Jaba-who

Generally I get very annoyed when do-gooders compare past events with today’s morals and mores and when they refuse to consider past events in the context of what was the norm at the time. Inevitably they consider only events perpetrated by our ancestors and inevitably consider them only as if they were enacted in current times. The fact that life was tough for everyone, that even the average family in white society (even in Sydney and Melbourne) lived in conditions that would be today considered unfit for habitation. The fact that even in the 1800s it was considered normal and acceptable for countries to invade others and that the concept of sovereignty of borders etc did not exist then. It was considered acceptable for single mothers (white) to be banished by their families to a life of poverty and for the poor (whites) to be thrown in jail for “crimes” such as not paying debts. All of that (whether right or wrong) was how it was then and to single out only the burdens enacted on particular sub-groups of the population to bolster modern consciences and to act as if they were the only sufferers is a perversion of history.

While not suggesting the good ol’ US of A gets many things right something that I read somewhere was about the allowance of aviation activities and went something like “in the USA in deciding what will be allowed the starting premise is the activity starts from a position of it WILL be allowed and can only be stopped if there is good reason to disallow it. In the rest of the world the starting position is “the activity WILL NOT be allowed until sufficient reasons can be found to allow it to happen.”

Cost is obviously the overriding factor. Which one is the overall cheapest is highly variable depending on location, local demand, local costs etc. almost a case of every situation is different. If you rent then “usually” you pay a fixed agreed amount per week/fortnight/month. Usually rates leases etc are then paid for by the owner (obviously out of the rent you’ve paid but they don’t send you the invoice etc. ) Most arrangements I have been in and seen the tenant doesn’t pay the electricity or the water or other utilities. That comes out of the rent. I guess individual arrangements could be different. I’ve both shared rent and now own (half share) hangarage. The biggest advantage of owning a hangar is you get some control over who else is in there with you. Also you can do it up, change it as you like. We have installed accomodation in ours as it’s an hour and a bit drive from home town and it’s nice to stay there over weekends. In my hangar As we both have home built jabs we do our own maintenance so we have been able to set up a good workshop and have everything we need there. Difficult to do that in a shared rental situation ( or at least not having things disappear). I looked at buying another for renting out and we have rented ours out for a while. There’s no money in it. Generally your costs always exceed what you are going to get back. Capital gains seems to vary from place to place. Demand can go up and down as well. Another immoral and extortionate consideration is that many airports have in the contract/lease that after a certain number of years the ownership of the hangar reverts to the airport owners. Be careful of that. We have a scenario here that people bought hangars at huge prices then the airport owners changed the master plan and refused to renew leases and then stung the owners by taking their hangars off them too. One guy tried to pull his hangar down - court injunction by owners stopped him.

Must be true then.

No need to answer - just looked it up. As of October 2017 the NZ CAA rules say PPL has to have minimum of a Class 2 medical. And recreational licence can have a medical certificate stating they are fit for a class 2,3,4 or 5 drivers licence. When you then go an look up the requirements for the medical. It’s worse than Australia if you are over age 40 for tests but at least it lasts 4 years till age 60 then 2 yearly. Here it’s 2 yearly after age 40 Less than age 40 - looks basically the same as Oz. Except Medical lasts 5 years. No requirement for ecg, blood tests. But over 40 - NZ class 2 medical involves blood tests and ecg each time. So it’s some things better and some things worse than Australia class 2 medical. But definitely it is not the same ball park as the USA basic med or the British medical. I suspect the people putting NZ medical in that same boat as Britain &. USA have been confused about classes if pilots licence.

I was under the impression NZ had moved their private pilot medicals to a self certifying system now. Haven’t seen any thing official but have read statements about it on forums. Am I mistaken?

Except that they usually have plenty of other things that need doing as well AND it’s not their job to be put in danger while being the Good Samaritan.

Issues of fibreglass and lack of body for a ground plane are Not applicable in jabs set up in the “normal” way. They use a vertical dipole antenna installed in the vertical stabilizer.

That’s been a common solution to the problem. Go for a different brand radio. Doesn’t always work though. Have a mate who had a microair. Same troubles. Tried everything and got it moderately better but unhappy. Bought a Becker installed it. Worse! Tried to fix it without success. Went back to the microair.

