sfGnome

My guess was that it was a Hercules.

Yep, you’re not seeing things (or maybe we are having simultaneous delusions! 😛). I saw it going over Silverwater, and from the height and direction I assumed it was transiting to Richmond.

I may not be representative, but I recall doing a lot of met work in my RAA training (or it seemed to be a lot at the time because it was hard). I’m happy to accept that what I was taught was entirely up to my instructor (who was also the the CFI), so there’s no guarantee that everyone is/was trained the same way. It’s also possible that what seemed like a lot to me was only one pufteenth of the required knowledge; after all, I only know what I was taught, not what I wasn’t taught. But, let’s for a moment assume (on the basis of this sample of 1) that RAA training isn’t necessarily a poor cousin of GA training, though I’m sure that there are some poor RAA (and GA) instructors out there…

It’s likely that they are grouped because it is easier to recall 2 numbers than 4. i.e. “twenty four, thirty nine” is easier to recall than “two, four, three, nine”. When I was learning (actually, failing to learn, but that’s another subject) French a few years ago, I was taught that they quote telephone numbers in two-groups and found that it was much easier to handle (even in English 😳).

What bothers me most is that I must not have been listening - or I wasn’t taught, but I suspect the former - when the topic of variation in Va with weight came up in training. What’s more, I can immediately recollect an instance, one up, stuck under the Canberra steps on a stinking hot day and getting thrown around like a rag doll where I’m pretty sure that I was going too fast for the conditions. One more cup-full out of the bag of luck, and one more into the bag of experience…

I’ve just been reading an AOPA article that gave the rough rule of thumb that for every 2% below max weight, you should reduce your manoeuvre speed by 1%. That got me thinking about the new RAAus 750kg class G. Let’s say that you want the extra load capacity because your favourite travelling companion gets a bit annoyed when you limit them to 10kg luggage in a 600kg plane, so you decide to splash out and go to the bigger class. So far, so good. However… However, most of the time, you’re not carrying a big load. In fact, you’re carrying just yourself and 30L fuel. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s imagine that amounts to 460kg, and that the published Va of the plane is 115kt. For a 600kg plane, that brings your ‘real’ Va down to 101kt, but for a 750kg plane, it drops to 92kt. That makes for pretty slow going in a supposedly fast aircraft. Now, I know that I’ve made some wild assumptions regarding the similarity of two aircraft designed for different max weights, but taking as an example ICP’s Ventura (newish big sister to the wonderful Sav) which is available in three max weights with similar specs (after taking different engine powers into account), perhaps the assumptions are not so wild after all? The question is, what’s wrong with my analysis, or is moving up to a heavier aircraft a bad idea if you mostly just tootle around?

Thanks KG. That was really interesting. With regard to the bit I’ve quoted, are they saying “don’t leave it empty”, or “don’t leave it full” (or both)? What’s the reasoning?

I’ll never forget my first EFATO practice. I knew it was coming. I’d talked through it with the instructor just before lining up. I’d practiced it in my head many times. And when he cut the throttle, I froze and did absolutely nothing. 😳

Efficiency. If you’re pulling 2A from your converter, then the old linear converter will be dissipating 14W as heat, whereas the switching regulator will dissipate in the order of 100mW. Note, though, that not all switching regulators generate high voltages. For high efficiency, they do have very sharp edges on the switching signals, but that’s easy to control with careful design (and a little bit of extra money).

Landing may be pretty easy, but I imagine that taking off on 11 would be a bit sphincter-tightening… 😝

I like it! Be even better if the lens was a fraction wider angle, but that’s being picky. p.s. like the music. 😛

I used to work for a company that was developing a radical new product and was very secretive about what it was doing. When it was finally announce to the world, it was amusing (and a little frustrating) to see lots of on-line comments to the effect that it wasn’t possible and all the images and videos were ‘obviously’ fake… 🙄 p.s. I have to add that some people put lots of money into it, but while it was good, it wasn’t the raging success that they expected so none of them have made their money back, and they’re never likely too either. Such is the way of development. 🙁

If I may permitted a small thread drift here, I noticed that no one commented one way or the other about this. Is a draughty cabin common in the Sav, or can it be easily be made breeze-free?

As any (good) engineer will tell you, it’s easy to design something, but it’s hard to think of every stupid thing that a user will try to do with it! Testing that the design works as intended is the easy bit; testing that it still works when used incorrectly takes much longer. Yes, the pilot should have tested free and full movement, but the designer had a responsibility to design for the case where the controls were left locked.

Your two crowns will be helping to pay for the S21… 😛

Yes, you’re right. The iPads without the capability to take a SIM are not adequate for running ozRunways, etc., but you don’t need to actually put a SIM in them. We used to use an iPad mini, and I never felt the need for anything bigger. I also uploaded all our checklists as PDFs into ozR as documents so that they were only a couple of taps away at all stages of flight.

…or you hotspot it off your phone. Saves paying for two SIM plans

This is an interesting thread. I’ve learned a number of things that I otherwise wouldn’t have, but at times have thought of ignoring it because it was getting rather heated. I’m glad I didn’t, but I do hope that now the rancour can be left behind because the substance was well worth the effort, even if the delivery left something to be desired on occasions. 🙂 Let’s keep talking, but gently.

They help you to know/remember when is last light, but until you’ve discovered for yourself just how dark last light is, all the reminders in the world won’t help. A number of years ago, I took a few friends for short joy rides out of Mount Beauty late in the afternoon. By calculation, I was fine for the last run to finish before last light, but it gets really dark, really quickly down there between all the mountains. That was a very uncomfortable landing, and one that I’m not going to repeat any time soon.

But, have you ever been inside one? It makes a Jab feel spacious. Disclaimer: the one I’ve been in was not in a flying state. Still, in my dreams… 😍

Mark, are you talking about factory and amateur built, or only factory? The Sling agent told me that as a home-built, it will be able to be registered as group G despite being limited to 600kg for the factory built (LSA) versions.

Sorry, I think that was a poor paraphrase on my part. I was meaning that the autonomous car is expected to handle any craziness around it without ever resulting in any accidents.

My favourite example of that was the Avro Vulcan (a beautiful looking aircraft). It was designed to fly high and (relatively) slow, on the basis that it was too high to be shot down. Then, not long after it was introduced, Gary Power’s U2 was shot down over the USSR, and the Vulcan became obsolete overnight. The only service it ever saw was one bombing run on the Falklands/Malvinas.

Elon Musk made an interesting comment regarding full automation in motor vehicles. Paraphrasing, he said that getting self drive cars up to the same standard as human drivers was setting the bar very low. Everyone expects other drivers to make mistakes, but fully automated ones are expected to never do so.

Pretty spectacular scenery, but, geez, you wouldn’t want the engine to go quiet on you… 😳