Ross

The 2.5 to 3.5 Din adapter finally arrived so I tried it out to find it quite disappointing on my setup which is shown at the top of this topic except that I have a Nokia CDMA model 2125 phone. So I am pursuing the Flightcell 2Go next. I think anyone looking at this Topic should read the review article on headsets in this months Kit Planes (November) magazine. It considers ANR headsets, the previous month did PNR headsets, with options such as battery or panel powered, built in amplifiers, cell phone connections, music connections, stereo and mono. There are a number of new models out and many of them well under $US1,000. Next month they are doing a review of thein ear very light type. Regards Ross

Hi Geoff That looks great. I can tell you have been working hard with all the background gradually turning a light shade of grey. What is the old saying - just drill one hole everyday and eventually there will be no more holes to drill! By the way what has the teddy bear done to deserve beingbanned to sit in the steelwork of the workshop? Regards Ross

Hi Hiperlight I had a Dog at Narromine that was terrified of the noise that I made blowing out trees. He got to know exactly when to expect the bulling charge and the the main charge to go off. He would hide in a safe place. I would light the fuse and turn around to see him sitting quivering on top of the box of gelignite on the back of the carryall on the tractor! Regards

Hi Hiperlight You don't have to worry - they always come home. But Vic Wallet a former well known shearing contractor from Yanco who used to shear my Dad's sheep when I was akid reckoned that it was a bit rough on the dogs when it blew so hard that their hair came out! I wish I could remember his jokes. Hetold themwith the dryest ofvoices and the staightest of faces. His son Allen Wallet, an experiencedshearer,is one of the Radio announcerson 2RG in Griffith. Allen's jokes about the land and its characters take after his Dad a bit but not quite in the same class. One of his specialities was replaying all the old 60's songs on morning radio - I think management has had a few words with him lately. Regards

Hi Geoff Starting to calm down here - wind probably 30 knots at 50 feet - rain a miserable 3 mm in the gauge probably twice that at least but totally ineffective because of the wind. My wife said she just finished her golf and got inside the club house when the rain and wind came roaring in! We seem to be right on the edge of the system according to the radar which has become very erratic under IE7.0 but that just might be the traffic or the weather or Microsoft. It seems to only let me have one copy of IE7.0 open at a time making it painful for a number of jobs - it changes fonts erratically and leaves out half the menu items etc etc. All this after IE7.0 upgrade today. Peter from Goolwa just told me it was blowing 30 knots in Goolwa delaying his flying of his new aeroplane home from Melbourne environs. :confused: Hiperlight it's a wonder the wind did not blow your trees over. :) Regards

Hi Geoff Actually there is virtually a gale here at the moment with rain in it here and there and I am rugged up in winter clothes. I am a bit crook at the moment and chamfing at the bit to get back to the J160. Although I have managed to replace& get spares for the bad lights in the house & the carport garage this morning - just remembered I foregot the trouble lamp which is also blown. I think that the mobile phone interface I set up for the plane with the unpowered interface is virtually useless as I can hardly hear it(no engine running)and my wife could not hear anything when I rang her so I will have to go for oneof the powered versions - another $100 down the drain! Also this morning I have installed IE7.0 together with the other updates about 27 MBytes. It took me a while to find the favourites! It also explains why the new site headers postings have looked so different. The gale has now gone and the sky has puffy small Cus to the west but to the east it looks very interesting and ominous. Good to watch it from the ground. I just looked at Wagga radar to see that it was showing a bit from Tuesday and the current echoes of rapidly moving light rain. Looks like it has just come back on line. Regards Ross

Hi All My memory of the Pilot notes for a L-13 Blanik was a vertical speed down of 80 Knots in a spin. A knot is aproximately 100 feet per minute giving about 8,000 feet per minute. So even spinnining it down may not be enough to escape the updraft - but is a much safer way than trying to do it by going to vne providing it does not end up in a spiral dive. Spining in the cloud may be terminal in more ways than one because of the possible hugh variation in updraughts & downdraughts in close proximity with large lumps going in both directions at terminal velocities. Regards

