Mr Mal

I wonder if this applies to an experimental amateur built(VH registered) and RAAus registered aircraft or just the certified VH registered ones?...

Blue line - would you mind if I called to discuss? I am embarking on the same project.......

Cheers

Mal

I got a quote for an STEC 50 auto pilot into a 172N - $15 to $20,000.However I found that fitting a Dynon D10 efis and autopilot was only $13,000. Included in this cost was about $1,100 for an engineering order to fit non-STC modification to a certified aircraft.

 

Not only was it cheaper but I get a second A/H, altimeter, airspeed, DG, etc etc - vastly safer for IFR/night stuff!

 

Not sure if you can do this in Brazil but I think it would be well worth looking at.

Yes it is bad news for us Cessna owners in a way... end of 2016 we need to be "SIDS" compliant or the MR runs out. That being said I cannot see how the 7500 odd 100 series aircraft on the register here in Aus can be done in time be the 3000 odd LAMES in the country.........

The expensive part is two fold - if you find corrosion you have to fix it. The other expensive part is all of the mods that you are required to do - tail stiffner, door stiffner, inertia reel on the pilot seat.... Bob - I would get a second opinion as the LAME I use has completed a 210 for just under $60k, a 206 for around $48k and they are far more in depth than a 182 and the 172 is looking like 26-28k so somewhere in the $40k range? Given you still have two or maybe three annuals between now and then the cost can be stretched - although not as far as I was planning.

One tip is talk to your LAME or any LAME who is planning to get the crack testing done on the wing roots and attachment points - the cost of flying these NDT guys in is huge, if you can fly them in to do three, four or ten aircraft it makes it a LOT cheaper for you (albeit at a time you may not anticipate) to do wings and leading edge all in one hit. The LAME just needs to have enough room to have a dozen wings sitting around.........

I have just finished discussing this with my LAME - I have an 83 172p going in for its annual in August. Under Schedule 5 maintenance these can be 'bumped' by the owner - having this noted in the airframe logbook. Having said that the LAME is under the obligation to maintain the aircraft to the best standard available - which happens to be the SIDS...... so it can be a case of finding a LAME who is sympathetic to a schedule.

Now having said that the LAME has indicated that he (and many others) would be willing to do the SIDS over several years. The good news is the newer the plane the less SIDS there are to do (as they identified cracking in earlier models and fixed it in later models). Many are inspections already done in the 100 hourly etc. The expensive ones are the ones that say "inspect for corrosion and fit kit x" regardless of condition..........

At this stage I am looking to spend 3-4k per year over and above to close out this requirement. Not bad considering the peace of mind it gives you.....

Sad that the first post for a lost aviator - intimated he was at fault in some way for his untimely demise, which I offer sincere condolences for. I wonder if Cessna call to make the same intimations when one of 'their' birds go down?

If there were such problems with the plane maybe the manufacturer of the kit could have phoned RA-AUS and cancelled or changed the rego on the aircraft like he has done to others without their knowledge (of which I have first hand experience) ........... considering the previous history of the manufacturer and their involvement in another well known aircraft incident it would have been wiser to not post those comments.

I have had the RPT boys take off and land around me when the MKY tower is closed. Found them to be gracious and accepting, some till you not to extend down wind so they can see what flying for fun looks like and others thankyou for extending down wind to help keep them on time............ extending down wind is fine by me as it means more flying time............... now if an RPT dropped in on me whilst I had my eyes closed trying to land - that would be a different matter! Safe flying and more importantly have fun.......

For those interested.......... http://ancorloc.co.nz/products/duckbill-anchors/

We have 40 and 60 foot dongas blow over mine hi walls..... unfortunately sometimes with miners in them. Anyway long story short they duck bill them into the groung with a 5/16" cable attached. Essentially a smaller version of a sand anchor which is hammered in at about 30 degree angle with an OZITO hammer drill and a 1.2m extension. It goes in with the fin straight and any movement the bill opens up and increases the grab size.

All that is left out of the ground is the cable and if they come loose you have bigger problems then your plane blowing away!

They are about 10 bucks each with cable and the hammer driver runs 200 bucks - so if your doing a permanent tie down thing it might be a good thing - holds a donga should hold a plane right???

