skippydiesel

".....ever experienced a bushfire roaring down on you?" Yes I have - twice in our present location, The Oaks, NSW. First event - we (the street/local) had little help from overstretched/under maned fire brigade - all down to us. Despite some near losses, we, the residents (only two family's bailed) prevailed, with minimal asset damage. The fires burned for weeks, doing a good job of consuming many years of accumulated tinder (bugger all fuel reduction in our area). Second event - years later (fuel built up in interval, still no controlled burns) featured big response by fire brigades AND an air show. Pretty much the same result, as we the residents managed previously. The air show was great, huge water bombers wheeling about, seemed like 100ft over our heads - no way they could have done that at an air show. Choppers took over when the bulk of the fire had been contained. Problem with this was, they kept operating for the next week or so. Not only did we get thoroughly sick of the constant noise, they put out the inaccessible burning gullys (that had burnt out the first time) preserving all that fuel for a future "Catastrophe" "....warning can't be too big" Appropriate warning/information is a good thing. Hysterical language is just plain wrong and results in panic / apathey (when repeated hysterical announcements/prediction comes to little or nothing).

On ABC TV today, Victorian fire person talking about the potential for a bushfire in today's high temperatures & windy conditions - he talked as if the State was already being consumed by fire. This sort of alarmist language, seems to be employed by most emergency response services and the BOM - people just turn off. This may be to their cost, when the dire predictions actually come true. It seem that there is little awareness of the difference between information/advice and hysteria.

In the context of my statements, I would define glide approach as one where power is not used to control descent rate. I think it is generally accepted that deliberately stopping your engine (in flight) is ill advised, when practising engine out/low power scenarios. The aim of my comments on this matter are to encourage pilots to achieve & maintain their skills in glide approaches. They will need this skill when the engine fails to deliver sufficient thrust to sustain flight. The simplest way to keep these skills "sharp"/instinctive are to try for a glide approach on every landing. My GA training emphasised power on approaches - great! as long as the engine is operating correctly.

"Most engine failures are at the higher power settings in the take off phase particularly. " Student pilots are repeatedly warned about the above and encouraged to have a plan for when it happens (land straight ahead being the most common advice). Less emphasized, is engine failure partial/total in the circuit, which can occur during/after the change from cruise to idle/low power. Multitude of possibilities, Carby ICE being one of the lead offenders. With the latter, if you have configured the aircraft & your mental self, for a gide approach, the chances are you will make the airfield/landing. On the other hand, if it is all power, you are relying on, chances are you will land short/crash. "In gusty conditions using a variable power is the only way to avoid large speed fluctuations. " Of course this should be part of every qualified pilots skill set. This does not mean that in less taxing wind conditions, the glide approach can not be tried. "Precautionary approaches are done with power and a reduced stall margin. A go around from a "Power active" approach is more spontaneous, and the engine is less likely to falter." Agree however the majority of landings are not short field. Sighting specific conditions against, does not address my contention that pilots should aspire to glide approaches, whenever conditions allow.

Fair go Nev: Your earlier advice, regarding power on approach to landing, was not qualified in any way. All I have done is suggest an alternative: the glide approach, as this usually considered the more difficult, of the two skills but has the advantage of being the one every pilot needs to be proficient at, when the noise stops. Sure, every approach to landing presents as a dynamic range of challenges, which must be met from the pilots skill set, to acheive a successful touchdown. We are all prone to developing habits - I try for a glide approach every time. On my old plane, (10+ years of flying) I was successful perhaps 90% of the time. On my new, plane very diffrent characteristics, the percentage is probably reversed ie 10% but getting better the more I practice. I would advocate for every small aircraft pilot to make the glide approach his/her prefered technique - anyone can use power, as a backup, I often do. Note: I consider the glide approach to have failed, if I need to resort to power, to acheive a safe landing.

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"IF you are flying level or on a fixed approach angle, your speed is controlled by POWER ........" Again. All very good as long as your engine is delivering power. Far better to become proficient in the glide approach & landing. What you are promoting was just how I was trained in GA (fortunately also had a lot of glide approach/landing as well). My RAA conversion emphasised the glide approach and I am very glad of it. Being competent in the glide approach makes for a better more confident pilot, much less likely to "drag' the aircraft in to landing, on power. Power is still there, if needed, when everything comes together , its not.

All very good , IF your engine is still delivering power. Much better to practise glide approaches.

