Ross

Hi Roger I have had to use a lot of heat to get satisfactory glass work & a tent made up with a sheet over the top is a big help in keeping the hot air in! I thought that Wally was a "dyed in the wool" Tecnam man! I thought I was seeing a lot more Jabs flying over the top of my place from Narrandera direction. One day there someone must have flown right over the top at least four times which is usually the case as I live on the Northern edge of town on the corner across the road down the side of the Assumption Villa. Regards

18-06-2007 Bought the heavy duty extension chords and used a sheet hanging over the work area as a tent and was able to keep the temp in the mid 20's Centigrade using a fan heater on half heat 1,000 Watts. Cheaper than trying to keep the whole garage at 25 C or so. Need to put the temp & RH sensor in a representative spot under the sheet. Got caught out by the sample though as it had not cured as it was not under the sheet! Photo with aileron sitting on top of the wing near the aileron plate. [ATTACH]2351[/ATTACH] LH aileron position with plate flocked in to make the aileron slot. Aileron hinge positions reinforced with preshaped glass flocked in. Two layers of glass over the three reinforements for the hinge positions. The complete slot reinforced with a layer of glass over the whole length and width of the slot. It is now ready to trim the glass and trim the aileron plate so that the aileron will match the aileron cable in the wing and the trailing edge of the flap and the trailing edge of the wing tip.

Hi Crew I met a forum member today who is on dail up internet. He says his internet connection is at 31 kb/sec. He says that he cannot get on because it just takes too long a time to upload the data and keep going. One of his complaints was about the overhead of the of the moving scenery but I see on my machine, ADSL at 512 Kb/s, that it appears to be loaded once and then does not need updating continuously. From his brief (angry) description it sounded like the forum was virtually frozen on his machine once he loaded it. I suspect that he has something wrong with his computer or the software set up but have not seen it or discussed it one on one. I don't know what software or computer model he is using. He has reached the point where he is "going to leave the forum" because he just can't get to the "good stuff on the forum" because it is so slow". Regards

Geoff Congratulations! That is fantastic! A great milestone! I went out to Brobenah for the monthly meeting and lunch and did not even get to fly so I might have to drive to Griffith or Narrandera to get my next flight. I'm getting withdrawal symptoms. John Mason's new (second hand) Dimona was run up for a tappet cover leak test which it failed so they installed a new set of gaskets. I watched and listened to an experienced trike pilot show a small group of us the finer points of a daily inspection and general care and maintenance on a microlite. It was quite illuminating. I am not rushing in to fly that machine! Regards

Hi Geoff Thanks for the tyre info. Regards

Hi JL There are at least two slushing (sloshing?) agents for fibreglass fuel tanks. The one used by Jabiru at least on my kit as mentioned on their web site is not compatible with fuel containing ethanol. I previously found a reference to these agents when we had the old web site or the AUF site by doing a Google search. I have not managed to find it tonight. Regards

14-06-2007 Applied reo cloth to LH wing flap brackets. It took a lot of heat to warm the garage up this morning with a starting temp of around 9 C and -1 C outside. [ATTACH]2314[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2315[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2316[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2317[/ATTACH] I kept the temp just above 20 C for about 8 hours & turned off the heaters once it dropped below 20 C. I think that I'll build a crude sheet tent over the aileron area of the wing for the next epoxying job. I will have to buy a couple of heavy duty extension cords so I can move the fan heaters around more.

Hi Geoff Getting there! It will have to fly soon to fill the void. Could you let me know where did you get those tyres please. I have a vision of my eventually wanting to do a second test flight at Brobenah with three flat tyres. Regards

Ben the face gets a bit sore with the smile after a while! Congratulations!

8-06-2007 Prepare Flap Hinge attach points for LH wing by cutting off lengths of bundy tube and filing to square them up. Clean out the SS bushes so that bundy tube fits with ends protruding. 9-07-2007 Prefit flap hinge support points to flap levers with an AN3-6A bolt through the bundy tube. Set up the LH Wing flap in position for fitting the flap hinge brackets - see photos for detail of position. Mix epoxy and epoxy flock & paint inner side of wing flap hinge brackets & wing position with epoxy after roughing with emery paper and cleaning with acetone. Fill U shaped brackets with flock and set in position on wing underside & maintain alignment with flap position. [ATTACH]2284[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2285[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2286[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2287[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2290[/ATTACH] Note the outer flap hinge position with peel cloth to stop sticking the wing to the flaps and some felt cloth behind it to keep it tight & prevent epoxy running down between the peel cloth and the wing like it did on the RH wing. [ATTACH]2289[/ATTACH] Keeping up the log book. Have to remember to put in the hours & keep a running total. Just had a look at the temperature - it had dropped to 18.9 C at 22:00 so turned up a fan heater - I do not like it - the cable gets hot :confused: - I shall have to modify it. The other fan heater is not a problem!;)

