IanR

One of the things I enjoy with flying is getting into the older aircraft. The possibilities for this are, I think, quite limited. At Camden we are lucky - there are two places that private hire Tiger Moths and one that does a Chipmunk. Other than that there are a number of people doing "joy rides" in Yaks, Stearman, etc. What other old aircraft are there around available for hire ?

Airsick - I had a look at the notams for Canberra - they mention that you must call to get in or out but there is no mention of the 30 minutes - is that the response time that they have to a call or is it documented elsewhere ?

Ian, maybe a general discussion for the moment and see what happens ?

Living under where the Pitts do their aeros I am often glad they have a canopy !! They certainly throw them round on occasion.

Better get used to it !! They are filming on and off through September I think.

I had been thinking the same thing - flying close formation is MUCH easier than spaced out - particularly if you are not just flying straight ahead. It is very difficult to judge distance and closure rates if you are further out. In formation training one of the basics they teach you is the method of joining formation - because of just those reasons. My advice is that if you are going to fly close make sure you have some vertical separation so that if you misjudge things you don't come unstuck ! If you want to fly this close regularly then get a formation endorsement - its great fun.

It was Thursday this week - was a beautiful day.

As mentioned, the Notam for Camden certainly said that the runway would be opened for operational requirements - with 10 mins notice. I overheard the Top Gear people talking yesterday about the incident - apparently "The Stig" was driving at the time and was left somewhat shaken !! I didn't realise that it was the Liberty and that he had problems - saw them on the tarmac looking rather intently at the aircraft !

I agree with Mazda (being Camden based as well). Flying is all about Risk Management. We all know there are risks, its what we do about them that counts. Before we go flying we need to understand the potential risks, try to mitigate them with backup plans and if there are some left over, like flying across to the west, work out whether the risk level is acceptable. If it is - then go - and if not, stay firmly on the ground. Many of the risks are mitigated by our training (engine failure, stalls, emergency procedures, etc) - so keeping current and on top of these risks is one item I would add to your list.

The best thing about the Willy coastal lane is (apart from the scenery) if its active you will probably get a very close up view of some F18s. last time we went up there we had two pass us out to sea and do a bit of "showing off". Re transiting north to the Bankstown light aircraft lane be aware that if you track via Prospect that is an inbound VFR reporting point for bankstown and is often very busy. We had a casa guy talk to us a while ago about safety in that area - he suggested the safest option was to fly 2RN and the overhead BK - that would be OK in a GA aircraft. I think that would be considered controlled airspace though as it is 1500ft overfly which is the boundary between Sydney airspace and BK ! The BK controllers are always OK with the procedure. Re Camden, as long as you are over 2500 ft you are not in their zone and the sydney step is 4500 there

I agree - the light aircraft lane is best (or Victor 1 if you want). You can fly over the top of Camden and then bankstown on the way as well

From the research I have done in NSW it is a requirement to have a boat licence and the aircraft has to be registered as a boat - anyone got any other info ? I have always wanted to do a floating hull endorsement - one day !

If you have lots of money waiting to be spent there are some very interesting aircraft on this site http://www.dtroneaircraftcollection.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 My favourite is the Thunderbird W-14 I think

That may be the case - but don't make assumptions - read the manual for each aircraft !

I have not seen any reference to it lately but at least one school at Camden used to offer a "spouse" course teaching them the basics so they could take control in case of pilot incapacitation. Sounds like a great idea to me !

Is that the data for an original Camel ? I didn't see a kit one on thatw ebsite although I may have missed it. The stats for the full scale Pup are (sourced from a message list the builder posted to) : Aircraft Info Full Scale Sopwith Pup with the Rotec R 2800 Seven-cylinder radial engine (110 Hp) Wingspan 26'-3" Length 19' Height 9'-3" Empty Wt 645 Lbs Useful Load 300 lbs Stall speed 35 Mph estimated Cruise 75 Mph Top 90 Mph Wing Area 267 Sq. ft Wing loading 3.54 lbs per sq ft Power to weight ratio 8.27 lbs per Hp.

I doubt if the full scale ones would be suitable for RAA - maybe some of the smaller scale ones ?

In recreational flying the pilot is all the lighting protection you should need !

Came across this site the other day - I think some are probably RAA registrable http://www.airdromeairplanes.com/ Looks as though they would be great fun. I particularly like the full scale N28

Ewen, as Mazda says there is a huge difference in the 210 - from memory the turbulence penetration speed was round 99 kts IAS and on descent you could be indicating well over 160kts !! (its a while since I have flown one so figures may not be totally correct). I just remember it was a pain in very turbulent conditions. We always thought it was because it didn't have struts and most Cessnas did - but not sure of the real reason - I believe there were a few in-flight breakups with them from people ignoring the speeds. From the looks of things you are getting very sound advice here on the gusty/windy conditions - its actually fun when you get used to it. With me it all clicked on one landing where the instructor actually slapped me on the wrist and told me to let go - the plane did a better job by itself than with me helping it !

I wrote to the minister a while ago and got a response which seems to confirm the point that an airport can be security controlled at certain times and not others. While I don't have the letter any more I did post on the other forum Parallels H-Sphere

To be honest I was a feeling it before the aeros !! Opening the canopy was the solution but not sure when you can have it open or not - we closed it again for aeros and for circuits. I have not done any aeros for years - was good to do some again although we only did 10 minutes or so as I was still not 100%. Maybe I got used to it as when we returned to do circuits I didn't notice it at all. I certainly had a big grin on anyway - 360 supercharged horses certainly get you off the ground fast.:big_grin:

I had the opportunity to do some flying in a Yak 52 last Sunday and really enjoyed it - takeoff performance is exciting and it handles beautifully. One thing that got to me a bit was the fumes in the cockpit. Has anyone else flown one of these and is it typical of them ? Made me a bit queasy until I cracked open the canopy a bit to get some fresh air.

I did a night flight last night and cancelled my SAR on the ground at Camden with Sydney Radar (124.55) - no issues. The flightwatch frequency for the area is listed on the maps as 121.1 - have used that on occasion as well. I was going to transfer to the Flightwatch frequency to do it but heard another aircraft cancelling on Sydney radar with no issues so did the same. BTW - Was an interesting flight - 55-60 knot ground speed on the way to Goulburn and 175 knots on the way back !! Dead smooth at 6500/7500 ft !

There is one on the updated Aviation Trader website for sale - says it is RAA registered as single seat only as per your post