sain

Okay, maybe I should have gone into a little more detail. What irritated me about the full-stops-not-touch-and-goes article is it implied that instructors don't have enough common sense to adapt their training to the student. Does avius really think any instructor worth their salt wouldn't do full stops if they thought their student needed it? The other side of that implication is that avius doesn't readily adapt/adjust from his or her planned lesson. Would you really want to fly with an instructor who wouldn't change their lesson plan to do some remedial work with you if it was required? I certainly wouldn't, so avius wouldn't get my money. simple as that. I'll point out that my instructor (Teraya @ Goulburn aviation) certainly had me coming to a complete stop on my touch and goes when I was having trouble early on in the piece, and it really helped me with my ground handling. It didn't require many for me to get the hang of it, and so we moved on. The point is that she used her judgement about what her student required. I wish they'd stop printing avius's drivel and print something useful instead. even another couple of pages of ads would be better. If he or she would put the effort into articles for the vast majority of the audience (i.e the bulk of the ra-aus membership, which is non-instructors) then I'd feel differently.

It lets us know who not to waste our money learning to fly with.

Rillert if you want to give us some idea of the sort of flying you want to do (i.e rough as guts bush flying,weekend away cruisers etc etc, tailwheel or tri-gear etc etc) we might be able to point you in the direction of a plane that suits pretty well. Also when you say metal is a fabric covered steel tube frame aircraft acceptable (something like a bearhawk)? anyway, list of just metal 4 seat kits that the others havn't mentioned yet: Bede Aircraft (http://www.jimbede.com): BD-4C and BD-4B might suit Dream Aircraft (http://www.dreamaircraft.com): tundra might suit Glasair (http://www.glasairaviation.com): Sportsman might suit (might also be composite - not sure about that one) Murphy aircraft manufacturing (http://www.murphyair.com): Moose (6 seater, 350hp) (probably more here - check the site) Tapanee Aviation (http://www.tapanee.com): Levitation 4 (might be fabric + metal tube, not sure). If you decide to drop the must-be-metal requirement you'll find a whoooooooooole bunch of 4 seater composites and fabric+tube aircraft.

well if they published the damn thing online we wouldn't be whinging that it had arrived late now would we?

well, there are plenty of cnc mobs around. have you tried the yellow pages for your area?

I figure my postie wants to learn to fly and has snaffled it. or in other words, I havn't got mine yet.

Actually that 72 hour figure is way beyond what RA-Aus reckons.... *edit* just to clarify - I don't think RA-Aus got it right. If I had some dive tables to hand I'd probably come up closer to your figure than theirs.

They'll get trees and landscaping Volksy.. really they will.

I was under the impression the HF push actually came from ICAO, with the goal of minimising the impact of human errors on fare paying passengers (i.e killing less of them). I don't think its been applied with much sense to the ultralight aircraft realm. Learning the difference between a threat and a risk doesn't seem like a particularly good use of our time. That said I did learn something I didn't know from it that will be useful for me eventually. I now know how long to wait before taking a scuba diver flying (roughly, though I'd highly recommend borrowing the diver's handbooks and doing the calcs yourself if they have done multiple dives or deep and long dives). My brother dives as often as he can manage, and I would quite like to take him for a flight one day.

Its a biography, not fiction, but Reach for the Sky is pretty good if you havn't read it. Also worth checking out is CloudDancer's Alaskan Chronicals. Volume 1 and 2 are a very amusing read. I don't have 3 yet, so no verdict there. You can get them here: http://clouddancer.org/ .

hmm... that looks like cost of buying airport/10years = what to charge the people already there, if you subtract the frontage of the buildings John already owns. Kind of hard to tell though, the google maps image of the airport doesn't have the hangers that have gone up in the last couple of years. It might be 5 years, that corporate maintenance hanger is pretty big. Oh, and I'm assuming a 2.1 millionish purchase price, which I heard somewhere. could be wrong.

whups, double clicked the post button. sorry about that.

Have a look at the airmanship section of the ra-aus site, its got some pointers. Also have a look at the CASA materials (http://casa.cart.net.au/details/2603042.html). Its a good starting point.

On Saturday I had my first flight in over a year, and boy did I get lucky on weather and conditions. I had a late afternoon flight/lesson booked with Teraya from Goulburn Aviation to get my hand back in after such a long time away from the stick. There were some not-pleasant looking winds around just prior to the flight, but they died away before we took off. So I got to fly around in beautifully clear turbulence free conditions and practice a few stalls and some forced landings. It was about the best conditions I've ever flown in actually. It felt soooooooooooooooooooo good being flying again, I'm still grinning about it 2 days later. How did you guys spend your weekend? Pretty conditions: Bernard with his Jabiru J170 - Taken just after I finished my pre-flight checks on the Gazelle

I play round with small microcontrollers a lot. These things are essentially a computer on a chip and the power and flexibility they give to designers is pretty impressive. For under $2.00 (two dollars) you can have a single chip with far more computing power and ram than was used on Apollo 11. That puts the ability to do fly-by-wire type stuff into the hands of anybody who can solder a bit and program in c, c++ or assembler. and there are simpler languages available if you don't mind wasting a bit more of your program space. How close is fly-by-wire for light aircraft? Well, the RC plane guys are going nuts with this stuff: http://diydrones.com/ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJF-A3bJGuA ArduPilot is a $24(ish) autopilot control unit built around the arduino platform (essentially an extremely easy to use microntroller + various interface bits). For about $300 you can have all the bits you need to turn a RC plane into a UAV that'll autonomously fly a GPS defined route. I don't think it'll be that long before we start seeing autopilots installed in RA-Aus planes, and I think fly by wire will slowly come with that. That said, I don't think I'd use it much personally. I enjoy the flying too much to hand it over to a machine, and I enjoy the sensory feedback through the controls. I fly for fun.

