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While it might be nice to have some coverage up in that part of the world, you need to be a bit realistic about the need. I (very) occasionally visit a property about half way between Cobar and Ivanhoe, and lets face it, there are not a lot of people out there. The property I visit, Neckarbo, has an area of 320,000 acres and if you fly directly there from , say, Hillston, 200 km, you only pass over two other properties. I don't imagine the amount of aeroplane traffic west of Dubbo really warrants the expenditure. David

A friend and I went out around 10 PM and had a fairly good look at the results using torch and moonlight. I didn't notice the damage around the tail, but overall, considering the distance that it finished up from the strip, I thought it demonstrated that the construction was fairly robust. I also thought that the lack of propellor damage was remarkable, although the fact that it was a tail-dragger helped, even though the gear had collapsed on the left side. If I may make a couple of comments regarding pilots with low time on their new aeroplane. It is prudent to spent considerable time using a gravel strip, rather than a sealed strip, when learning to land your tail-dragger. Ground loops on bitumen can be very nasty, whereas on gravel, quite controlled ground loops are possible. Some tail-draggers are not actually under control until they are parked, and I believe this applies to Jabirus, even when flown by ex-airline pilots/instuctors. David

You make yourself a couple of dinky little chocks to put under the wheels, then you don't need to worry about whether you have left the brake on. David

Forget the rest, go and learn to fly in a Real ultralight, a Thruster taildragger. After that you will be able to fly anything. David

Don't make the mistake of lying the rudder flat on the bench to rivet it or you might get a twist in it, even though it is pre-drilled.

First of all, it is 5000 feet above mean sea level. I always program the waypoints into the GPS to give me another guide to where the track is. That track is necessarily designed to avoid CTA and inhospitable terrain. Then I fly with reference to the ground so as to avoid tiger country as much as possible, with the relevant map sitting on my lap in case the GPS dies. I may get a fair bit off the GPS track if I am in unfamiliar territory, but that doesn't happen too often these days. When I can, I get about half a mile to the right of the direct track. The GPS is mainly used to tell me how far or how long it is to the next waypoint. That gives me a double check on how much fuel I have left, as often, the forecast winds can be a bit different to actual. David

I had another problem with an Icom hand held airband radio. I was attempting to use it with the cigarette lighter plugged power adapter attached in place of the battery pack. The radio was mounted on a bracked in front of me on the panel. The problem was that the radio would not mute. The problem was that the switch mode power supply in the adapter was putting out a lot of radio interference on the air band. (They are OK when attached to CB UHF sets). The cure was to discard the rubber duckey antenna which was directly attached to the set and replace it with a standard quarter wave ground plane antenna located toward the rear of the fuselage, away from the noisy power adapter. David

There have been several reported instances of earlier Zenair CH601 canopies detaching in flight and as I understand it, the aeroplane was still able to be flown without any problem. The aircraft in question had a different canopy arrangement which under normal circumstances, would not have detached, even had the catches unclipped. I would be reluctant to blame a detached canopy as being the initial cause. David

Steven, I hate to say this, but you are approaching the exercise from the wrong perspective. It isn't there for you to build hours, it is there to test your competency at cross country navigating. You may have to divert, for all manner of reasons, there are all sorts of things which your instructor might throw at you to do on the way. These will require you to be on top of the flight all the way and you do not want or need to be distracted by a passenger who perhaps might become airsick if you run into turbulence. You might think it is going to be a piece of cake, but it may not. If your instructor is on the ball, it should not. Go alone. David

Does your intercom have a voice operated turner-oner. Sound like the gain might be set a bit too high and is triggered by the added noise from the engine being picked up by the mike. David

The sparse panel is so that you jokers don't spend all your time looking at the thing, instead of keeping your eyes out the window. (Just joking). David

I thought he was doing OK until he kicked it straight, but then he forgot to keep the upwind wing a bit low to counteract the drift and that was where he got into trouble. David

Lyall, you didn't mention what fuel flow you have. I would also be interested to know what glide ratio you have at say 50 knots clean. Also, an 80 HP 912 only needs standard unleaded. David

As a CH701 builder/owner, I would say go with the Savannah VG. It outperforms the standard 701 by a mile and is probably easier to build. Also, don't put a 100 HP 912S in it, 80 HP is adequate, my 80 HP '710 with VG's instead of slats will cruise at 70 knots at 15 litres per hour and climb one up at 1600 feet per minute. David

Did you know that the quickest way to make a small fortune out of an aircraft museum is to start with a large fortune? David

I had a similar incident as I was rolling out at the southern end of Rwy 22. Fortunately I was on the right hand side and a croppie took off in the opposite direction past me on the other side. You need to take care on 04 - 22 as their hangar is just off the southern end of 22. David

Also, you don't need an ASIC at Forbes. David

After you leave Wang, head to Euroa airstrip and then head due south down the 145.5 degree line, over the Strathbogie Range, past the strip at Murrundindi, over the Great Divide, south east of Glenburn until you reach Tooradin. CTA is at 8500 feet. Forget about Mangalore and Kilmore Gap. If you need to come below 4500 you can fly through the Glenburn Gap, just north west of Healesville with Coldstream and Lilydale strips just off to your right. David

What Brent is saying is very true, particularly weight and balance. A couple of years ago at Narromine when the J400 was first being demonstrated, I watched as it taxyed down the track and then backtracked down 11 with a stiff tail wind. The pilot must have forgotten to pull the stick back and the wind pushed the tail down onto the tarmac. They then stopped and a bloke who must have weighed at least 120 kg got out of the back seat and walked away. I shudder to think of what the consequences might have been had they continued on with the extra out of balance weight on board. Incidently Brent, what sort of a rate of climb do you get with 4 POB? Be careful out there. David

You should have told Vans that the Jabiru 3300 was only 100 HP on a good day. David

If you are genuinely interested, send Tom Wickers an email at [email protected] He had on in one of his planes a couple of years ago. David

Isn't that Polair? David

Cessna now has a Skyhawk fitted with a diesel, along with all the trimmings like FADEC. See http://se.cessna.com/skyhawktd/ David

You posted it in the wrong forum Ben, should have been the other one. (Perhaps you already did.) David

I'm with Crezzi. If you want to fly heavier, go to the other administration, otherwise we might as well abandon ultralights altogether. David