kgwilson

The flying schools at Coffs & South Grafton ran their Gen2 & 3 engines solely on Avgas & still made the 2000 hour TBO so with correct and timely maintenance they were OK. Whether heads came off for decokes or whatever during that time I could not comment on.

No they aren't. They are all owned by Stellantis based in Amsterdam. This is a conglomerate of the merged Fiat Chrysler and PSA groups. They also own Vauxhall and Opel shed from GM when they went bankrupt & got bailed out by the US government & Peugeot.

Avgas will not be available in the future, well after 2030 or thereabouts. The point is that battery technology is increasing dramatically with this latest innovation doubling energy density. The future in aviation may not all be electric but there is a lot of investment already being poured in to short haul electric passenger aircraft, piloted and unpiloted. Unless we get fossil free low emission fuel, i.e. no CO2 emissions piston engines have a pretty limited future. There is a lot of development going in to very low emission with zero CO2 turbine fuels though.

Chinese startup battery manufacturer Tailan New Energy has recently unveiled a semi solid state battery providing 720 Wh/kg. That means a 100kg battery would store 72 kWh of electricity. The very best Lithium Ion batteries produce 1/2 of the energy density of this new battery and are able to propel the new Nio EV more than 1000 km on a single charge. The new battery of the same weight will double that to 2000km. EVs don't need 2000km of range, they need lighter batteries and this breakthrough will halve the weight or more of the battery for any given EV with its current range. The Nio ET7 EV with a 150kWH Li ion battery with half the energy density has a 1000km range. This will make single engine electric aircraft a viable cross country option. Given that the electric power train can produce 5 kW per KG (& this goes back to 2015) means a 90 kW (120 HP) electric motor would weigh only 18 kg. Add 100kg (72kWH) of battery and you will have very good range.

Rotaxes that have 2,3, or 4000 hours on them aren't owned and flown by a private individual. They are operated by flying schools hence the high hours. Most weekend pilots fly 50 hours or less a year. That's 20 years of flying with the same engine to get to 1000 hours. The 2 flying schools in my area have J170s and the engines are replaced at 2000 hours, some after 1000 hours when the top end overhaul is due. Why? It is cheaper to install a new engine of the latest generation than to get the original one overhauled. The time taken for the overhaul also means the aircraft is out of service for that time and cannot be used losing the school money. All that is required to achieve these values is the correct regular maintenance as per the maintenance manual. I have a Gen 3 3300A engine. It was the 4th off the line in 2013 with roller cam followers. I maintain it per the book and at a bit over 400 hours it runs as well as it did when it was new. Leak downs are 78/80 and I don't add oil between changes every 25 hours. I like the simplicity of an air cooled direct drive engine that can run all day at full power if required. That aside the failure rate of 912s in the last year exceeded that of Jab engines. It may have been a oil line, radiator leak or some other minor issue but that is partly due to the 912s complexity with 2 carburettors, lots of plumbing, liquid cooling, a reduction drive and external oil tank. The 912 is a great reliable engine but it is far from perfect and as it, like every other engine is man made it will fail at some point. A Sling landed on the beach not far from me a while ago suffering a catastrophic engine failure. The original 80HP version is considered by many as the best and most reliable. Now with the latest pumping out 160 HP from the same 1.4 litre displacement I'd be a bit cautious. Then there is the price. Wow.

Once a circuit direction and runway are declared it should be adhered to by everyone joining the circuit. That is standard practice and good airmanship. If there is a reason a pilot cannot land on the designated runway they should stay 500 feet above the circuit height as a minimum and declare intentions and their landing order number so aircraft joining later know and note the change. When I flew in to Parkes for Airventure in 2019 on the Friday aircraft were arriving from all points of the compass. I'd never been there before and didn't even see the aerodrome till i was almost over it 2000 agl. There was a lot of chatter on the radio and the runway was easliy established as the wind was 15-20 knots from the East. I easily spotted the 3 in front of me & joined downwind as No 4 & making a call as each touched down in front with my new number. They had a ground frequency at Airventure and it was needed then as I joined a queue of 8-10 aircraft & there were several different ground destinations, mine being the under wing camping parking spot.

Crikey 450k is getting up near Cessna 172 territory. Then again the price of new aircraft has gone ballistic since the pandemic. Kits, engines and avionics prices have all gone through the roof. Good for me though as resale prices have also gone up proportionately.

There is no indication of anything on the Bushcat website or from GAP. They have dealers in 12 countries. GAP Aviation on the Gold Coast is the Australian distributor.

Thanks. I didn't watch the video as i have no interest in it. Just what I'd require if I was.

What sort of warranty do they come with? If I was going to be first cab off the rank I'd want a water tight warranty and at least 1/2 price of a 912 ULS or less. Too much at stake here for me to even think about it for more than 5 seconds.

