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kgwilson

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Everything posted by kgwilson

  1. kgwilson
    That is expensive. The hangar owners association lease our aerodrome from Crown Lands & the lease per hangar for the current financial year is $1,680.00, or $140.00 a month. That includes rates, PL insurance, maintenance, admin etc with all work done by us volunteers other than contractors for runway sealing, earthworks etc.
  2. kgwilson
    I have just finished reading the report. It is as damning as it is eye opening. The lies and cover ups & the one person who tried to tell the truth was silenced. My summation of the pilot being over confident and lacking knowledge and judgement were proven correct but he had not been advised not to fly that day as had originally been suggested, he just went and did it surprising the 2 experienced pilots who were there to witness the takeoff. As most of us suspected he should never have been issued an RPC and even worse an XC endorsement on the basis of his prior knowledge & experience & several RA-Aus senior staff are culpable, though only 1 remains at the helm. CASA needs to pull the place apart. How this even was allowed to happen shows a serious lack of professionalism and reliance on bad recommendations from a CFI that by all prior accounts had a good reputation. I feel sorry for his partner only being awarded a third of her costs given it was her determination that exposed the lies and cover ups. The lawyers are the only winners as is almost always the case anyway.
  3. kgwilson
    There certainly is XC endorsements for hang gliding & paragliders have traveled long distances. The performance envelope is the issue. Only in good weather and flying down wind in ridge lift or between thermals.
  4. kgwilson
    200 hours in a paraglider, an hour in a c172 many years earlier & only 4 flights in a Jabiru in no way provides anywhere near enough experience to make cross country navigation flights and especially in poor conditions and mountainous terrain. You cannot fly a paraglider in strong wind conditions, they will only fly backwards and you need lift either from thermals or rising air moving over sloped ground like ridge lift. Modern paragliders are probably faster that the one I flew back in the 90s but they were developed from ram air parachutes with many of the same problems such as no rigid structure. I believe the latest competition paragliders have an L/D of up to 13:1 which is pretty impressive given most recreational aircraft are around 9-10:1. The difference of course is airspeed at best glide which is typically around 20knots compared to 70 knots for a J230. So he had only flown paragliders in good weather which given their performance envelope is a wise decision. It may be that the large difference to the J230 clouded his judgement to overestimate his and the aircrafts capabilities. Failing to heed warnings from experienced pilots on the day displayed poor judgement or overconfidence and probably a bit of both.
  5. kgwilson
    The history of this fatal crash shows RA-Aus in a vary poor light. Jill Bailey realised she had stuffed up and was stood down for a week but then the cover ups began. I had 200 hours hang gliding experience & a lot of weather knowledge when I started my PPL. None of this was considered at all though I taught my instructors a few things, my prior learning helped me a lot & I found the exams easy. That said the attitude of the pilot is always a factor and as I understand it he was advised not to fly in such poor conditions but ignored the advice.
  6. kgwilson
    There is no problem with the fuel itself as Cirrus approved it originally & anyway it is used in lycoming engines. After doing the latest check which noted some paint damage around the drainage sump of a single Cirrus, this was confirmed as a maintenance issue and there were no safety of flight issues. A G100 developer employee and Cirrus owner has been using the fuel for 15 years with no engine or paint issues. It all sounds like an attempt to get some money out of GAMI with the Cirrus owner failing to wipe off spilt fuel.
  7. kgwilson
    Winter in the Arctic, bad weather. Not conducive to good flying conditions and even if they had managed to survive with injuries the cold would limit survival time.
  8. kgwilson
    No new surprises or information in update 3 except that it is time that this military route should be stopped. The separation is far too small and a small error can and has lead to disaster.
  9. kgwilson
    I'd say the Blackhawk altitude on the transcript probably came from ADSB received data as it was available almost immediately after the collision. This will need to be corroborated with data from the FDR. Information from both FDRs will provide a much clearer picture of the whole event.
  10. kgwilson
    The Bolly hubs are precision CNC formed, gold anodised Duralite and the blades are micron perfect fit. Every bit of hardware down to the washers is fully documented, with batch numbers, weights etc as of course it should be. They are quality products locally manufactured and are up there with the best in the world. They all come with detailed instructions & charts on assembly, installation, balancing, pitch adjustment etc. There are not many Australian manufacturers left that I can say that about them.
  11. kgwilson
    I still have a wooden prop for my 6cy Jab engined aircraft but it isn't a patch on the ground adjustable 2 blade Bolly Bos 5 I have installed now. The Bolly is lighter far more chip resistant and tunable to they type of flying I do. It has several weaves of carbon fibre and reinforced with glass strands and kevlar with a toughened replaceable leading edge.
