rgmwa

Thanks Sav. I remember watching the series quite a while ago now, but certainly worth another look. rgmwa

Thanks Dinger. Will get in touch if necessary closer to the date. rgmwa

Thanks PM. I'll be complying with the rules regarding life jackets and skeds, etc, and transport and fuel should not be problem as I have relatives there. The biggest factor will be the weather, but I believe Mar/April are about the best months to make the trip, so hopefully I'll have a good run. rgmwa

I'm considering flying via Cape Otway to King Island next March. There is some good trip information in previous posts regarding crossing at the eastern end of the Strait, and also the recommendations in ERSA, but has anyone got any first hand experience of flying to King Island? rgmwa

You're right Gnu. Creation is truly unbelievable. rgmwa

That's no fun! It used to take me 40 minutes just to admire the picture on the box, carefully unpack the contents, study the plans, identify each part and imagine the end result of many weekends of painstaking assembly. What is the world coming to? rgmwa

That's certainly a pretty poor review session IMO. For my last GA BFR, apart from a 40 question test paper (which you can do in your own time beforehand), my instructor took me flying for about an hour and a half, which included 10 mins on instruments, steep turns, stalls, slips, incipient spin recovery, a forced landing, a series of unusual attitude recoveries on instruments (at my request), and finally a short field landing on returning to Jandakot, which is a Class D airport so I got a workout on ATC procedures too. Under Part 61, which I just missed out on, I think they now have to do some kind of navigation review too. rgmwa

RACWA also does training at Murrayfield near Mandurah. They have an office/hangar, instructors and aircraft based there. That's a CTAF airfield. Would be a good choice if you live in the area. rgmwa

Don't take any credit cards to the airfield. rgmwa

Probably nothing more subtle than "we've got it, so let's use it .... and if it impresses the Russians too, then so much the better". rgmwa

Landed at Jandakot today. Not that unusual, as I've done it many times before in various Cessna's. However this was the first time in the RV-12. I'm based at Serpentine, and given the rarity of this aircraft on this side of the country, I'm pretty sure that it's the first time that Jandakot ATC has ever heard: "Jandakot tower, Vans RV-12 light sport, six south, one thousand five hundred, received Foxtrot, inbound". Winds were 20/25 kts with max 15kts crosswind, but fortunately the landing was fine. Parked on the grass in front of the RACWA building where I started my training 6 years ago, and enjoyed a cup of coffee in the upstairs lounge. Took off again for YSEN. I've been looking forward to making this flight for the last 4 1/2 years, so it was a good day! rgmwa

OK, here's another theory.... a) air is not `flowing' anywhere, least of all over the wing, b) any molecules involved are just moving more or less perpendicular to the wing surface. rgmwa PS. That's just my opinion. And as Groucho Marx said, "if you don't like that one, I've got plenty more!"

Yes, I thought it would be a bit of a joke when I did my test. No so! Some of those recorded accents they have you decipher are not so easy. A lot of overseas students train around the Jandakot area, and they are often hard to understand on the radio even when you more or less know what they are trying to say. Not their fault. It must be very difficult to train in a foreign country. rgmwa

I think you mean the Hornet, Nev. Winkle Brown said it was one of his all-time favourite aircraft. "Overpowered perfection", if I recall his quote correctly. rgmwa

Shocking news. I can't add anything to what has already been said. I only knew Ross via the forum, but his character came through in his many posts. He will be sadly missed. My condolences to his family and friends. rgmwa

Interesting. I do have the trial version of RWY on an Android tablet and was waiting for it to be upgraded until the OzRunways guy recommended going with the iOS version because it had a lot more features. Maybe I'll wait a bit longer and see what happens with RWY. I don't really want to buy another tablet and system. rgmwa

I spoke to one of the Ozrunways guys at a seminar a couple of weeks ago, and was told that some problems with their third party supplier of the mapping engine software had put development of the Android version on the backburner for some months now, but they were expecting to get things sorted out in the near future and continue further development. I was waiting for RWY, but will probably end up going go for the iPad version rather than waiting for RWY to catch up. rgmwa

Amazing! They know what the debt is down to the last dollar. Now that's impressive! rgmwa

Kaz, if you're looking for a stopover near Perth on the way, Serpentine is worth keeping in mind: http://www.sabc.org.au/ rgmwa

BP Ultimate 0.74-0.76 kg/l Caltex Vortex 0.76 kg/l

No need to worry Nev. Engine out acceleration is still quite good, the flight characteristics are known and the touchdown is predictable. rgmwa

Loctite 567 also works. I've read that there's nothing inherently wrong with Teflon tape provided it's installed correctly. However it's not recommended because it's too easy to shred bits into the fuel system. rgmwa

Aircraft____Fun___Relax/Easy__Boring___Frustrating C152/C172___7_______8_______4_______3 RV-12______9_______8_______2_______1 RV-7A______9_______7_______2_______2 Just noticed the request in the original post to explain the score, so for what it's worth (probably not much, being so subjective): a) the C152 is lighter on the controls and feels more agile in the air than the C172, which is more like flying a bus - well a mini-bus anyway. On the other hand the C152 is not very powerful, and you really notice that taking off on a hot day with a passenger and full fuel. By contrast a later model 180hp C172 is a clean aircraft and performs pretty well. Both are quite easy to fly, predictable and stable, so maybe a bit boring on that score - not that I think flying any aircraft is boring. Both scored low on frustration because they are easy to fly, although I seem to have more trouble doing consistent landings in the C172, but that's probably just me. b) 100hp in an LSA aircraft like the RV-12 is plenty of power, but you're not going to take-off like a rocket or climb at 3000 ft/min (although I have managed 1600 fpm, so not too bad!). It scores high on fun because it's very responsive, the controls are well harmonised, and the visibility is great due to the slightly forward seating position. It glides really well and is easy to land provided you get the speed down early because it just wants to keep flying. That and the fact that's it's so much more responsive than the Cessnas means it's neither boring nor frustrating. c) the RV7A is heavier and has a noticeably more `solid' feel that the RV-12 and with 180hp is a good deal more powerful. Other than that it handles much the same as the RV-12. It's a bit quicker in roll, about the same in pitch, but the rudder feels heavier. It's easy to fly, but you need to be precise to fly it well. Consequently it's probably a little less relaxing to fly than the others, which can make it more frustrating at the same time, but it's definitely more fun than the Cessnas. rgmwa

I'm having a hard time trying to understand what your concept is about Ian, but $150k sounds like an awful lot of money to spend. As your typical forumite my needs are really pretty simple and well catered for by the present site. As an analogy, in my job as an engineer I've always had very capable scientific calculators. They would have cost HP and TI millions to develop and came with thick and detailed instruction books that I've never had the time or need to read properly. Consequently most of that massive development cost has been wasted on me over the years, because on a day to day basis I probably use only 10% of what they are capable of. But the fact is, that's all I need. My concern is that you develop a super site at huge financial and personal cost, and then discover that the majority of users just keep on doing what they do now. I suspect most users of this site are probably the same as me. Maybe if I knew what the new site was capable of I might change my mind, but at the moment I don't see how it could be much better than it is already. On the other hand, maybe I'm just showing my ignorance. I was very happy with a Tandy TRS 80 when it was a state of the art computer, but even I wouldn't go back to one now. rgmwa

Clever fake... http://www.snopes.com/photos/airplane/onewing.asp rgmwa