As a professional safety person who holds a current drug testing qualification I might take this opportunity to provide some useful information:

1

Thanks for the thought Patrick but after breaking one the missus has placed a formal objection to me getting Nother one for a while - so lexan wrap it is.......

quote="Kyle Communications, post: 245265, member: 1910"]If you worked at it full time and had some experience I am sure it could be done in 7 weeks....mine took a year and a half but life got in the way too much and I built it at 2 different places...realistically doing it again and at the one place I would say 6 months and I would have it finished completely inc painting....even with life getting in the way....The painting nearly broke my enthusiasm though.... that took 4 months at least. I would do it differently next time.

Hivis paint doesn't stop you from not being seen or others hearing your radio calls either. I got the crap scared out of me a few weeks ago by let us say a rotary wing type who suddenly called a mid downwind join AFTER I had already called in downwind and I was already at mid downwind by then....he was about 200 ft above me I saw him through the roof of the Sav. I actually needed to take evasive action...was not happy Jan

Mark

I hear you Mark - I have only rewired my Sierra and replaced the dash and interior and its been 6 weeks and counting! Almost there tho - seem to be finding less jobs to do and finishing more off!

Mal

How does it fly Samuell? Still happy with your Savannah? Any flying pictures??

G'day Mick welcome to the site - I have a morgan which I will be putting in the air very shortly. There quite a few guys on here that have been really helpful. Any questions feel free to ask.

Mal

Alright the final wiring behind the dash is done apart from the PTT wiring. It all seems to work as it should too . Attached are some before and after pics - ALL (lol sounds easy when you use that word) I have to do now is finalise the trim panels, trim and fit the bubble canopy (coming next week - followmont as its too large for Greyhound), and fit the sexy air conditioning unit care of Rob Patroni...... oh and if any one knows how to get 8mm HT leads for a Jabiru 2200 please let me know!

What a horrible outcome to a drawn out saga. We can have some sort of solace in knowing that because the aircraft involved was endowed with letters on the tail rather than numbers, that the incident will be investigated thoroughly.Some things in my mind are not adding up, and thats probably due to the usual media misunderstanding of things, but if anyone has any real info, please share it.

I don't buy for a second that these guys were "lost in cloud for 2 hours". Im not sure of the exact distances involved, but 2 hours at 100 kts would seem to be a good percentage of the entire ETI of the trip. And the wreckage was located on a direct track between Monto and YCAB. Too much co-incidence that after stooging for 2 hours the pilot managed to be smack bang on track again. Not gunna happen.

 

A couple of comments, and I have to say, not particularly related to this flight, but more a general observation.

 

Route selection. When planning a VFR flight, take some extra time and care, and plan a route that keeps you over the best country available and within reason. The GPS may give you a beautiful little pink line to follow, but it doesn't know or care about whats gunna happen if you get into trouble. This becomes even more important when weather is involved, and on the east coast of AUS, weather is ALWAYS involved.

 

I have often been smacked around a bit because of my stand on using the LSALT box on a VFR flight plan, both personally and when teaching navigation. There are those that think its the domain of the IFR pilot and VFR pilots should stay well away from it. But IMHO the LSALT box is an exellent tool when in the planning stage of a flight. The IFR rules state that whenever considering a flight to a destination that has no navigation aid, the last route segment must have cloud base 500 feet higher than the LSALT. That sounds like a good place to start for me. When planning a flight, if the cloud base (from the ARFOR) is lower than the route LSALT, then im staying home to watch top gun. If its greater than 500 above LSALT, but still close to, then I would be wanting a very very good reason as to why I need to fly today. 1500 feet between the mountains and the cloud is NOT much at all, and I am talking about the 'planning' stage here, not the flying.

 

Parousal of the maps and charts may very well indicate a much safer route, a few miles off the direct track. Over lower terrain, increasing the LSALT cloud base buffer etc. And this is easily spotted when you are considering LSALT on your VFR flight plan. The most deadly bit of tech in most modern lighties is the GPS, because it removes the planning stage from many peoples routines. They jump in, press GOTO and off they go. No consideration of the route etc.

 

Perhaps in time, we will have many things to learn from this tragic accident, but in the mean time it should serve as a reminder to us all, that Aviation is very unforgiving of any incapacity or neglect.