  12. kgwilson
    Quite a few holes lined up in the Swiss cheese model. Late change of runway for the RJ to a much shorter runway requiring a right turn before left hand line up. Vertical separation was only 300 feet maximum & the Blackhawk was above the maximum allowed 200 feet at 300 feet while the RJ was descending from 500 feet. Blackhawk was on a different frequency & couldn't hear the RJ. Blackhawk confirmed visual of the RJ exonerating ATC. Blackhawk confirmed it would pass behind RJ. Aircraft & City lights tend to blend in to one another. Blackhawk pilot may have been using NVG & if so had no real depth perception & could have identified another aircraft behind the RJ thinking it was the RJ. TCAS is disabled below 1000 feet & no aural warnings below 500 feet. That's 8 identified by Juan Browne and there could be more but all those factors add up to a recipe for disaster.
  13. kgwilson
    It was TIC hence the laughing emojo
  14. kgwilson
    So if your plane is painted, don't fly during the day and if it is made of metal don't fly it in high humidity fog, mist or rain. Keep it in the hangar and never let it out. Then you can just let it waste away from creeping corrosion, dust, dirt bugs, rats etc.😀
  15. kgwilson
    Who cares? It all seems like marketing hype to me. So MOGAS is anything that isn't AVGAS.
  16. kgwilson
    I used a Dulux Industrial 2 pack to paint my aluminium & fibreglass aircraft when I built in in 2015. The paint still looks as good as the day it was done & I've never polished it, just wash it with a car wash & wax.
  17. kgwilson
    The airstrip near Macksville is to the West of the Pacific Highway and if you know where to look you could see it as you drove past. It is a private airstrip. It is over 10 years since I had any knowledge of it so it may no longer be there. No idea about Nambucca. There is another private strip near South West Rocks.
  18. kgwilson
    I chose the tip of the spinner as the datum when I did the W&B. The advantage of this is that is a fixed point as far as you can go forward on the aircraft so it is easier to do another one somewhere else using the same point. It is a pretty common practice. My COG limits are 15% to 30% aft of the leading edge wing root cord. I have a forward baggage area and one behind the seats and a forward fuselage fuel tank. Wing tanks are within the COG limits. It is all in the phone & easy to calculate when I chuck things on the scales before heading off. If I am bringing something heavy back with me I need to know what it weighs or it gets left behind.
  19. kgwilson
    Sceet/Scat is what silicone flexible air ducting (1 or 2 ply) hose is known as in the Aviation industry. Specs are identical as are the temperature ratings but price from aviation suppliers is more than double. the sceet or 2 ply has higher temperature ratings -60c to +300c compared to -50c to +250c.
  20. kgwilson
    I bought mine (No 9 Sceet) from an automotive supplier in Sydney via Ebay. It cost $45.00 for a metre length & came doubled over to fit in a half metre box so 180 deg bends are easily done.
  21. kgwilson
    Yeah it wouldn't be ambient temperature unless you like to fry.
  22. kgwilson
    I just cut it with a Stanley knife at 90 deg & where the cut intersects the wire coil I cut that with side cutters. The spring tension will cause the cut end to distort a bit from round but that doesn't matter as your hose clamp will be back further to create a good seal.
  23. kgwilson
    The ADSB transmitters on commercial aircraft are much more powerful than the SE2. At least 120 Watts & probably much more than the 20 watts from a SE2. Plus at 35,000 feet their direct line of sight to the ground is a very long way.
  24. kgwilson
    As I remember when the first unleaded fuels were released there were many older cars that were not supposed to be run on unleaded fuel and there were a number of additives to replace the lead to provide what they called upper cylinder lubricant. Now of course that is history and new vehicles will have recommended fuels with higher compression engines requiring 98 RON, some 95 RON and the more basic engines using 91 . Most European cars require 95 or 98. Europe has the highest fuel standards in the world. Until recently Australia had the lowest (in fact we had no fuel efficiency standards at all) & were on a par with Russia. New standards for new cars were made law from 1/1/25.
  25. kgwilson
    I have had plug fouling using Avgas in old Lycomings from the 60s & 70s and have seen lead deposits on pistons & heads. Jabiru engines seem to fare poorly on Avgas & reports from a number of owners who have switched confirmed that the engines run better on Automotive 95 or 98. Mogas is not sold in Australia. 100LL Avgas is certainly much better than the old high octane leaded Avgas. Never the less it still contains Tetraethyl lead (TEL) which is highly toxic & the sooner it is replaced with a lead free alternative the better. In the US GAMI's G100UL unleaded Avgas has been approved by the FAA. It improves performance, reduces routine maintenance, extends spark plug life and extends time between oil changes. My Jab 3300 has only ever run on Avgas when that was all I could get on a long trip. I didn't notice any performance difference. My engine remains clean with absolutely no deposits when checking via a borescope and the oil stays quite clean between changes. There are disadvantages with Automotive petrol though. It stinks due to the aromatic hydrocarbons. It has a much lower shelf life when stored in aircraft fuel tanks but a bit of fresh on top resolves any issues caused by stale fuel, and it is more prone to vapour lock at high altitude.
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