sain

.:Puts on flame proof underderps:. Gets up my not particularly reasonable nose i'm afraid... If you want to fly a J230 as a 700kg MTOW aircraft nobody is stopping you.. simply register it as a GA Experimental and awaaaaaaay you go. Of course you need a GA license for that, and to comply with all those pesky GA rules and regulations, like medicals and so forth. If you want to fly with less personal restrictions, but more restrictions on your aircraft then do so.... if you want to fly GA, then go do that...

For a quicksilver mx I saw bugger all that I'd classify as tiger country personally - 2 shots maybe.. Being able to stop inside of 25 meters (from touchdown) gives you one hell of a range of landing sites.

There is also the Zenith CH701, CH750 and CH801s.. Plans or kit built. all STOL and can be fitted with tundra tires. there are a couple of clips on youtube of 701s doing short take off and landings. The Foxbat A-22 is supposed to be STOL as well, though I know bugger all about it.

A lot of ISPs are now coming onboard and reselling wireless broadband. Internode for example has a very attractive pricing plan for 5Gb/month prepaid. They use the optus network, which I've found to be very reliable so far (havn't taken it flying yet though).

Thanks for the word-from-eugene, its nice to have the official clarification.

Actually having a look at google earth then its entirely possible to fly the aus to tas (or reverse) without ever being more than 20Km from land (for a given definition of land - some of the islands probably arn't big enough to land on). So its at least technically possible to do it. I believe you can also apply for an exemption, though I have no idea what the process would be.

Umm... if its an RA-Aus plane then the rules are probably different (see http://www.raa.asn.au/operations/9555.pdf (CAO 95.55, but 95.10 and 95.32 have the same wording) basically gives a 20Km max distance from land - if your plane is fitted with floatation devices capable of keeping it afloat, and you and your passenger is wearing a life jacket. If you don't have that then its max glide or 20Km, whichever is the lesser.

Personally I think the human factors thing is a bit retarded. If your instructor didn't think you were capable of making appropriate decisions do you really think they would let you even attempt the flying test? As for the high performance/low performance thing... I think its better to get checked out on an aircraft type before jumping in and flying it. I realise this is difficult with single seaters, unless you don't weigh much and your instructor is a) friendly and b) light. Anyway, moving on. The following article from Pacific Flyer may be of interest, its about a costal search and rescue: Coastal Patrol Plane Rescue - It All Took 57 Minutes : Pacific Flyer Magazine

Interesting read. It should also be interesting to see Part 2 when/if it comes out.

Goulburn Aviaition does both GA and RA-Aus, and is RA-Aus friendly.

An aerotropolis in the middle of what is essentially a rural area. Hmm... To my mind the increased cost of aerial transport over other slower options is not likely to be taken up, especially when you factor in the increased travel time and handling costs for getting the goods into and out of Goulburn in the first place. No offence to Goulburn residents, but what on earth would they produce there thats better shipped by air than by road or train? So what to ship by air (in and out) at Goulburn? Wool? Grain? Mining and Heavy Industry products? Would the reduced (compared to Sydney and Canberra) land prices be enough to attract enough industry and the skilled workers (again, not saying Goulburn doesn't have any, I just don't think they have enough) needed to actually make the air part of an airtropolis worthwhile? Maybe I'm just lacking in vision. Good luck Futura, I hope you do better than I think you will.

Fantastic news on the previous vendor not getting it though. I hope the contract was well written with penalties for failure to settles - at least that way they might get a bit of cash from it. Any idea what its cost them to attempt to sell the place so far?

Heh, learn something new every day. There seems to be a mix of thermocouples, with J-types being most prelevant for CHTs, but with some brands using K-types. The ones I've been playing with are K-types, and I just assumed they all were. And we all know what they say about assuming: :mulie: Thanks Crashley. Oh yeah, its also worth noting that the guage itself may not have a uniform movement. Chrashley's suggestion of a simulator would show that issue up nicely.

