pylon500

How much is the train trip costing?

 

I'm going QANTAS return for $419.43!!

 

I think there may be a $40 odd surcharge for credit card? :confused:

 

But still better than VIRGIN with no drinks or movies for 4 hours!!

 

Arthur.

 

 

Sufficient fuel @ 10lt/hr for 4 hours.

Unless this starts to look like a motor glider, you will be doing well to get 14lt per hour from a 503.

Have you had a go at creating it in X-Plane?

 

Dont bother to count the rivets, you'll use plenty more!! ;)

 

Arthur.

 

I'm still working on the paintwork bitmap. :;)2:

 

 

This also applies to LightWings.

 

Most of us are using Lexan® (Polycarbonate) for windscreens these days, it's tough, foldable and easy to drill, but will react with any form of hydrocarbon.

 

As such, fuel will attack it, making it brittle and prone to cracking.

 

Even a small drip wiped off almost immediately will leave a little 'crazed' spot in a few weeks.

 

Moral; Keep door shut while refueling.

 

Also, most paints contain hydrocarbon solvents, so painting the trim around a windscreen will initiate cracking shortly thereafter. :;)1:

 

Arthur.

 

 

We've got free coffee!!

 

Arthur. SRFC

 

 

The same could be said for most forms of transport.

 

Take cars for example;

 

Buy a $20,k car (cheap these days), then pay more than $1,000 a year to own it, $2,000 a year to fuel it, lose half it's value when you drive it off the showroom floor and finally throw it away after fifteen years... :ah_oh:

 

How many taxi rides could you get for that?

 

But would you want to? ;)

 

These are some of the factors that add to the achievement of building your own. :)

 

Arthur.

 

 

While at Narromine a few years back, I was doing some instruction with a club member in our LightWing.

 

We had gone to the far side of town (about eight miles East) and were doing stall training between about 3500 and 2500ft.

 

After about ten minutes worth, and hanging on the prop for the final full stall, the nose pitched down to about 40° just in time to cast our shadow over the top of a Cessna 185 about 40ft below us heading in the same direction! :ah_oh:

 

His wake was fairly violent. :confused:

 

I fronted the owner later that day, who denied ever seeing me, then tried to make it seem like it was my fault!

 

I think he'll keep his eyes open a bit more now, so I let it go.

 

Arthur.

 

 

Remembering that there is an Instructor by the students side (or behind) there should be no reason for a student to lose control during a T&G.

 

That being said, I do see some instructional T&G's that merely glance the ground, and power out again.

 

Instructing in a taildragger, I ensure that the student has deccelerated to below flying speed before going around.

 

To stop and backtrack, (which I will do in some cases) does as mentioned earlier tend to clutter up the strip and circuit.

 

If actual 'ground handling' technique is required, I will get the student to taxi up and down an inactive strip, progressively faster, until full control authority is demonstrated.

 

As for continual full stop and backtracking, I'll leave that for the GA schools that charge by the minute!

 

Arthur.

 

 

You coming in the SportStar?

Where do we line up for a ride?! :big_grin:

Remember, main runway is North/South, all circuits done to the West (opposite side from the town)

 

Airfield elevation ~860ft, circuits @ 1800ft.

 

You can join overhead @ 2300ft from the edge of town.

 

Arthur (Senior Instructor SRFC)

 

 

Careful, you might give DOTARS ideas!!

 

Arthur.

 

 

Taildraggers are real aeroplanes...!regrards Arthur

Here, here! ;)

 

the other Arthur.

 

 

I thought we were just one big happy family flying high

Well yes, WE are all one big family of flyers, but the powers to be that are dictating and trying to enforce this crap are all ground lubbers, and they think we're mad just because we fly! :ah_oh:

Any wonder they are wary of us.

 

Fortunately they have their Alsations and Glocks to hide behind.

 

Arthur.

 

 

Many,many years ago, I remember seeing a photograph of a 6 cyl Corvair with the above mentioned VW Kombi rear axle step down gear bolted on front.