A reminder; Your first statement on this topic. I may be reading too much into it however the statements; "Hydrolyte is my favourite, ..." suggests to me habituation. "...drinks heaps before I fly." sounds like excess. "Cost a lot of money but worth it and works for me." addiction? Later: "Like everything I look for multiple sources of information, I should have added that I have spoken to my Pharmacist and GP about this stuff and they gave me suggested dosage rates and how often. My six monthly blood test regime has many added tests at my request for reasons I have outlined to my GP and he has not knocked me back on a request yet, because I tell him why, based on medical research I do. Yes, I m a medical freak, amongst other things 🤩" No offence intended but this sounds like obsession. Does nothing to convince me of the appropriateness of your use of electrolyte drinks.

May not be "earth shattering" however the increasing use of hysterical language, in our media and by our authorities, is a trend that should be called out. We no longer have "Extreme Fire Danger" weather condition, an accurate description, it has escalated to "Catastrophic Fire Danger" which isn't even good English. Such misuses of emotive language, does no one any good , and does not help to appropriately motivate the population. It almost seem that there is some sort of competition to see who can come up with the most alarming, disproportionate language, for any given situation.

My point is simple - it's not a crime scene until a crime/suspicion of, has been found. It serves no good purpose (other than the cops promoting themselves) to prematurely declare every incident one. By all means declare an incident/investigation scene but don't call it a crime scene until strong indication that there may have been one.

Supplied by your employer (?), covering his or her rear end, not by a medical professional. What do you think our grandparents (& before them) did, before the invention of this rubbish drink? - they drank water and unfortunately indulged in overly salty foods (which may have helped a little with dehydration but killed them later due to vascular hardening). If you don't drink enough water, sweat profusely (physical exertion/fever) have diarrhea, you may become clinically dehydrated. It is likely that drinking a suitable electrolyte fortified drink (or get put on an IV fluid drip) will speed your recovery/rehydration. Your body is designed to tolerate a degree of dehydration ie its normal. When this happens you feel thirsty and drink (preferably water) to rehydrate. If you have a good diet and drink when your body signals, you should not, in the normal course of events, need added electrolytes. The advent of "Sports Drinks" fortified with sugars & electrolytic salts, combined with strong marketing campaigns, has convinced the general population that consumption of these products is necessary for their health /wellbeing (I am fairly sure Coca Cola did much the same) - - its BS!!!! Anecdotal story: Last summer, I did some physically demanding construction work, with the help of a young man, a good 40 years my junior. He sipped (?) all day & had a lot of "wee brakes". I on the other hand had four, good drink of water, in the same working day. Some of this may be physiological difference, some experince?

Sounds about right Nev - why be accurate when you can escalate & save money at the same time.

Just speculating: Regular Super Glue & Araldite tend to harden & go off over time. Care needs to be taken with preparing the surface to be glued to, least only temporary adhesion take place. Aside from removing all traces of grease/silicon (polish residue) double sided tape will stick remarkably well to a painted/smooth surface (no roughing required). It comes in diffrent thickness & width. The one I use the most is about 2mm thick, which gives the item (VG?) the ability to absorb a little movement (not totally rigid) if knocked/rubbed /etc which will happen even if it's only washing the bugs off.

As always, with 12V systems - Check your (-) earth/ground connections are clean & secure/firm

Don't know about you - I find the use of the word "crime" as in "crime scene" to be inappropriate, even disquieting. This and others like it, are an accident/incident scene/location - at some time in the future, it may be determined that a crime of some sort has been committed, until then this word is completely inaccurate and inappropriate.

Never used VG's however do "stick" things on the outside of my aircraft eg trim tab on the rudder. I use good quality double sided tape. My favorit is by 3M. Its amazing stuff .

Yes but whose instructions? I would be sceptical of instructions on the container, these are from a vested interest in getting you hooked and consuming. It is true that as we age our ability to thermoregulate tends to deteriorate BUT then so does our ability to process and excrete excess salts (electrolytes). Pre exercise consumption of electrolytes, is something that needs careful management and is likely unwarranted in most situations. Post exercise consumption is also unwarented in normal every day exercise and should only be considered when genuine dehydration has occurred. People seem to forget that human physiology has changed little in hundreds of years - our forebears did not have access to "sports drinks" and the like and seemed to have got bye perfectly well.

