Ross

In the middle of last week I bought some 3/16" clecoes plus pliars and ball bearing microstop with countersinks and have some more 5/32" clecoes and a few clecoe clamps on order. I have used the 3/16" clecoes half way through setting up the RH wing aileron hinges. These tools just make the setting up of the Jabiru flight control hinges so easy compared to how I have been doing them. I just wish I had them from the start of the project but I really did not know how useful they were or how they worked. [ATTACH]2215[/ATTACH] RH Wing middle aileron hinge and sharp edge below filled with epoxy microball before dressing up [ATTACH]2216[/ATTACH] RH Wing sharp edge behind flap position filled with epoxy microball before dressing up Biggest problem in the garage at the moment is keeping the temperature as much above 16 deg C as possible and preferably around 25 C during epoxy curing sessions. At the last look it was sitting on 21.1 C and slowly dropping despite the heaters. Another hour or two and it will be cured enough to be safe and will be boosted as other items are completed and epoxied and then cured. It was still holding 21.1 C at 23:30 when I turned off the heaters and the epoxy was quite solid. After November temperatures of as much as 40 C in the garage will contribute more to that curing but a nuisance as it goes off sometimes faster than you want if you are doing a long difficult job. Regards

Looking for "Clecoes". I found many suppliers with a Google search but none using "Cleco". Regards

Yes Darren the storm was preceeded by very strong NW winds raising dust and fairly roaring through the 15 to 25 metre high 4 eucalypts near our house. The lower white cedars on the western side were not as noisy. [ATTACH]2191[/ATTACH] Our house is amongst the trees roughly in the middle of this pic at 10 o'clock from F79 in the above shot taken in 2003. The prevailing winds come from about 12 o'clock in the picture and the paddock is only about 300 metres long with high voltage power lines on the southern and western boundaries with a few other obstacles in the first 70 metres! Still it is only about 5 Km to Brobenah airfield.

Geoffs fantastic series of photos of your top end trip. The Darwin city shot is certainly one to remember. Sunset behind the rain front at Leeton last night [ATTACH]2182[/ATTACH] Photo taken in light rain at 18:12 2007-05-29 after about 15 mm rain - magic

22-05-07 Apply three layers of REO cloth to RH wing flap lever positions. As temp dropped below 20 degrees Centigrade by the time I had done the job I turned on the fan heater to low setting when temp was 19.9 at about 16:00. An hour later it was still 19.9 so turned it up to high. Hopefully I will get it to set hard by midnight or so. 23:45 Temp 19.1 still dropping turned heater fan off. I will give it another go tomorrow when it is a bit warmer. The epoxy is still soft but not sticky so needs more heat for some hours. [ATTACH]2103[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2104[/ATTACH] RH flap with flap hinges with 3 layers of reo applied and epoxied Peel cloth inserted between wing & flap to stop them being epoxied together.

20-05-07 Attended Leeton Aviators Club meeting at Brobenah AF followed by club lunch. Not much flying very low ceiling. 21-0507 Countersink hinge positions on aileron, sand hinges and fibreglass and then clean all surfaces to be flocked with Acetone. Flocked in RH aileron hinges and hinge pin keeper retained nuts maintaining alignment. Set 3/16" CSK rivets with pop rivet gun. [ATTACH]2102[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2099[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2100[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2101[/ATTACH] RH Aileron; Outer 2 hinges; Center hinge; Center hinge

Hi Jack I live at Leeton but periodically go over to Narrandera airfield (about 25 km) to have a fly (or just socialise) in the Tecnam P92 with Wally Rudin who has a pretty good reputation as an instructor. I was introduced and got my certificate to RAA flying at Griffith (58 kms from Leeton) with Ben Jones, a GA & RAA instructor and the CFI at Griffith, in a an early Jabiru belonging to Norm Raworth who is also going for his instructors rating and I started flying it when the clock was only showing 5 hours. What I noticed about Narrandera was that some pilots or would be pilots would travel to Narrandera and stay in a pub there for about a week and do an intensive training session with Wally in the Tecnam for a week straight and go solo. I am not sure but I think Wally has also been known to travel from Narrandera to other venues to conduct intensive sessions there for individuals or groups for anything from a couple of days to a week. Narrandera airport is about 5 kms from Narrandera as is the Leeton Brobenah airport from Leeton and the Griffith airport from Griffith. I saw two people do this that I know of in my few visits. One was a senior Federal Police officer from Canberra and the other was was a Grazier from a property near Ivanhoe in North Western NSW. We are seldomly limited by fogs or strong winds in this area but it can happen but we are not in a valley. Of course Wally is still catering for the training and endorsement needs of the local pilots as well. We are rejuvenating the Leeton Aviators Club (formerly the Leeton Gliding Club). We have a regular monthly meeting on the third Sunday of every month and a barbecue lunch after the meeting. We will eventually cope with training GFA and RAA pilots but are not doing so yet. At present we have one club owned and one privately owned GFA type aircraft and about nine locally based privately owned RAA or SAA aircraft with at least two more under construction. Regards

