Matt

Hey Motza, your overfly height of 1600' was his circuit height (1500' AGL). Check CTAF procedures as high performance aircraft (Jets, Turboprops etc.) circuit height is 1500' AGL. This can cause an issue where you're operating / overflying a field used by higher performance aircraft as there can be conflict with you overflying at the same altitude as an aircraft in the circuit. Cheers, Matt.

Point Cook Airshow Finally some internet access!!! Here's some taken at the Point Cook Airshow at the end of last month. A pair of Mustangs...there was actually in the formation but only got a good shot with 2 of them...and of course I managed to get a CT4 in the picture as well, see if you can spot it ;) And now for the CT4s, we are hoping to have at least 3 or 4 in a regular formation team later in the year. #77 in the below three pictures is the RAAF Museum's aircraft, the other aircraft is #44 owned by Murray Wallace of Gisborne who keeps his aircraft at Kyneton. You can just make out the fuel vapour venting from the underwing vents.

Magazine offer - taken up already. Hi everyone, I've had a few folks contact me about the magazine offer and looks as though they'll all have new homes. I generally archive those that don't have special interest to me every 6 months or so, so look out in about 6 months for the first half of 2008 magazines on offer. Cheers, Matt.

Funny, was thinking the same thing when I saw it. The news is praising his skill in recovering, more luck than skill I'm thinking. I'm surprised he didn't go around a lot earlier, he was seriously struggling to maintain centreline after he flew over the fence.

I'm a bit of a magazine junkie as well, I think I receive 8 or 9 on a regular basis - some are part of annual memberships i.e. RA-Aus, AOPA, Classic Wings (Warbirds), also get Aviator, Australian Flying, Australian Aviation...and I'm sure there's a few more that Kaz will remind me of ;) If you're interested, I've got the last 12-14 months of most of these and not sure what to do with them. Having just moved house I'm not sure they'll make it out of the box - free to good home. Cheers, Matt.

Motza, Having flown that route (from Canberra at least), suggest from Wangaratta head direct Mangalore - Kilmore Gap - VFR Route to Lilydale (OCTA) - Tooradin. That track will keep you west of the ranges from Albury to Kilmore. A few of the guys here are Tooradin locals who can confirm the best path for the KMG - Tooradin component. Cheers, Matt.

G'day Ross, welcome aboard...why is it that now Kaz and I have left Canberra there seems to be an influx of Canberrans joining the site?!?!?!?!? Cheers, Matt.

NATFLY Parking Again, sorry about the thread hijacking but here's the extract from the AIP SUP - full available at: http://www.airservices.gov.au/publications/current/sup/s8-h12.pdf As with Mark's assumption and based on Note 1 below, I'd suggest that the entire grassed (well dirt at least) parking area is a no engine area thereby leaving only the tarmac areas as "engine running" areas. No doubt there's a better way to have written that component to remove any ambiguity. 7. PARKING 7.1 Wire cables are permanently in position to the north of theNarromine Ultralights building. Pilots need to provide their own tie--down ropes. A “follow--me†vehicle will be available during peak traffic periods. 7.2 Due to the success of the event in previous years it is important that pilots also bring tie down ropes and stakes in case wire cables are not available due to increased aircraft parking. Note 1: During the period of the fly--in, the tie--down area is a “NO ENGINE†area from first light 21st of March until last light on the 23rd March 2008. Pilots are advised that taxiing or running of engines in the tie--down lines is forbidden.

Strange coincidence, when Kaz and I were there last year in the Sportstar there was a Cirrus trying to taxi into the GA lines and there were a few cranky guys yelling at them that it was a "no engine running" area despite it being clearly detailed in the NOTAM and fly-in instructions that the western side of the taxiway is an engine running area. The marshalls that were there were also of little use as they were arguing with themselves as to whether it was an engine running area or not. Suffice to say the Cirrus went through with engine running and much yelling and swearing was done. As Brent said, it may be easy to push a 300KG Jabby or similar around on the grass/dirt, try doing the same with a Cirrus or equivalent "heavy" without a few friends to help.

Aviation "diesel" engines (or more correctly - compression ignition engines) are designed to run on Jet A1 more so than the diesel fuels used in road vehicles. As with avgas engines, this is due to the standards applied to aviation fuels which makes their contents, performance etc. consistent. The present problem I'd expect for bug smashers with these engines would be the availability of fuel, a lot of non-RPT airfields don't have Jet A1.

