Old Koreelah

The canopy can be a big part of the cost of building. Blowing it yourself requires lots of time, equipment and skill- as I learned the hard way. Since there are so many similar-sized aircraft on the market, why not buy one ready-made? You might end up with a high-tech new clear plastic that’s better than the traditional soft, but unbreakable polycarbonate or hard but brittle acrylic.

I have several cheap welders in my shed. They may be dead, but their cables are ideal for carrying starter current. I learned to never tell them it was for any sort of flying machine. That goes straight to the pool room!

You might laugh now, but wait till you meet the bugger! Yonks ago I was lucky enough to spend time learning from a Bandjalung songman. Nyimbin often featured in the many traditional stories he told. They were secretive, nimble little people who aften caused mischief arond the camp. A family members knew an old bushie who told about a Yowie he caught stealing from his hut. He wrestled with it, but couldn’t get a proper grip on it’s loose, thick skin. About 1.5 Feet m tall, it must have been a badly-fed relative of the one that terrorises the Pilliga.

Those pop-out slats would sure help. I too have fantasised about modifying the sturdy Jab airframe for STOL. The tailpane would have to be redesigned, because standard Jabs seem to have barely a poofteenth of down elevator.

I sure would like to be in that one, OME, but I wouldn’t like to fly over too much forest. Regarding the Pilliga, our small local mill and many others used to rely on cypress logs cut down there, until Bob Carr made it a National Park. Despite being a pretty serious conservationist, I call that the dumbest decision. The Pilliga is not natural- it’s a recovering disaster area, having been overgrazed, eroded, then abandoned by white farmers. Without management by fire, I’ve seen lots of good country over-run by cypress, which grows in thickets of spindly, small trees too dense for undergrowth. They’ll never yield the sort of timber trees many inland towns were built with. There is usually increased soil erosion and no wildlife; pretty much an ecological dead zone.

Lae is on the coast, so why not ship it in? I once saw a pic of a cow being unloaded in the highlands. The colonials needed to have milk for their tea.

Good to see some people are actually committing aviation!

Totally true. It intriges me how so many swept-wing airliners get used for low, slow water bombing. Designed for a totally different role. I guess the main reason is so many are available cheaply and there are plenty of pilots with experience in them. Several purpose-built water bombers have been developed, but we don’t see many of them.

What’s wrong with 300 metres? As our instruments get more accurate, we might be able to standardise on 200m vertical separation. Pilots’ brains have enough to do without constantly switching between two systems for vertical and horizontal measurement. Add that load to the many who must communicate in a language they only recently learned (English) and you have a recipe for overload.

Op I’ve watched local water bombers working a fire on a ridge above us while listened to their radio exchanges. Bluddy dangerous work; they get hammered and so do the airframes. Not a good place to be low and slow.

Every time I top up my tyres I have to reset the servo’s unit from PSI to kpa. Australia metricated thirty-odd years ago and we STILL can’t use the simplest, most sensible system ever conceived. Every vehicle has a recommended tyre pressure placard, usually next to the driver’ door. They are all in kPa, a very simple system, used EVERYWHERE, except backward countries. What the hell is a PSI? What’s a pound? A square inch? One Pascal is the pressure exerted by 10grams (two teaspoons of water) sitting on one square centimetre (a fingernail). Standard air pressure is 1 Atmosphere, almost exactly 100 kPa, so if you put two Atm in your tyre, it’s about 200 kPa. Can we please throw out those ancient, inefficient measurements?

I’ve kept my plane’s tiny little Pdacid battery in my sleeping bag on winter nights or the plurry thing would never start the next morning!

Dual exhaust ports?

I have a couple of old sealed 44s next to my shed that go bang at predictable times of the day and night.

Thanks OME, I hope you Rally goes well.

I saved up to buy a brand new bike in ‘75 and almost bought a Suzuki rotary. When idling the big single rotor was noisy and vibrating like a Brit single, but as you twisted the throttle it became dead smooth. I was mostly put off by it’s large size and crazy styling.

After looking forward to this rally, I won’t be able to go. Just heard that hometown is holding a campdraught that weekend, with one event in memory of my little brother; it will be the first anniversary of his death.

I’ve seen a few evolutionary dead ends.

I hear you Turbs, but we’ve had this discussion before. The Public Liability included in my RAA certificate gives some peace of mind, but how much would they pay? It was suggested that they’d be wise to not publicise a figure, for fear of larger claims. All my efforts to buy an extension to the basic RAA cover have come to nothing; few interested, quotes exorbitant.

What about those of us with NO insurer? My aircraft is not insured. The only insurance I carry is the cover inherent in my RAAus pilot certificate. Is that what you mean? If so, perhaps we can get a group endorsement from RAAus?

Good training is to sit in the cockpit and go though what you’d do in all the emergency scenarious. Putting hands on the lever, valve, switch as part of that might save a few precious moments when the proverbial happens.

On American forums there is plenty of discussion about converting these V-twins to aircraft use.

Fifteen years ago, when lots of us on the Jodel Forum were talking about installing diesel engines, one member claimed the PSA engine (used in Peugeots, Citroens, Fords, GM, etc.) had a TBO of 10,000 hours! When challenged, he said they’d tested a batch of these diesels to destruction. The first failed at 12,700 hrs with a dropped exhaust valve. Over 3,000 of those engines were build every day.

Can’t answer that one, BC. My stick grip is wound with roo rawhide; my wife’s dad used to earn good money cutting roo hides into lace-sized strips.

We could send you some. Australia has an industry exporting roo products from the million or so humanely culled by professional shooters each year. Unfortunately, misinformed animal libbers in North America are trying to stop that small trade, which poses no danger to our enormous population of roos. Their numbers are also hardly dented by the thousands killed on our roads every night. Their carcases are left for wildlife to pick over.