Case

There has been a serious accident at Caboolture airfiled. The television news suggests skydivers were involved. http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/plane-crashes-at-caboolture-airfield/story-fnihsrf2-1226861972646

Hi All, I'm making plans to be in Temora this Easter and was just wondering if anyone will have a 12 at Natfly this year. I'd love to see one in the flesh. :biggrin:

Hi Kevin, go out a find a few and you'll soon see what people use. I do a bit of caching and it's a lot of fun. Someone once described geocaching as 'using high tech US military hardware to find tupperware containers in the bush'. People use all sorts of containers but Sistema containers are popular in Australia because they are fairly waterproof and cheap. They usually have a logbook for people to record their find. Lots of caches are placed to bring you to places that you would not normally think of going. Hi Ultralights, the cache at Warnervale is still there. It's been in place for almost as long at geocaching has been in existance - 10 years.

Hi Denmit, Great work. Have you got a builders log or blog somewhere ? Would be good to see your progress regularly.

Done - Thanks Ian

How do we get this event displayed in the - Upcoming Events for the Next 30 Day(s) - section the the forums front page ?

Thanks for the S-19 info Codlocks. Looks an impressive aircraft to. The rules for LSA in Australia are a bit fluid at the moment. I ask the Tech Mananger Steve Bell for advise on my options for the RV-12 and he gave me quite a detailed reply. Essentially it boils down to that any Australian RV-12 kit built aircraft will be classed as experimental LSA and as such will allow changes such as different engine types and Avionics. It will retain it's 600Kg LSA weight limit. It cannot be included in the Amateur built category because the kit is not certified under the 51% rule. It will be registered under RA-Aus as a 19-xxxx

Good point Basscheffers. After reading the description of LSA on the RA-Aus site I think I understand a bit more. Essentially LSA has 2 types of certificate - A Special Certificate of Airworthiness which applies to factory built ready-to-fly aircraft. An Experimental Certificate which is for kit built aircraft. The kit built aircraft must be built exactly to the manufacturers specifications with no variations. In the case of the RV-12, Vans will issue an "LSA Statement of Compliance" only after you have purchased ALL the component kits. This statement of compliance will be needed in order to register the aircraft as LSA in Australia either under RA-Aus or GA. Outside of the above the aircraft would need to be Amateur built and 544 kg MTOW. At that weight it would be 5 kg short for a full tank of fuel and 2 people on board. From my perspective that wouldn't be a problem because I would usually fly on my own. Question is would it be better to spend the money and keep it LSA. Better resale? Who knows?

Thanks all for the comments. I've been doing some calculations and if I build it like Vans intends it will cost about A$85K. That's complete, fly away, paint and all. In the US they have no choices, as this is the way the kit was approved for their LSA class. We have some choices to save money here in Australia. We don't have to go with the Vans Avionics kit which is about A$16K. And there might be some savings on the power plant but I'll talk to Bert Flood about that. I know $85K is a lot of money but for that you would have a pretty schmick glass cockpit aircraft and if your realistic about the actual cost of other aircraft choices it's fairly competative. Thanks again for the advice.

If you have a look at Brisbane airport runway 01 you will see the shadow of a twin engine jet taking off (just near the 01). I can't find the actual aircraft in the picture though.

Hi All, Two years ago I cancelled my order for a Zodiac XL kit after realising that there were some serious problems with the design. I've been following Zeniths solution to the problems and sincerely hope that all goes well for the XL in the future. Time will tell. Time is the problem though and as I'm regaining the enthusiasm to start a project I've been looking at the Vans RV12. As expected from Vans it looks like a well designed aircraft that would be a pleasure to build and fly. Van's Aircraft - Aircraft Models: RV-12 Introduction As part of my research into the project I'd like to get some opinions from members. Why would/wouldn't you build an RV12 ?. My only dislike so far is that the fuel is in the fuselage and not in the wings. This is offset though by the fact that the wings can be reasonably easily removed. Please, any opinions would be most appreciated.

