kgwilson

I forgot to mention the other article on the future of aircraft batteries by the same author. He hasn't done much research at all. He seems to think the only viable technology is LiFeP04 and comparing phone and portable devices is just plain ridiculous. I own an electric vehicle which has a NMC (Nickel, manganese, cobalt) lithium battery. This has considerably better energy density than LiFeP04. The battery is warranted for 10 years and in China & Thailand the battery is provided with a lifetime warranty transferable to subsequent owners. The fire risk is miniscule being at least 20 to 80 times (2000% to 8000%) less likely than an internal combustion engine and in the last 10 years, only 570 fires out of more than 40 million EVs on the road worldwide have endured a thermal runaway, almost all due to a major crash. Compare this to aircraft crashes using volatile fuels. This is due to very high manufacturing standards and battery management software which over rides human stupidity. CATL, the worlds largest battery manufacturer is already producing an aviation lithium battery that has an energy density of 500Wh per kilogram compared to the best NMC batteries at around 200 Wh/kg and between 90 & 160 Wh/kg for LiFeP04 batteries.

I set mine close to 126.7 as that is the most common CTAF frequency. It receives all other frequencies and of course area have much more powerful transmitters so no problem there

Well I finally have my latest Sportpilot & in general agree with Skippy. Apart from some basic stuff from RAA the rest is pretty boring. There is an emphasis on young pilots of which there are very few and their training or aviation journey and there are no technical articles for those of us who have built aircraft or enjoy this stuff. The round the world article is about a flight 9 years ago and the next article about a flight that hasn't happened yet after 16,000 hours of build time. The fuel article is just poor. 95 & 98 RON fuels do not contain Ethanol but the regulations allow up to 1% to account for cross contamination at refueling stations & that makes no appreciable difference. I have used 95 & 98 RON automotive fuel (it isn't called Mogas) in my Jabiru 3300 since new with not a single problem in over 400 hours. A number of other operators at our airfield finally switched after using Avgas for years enduring plug fouling and other issues with deposits. I filter my fuel through a Mr Funnel & have never detected water & with Vinyl Ester tanks no condensation either. The down side is the smell which does penetrate Vinyl Ester walls so when I open the cockpit I smell petrol. This is because the light components (toluene, benzine, n-hexane etc) which evaporate off first) It goes away quickly with air circulation but the fuel does not last as long as Avgas. That doesn't matter as a small amount of fresh fuel on top of what is in the tank will normalise it. I developed Shingles in early August & didn't fly for 3 months. I put 5 litres of fresh fuel on top of 35 litres of old & it started & ran perfectly after a single crank. As for articles I agree this would be helpful. I have responded to articles through letters to the editor & the last about ADSB & Skyecho 2 when it was claimed ATC cannot see you. That was false but the response was it wasn't what the editor was told so no checking or retraction.

Aviation frequencies are VHF & very prone to interference & these were recommended by the radio manufacturer as well as a number of publications on radio installation. I also installed a power filter. The Microair radio I have does not have a good reputation & some of this is due to poor installation techniques. Mine works very well and pulls in transmissions from great distances. I also tuned the antenna to the main CTAF frequency.

I have ferrite chokes on all radio cables at the radio and headset jacks etc and my SE2 does not interfere with the radio at all no matter where I put it. The chokes there will filter out interference from other electronic devices and electro magnetic sources so if you don't have these it is a very cheap and effective solution. They only cost $12.95 for a pack of 2 from Jaycar and clamp around the cable next to the radio or headset socket etc. You may even find your radio performs better after installation as an added bonus. https://www.jaycar.com.au/u15-ferrite-voltage-spike-protectors-noise-suppressors-pack-of-2/p/LF1294

So how did they know your email address? I doubt that they are sending out random invitations.

Good stuff. I didn't realise you could get FR24 to supply the ground station but I imagine that depends on whether they already have coverage in a specific area. Many people build their own many of which are Raspberry Pi CPUs. You could build a ADSB ground station for under $40.00 a few years ago. The original bottom of the range Pi Zero is still under $10.00 but the Pi 5 with 2GB of ram is about $80.00 so with peripherals $100.00 to $150.00 would be the current price to get it all up & running.

As I mentioned you must know your aircraft. The Pitts is is about as different from the Cougar as you can get in light aircraft.

There are a number of new airship designs under way around the globe including Australia. Great when there isn't much wind but they don't perform well in bad weather conditions.

It was part of the PPL syllabus when I learned to fly but not climbing stalls other than power and wing drop. The C150 dropped the left wing quite quickly with about 1700rpm & full up elevator. My aircraft won't drop a wing at all & will fly right through the stall and then just descend at idle and up to altitude level rpm. I need to have about 2000rpm with full up elevator & then kick the rudder full over to make it drop a wing which it does quite violently going almost vertically towards terra firma.

I find stall warnings a pain in the neck. They are always going off in turbulence & come on too early at times. Know the stall speed of your aircraft. Practice it at high altitude till you know exactly what the symptoms are, like buffeting etc and know the airspeed. Have plenty of airspeed during approach especially in turns & even more especially in the turn on to final. 1.3 is the bare minimum.

Many manufacturers will use a standard product that is available and buy up stocks, give them their own part number and price them to whatever they like. The Jabiru engine mounts are from some other manufacturer but in Jabirus case they are not exhorbitantly priced though more expensive than buying them from the actual manufacturer.

It has probably been said before but young and experienced and a flight instructor means he was a pretty good pilot. The missing link is time and that hopefully provides wisdom. If it was a stall turn at low altitude then getting caught up in all the fun of it with mates that young can very easily lead to a loss of situational awareness and over confidence.

