Kenlsa

Generally the magazine is of high quality but too many photos of GA aircraft. I would have thought that there was an abundance of rec a/c available Ken

RF, you are overthinking all this with your multiple questions. Trust in the factory as they have signed off on their aircraft. If you don't relax and enjoy your training you may end up with an aneurism. Pick ANY of the common brands and enjoy! Ken

Skippy, don't worry about it......seems that you have been nominated as the new whipping boy since they flogged Don out of the way. Ken

The Smart Car was a crumple zone looking for a place to occur. Ken

Keep them coming ! Ken

RF- to get a plane to "stop" in 200m is very much a challenge. Depends what you mean by Stop. Normal take off and landing distance should be quoted "over 50' obstacle" so that includes trees and power lines. Just about every plane can stop within 200m from touchdown, it's all about the flare and touchdown point that counts. Your 200m VERY quickly becomes 400m in the real world. (Excluding aircraft with extra lifting devises with stall warning horn screaming in your ear on early final from 500 ft) May I suggest you ignore the aircraft on YouTube that land in less than 100m (sometimes much less) as most time they don't have the 50' obstacle to deal with. Plenty of planes have come to grief tripping up on the barbed wire fence on the approach. Also be aware that they are probably the owner or friends of the owner of the property, so they can do endless practice landings. One thing about these landings on You Tube is that you are only shown the successful landings as a general rule. Ken

A little while ago I was watching the end of a fly in and everyone was lined up and flying off back to their nests. Watched a big balloon tyre Maule do a max take off, then watched all the Rec aircraft take off in a shorter distance! then a 180 did its stuff, but nothing spectacular. One of the best aircraft was an Auster and the grand champion was a humble Gazelle. These were average pilots I guess and I know the STOL people get serious but in the REAL word any RAAus plane will do. Its just that we have reduced the runway distance to qualify. I guess that if you own a Sav/FBat/701 you can have bragging rights to the shortest distance. A few years ago in the US the 701 was involved in a large number of off field accidents................behind the drag curve and not enough excess power to drag its sorry arse out of it. Ken

I wonder where "STOL" starts and ends today. If you look up what stol means in the early days it was anything less than 1500ft. A j3 or 3 with a Franklin or the real power house, the Conti 65 armstrong start were all classed as stol. But they really relied on the curvature of the earth to get airborne. I would say that ANY of our RAAus planes will qualify. My SP 500 at MAUW gets of and over 50' at 400m. If I am solo and half fuel take off is 300m @ 50' and I can put it down in slightly less, tho that scares the Sturt Highway traffic a bit. Strangely we seem to need to take off and land 2 to 3 times in that distance nowadays. My advice is to look at the book specs, add a little bit and you will still be under the old stol. BTW, a lot of pilots don't help themselves coz they build a heavy plane looking for that perfect paint finish then put every instrument they can think of that is worthy of IFR, then have backup instruments as well. Keep it light, keep it simple, look outside- not at your wizbang panel and enjoy the ride. Ken

If you purchase from OS.......You must also include freight and then GST, so that 30k motor then costs about 33.5k with freight and GST added. A local agent will get somewhat of a wholesale price then put on retail price taking in to consideration freight and GST, somewhat leading to price levelling. Ken

The KFM is a bit of an orphan I'm afraid. Might be best to sell it for what you can and use that cash to refurb the airframe. The jab 1600 then 2200 were the direct replacement for it. There are Kitfoxes around with the 2200 jab and one of the female writers of Kitplanes magazine owns one. I wouldn't think that the paperwork wouldn't be too difficult to change it over. Ken

all well and good...................we are still limited to one engine, 10 Rega/c excluded I think, but they will struggle to make the weight. ken

To those who may be numbers people ( I include myself here) don't over sweat this stuff. My wife's cousin was an aeronautical engineer in the Uk for one of the big manufacturers and got so concerned about the numbers and how "little" the margins seemed matter he died without ever flying. Too much thinking! Ken