19-05-2007 Mount RH aileron by inserting hinge pins as previously fitted Check clearance around aileron arm on wing and trim glass to fit Check clearance of aileron for full control movement using factory templates. Trim waste with jig saw and angle cut with jig saw checking clearance with templates. Will dress up edge with flock and file to fit. [ATTACH]2077[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2080[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2078[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2079[/ATTACH] Aileron pins in; Dress to fit; Check templates for up & down full & free

17-05-2007 Dress up RH wing aileron mounting channel Using the hinge packers made a couple of days ago so that the hinge can be temporarily mounted on the outside of the channel until all the holes are drilled, prefit RH aileron & drill 5/32" outer holes in aileron hinges first before wing hinge positions. Insert M4x12mm hex bolt & nut in outer hinge rivet positions. Hex bolt is easier to get on & off than the Phillips headed pan bolts using a ratchet 7mm spanner and 7mm ring spanner. Set hinges so that the space between wing & aileron is equal to the thickness of the hinge pin when the bottom surface of the wing is in line with the aileron bottom surface. Once holes are drilled mount up hinges using outer holes in each of three hinges with bolts to aileron & wing positions. Check alignment and adjust if necessary maintaining hinge pin clearance between wing & aileron and even end clearance between flap & aileron and aileron and end of wing. Countersink all rivet holes so that rivets will be flush with surface. Cut slots so hinge pin can be secured. Drill rivet holes and access hole for retained nuts for hinge pin locking tabs. [ATTACH]2073[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2074[/ATTACH] Outer two aileron hinges in wing channel [ATTACH]2075[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2076[/ATTACH] Outer two aileron hinges on RH aileron showing CSK holes for hinge rivets and locking tab position

Wed 16th May 2007 Epoxied 2 fibreglass cloths reos to each of the three aileron mounting locations in the RH wing section channel. Then epoxied a long 1250 mm x 160 mm fibreglass cloth inside the channel. Applied peel cloth inside the channel and used a timber straight edge on the underside and the top of the wing with spring clamps to keep the channel edges true. This took a large supply of epoxy to cover the six fibreglass cloth reinforecements over the aileron hinge locations and the 1250 mm cloth to reinforce the channel. [ATTACH]2030[/ATTACH] Ordered more epoxy & hardner from Jabiru.

Cleaned up the aileron hinge mounting strip after flocking in place. [ATTACH]2022[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2023[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2024[/ATTACH] After building the frame on the wing box and mounting the RH wing in it, flocked in the three aileron pre-moulded reos for the RH wing. Hard to photograph no contrast between the reo covered on flock & background with flock on it as well. Also made up drilled spacers to facilitate drilling the holes to hold the hinges on the ailerons at their correct location. Two layers of scrap fibre-glass off cuts from trimming the flap supports were used as packers rather than trying to hold the hinges in place on a curved surface. [ATTACH]2025[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]2029[/ATTACH] Hinge set so space between aileron & wing will be thickness of hinge pin. Hinge held in place by M4 bolt.

Thanks Geoff. Not too sure about it yet. Today rearranged the garage a bit to get a bit more working space around the plane. Got castoring wheels on the wing box and made the garage door wide enough to get the plane out w/o wings (done some time ago). I also started mounting a timber frame support for a wing on its edge on the edge of the wing box and one in or on top of the portable wing box which has been cut back to the length of a wing. [ATTACH]2020[/ATTACH] Can sit one wing vertical & one horizontal or two wings horizontally on top of wing box. Regards

Hi Andy I have noted the same thing with my J160 kit (yet to fly) which has the blue fuel lines. The hoses can be turned on the fittings when the clamps have been tightened to as far as they will go. So far I have not done anything about it. If (when) the NSW Government legislates (as stated in a news item a couple of days ago) to make it compulsory for all petrol in NSW to have a compulsory ethanol component the hose clamps may not be our only problem! Regards

RH wing Aileron base The RH aileron base was cut to match the recess precast for it in the outboard rear end of the RH wing so that aileron when mounted with hinges on it will be aligned with the trailing edge of the flaps. [ATTACH]2011[/ATTACH] Two sets of premoulded fibreglass reos that are part of the reinforcement to be used near each of the aileron hinges [ATTACH]2012[/ATTACH] The aileron mounting plate is supported by the wood sheet so that it is held up above the wing recess filled with epoxy & flock. Each of the three hinge positions will have a premoulded fibreglass reinforcement plus two lots of reinforcement.