You're not missing a thing, but the person in question obviously is. It's that type of approach to flying that gets people killed, gives all pilots a bad reputation and unfortunately likely to take an innocent passenger (or multiple) along with them in the event of an incident. Well done on picking this up and raising it here - it might just make someone think twice before they just jump in and tear off into the wild blue. Cheers, Matt.

I think the reference was to "hot" injected engines can be hard to start. I've had a few experiences with the CT4 (mechanical fuel injection system) where it's taken a little while to get it going when it's hot - mostly due to me not being precise with the "warm start" procedure which is very different to the cold start procedure, the peak time for a warm start to be a pain is between 30 minutes and 1 hour from shutdown as heat soak starts to affect fuel lines etc. That being said, I also had similar "hard to start" experiences with the Rotax in the Sportstar when either really hot or really cold. The point about "automatic" everything is not too far off - look at the FADEC systems available now in aircraft like the Cirrus and Colombia, they control everything engine and prop (if CSU fitted), all you get is a "power control lever" and an on/off switch. Don't be surprised to see fuel injected engines with FADEC in your new ultralight within the next 10 years - which takes us back to a previous point I made about supply and demand - the flyers of the future will demand these innovations and manufacturers will be driven to supply them.

http://www.airservices.gov.au/publications/aip.asp?pg=40&vdate=22-Nov-2007&ver=1 Online ERSA for info. Cheers, Kaz

LOL, tried to find a Cheetah song but only one that I could find was a Chilli Peppers song called "Slow Cheetah"...didn't think that'd be appreciated :)

The first draft of "Flying with the Cheetah" using the footage taken on Saturday when Ross (Slarti) and I flew down to Merimbula from Goulburn together. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgD2Cget3v0

Flying with the Cheetah As promised, here's the first draft of "Flying with the Cheetah". It's not production quality but I knew some of you would want to see it sooner rather than later. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgD2Cget3v0 Cheers, Matt.

Woke up today with a few things to do...pretty much what we were supposed to do last weekend... Firstly I had to take someone for a joyflight that I'd offered up as a prize in the Christmas Party Raffle. One of the girls at work won it but her hubby is a mad keen aeroplane buff so she offered the flight to him. We were supposed to go last Saturday morning but as with most of the east coast, Canberra was clouded in with solid rain. So we'd try again Sunday morning. More of the same. How about next Saturday I say and we again tee up a time. We awoke today to a perfect morning for flying - no wind, no cloud - a rare day indeed! I wanted to get out early as we'd not flown for 3 weeks and needed to brush the cobwebs off the CT4 and take Ian (the joyflighter) for his trip. As it was Australia Day today, there was a flypast planned for a couple of Hornets at around 10.30 so I wanted to be back from the joyflight and on my way to the second task of the day before they came & went. The joyflight went very well as they usually do, passenger was keen as mustard armed with his camera and very much enjoyed the trip. For those that know Canberra, there's a few documented scenic flights which pretty much take you on a loop of the populated areas of the ACT...takes about 20 minutes. Well, back to the Australia Day theme, there were parachutists jumping in a few spots around Canberra so we got the extended tour by the area controller and were back on the ground after 45 minutes - Canberra is not that interesting from the air for that long I gotta tell ya! Anyhoo, we land and I farewell the passenger and get ready to head off to item number 2 which was to meet Ross (Slartibartfast) at Goulburn for a trip "in company" to Merimbula as item number 3 was to drop the CT4 at Merimbula for it's 100 hourly. I taxied out to the tarmac, did my runups and other preflight checks, called ATC with flight details and was all ready to go in a hope of not being delayed by the Hornets doing their flypast and display. Now ordinarily I'd love to watch that but I was sitting in a hot cockpit and wanting to be some other places. I get cleared to taxi and am nearing the holding point when the controller informs me that I'll be delayed while the Hornets fly over the field for their display over Lake Burley Griffin - Do'h! Almost made it. So I sat at the holding point for about 5 minutes, watched the Hornets come straight at me from the east then over my head so I actually missed the display - again Do'h! As I'm just about to ask how long before I get cleared for takeoff...I get cleared for takeoff as the Hornets have departed Canberra airspace (they're just climbing through 15,000' as I roll onto the runway) and I commence takeoff roll for an uneventful 20 minute flight to Goulburn...30 minutes late. Oh well. After landing at Goulburn, I top up the tanks a little then meet up with Ross and his emaculately presented Cheetah - you would think this is a full factory build it's that well finished. The plan is to head from Goulburn to Moruya then follow the coast down to Merimbula in company. This came to be a bit of a challenge up high due to the different performances between the Cheetah & the CT4. We climbed to 7500' to get over the rough stuff and some scattered cloud - I slowed the CT4 as much as possible and was able to maintain about 90KIAS...just enough for Ross to maintain contact with me... a few orbits here and there and we stayed in touch. As we reached the coast we dropped down to 1500' to take advantage of the views and a bit better performance from the Cheetah. We were now comfortably staying together at about 110KIAS. We followed the coast all the way down to Merimbula, I was enjoying some "frolicking in the sky" as this would be my last flight for about 6 weeks until the CT4 is done with it's maintenance and some other fix ups to be done. Along the way we had a chance to get some photos and video of each other whilst flying "in company" - amazingly the air was smooth as silk and made getting some good photos relatively easy. Here's some air to air pics of the Cheetah I took, the video will be on YouTube once I get time to put it together...probably by Monday night given it's a long weekend and I don't have a plane now!

