derekliston

Yes, so I just noticed!

When my CH701 was at Coominya I ran the Jab engine on 98 Mogas, but when I moved it to Warwick which has a 100LL bowser I started using that because it is easier (if dearer!) and really haven’t had any problems with either! Always interesting reading other people’s experiences and opinions.

If Qantas are sacking 6,000 employees and mothballing 100 planes, what does that say for the future of their new pilot training facility at Wellcamp?

Funny isn’t it how much emphasis CASA put on some fairly irrelevant stuff and do nothing about something like this which could be vitally important. Maybe after it causes a midair, something will be done. I fly from Warwick and so know exactly what you mean!

I thought probably CGI except for the Rolls-Royce exiting looked pretty real!

Love all of these comments, I too remember Silver City Airways operating them from Edinburgh to the Isle of Man, however,none of the comments cover my original question regarding the one in the television show ‘Operation Buffalo’ As I said, if it is CGI it is the best I’ve ever seen,if real where did it come from? According to the net, the registration appears to be a DC3???? Always wanted to fly in one but just my luck when I flew to the Isle of Man for the TT races around 1965 they had a DC3 operating the service, such is life!

Just watching ‘Operation Buffalo’ on ABC, a Bristol Freighter flies in carrying a VIP’s Rolls-Royce,it is either exceedingly good CGI or it is real. Does anyone on here have any knowledge?

Don’t know why I am buying into this but anyway, here is my twopence worth. Flightrite is correct in saying the 0-235 has adjustable tappets and does in fact have adjusting screws on the rockers. Another thought, I don’t know where you are at with the engine but if it hasn’t run for a while I would give it a decent ground run and do the compressions again while the engine is hot. You may well find that the compressions improve. 60/80 is the minimum acceptable but 70+ is more normal in my experience.

Interesting thought to which I don’t know the answer, however, if you look at an F104 and then look at a U2, then maybe the answer is no?

Not many times that being older and retired is beneficial, but this is certainly one of those times!

Watching the CMO on the box last night explaining why the Anzac Day fly-pasts were banned, said “A pilot getting into an aeroplane isn’t a medical threat, of course he isn’t” further explaining that the worry was people congregating to watch it! I’ll take her statement at face value. I, getting into my aeroplane am not a medical threat!

No argument on that one, only as I say, absolutely no interaction with people where I fly!

There is one mark of Lycoming 0-320 that mechanics used to call the K mart engine, I forget which one, however it had a dual magneto which was two magnetos with a single drive. Could never see the sense in that, lose the drive and you’ve lost both!

When I was a working LAME with a flying school I used to advise instructors going on a cross-country and landing away in a PA38 to take the requisite spanners to remove the spark plugs. The Lycoming 0-235 with one plug on top of the head and the other beneath and running on 100LL had a big tendency to fill the bottom plugs with lead and hence a major mag drop. If it wouldn’t clear on an engine run then the simplest thing was to swap the top and bottom plugs over and the lead would run out and mag drop cleared. Don’t have that problem on Jabiru engines!

Mate I will continue to act sensibly as indeed our local police force are also doing, if it gets to be a problem I will worry about it then! One thing for sure, I am glad I don’t live in a big city nor in Victoria or SA!

My aeroplane is VH registered and I am pretty sure that CASA stipulates that if an engine is going to be idle for more than 30 days it must be inhibited, therefore running the engine can be considered essential!

My understanding of the law (could be wrong as I’m sure someone will tell me if I am!) is that a proposed piece of legislation has to be tabled in parliament in the lower house, if it passes it must then pass the senate and if that all happens it has then to be enacted. If that is correct then these measures, however sensible, are rules rather than laws?

I went out and flew three circuits this morning, as indeed I also did on Friday. I live 10km from the airfield and once again drove solo, interacting with no one, flew three socially isolated solo circuits and returned home. Flying schools are still legitimately flying, how do you socially isolate two pilots in a C172? as evidenced by a couple of school aircraft from Toowoomba or Gold Coast? so where is the problem with solo circuits? Weekdays I pretty much guarantee no one else on the airfield!

Totally unrelated but if you fly from Dunkeswell there is a chance you know a mate of mine, Phil Pierce (Phil the Fish on Facebook)

See if I can give some sort of cogent response which will probably get me shot down from all directions. However, over the years flying has cost me a lot of money, not only with the original outlay to obtain a licence, but ongoing costs of maintaining that licence, annual medical, biennial flight review etc. Being fortunate enough to own my own aeroplane which I built, I also have ongoing hangarage, insurance and maintenance costs. As is usual with knee jerk reactions, which a lot of these are, some of the directions are as clear as mud, AOPA Australia are trying to get a definitive answer, which I am not sure I want because the answer may be no, but meantime we are left with ‘Essential’ and what we consider essential. I would personally argue that maintaining currency and keeping ones engine in good operational order meets that definition. For the previous several weeks I was unable to fly due to having shingles on my face and hence dosing up on painkillers. The nett result of that being that for those weeks I have been totally socially isolated and would be more likely to catch the virus from police or emergency responders than to pass it on to them. Anyway, having now recovered, I gave it some thought and decided on Friday past to give it a go. Now, I live in a country town just about 10km from the airfield. I left home, drove to the airfield, flew some solo (socially isolated circuits!!!) and drove home again without encountering one person! I did however, on my last final approach, notice a gang of men laying an asphalt frontage to one hangar, apparently legitimately, social distancing???? I think that if I can do that once a week, it should be acceptable, I know that people’s circumstances vary, but surely it should not be a ‘one size fits all’ situation.

On the bright side, the pressure will be off Boeing to get the Max8 flying again!

I suspect that most of these training colleges set up to meet the ‘future pilot shortage’ are going to be redundant for quite some time!

Private message to me?

I will absolutely not speculate on what happened, I will just tell of an experience I had with a partial engine failure on take-off from Warwick, Qld. I was on runway 27 and the engine was making 3000rpm and so I rolled, the 701, even on just 80hp is off the ground and climbing in very short order. At about 300ft the revs suddenly dropped back to 1600, I pulled the power back to idle, put the nose down and landed on the remaining runway. Two pilots watching from the ground told me later that the exhaust was chuffing out black smoke, so I had made the correct decision and that they thought I was going to bend it! I didn’t and the problem turned out to be a blocked air filter, never did find out why it was blocked, apparently with carbon and it has not recurred. Lesson to me, always better safe than sorry!

Not a Rotax engine failure surely!!!!!