And a further thought on the driving through flooded roads issue is that when people do this they endanger other people. Rescue personnel end up being put in the line of danger while trying rescue the idiots.This clearly does not apply to aviation.

The problem is that over the new year period ( I think it was) in the space of about a week 5 or 6 people died when despite warnings they drove through flood waters and were washed away. Unlike this proven scenario, aviation is actually not having crashes and deaths all over the place.

Try any of the pilot supply websites. I’ve seen heaps of them. Never actually bought one but seen them.

Getting away from debates over which fuel which engines will take and getting back to the practical issue of getting fuel (whatever type you want/need) It’s possible with a bit of planning to get what you want even when there is no apparent fuel in the guide books. However it can get expensive - sometimes you have to buy a full drum ( including the drum itself) and fly away leaving half a drum of fuel behind etc. When I had the R22 I used to “own” quite a few derelict half empty drums all over cape York. First thing is get a copy of the ERSA and also Queensland ( or whatever state you are in) country airfields or whatever the pilots guide to small airfields is now called. They are both part of the package with both Ozrunways and AvPlan. And internet access for websites and a phone book equivalent for the area you want to go to. Often the airfield won’t have fuel but the local roadhouse will get it in and bring it out to the airfield with adequate prior notice. This often applies to either avgas or Mogas. Options for getting names and contacts if there are none listed in the ERSA or airfields guide are: Roadhouse Council offices Tourism information offices Pub Hotel or caravan parks ( they will be even more helpful if you are going to stay the Night) Develop a good phone manner, be courteous and patient and write down peoples names when they first answer the phone and use their names and introduce yourself by name. Names being used makes you a person and people will be far more likely to offer help rather than just say “No”. If you call back again use their names and your own name etc. Ask for a favor and express concern about the inconvenience you might be causing. I’ve done this dozens of times and have almost always been overwhelmed by how helpful country people will be. I’ve had drums of avgas dropped off at isolated bush strips, had fuel, food and drinks for twenty blokes brought out to small town strips ( and been met by half the town population. ) and had refuellers go to quite extreme lengths to get me fuel. However be prepared to the occasional person be less than helpful. Had a very few get unpleasant about it. You may have pay for a full drum of avgas. Very few places will split a drum of avgas ( it’s illegal actually) but I have had people do it on occasion if they take a liking to you. If you have to buy a full drum and can only use half the drum well So be it. If you leave it, accept that someone will get free fuel for their motorbike or chainsaw. And the drum will get converted into a horse trough. Mogas is more likely that you will get it in smaller amounts like jerry cans. But you might have to buy the jerries too. I’ve had the experience that I paid more for the jerries then I did for the fuel they held. But some places you can’t get premium fuel. So again prior planning and contacting the roadhouse etc is important. Speaking of Prior planning. Contact them way ahead of time and set up the plan and then recontact them a week or so before to confirm it’s all still going ahead. ( I have had the experience that when I called back the original person i organised with had got sick, Gone to some big smoke hospital for treatment and the stand-in knew nothing about the plans and had not ordered the avgas. Too late to get it in -so we had to change plans. ) but at least I knew. It would have been a real problem if we had arrived to find no fuel because we would not have had enough to go somewhere else. Then ring again the day before and tee it up again. Country folk are keen to help But just as likely to go fishing for the day etc. confirm and ask about how you can contact them when you arrive. I’ve had no one turn up and had to walk into town to find the contact at the pub. Would have been ok if I’d found out there was no mobile reception on the ground. I would have phoned while still in the air. That’s all just Off the top of my head. I’m sure there are more hints and tips but can’t think of them at present. Even if th

That’s difficult to interpret what that means.I’ve seen several jabs (6 cylinders) that had prop strikes (including my own back in 2009 and they went from full noise to full stop and only had one prop blade damaged. The wooden blades are very low inertia and the engine is high compression and stops very quickly. So one intact and one broken blade could mean - could be already stopped at and broken at impact or stopped by the impact. Not sure it helps much in its own. The statements”the engine stalled” is a worthless bit of evidence. I’ve heard it many times before because non-aviators know nothing about wings stalling and assume for a plane to stall it has to be the engine that stops. And the only term they have for an engine stopping is “stalling”. Others hear the word “stall” from someone who means aerodynamic stall but they think it refers to the engine. So all in all unless it comes from a pilot - ignore the statement. Same thing about engines sounding unusual. Most non aviators have no idea what an engine can sound like and still be normal. He may have been throttling up and down trying to maintain a descent profile - sudden changes in headwind etc. the Jab engine responds very rapidly to adjustments of the throttle and to changes in wind,climb and descent. Sounding odd can be anything from something bad to something normal given the conditions. I’m not sure how good or transparent the Thai aviation investigators are but waiting for something from them is the only avenue for possibly reliable information.

