IanR

Kaz, the RAF blind flying panel was standard on the MK5 - mine has it as well. The MK 4 and MK 5 both came standard with the O-290-3

Ducked down to the airfield at lunchtime to go for a quick fly - a guy I have seen round came over to talk - turns out he flew Austers a bit in the early 60s. Took him along and he had a big grin the whole time. Thats what Austers are all about !

I have tried - and it does climb - but need to get rid of flap reasonably quickly. Full flap is certainly good for short fields

Yes !! We laugh at it each time we use full flap !

On mine the third stage is placarded "Emergency" with first stage takeoff and second landing !

Hi Kaz, ABA has been out of the air since early October - hopefully back this week. The mechanical fuel pump failed - and as the O-290-3 is the only engine to ever use that type of pump it has been a pain. I do most of my other flying in Neil's C180 you have seen which I love - and we use C172R and S models with the Scouts - they are really quite good machines but the weight carrying capability has been eroded significantly since the earlier models.

I used to sit in school looking out the window at the flying boats taking off from Rose Bay - can't remember what was going on in class !! Got a soft spot for the Empire Flying Boats though as my Auster shares its rego with one of the Qantas ones

The 172s I fly we flight plan at 115 knots and they do it easily !! The previous versions we used 110 knots with no problem.

No - it was light blue with white wings. I know there is one hidden away somewhere there but I have not seen it - may be the one you are thinking of !

I have not looked in the past few months. There was a J5B there up till recently though. The owner of the airport was working on getting it running again. It was complete but will need a good clean !! Mine is currently hangared at Camden but will eventually migrate to The Oaks.

Now I am getting withdrawal symptoms - mine has been grounded for two weeks with a broken fuel pump !!

I have had a set of wireles ANC headsets for about 12 months now - absolutely love them - expensive but worth it to no longer have wires everywhere ! From memory called EQ-1

Make sure you drop in to Camden when you can !

Must have some interesting W&B issues with the pilot so far forward ?

Yes another reason for the filter !

I have a metal jerry can that uses air pressure to deliver the fuel - I put an inline motorcycle type filter in the fuel line for this reason.

According to what I was told the theory was that lift was more due to the speed of the air over the wing rather than the speed through the air thus the design. This extrapolated that change in thrust changed the lift due to the design thus no need for ailerons !! I asked whether the thrust was tied in to the controls for this purpose but no, apparently done with the thrust levers !! One thing that I thought is that loss of an engine in this situation would not be a good thing !

While in the US for work last week I visited a museum that had some interesting aircraft. This one is really weird - the company made 5 prototypes in the mid 60s - apparently it could fly without the extensions of the wings - they just put them on to make it look more normal to people. They also used differential thrust rather than ailerons - tricky. This one is one of two still in existence - the other being in the Smithsonian

I would not have anywhere to put a full iPad in my plane - I waited till the mini was released and absolutely love it - its plenty fast enough for anything ozrunways will throw at it. I use it in a tri-fold kneepad.

Sailing for 45 years, motorcycling for 35 and flying for 30 !!

looking back I could have used better wording - the point I was making with the formal one is that the ethanol and water mix - but are separated from the fuel This link has some info on the testing : http://www.eaa.org/autofuel/autogas/test_kit.asp

I was assuming that as the ethanol combines with the water in this test and is a separate layer that the E10 does not soak up water

Interesting discussion. As part of the STC I got for the Auster to use Mogas there was a formal method for checking whether petrol has ethanol. Fill a container with water up to a line then add fuel and shake. The ethanol will mix with the water and increase the volume of that layer - separated out from the fuel - and you can directly tell the %ethanol from that as well. So, as far as this test is concerned the ethanol does not pick up the water from the tank.

Heard this one on the radio today : Two blondes walked into a building You would have thought at least one of them should have seen it

Well done - you picked fantastic weather for it !! I just got a glimpse of our place as you were turning base