Adds weight and bulk plus the wheels not rotating assist in slowing the aircraft.

No aircraft ever built is immune to pilot error & that is responsible for probably 90% or more of all crashes.

The Cougar is basically a 4 seater version of the Sierra I built. The wing area is about 20 Sq feet bigger than the Sierra but the wingspan the same at 26 feet, it just has a deeper chord. Garry Morgan had one built when I purchased my kit. It was pretty cramped in the back. I can't remember what engine he had in it. As a comparison here are the measured specs of my Sierra as built by me. Aircraft: Morgan Cheetah Sierra 100 Builder: Kevin Wilson completed 2015 Dimensions: Length Spinner to rudder 19 feet (5.8 metres) Wing Span 26 feet (7.9 metres) Wing Area 91 Square feet (8.45 Sq metres) Wing Loading 6.59Lb/Sq ft (32.18kg/Sq metre) Wing Chord root/tip 4.4/3.4feet (1300mm/1050mm) Tailplane span 7.5 feet (2.3 metres) Height (rudder tip) 6.5 feet (2.0 metres) Wheelbase (mains) 5.6 feet (1.7 metres) Empty weight 738lbs (335kg) Max Takeoff weight 1323lbs (600kg) Cabin width 42 inches (1067mm) Baggage space 31.8 cubic feet (900 litres) Engine: Jabiru 3300 6 cylinder horizontally opposed ram air cooled,120hp 3rd generation. Propellor: Bolly Bos 5 carbon fibre 60 inch ground adjustable Performance: Cruise - sea level 120 knots (222 kmh) Vne 150 knots (280 kmh) Va 85 knots (160 kmh) Vs Stall - clean 37 knots (70 kmh) Vso Stall – flaps 32 knots (60 kmh) Climb @ MTOW 1000fpm @ 80 knots Glide ratio 12:1 Takeoff roll 180 metres Landing roll 180 metres Service ceiling 10,000 feet Fuel consumption 18 – 28 litres ph Fuel capacity 170 litres in 3 tanks

No a terrible tragedy, not an accident. There is always a cause and it rarely comes to something accidental.

I don't know about Ipads or iphones but in the WiFi settings you will see what is currently connected. If the SE2 is turned on it will show as a saved connection if the ipad is connected to your home WiFi. On my phone & tablet I just select the SE2 & it connects & disconnects the home WiFi. As soon as you are finished & turn it off the iPad should automatically revert to the home WiFi. Uavionix is right. Battery degradation happens at high charge conditions so if the SE2 is constantly being charged it will not get a chance to discharge enough as electrons travel from the anode to the cathode via an electrical circuit to balance the charge. When the battery is being charged the electrons travel the other way but there is no circuit to balance it so the energy gets stored. Car batteries are constantly being charged while they also discharge & they only last a few years. The lithium battery in my old phone is still good & it was new in 2017. I never put it on charge unless the level was down to 20% or less. The battery has well outlived its software capabilities.

When the SE2 is charging do not turn it on. The only light should be the blue Batt light.

Check the battery charge status via software on your iPad. It should show 100% when the blue light goes out after charging assuming you are charging with a QC3 charger delivering 18 watts or thereabouts. The command is 192.168.4.1/stats in the browser of the iPad when it is connected to the SE2 via WiFi. You will get 3 greens if 1. the battery is charged to more than 66%, 2. The SE2 is connected to the IPad, & 3 it is outside with a good view of the sky so the GPS is connected to satellites in 3D.

I bought a Chinese made MG4 electric car. The build quality is better than all previous Japanese cars I've owned, the manuals are in perfect British English and it is one of the best handling cars Petrol or Electric you can buy today. It has won 5 Car of the Year awards and numerous other awards as well. One Australian reviewer had test driven all the early Chinese MGs and the verdict was at best they were below average and worst positively woeful. I would hope that the Zonshen are in the quality at affordable price camp. Generally you get what you pay for but in the case of Rotax they are way over priced for what you get. Of course manufacturing volume plays a big part in pricing.

As can ATC. The SE2 provides a different downlink code to that provided by Mode S extended squitter ADSB transmitters. ATC are able to filter all the SE2 data out if they want to. They don't do this at Coffs as I have proven a number of times when calling them & given my ADSB call sign (R + rego number). They may do this at Sydney or Melbourne as they don't need the clutter on the screen from recreational aviators who may be 20 to 30 NM away at low level.

According to Uavionix the SE2 transmits barometric pressure from its in built barometric altimeter. The GPS provides location latitude & longitude. SBAS GPS reception o High precision SBAS GPS meeting performance requirements of TSO-C199, transmitting a Source Integrity Level (SIL) and System Design Assurance (SDA) values of 1, ensuring ATC and airborne avionics can receive and trust the GPS position being transmitted. • Barometric Altimeter for pressure altitude

It certainly will. Much cheaper from AliExpress but a week for delivery but you will often get QC3 plus PD in the same adaptor & USB A & USB C outlets.

Based on some other comments (not Uavionix) it should be OK. Before you plug in Check the current battery charging status by entering 192.168.4.1/stats in the browser of your connected device & write that down. After you get back and disconnect do the same and compare the values. If the first reading is higher than the second then you are using more power than your charger can deliver. If the second reading is higher then the SE2 is consuming less than the charger is replacing. The only other thing to keep in mind is that you should discharge the battery to 40% - 50% every now and then to prolong its life.