boleropilot

yeah m8, Dave is the moniker, Boleropilot is from my old paragliding days - my canopy was a Gin Bolero... flying in a reclined armchair at 5,000 feet with just a few square metres of cloth over your head - man that is THE way to fly until those damn mountains rise up to smite thee - ouch big time, but I still miss it....

Oratex is supposed to be the bees knees m8 - look at: as far as I am aware there is a distributor in Oz cheers Dave

G'day youse mob, Glenn has been posting on the General Discussion forum about a planned trip from Victoria to Cooktown in June '18 - many of the participants have fallen by the wayside so I have decided to bite the bullet and plan a trip (primarily for 60 knotters) from Boonah to Cooktown, up the coast, returning via Longreach on the way home. At this point I am looking at flexible dates around June 2018, I honestly believe that due to weather, mechanical and personal factors that pre-booking definite stopover dates will not work. I'm happy for experienced trippers to advise me of how those factors are managed ! The plan will be to fly a couple of hours in the morning, break for middle of day, then another couple of hours to the overnighter (which will have fuel available) - that would give about 250nm per "flying" day, and stopovers would be planned (where possible) where there are BEDS available - did I mention that I'm OLD ??? Anyway folks, it's all a dream at the moment, but I'm committed to the process - please do not hesitate to reply via this forum by post or pm, every single bit of advice will be gratefully accepted Cheers BP PS anybody got ideas on how a support vehicle might work ???

Glenn has advised me via email that the trip has now been modified significantly and that two aircraft are currently confirmed for the trip. As such, I have decided to plan a trip of my own, from Boonah to Cooktown up the coast, returning inland via Longreach, with flexible dates. I will post my intentions on the Drifter Forum (to attract the 60 knotters) and would appreciate it if all posters to this thread can look at that and reply with the sort of details as listed above to help with planning. cheers BP

the young fella up the road has taken a video of the approaches with his drone - and I gotta say, it looks a lot better than I expected - might speed up the video next time I watch it and see if I can get it to what looks like about 50 knots? will see if I can get it on YouTube, if so I'll post the link here cheers BP

thanks M6 - I'll make a decision after I get my XC endorsement - hey Greg, do you have a Drifter close by you can use for checking anything against your aircraft? if not let me know if you need any dimensions or photos. cheers BP

hey Glenn, thanks for the info, I sent an email to the waterfall creek email address earlier today. Really hope the trip goes ahead in some format, anything I can do to help please ask. cheers Dave

yeah good pick M6, I'll be getting the same one - looks like you could attach it to the seatbelt - I like the idea of activation as soon as you make the pan/mayday call - just in case you're unable to do so after the 'landing'...you can always turn it off and notify authorities asap if all good BP

yeah SQ, reckon I'll do that and check the result very carefully... BP

hey Glenn, can you let me know what the situation is with other pilots tagging along for some of the legs - I am retired, have 200 hours on 0455 (which is currently having an overhaul, including a new 582) I understand that there could be some logistics issues involved with bookings but I can assure you that 0455 and I will be good to go at the time looking forward to your reply BP PS....I'm an ex teabag pilot - was El Presidento of the Canungra Hang-gliding Club for a spell there...one of the greatest thrills of my life was sharing a thermal with a big Wedge-tailed Eagle - he happily shared it with me for 15 mins.

ah jayzus Frank, I shooda remembered I saw that post - old man syndrome - hoping to tag along with that mob for the Qld legs, haven't heard back from them yet...if they say no I'll just follow them as for others landing at our strip, it won't happen - a bit sad that people won't take responsibility for their own actions these days... BP

have you seen the red anti-collision lights on the C17s? they are huge! I went for the SC-103 strobe, works straight off a 12volt battery (no drive box), uses only 500ma, about $100 from CPS. BP

UPDATE - short term PL insurance is not an option, have not bothered to look into annual $ numbers because I am not rich... a local lad has taken approach videos of the 'strip with his drone and I have to say it looks a lot nicer than I expected - mind you, that's viewing at drone speeds and not 50 knots, so... he's going to put the video on something called SlewBoob or something, I'll post the link here when he's done that cheers BP PS - hey Frank, you hear about that mob of 60 knot drivers planning a trip from Victoria to Port Douglas in June '18? hardest thing will be trying to get them to turn South I reckon......