Hi Doug My apologies too. I realise that often that these posts may be misunderstood both by the reader and by the sender's bad choice of words or lack of explanation. I include myself on both sides of that equation. As you have said because many of us don't know one another personally and we cannot see or hear one another like we would in a face to face conversation it is not difficult to get offside with one another. We also know very little of the situation of each other like our levels of experience or lack of it, qualifications, access to software, tools, expertise or lack of it, personal sensitivities etc etc. All of these and many I have not mentioned make our communications difficult especially between those of us not personally known to one another. My defence against this problem is generally to be more verbose in my posts and to try and get a non antagonistic explanation across which sometimes may achieves just the opposite effect. It may be that I or we are telling my Grandmother how to suck eggs (as the old saying goes) and am not aware that I or we are doing it. Regards

At least the RH wing aileron anchor mounting seems good so far while it is upside down. I will check it more carefully later. I did actually check it with the templates while it was upside down and it appears be OK. Ran the RH wing aileron cable into the wing and then prefitted the cable anchor and the cable swivel and attached it to the aileron arm. [ATTACH]2276[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2277[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2278[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2279[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2280[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2281[/ATTACH] One problem with putting text on the pic is spelling error on 2nd last pic which is a fair bit of work to fix without mucking up the pic or just starting again. I could select some new text from another file, copy it into memory, then insert it into a selected area on another file (where the bad text currently is located). The trouble is all this has to be done outside the forum and the file name and size has to be different before I can copy it back into the forum. This is an exercise I have already been through a couple of times so I don't want to do it again for a pretty bad pic that has one letter missing from the text (that I know of). Regards

Hi Doug "Paint Shop Pro X" allows you to insert text and rotate it and change its style and colours etc. I have not mastered all its features yet and there are probably plenty of other photo handling programs that allow text insertion. I used it to add a white strip to a very old photo of a cricket team near Newcastle that I had scanned and then entered the team members names in that white space on the JPG photo file so that they become part of the newly saved photo on disk which I then printed out for the family member that owned the original photo. Have a look at my Jabiru Kit build thread on this site to see some more examples- not comprehensive as I have not figured it all out yet. Regards

Hi Darren Another factor that was not mentioned in that episode at Morundah only a few miles south of here was that Ag Pilots were having a really hard time of it financially at the time and especially those that also owned working farms in the area who were suffering a double whammy. I know the ag plane owners in Griffith at the time (in very depressed business due to the drought on dry land farming and way lower than normal irrigation farm water allocations) were complaining of dramatically increased charges by the local Griffith Council for occupying land on the aerodrome and were considering moving off the field. The situation since has probably only grown worse in this area. Local pilots were flying as far afield as the SW corner of WA at the time trying to keep afloat. Regards

Prefitting the RH Wing and LH Wing aileron anchors [ATTACH]2260[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2261[/ATTACH] Now that I have posted these two photos I can see that the two anchor setups are radically different. They may or may not be OK. I will have to trial fit the cables to see if the mounting holes need shifting to get full aileron movement which cannot be done for the left wing as the aileron is yet to be mounted with its hinges. I already had to move the LH wing 38 mm anchor bolt access hole to match the location of the anchor bolt holes and to place it closer to the mounting plate to facilitate getting a spanner on the end of the bolt. The sunken rectangular shaped inspection hole is a different distance from the aileron mounting position and the trailing edge of the wing compared to the RH wing. The slot for the LH wing aileron cable exit is not yet cut. I cannot check all this until the LH wing has flaps & aileron mounted.

Hi Doug I don't have that experience either except some gliding training outlanding and then of course the RAA training at Griffith under Ben Jones that included a few outlandings in paddocks he knew that were basically farmers airfields. I have only done about three real forced landings in gliders on non prepared airfields on paddocks that I had seen previously. One was into a ploughed up loamy sand (which I knew about from above - I could see the farmer driving his tractor and plough around it as he ploughed it up!) paddock that gave me a landing run of about ten metres for a relatively slippery fibre glass glider that normally ran about one hundred metres or so with the brake on. It was like riding in a canoe with the main wheel just acting like a sea anchor. It probably would have resulted in ending up on my back if it were a triycle UC RAA plastic job! However I am reminded of an incident at Leeton years ago when a new pilot with a new for him light plane landed at the home field of a local crop duster - I mean his home strip near his house where he landed and hangered his unloaded crop duster when he finished work - not at Brobenah the field the croppy flew his loaded plane from. Well the croppy was most aggravated and pointed out the power to weight difference between the aircraft and the difficulty of the prevailing wind and the slope of the airfield, the shortness of the strip and the narrow slot between the 80 odd feet high gum trees on the only way in. Because of the slope and the rising terrain you had to take off normally down wind through the same slot you had just landed through. Anyway the croppy spent some time describing the skill level of the would be suicide pilot together with the difference between the light plane and the crop duster and refused to let the owner pilot fly the plane out and told him that he would fly it out and to come and pick him up at Brobenah. This very experienced croppy pilot just managed to get the plane airborne on the short strip and get it out to Brobenah. The new owner had flown in with his young son on board. Regards