Unfortunate end for their factory aircraft. Welcome - The Airplane Factory, Johannesburg, South Africa

Thanks for the advise Ian. Perhaps the Zodiac issues dried up business a bit.

G'day All, I was doing some research on the CH750 and started looking for Sport Air on the Gold Coast who were the agents for Zenith but they seem to have disappeared. Does anyone know what has happened to Sport Air ?. Does Zenith have an agent in Oz ?. Cheers Case

G'day All The RA-Aus sought ATSB assistance with examination of the canopy pieces found after Gary Sweetnam's accident last year. The ATSB's final report can be found here - 2008029

The RA-Aus sought ATSB assistance with examination of the canopy pieces found after this accident. The ATSB's final report can be found here - 2008029

G'day Cralis, Physiologically, if you have 4 standard drinks between 18:00 and 20:00 they will all be gone by 23:00 and your not going flying for almost 12 hours after that.

From the Brisbane CourierMail, A MAN has been killed after his light plane crashed into a paddock in Sydney's southwest. The two-seater plane crashed into a paddock off Vicar Park Lane in Luddenham just before 4.30pm (AEST), killing the male pilot, NRMA Careflight said. "It was small airplane, a little two-seater," Careflight spokesman Ian Badham said. "There was one male occupant, and the male occupant is deceased." The Rural Fire Service (RFS) said firefighters had been sent to the crash. "There was a small grass fire that started from this crash," RFS spokeswoman Rebel Talbert told Macquarie radio. "But at this stage it appears that this has been completely contained."

and this from the Courier Mail this morning. http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24270407-952,00.html

And the latest - A MAN claiming to be a pilot missing since the crash of an ultralight north of Brisbane yesterday has contacted police, but failed to provide any personal details. A fisherman spotted the wreckage of the plane at Little Goat Island, near Bribie Island, about 5pm (AEST) yesterday. The engine was still warm but the pilot was not in the vicinity, he told police. Searchers found footprints leading from the wreckage, and it is believed the pilot swam across the Pumicestone Channel to Donnybrook on the mainland. A police spokeswoman said local officers today had received two calls, one from a man claiming to be the pilot and the other from a person claiming to be his friend. "We didn't verify their details, so they need to call back to verify those details,'' the spokeswoman said. Police are also trying to verify whether the aircraft was registered to be flown.

A woman went to a pet shop and immediately Spotted a large, beautiful parrot.. There was a sign on the cage that said $50.00. "Why so little," she asked the pet store owner.. The owner looked at her and said, "Look, I should tell you first that this bird used to live in A house of Prostitution and sometimes it says some Pretty vulgar stuff." The woman thought about this, but decided she had To have the bird any way. She took it home and hung the bird's cage up in her Living room and waited for it to say something. The bird looked around the room, then at her, and said, "New house, new madam." The woman was a bit shocked at the implication, But then thought "that's really not so bad." When her 2 teenage daughters returned from school The bird saw and said, "New house, new madam, new girls." The girls and the woman were a bit offended But then began to laugh about the situation Considering how and where the parrot had been raised. Moments later, the woman's husband Keith Came home from work. The bird looked at him and said, "Hi, Keith!"

Good news Ianrat. My kit should be here sometime around the end of April/start of May. In the mean time I decided to go down to Antartica and then back through the Panama Canal on back to back boat trips to fill in the time. Leaving tomorrow back Easter Monday.

If it were a car on the runway it would not move. If it were someone running (like on a treadmil) they would not move either. The reason is that the source of forward drive is in contact with the runway (feet, car wheels). The wheels of an aircraft are not the driving force so don't have to overcome the backward motion.

It's quite simple. The aircraft is not anchored to the runway. The air that it is in is stationary (assuming nil wind). The propeller will pull the aircraft forward through the air. The aircraft will move forward as usual but the wheels will be turning twice as fast as normal because the runway is moving backwards. The runway could be going backwards at light speed and assuming the wheels have frictionless bearing the plane will still fly.

Eddie Seve is a Zodiac builder on the web (Kitlog). He has just used Cortec primer. Don't know much about it and can't find a supplier in Australia. I think Eddie imported it from the US.