Hi facthunter Glider pilots learn not to get very close to the bottom of strong cumulus clouds because of that energy release as the water vapour in the air condenses into water droplets as a visible cloud. So a pilot might be experiencing anything from 100 ft/min to 800 ft/min as an average but get close to the bottom of a strong Cumulus and the lift could be so great that you would have to exceed VNE to get out the bottom and be torn apart illegally if he stayed in it. And the Cumulus bases are umbrella shaped so that before you know it you have a wall of cloud in all directions except down where the aeroplane will not go without exceeding VNE. See what theVSI on your aeroplane says with the engine idling and the airspeed at max rough. I have experiened one flight in an old Kookaburra under some impressive looking Cumulus (probably a standing wave over a small ridge)where the coarse vario was showing up against the stopat +2,000 feet/min. I ended up at about 10,000 ftAMSLin about 3.5 minutes from a starting height of about900 to 1,100 ft off the winch (and I did not go into the higher lift under the cloud- thar be dragons). The really interesting aspect of these particular clouds on that particular day was that there was a lenticular cloud lined up with it on the upwind side well up the side of the cumulus cloud. But I was in the wrong kind of glider to do anything about it. The Kookaburra flew like a hot brick with a best glide angle of about1/25. So there was little height to be gained by converting speed into height. Regards Ross

I think he had been eating plums off the lawn under the plum tree. The bugger bit me just after I took that photo more a surprise than any damage. The brother-in-laws dog also decided he liked the plums and I have seen him eat about 22 in one sitting as it were. He is still alive. We don't get as many friendly frill neck or bogeye lizards around since that dog has been visiting. Our fallen fruit has to be put in black tied poly bags, left in the sun for a day and then it can be put inthe garbage. The black poly in the sun kills any possible fruit fly before disposal. That tree is coming out this year to save a constant job and the risk of heavy fines. It is already dropping fruit. When it comes out that will be really great. regards Ross

Hi All I was tempted to add more detail. Regards

Hi Crew An unusual sight a motor glider from Flinders University at Narrandera aerodrome doing research on water use by crops in the irrigation areas near here and elsewhere and also on dry land crops. The pods hanging underneath the wings have terabyte storage capacity in their hard discs and they land periodically to download the data. They have been to selected sites all over thr MIA and around Wagga and further south. Sounds like the South Australians are getting ammunition for the more water for Adelaide argument. They were staying at Yanco Agricultural Insitute while they were flying out of Narrandera. Regards Ross

Hi Geoff Roger mentioned that the magnetometer is mounted under the seat. Geoff if they are anyuse to youandyou want them in higher resolutionup to 600 kBytes email me. Regards Ross

Hi Geoff I rang Roger (He'll probably kill me the next time he sees me, if he doesn't his wife will.) He said OK so here they are. I could not see what I was taking I just poked the camera in there set on macro and auto focus. One is badly flared but the others might make sense to you. I will log off as the system has gone bannanas again. Regards

Hi Roger I took a few photos of your syndicate J230 at Narrandera on Sunday. Is it OK if I post them over to Captain at Wagga. Regards

Geoff I have a few limitations like $s, a wife and years. I think the J160 will stretch the budget enough. I have only had one flight half hour flight in the J160 from the two Geoffs at Mildura and none in the J230. My very limited experience leads me toone comment from that flightis, I thought the J160 needed a few more horses and I suppose the J230 is the answer to that especially if you register it at 544Kg. As for it's other characteristics I don't know except that I was rather impressed by some violent manoevres just on roundout to avoid a flock of birds that was very interested in a heap of grasshoppers that we were about to land on. I was sure we were about to experience a low level stall but we landed a bit further down the strip quite comfortably without that sinking feeling. I shall ask Roger about the photos. Regards Ross

