sfGnome

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?

10 hours ago, kgwilson said:

Always keep the tank half full to stop water vapour from being sucked in and condensing.

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?

20 minutes ago, turboplanner said:

If you are deliberately practising, if the instructor says, "we'll do a few EFATOs today", you know it's coming, you practiced the checklist, so your reaction time will be about 50/100 second to get on the yoke.

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. 😳

2 hours ago, danny_galaga said:

why is it they are using buck converters instead of voltage regulators for 12v down to 5v?

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). 

12 hours ago, kgwilson said:

The Caravan had it pretty easy on this day & landed straight in on 11.

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. 🙁

On 23/7/2022 at 11:58 AM, Neil_S said:

 

I reckon there are too many draughts in my Savannah S to bother with the heater.

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?

18 hours ago, Flightrite said:

Like pilots rely on engineers to do their job properly they in turn rely on pilots to do likewise, obviously not in this case!

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… 😛

48 minutes ago, APenNameAndThatA said:

(But you still need an iPad that gas GPS, which means it needs to be capable of data downloads, IIRC) 

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. 

23 minutes ago, Garfly said:

(assuming your tablet has cell connection.)

 

…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. 

2 hours ago, Flightrite said:

With the advent of todays gizmo’s to make flying somewhat easier and safer these events should be very few and far between. Avplan, OzzyRwy’s and A/P’s (which are plentiful these days) all help to avoid the “Oh-sh1t” factor…….but then again do they really? Are we relying on modern technology to reduce the level of alertness we might have once had pre the techno crap? Now that’s the question!

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. 

2 hours ago, flying dog said:

I read the post as "Autonomous cars drive with the idea that every car drives safely.".

 

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. 

On 11/6/2022 at 8:55 PM, Old Koreelah said:

Who’d want the responsibility of ordering major defence assetts to be put on line even five years ahead?
Defensive weapons are evolving so fast your new toy could be a cooked goose. Just look at how many advanced attack helicopters the Russians have lost in the last two months.

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. 

10 hours ago, Ian said:

Total automation of the flight envelope would probably be both safer and cheaper however people don't make decisions based on logic.

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… 😳

Apologies if this question has already been discussed in the past, but how much do people set aside for painting (both do it yourself or commercially done)? I’m not talking anything fancy; even plain white, no stripes. I noticed on a kit supplier’s page an estimate of USD20k for a plain job in a local car shop. Is that fair dinkum?

Aeropup.com lists Rollo McKinley in Gympie as a distributor. I’m assuming that’s up to date. 

On 29/4/2022 at 8:24 AM, walrus said:

Zenith CH750…

 

...And design MTOW is 650 kg for a sweetener.

I’m confused. The Zenith website gives the MTOW for the 750 (& the 650 for that matter) as 1320lbs (600kg). Is there something that I’m missing.

Along these lines, are there any kits that

a) have an mtow that can utilise the newly available weight limits (the beloved hated the limited luggage we could take when travelling under the 600kg regime), and

b) are reasonably completely specified (I don’t want to be flying something that is built based on my guesswork).

The RV12 satisfies the second point but not the first, while lots of kits (based on questions I see asked) appear to fail the second. 
 

Apologies in advance for the possible thread drift, but I’d really appreciate it if you could think of those points when answering the original post. 🙂

2 hours ago, Mike Gearon said:

I’m amused (call me shallow) by a couple of waypoints near Alamosa - “Bloke” & “Aches”. I can identify with that… 🙄