JimG

Welcome Pete , I meet you one day at Jack's hanger when I was with Martin Hone checking out the new TAVAS arrivals. love your plane.......! Cheers JimG

Welcome Bob, I went to one of your 'design/build' lectures at archerfield one night in 2008 , really enjoyed and then talked till 2 am . Great stuff, good luck with TOSG and thanks for helping out. JimG

I received this today , and it says they were able to get a usable download from the camera , very sad. http://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2013/aair/ao-2013-226.aspx JimG

Hard to see, but use pause/ play at the time the pilot rolls the aircraft it really looks like the wing tip touches the road. Pretty crazy, obviously staged. JimG

Hi Ross, welcome to this site. Been reading your posts on HBA and Flysoob for many years now. To everyone else, Ross has been involved in a lot of redrive and cooling system research and testing for a very long time and in particular his P51 style cooling system on his company RV. Very impressive stuff and motivation for the more hands on homebuilder with auto engine conversions in mind. Check out the youtube clips of the cooling system build and testing, links are on his web site. Cheers JimG

Hi Steve , as you can see from Mark Kyles circuit of Bradfield , it is the widest grass strip in the area. It is one mile due west of the western tip of Atkinson dam and has the runway north/ south. Easy to pick as all the fence lines in the area are north/south and east/ west. Someone is usually there most weekends , either Bob or Arthur and Kev or myself are flying circuits or in the training area, so a coffee or tea is always on hand for visitors. Maybe we will see you there...... look forward to it. Cheers JimG

Hi Sean, Bradfield is my schools official training strip , I Instruct there most Saturdays. Grass strip , well keep, 800m and very wide. Rwy 18/36 CTAF multi-com 126.7 ,Elev 300 ft No PPR , Bob Morgan (Owner) is happy to welcome visitors. Let me know when you might be heading over and maybe we could catch up for a chat. Cheers JimG 0403 15six 82five

The biggest problem I have had is the poor resolution in the heat control thermostat in the cheaper irons . Typically if you play around with the controls to ensure the temp doesn't go above the prescribed limit then it is set at thermostat switch point plus the overshoot , then as it is used an cools the temp goes down way below the target temp before the t/stat switches on and then will continue to undershoot until the heat builds and the temp starts to climb. I've found the more expensive the iron the better it is at temp control . Its an important job so i say buy a good one. cheers JimG

Hi John, good to hear your suby is as reliable as ever. Yours is a great example of just how good these engines can be when set up properly. Good choice in the carby and does apply the 'kiss' rule very well, can you tell us what is the average fuel burn with your set up. Also with the Volvo B series engine , do you know the Volvo car Model and years of production, just to help when ringing the Volvo wreckers. Cheers JimG

Looked extremely well judged and executed , cool head and excellent flying , well done Doug...! JimG

Keep at it Pete, it does get better and soon you'll be looking forward to those steep figure '8's . Then you'll be a Drifter addict like me....... cheers JimG

Hi Dave, things are going well, I'm still working with Kev although it is a bit hit and miss as he is winding down . I've thought about approaching other schools to try to get more hours but then my day jobs gets in the road. At the moment work is really getting busy and I'll most likely have to work quite a few saturdays coming up. I don't want to try to convince another school to give me a go only to be unreliable , so for now I'll just keep going doing what I can when I can. Cheers JimG

When I was driving over to the school I fly for, it was a good day if the small amount of pay cover the fuel expense to get there and back. Now I have my own Aircraft to use to transit, the time and fuel costs aren't as much and if the weather is off then there is no flying anyway. I knew from the start, earning an instructor rating and instructing on saturdays would cost me way more than I would ever earn. My motivation was and still is to keep working on my own skill and ability and that sure is the case while working though the rating course, plus I believed the challenge of teaching student pilots , both in the aircraft and on the white board, would be extremely satisfying. It is, and if I can help someone learn the skill and procedures of flying an aircraft safely whilst continuing to build my own skill and discipline, then that is great, and so far I have no regrets. Best thing is, each week I still do the countdown to saturday , watching the wx forecast with anticipation...........can't wait. cheers JimG

Thanks Scott, I had a good run going around, bit of a late start due to the fog and always good to catch up with the other club members at the club house. looking forwards to next years run. cheers JimG

From what I understand, Valley Engineering in USA make a pretty good engine package with there 'valley big twin' ( Briggs ) with some aftermarket billet components, redrive and culver prop. Looks impressive and possibility a good match for this kind of single seat aircraft. JimG

Yeah Mark, I saw the blocks of foam and immediately suspected he'd been hanger flying , perhaps with a pax aswell. Like most, I have done and still do some hanger flying with past and present projects..........it's the only time I can fly with a can of beer in one hand... JimG

Good find Doug, great..... JimG

So just for interests sake, how does handling the skyfox compare to a J3 cub...? JimG

Thanks a lot to Mark Kyle of Kyle Communications, who set this up at his own expense........ JimG

Hi Scotty, nice to catch up with you today at Bruce's hanger, T'was a good insight into the airdrome kits ....... cheers JimG

Yeap, I'll be there , look forward to catching up. Are you going to the Open Hanger thingy at Watts on the sunday..? Cheers JimG

Great work Scotty, every saturday morning I wheel Andrew Carter's Piet out of the hanger we share to get my Terrier out so now I have a better understanding of the fuse structure . One of these weekends when our busy schedules line up , Andrew has promised to take me for a fly in his Piet......... looking forward to it...! cheers JimG

Thanks for all these replies and I totally agree with the desire not to use petrol with an ethanol blend , however my fear and belief is that ethanol will be slowly other the coming years be in most if not all pump petrol. So , my intention will be, as i do now for my Terrier, is to only use straight petrol. I just want to build this tank to be able to tolerate ethanol if it accidentally or otherwise has some in it. Maybe the go would be to build it with VinylEster and then slosh it with the product mentioned in the thread O K referenced to , it is advertised to be OK with ethanol. Cheers JimG

I'm considering trying my hand at making my own fuel tank for my Tyro with fibre glass. So the question is , is there a locally available epoxy/resin that is ok to use with ethanol now found in most pump petrol. I think the thoughts of using a resin or epoxy that is ok with straight petrol is not practical these days because in my opinion ethanol will be turning up more and more then eventually in all pump petrol. Anyone have experience with this...? cheers JimG

That's amazing Mark, where did you find this vid..... JimG