Hi Geoff It is looking good. I was going to say what was the black spot in the last pic. It turned out to be just that when I zoomed in on the saved pic and scrolled up and down,the black spotdid not move. You're right about the tool - the one in your hand,a Dremel. Dremel is the brand name and very well known in some circles and although mentioned as being a very useful tool by Jabiru in their construction manual, I had never heard of it. I eventually did a web search which solved the problem. They have some very nice little carbide tipped tools which might be what you have in your pic or the mini cut off abrasive disc. But please wear protective glasses if using one as it rotates at up to 20,000 rpm I think. It is a big improvement on using a hand held hacksaw blade or a 4" right angle grinder for jobs like the one illustrated. They have a mains powered versionand a battery powered version. I think the job you are showing(with the mains powered Dremel)would tax the battery powered version which doesn't come with anextra battery. The bricks certainly are handy though not mentioned in my construction manual! I saw the Narrandera J230 on Sunday and had my first Tecnam P92conversion flight with Wally Rudin. I had a look under the panelof the J230 but all I could see was a mess of wires. I took some photos with the macro setting on the camera lens which might make more sense when I blow them up. By the way the fairings on the bottom of the struts and main UC beam are attached by set screws on the Narrandera factory builtJ230 although they are already complaining about them coming loose or falling out (the self tappersthat is). They are over 25 hours now I think. Regards Ross

Hi Geoff Sounds to me like you have the right strategy worked out already putting it in the kitchen. I wasn't game. All of mine (our bits) is (are)in the carport except for the prop which is lying flat on the floor (see Jabiru instructions) behind a lounge chair in the living room. If I had that much wire in the J160 I would probably need a bigger engine. That brown vase must be feeling very nervous being that close to the work in progress. Your J20 paneldoes look like the beginning of a very neat job. Keep us posted? Regards

Hi Student Pilot As you don't show where you come from on your Avtar & did not mention where "here" is could you tell us now where you saw the blimp? Thanks & Regards

Hi Don What did they do for crew and how many were needed etcetera etcetera and how do they handle it? When I saw it from afair distance in Concord (Sydney) a few months ago it seemed to have a couple of ropes hanging from it. Can you tell us about it? Regards Ross

Roger I know the feeling. I have been on a Manly ferry and it was not as noisy as the blimp was in Leeton. What is that plane 24-?383 out of Narrandera? Regards

Geoff Thanks for that I'll be interested in any info you get on that subject. Regards

Geoff, Would their largesse stretch to showing it off at Holbrook. Somebody at Narrandera might be able to answer that question as they might have refuelled there and had a comfort stop for a cuppa or something. See if Roger from Narrandera responds. How about some photos behind the J230 panel - mine are too untidy to show. I did see a Jab at WOW Wagga a few years ago with the cowls off and the LAME there said that he always wraps insulation tape around the engine mount tubing before strapping wiring to them to protect the tubingfrom the nylon straps rubbing grooves in the tubes! Regards Ross

Hi All BTW there is a noticeable lack of flying activity of Narrandera planes circling Leeton this afternoon so far. There was one this morning who must have done a dozen or more circuits before returning - rego ending in 24-?383 maybe. I checked the RAA site for a recent 24-?383 registration but the latest entry there is dated 30-06-2006. Regards Ross

Hi All Seen in Leeton at about 12:00 noon today then departed towards Narrandera [ATTACH]447[/ATTACH] From my driveway appears to be circling the Golf Course on the other side of town or maybe the main street. [ATTACH]448[/ATTACH] Chased it in the car but it escaped before I could get a closer shot. South East of Leeton. Departing for Narrandera?? Regards

Hi Darren Not much nuclear fission in melting ice or boiling water. Try the following. Put some water on the stove in a saucepan. Insert a suitable thermometer that is safe in boiling water. Put the hot plate on a low setting and wait till the water boils. Take the temperature when it boils. In Tumut it will usually boil at less than 100 degrees centigrade. On the runway at Kingsford Smith it will be close to 100 degrees unless you are in the middle of a cyclone. But there might be a problem setting up a stove on a runway there especially in a cyclone. Turn the hot plate up to full blast. What will happen to the temperature of the boiling water compared to when the hot plate with water boiling was on a low setting? Regards Ross