I was at the last Airventure at Parkes in 2019. It was a pretty big event with multiple workshops and seminars in numerous Marquees and one huge long marquee for all of the exhibitors. There were probably over a hundred underwing camper aircraft, plenty of portaloos & hot showers. A lot more pilots had accommodation in town. It was very well organised and there was a big airshow on the Sunday. Lots of new aircraft on show & other things like vintage cars, plenty of food stalls etc. Buses went in to town every 1/2 hour or so. There was a mobile Avgas truck that did the rounds on Saturday before the dust storm happened. I hadn't used much of the fuel in my wing tanks but topped up the fuselage tank with 50 litres of Avgas which gave me a 50-50 shandy with the 50 litres of 98 petrol I had in the tank. The wind got up to 40-50 knots and you could not see anything. I dropped the tent & used all the spare guy ropes as extra tie downs. There was rain after the dust & it turned all the dust on aircraft to mud. The site was closed & everyone had to leave so we spent the afternoon in the aero clubhouse. By some miracle there was no damage to aircraft AFAIK. Sunday was fine & Old Korelah decided to head home but struck some pretty bad weather on the way. I think he had to stay somewhere overnight. Monday dawned with ice on the aircraft & the flight home was memorable with my highest ground speed at 177 knots & up to 10,000 feet with OAT showing minus 10-15 deg & me with no heater. Still I got home in 2 1/2 hours, took 3 1/2 hours to get there from South Grafton. Fly'n for fun is not the same but RA-Aus know the venue and requirements. ASICS were not required & the public were not allowed near the parking/camping area in 2019.

That must be without compulsory insurance that Yanks have to pay. The cheapest in the US is over 500k US including lifetime insurance.

Chutes to bring aircraft and pilot down have been around for a long time. I wore a chute for 20 years when I was Hang Gliding. It was never used in anger but it was used to test if it worked given I was the one who repacked it every 6 months. It was manually deployed but there were ballistic options around since the 80s. Most Hang Glider pilots have them. The chute is part of the harness and a pull handle on your chest. Pull the handle and throw in to clear air. The bridle cord is attached to the CofG (heartbolt) & you come down about the same speed as a normal round chute. Only used if the glider has a structural failure.

Watched the whole video & my comments still stand. I note that some deployments when the pilot lost control & then eventually regained control landed successfully pulling partial deployed CAPS & survived without injury also.

There have been deployments when the engine is still running, just not developing full power. That is going from a position of some control to one of no control. I haven't watched the video. May get to it when i have time but in most cases unless the aircraft is unable to glide due to some catastrophic failure I'd sooner fly it in to the crash as far as possible.

The ergonomics of most GA & RA factory built aircraft is terrible although the panel in modern aircraft is much tidier with all glass customisable displays. As I built my own aircraft with everything at hand and instruments set out as I wanted them my aircraft has the best ergonomics of any I have ever flown. From a comfort perspective many RA aircraft have wider cockpits than larger GA aircraft of 50 years ago but high wing is always easier to access. That said I prefer the seating position in most low wing aircraft as it is more reclining sports car like than the upright seating in a high wing. Noise is related to comfort as a very noisy aircraft is more stressful on the body than a quite one. Construction is debatable. Aluminium and alloys are easy to repair/ replace as is fibreglass. Carbon fibre and high end composites not so. Soundproofing & sealing is pretty hard in rag & tube but whatever is chose weight is a deciding factor. Economy is also related to drag plus speed requirements. Mission or purpose dictates to a degree aspects of performance. If an aircraft is slow, a low fuel burn my end up costing as much as a fast aircraft & it is pretty hard to have genuine STOL & high speed racer in the same aircraft. Horses for courses. Ease and simplicity of maintenance is a key aspect. Rotax engines may be reliable but are too complex. The Jab is simple and easy to maintain. As I drive an EV I am really looking forward to the fully electric aircraft. Noise, power, and maintenance can't be beaten here. Battery tech is the only obstacle but this is improving at an astonishing rate. The latest solid state battery from Talent New Energy has a battery with more than double the energy density of the very best Lithium batteries at 720 kW/kg providing EV range of over 2000km. This means a 100kg battery would store 72 kWh of power. This with the weight of the electric motor would be less than a 120hp jab & 150 litres of fuel.

Hold my beer. Watch this!

Just as there are pilots and aircraft owners, there are pilots and pilot fiddlers. If it ain't broke don't fix it. This has nothing to do with maintenance. One bloke at our airfield fixed his aircraft every week. Initially I took some interest and asked about the problem and the result was usually some vague response about a strange noise or something not feeling right. Once he reckoned the engine had a miss that only he could detect. Several others including me couldn't detect anything. The odd thing was that he ended up having a forced landing (while on a BFR with an instructor) as the glass delaminated from the timber prop. Preflight checks will often detect the beginnings of delamination (it did for me) so the fiddling did not seem to be related to preventative maintenance anyway.

That would cost $5-600.00 today in a 50 year old C172. The median gross salary last year was $65,000 which translates into a monthly net income of $4,344.00 so more than half of your net income would go on flying training every week. In the 70s a fairly modern 172 cost I think $22.00 an hour. I can't remember what my take home pay was but I think it was less than $100.00 a week

Currently on show at the Bangkok Motor Show.

It is a pretty simple looking aircraft. It is just a huge tube which won't be pressurised with a straight wing and 2 tip mounted vertical stabilisers. The only pressurised part will be the cockpit. 4 standard engines off something like an A320 and a 72 tonne payload means it doesn't need all the wheels of the Antonov with only 4 x 4 wheel main bogeys & 2 x 2 wheel steerables up front. It's a modern day Bristol freighter on steroids.

I note that Malcolm Turnbull is one of Radias advisors. Wind energy capture is by far the cheapest of any form of renewable energy and the huge number of installations and turbines far outweigh a few failures here and there are more than 341,000 wind turbines installed around the globe with over 900 GW produced in 2022.

The Dynon D6 I installed in 2014 has a voltmeter built in. I only wanted a turn co-ordinator & balance ball but got a VSI, ASI, ALT, AoA, Compass, AH, & rate indicators for everything as well. Duplicates all my steam gauges.

I can't think of a single good reason to change but several not to.

Ah Ha, the plot thickens. Just find the flight attendant who was on the ceiling in the cockpit. Simples.