very sad, RIP and condolences to family and friends. four aviators with blue skies and tailwinds forever... it is just SO hard to see other aircraft in the air - I heard a call when inbound to Boonah that meant another aircraft and my Drifter were going to be at the same place at the same time in about one minute - I never saw that aircraft (after 10 seconds of scanning the area where he said he was) so I did a descending 180 to make sure I was clear. problem is, the turn I made could have put me into conflict and I would have missed a collision if I had just kept flying straight and level - you never really know...after the turn I was 1,000 feet lower than the other pilots' 'transmitted' altitude and heading away from his 'transmitted' position - but...I've heard pilots say they were at 2,000 and they were at 2,500 and descending - no good to me if I'm at 2,500 and I think we're clear of each other - he should have called "passing through 2,500" I was taught a scanning method when I was in Army Aviation and it is quite good, but there are so many angles and height differentials, it's always difficult, particularly if the other aircraft has no 'movement' against the background, i.e. it is moving directly toward or away from you. at least with the Drifter I have just about the best view of the sky there is...it's a big sky, but on a regular basis we should be saying out loud "OK, who's up here with me" and doing a proper scan. BP PS....I've recently fitted a strobe to the top of my kingpost and a VERY bright wide angle led 'landing' light under the pod

ok, thanks m8 - screen is off so I'll move it well away BP

come to think of it, I can remove the outlet hose from the top tank and spray 'liberally' in there as well...

thanks onetrack, the top tank should be ok and I should be able to remove the drain cock on the lower tank then spray the carb cleaner through the hole.... BP

g'day youse mob - the Drifter is getting closer to getting airborne, now I'm making sure I'm ticking ALL the boxes.. the top tank has sat empty (3 years plus - I know, I know) but the bottom tank has about 5 litres of two stroke mix in it anybody with experience in this area got some advice of what I should do after draining that old fuel out? I will be replacing all the fuel lines and fuel filters, plus taking the fuel pumps apart to check for issues...I'm just worried about any possible residue in both tanks cheers BP

hey Riley, what are you looking for? Kupunn can be a little difficult to get in contact with, but there's a lot of guys who can help out, depending on what you need... BP

after making a few phone calls to the suppliers of goods to these grubs, by asking simple questions, I found out more about the perpetrators than Westpac know !!! yesterday I spoke to Westpac again and gave them (a) an email address (Hotmail - who wooda thunk) (b) the name of a certain skank (using our surname) © and the last three numbers of said skank's mobile phone number.... Westpac seemed totally uninterested in the information and assure me that the pleece will take care of the matter - the best part I like was when one of the vendors told me that it was a Click & Collect purchase and that the item had not yet been collected - they assured me that video would be taken, their security people would be quickly summoned, identification would be checked, and registration of any vehicle used would be noted. hilarious - as long as I get all the refunds, that is.....

substantiate? don't need to unless someone tells me I'm talking crap - I don't make comments about aviation unless I know what I'm saying is right...

hey birdseye old m8, did ya hear about the flight of F22s that all had flight-compromising computer failure when they flew across the international date line? apparently there was a 'hiccup' with the programming of the computers that caused the failures with the systems - another flight of F22s behind the first flight were diverted, did not cross the dateline and had no problems the first flight managed to all land under very difficult circumstances...damn pooters...can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em - or is that sheilas ??? cheers BP

well birdseye, all I can say is that you might be spending too much time at the pub talking to dills can't wait to see your reply after reading the following: ‘Human error’ to blame for Doncaster blast that destroyed last Vulcan bomber’s engines cheers BP

did you hear about why the Vulcan was taken off flying duties? apparently they use big bags of moisture absorbent material due to the high level of humidity in the area it was operated - and they put some in the intakes of the engines - and - well, you can guess the rest...two of the four engines severely damaged... not sure where I heard it but if it is true then it doesn't say much for pre-flight inspections - mind you, the number of fatal 'non removal of gust locks' accidents is scary - even if you don't pick it up on the pre-flight inspection, surely you would when you do your 'controls all moving freely AND in the right direction' test before taxi - I'm just saying... BP

goodonya Greg, your 'refurb' looks like the perfect opportunity to go over the lil' beasty from top to bottom - any chance of a close-up pic of your tailwheel addition? btw, it looks like there is an old 406 EPIRB strapped to the side of the cockpit - fyi, the GME600G (GPS version) is about $300 on eBay, the non GPS version is about $50 cheaper (don't see the point for $50, actually) cheers m8 BP