 

If you go to; This Site and scroll halfway down the page, there are some shots of a Corvair with the VW step down gear box.

 

Apparently there was an article in the EAA magazine Sport Pilot in March 1970 (p46-48)

 

Not much of a reduction, with only the choice of; 1.31 or 1.61.

 

Look for an old 'Split Screen' Kombi ('62~'67) in a wreckers for the box on the rear axles.

 

You'll need to machine an adaptor.

 

Arthur.

 

 

Didn't get a chance to post earlier, and noticed that the latest episode of the RED BULL AIR-RACE was on last Sunday afternoon.

 

Upon watching it, it would appear the Russian heat was scrubbed due to some political problem, so they did a recap and some interviews with the West Australian organisers. :)

 

It would appear that they will use Langley Park as a strip.

 

Must book my ticket!! :ah_oh:

 

Arthur.

 

 

We had a 503 powered Flea flying around at The Oaks about 5 years ago.

 

I'm not sure who actually owned it, but the guy that used to fly it sort of disappeared with a few people looking for him? :ah_oh:

 

Have no idea were the airframe is, or if it still exists.

 

Arthur.

 

 

I have seen many shots of hard impact landings by Jabs, and loosing the whole nose seems fairly typical. :ah_oh:

 

I've never heard much about leg injuries sustained?

 

It does seem to be a progressive break up, shearing off the gear first, then breaking off the nose and finally breaking off the rear fuselage allowing the cabin to roll over the wing thereby absorbing the speed and impact!

 

Not in a hurry to research the repeatability of this though.... :black_eye:

 

Arthur.

 

 

easier for "mature age" students

If you are of larger stature, getting on in years, don't like the cold or trying to fly on a pension, I would still suggest the best all round trainer has to be the LightWing.

If you really want to make training a bit easier, then you would probably go for an ALW2000, which is the tricycle gear version, trusty old 912 and on some models; flaps! ;)

 

A Technam Echo would be nice, but you could have an ALW2000 and a GR912 for the same price (second hand of course).

 

Keep building them LightWings Howie!!

 

Arthur.

 

 

G'Day robbo.

 

There are two main Ultralighting venues in the Sydney Basin.

 

For a currant GA pilot, Hoxton Park would most likely suit your location and the flying enviroment would be familiar while flying Jabirus.

 

If, however, you are looking for a more grass roots situation, you should come down to The Oaks where we have two schools flying, LightWings, Drifters, Lambada's, Skyrangers, Bantum's, oh and more *** <strike>Gondala's</strike> Jabiru's.

 

As for log books, I keep all my flying in one book, but then I only do about 1% GA and have no intentions of claiming my hours towards a job at QANTAS ;)

 

Arthur.

 

 

OOPS, forgot the map!

 

Arthur.

 

 

OK, an update from Ian's news threads;

 

Red Bull Race

 

The article mentions 'Sir James Mitchell Park' as being part of the event, possibly hinting that the aircraft may operate from there...?

 

After Googling the name of the park, I find many sites saying that the park will be the best vantage point to watch from but I don't know if this is because you will be next to where the aircraft take off and land, or if it's just an easier place to get to, to watch the air race over the water?

 

My betting is that the aircraft will operate from Langley Park, which would include many road closures?

 

You would also be looking into the sun somewhat from Mitchell park, The old sunburnt 'airshow' face!

 

If you look at the photo in the post above, I hope to be watching from the top floor of the tall white building just next to the three story thing with the orange roof !!:star:

 

Arthur. pylon500

 

 

The material you make the panel from is not overly important, but the quality of workmanship will be right in front of you, so you need to do a neat job.

 

Commercial Alloy sheet is OK (between 1.0~1.6mm) but if you can get to an airport and try to bludge a bit of say fifty thou, 2024 (0.050"_2024-T3 Alclad to be technical!) this will cut and file better than commercial.

 

DON'T use a scriber to mark out, they say to use a B pencil, but I generally use a Texta!

 

A handy tool will be a 'Fly Cutter' to do the circular holes, much better than a coping saw or like.

