apm

98 becomes 91 in short order in unpressurised containers, ever noticed your car fuel tank is pressureised to prevent this, not many aircraft tanks are, so unless you purchase & use in same week your using 91 anyway.

 

 

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How much assistance will be available or usefull if the call is not made until the fan stops.

 

Solution is simple, if you dont like or want to use this rule, carry more reserve. 

 

 

APM wrote

“Are you serious, running on reserve is running on empty, if done routinely, only a matter of time before you get a surprise. 

 

and how could you get a black mark for following the law? Black mark would be for pilots that fail to give “Mayday Fuel”.”

 

For a  start it’s not running in empty it’s running on currently more than 45 minutes ( soon to be 30 minutes ) of fuel in the tank. 

 

If you are commercial it’s another 15% of flight time fuel plus if there was an inter or tempo in the weather forecast another 30 mins or 60 mins fuel. 

 

If you are landing with 5

 

minutes fuel I’d say sure make a call ( though probably Pan is more appropriate) 

 

But this rule says if even if you are going to land with 29 minutes of fuel you have to call Mayday. 

 

In fact the wording of the of the rule is that even before you get to your reserve -as soon as you CALCULATE that you will cut into your reserve prior to landing then if you can’t  land elsewhere ( still with your reserve intact) you have to call mayday. Therefore with potentially way more than reserve you have to call mayday. 

 

The biggest issue is not the safety it’s the likelihood that CASA will then take punitive  action against the pilot. CASA has a reputation of persecuting pilots for minimal or even no wrongdoing. 

So your happy to fly your aircraft with less than 2 litres remaining? How do you determine the exact amount of time in your tanks while flying?

 

I think it is impossible, thats why we have reserves, time remaining is made up from a calculation taken from many observations/assumptions. Only way you actually know your exact time remaining on most aircraft, is by visual inspection on the ground.

 

I’m not tottaly in agrreeance with this rule, I believe Pan would be more appropriate use for the initial call. Also I dont ever intend or plan to be in a situation to invoke the rule. But if I do end up in a situation where I will be dipping into the reserve to reach my destination, I have no problem broadcasting my predicament. I also like the idea of having an extra 15 min usable fuel onboard.

 

 

Yes, just put a low pressure valve and a check valve into a tee onto tank breather

 

your fuel supplier should be able to help or any plumbing supply.

 

I have made low pressure valves with a few pipe fittings, plastic ball & spring. Not much technology in there.

 

 

Not quite true, us farmers have to abide by the same rules as everyone else, get away with stuff as we dont tend to impact on anyone else, but a fuel spill will attract attention, fuel suppliers tend to try and make us compliant to cover their liability.

 

With bulk unleaded fuel, its good to have a 5-7 psi pressure valve on the vent, but allow free flow in. will stop a lot of fuel being vented on hot days and keep the 95 octane there for longer, in unpressurised tank 95 becomes 91 pretty quick.

 

I connect air compressor to eliminate pump, just dry the air and limit the pressure.

 

 

Yes fuel exhaustion is very serious, how is a strict liability law going to motivate a pilot to plan beter?do you think you can just call mayday, land and fuel up? Id expect at minimum a please s plain or punitive action, guarantee theres a penalty point attached for those letting it happen more than once in their careers

 

Also indicates you should land or divert rather than land without reserve intact. What you just outlined is now illegal apm

 

how does calling mayday fuel get a priority landing at any non controlled aerodrome ie. most of them?

 

Whats going to happen is is another regulation people will ignore and theres not much they can do about it.

Reserve fuel is not something that can ever be planned to be used, only there for when you f*** up. And get you out of trouble, whats wrong with telling the world you made a mistake and need priority, will make you a better person and pilot.

 

Any other pilot that does not give way to someone running on empty at a non-controlled aerodrome, would, I assume be in a bit of trouble.

 

Pilots that keep quiet are more likely to eventually win a Darwin award.

 

 

So if your calculations  said you COULD make your destination safely but someone arbitrarily said to you "I have suddenly decided to call the time frame fuel you have left unsafe for no better reason than I can so you must call Mayday" and so you'd do it and then have black marks against you or lose your licence because you did.

 

would  you see the problem then? 

Are you serious, running on reserve is running on empty, if done routinely, only a matter of time before you get a surprise. 

 

and how could you get a black mark for following the law? Black mark would be for pilots that fail to give “Mayday Fuel”.

 

 

I don’t see the problem people are having with this.

 

Fuel exhaustion is no joke and CASA is right to make a law if pilots are tapping into reserves.

 

If my inflight fuel use calc determined that I cannot make a destination safely, I would happily divert, even into a field to land while I still had enough fuel on board for a possible go around if needed.

 

If the calc said will reach the destination with 29 min remaining, There is no problem with the “mayday fuel“ to ensure priority landing. Maybe top the tanks up less 35 min and call it a miscalc during flight in the report if you must lie, But remember 30 min of fuel is not much, only a fool would go too far into reserves knowingly, and those pilots deserve attention from the regulator.

 

 

CASA “However, if a safe landing location is not an option and you are landing with less than your fixed fuel reserve, then you must declare Mayday Fuel.”

 

Maybe I read this different to most commenting here, Mayday fuel is only declared if landing is likely to be unsafe. Seems pretty reasonable use of Mayday.