Except that the 700 kg is an administrative MTOW for Australia. They are approved at 760 kg in many countries without any changes to the aircraft. So even if it were strictly overweight that is an administrative overweight not and real overweight. Jabs 430s are a handleful in strong gusty winds and I’d guess ( without being certain) that the bigger wing of the 450 would increase the buffeting and instability. I’d be thinking that is a major contributor to the crash.

Yep I have one.Don’t fly with 4 often but do fly it with four. With my wife and her two young teen kids it’s fine with fuel fuel. But with four adults I have to consider the amount of fuel I have and also need to keep the heaviest two in the front seats. I have flown as a pax in Jabiru’s original demonstrator (VH-BNP) in the early 2000s and we got 4 big burley blokes in and did circuits a Bundaberg. I was impressed by how it could even get off the ground let alone perform as well as it did.

Yep I’d agree with you on that Frank. Although it’s the other way round. Go FROM RG58 TO (double shielded) RG400.As best I recall that made a noticible difference on mine. Well worth the extra expense for the high quality coax.

Hi Rob. Your problem unfortunately is par for the course. I have a jab 430 with dual micro airs ( though I have just bought two mgl V6 s which I’m yet to install. ) I’ve had the aircraft for about 11 years and have had endless issues with noise. I have spent hundreds of hours in that time gradually whittling down the noise to a tolerable level. It seems I have a bad combination. Jabiru engines are quite noisy (electrically) and micro airs are very susceptible to noise. The first bit of bad news is that you are going to have to just start at some point and try various options and see what difference they make. It is likely that you will not succeed in removing the noise completely but you will knock it down a bit with each thing you do. Essentially people will jump up and tell you they have the single answer that will fix it all but my experience is that never happens. There is an article specifically about it. somewhere on the jab (Australian) website or in one of the construction manuals that’s useful and also one on the USA jab site. Do lots of reading and searching and make a list and try them. As you do cross them off and make notes as to what effect if any they make. The potential fixes include: Ferrite filters on all the wires as they come through the firewall. Re-wire the radios so they go direct to and from battery ( only via switches and circuit breakers- but not to common power buses. Shielded wires on all wires to/from radios, headsets etc. the shielding should only be earthed at the radio end not both ends to limit formation of ground loops. Read up or look at YouTube vids on ground loops and fixing them. A big capacitor filter on regulator Change all high tension leads to high quality ones Clean the distributer points and pull apart clean and rejoin all inline connectors on the power circuits from the engine to regulator to battery. etc. Physically separate all wires to radios, headsets etc away from any that carry any power or even better away from all other wires. Off the top of my head can’t think of all the things I did over those years. I can vouch for a couple of things that didn’t work. I made complete shielding for all the high tension leads and also enclosed the coils in copper foil. All that did was made my engine not start. Weird because it would start some times and others not at all till I pulled the copper shielding off and it started fine. You’ll find many things that some people swear by but they make no difference or maybe a little difference. The big capacitor was advised by a techno who swore it fixed the problem every time. Didn’t. And in fact I spoke to others who said the techie told them same story and they had same result as me. Overall there are heaps of solutions but I found nothing fixed the problem completely. I got a little bit with many till I got to a point where I decided it was good enough and stopped.

Well,...... Maybe not.The ausroads commercial licence standard is tougher than the ausroads private licence standard. That we already know. So already without any extra detail from CASA we know it will be tougher. The next thing is that casa have stated unequivocally that they are going to add extra conditions onto the ausroads standard that they feel applicable to aviation. But as far as I am aware they have not stated anywhere what those additional conditions are. I think we can be absolutely certain they will not be less stringent than the conditions attached to the existing RAMPC. I would think they will be more stringent (knowing CASA ) but even if they are the same then it leaves a more difficult overall medical than the RAMPC.

