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sfGnome

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Everything posted by sfGnome

  1. sfGnome
    Straight and level, you still have to be creating lift, which means that there will be some angle of attack. The dim, dark and distant recesses of my memory tell me that something like 4 deg is common. So, if your wing chord is roughly 1m, then the front of the wing is going to be roughly 70mm above the back in that case. Then again, I could be wrong...
  2. sfGnome
    Interesting seminar. Like Powerin, I didn't get any real surprises, but the gentle pace of the session meant that I could sit and really think about a few things that he said rather than just letting them fly past me. The other thing that it did was reawaken an idea I've had previously - to go and get some spin training. As a RA pilot, I've obviously had no spin training, but I also don't want to head down the GA path just to get a it either. I'm not interested in aerobatics so (very) unusual attitudes training isn't what I have in mind, but more just to find out a) what a spin feels like (and how easy or other wise it is to detect the rotation direction), and b) how close I'm getting to an incipient spin in my normal operations. Is there a way to do that without becoming a GA student?
  3. sfGnome
    My instructor asked for flawless landings all the time - he just didn't get 'em too often, that's all.
  4. sfGnome

    Here we go!!

    sfGnome replied to pudestcon's topic in Thruster

    Pud, I loved the shot from about 6:10 to 6:30. You couldn't have lined it up better if you'd tried.
  5. sfGnome
    Where I learned, it was all left hand circuits. One day my instructor told me that we'd be doing glide approaches from the dead side. Ok, thinks I. He'll let me do one power-on circuit so I can get the right hand circuit sorted and then we'll worry about glides. Nup! Half way down the dead side, off goes the engine, and Gnomey has to turn the 'wrong' way with the 'wrong' picture of the strip in my head and plant it on the piano keys with no power. Guess what? It seems that good ol' CFI had a better understanding of what I was capable of than I did. I'm pretty sure that yours will too. Oh, and be very careful about mental reference points. Consciously try to choose things that are not specific to your home airport. For instance, if you turn base above some particular landmark, then that landmark won't be there when you go to another airstrip. Instead, get a picture in your mind of how far you are from the strip when you're on down wind (because that will always look the same anywhere), and then turn at some point relative to the end of the strip (eg when you cross a line drawn at 45deg from the end of the strip, or something like that).
  6. sfGnome
    Ok - the first thing to do to see if anything is damaged is to solder back in the old switches. If it works, you're still alive. Next, use your multimeter to see whether pressing the switch makes or breaks the circuits. You might have a setup where one of the signals is connected when you push the button and one that is disconnected. When you've got that sorted, either the double pole switch that av8vfr suggested or Virago's relay would work, though it's probably easier to use the switch. Key thing is to make sure that it replicates the make or break conditions of the original switches. Generally with those switches, the terminal in the middle is the common one, one of the terminals on the outside will be normally open, and the other will be normally closed. So, one wire to the centre, and the other wire to the correct outside pin depending on whether that pair need to be closed or open when you push the switch.
  7. sfGnome
    Ayavner, you know how when we were kids, we thought that only mad people talked to themselves? It's time to become a little mad. Talk yourself all the way around the circuit (oh, and shouting yahoo at the top of your voice isn't a bad idea either ).
  8. sfGnome
    Typical uni students. Spend all their time stuffing around...
  9. sfGnome
    David, Thanks for those photos. We were able to roughly locate my Uncle's property "in one of those puddles in the upper left" of the photo of Katamatite. We're told that he's in a bit of a mess with cattle standing in water and unable to feed; seeing the photo just makes the situation that much clearer.
  10. sfGnome
    I must be getting old. Why the hell would you want to fly that close to the trees/cliffs/ground/whatever. That wasn't brave - just dumb!
  11. sfGnome