Hi Doug I thought that you were describing the symptoms of an incurable non painful disease that seems to be prevalent in some quarters. Regards

Hi Geoff great point in uploading the map of the trip. I eventually saved the 97K version & printed it out to about 75% of an A4 sheet. It is mostly readable but would have probably been a fair bit better if you got it sized up closer to the forum limit of 150 KBytes for a JPG file which gives a far greater resolution and is about as small as you want to go to get a reasonable resolution printout. Regards

Geoff I like your pic of Wolfe Creek crater in WA. It looks much better than the low resolution Google Earth satellite shot of it. Leeton sunset 20070605

Looks like a great trip and great experience Geoff. Fog here this morning - now low cloud. Yesterday's fog eventually turned into towering cumulus. Regards

Hi Doug I taught a bit of basic levelling (using an automatic level) in short courses at one stage to irrigation farmers who should be very aware of sloping ground. I found that most people when they decided the ground was not flat were very surprised to find out how much rise or fall there actually was in the slope that they were looking at. I used to set up an automatic level with a level line of sight and ask them to guess where the line of sight would hit the ground. Most of them were out by at least 100% of the distance. So applied to flying and using our "normal flying how to land experience" that turns into how steep does a slope have to be before you cannot safely land or take off uphill? How steep before you cannot land down the hill. Landing across the slope can have its problems with cross wind limits and dangers of wings hitting the ground or being obstructed by grass or crops. People who use steep strips might comment. Even our "flat" strip at LEETON has about 20 feet of fall in it in a SW direction. Even that is significant in a high performance glider say with a glide angle of one in forty five or so which is 117 feet in a mile (5280 feet) or approximately1609 metres. I heard years ago of a short landing strip in New Guinea used in the early days of gold mining there where you had to land on a cliff top uphill then a passenger had to get out and chock the wheels while the pilot held the brakes. When they took off downhill over the cliff the plane basically fell over the cliff until it picked up enough flying speed so that it could climb to clear the range of mountains at the end of the valley. I cannot verify the veracity of the flying landing part above but I can remember that New Guinea used to often be the subject of many early Australian Air Safety articles. I did a Google Australia search for Ion Idress for some photos. That Australian author wrote stories of the early gold mining days in New Guinea before the second world war. There were some 90 odd glass plate photos listed of the mining days including New Guinea at something like $500 in a collection. A lot of mining equipment was cut into smaller pieces with oxy torches then loaded into the Fokker planes and flown in and welded back together on site. New Guinea or part of it was a German protectorate amongst other descriptions until occupied by Australian troops in 1914 then occupied again by the Japanese in 1941. Apparently even some Queenslanders at one stage went up there and stuck a British flag in it! Time for some experienced instructor comment! Regards

Hi Doug I have been on that road in the foreground of the pic of the Crookwell wind farm as a passenger in a truck loaded with 14 tonnes of donated hay for the local sheep cockeys after the massive bush fires of a few years ago. I can assure you that the surface there is definitely not flat especially where the roads are anyway. I gained a new respect for my truck driver cousin's driving ability after that trip further reinforced by a later trip to Batlow from Leeton for a load of bulk apples for the local juice factory. Aeroplanes definitely flatten out the landscape. Regards

Microstop with Ball bearings This tool makes countersinking a much happier experience [ATTACH]2238[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2239[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2240[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2241[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2242[/ATTACH] Major tip: Only do the lock nut up with "fingers torque" set on low. Viewing from the drill motor side: Turn the Lock Nut Clockwise to release it

RH wing + LH Wing Rough dressed the RH flap trailing edge & around flap brackets [ATTACH]2237[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2235[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2236[/ATTACH] Stripped Peel cloth from LH wing for flap hinge positions & aileron mounting position and cut out access hole for aileron cable clamp installation.

Clecoes, Clecoe Pliars, Clecoe Clamps some shots of some clecoe tools [ATTACH]2230[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2231[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2232[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2233[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2234[/ATTACH]