Yep exactly right kgw. IF it is as stated it will be a small step for a small number of people. The trouble will be in the detail that will be attached. It is the detail that has made even the RAMPC still out of reach for many pilots despite flying quite safely on essentially no medical under RAAus. But CASA seem to be publically patting themselves on the back stating how good they are making it, when the 3 major countries we are comparing ourselves to are light years ahead of the pittance CASA are actually giving out.

Sure I accept the premise that it will affect a very few mature pilots ( bearing in mind as was told to me yesterday by someone in the business, that Ma and Pa flying schools essentially no longer exist in Australia. )But given that is a very small number who will gain from it, it seems disingenuous of CASA to make great fan-fare to make the announcement as if it’s a Great Leap Forward and for them to keep the real wanted changes under wraps. Particularly when they suggested that what they are going to release ( when they release it ) is not what the (private) industry wants.

Yes it does - there has never been any suggestion that a commercial licence could be covered by a basic class 2. There has only ever been suggestion that a basic class 2 will apply to private pilots. From my reading you could never even read into it or between the lines that the basic class 2 was ever destined for commercial operations. But The commercial class 2 is actually a Trojan horse (with a kick) Of course most instructors are not going to stay instructors. Most are young guys/girls on their way to becoming something else ( with passengers). So there’s no way this option will help them they’ll need a class one so they can grab any opportunity that arises. (and they will all have a class 1 already and will pass a class 1 anyway. ) and if they are an instructor who flies occasional charter or flies someone for any form of remuneration then they have to have that class 1 at the time as well. So the actual number of people who would be happy to have a class 2 commercial is actually probably pretty small. So it’s great for a very small number of commercial guys. But good for them. But what’s interesting to me is how it was not something that was being asked for and is not the major demand (which is medical reform for private pilots ) and which is driven by changes in ONLY private pilot medicals around the world. Strikes me as a “give something not asked for to a group who won’t use it much”, then that group will say to the group who did ask and didn’t get “stop making waves you’ll spoil it for us”. Divide and conquer.

CASA has posted out an email on this topic today. Basically saying the commercial licence medical requirements will come into effect 1st March. That is non-passenger carrying commercial pilots will not need a Class 1 medical. Of course as as has been discussed everywhere this continues to be applicable to only a very small group of pilots - very few commercial pilots are likely to want to be restricted in their work options so most will continue to need a Class 1. I doubt there will be many pilots whose only flying for their entire futures will be restricted to non passenger flying. Even the Ma and Pa flying school ( of which there are very few left)do the odd but of charter. Given that most instructors are young new pilots on their way to the airlines - they are not going to restrict their employment prospects. The one bit of light on the horizon is the new CASA announcement has not said anything about additional limitations on top of the Austroads medical standards for the basic class 2 for private. ( they did say in the previous release they would add “aviation specific” extra limitations on the Austroads standards. ). That’s probably an oversight and I shouldn’t have mentioned it. First aviation medical reform commences 1 March 2018 A Class 2 medical certificate will be an option for pilots operating commercial flights that do not carry passengers from 1 March 2018. This applies to operations with a maximum take-off weight of less than 8618 kilograms and is likely to be of specific benefit for aerial agriculture flights, flight instruction or flight examination. Currently pilots must have a Class 1 medical for these operations. These changes will be applied automatically with no action required by industry. The reform recognises that the risk for certain commercial operations do not require the higher level of control provided under the Class 1 medical certificate regime. It will assist in broadening the pool of experienced pilots that are able to offer flight instruction—offering benefits to current and future student pilots. This is the first of the changes to improve the aviation medical system announced late last year. Future improvements on track The second of the announced changes is on track to be implemented from early April 2018. It will allow all designated aviation medical examiners (DAMEs) to issue Class 2 medicals on the spot without reference to CASA, unless the DAME elects to refer the application to CASA. Allowing DAMEs to directly issue Class 2 medicals should simplify and speed up the medical process for hundreds of applicants each month. The third part of the reforms – the new Basic Class 2 medical certificate – is on schedule to be introduced in the middle of 2018. Find out more on the CASA website.

The safety or rather lack of it with acronyms has been shown worldwide in the medical literature. Even seemingly basic acronyms often have different meanings in different places. Can lead to some serious mistakes. These days if you write a piece for publication it won’t be accepted unless all acronyms are defined at the first use in the paper.