Hiya Darky, I still get airsick when flying, so I've got a pretty good idea of what works and what doesnt. First of all though, if he can handle sea sickness he'll get over the airsickness eventually. What the others have said about short flights and the fear of sickness is spot on. What works for a lot of people: Kwells. These things are fantastic, take as directed and your immune to pretty much anything. I've also been told by some Navy friends to take them the night before, then smaller dosages at the specified (on the pack) interval up to the flight. I havn't tried that. Don't take as a pilot obviously. What works for some people: Ginger. see the mythbusters episode. Travelcalm sells ginger motion sickness tablets that are available at pretty much any chemist. For me they help, but they won't stop the yak. Having a ginger beer hours before the flight would be a good idea. Regular travelcalms. Slightly more effective than the ginger, but not by a lot. Sea bands. these are elastic wrist band things that press on a pressure point that, theoretically, reduce nausea. helps a little bit. What works best: Flights in good calm flying conditions. Aim for either early morning or early evening, on days when there isn't much wind and not much cloud around. Avoid very hot days (lots of thermals). Do everything you can to avoid turbulance. Try and fly over flat grassland, rather than over a city or over forest. Definately avoid hills/mountains. The air over a city or forest rises in a very uneven manner, leading to bumpiness. Similairly the air passing over a hill or mountain forms waves of rising and falling air, which is great for the gliding guys, not so much for somebody who yaks. Get him to look forwards out of the plane, not out the side windows (I'll explain that further below). You can also try giving him something to do - make a turn onto a heading and then get him to hold the stick and fly towards that "hill in front of us" or something - that'll get him doing something with his hands and looking out the window, rather than at all the pretty dials. It also gives you time to do your paperwork, figure out corrected times etc. very handy. Don't do: Fly topless. He'll spend his whole time with his head sideways looking at the "scenary", which is pretty much the absolute worst position to be in when you hit some turbulent air. His ears will tell him plane is rolling in a corkscrew motion that is completely different to what his eyes will see. This triggers an instant-yak (i.e no warning, can't get to the bag in time) reaction in a lot of people, and unfortunatley it'll pointing at you. The only advantage to this situation is that he'll have enjoyed the rest of the flight so far too much to care. Oh, and you'll have less clothes to wash.

No, it goes beyond a civil matter, and CASA really should investigate. A LAME has signed off on (apprantly) sub-standard not-safe-to-fly work. Its been picked up in this case, but how many others have slipped through unnoticed? how many of his/her customers are flying around with unsafe repairs? Its a public saftey matter. I'd start by getting a second opinion on the repairs (always important to have an independant view). Then by calling CASA and asking to speak to a saftey advisor. CASA has a number of saftey advisors who, from my understanding, should at least be able to tell you where to go next, or be able to get the complaint moving appropriately within CASA. Oh, and if you get no joy, contact the Minister's office and ask them to ask CASA why they didn't investigate the complaint. I assure you government departments respond very quickly when the minister wants to know something.

An ra-aus instructor who says "ohh look at that down there". Very good sign your about to be trying to land on "that down there" without your engine.

Pretty sure that was me - thanks for the correction, I'll check it out.

retracts are fine as long as you don't go over the weight limit. retracts are heavier than fixed gear and only provide a relatively small increase in airspeed. most aircraft designers don't bother to do retracts for aircraft within our allowed performance envelope. There are also complexity issues, and the need for a thicker wing (to stow the gear + wheels in), which offsets some of the benefit. I see no reason why you can't register an aircraft of that type under ra-aus rules. I'll point out that a hummelbird (fixed gear) will only be 10-20mph slower with far less complexity and 15 less ponies under the bonnet. and you could probably gain a little by putting wheel pants on the hummel.

I think his initiative should be rewarded, and what better way than by giving him some practical experience in the air flying a plane - something he is obviously passionate about. If he happens to learn some aerodynamics along the way then that will be a good too. He is a clearly gifted young man and fostering his obvious talent in that area seems like a good idea. Who knows, one day he might do us the ultimate honour and design another recreational aircraft. With regard to the more encompassing approach - The Give Youth Flying a Chance (or whatever its called) is all about that. We appear to have missed Solomon somewhere along the lines however. Thank god for the ABC.

plus we love it when somebody can inspire us, which Solomon has done. Good on you Solomon. Top stuff too Motz, Liz and Howard - love your work.:clap2:

I consistently get airsick (still), so I log them by the type of russian aircraft I would have liked to be flying in at the time: i.e Yak-1 Yak-52 Yak-1000 etc. not really of course (about the logging).

Nice. There is also this guy: http://ultralajt.webs.com/apps/blog/ He built his own CNC router (and has the plans available for free) and is using it to make RC gliders. Its taking him longer than 5 days though.

what makes the ch601 a good fit for the flying you want to do? was it because you can build from plans? was it the range? was it the useful load? was it the looks? your going to put around 1000hrs into building the thing - why did you pick that aircraft over others?