sfGnome

Yep. I had re-do two sets of sill bricks a little while back. In the time it took me, a real brickie could have done the whole side of a house! The plumbing might be not too difficult, but it had to get council approval for the build (back in the day when councils cared about that).

“CATL's condensed battery leverages highly conductive biomimetic condensed state electrolytes to construct a micron-level self-adaptive net structure that can adjust the interactive forces among the chains, thus improving the conductive performance of the cells.” How’s that for a marketing manager’s wet dream. Absolutely no idea what that means… 🤷‍♂️ As always though, I remain hopeful of progress.

It’s interesting watching this discussion. For years I worked for a company that was trying to do something very commonplace in a completely new, vastly better way - something that all the large established companies had spent literally billions trying to achieve (and failed). The fun part was when we first put a demo video on line, reading all the comments from the experts about how it had to be fake because we were a little, unknown company and couldn’t possibly have done it, and if it was true, then it would never get into production. Guess what? We did, and it did. Just occasionally - though not very often - the online experts are wrong.

Definitely in the frame, but (ignoring the never ending and unresolvable arguments about Jab engine reliability), haven’t you just bought a new plane because you decided that there was a problem with the attitude of the Jab company? The other thing that concerns me is that Jab specify that it must be run on Avgas. I know that lots of people use ULP98 on them, but what happens of you want to make a warranty claim?

Yep. I’ve built two houses on my own - brickies and plumber the only subbies - so I’m a bit of a sucker for big, long term projects. Last house took 5 years despite me confidently reassuring my beloved that it would take one. Making no promises about this task. 🫣 I will admit that the thought of the family having to dispose of a half-built project if I carked it does bother me, but I guess the solution to that problem is to just not die. So far, so good… 😛

This may seem odd, but I’m not looking for quick build. It’s the act of building that I’m looking forward to, even more than the flying (though that’s a pretty good bonus). Having said that, I know my limitations so I’ll be restricting myself to full kits; no plans and raw materials for this little black duck! 😯

What load can you take with full fuel and 2 POB? The Tecnam was limited to about 20kg, which is fine for overnighters, but a bit of a problem for a week-long trip.

Ah, well that depends… The RA weight increase is a significant factor, because my beloved was never beloved of being limited on the amount of luggage she can pack when visiting family interstate. However, I don’t want to start something on the assumption that it’s all going to (eventually) go through smoothly and end up with a pile of unusable metal if they change the proposed rules. If the weight increase becomes real, then the ICP Ventura looks interesting (though I’d be a bit wary of being the first in Aus to build one). Also, the new Brumby that is being developed is also a possibility - I’d love to support a local - but I don’t know how that is progressing. Maybe an RV? I haven’t looked closely at them to see if any of them fit the requirements. In the absence of a weight increase, then maybe a Sling or an RV12? Lots of options in that area. Still plenty of thinking to do. Our recent move has opened up a possibility (probability!) that has been closed for the last 12 years.

Funny how history catches up with you. I am, after many years, in a position to get a shed so that I can home build, and I thought I’d search the archives to see if anyone had advice on shed sizes. Guess what? I asked exactly that question 12 years ago. Time flies! Anyhow, based on the above, I don’t need to ask it again. 🙂

I may be strange, but I've used the Airport Bus any number of times when coming to Melbourne and it's always seemed like a pretty good system. In Sydney, we (almost) always use the train, because anything is better than driving in Sydney traffic...

No, I’ve never flown a Jab powered anything. As for its handling, I really only have reasonable experience on that plane and a Tecnam - both Rotax powered - so it seemed fine to me.

I used to hire 24-4669 which was a Rotax powered 160. No idea where it is now, but if it’s still flying then it should be traceable.

Who are you calling a clot? 🤪😂

I dunno. You’re sitting down all day Saturday and you’re going to be sitting down all day Monday, a bit of exercise sounds like a good idea. 😄

Not dissimilar to the old chauffeurs. Just the hired help…

I think what you’re missing is that the government is so incredibly competent that it chooses to appear incompetent so you won’t notice while they’re taking over the world. I know this is true because I saw a web page that said so. Do your own research, sheeple!

How big are those tail feathers! I can’t imagine that the size is anything to do with the vtol capability.

That’s an interesting point. We used to run an iPad mini and never had any shutdowns despite being under a bubble canopy. The thing is, it was a dedicated device that lived in the plane, and ran a total of 3 apps - OzRunways, an email client and a web browser.

We don’t want ground planes. We want air planes… 😝

I look at some of these designs that you dig up, Red, and think “geez, I’d love to see them fly”. The last two in particular. Clearly the result of designers thinking “what haven’t we tried before”. As time goes on, it gets harder and harder to break the orthodoxy. As an engineer, I’ve worked for a company that was trying to break the mould. It’s a very hard row to hoe.

I love flying, be it as a recreational pilot or as a passenger in a big aluminium tube. One of the highlights of my life was sitting in the jump seat of a 747 landing in Frankfurt (pre 9/11 of course). But… I still occasionally find myself thinking “what if this thing goes down?”. No one is immune; just some are more susceptible than others. My beloved’s way to deal with it is to go to sleep, so I might as well be flying solo.

Putting aside questions of medical clearance and CASA, etc, does anyone have an answer for Walrus’ request?

At the risk of being shot at, I’ll (cautiously) put my head above the parapet and suggest… What if, instead of having the finish point at the airport (where the workload is the heaviest and the risk the greatest), perhaps have the finish point somewhere a few miles away. Put a series of countdown markers on successive paddocks that are easily visible from 500-1000’ AGL, and have the pilot make their finish call as they cross the last one. Observers on the ground can ascertain whether the aircraft is actually there when the call is made, and they can do so in complete safety. All the competitors will be coming from the same direction, so there’s little chance of crossing paths. The downside that I can see is that it adds yet another call on CTAF (10 mile, finish, joining crosswind & turning base). You could use a chat frequency for the finish call, but that leaves the pilot fiddling with tuning when they should be preparing for the circuit. Dunno 🤷‍♀️

What they all said, but I’d add one thing more. Make sure that you’ve practiced go-arounds from close to the ground (not touch and goes) enough times with your instructor first. I was not ready for way the plane reacted the first time I had to do a go around, and unfortunately I was solo when it happened. I had a great instructor, but that’s one thing he missed…

Some time back I was talking to one of SAAA’s technical contact points about building under SAAA oversight with an intent to register as RAA, and he was of the view that that would be no problem; that their concern was getting people building aircraft safely, not on which register it would end up. I do hope that haven’t misquoted/misinterpreted what he said.