sfGnome

Ozzie, It was strange reading your initial post. All the time I'm thinking, hmmm... my wife's family came on the Maitland... lots of people died on the trip... brothers and wives and kids... settled in the Hunter... Anyhow, I went and looked it up and they arrived in 1830 so it wasn't the same family. Looks like coming to Oz on the Maitland was a dangerous undertaking!

Don, small hijack time. What are you thinking of getting?

John, How much do you expect to get completed at Taree, and how long are you going to be there? Are you aiming to skin the fuse, or just get the framework in place? Wings? Tail feathers? So many questions... :)

Hmmm... Clearly I'm going to have to come over to Perth one of these days. Anywhere that can manage an airstrip in such a beautiful location (even if it isn't used much) has to be a bit special! :)

Learning with your partner. I'm jealous! Welcome, lucky one.

What's the story with that centre photo? Not often you see a plane taxiing next to what looks like major roads.

Step by step, day by day, section by section. It's much easier to take in a small amount every day than an indigestible lump just before you need it. ( p.s. I wish I'd known that when I was at school! )

I reckon cficare's hit the nail on the head. Your question got me thinking, and I came to the conclusion that every new thing has been a real buzz. Solo, Area Solo, Nav Solo, first passenger (my beloved - I've never flown so carefully :) ), different a/c, different field. Hanging out for the overnight nav and then the big trip.

All things come to (s)he who waits... (blame Disraeli for that one :) ). Now you can head back to the field and casually say those magic words - "Oh, I'd like to hire a plane for an hour or two".

I thought the same when I first saw it, but it's actually much better for fine control than the later Jab push-in, pull-out throttle on the panel when it comes to making small adjustments. I would have preferred the old control was moved across to the left had side of the seat. I wonder if you could mount it on the door?? (Oops. Getting a little off topic. Sorry! i_dunno)

I used to be quite happy with the size of my knee board until I recently flew a Jab LSA where the throttle was between my legs and I found that I couldn't reach the throttle any more. For the cruise section I just reached over to the lever on the right hand seat and then took the knee board off prior to landing, but I'm going to have to find a better way if I'm going to keep flying that plane.

Going a fraction off-topic (congrats on the solo by the way!), how much practice did people get at last minute go-arounds before they went solo? I mean, your instructor always says "if anything goes wrong, just go around", but when they're in the plane with you, things don't seem to go wrong enough, do they? I think my first attempt at a serious go-around was early in the solo stage, and because the flaps were still in the basement, when I hit the power the a/c pointed itself at the sky and sort-of hung on the prop until I got everything under control again. Bit shaky afterwards...

Nothing wrong with talking to yourself while you're flying. Hell, if there's no one else there to talk to then you might as well chat to the one person who won't disagree with you! Keep talking, keep flying, keep enjoying, keep learning. Sounds good to me. :thumb_up:

Does being printed in the US mean that it'll have the US holidays on it, or is that part of the layout that the designer (ie you) do?

That one of the Jab 5488 is excellent. Captured it beautifully.

Why do we have to choose? I want to go to all those places (plus more!). Having been watching Le Tour all night for the last few weeks (and dragging around work barely awake during the days), I'd love to fly through some of those valleys. They are just awesome. Then again, who could go past Lake Eyre, Uluru and the Bungle Bungles for contrast. Hmmm... Then again, landing on a deserted beach in the Whitsundays wouldn't be exactly painful either. Oh, the choices!

I'm presuming that it was a head-mounted camera? The way that the a/c was bouncing around on finals a few times there was made all the more obvious by the stability of your head! Who needs steady-cam when you've got a steady head! :)

Lots of good answers here, but there's something else just as important as getting a good instructor; it's being a good student! If you don't understand something and you don't ask (again and again), then you're not a good student. If you dismiss something that you're told because you think you know better, then you're not a good student. If you go off in a huff because you've been ticked off by your instructor, then - you've guessed it - you not a good student. How do I know these things? Umm, because I'm not a...

I'm the other way around I think. I'm not at all bothered by heights, be they cliffs or tall buildings or whatever, but the first time that my instructor tipped the plane forward and left (demonstrating incipient spin or something), I just about wet myself. Doesn't bother me now, but geez I got a fright at the time! Don't worry Jab. You'll be ok.

What worked for me was a knee board from the Rec Flying shop. My instructor reckoned that they are a waste of time, but for the first couple of navs where I did things his way (as you would!), I had paper going everywhere. On the kneeboard, I keep the flight plan on the centre clip with printouts of the ERSA pages for all the airstrips that I could possibly get near (with things like CTAF, elevation, etc highlighted) sitting underneath. General notes in the clear pocket on the right. The relevant map sits folded on top of the whole shebang, or is slid off between my right leg and the centre console when I want to read the plan, and the whizz-wheel and other toys sit in the door pocket. Easy-as! Now all I need is two right hands so that I can fly the plane and write at the same time!

Just remember Darky, it's always darkest just before it goes completely pitch black... Nah, seriously, what seems like forever now will seem like no time later on. (Geez. I'm starting to sound like an old man. Oh wait! I am an old man )

Well, be sure to keep us up to date with progress (in between trying to actually make some progress, that is ).

Yep, but that's on the east side. Anyhow, no matter. As it's CTA during the week, I can't go through there anyhow (unlike, say, the lane to the west of Williamstown). Thanks anyhow. Much appreciated. :)

Thanks all for the quick replies. Bob, I couldn't find any reference to a VFR lane to the west, but as I'd most likely be going down on a weekend anyhow (think my brother would get a bit shirty if I dropped in while he was at work ), looks like it won't be a problem. Now I just have to work out when.

I've been looking at the maps and satellite pictures for a potential flight heading south from Sydney - say from The Oaks to Moruya. If you come across to the coast around Wollongong, then how do you get past Nowra's restricted area? I can't go through the VFR lane on the coast and the land to the west of there looks pretty inhospitable. Alternatively, if you follow the Hume down to about Marulan before heading south, you still have to cross 20 miles of tall timber to the west of Moruya. What's the best way in, or am I just being too cautious? :confused: