Modest Pilot

Worth noting that the factory installation keeps everything forward of the firewall. Not a bad idea for a non fused item that may have enough current to weld with!

About this time next year you will see a Jab 8 cylinder J250 take to the air at Gympie!

The idea of a tower and Class D airspace would mean most RAA aircraft would be precluded from operating. However it may be possible to give Unicom the power to set duty runways via the AIC. Departing Sunday at morning rush hour I couldn't help thinking that it would be neat if 09 was used for T/O and 05 for landing. It would mean moving the Unicom position to say the threshold of 09 as they can't see the threshold of 05 from their current position.

Titan T51

I'm running a 54Dx44P Sensenich on my Sonex for a cruise of110kn at 2850rpm. It's an early model 2200 and has had a head upgrade. With the new heads Sensenich's 54Dx48P would proably be better for a cruise prop.

Membership Loss As we move to a lot of aircraft more like small G A types I think we have attracted a much wider section of the population. As an old G A instructor; (way back my boss learned to fly on Hawker Tomtits!) a rule of thumb was that 50% might go solo, of those 50% to PPL and 50% of those go to CPL. It seems to me that's what is going to happen when you expand into a mass market. I don't see this as a problem, attract more people and you are going to find that more just won't like flying. Better to have 10% of these people flying than 100% of none. Maybe we could look at a program like the EAA Young Eagles program. Basically it encourages pilots to give a kid a ride in an aircraft; over a million kids so far and rising. They have sorted the insurance, consent forms etc. and I guess over here you would need a Blue Card.

The weather finally has taken a turn for the better up in Gympie, everyone with an aircraft seemed to be in the air flying yesterday! Wandering around the field catching up with folks I came across a rather interesting aircraft being assembled in the ProSky hanger for the Maryborough agent. It's called the Ibis GS 700, I think an early version was at last years Natfly. This one has a much wider cockpit with lots of leg room. I was impressed by the construction; all alloy with gussets on all metal joints and generally looked pretty rugged. The more you look at it the more it reminds you of a Rotax powered Cessna 150 that you can actually fit in! Best of all it is supposed be under $A100,000 fly away. I took some photos but they seem to be to big to upload, probably best to have a look at: Pacific Ibis Aircraft Australia :thumb_up::thumb_up::thumb_up:

Put Arnold AR5 Aircraft in your internet search engine; it will come up with a single seat design that does over 180kn on 65 HP. It's got a fairly benign Ribblet airfoil and supposed to be a delight to fly. Shows what you can do with a well designed fixed U/C. Probably would need flaps to meet the RAA 45kn stall speed limit.

Maryborough Aero Club are a hosting BBQ lunch on Saturday 27th March. If you intend to go, can you please let Karin know by the Friday before. She can be contacted at: [email protected]

Actually 6061 is much more resistant to corrosion than 2024. 2024 is about 25% stronger and makes for a lighter aircraft than 6061 but has copper in it's alloy. Avaition 2024 is usually coated with pure aluminum, but needs protection any time you break this coating. eg: rivet holes.

The big chains in the U S A (Sears, Home Depot, Maynards) sell them for around $25 US, they are a requirement in most of the colder states homes They look like and are around the same size as a household smoke detector. Sears do mail orders but make sure that you get it sent USPS Priority International Mail ($12.95 US for a 8 5/8" x 5 3/8" x 1 5/8" 4lb box as freight can otherwise be a killer.

First check the sender in boiling water. (100C) The engine people at Jabiru try for 80-90C in cruise. Remember the temp at the sender could be cooler than the oil temp in the centre of the engine. My J230 was on the hot side, so I bent up an aluminum shield to cover the sloping front fins and kicked it around the sump bottom 30mm. The sixes and early fours have cooling fins with four 1/4" treaded holes on the outside fins that can be use to attach but high temp sealant might work on the new sumps? I used a 32mm heater flange from Jab riveted on the shield with half a CV joint cover tied on to press up on a 32mm hole in the cowl. So far four other J230 at Gympie use this setup, drops the temp about 10C. Coming back home yesterday 36C oil temp at 92C OAT. I use duct tape over the hole when I go South in winter.

The engine guy at Natfly last year (from Cessnock as I recall?) said not to even use plugs of different hours in the same cylinder. Can't remember the reason but he quoted a number of bad experiences he had noted. I know from my hot rod days that not only heat range but different types of plugs can change the burn time and power. In those days I got a bit more power out of Bosch Platinums. I notice even the difference in 100LL and mogas in my 2200 Jab engine( the mogas is smoother) so the engine appears quite sensitive. I think I would let the factory or some else find out before I fiddle with this mod!

Jabiru USA use Matco Brakes, bit of a trap in that the ones they use are a heavier duty model to the Jabiru brakes recommended on the Matco site, and require a different bolt pattern on the axle/strut interface. It is possilble to fit toe brakes but it cuts into leg room that guys like me need, and have a think about servicing them; hope your partner is real small! Heard a rumor that the taildragger Jab's are fitted with them, does anyone know? The big advantage would show when landing in gusty X-winds.

I recently latched on to a pair of "COTTON ON" sunglasses from the KIDS FOUNDATION. They dish them out to burns survivors. They are light, with good optics, on the large side with good wrap around for side glare. They are rated at 400 eg: max UV protection; grey/brown and graduated lighter toward the bottom of the frames so are good for in cockpit viewing. After using tens of glasses; many bought at great expense; for me they are the best I've found in over 25,000 hours of flying. Best of all they cost 10 bucks a pair. I bought 4 pairs!

I guess I'm lucky having access to a dynamic prop balancing rig. It doesn't seem to make a difference how you bolt it on, so I settled on a spot that stops the prop horizontal (most of the time) on shutdown!

I get mine from the local auto glass shop. (Gympie) Small can $10 Large one @20

I'd also check the fuel bowl is clean, it's suprising what gets passed the fuel filter. One aircraft at the field had enough white stuff (fuel tank sealer?)in the bowl to block the start curcuit.

Still available on demand. They have become a bit expensive, over $25,000

I have a J230D prop. D60"XP53" 75 on it.

Things to ask: is it a solid lifter type; can't be upgraded to hydralic lifters; has it low leak or high leak lifters, has it got the new 260 camshaft, has it the thin finned heads.

Check for leaks around the sealing rings on the inlet manifold pipes. A leak down compressions check might also reveal something, hopefully not a cracked head!

Hard to say without being there. It may well be the regulator has shorted out. You can isolated it and check aircraft systems with only the the battery connected only for a start. If that's O K might be easyest to take the regulator to an auto electric shop. He be able to tell you if it's O K in a couple of minutes.

You can check for charge on your Dynon. Bring up the voltage option and do a run up. You should see around 14 volts. By the by the ignition is a completely different system to the electrical curcuit and the engine runs fine if the battery is dead.

This has happened twice to my J230 and a J160 an our field. It's worth putting a few extra ties in the wiring harrness as well as spreading the connector. This spreads the load and seems to make them a little self supporting. Over 100 hours and so far so good.