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kgwilson

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Everything posted by kgwilson

  1. kgwilson
    One simple reason. A head in the sand controlling attitude from CASA. If that ever changes GA could throw away their transponders & get ADSB in/out installed with Airservices having enough ground stations to ensure coverage, something they don't have with the existing radar & transponders 5000' and below. Good move by CAA NZ effectively making GA transponders redundant.
  2. kgwilson
    ATC can see all ADSB devices transmitting within range of their receiver even low powered electronic conspicuity devices like the SE2, they just cannot interrogate them as they can with a transponder. The aircraft type and Rego are displayed. For RA aircraft it is R1234. The R meaning recreational and the numerics the last 4 digits of the aircrafts registration number. So they don't need to interrogate ADSB equipped aircraft The reason they interrogate transponders is to establish the registration number which they do by radio providing a squawk code if one has not already been allocated, key that in to the computer against the allocated code then they can follow the aircraft on the radar screen. With ADSB this information is already there so they don't need to interrogate the device, just communicate by radio. ADSB makes transponders largely redundant though the radar & transponder have a much larger range. The thing is there are thousands of ground ADSB receivers owned by enthusiasts that provide data to Flight Radar 24 and Flight Aware. Most use a cheap Raspberry Pi processor. Air Services also has official ground stations . I can check my flights in FR24 any time I like as I am usually within range of a ground station somewhere that is updating FR24 all the time..
  3. kgwilson
    I cannot work out what the issues are. I was flying in controlled airspace as a PPL with RA pilots & aircraft in NZ in the early 2000s. The only requirements were that the RA aircraft had to be fitted with a transponder and the RA pilot had to have a CTR endorsement. The RA guys used to fly in to Hamilton Airport which has international traffic and a lot or RPT as well as lots of flight training happening (CTC an English FTF had 40 Diamonds + the club students) quite a bit to get Avgas from the club bowser. I didn't know they were RA most of the time as all aircraft over there are on the same ZK register. The procrastination & lack of good valid reason for CASA's delay beggars belief.
  4. kgwilson
    It is not a Rotax issue, it is how the Bing carburettor and its enrichment function for cold starting works. My J3300 has a type 94. The 912 uses type 64. Both are Constant velocity or sometimes described as Constant depression and both have a starting carburettor on the side of the main housing requiring the main carburettor to be set at idle to allow the appropriate rich mixture from the starting carburettors own jet. Once the engine is running it will continue to idle using the starting carburettor fuel supply until the main throttle is opened allowing fuel mixture in and the starting carburettor is shut off when the choke is closed and fuel is prevented from entering the engine via the starting carburettor jet.
  5. kgwilson
    The ADSB receiver in the SE2 sends the aircraft data including height AMSL and its current location to the connected display software on the moving map. The moving map therefore displays the direction of travel and can then estimate current speed and determine if there is a possible conflict. As I have mentioned the free software I have been using on my phone & tablet shows the ADSB data (rego, Height) from the aircraft in range (up to 40NM away) in green when it determines from its calculations there is no conflict and yellow when there is possible conflict and an alarm in red when there is probable conflict.
  6. kgwilson
    There is definitely no latency with my SE2. I have had it operating with Enroute Flight Planning & watched ADSB out equipped GA aircraft land & takeoff at our aerodrome with the details showing on the screen within a second or 2.
  7. kgwilson
    Must be a lightweight polystyrene crapper but it does look the part.
  8. kgwilson
    Chokes should all work like that IMO. Mine does & I have a Bing carb so the choke return spring must be too strong or there is insufficient friction in the choke cable, probably a bit of both.
  9. kgwilson
    Correct and the engine won't start if there is any more than a crack of throttle. Part of the cold start procedure is to make sure the throttle is fully closed. The choke stays where it is put on my Bing.
  10. kgwilson
    This may be your perspective but most of the experts have said he could not see the B17 during that turn. While it looks as though he should be able to see it from the video clip, there is a fair amount of elevator required to keep the aircraft from losing altitude during the turn so while it appears to be losing altitude it is not and the nose is high (as is the RH wing), the window frames are thick so these are all factors obscuring the B17 from view from the pilots seat. At the time of impact the P36 had 226 knots of ground speed.
  11. kgwilson
    The concept has been revived and Regent Seagliders have tested their first prototype which is all electric. The first is a 12 seater with plans for 100 seat versions by 2030.
  12. kgwilson
    My initial thoughts when reading the first 2 paragraphs of Post 1 were it is Avgas and lead that has caused the problem. Having seen a number of Avgas fuelled Jab engines pulled apart & dleggs comment, I'd say it is 100% an Avgas issue. Don't use Avgas despite what the Jabiru manual says. They had to say this for their certified engines. Their manuals now say Unleaded RON 95 & above is a recommended fuel but also have a caution note regarding quality control & shelf life. JSL007-7 is the latest fuel guidance service bulletin & is worth a read. 95+ RON unleaded petrol shows to be the best fuel with the same quality control and shelf life cautions noted so that reduces the star rating they provide.
