sfGnome

Took the camera up to the strip today for a bit of a play... No, there aren't any aircraft in this one. I just liked the picture.

Don't have any pretty pictures of my last two flights, so you'll have to put up with a description. Talk about chalk and cheese. First one was supposed to be on Boxing Day from Cessnock to Mt Beauty. Sydney weather beautiful, southern weather not so (wife was driving down the same day and said the rain was so heavy she couldn't see the traffic in front of her on the highway and the lightning was spectacular). Following day, southern weather lovely, Cessnock weather crap. I had two choices; out west and then turn left, or down through Sydney and across past Canberra. Area forecast had high w

Sorry to maintain the thread drift, but this reminded me of some that really surprised me recently. My son took a photo of me checking the oil during the preflight, and posted same on facebook. One of the comments (from a paraglider pilot, of all people) was "that can't be good if he's looking under the bonnet!". It had never occurred to me that an onlooker may consider that inspecting the engine would be an indication of something wrong rather than being good practice, but now I explain *why* I'm "looking under the bonnet". Oh, and two other things. If I have someone who's never landed in a l

Got a happy surprise to see 4669 in amongst the photos. That was the aircraft I learned in. It was converted to Rotax when Paul had something like (I think) 4 engine failures in 2 years. Cost a bomb to do because he had to go the full engineering route to maintain its '24' status. Good to see it again. :)

This dipstick managed to leave our calibrated dipstick on the wing during the preflight yesterday. Sadly an extensive search of the surrounds didn't locate it, so I'm faced with the task of making a new one. To hopefully save me from laborously draining and refilling the tanks, does anyone have a marked dipstick for a Sierra with 100L wing tanks. If so, could you please tell me the measurements of the markings? Thanks!

Well, I just downloaded it on an iPad, opened it in iBooks and it's all good. It's only slightly smaller than a page of the printed version, and it's easy to zoom if required. No problem.

Sadly, my wife almost always refused to pillion. She reckoned that there was no point looking at the back of my head when she could be riding her own Super Sports...

Thanks Kaz. Sadly, it looks like I'll have to wait another 2 years before I give it a shot. I'm gunna get there one day!

Doing a bit of idle Sunday night dreaming/scheming/planning... If I were to fly from Bairnsdale to the Avalon east for the airshow, is it better to come via Portsea to the reporting point at Clifton Springs, or via the coastal route under Moorabbin and around the top of Port Philip to the other entry point over Point Cook? To explain a little more, lots of "personal minimums" thinking has left me with a distinct desire to not fly over water - exiting a low wing, bubble canopy aircraft after it flips when the wheels touch the water doesn't seem like a terribly likely prospect. Anyhow, the so

Why do I fly? Perhaps this may provide the answer... I was reading a message from our daughter on my wife's phone (with her permission, I hasten to add) when I noticed a message that my wife had recently sent to her. "You father's grumpy because <blah blah>, but he's going flying this afternoon so he'll be OK". Think she knows me well??

There's an important difference between normal battery chargers (be they lead acid or NiCad or whatever) and iPhone/Pad chargers. In the former case, the charger is driving a constant current (up to a certain voltage limit) directly into the battery. In that case, the charger is, indeed, in charge. However, in the case of the phone and pad (and many other small electronic devices), the "charger" that we have been discussing is actually just a constant voltage power supply. The part that is controlling the battery charging is built into the phone, because lithium batteries are too dangerous to

As the wise man said, "Opinions are like arseholes - everybody has one. However, unlike arseholes, you should get yours out every once in a while and give them a thorough examination under a strong light". Simplistically, you can always supply a lower-drawing load from a higher-capacity supply. This is because the high capacity is merely a measure of how much current it can supply before the voltage starts to droop. If a supply is rated at 2.5A, that doesn't mean that it forces 2.5A into the load; merely that it can supply it if the load wants. In the case of your phone, it doesn't want to dr

Something to make you feel good! :)

Morning or afternoon? I went up at about 6:30pm for a little sight-see with a mate over Newcastle and the coast, and it was still really hot until we had climbed sufficiently. For all that, the air was relatively smooth - better than expected anyway. :)

During my last BFR, I took advantage of having a CFI on board and spent some time doing power-on, climbing, slipping stalls and power-on, climbing, skidding stalls. Apart from being lots of fun (with an instructor!!), it also clarified and confirmed lots of stuff I'd read about how the plane - and the pilot - should react.