 

Get a new 8" half round 'Hand 2nd Cut' file and maybe a 2~20mm tapered reamer (#T4920 at Dick Smiths ~$15.00) to 'adjust' some of the holes! ;)

 

Arthur.

 

 

Bit like doing a dead-stick landing in a Thruster! :ah_oh:

 

Just add an extra '0' to each number on the ASI !!

 

Arthur.

 

 

bill of around $10,000

I think the above may apply to someone doing a home, high performance conversion to a 912 or Jab motor, but using ultralight homebuilders enginuity, (ei; go down to the local wreckers and rip all the bits out of Subi or something..) EFI could be fitted for less than $3,000. ;)

As for Rotax or Jabiru doing it themselves, because they mass produce, the whole system might add $1,500 to the price of an engine! :ah_oh:

 

Naturally they would only use pre-existing hardware from some auto manufacturer, who because of the size of their production numbers, probably fit it to their cars (at a cost to them for about $500.

 

A lot of it probably comes back to the buyers (Us) and whether we want to pay $3,000 for non icing fuel injection,,, or just pull the carbi heat knob!

 

Besides, Hirth has been offering fuel injection on two strokes for a while now, and the price difference between the injected and non injected 3203 is about $1,500.

 

See; Hirth Engines

 

this is not a plug!

 

Arthur.

 

 

Actually, talking doctored images and 'well known aviation magazines', I have noticed the odd little bit of PhotoShop on the cover of 'our' magazine on occasions!

 

I think 'Free Transform' was the tool required this month! ;)

 

Arthur.

 

 

Yes, sad times indeed.

 

I feel I should point out however, that in this scramble to be 'Boss of all you can', people are talking about the operational differences between GA and UltraLights (yes. I'm no fan of the Recreational tag).

 

No one remembers the other flying themes like the GFA and how it set itself up so many years ago.

 

When I first got involved with Ultralights, it was after being with the GFA for about ten years, and the ultralight club I joined was being run by a GFA CFI and an Instructor.

 

They used similar training systems and ideals to foster 'Safe, Fun flying' without trying to scare students with complex regulations, overbearing hierarchy (you WILL wear white shirts with epaulettes) and belittle those that only want to fly for fun instead of becoming airline pilots.

 

Unfortunately, as GA has allowed itself to be priced out of existence.

 

The fallout has come to join the <strike>MAFA</strike>, <strike>AUF</strike>, RA-Aus, and bring with it this need to start emulating GA all over again not realising it will cause the same problems.

 

When one looks back over the history of ultralights, this continual urge for higher weights has usually been driven by, (a) poor designer/manufacturers that couldn't build performance to a given weight, and (b) old school GA pilots that missed all the gimmicks that came with the top end GA they had just left.

 

I will admit that many years back I thought of using a model RC helicopter gyro system as a way of building a simple auto pilot in an ultralight, but this was more for fun (and a bit of a joke!) than actually trying to improve (?) the performance of an Ultralight! :ah_oh:

 

Now everyone wants Constant Speed Retractable Glass with Auto Pilot and EFIS, but can't understand why it costs over $150k to buy, and why someone else has to work on it for them?

 

What's the use of learning to FLY an Ultralight if you're going to let george do it for you!?

 

I say, lets stay Ultralights, be damned with what the media lable us, and fly for fun and challange. ;)

 

I don't need to be big and heavy to go fast.

 

I don't believe in traveling anywhere in an Ultralight 'to get there', it's the trip itself I want.

 

Arthur.

 

ps, Just goes to show the interest here, I stated writing this an hour ago, and there's been three more posts before I got to upload!!

 

I stand by my post! ;)

 

Arthur. pylon500

 

 

too big to post here

Hey Ozzie, have you got photoshop?

If you have scanned a picture, dump into photoshop, and under the File control, use Save for Web and use the Quality control to reduce the picture size to under 150k.

 

We would like to see any photo's of the OPAL :big_grin:

 

Arthur.