Accuracy for a K-type thermocouple (whats normally used for CHTs I believe) does vary with temperature, but the variance isn't large - see here: Thermocouple Accuracy Table . Over the operating temperature range of say a rotax 582 you'll be on the same +-1.5degree error. Therefore I believe that if its in error it should be fairly consistant. call it an educated wild XXXX guess. Easiest way to tell for sure would be to pull the sensor and test it. A 582 operating range is 110-150 degrees, which you could duplicate with a frying pan on a stove. You can probably find the temperature range for your engine in its operators manual. Hope it helps. *edit* Your aircraft is listed as a jabiru, so I'm assuming your running a jab engine. Max CHT for a 2200 is 200C. normal max (cruise) is 180C, so you can probably at least get close to that on a stove. Error may creep up to +-1.6degC at the top of the range

And i'm sure the advertisers supporting our hobby will be delighted by that, and feel inclined to send $$$ again for advertising next month. I wonder if they were given a refund.

Interesting stats those. They don't seem to mesh at all with the ones on page 4, which is showing around 100 accidents in 2005 (with a downward trend), though with around 12 fatalities in 10 fatal accidents (very hard to tell - wild XXXX guess). So assuming you are talking about fatal accidents only (again, the preceeding slides don't make it clear) on page 7, and you add all the GA sub-types up then they come out worse than the ultralights, but around the same for all sport types (+gyros +gliders). But then if you take the fatal accidents/100000hrs for both types then ultralights come out around (ballpark, can't really tell - give numbers damn it) all of GA taken together. In conclusion I think that presentation is an excellent example of comparing apples with elephants. I think the fatal accidents/100,000 hours is probably the best point of comparision (even though its the worst for us), though even that is a tad dubious. I still think statistically insignificant difference is a hard call to beat. Why is there no smiley-with-head-stuck-in-sand emoticon?

I find if I keep the descent rate 500ft/min or slower it doesn't become a problem for most people. If you are having trouble clearing your ears tilting your head side to side as you swallow can help. Work your jaw open and closed as you do it as well.

a recreational airport closer to canberra would be excellent...

I'm another of Teraya's students, and I think my circuits are fairly normal sized - certainly the engine failure scenario that robinsm is talking about works out fine. The only time I've had trouble with it is in my early stages of practicing it and got a little bit far out following the Cessna in front, who was on one of those huuuuuuuge circuits that slarti was talking about. I'm fairly certain she'd welcome a conversation about it though slarti...

I'm a little curious about why ra-aus would be requesting assistance to investigate a VH registered aircraft.

heh.. just re-read my post and it came off a little whiney about the instructor, which isn't what I intended. oh well, god love plain text.

I had a similair experience when doing a flight with a different instructor to my regular (at a different flying school too). The tyres appeared to be fine when I did the preflight, but about halfway through the taxi I started having to use a lot of rudder (i.e full) to keep the plane straight. I told the instructor who took it for a second and said it was fine. At this point I was already having a couple of personality clash issues with the instructor, so rather than argue about it I took him at his word. We did a couple of circuits and on each landing the plane would veer sharply to the left and require a lot of rudder to compensate. After about the 4th landing I nearly ran off the runway (sealed) after touching down a bit faster than my previous landings. At this point I got the XXXXs and stopped the plane and said that I was having a lot of trouble keeping it straight on the runway and the Gazelle I normally flew didn't handle anything like this one on the ground. He took it again and then started swearing lots, taxied off the runway and switched the engine off. Yup, flat tyre. The best thing I got from the lesson - if it isn't right, don't fly it - no matter what anybody else says. Second best thing - find an instructor you trust and can work with.

You could also try adding a ferrite bead to the power cable for the radio - probably a good idea anyway. Cost is $3 for a pack of six at jaycar, which should leave enough left over to do somebody else's radio. Just thread the power cord through it, then hold in place with some heatshrink tubing. Put it in as close to the radio as you can manage. Part here: Ferrite Bead For EMI Suppression - Pk.6 - Jaycar Electronics Mind you that will only help if the noise is coming down the power line. Test it out on the ground with the radio running from a seperate power supply (car battery should work). If you still get noise its more likely to be an antenna issue. Check out the coax at both connections - Any dodgy or loose connections will be a potential source of noise.

For more info on NACA vents do a search on the NASA site - lots of very good information there. Also the pictures and information on Mark Langford's KR2S site might be helpful: KR2S NACA ducts

I didn't think the EAA certified anything? You might want to rethink making use of that particular testpilot.