sfGnome

Is the cooling cap a Sonex thing or a Skippy thing? Where are you picking up the airflow that you’re feeding to it?

Most of the planes I’ve flown have had motorised flaps, but the Jab 55(? - very early model) had the flap handle over your head and I really liked that. Easy to get to and very easy to operate.

yep. Here’s the rules from the horses mouth.

Fair enough. I’ve always read about it on the CASA website, but yes, it is some other government department that’s running the show.

It seems that units that handle both IN and OUT are a rare breed (except possibly when you get to the really high end of the spectrum - a place I don’t inhabit!), so yes, if you want both autopilot and ADSB IN, then the iLevel might be a good choice, but it doesn’t replace your transponder. You still have to get a separate OUT unit. Given that you already have a transponder, you perhaps should just go with a Sky Echo for your ADSB? Alternatively, if you really want to upgrade your transponder, then getting an ADSB OUT equipped one will halve its price courtesy of the rebate. You still have to get an IN device though, which doesn’t attract the rebate (they don’t care if you can’t see others, they just want to make sure that others can see you). As an aside, doesn’t the iLevel autopilot rely on adding extra trim tabs on the wings? Would that cause problems with your 24 reg? I haven’t looked at the iLevel lately, so perhaps it has changed.

This is bucket-list stuff. One of these days… 🤔

I was just in the process of hitting the buy button for my engine and prop then the Donald pulled his tariff trick. The price went up $3k overnight, so I held off, and thankfully the exchange rate improved and recovered most of that. I’m still many thousands worse off than if I’d bought before his inauguration, but if I could predict the future then I’d be a very rich man…

Nup. Their value is only what people will pay for them. The idea that you’re building an asset may not apply any more. I’m resigned to the possibility that I won’t be able to sell it for what it has cost me, but the fun has been well worth it.

Well, I’m up to about $160k, but my beloved thinks it’s worth it just to stop me moping around the house whinging about having nothing to do. Actually, if it wasn’t so blinking expensive, then I’d aim at doing another when this one is finished. I haven’t had this much fun in years.

Making the wild assumption that ICP supply the same stick grips for the Savannah as they did for my Ventura, what did you Sav owners do about mounting a PTT switch? The hole in the top is very rough, and about 15mm diameter and straight through, so there is nothing to hold a switch in place. What am I missing?

I’ve flown Ryanair a few times. The photo has a ring of truth… 😛 (but gee it was cheap!)

Do you have a bit of counterweight on the tip (red bag in the 2nd photo) to assist in the balance? Given that I generally work solo, this method is very interesting. I’m not sure how I’d rustle up the 3 helpers that the manual recommends.

As I understand it, you can’t have the SK2 and the transponder both transmitting ADSB at the same time. One of them has to be disabled, and if your transponder can send SIL>1 and with higher power, then it doesn’t seem to make sense to use the SK2’s output.

For those of you who have bought a transponder with ADSB out (for the sake of argument, let's say uAvionix tailBeaconX) AND an ADSB IN-capable device (say, a SkyEcho, so you can see other aircraft), were you able to claim both devices from CASA as part of the one installation, or do they classify that as being two devices and not cover one of them? Note that in my example, I've specified the SkyEcho and not a pure IN device like the Ping on the basis that it is OUT-capable even though in this instance it would be turned off.

Or possibly he saw them, but the “I’ve got to get this rented plane back, so I can’t risk getting stuck by stopping” thought process took over. Another form of get-there-itis.