sfGnome

Yep, what Neil said! :thumb_up:

Hey Rach, just do the Jimmy Choo / sneaker shuffle. Wear the pretty watch until you get in the plane, and then do the quick swaperoo to the functional one (which at my age is one with nice big numbers... )

Folks, have a look at what Hildy said in his first post. "If you look at the track side-on in google earth...". He isn't using GPS to as a navigation tool in the circuit, he's using it to review his flight performance back home in the comfort of his computer chair. I did (and still do) exactly the same thing with a small portable GPS recorder that sits tucked out of the way, silently remembering what I've done. When I was learning circuits, it taught me that those nice 90deg turns were anything but, and these days I still review every flight later that night for track and altitude accuracy. Hildy, the most likely reason that your altitude track doesn't look as expected is that the GPS will be 'smoothing' the recorded path - it assumes that a sudden change in direction (ie no longer descending) must be wrong, and so it continues your downward path for a little while. You may be able to remove the smoothing if you dig around in the configuration of the GPS or in the program that you use to upload the data, but I wouldn't worry too much. You know with much more accuracy whether you hit the ground hard or rounded out too high than any GPS recorder ever will. (p.s. I just looked at your track. Given that I can see where you wandered around in the instructors office and when you did the pre-flight check, I'm guessing you were using a sports gps watch. Right? :thumb_up:)

I just went straight to work. Borrrrrring...

Two solos in one day - bet it was nice to know that the first one wasn't a fluke!

I'm with you Nev. I'd love to be building, but I like doing things like that with other people. So far I've built 2 houses and assisted on two others, and I built 2 Minis from wrecks in my younger days (yep, Darky - real Minis, none of this pretend stuff ). Yep, I reckon if I wasn't flying then I'd be building - well, if someone would deposit large sums of moolah in my bank account that is!

Can't see why not. From the evidence in your picture it's a single prop A/C, so unless it exceeds the RA weight limits you should be fine...

Hey, forget the auto pilot! I want details on the porta-potty

Good on ya Stewy. My eldest loves it, my middle kid can take it or leave it, and my youngest won't go near the thing. Mind you, they're all adults...

Thanks very much for all the help & ideas. I particularly like the idea of Chird's temporary garage - I could put something like that up in the back yard without having to worry about council permission, and affecting eventual resale on the house. Yes, you and I might like a house with a whacking big shed taking up most of the back yard, but we're probably few and far between. Besides, I'd be able to explain to the bride that it's only temporary (for about 5 years... ). Might be a bit cold in winter and stinking hot in midsummer, and I'd have to sort out a reliable electricity supply, but that's all possible. Yes! The dream lives on to fight another day.

Just how much space do you need to construct a home-built? Some of the photos that I've seen lately are in sheds bigger than my home (lucky sods!). Clearly, there's not much use in starting to follow the dream if step #1 requires moving house first! I presume that the initial phases (fuse, wings, tailfeathers, etc) don't require as much space as when it all starts to come together, so what do you think are the minimums you'd require (ie X metres x Y metres) for both the early and later phases?

Could the difference be just that a droop down is more likely to suffer tip drag during landing, but provides a slightly better view either side the rest of the time?

I heard a bloke talking about time he spent in Mongolia. He said even out on the steppe, everyone had mobile phones, even though the network was a bit iffy. Apparently the recommended technique for getting an SMS out was to throw the phone as high in the air as possible, and by the time it came down, the message was sent...

Thanks JG. Well written and informative - that one's going in the hope chest.

...and now you can truly say you're one in a million! :big_grin:

It doesn't have to be either/or. She can sit on the wing...

The thing that struck me about the video was the proximity of photographers to the strip. Given that the plane skewing and spearing off the runway to one side was a strong possibility, I wonder how fast they thought they could run??

Razza, As a reasonably low-hours pilot I noticed that my pre-landing checks were getting a bit sloppy, but that all cleared up when I started saying them out loud again. It seems that the act of talking kept me focussed on what I was doing, so now I always speak 'em out, regardless of who is with me. I had a funny reaction from a mate who I took on a quick trip to Goulburn and back. I guess he was expecting it to me like a car on a freeway - press the cruise control, point the nose and sit back - and he said afterwards "It didn't seem very relaxed; you were pretty busy". The constant scan, scan, scan, check inside, navigate, pause conversation to listen to radio calls, etc wasn't at all what he expected a flight to be.

Stagger me!

Youth is wasted on the young! Sometimes you just have to get to a certain age before you get on and do the stuff you always wanted to. Don't think that I've quite reached the "I can afford ownership" stage yet though

I've just seen a flyer for the MAF Discovery Day at Camden on 19th Feb. More details here if you're interested.

Amusing to note that two of the labels on Ian's sheet are "Lighter" and "Ash Tray". Wonder where we'd use those??

Ah, dopey me! Gotcha now...

cfi, could you expand on that a bit? I was taught to increase the revs and then apply heat and listen (or look) for the revs to drop. How does the check work if you're increasing the revs as you apply heat?