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kgwilson

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Everything posted by kgwilson

  1. kgwilson
    NZ had a fibre optic network and it was all FTTP (fibre to the premises) before the NBN even started here. Gigabit speeds are common. My brother has 350 megabits to his house & that is normal. Even though NZ is small there are remote areas where it is not economically viable to deliver internet access via fibre & that is where satellite/starlink access comes in. Australia has one of the slowest fibre optic networks, (NBN) in the developed world. The problem with Telstras original plan of access via satellite to remote areas was that it did not have anywhere near enough bandwidth so when more than a few people were using it, speeds were like going back to a dial up modem & due to the distance to the high orbit satellites there was far too much latency. Even though Musk is an absolute A**hole his Starlink system with a huge network of low orbit satellites overcomes this but at a high cost. There are about 7000 of them in low earth orbit. They are small at about 3 metres long by 1.5 metres wide & 200mm thick. When their orbits eventually degrade and they come down they will burn up entirely so won't hit the ground.
  2. kgwilson
    Sales of Avgas are declining world wide & IOR want to sell as much as possible to try and recoup the costs of establishing self contained Avgas facilities at aerodromes. Rotax and Jabiru are the most popular engines in recreational aircraft & very few now use Avgas. Jabiru have always recommended Avgas in their manuals (I think for litigation defence purposes) but advise anything 95RON & above is OK & they will advise you verbally to use 95 or 98. 2 strokes don't use Avgas either. IOR proposed a facility at our aerodrome but we weren't prepared to pay for it. World Fuel, a US based consortium has done the same & after much wrangling with local authorities looks like it may go ahead at no cost to us. Personally i can't see them making much out of it as modern engines don't require 100LL. We have a petrol station just around the corner & most people use 98 or 95 RON automotive petrol except anyone using old lycoming & continental engines.
  3. kgwilson
    It definitely was RAA registered & that looks like it.
  4. kgwilson
    Looking at the video the Caravan appeared to struggle to gain speed during the takeoff run and it is likely the floats kept digging in to the choppy swell as it progressed slowing it noticeably. I think the pilot raised the nose similar to a max performance takeoff on land to try and keep the floats digging in to the waves ahead and so get up enough speed to get airborne. Once airborne the aircraft pitched up and then the aerodynamic stall became inevitable as it was on the verge of stall and in ground effect. Possibly the pilot wanted to make sure he was well clear of the waves as soon as he became airborne and kept a fair bit of back pressure on the yoke in the belief that there would be enough power to overcome this. This of course is just one possibility. I think the hitting the rock theory can be now dismissed.
  5. kgwilson
    All mine were made of balsa wood and tissue paper.
  6. kgwilson
    What the hell is a Hobby Aircraft?
  7. kgwilson
    If there is an inner liner and no wire coil showing it is sceet. Sceet is also double stitched. If it has no inner lining and the wire coil is visible it is scat. Sceet Scat
  8. kgwilson
    Juan Browne provides some interesting comment in his 2nd report. The runway safety area (over run) should be a minimum of 1000 feet (300metres) and solid concrete structures no higher than 75mm (3 inches) and anything higher constructed with low impact supports and barriers made of frangible materials. These localisers are normally lights for glide slope requirements etc. It was the massive solid earth berm covering a solid concrete core that was the problem which was also well within the recommended 300 metre minimum distance. Even if this wasn't there with the aircraft still producing thrust it would have hit the concrete wall surrounding the airport. Fast forward to about 12:30 in the video for the explanation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_ith5t_TK8
  9. kgwilson
    You can get it from automotive suppliers. Sceet is lined with the wire coil sandwiched between the layers, Scat is not. The perceived issue with Sceet is that the inner lining can become detached though it has a higher temperature range and is more flexible than Scat. Usually double stitched either side of the wire coil and allows for smoother airflow. A metre of No 9 or 10 cost me about $45.00. Over $200 from Spruce.
  10. kgwilson
    Unless you crash in to a country fair or footy match. I don't think there is much difference between recreational GA flying and recreational 600kg and below flying. I've had a GA licence for over 40 years but built my aircraft and registered ii with RA mainly because I figured over time it would be more difficult to maintain a class 2 medical. Now we have class 5 self declaration medical & recreational licence. It took CASA 10 years longer than any where else, is completely different & it isn't valid anywhere else but then that is CASA all over. When I left NZ in 2005 they had a recreational licence which did not require a class 2, allowed ageing pilots to keep flying the C172, C182, Piper Archer etc but with only 1 passenger, VFR & not at night. Also RA & GA aircraft are on the same register while administered separately and are allowed in to CTR if the pilot & aircraft are appropriately equipped & qualified. If my memory is correct the aircraft can have only 1 engine & weigh less that 5500kg. This makes sense to me. The current situation is just bureaucratic BS IMHO.
  11. kgwilson
    Just checked the PE guide OT has posted. It was legal when the instructor did it but not when I did it.
  12. kgwilson
    I have had instructors turn the engine off when performing a BFR though I've no idea of the legality of doing so. I have done the same to check glide performance and really didn't find any difference. There may have been a little but it wasn't obvious. The important thing is to turn the Mag switches back on as soon as the prop stops just in case you need a quick start
  13. kgwilson
    When I was doing my GA to RA conversion at Coffs after the tower closed at 5pm I was taxiing and heard an RPT inbound call at Red Rock about 21 NM to the North. By the time I'd got to the holding point I could see the landing light probably about 10NM away. We'd acknowledged positions & intentions & was very easy to watch the approach and touchdown. I can't remember what it was just it was a twin RPT & on touchdown the pilot called me & advised he was turning off at an early taxiway & I could line up.
  14. kgwilson
    When I built my aircraft I installed LED strobe on the wing tips. They are very bright to look at and most aircraft have LEDs now as the old tubes were expensive, caused radio interference if not adequately suppressed and required a lot of power. I've seen strobes in the air but very rarely. See them on the ground always. Two landing lights in a wig wag configuration are very easy to spot when an aircraft is on its glideslope. The very powerful landing lights on commercial aircraft can be seen from a long way out.
  15. kgwilson
    I imagine that there will be a post mortem, however without any crash investigation results are not likely to be made public.
  16. kgwilson
    If there was a control system failure taking over from the rear seat would probably not have any effect. At 500 feet it is all over in a few seconds. Reaction time to an unexpected event is about 3-4 seconds so if this was the case it would be too late.
  17. kgwilson
    Sadly i have to report a fatal crash today at around 11:30am at Palmers Island near Yamba, Northern NSW. The pilot was a friend of mine and had his aircraft hangared at South Grafton. He was well known, well liked, very experienced. My sincere condolences to all of the family. There were a number of witnesses and we will know more in the days to come.
  18. kgwilson
  19. kgwilson
    RAA public liability insurance is not $10 million, it is $20 million. Passengers are only covered for 250k though. I don't insure my hangar or my aircraft. The aerodrome floods and the cost of premiums soon exceeds the cost of building a new hangar. Premiums for insuring the aircraft hull would have been about 25k since I finished building it so i am well ahead. If I crash it I will either rebuild it myself, scrap it completely or i'll be dead.
  20. kgwilson
    The US has been in decline for some time like all "empires" before it. Their once great auto industry is now a basket case. I checked out a video the other day of the cars NOT to buy in 2024. The first comment was everything from the US that is not a Tesla. They are at war with themselves. Capitalism gone mad. When Telsa awards a salary of $US 65 billion to Musk with the approval of shareholders & Trump wanting to dismantle the justice system among many crazy ideas, the fuse is well alight.
  21. kgwilson
    Things are changing all the time and quite a number of media outlets are now saying it was likely shot down by a Russian missile similar to the one used to down Malaysia MH 17 back in 2014. That one, a Buk M1 also had a proximity detonated warhead. The reports now seem to agree that the GPS was jammed by Russia as there were a lot of Ukraine drones heading their way at the time & that the Russian operators were both poorly trained & pretty trigger happy. I think that Juan Brownes report will be shown to be pretty accurate in the end.
  22. kgwilson
    And the Russians say it hit a flock of birds. How pathetic. They always under estimate the ability of people around with smartphones and cameras to reveal the BS. I imagine they will eventually try to pin this on Ukraine.
  23. kgwilson
    The Skyecho 2 passes data to whatever navigation software you are running and it is up to that system and device to determine what warnings should be provided based on location altitude & track. The transponder only advertises its location to ATC not other aircraft. If in CTR ATC will have established contact with the aircraft and issued a specific squawk code to the aircraft & then it is tracked by ATC & the pilot provided with traffic information via radio.
  24. kgwilson
    Unless you know other aircraft are in the circuit and therefore the runway in use through listening on the CTAF frequency for that aerodrome you should always overfly at 500 feet above the aerodrome & observe the conditions like wind sock and possible obstructions like animals, aircraft, mowers, vehicles, trees etc before letting down on the dead side to circuit height after making your joining call. While this is not compulsory it is always advisable even if the last aerodrome you were at is close and conditions do not appear to have changed. I do this every time I have been away more than 10NM from my home aerodrome. Kangaroos seem to like the grass there and not just at dusk & dawn and any animal that has died becomes a mecca for wedge tailed eagles. The sea breeze can arrive and change the wind direction 180 degrees in less than a minute when before it may be less than 5 knots to 15-20 knots in the opposite direction.
  25. kgwilson
    Both aircraft were at circuit height indicating both thought they were in the circuit . However only one is known to have made radio calls which were heard. The C182s radio may have failed but it must have been working when it performed circuits at Camden. This will be confirmed in the final report.
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