planet47

FT said: My advice, never get involved with a women who asks you what you do for a living within 30minutes of meeting them. Let me guess - you told them and you feel that was a drawcard ?

Already looking forward to the next sequence of this chapter. Go Charlie! Go Jack!

What can one say? Too much grappa? Too much channel water? Drip irrigation feeding a weed crop? Maybe the frontal lobe hasn't matured? The list goes on......? However whoever it was was still alive to tell the story 11 months ago. Seemed to know where all the power lines, etc were so maybe this person has done this several times before. Could argue the point about honing skills but more likely to be skills that kill if there was a sudden gust or a power loss.

yeah well - ho hum

If you are still unsure - take a piece of paper and write down the fors and againsts for using this drifter. Look at each one carefully. While I think drifters are a hoot to fly it is not good to wish you were down here when you are up there. I love flying my quicksilver (2 stroke with a 447 rotax and an ambiguous name because there is nothing quick about them) and there aren't a hell of a lot of options around here when it comes to landing in an emergency either. Anything that looks a possibility is dotted with cattle, electricity lines, trees, housing and headstones and I have no plans on landing in water. I am unsure from this thread what you have flown and how much experience you have. I do understand that you are contemplating doing this with an instructor and perhaps you need to have a good chat with the instructor and verbalise your questions and thoughts.

Butt the end result of all that flatulence could be http://www.yawp.com/3rd-i/vol4/vol4No12/fart.html . To keep it in or let it out = discomfort and dyspepsia -v- human incendiary.

Sobering story!

Question Rolf - do you have a 2 stroke endorsement?

Actually I have learned to think "if in doubt don't go out". There have been times I have been lucky in mine - as I have recently been reminded my arse is the first thing on the ground. My quicksilver doesn't have a fuel guage but I know what the fuel usage rate is and I have a hobbs meter so I think along the lines of "be back around the time the meter reads ......". I fly where I can land ie above beaches, paddocks, roads, stuff like that. I am with Sapphire on thinking fly them as if they are about to quit and keep a listen out on the motor. Think about what you would do if you detected a change in the sound of that motor if you were taking off on crosswind doing a 500ft circuit or out and about at 1500ft. Drifters are a hoot to fly but just think ahead.

FT

No he told me today he cropped the sky and the foreground just keeping the vital middle bits. Hope he doesn't build planes the same way!

Hey I like what you did with the photos.

By the way folks I'm developing a collection of links to suitable engines for this Cheap 2 Seater, so if anyone knows of any please post them here. For those who thought there weren't any options I have about 30-40 so far and still searching some out from previous threads, so I'll publish the lot for discussion shortly. Looking forward to seeing the results HITC

Hey fly_tornado I have a question Which came first the tornado or the thundergull?

Where is Jack!

OMG! The banner for "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" - the MOUSTACHE. Reminds me of a local from here that I know.

Hopefully Flyerme might have another chapter of Jack the Flyer to keep us going until I can get the images knocked out... If only:hurry up:

Oh I never said I would be into the design thing. Far too busy diving in Bali, touring in europe and enjoying my retirement. Maybe you would like to post some pics or a youtube link of you flying a floopy while touring Europe or perhaps endeavouring to find the shark skin while diving in Bali that you talked of earlier. You obviously have time and money to burn.

Yes. we need some real technical breakthrough to change things. Note that modern rag n tube ultralights aren't much different from a 1945 piper cub. It may be from better understanding of how nature generates lift e.g. shark skin has a weird way of binding the boundary layer using rough scales. Fish do it with slime. How? dunno. But those kinds of efficiencies could lead to smaller and even very foldable/rollable wings. As u say, if we could get the energy density of batteries close to fossil fuels, we'd go electric the whole way. That means energy recovery on descent so we don;t throw away all the energy used in the climb. and Having owned a split fuse negative stagger biplane, there are reasons the world never bought them in numbers. Go you! I have heard your point - pity about mine though!

Had a request for a craft similar to the posts initial parameters, two seat, slow, STOL?, folding?, side by side (sort of). This is only an initial draft, but the thoughts are, Foxbat style wing and flaperon, ThuderGull Odyssey styled staggered seating, taildragger for simplicity (but convertible to nosewheel?) but the big difference to the original plan is VISIBILITY, hence a pusher configuration and to be powered by a second hand 80hp 912. One day I would like to fly out west to Sticksville territory to visit family & friends so need a plane that can carry some stuff as well as the occasional passenger, one that has a good fuel range and a bit more speed than what I have now and one that doesn't require a ground crew every 1-2 hours in order to get from one place to another, etc. I also like to be able to appreciate the scenery along the way. Everyone's needs and wants are different. The floopy sort of reminds me of those jumping castles that young kids muck around on. For now I'll give the floopy a miss!!!

Ha ha!!!

Does Charlie ever forgive Tommy?

E6b's - even in a spaceship:beg:

Had a request for a craft similar to the posts initial parameters, two seat, slow, STOL?, folding?, side by side (sort of). This is only an initial draft, but the thoughts are, Foxbat style wing and flaperon, ThuderGull Odyssey styled staggered seating, taildragger for simplicity (but convertible to nosewheel?) but the big difference to the original plan is VISIBILITY, hence a pusher configuration and to be powered by a second hand 80hp 912. I like it!!! Requires good fuel range too (to go west).

What airport is that? at Bankstown, what was the nations busiest GA airport, my landing fees are only $6 per landing, or a daily charge of $12. for unlimited landings in a 24hr period. and i have use of a manned control tower, nice wide perfectly maintained runways, taxiways, signage, lighting, gravel free runup bays. maintained windsocks. etc etc YTRE = $10 per landing. Costs the same to land a plane with a gross weight of 250kg as it does to land a plane weighing 1.4 tonnes or a whole lot less to land a freight plane whose gross weight would probably be about 4 tonnes and somewhere inbetween to be a passenger on the local RPT. As for maintenance and gravel free areas - I remember the pot hole that I found while taxiing about 15 months ago the resulted in a bent nose leg and the pot hole that another individual found that cost him a main leg off his plane. But the twanging belligerence of the groundsman "I'd have to walk all over the place for 12 hours every day in order to ......". A little bit more care when using a tractor mower would be helpful