Keenaviator

A mate and I will be heading for the Townsville area in early July. This thread is now pretty old. What is the current status of Montpellier Field? Is Andrew Hicks still the man to contact? Cheers, Laurie.

I've been running the iridium plugs now for a few hours. When I installed them I gapped them to Jabiru's recommended setting .021". Now that summer is gone and Victoria is pretty cold I've been finding that it hasn't been starting as well as expected, needing choke longer etc. Also in cruise there has been a bit of barely perceptible hesitation. Anyway, on the weekend I was talking with a knowledgeable mate from West Sale who said, "Did you re-gap the plugs?" And if so, "Don't. Just leave them as they are set by NGK." That's about 0.028". This morning I re-gapped the iridiums to 0.028" and lo and behold, it started much more energetically with little need for choke. Also in cruise it has never been smoother nor more even. So the moral of this story, leave the iridium plugs gap alone as they are set by NGK - they know what they're doing.

I've thought about making my kids a tail dragger style billy cart with 'rudder pedals' that work the same as an aircraft. It never came to fruition but still reckon it would have been a lot of fun and the benefit would be training reflexes to work the right way.

I was thinking self representation but I s'pose that's not practising.

Renewed my registration on line on the 5th of May and received the new card in the mail yesterday. All good now.

I am running one of these props and so far it is performing well. I certainly will be checking it before the next flight. This prop hub is forged and apparently a very good way to go for structural integrity - maintaining the grain of the metal. I hope the small holes used for the roll pins that lock the pitch to a factory standard are not causing a stress point. Interestingly I also used a Patroney composite prop on my Corby Starlet. The hub of the Patroney prop is a soft grade of aluminium and was machined by Camit. I've never heard of issues with Paul's props and mine was a beauty and is still going well with the new owner who has put a lot more hours on it than I did.

Risk, not rest. Auto text interference.

Your 60 to 65 knots touch down speed seems awfully high. The rest there is wheel borrowing and potential ground loop.

The Vans RV's, Sonerai and Sonex aircraft have a low aspect deep chord wing and these have a wide speed range and high VNE. I would have thought the Jabiru 250 wing which also has a low aspect and deep chord would be stronger than the long wing variants, including my UL 450's. And therefore have a higher VNE. Could this accident be an example of CFIT? I believe a local wasn't keen on the weather conditions for flying at the time.

How old is this Brumby? Notice the fizz in the top photo?

In the past 35 years I have produced many inquest briefs for Coroners (Magistrates officiating coronial inquest). The brief is basically a collection of statements, photos, plans, a detailed summary and conclusion made/obtained by the police investigator. The coroner is immediately informed of a reportable death and a case number is issued. Preliminary reports are submitted immediately (form 83's) and within a few days the investigator is given a date within a month or two, depending on the complexity of the investigation, to have the final inquest brief completed and submitted. If safety issues arise out of an investigation the member includes these in the conclusion. The coroner may or may not take further action or give directives. I would not want to be the person ignoring a coroner's direction.

$220, seems pricey.

He, like many of the other vocal, probably doesn't own.

Today's flight along the same San Remo coastline.

From the Jabiru factory today, some information regarding a new engine. Looks interesting, not only new cast cylinders/heads but it looks like the induction is very different too. As we keep saying the Research and Development never stops here at Jabiru. For the last 4 years the Jabiru engineers have been working on the development of the “2210” engine. It’s exciting news!!! There is still work to be done but we are edging closer to the possible launch of this new engine. We are planning to initially release it as an experimental engine. Eventually there will also be a six cylinder released as well. We have now accumulated just over 800 hours in test time and it is performing well. The engine has non corrosive aluminium cylinders with nickel and silicon carbide bores. These cylinders have three times the thermal conductivity of steel and the bores have very low friction and high wear resistance. The cast cylinders are more robust than the steel cylinders we currently use. We will keep you updated on the progress......... in the meantime we have attached some pictures for you of the “2210”

I don't know why you would want an electric trim instead of the Jabiru designed and tested mechanical one. It works well and is not sloppy.

My wife and I had a very enjoyable flight around South Gippsland yesterday. Here are a couple of photos taken from my gopro videos (what an amazing little camera).

How much time do you have as pic in trikes?

I think you'll find the certification limits are 30 degrees pitch up or down and 60 degrees angle of bank.

Would it not be possible to monitor all these aircraft's flight paths/profiles and if they suddenly deviate radically from the plan have control taken off the pilots? Then ground based crews take over until it is established why the deviation. There are lots of military drones flying around that are ground controlled.

Or even Porepunkah :)

Earl, do you mind if I forward this to the HGFA? I too am a paraglider pilot and this subject is something that has really annoyed me for quite some time. When flying cross country as this fellow did we are supposed to carry and monitor VHF set to the appropriate frequency. The HGFA also have allotted frequencies on VHF which can be used by HGFA pilots (paragliders, hang gliders, microlights/trikes) to keep in touch with each other. This practice of using UHF CB to communicate is unacceptable. The argument usually given is that you can't use VHF to communicate with retrieve drivers - I can't see why the allotted HGFA VHF frequencies couldn't be used for this purpose. We are all pilots using the same airspace, sometimes near controlled airspace - we should be ensuring we can communicate with all other airspace users. Another practice that is very common to paraglider pilots and really gets my goat is that they insist on using metres to described their altitude. The standard unit of measure for altitude is feet (metres for horizontal distance and runway length).

Like I said, it looks like he knows what he was doing.

Good to see his injuries aren't too bad. Looks like he knows what he's doing in an emergency.

Welcome to the forum Wayne. I recently finished a UL450 build and now have a real appreciation for paint prep and pin holes. You'll get to know what I mean. I used the Stewart Systems water borne paint system and ended up with a nice finish. I am not a painter but followed the instructions and it worked. Please pay great attention to your engine installation and cooling set up. Regards, Laurie