VFR and IFR aside - I agree with the LSALT principle. Even when lost the first thing I maintain is the LSALT - you cant fly into if your clear of it by 500 feet. Flying lower may give slightly increased visibility if you find yourself "suddenly" in IFR but it increases the chances of a collision with a solid object by an untold factor.........

One of the useless items a pilot can have - the air above them.

Sad day for all to loose so many and to have them lost in a piece of history at the same time. Thoughts go out to the family and the crews that have the misfortune for being tasked with the recovery.

Mal

Powerlines can be hard to detect - we flew into a strip that neither of us had been to before. We did the fly over twice (inbound and back across the strip) and listed out the hazards and the plan to address them. After landing safely and pushing the plane into the hangar I asked the other pilot with me if had seen the powerlines at the end of the strip 100m from where we came to a stop. The answer was no - the poles on either side were obscured and it was a single wire - very easy to miss.

This incident has all the hall marks of low level flying and skylarking - if this is the case these findings should be made public so that the public are aware that in this case the type of aircraft didnt injure anyone - the type of pilot injured someone.

cficare - appreciate the feedback and now that the panel is cut I realise I could have done the gauges around that way - was not keen at the time on the oblong extensions being on the bottom side of the panel....... thinking about pulling it out and glassing it back up and swapping over...... but then thinking of all that time flying instead..... decisions decisions.

I just chucked a new tank my sierra as part of the upgrades. Went with a race car tank - 3mm thick added 1.2kg to the aircraft and this included the safety foam in the rear. Brilliance of it was that it is machine tigged and pretty strong. I will sacrifice weight for integrity any day of the week. Done 4 weeks in a burns unit and the extra weight seems a small price to pay............

Tommo - yours looks pretty damn good.

Two pilots board a 737 in sydney, to the amazment of the passengers on board one has a cane and the other a seeing eye dog. Nervously the passengers fidget during taxiing and the line up roll. As the aircraft accelerates down the runway it seems like a very very long roll until finally one of the passengers screams! This sets of the rest off in a deafening roar of screams in the cabin..... a few seconds later to all passengers relief the aircraft lifts off and heads on its way...............

Up in the cockpit the captain turns to the co-pilot and say "Dave - one day their not going to scream and we are gonna die.... and for gods sake get that dog out from around the rudder pedals!"

I found my takeoffs got better when I kept my eyes open Rosita!!!

Glad to hear your ok and I hope I can do as good a job as your hubby when my first failure happens.......

Trike - the pilot is the son of the owner of the land that has the Marian strip near by on their property with Mackay Sky dive. Would appear he was doing low level flying and collided with a power line as he was heading west into the afternoon sun. Guess we will have to wait for the final report - the passenger is very lucky to survive and very lucky first on scene knew first aid very well (he is a new member to RA AUS and flys at the same school I do), I hope the passenger recovers fully.

Furio - the panels on the right will be spare (I went with "the less info the passenger has the better"). I will be putting a plastic etched label with the usual warning sign and the VNE's etc there. (Off for pricing this morning - about $150 bucks to do all labels). The centre right panel will be fitted with a 12v socket and a 3mm audio jack for running iphone into radio to keep the missus happy. (Xcom runs 50% volume when intercom used and mutes when transmissions inbound). Its a Xtreme mini efis mounted between the steams. Below the GPS is the GME Tx3100 UHF (Came with the XCOM so I fitted it.... ) then you have the XCOM and below that is the key, starter and fuel.

I also saw some good lighting strips in JAYCAR (both panel lights come as one strip and cut to size for under $20 bucks! But might need a dimmer??) - under 2 watts draw and good for warming up and preflighting etc whilst waiting for first light..... . I am also going to put them in the baggage area in the same circuit as the floor lights - for finding stuff in the dark.

The GPS Air Gizmo dock should be here today so that will get cut and mounted making the panel pretty much complete.

Thanks Mardy - I did and the size should just scrape in (width wise) and they reckon Taree to Mackay $250 - sounds like a done deal to me.

As requested guys some pics of the dash work in progress..... prep and painting required. The switch panel on the right is still up for grabs if anyone can show me a good looking one (I LIKE RGMW's one....). GPS dock coming in from the states so that will be cut in when it arrives and two switches requried for ignitions but pretty much getting there.

Compulsion mate. Did you hear that the Savannah's have multiplied at Palmyra? A new student grout and flew one in on Sunday.... Lol