Old Koreelah

Not exactly Back Country, but definitely STOL: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/video/2023/mar/15/small-plane-makes-incredible-landing-on-dubais-iconic-burj-al-arab-helipad-video

Despite being a ling-time supporter of Wikipedia, their conservative attitude frustrates me. I suspect they had to fight so hard to be accepted as a reliable source, that they err in the side of the ultra conservative, especially regarding history.

Evey time I read about one of these failed designs, my interest in pusher props is diminished.

Keeping your plane folded up on it’s trailer might earn you a reduced rate in a hangar.

We see too many steep driveways, where an off-the-shelf house is plonked down on a sloping block. Sometimes a cold engine is forced to climb a slope to get to the road. Often it would have been better to build the car level with the road, either under the house or above the living area.

Radiator caps may not be all the same; the spring tension dictates at what pressure it lets coolant overflow into the reservoir. Are Rotax and BMW set to the same pressure?

Anything is possible, but some things are not practical. Getting my plane into it’s “garage” (a shipping container built into my shed) involves reversing the long carrier up a sloping driveway. I installed a winch on the unit to hand-crank it up the slope, but now rarely use it. Perhaps you can use a power winch. The steep slope is hard to reverse up accurately, but once the wheels are on the level floor, I unhitch and push it in by hand.

Finally decided which one to buy, mostly because both its gauges match, unlike the crap automotive kits which have % on one dial. Ordered on Tuesday, arrived Friday at my address in the sticks. Impressive, but the plurry fittings are not compatible! Time for another rant about lack of standardisation. All my compressed air stuff uses Nitto fittings; this one aint. Another damned trip to the big smoke to buy compatible couplings.

We’ve done that once and laid down a blanket to claim the territory. Later, with the crowd backing up behind us, everybody respected our sacred picnic planket territory. An aspect of the national culture I’m proud of.

The Yanks were using a few high-altitude variants during their venture in Afghanistan. The Canberra might be one of those century aircraft, like the Goonie Bird, B-52, Mig21 and Tu-95.

Nice to see you on here Sue. Where you been?

…Until we electedindependents like Tony Windors who have the deciding vote in hung parliaments.

NSW= Newcastle, Sydney, Wollongong.

A great idea Nev, but this is Australia: where stupid decisions are endemic. Very fast trains are the way to go, almost everyone is building them, except us. Even Africa has a TGV (Morocco), but I doubt Australia will ever get one. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/03/nsw-government-slams-brakes-on-high-speed-rail-plans-after-spending-100m-on-studies

Probably a good time to find a better location, so you can more easily replace it. Another aspect: are you sure where your plane’s Centre of Gravity is? After you finish the build, you may need to relocate heavy items like the battery, toolkit, tiedowns, etc. What sort of battery? Many of us adopted LiFePO4 long ago, saving weight and increasing longevity. As long as your charging system is compatible, a Lithium battery fills the bill.

A huge gamble on the future of commercial aviation; I wonder what “discounts for volume” that huge order attracts.

Gareth this topic has been discussed here before (do a search). Having a rear-facing vent invites fuel to be sucked out, or at least a drop in tank air pressure sufficient to stop fuel flow. That’s happened to me, leading to engine spluttering before I swapped tanks. Forward-facing seems preferred.

I like Nev’s idea that the daily hand turns give you a pretty good idea of the health of your engine, but that presumes far more experience and “feel” than most of us have. Having hydraulic tappets is another reason to be more precise. My plane is currently at home in the container, waiting for me to find a few weeks to do lots of maintenance. Great opportunity to make my own leak-down tester, based on an old spark plug with a pressure gauge attached. Has anyone done this?

Small, easily mass-produced plastic props- as used in drones- would be the ideal application. There has been quite a lot of work done to reduce prop noise and this design seem to tick those boxes. If this technology follows the pattern set by phones, computers and lots of other consumer goods, soon we might be able to buy a set of motors and props ready to plug into our own designs.

Same thing happened to me after departing Narromine AusFly a few years ago. Because of the amount of traffic, I’d turned on my landing lights for takeoff and forgotten to turn them off. I hadn’t installed a relay in the system, so they pulled a fair amount of current, eventually tripping the CB. It shouldn’t have been an issue, but I’d never had a CB trip before and had totally forgotten how I’d wired up the plane. Lack of logical thinking led to a couple of hours wasted on the ground in Dubbo before a young, fresh set of eyes noticed that little button sticking out a bit more than the others. Embarassing!

Those are very impressive wheel spats. I built my own, which are not as neat, but it taught me to admire good workmanship when I see it! In our slower aircraft, well-designed spats can reduce drag as much as a retractable undercariage. My flight tests showed a reduction of up to 13% in fuel burn.

Last night a C-130 flew quite a few circuits over our airport, presumably on a Nav exercise out of Richmond. We followed its track on the iPad. It first came up on OzRunways then later on Flight Track Radar, which seemed to be about a minute behind. Not the first time I’ve been more impressed by OR. For the last couple of weeks we’ve had helicopters water bombing fires nearby and all appear on OR, but none show on FTR.

I bet it is, OME. The low-tech fibreglass used to build Jabirus may be less sexy than the carbon fibre fantastics, but has lots of advantages. It’s much cheaper to buy/ build, is good at absorbing impacts while protecting the humans inside and is much more easily repaired. When crashed into water, Jabs float. I bet even this one could be patched up if the right moulds and jigs were available.

Surely the only time a Bing carby will leaked is when the needle valve doesn’t seat properly?

Get in soon before the money runs out!