 

Andrew

 

 

Advice to me from an old pilot many years ago, wish I took his advice.

 

If it F***ks, Fly’s or Float’s = hire it, only buy if money is not an issue.

 

 

Its deep discharge that damages batteries mostly, leaving a master switch on is about the worst as it will take the battery all the way down, aeroelectric scheme I posted will automatically stop test at 10v. If regularity documented you get early warning of failure and can eliminate a future surprise at a point where you may be dependant on needing battery capacity.

 

 

http://www.aeroelectric.com/articles/battest.pdf

 

Posted in another thread also, cheap & easy battery test. If it dont pass test, put it in your lawnmower.

 

 

Keeping track of the health of your battery is easy with right tools, http://www.aeroelectric.com/articles/battest.pdf is cheap & easy, should be part of every aircraft maintainence program. Takes the guesswork out of knowing when its time to spend on battery.

 

 

Whats with all this battery charging, if battery wont hold charge between flights, replace it.

 

 

Kyle, I may be biased as I own a lightwing SP4000. I think they are great aeroplanes. best thing you can do is go and fly one then decide if it fits your mission.

 

Aussie designed seems to be a bit of a niche nowdays. bit like Aussie cars, imported are not necessarily better machines, they are definately better at the sales pitch.

 

Andrew.

 

 

Could be Gisborne NZ, or is there another place with the bright idea of mixing trains with planes?

 

 

Discussion paper is out, wonder if Microair could resubmit now, possible that CASA has realized VFR is not going to be easy to equip with current ADSB so need to look at cheaper options for us.

 

Ozrunways & Avplan could hook into Airservices to send device location & receive ADSB info to redistribute to devices. would probably not be considered accurate but would be cheap.

 

 

Don't mention the wing root

 

 

Are you serious? And what has a NOTAM got to do with the legality of flying over a public gathering with the intention of being a part of the event? eg: ANZAC, local town parade etc.

Appologies, I didnt realise you were organising an airshow for the funeral. In CAR156 there is nothing to stop me casually flying over a public gathering. if it was ANZAC or a funeral etc that I knew about, respect for those on the ground would cause me to try to not become a nusance if not wanted.

This discussion needs be over a beer at an informally organised flyin, much easier to get point accoss in face to face conversation.

 

 

CAR 156

I think your taking 156 too literally. Unless there is a notam for the public gathering you could not be succesfully prosecuted. And the legal definition of a public gathering is...? And if every public gathering had a notam, just imagine the chaos. Even then CAR 156 2(b) gives you an out, simply navigate out & back to a point beyond the crowd, I cant see how it is not legal. Even 500’ would be ok, if its outside a town boundary. Your not wanting to perform an airshow routine are you?

 

 

I very recently spent the better part of a day preparing an application for an aircraft to do a couple of 1000'AGL passes over a public gathering. In the past an email outlining the activity to our local CASA office would see an approval within 48 hours, two weeks tomorrow and no approval. Forget getting an approval to do a flypast at a funeral service.

Seems to me that at 1000' agl you are operating within normal everyday flight rules, no need to waste the regulators time if no notam is issued.

 

 

I have had no dealings with CASA personally to form a judgement, and this is not aimed at them, just a note that you're not as helpless as you might think.

A recent discussion with CASA, I found them to be very accomodating and reasonable, I had contacted them to request a variation to a rule that was negatively affecting me, turns out no rule existed, it was a SAAA interpretation of the rules that was giving me grief. So sporting bodies can be worse than the regulator.

 

.Who is prepared to take responsibility?

This liability crap infuriates me.

 

I take responsibility for me!

 

If ever I get hurt, I dont blame anyone else, it is my responsibility for assesing personal risks. When I wake up and get out of bed, I am thankful, but very well know it may be for the last time. Every day is a bonus, not a right, so I try to fill them doing what I enjoy. Many things I do are very risky, including interaction with others, thats my choice.

 

Dont blame me if you get hurt when near me, it was your choice to be at that spot in time.

 

 

Incorporate something like Home for some real fun aviation.

 

Losers get early beer and a good show, winners get bragging rights.

 

Any parallel runways or dry lakes out there?

 

Andrew

 

 

Hello all you experts out there. I have a microair VHF transceiver in my Jab160 and intend to add another transceiver (Trig TY91). The Trig will have its own antenna but I'd like advice on the best way to hook them up. Can you listen to 4 channels at once or only 2? What sort of switching arrangement is required/recommended? By the way my intercom is a separate unit, although the Trig is capable of doing the intercom too.

Curly, Cant be any Ex Spurts on here,

 

My guess is you need an audio panel like PMA5000EX , but I don't really know, wireless stuff is all black magic to me.

 

Andrew

 

 

Not cancelling your sartime obviously causes costs, and inconvenience.. Plenty of places with j VHF radio you won't get through on the ground because of line of sight effect and there may be no mobile signal either. It's common to have incidents in the landing phase and coverage of this aspect is desired. Any thoughts? Nev

On a multi leg flight which includes landing at a remote strip with no communications, it is possible to set your sartime for when you will come into radio range on a subsequent leg, cancel sartime then lodge a new sartime for current leg. Not ideal, but better than cancelling before landing. If the remote landing is your last for the day, probably best to carry a satphone.