Old Koreelah

11 hours ago, skippydiesel said:

…and consider carbon (at least in part) to get the empty weight down.

…and lose one of Jabiru’s advantages: ease of repair. Many Jabs have been repaired in this country after prangs that would have resulted in a Carbon airframe being written off- or returned to Europe for expensive rebuilds.

I just found a resource that might be helpful when checking oil level:

Very interesting. A couple of new ideas there: Pulling flaps on a steep turn, dumping smoke to check spray drift.

My wife’s brother, an ex-aviator, has been building models for fifty years. His aim is a scale replica of every aircraft the RAAF ever flew and he’s almost there. He’ll buy kits of the one aircraft from three different makers and use the best bits of each, then add his own improvements. He uses Superglue and filler to create instrument panels, individual seats and harnesses. I hope that he puts on display soon.

Welcome to our forum! I just looked up Castellón on Google Earth and OzRunways.

Although the climate is similar to ours in Australia, the land is very different; very intensive agriculture on the flat land and lots of rugged hills. Where do you land? 

Canada said CANDO, Australia said CAN’TDO.

I’d wear a helmet. Mine is based on an old bike lid and comfortable to wear for long trips.

23 hours ago, kgwilson said:

You may need to set up your SE2 as an ADSB device in FR24 and then there must be a ground station somewhere receiving the transmission from the SE2 which passes it to FR24 through the internet. You can set one up very cheaply with a Raspberry Pi connected through your home network but there may be some in your area already. Somewhere in FR24 there is a huge list of all the ground stations registered with FR24.

This is all I found- it doesn’t appear there are any ground stations in my part of the state. We have a good wireless broadband connection but don’t have a PC, just mobile devices. Is our house a candidate for this system?

2 hours ago, Kenlsa said:

I have put a skylight in my Colt and it sure has a lot of hardware just above my head. I guess I will know soon after the first turbulent

Could you fit a sheet of thin Lexan under the framework?  I’d rather hit my head on that than a metal frame.

1 hour ago, IBob said:

Hi Marty. During my build I came across quite a few references to the ASI dropping out on high angle of attack approaches. And I came across either a reference or a pic of JG's VG where the pitot was cocked down a bit to help prevent this.

When I learned about this error, I built an extension to mine. 

Joined via a short length of flexible tube, the extension had a “tail” that always pointed it into the airflow, whether sideslipping or near stall. It eventually broke and I didn’t bother replacing it. Can’t say if it helped much.

6 hours ago, RFguy said:

Do you have a local receiver for ADSB ?

If I added an external aerial to my SE2, I could position it inside the top of the windscreen, then mount the white box down out of the way.

Nope. Just the SE2 talking to my iPad via WiFi.

Thanks Glen. To keep it away from my head it will have to be mounted to one side of my panel. That’s also away from the compass, but it will restrict forward visibility a little. 

 My efforts will be wasted unless other aviators do likewise. Hope that happens.  I’ve been working at our airport this week and most of the traffic did not appear on either OzRunways or FlightRadar 24. 

 

The best location I’ve found in my tiny cockpit is just above my right shoulder; that’s a bit close to my head.

The SE2 transmits at 20watts, compared to our mobile phones’ 1.5w, so I’d prefer to keep it further away from my already frazzled brain.

3 hours ago, facthunter said:

I never take a seat belt off in flight. It's there to hold you in the seat in turbulence.

Good advice that Airbus/Boeing passengers should follow.

3 hours ago, facthunter said:

I have no desire to wear a helmet as it's likely to be uncomfortable and you lose some awareness of your situation.  Nev

Good point, but training is meant to condition our behaviour to be instinctive in an emergency, while wearing all the protective stuff.

2 hours ago, jamdfingr said:

… the mass of a helmet should be thoroughly considered to add additional momentum to the head

This has always been a compromise for Motorcycle riders: a full-face lid might preserve your good looks, but the extra weight could break your neck. 

2 hours ago, pmccarthy said:

Went for a local flight near Creswick yesterday. Each white heap is an old waste dump from a gold mine on the Berry Lead.

Found it!

You Mexicans sure have some unusual place names: Gong Gong, Blowhard, Smokeytown, Weatherboard, Bung Bong…

Crickey, that reminds me of the main structural members of the Gossamer Albatross, which were pretty much very long aluminium coke cans; just strong enough to fly, but damaged by any slight bump.

MacCready Gossamer Albatross - Wikipedia

EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

Someone once said that the wreckage of a crashed airliner should be like confetti; any larger pieces had obviously been built too heavy.

My old front loader had a great lump of concrete bolted across the top.

7 hours ago, IBob said:

I would very much like to see an explanation as to how/why the mercury/shot would distribute themselves so as to provide balance.
I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I'm saying I would like to understand how. And so far I have not come across an explanation, just assertions that it does.

Me too, iBob. I don’t understand how it works, but it does. I used slime in my bike tyres for yonks, mostly as a puncture preseal, but it also seemed to help with balance.

I have a mercury-filled Balancemaster fitted behind my prop and it seems to be running more smoothly. 
My plane has no vibration monitor, but I have a habit of filling in my flight plan while warming up the engine. Going back through years of sheets lets me see trends in wobbly handwriting. 

Ouch!

6 hours ago, turboplanner said:

Well we certainly don’t want heathens running the show.

I resemble that remark!

2 hours ago, facthunter said:

Somehow I got more excitement than normal but I  wasn't looking for it and won't be writing about it. I really have too much to  do…

Nev I’ve had a similar response from my brother; both of you have lots of stuff the rest of us would live to read about. 
Perhaps you carry around a Dictaphone?

Nev we’re still waiting for your book…

2 hours ago, facthunter said:

It's too far direct for a lot of planes to do that, especially the return where alternates need a fair bit of fuel.   Nev 

- unless they hope into a Jet Stream. I once read about a TAA jet arriving in Sydney long before it was expected; it’s trans-continental flight was supposedly at a record speed never beaten.

2 hours ago, facthunter said:

… the valves easily touch each other if one jambs. Flat top piston is least AREA ( heat )also.  Nev

My RVR diesel stopped running after the cam chain broke. I removed the head, replaced chain, guide and gasket. Did not touch the head; the flat-topped pistons must have just punched the parallel valves with no damage.

I put it back together and it ran for years afterwards.