    Spent my life in hi-tech engineering. Worked my way up to senior management and then realised that I wasn't getting to do any design any more, so I worked my way back down again... Love designing/building/testing, and I'd desperately love to roll my own a/c, but I'd need to be retired to have the time, and not retired to have the money. Ah well. If business keeps going the way it is, I mightn't have much of a choice before too long
  12. sfGnome
    Yep, like 80k, I have a light pair of thin soled shoes I fly in - much nicer than the clodhoppers.
  13. sfGnome
    May the journey be long enough to be worth it and short enough to survive! Happy building. Hope it all goes well.
  14. sfGnome
    Thanks for the story Tomo. Good to read about something that I doubt I'll ever get to do.
  15. sfGnome
    Access (and the weather) are the things that kill me. Where I live is 1 hour's drive from the closest available a/c for hire (and then only for brief periods booked well in advance - see note about weather!), 1 1/2 hours to the next closest, 2 hours to the next and 2 1/2 hours to the next. It's a bummer to drive a 3-4 hour round trip only to find that circumstances at the strip are not suitable, regardless of how good the weather forecasters predicted it to be. Of course, when I finally get in the air, I really enjoy the challenge of being a clean, consistent, in-control pilot. Unfortunately, those things remain a challenge...
  16. sfGnome
    I couldn't stop reading. Staggering just how matter-of-fact he was; what the weather was, what show he watched, which city he bombed, which of his mates didn't make it... If I could just get my youngest son to pull his head out of his killing games on the computer for a moment and read it, I wonder if it would register anything with him?
  17. sfGnome
    Hi Adam, Where's the Tecnam you're learning on? I didn't know there was one in the Sydney area. p.s. I have a Maton AX5 electric from the early 70's - supposed to be worth a bit now to collectors of such things, but I haven't seen it for years since number 1 son purloined it...
  18. sfGnome
    I was taught side slipping and forward slipping as a matter of course - I didn't even think of it being any different to any other normal maneuver until this thread came up, but it got me thinking. I was on holidays one time and I took the opportunity to have a check flight at the local school because they had an aircraft type that I wouldn't normally have access to. There was a moderate crosswind, so I just forward slipped it as is my normal practice until the instructor ordered (there's no other word for it) me to "stop side slipping!". It's his plane, so I'm not going to argue (ever notice that no two instructors follow the same set of rules? but I digress), so I just crabbed it instead and all were happy. Point is, presumably there's one school where you're not going to get too much side slip practice...
  19. sfGnome
    Can I just get a clarification? Is it basically correct (and I'm trying to use simple terms here for clarity - for me, even if for no one else :) ) that rolling the plane and then using top rudder to keep it straight (ie a side slip) is 'spin resistant', while not rolling the plane enough and kicking in bottom rudder (ie a skidding turn) is 'spin inducing'?? On a slightly different tack, I sometimes use a slight side slip (after explaining what I am going to do) so that my passenger can see something on the ground on my side of the aircraft. Bearing in mind that this is normally in cruise, is that likely to over stress the frame? I've never seen a prohibition in a POH, but then I guess the POH doesn't say "do not attempt wing walking while dressed in a Superman cape" either...
  20. sfGnome
    That's *really* scary. It's not like the other dots fade or blink a bit - they just disappear entirely, just like an oncoming plane...
  21. sfGnome
    Interesting. Did you notice how the first one came out of the clouds with a bit of a bank? Assuming s/he wasn't turning intentionally then is that level of 'error' normal when flying on instruments?
  22. sfGnome
    Oooo... Shiny!
  23. sfGnome
    Rule #1: The loo is the last stop before the cockpit. Rule #2: Refer Rule #1! I have a bit of a problem 'holding on', so I don't like to go more than about 90 min between landings. However, my beloved hates the landings and is always pressing me to plan longer legs. On one long trip, I discovered that a) coke bottles have a very narrow opening, and b) when the warm contents cool and the air pressure increases on descent, the aforementioned coke bottle collapses in on itself. Lucky it was plastic and not glass!
  24. sfGnome

    Here we go!!

    sfGnome replied to pudestcon's topic in Thruster

    Loved the sounds of the blowie at around 0:50 - never would have heard that with a music backing!
  25. sfGnome
    Hey Iggy, looks like Google Earth agrees with you
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