RF, With a Jab, any parts needed are delivered with in 3 working days if need be, and they are always available on the phone to clear up any enquires. There are about 1500 of us here in Oz. Ken

RF. I can recommend the J120 as a good aircraft. I built an SP 500 that was the kit built version of it. At the time I was looking what to build, 2004, the j200 had a useful load of about 195 kg, the very new j160 had 230 kg but was a little unknown at the time as it was the prototype, and my SP 500 has 223 kg. I built mine light. Ken

The J200/400 were more aimed at the VH market as they suffer from higher stall (over 45kts) speed and lower useful load of about 195 Kg when built as an RAaus A/c at 544Kg. So the 230 was produced, more wing area, to get to 45 kts and 600Kg. I do realise that there are some old J400 converted to RAaus and sneaked in at 600kg but they were self certified and may not actually pass the stall speed at Max AUW if ever tested. It is not a perfect world. Ken

Technically only the original builder of a 19 registered and built aircraft can modify it as they are the one who "certified the build" to RAaus when they submitted the compliance paper work.. Unless you can convince the original owner to modify it you are stuck. You can not learn to fly in it as you did not build it for your own "educational purposes". You have to have all training in a 55, 23 or 24 reg aircraft. I know.......who is going to know? but these things have a habit of biting you somewhere down the track. I have seen the process when the question arises of unauthorized modification rears its ugly head. Ken

Took a coffee flight a few years ago to a local airfield with a private school. While sipping my latte I watched as the instructor was briefing the student and the engine was clocking up time. OK I thought as a briefing of 5 minutes would also help the warm up. It kept going for a few more minutes then the instructor got out while the engine was running and walked to the office were I was and had a non aero conversation with one of the staff. About 5 minutes elapsed before he returned to the plane to start the lesson. My mate, an instructor who was with me, commented on the $ racking up for no student benefit. Shortly after a workmate of mine attended this same school and it cost him $12k to attain his certificate. I almost fell off my chair as I tried to get him to join our club as the average cost was $3.5-4K. The was almost the same cost for a PPL at the time. (2010). Upon further investigation turned out that he had a different instructor each time with about 30 to 50% review time. After his first solo he had to do a complete BFR equivalent flight, about an hour, before his next and every other solo flight. He completed his certificate as he never gives up, then gave up the sport, and took up boating instead. Needless to say, I have not visited that field since the. Ken

Life was so much simpler when all we had to complain about was Lucas - "the prince of darkness" Ken

Just ring RAAus. Not hard. Ken

I seem to remember that the Mustang was only awarded 3 stars because the rear passengers were not properly catered for, remember this is actually a 2+2 vehicle so that star isn't relevant and it lost one star due to poor pedestrian protection. As an occupant/ driver of a vehicle I have decided to drive on the road, not the footpath. Problem solved. Many of these ratings are not relevant. Imagine if we were penalised for public protection coz we hit a house. Yes... I have investigated vehicle accidents. I was listening to an auto engineer on safety features only a few years ago, and when asked what he would want his daughter to drive, he said a HQ Holden or 4WD and use the other vehicle's crumple zone.....Nuff said. Ken

Bruce, M Monk has been to Gawler at least twice in the last year and I have had discussions with him, he answers frankly. Ken

Yep, it can get very tight! Gliders can ask for a clearance but we can't. Ken

I see that CASA has allowed comment on airspace on their site. Sorry I don't know how to link it. Closes 28 August. Bruce, I have commented on the need for 4500 over the Adelaide hills and a higher limit for R234 around the RAAF airspace. Ken

Col, haven't bought any in many years, used to get it at our news agent, in one square metre sheets that we cut to size. I think Talc was a trade name but it was hard clear plastic af about 1mm thickness, much like the old shirt box cover. Office Works may have a similar product. Ken

Steve, any pics of your Bulldog in its new life "back home"? Ken