  13. kgwilson
    The US made ADSB Out compulsory but only for aircraft flying in Class A, B, C up to 10,000 feet & E airspace above 10,000 feet excluding airspace below 2,500 feet and within 30NM of most airports so the aircraft in this incident had to have it installed by law, which they did. ADSB In is not mandated for any airspace. In this situation even if you had ADSB In you would not have time to look at the screen and there would be potential conflict warnings going off all the time due to the number of aircraft in a very small area. The long nose of the P36 meant that the pilot could not see the B17 at all while performing his left hand turn even though the photo with both aircraft circled looks as though he should be looking directly at it.
  14. kgwilson
    Helicopters are great fun to fly in especially one with a bubble canopy where you can see everything. There was a saying many years ago that "Helicopters can't actually fly, they are so ugly that the Earth repels them". No so valid these days as there are many sleep looking choppers. There are plenty of pretty ugly old and military choppers though.
  15. kgwilson
    Norma Cobra hose clamps are the best IMO. They are made specifically for each size hose from 8mm to 38mm and are very low profile so don't catch on anything, German made SS and there are special pliers for clamping and unclamping though you can use ordinary pliers. I have them on all fuel fittings in my aircraft.
  16. kgwilson
    When I did my PPL all those years ago it was called FRTO (Flight Radio Telephone Operators) licence and was a mandatory condition of attaining PPL.
  17. kgwilson
    I have seen a lot of poor wiring on GA aircraft. behind the panel it is often like a birds nest. Maybe not when it was new but with time and instrument, switch & other changes it ends up a mess. Tefzel wire is quite stiff as well so does not lend itself to tight curves in wiring harnesses. If the cause of this crash was fuel starvation then that is pilot error. Mechanical failures are rare even with helicopters. A few years ago a Jabiru 230 crash landed at YSGR when the new part owner took it for a test flight, not having ever flown a Jabiru before. I was one of the first on the scene. The LH wing was damaged and fuel was leaking onto the ground and into the cabin. The floor was a lake of fuel. It didn't catch fire and we were able to drain the remaining fuel from the tank & put the aircraft on a trailer & remove it from the field, then left it in open space for the fuel to evaporate. It was repaired and is still at the aerodrome (with a new owner).
  18. kgwilson
    Saw it on the ABC news last night. It is lucky that it was a very light helicopter, it didn't hit anyone or power lines, there wasn't a fire and the pilot was not badly injured. It will be interesting to find out the cause. Power/mechanical failure or Pilot error. My money would be on the latter.
  19. kgwilson
    It plummeted, they were forced to free themselves from a sinking aircraft and swim to safety and it was also a precautionary landing, no-one was injured and the aircraft as well as the airport sustained minor damage. What a load of absolute sensationalist crap. Same BS headlines in the QLD murdoch press. Nine news shows a 20 second clip of what looks like a Beaver not sinking being towed by a boat.
  20. kgwilson
    Very reminiscent of the Ferris Wheel incident at Old Bar 10 years or so ago. No power then just people.
  21. kgwilson
    Never flown a Vixen but the 2 things I didn't like about the Foxbat were the weird position of the throttle beside the seat and the awkward flap handle. Other than that it was as easy to fly as a Gazelle.
  22. kgwilson
    That's why I always use my Mr Funnel when refuelling. Filters water, rust, sand, dirt & other debris down to 74 microns. I have not had any dirty fuel yet that I know of. I get my fuel from the same busy servo 3 minutes from my hangar & only looked in detail for a while so could possibly have filtered out some crap. There is always 50 ml or so in the filter sump at the bottom which I use as weed killer at the hangar door.
  23. kgwilson
    Doesn't matter who wrote the article. Australias emission standards and fuel quality are poor by standards set in first world markets as are the emission standards of imported motor vehicles. Government handouts have nothing to do with actively discouraging where the future lies. By 2035 you will not be able to buy an ICE engined car. You can choose to ignore the facts if you like. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-14/australia-dumping-ground-for-polluting-cars-euro-6-standards/100535418
  24. kgwilson
    The quality of Australian petrol is amongst the dirtiest in the world. Australia is a dumping ground for cars with poor emission control. This was the policy of the coalition government who also thought electric vehicles were a fad (remember Morrisons BS "won't tow your boat, won't run a tradies ute") & unlike most other countries had zero incentives for people to shift to electric. The current standard for 91 RON in Australia is nearly 15 times lower that the current standard in Europe. The rest of the developed world is making use of Euro 6 emissions and fuel standard while we are stuck on Euro 3 for 91 & Euro 4 for 95. https://www.bgaustralia.com.au/news/technical-advice/australian-fuel-quality#:~:text=The current standard for Australian,Worldwide standards for sulphur content.
  25. kgwilson
    I was in NZ in July & the price there was over $3.00 a litre. The government watch dog there found that fuel companies were adding extra margin dramatically as the price increased & had reached an all time high of just over 60 cents a litre. There was a massive outcry as you would expect & the price came down to $2.60 overnight. They were still making 15-20c a litre after that.
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