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kgwilson

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Everything posted by kgwilson

  1. kgwilson
    EFI in motor vehicles is very reliable these days & almost universal & presumably why it is now in many modern piston aircraft. Aircraft engine development and innovation has always been at the extreme end of the conservative spectrum with some very sound logic. If it works & it ain't broke, don't fix it till something else turns up that is better but more importantly, as or more reliable.
  2. kgwilson
    I reckon the perfect landing is when you are fully stalled when the wheels grease the ground. You don't want the aircraft to keep flying. You will still have rudder authority until steering/ differential braking takes over.
  3. kgwilson
    You were a lot fussier than me. I didn't undercoat internal surfaces & was not prepared to use Alodine which is extremely toxic, but I did use an etch primer on both surfaces where there was metal to metal contact once all the rivet holes had been drilled & the clecos removed.
  4. kgwilson
    20-30 feet was my estimation of height when the yoke was pulled right back. That was when the left wheel was about equal with the horizon. On closer inspection I reckon about 18-20 feet. Anyway it worked out that on touchdown with the sea she had the least amount of forward speed and descent rate. Faster and it may have nosed over. Slower and with increased vertical speed the wheels would likely have dug in more quickly and may have also nosed over. Even the ABC couldn't help themselves with a witness statement. "When it nosedived, that's when I started screaming". When was that? Once the wheels were in the water stopping most forward momentum, the tail came up & settled down in less than 1/2 a second.
  5. kgwilson
    With only one door on the RH side of a PA28 you need to get your passenger to unlock the top latch as you can't concentrate on the landing approach & do this as well. Then unlatch the main door lock. There was little swell so that was a bonus but landing along the swell line is the recommended and best way. Fully stalled from about 20-30 feet, the prop stopped windmilling & a perfect ditching was executed. This should be incorporated into a ditching training video. Hats off to you Michelle Yeates.
  6. kgwilson
    Crikey Jabiru 230 prices have increased a lot since I last looked. That was when they were around 120K.
  7. kgwilson
    There is no doubt that the 916 will be far more fuel efficient and use ULP. While Rotax quality is very high the real issue is the exhorbitant cost of everything Rotax makes.
  8. kgwilson
    The Lycoming is a bit heavier at 268 lbs compared to the Rotax at 190 lbs but that doesn't include the oil tank, radiator, hoses or liquid coolant. TBO is 2000 hours for the io-320 A,B,D,E & F models & 1800 for the C model. Of course the Lycoming is 5.42 litres whereas the Rotax is 1.35 litres in cubic capacity.
  9. kgwilson
    When I decided to build an aircraft back in 2010 I tossed up between experimental GA & RA. RA won on simplicity, self declaration of medicals, overall and on-going cost. I have now let my Class 2 medical lapse & technically can no longer fly in to or land at controlled airports. I still do with the approval of the controller. I used to fly 1970s Piper Archers & Cessnas. I now fly my own bulid 2015 modern aircraft that is cheaper to operate, has better performance but only has 2 seats. The number of times all 4 seats of the Archer were filled way back when I can count on my hands. Getting back to Bankstown, it seems to me most new pilots, even those with an Aviation career in mind start with a RA pilot certificate so the amount of ab initio training in GA is noweher near what it used to be.
  10. kgwilson
    The price of a new 916is is $US49,500.00, thats $AU73,832.00 at todays conversion rate. I can't see too many being installed here. The buy price today (AUD or USD) is around $75,000.00, then there is freight & duties. Then it has to be installed. I reckon the final cost would be about $90,000.00, not that far short of a brand new base level Jabiru 230.
  11. kgwilson
    I was driving and heard the interview with the pilot on the radio yesterday. When he said the trim pushed me nose first in to the ground (or words to that effect). I said out loud "absolute BS". He has made up a story to make it all seem plausible. There is no way in the world that the trim in a recreational aircraft is ever able to overpower a pilots input. The original report is pretty right. Flying low to the ground doing a beat up of the film set & hit the power lines. It is that simple.
  12. kgwilson
    The black ones are the only sort to buy. They have a conductive carbon pigment in the plastic so they are not susceptible to static electricity. Details attached. MR FUNNEL AUSTRALIA SAFETY INFO FLYER.pdf
  13. kgwilson
    As far as I know it only happens for single seat BFRs.
  14. kgwilson
    A good reminder why you should make sure there is nothing that can interefere with controls even what you are wearing. Of course he was way too low with no chance of recovery if something went wrong as it did.
  15. kgwilson
    There is no such thing as a Justice System, there is only a Legal System.
  16. kgwilson
    The suction cup is fine so long as there is not much if any curvature of the acrylic surface and the acrylic has no scratches on the mounting location. The cup must be kept very clean but never moistened. Mine has never fallen off.
  17. kgwilson
    It isn't meaningless to me. I don't care about range so long as I can see anything in my vicinity and whether we are likely to be in conflict.
  18. kgwilson
    I just stuck mine on the LH side of my bubble canopy just in front of me & I get coverage from about 0 to 140 deg to the right and about 190 to 360 deg to the left so only about 50 deg that it can't see. It's easy to test. If an ADSB out equipped aircaft comes in to view on the left just make a shallow RH turn till it disappears & do the same in reverse if one appears on the right. A lot of the GA training aircraft around here have ADSB out installed with their Mode S ES transponder so I see them around all the time.
  19. kgwilson
    The antenna is omnidirectional but the signal is line of sight so it needs a clear view forwards & sideways to provide good coverage & also needs a clear view of the sky for the GPS. Exerpt from the manual below. 7.1 Installation SkyEcho is a completely self-contained portable device with no required installation for external antenna, power source, or physical installation into the aircraft. Transmission and reception performance are affected by antenna placement within the aircraft and is subject to airframe shadowing. Best performance is achieved when the SkyEcho is placed vertically orientated on the aircraft window mounted with the suction cup mount in a forward or side facing window with clear line of sight visibility in the direction of travel and clear visibility to the sky for GPS reception.
  20. kgwilson
    There was a Navajo crash near Hamilton Airport in NZ back in the 90s. It ran out of fuel and killed the young pilot. The investigation found full tip tanks and the selector switched to an empty inner tank
  21. kgwilson
    A 180 was not an option. I'd descended through a hole in thickening cloud to find myself in a valley with all the tops of the hills in cloud. Up was the only option. The Archer 2 I was flying was fully IFR but I had no IFR training except the under the hood stuff. At the time it didn't seem a problem & I had 2 passengers with me & they trusted me emphatically. It was only later after returning from our destination later that I realised how lucky we'd been.
  22. kgwilson
    I flew deliberately into IMC once. There were valid reasons I won't elaborate on. The 5 hours "Under the Hood" training were invaluable. I set my heading & looked only at the panel saying to myself in my head "Believe the instruments" all the time. I popped out into bright sunshine at 9500 feet after an 8000 foot climb & then called CH-CH centre. It works but feels wrong.
  23. kgwilson
    You say Nothing a la Sgt Schultz from Hogans heroes. I have heard many stories of pilots informing the DAME/CASA about an issue that was but is no longer & tens of thousands of dollars later they are still awaiting a decision.
  24. kgwilson
    I only have one, a curtis type & I have had to replace the O-ring once so far after it started leaking about 1 drip every couple of minutes. I doesn't sound like much but that is 720 drips a day & 5040 drips a week. The stain on the floor & the smell as soon as I opened the door gave it away immediately.. The good thing is that to drain the tank you just have to push it up & twist it to lock & then let the fuel empty in to a container.
  25. kgwilson
    Well what if it's true?
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