Hi Paul, I use a HP bluetooth receiver with my iPaq for in car / aeroplane navigation. I'm using OziExplorer on the PDA with aeronautical charts from Maptrax. Been using it for about 2 and a half years now and haven't had any problems with it. Works a treat in both the car and in the air. Cheers, Matt.

Having completed my training and got my AUF certificate in a Gazelle and flown quite a few things since, I'd agree with anyone who says it's one of the easiest aircraft to fly and a great ab-initio training aircraft for teaching pure stick and rudder flying as it's very responsive to input, great for crosswind landings and it conveys your control inputs very well. My opinion only, but I think it's a good idea to train and get your certificate in a "simple" aircraft then progress to more of some of the advanced types once qualified and have some time under your wings...so to speak. Cheers, Matt.

Regarding Flyer's points of different rules for the same aircraft, I'd suggest that as with many of the current RA-Aus rules, they were developed before the current crop of high performance ultralights / light sport aircraft (CT's, Jabiru's, Texan's, Sportstar's etc.) were anticipated to be operating under the same rules as a Drifter or similar "classic" ultralight designs. Having flown across to Tassie twice now - once in the Sportstar (via Flinders Island) and once in the CT4 (via King Island), I calculated our "glide" situation (in nil wind - no such thing over Bass Strait ny the way!) to be better in the Sportstar - 60KT/4-500FPM glide in the Sportstar compared to 80KT/1000+FPM "glide" in the CT4. In the event of an engine failure at 9500' we would have had nearly 20 minutes before ditching compared to less than 10 minutes in the CT4 - a lot more time to aviate, navigate and communicate in an emergency situation...something which you can't have too much of when things go wrong. Interesting that the rules don't take individual aircraft capability/performance into account.

Hi Jackzk, What functions are you looking for? Flight planning, moving map GPS etc.? If so, have a look at OziExplorer - it's Australian, reasonably inexpensive and very well supported. Cheers, Matt.

Aircraft are like any other product - supply and demand drives market prices for new and used. If there's not much supply or demand, prices will be high. If there's plenty of people buying and plenty of aircraft being made, prices will be driven down by quantity. Personally I don't think the Australian market will ever get to the same level of pricing as Europe or the US for recreational / light sport aircraft, we simply don't have the population with the interest and/or disposable income to support it. My thoughts only though. Cheers, Matt.

More video, this one is a montage of all of Kaz's family who I took for a couple of flights each while we were down there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD4PTPkvEEs

G'day Brent, We've got a Panasonic NV-GS75 MiniDV video recorder. We've had it for about 2 years and it was one of the better models on the market without getting into the "semi-professional" models, the only problem I have with it is it doesn't have an external video input for a "lipstick" type remote camera. Instead we've recently just bought a neat little all-in-one "action" cam which records onto an SD card. It's made by Oregon Scientific, records 640x480 at 30FPS and will record an hour of footage onto a 2GB card. Hope to get some external footage on our next flights using this camera mounted to various spots such as main undercarriage leg, canopy lever/handle etc. The camera package includes about 5 different mounting systems for various applications, check it out here: http://www.atc2k.com/ Cheers, Matt.

Gotta admit to having an absolute ball during all the joyflights I did, it's great to experience the range of emotions that passengers go through during a flight, especially those having their first flights in a small aircraft and really experiencing the freedom and joy of flight that we all know and love. Cheers, Matt.