Squashed the side of the offending header today. Could not perform operation in situ, so removed pipe. Used a piece of tight fitting water pipe, on the side I wanted to remain as is and Vice Grips to gradually squash in the point, at which it was contacting the engine frame. I did not need to use th socket as an anvil. Ran the engine up to oil 50C. Shut it down as per usual. No contact mark on the witness tab. Great! I will fly the Sonex in a week or so, for a definitive test but very hopeful of this being the solution (along with all the erlier incremental efforts/improvements)

New Flash! -Doctors are not gods - this fact will no doubt surprise many and possibly uspest a few. The medical profession (abely supported by entertainment media) works hard to project an image of superiority, bordering on infallibility. It's no wonder that a Dr's signature is so highly regarded and they have ridiculous lobbying powers well beyond us mortals. The truth is, with the best will/training/equipment, Dr's are still unable to predict the time & place of anyone's demize, that is assuming they themselves, are not about to kill the the client/patent/themself (I am sure it's happened)😈. Young & old people drop dead for no obvious or known pre- existing, condition. Most often, the postmortem will give a clear cause, not always. There is much the medical profession still don't know. Medical examinations, have their limits - at the moment they are the best we have to judge the health of a person, wishing to exercise the privileged of pilot in command of an aircraft.

Turbs - You are a master of the out of context commentary - Simply put: most naturally aspirated Rotax 9 exhaust configurations, are unique to that aircraft or in factory supply , model. The main driver for exhaust configuration is, to fit within the available space (cowling/engine frame). Tuning (exhaust length) is a secondary consideration, that usually loses out to the former. There are a few exceptions - these tend to feature much convoluted custom supply (ie not Rotax) exhaust headers/muffler (expensive, heavy, complex) may have the muffler in atypical locations (eg above engine). Of the latter designs, the improvements in engine performance are likely to be relativly small for the cost involved (analogues to fitting a small aircraft with a CS prop)

Nah! to all the KitFox style aircraft (all good but SLOOOOOW) Australian distances cry out for something like the ATEC Faeta. Intuitive handling Quiet in/out Comfortable for two adults Robust undercarriage for paddock strips Minimal maintenance, composite airframe Low stall - safety & ease of short filed operation Great payload - 300 kg empty weight : 600 kg MTO Great range - 100L fuel Distance shrinking cruise - as low as 10 L/ hr (912 iS) Choice of Rotax engines to suit mission/pocket Competitively priced - even better if made/assembled in Australia FYI - I am neither an agent or dealer - Note: I said like a Faeta - there are a very few others with the similar attributes.

No racing or engine "Hotting" experience to speak of. From my lifetime of engine maintenance and reading (others experince) I would guess that the typical (there is no actual standard) Rotax 912 exhaust installation, is quite some way from being "optimised", even with all Rotax supplied component (as mine is). Different length headers, log style 90 degree muffler, does not look to me, to be a tuned exhaust extraction installation. It does however, get the job done. With the above in mind, my objective is to aim for reliability, which in this context includes having no part of the engine inadvertently contacting structural (engine frame) or non structural (cowling) part of the aircraft. To this end I have installed "stiffer" engine mounts, which have themselves then been further stiffened, using Cupped Snubbing Washers and additional spacing washers (supplied by Sonex). These changes have almost but not quite, eliminated engine to frame contact, that likely occurs at engine shut down. Rotax 9's are infamous for having violent lateral movement, at shut down. This is usually attributed to the integral gear box. In my installation this may be exacerbated by having a relativly heavy 3 bladed, constant speed, propeller acting as a pendulum. I feel that I only have two further cost effective solutions to try: Fabricate a new left side rear exhaust header (the offending component) with a wider obstruction (frame) avoiding curve - The most effective solution but quite costly in time & dollars. Create a shallow (10mm) dent in the existing header pipe, adjacent to the contact point. This with the aforementioned engine mount changes, should result in no further engine: frame contact. This is a simple (KISS), minimal down time/nil cost solution, that may have some minor impact on performance. I will try the last solution first. To assess any changes in performance, I will compare future EGT readings with those already recorded.

Lizzard's posts ??????

My limited experince is with the Airmaster electric system and way back when I was in GA, hydraulic . So far (about 60 hrs) I can say the Airmaster is not at all slow to move between changes, seems to have no problem adjusting pitch, whatever the situation and neither hunts or allows overspeed. The Airmaster can be used like a traditional CS, with the pilot controlling all pitch changes or in semi automatic ie preset Takeoff , Climb, Cruise.