RH Wing continued Drill the wing flap support brackets to suit AN3 bolts 3/16" & cut the wing flap brackets as marked. Dress up the brackets by file to sit flush on the wing. Cut 3 Bundy steel bushes from 1/4" Bundy tube to be about 2 mm wider than the flap support brackets. File the steel bushes to size and square off. Set up the wing flap support brackets with 2 mm space between wing and flap for the RH wing and 45 mm from the inboard end of the wing beam carrying the SS bush to the flap support bracket. Flock inside the wing flap brackets and epoxy on the wing where the bracket seats.. [ATTACH]2009[/ATTACH] RH Wing inboard flap support bracket flocked to wing after curing [ATTACH]2010[/ATTACH] RH wing Centre support bracket flocked to wing after curing Each of the flap support bracket will be reinforced with three sheets of fibreglass reo epoxied to the bare patch. Regards

Hi Crew I really am encouraged by the attitude of members of this forum who contribute to the various threads. It really really does seem to be constructive by comparison to what happened on the AUF site forum. We are still only represent about 10% of RAAust members assuming that all members of the forum are RAAaust members which is not necessarily the case. I for one would not like to see it otherwise. The more views we get to hear about the better for us to make informed decisions on contentious issues. I am really encouraged by the attitude of Nick, Carol and Cazza in letting the membership (of this forum at least) in having some idea of what the issues are and what is going on in our organisation. One of my pet annoyances is the idea that members of this forum can be virtually anonymous so that we really do not know who they are or what position they hold in our organisation. This may be fine for people who live and fly in a densley populated area who know them face to face but for the rest of us spread over the width and depth of Australia and for those who have just joined the forum it is a distinct disadvantage. Another of my problems is that I do not know what the facilities if any exist at some of our often mentioned popular sites like "The Oaks" which is likely to become the only place that RAAust pilots can land in desiring to fly into Sydney from over the "Great Dividing Range" within a year or two. I have heard about some of the family social life there on the forum but I would like to hear of what facilities are available if any. Being at Leeton I would also like to know what would be the preferable aerodrome targets around Melbourne from here likewise Brisbane and Adelaide for RAAust flying. By contrast I can tell you that there is not much by the way of on field facilities available at Leeton unless you make prior arrangements with members. The population of Leeton is about 12,000. This might change as we now call ourselves The Leeton Aviators Club". The Blue Mountains are a very real barrier for us "Westies" who are used to flying where the prevailing height above sea level is around 420 feet to maybe 800 feet. How do we fly legally to Sydney when we are not allowed to fly over 3,500 feet East and home to the West at 4,500 feet. Regards

Leeton Aviators Club (welcomes all types of flyers) will have its monthly meeting on Sunday 20th May presumably starting about 11 am followed by a barbecue lunch. The meetings are normally on 3rd Sunday of the month. Leeton Aviators Club is a renaming of the Leeton Gliding Club to emphasise that it welcomes all interested in flying into its ranks. Last Sunday, I was surprised to see from my place on the Northern edge of Leeton a T tailed motor glider take off a number of times from the Brobenah airstrip and return shortly for a landing. So I drove out 5 km to investigate. John Mason's fibre glass twin seater Dimona motor glider had arrived and was busy making a couple of people legal to fly it - not including John at this stage. Norm Raworth was in attendance with his Jabiru available for flying. Another Jabiru powered aircraft was in attendance with the owner seeking a tail wheel endorsement on it. Regards

RH Wing continued - Click on images to enlarge [ATTACH]2003[/ATTACH] Holding Bundy steel bush flush with one side of SS flap bush for dressing up by file. [ATTACH]2004[/ATTACH] Newly dressed up wing to Flap support bracket ready for epoxy & flock [ATTACH]2005[/ATTACH] Checking flap position 45 mm from line through outer edge of wing mountings to edge of flap bracket

[ATTACH]1992[/ATTACH] Drilling flap support brackets to take AN3 bolts (3/16") [ATTACH]1993[/ATTACH] Bolting flap support bracket with temporary wooden spacer to work bench steady ready for trimming by jig saw. [ATTACH]1994[/ATTACH] Trim flap support brackets with jig saw [ATTACH]1995[/ATTACH] Trimmed flap support bracket [ATTACH]1996[/ATTACH] Flap support brackets for two wings [ATTACH]1997[/ATTACH] Cut steel flap bushes from 1/4" Bundy steel tubing 2 mm longer than than SS bushes in flap supports. [ATTACH]1998[/ATTACH] Bundy bush inserted into flap support bracket SS bush after reaming to fit with total of 2 mm extrusion [ATTACH]1999[/ATTACH] One of three wooden supports for each flap before attaching flap support brackets and inserting temporary 2 mm spacer between wing and flap.

