djpacro

Jungmeister 

 

 

I find aerobatics to be relaxing.

 

 

Lunch at Colac, Vic. Hot day, up near 39, but fairly pleasant flying. iPad shutdown on the way home due to heat. Recovered at The Naked Racer.

 

 

 

 

 

In my brief involvement in aerobatic competitions it was always interesting observing the footware of the participating pilots, usually worn down joggers with the barest of tread left on them. I had a pair of well worn tennis shoes which fitted the bill, but they were not too comfortable walking over gravel!

Any tread on the sole will catch on the rudder pedals - usually round tubes. Often not a lot of space for big feet so I look for a profile similar to my foot. Joggers or cycling shoes have been my choices in recent years but at Oshkosh last year I bought https://liftaviationusa.com/collections/shoes - works very well in a Pitts or similar but no good for walking.

 

For my “day” job as an aerobatic pilot I wear https://workscene.com.au/mongrel-derby-safety-shoe-black.html

 

 

I wonder why they won't deliver the VFR guide by pdf.

Someone asked that of CASA on Facebook a while back and the answer was that CASA didn't want pilots to be hanging on to out of date documents so they decided the only options would be looking at the website or buying a paper document. I don't think that CASA could see that their answer was nonsensical - the paper VFR Guide is more likely to be the one not to be updated; every other CASA document is available as a pdf!

 

 

I like to have a good written reference such  as https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/airplane_handbook/media/06_afh_ch4.pdf "Maintaining Aircraft Control: Upset Prevention and Recovery Training" supported by short videos as appropriate.

 

I've done a lot of tight base/final turns at Moorabbin, this one is quite mild with a bit of a xwind. Legal since the minimum distance for a final approach was removed from the regs some years ago. Of course, at Moorabbin it depends on other traffic however the Tower is generally very helpful.

 

PittsApproachMB0515.mp4

 

PittsApproachMB0515.mp4

"At about 200 ft agl, the aircraft pitched suddenly and significantly nose down before descending in a left turn from which it did not recover before striking the surface of a crop field. The reason for this final manoeuvre was not determined." There are many instances of stall/spin accidents in Tiger Moths, often following an engine failure. I note the comment about "benign stall characteristics at between 45-49 mph IAS, adopting a high angle of attack and rate of descent with the stick held full back and no tendency to drop a wing" - well, that depends on where the ball is.

 

 

How about:

 

 

 

 

 

Are these genuine?

I guess that the description is correct, doesn’t say they are DC so I wouldn’t expect them to be.

 

I have a local store so I generally stop in to buy http://www.skylines.com.au/products/378/david-clark-gel-undercut-ear-seals

 

 

Cleaning out my office and found this article on the subject 

 

 

 

 

 

Depends on the cause of the fouling - see https://m.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/pdf/tempestplugmaint.pdf

 

My IO-360 has the fine-wire electrodes on the bottom of the cylinders so the only type of fouling that I'd experience is the "bridged electrode" and cycling the prop pitch generally knocks the deposit off.

 

 

Not to mention high wing aircraft without laminar-flow aerofoils ..... I’ve experienced much less tendency for an uncommanded wing drop in low wings with laminar-flow aerofoils (but there are many types that I have not flown). Perhaps something to do with the wing taper, washout ... 

 

 

and one effect of skidding is to effectively add sweepback on one wing, sweepforward on the other

 

 

Lots of other factors in a descending, skidded turn.

 

 

I’m out, I thought at first it might’ve been something by Gordon Bedson or Graham Percy but seems not.

 

 

First hint - before building this the builder had worked with a major glider company and was/is a composites specialist. He also spent time with Burt Rutan in USA and consequently this plane features a fair bit of Rutan-ish Ezy technology.

I remember that

 

 

Some general comments from https://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-221613.html here:

 

"As for toe-in/out; a small amount of toe-in will cause the drag to be reduced slightly on the inside wheel if a swing starts, and the yaw moment that this creates is stabilising i.e. it wants to swing you back straight again. For toe-out the converse is true, and any deviation from straight ahead is exaggerated. The elasticity of spring-bar type undercarriages means that drag on the wheel wants to turn the wheels outwards towards a toe-out configuration ..."

 

A Pitts can be decidedly ornery with too much of either, especially with the bungee gear - you can see the effect just pushing it backwards and forwards on the ground..

 

The 8KCAB Service Manual specified nil toe-in/out and rectified by shims (which can also be used to fix the camber). You can buy shims at https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/lgpages/tapershim.php with this advice: "For wheel alignment. Ideal setting is zero toe-in and zero camber at normal operating weight. shims may be rotated to any one of four positions to obtain desired result."

 

 

I hadn’t seen a single seater E-3 before (I lead a sheltered life).

 

 

Can we rule out the Su26, 29, 31 and Juka.

 

 

All good questions but not all of the questions ... and doesn’t answer the original question of what CASA’s position is.

 

 

My guess is that their position is identical to an internal installation of an EFB - from an engineering point of view they have similar considerations. The law is identical.

 

I suggest that you read the CAAP in EFBs, just the short text on airworthiness engineering approval.

 

 

Cygnet

 

 

Yep, I can wait for the investigation and in the meantime I'll quietly note the words from the witnesses with my observations of the accident site.

 

 

I flew the turboprop version of the CT4 nearly  30 years ago. A fun aeroplane.