I went down that path when I was building the Nynja and had to replace some Lexan that I messed up. Every where I went the answer was the same "Not available in Oz". It is available in Europe as my Nynja kit came with 1.5mm tinted Lexan sheets.

Datson: I agree with the others that you should learn to fly first before you start to think about building or buying. From my experience, building an airplane (and doing it properly) will cost nearly as much as buying the equivalent, second hand. However, building will give you a very thorough understanding of your airplane and demystify a lot of things about airplanes and what is critical to flight safety and what is not. FWIW, here's my two cents worth, and this comes from someone who started to learn to fly in his late fifties. 1) First and foremost, learning to fly is a mechanical skill like any other. There is no "right stuff" without which you won't be able to fly. The act of flying is about concentration to the flight parameters and building the muscle memory to control the aircraft much like you do when driving a car. That said, recognize that if you are starting later in life, you have forgotten how long it took you to become properly proficient with your driving abilities. Because of that, a lot of people (myself included) hit a point in their flying training where they think "It's not working. I can't make the airplane do what I want it to. It's no use, I'll never learn to fly." This is a critical point where a lot of people give up. Unless you have real physical or intellectual limitations, you CAN learn to fly. But you have to be committed to it and keep going. Trust me on this, if you keep going, you'll also reach a point where you think "Ahhhh! I got it!" and you will suddenly realize that you CAN fly. 2) Expect the first few years of flying to not be what you expected. What you think it will be is almost invariably the feeling of unrestrained freedom roaming the skies in three dimensions, soaring effortlessly among the clouds without a care in the world. It gets to be sort of like that but it takes quite a while to get to where you are comfortable managing all the systems, radio, traffic and situational awareness of flying. In the beginning it is a large and stressful workload and it will be easy to say "This is not how I thought flying would be." and give it up. DON'T! Keep going and going. It gets easier with time and experience, as everything does. Recognize that and don't give up once you've started. 3) Building vs. flying: I know a lot of people who really enjoy building airplanes; flying not so much. I know a lot of people who enjoy flying and not so much the building. I was one somewhere in the middle. The point is, if you choose to build an airplane, go and talk to other people who are building that kind of plane. Take note especially how long they have been building it. I personally know of a number of people who took on airplane projects and spent years building the plane. In the mean time, to keep current, they have to rent airplanes. That all adds to the expense of flying and can be a big deterrent, especially as when you want to rent a plane and go flying, so does every other Tom, Dick and Harry. So you get to your favorite flying school to find all the airplanes are already booked. That's another roadblock. Think about the easiest way to do what you want. In my case, I settled on a kit plane that I knew would be very quick to build and there was an experienced distributor here in Oz for support. I wanted to build a plane, but I also wanted to get up flying quickly and be independent of the rental scene as soon as I could. In the end, my choice of kit worked out very well and I had many happy hours flying it and building my flying skills. I also had a great time building the plane and I learned a lot about the Rotax engines along the way. I have since moved to a factory built airplane, but the things that building taught me have been very useful for maintaining my aircraft and the safety of myself and my wife. Welcome to the forums. Welcome to the flying addiction. I wish you fair skies and tail winds in whatever you choose to do. But never give up! Here's some videos that I hope will inspire you Building my Nynja My Nynja's first flight

OK, for the hard core contingent, here's the full length Victor 1 flight. We had superb weather thanks to Cap'n Puk's superior planning skills and the light was perfect for photography.

No, you should never rely on the hose clamp to seal the connection between any hose and what it's attached to. This is not only sound practice, it is likely specified in AC 43(... whatever it is) that specifies aviation maintenance practice. The hose must seal by itself. The clamp is only to mechanically retain the hose on the connection, not to make the seal.

I would consider takeoff, landing, climbing to altitude and mustering flying all situations where I too would use the boost pump continuously. However, in normal flying where I am at cruising altitude, I turn the boost pump off. I have a fuel pressure gauge and I monitor it regularly during flight. If there is sufficient fuel pressure, the boost pump is superfluous and just adds a little extra electrical load on the engine. Also, the more you run anything, the sooner it will wear out. That is a simple law of physics. So, I run the boost pump when an engine pump failure would cause danger and leave it off otherwise. But, if the POH states when the boost pump should be used, you should use it at those times regardless of any advice from me or anyone else.

Victor 1 on a beautiful Autumn morning.