After some personal maintenance, work has resumed on the J160 at the end of April 2007. Some more rewiring was done but not recorded here yet RH wing has been trial fitted and SS bushes aligned to reduce stress on the strut. The RH eyebrow has been fitted & epoxied to the fuselage to match the RH flap position. RH wing has peel cloth removed from aileron position of wing, mounting points for flaps. Hole for aileron cable installation has been made and 38 mm hole cut for access. Plywood timber has been purchased to facilitate installing the aileron hinge plate to the underside of the wing. Some Pacific Maple timber strips purchased to facilitate mounting the flaps and the flap mounting brackets. Some four plastic spring loaded clamps purchesed a short time ago all failed when opened and used to clamp the trailing edge of the flap to the timber. These four clamps were all manufactured in a country a fair way to the North of Australia. A 1/4" adjustable reamer ordered to for reaming the flap mounting bushes to suit the 1/4" tubing which must rotate freely in the Stainless Steel flap mounting bushes. The reamer is adjustable from 1/4" up to 9/32" by adjusting hexagon nuts at each end of the reamer. The reamer won't arrive until at least Wednesday. It arrived with handle Reamer $130, Handle $64 After trial fitting the fuel tank fittings on the LH Wing tank some time ago using a 7/16" spanner as supplied by Jabiru I purchased a 7/16" tube spanner $5-95 to make that job far easier with the RH wing tank fittings. Regards

Hi All My J160, yet to move out of the garage, presently has to my mind very excessive Positive Camber, the wheels are leaning out at the top without an engine and no wings yet. They obviously ought to be vertical or even possibly a small negative camber with the top of the wheels leaning slightly in when the plane is fully loaded at MTOW. Consider what happens in a maximum cross wind landing and also when the plane is not fully loaded which is the condition the plane will be in most landings.. I reckon they should have as close to zero toe in as possible, they obviously have excessive toe in or toe out at the moment as the tyres squeal on the concrete when moved. For more information on these adjustments do a Google search for "tyre toe in" probably mainly applicable to motor cars. I do remember older X-ply tyres on old rear drive cars were toed in somewhere around a 1/16" to 1/8" and the front wheel drive mini minors were toed out 1/16" I think. I think newer rear wheel drive vehicles with radial tyres were often set to zero toe in on their front wheels. If the above figure were any guide they would be roughly halved or less for the smaller tyres in use on the Jabiru J160. I am inclined to go for zero or slightly negative camber and zero toe in in fully loaded configuration but to check if it changes from MTOW to empty tanks and if so to set it at zero at a bit above the middle of the range if possible.

Procedures at non towered Note there are two scans to look at here. [ATTACH]1989[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]1990[/ATTACH] Comments on this small sheet which I thought all pilots would have received. Regards

According to the CASA website site charges for ASIC cards will increase "due to increased costs incurred by security organisations". Regards

Hi CAZZA I tried to respond to the SASA online questionnaire on the proposed new rules. However I had to give up the online method as for some reason it would not accept my response. Luckily there was an alternative more painful and expensive process allowing me to print the forms, fill them in, put them in an envelope drive about three kilometres and post them off to CASA as a free post item. I think the forms were in PDF files requiring you to download Acrobat reader if you did not already have it installed. If this experience was typical it may have been enough to stop people responding. I was very tempted as I had to print out a number of pages and fill them all in after I had just done so with the on line version! Mind you, the effort of filling them in was very minor requiring only a few ticks over a number of pages. Perhaps a questionnaire by RAA on the difficulty if any of filling in and sending the online version might be appropriate or was I just unlucky or more stupid than usual. Regards

We took a lot people for joy flights years ago at Leeton in gliders. There was always a temptation to stay up for as long as possible if you had the opportunity. I had about 600 take offs and landings in club gliders to total about two hundred hours - not much time by RAA standards. It became apparent to most of us that for first timer passengers in particular; over ten minutes was loo long - maybe add a few minutes for power planes; give your passenger advice to look out of the cockpit at the horizon not straight down; keep them talking as it helps to keep the stomach OK If the passenger goes silent you have failed and the passenger can be turned off flying for life. Regards