Bluey

Good on ya David, good to see the old bird still giving so much pleasure. I still have a soft spot in my heart for her. That base may well have the highest hours of any base around Australia. Where are you flying from David?

Bluey.

My first trike was a two stroke 582. When I finally sold it (I was the third owner by this stage), it had more than 1430 hrs on it. It was on its second engine. The first engine managed over 1400 hrs with just one rebuild. I sold it with a new engine and tundra tyres which I had fitted.

The highest hours I ever saw on a XT912 was about 1100 and this was up in Byron bay.

Bluey.

Yes, I agree the 3G model is the way to go to keep it simple. I just received mine and it's pretty good. The speed of the iPad 2 is streets ahead of my iPhone 4 when working with ozrunways.

Bluey.

If you have a 3G model iPad, you don't need a separate gps receiver as the built in gps in the iPad works without a 3G connection. You can use the gps in your iPhone by hotspotting it for the iPad but I have heard the gps is updated a bit too slowly for aviation.

Bluey.

Lots of good options but the best bet and costing about the same as other options already discussed is the iPad with 3G. You don't need the Internet connection but the 3G models come with assisted gps where as the wifi models don't.

Bluey.

Yep, bring back the good old days. Too many gizmos today to make things too complicated. Bottom line, get the wifi 3G model if you must. It will work well. Slaving the iPhone and wifi iPad together to save a few bucks will probably work but it will not update fast enough as the gps information from the iPhone updates around once a minute (too slow). Using your iPhone this way will also mean it needs to be plugged in full time as using it as a wifi hotspot for the iPad really kills the battery.

Bluey.

Only the 3G model comes with a gps receiver. The wifi model doesn't. It can however be slaved to your iPhone 4 for both Internet and gps information. I'm just wondering whether anyone has tried using the wifi only model to do this while flying and how well it has worked?

Bluey.

Sure, for Internet connectivity it is the way to go but what about navigating in the air with the wifi only model?

Bluey

Wifi only allows you to go online from a wireless router like most of us have at home. Not too useful in flight. The question is really: does the iPad wifi model do gps navigation? I think the answer is no but I would like to hear from others who may have tried it. I know the maps in the ozrunways app are fully downloadable so an Internet connection is not required. If I really need the web, I have the phone so I can use it as an Wifi hotspot.

Bluey.

Has anyone tried the wifi (not 3g) iPad for navigation with something like ozrunways? I currently use the iphone4 and it works reasonably well (Occasionally it closes the app for unknown reasons). I'm thinking about an iPad as the screen of the iPhone is too small. What about ipad1 verses ipad2? You can still get ipad1's especially refurbished ones from apple at much cheaper prices than the ipad2.

Bluey.

Not a fan either. If I wanted to fly in an enclosed cockpit I'd buy three axis.

That's pretty much what happened David. After the round out the pilot shoved the control bar into their chest instead of flaring. Conditions were described as excellent.

Bluey.

I know of one example of control reversal wrecking a trike recently. It can happen very quickly with no chance of recovery for the backseat instructor to prevent the hard landing. It was lucky they didn't roll but many thousands of dollars damage was done to the owners pride and joy. The only thing the pilot has so far said is sorry. I hope his cheque book does some talking soon to help ease the owners burden.

Bluey

160m from the end of the runway is too close in my opinion. Especially for something that big. Yes, the aircraft did land too long and yes the pilot left his go around decission way too late but this can and does happen. A short runway together with a downwind landing and take off leaves reduced margins for error and in this case combined with an inexperienced pilot and poor aircraft performance resulted in a crash. I wonder if the council consulted any aviation experts when conducting the risk assessment? I bet they didn't! I bet they wish they had now.

Bluey

I still feel that the ferris wheel should never have been approved for that location in the first place. Especially given the short length of the old bar airstrip. The typical nose up attitude of a low wing aircraft like the Sierra on take off makes it impossible for the pilot to see obstacles in direct line with the aircraft. The fact that the ferris wheel had been placed in line with the runway in previous years indicates a problem with the councils risk assessment process. Moving the ferris wheel 34m to the left of centre line is still too small a margin for error. Relying on other people to not make a mistake is not good risk management.

Bluey.

I heard a reliable story of a high speed bike fatality a number of years ago. The biker was found dead on the side of the road with no apparent collision causing the crash. The rider had been witnessed travelling at high speed earlier in the day along the same quiet stretch of country road. The rider had a helmet on but did not have his visor down. When the authorities removed his helmet, they found that something had entered his eye and exited at the back of his head. The remains of what appeared to be a dragon fly were found at the back of his helmet. Never forget that kinetic energy is a function of speed squared!

Bluey

Still for sale. Please feel free to call or email [email protected] for more information.

Bluey

No worries, good luck with it footy.

Bluey.

The gaps need to be closed. Mine was more than a millimeter and the wing nut was missing a washer so could not be tightened as it ran out of thread before it could reach the washers. This meant that when the wing or base moved around horizontally the gap would get even bigger and exaggerate the movement. Hence my wild crosswind take off the other day. I flew late yesterday with a crosswind from the same direction across the runway and it was really well behaved. I also noticed the directional stability in flight is much better. It now doesn't wander around as much in turbulence especiay when trying to line it up along the centre line of the runway for landing. Airborne have said that the wing nut needs to be finger tight. You can even nip it up slightly with a spanner but make sure you do not introduce any significant resistance in moving the bar in pitch. In other words when you let go of the control bar of an sst make sure it still swings forward to meet the downtube under it's own weight. If it doesn't then it is overtightned. I now make checking the gap a preflight check on the sst.

Bluey.

Sorry, I should have posted that on this site as well. Later, when I get to a computer, I will. When I spoke to Shane and Russell at airborne they were quite insistent about checking for a gap and closing it if there was one. To quite Shane, "the sst is horrible to fly if there is a gap between the mast and the hangpoint bracket". It amazes me that they rely on a washer between the wing nut and the hang bracket to ensure enough tension is present on the bracket to close the gap. $70000 and it doesn't fly right if you lose the washer?

Bluey.

Thanks David, I hope to get the chance to test fly another set tomorrow. The previous owner who is a friend of mine and an experienced instructor is at a total loss as to my experience. The day I took delivery of the trike, he observed me veer to the left as I took off. Up till that time he hadn't noticed any significant yaw on take off. Two up it behaves itself much better. I must add that I am at the lower end of the mass spectrum.

Bluey.

One thing I don't think I made clear in my first post is, when the extreme yaw occurred I ended up tracking way off the runway centre line to the point where I was about 50m to the left of the runway at about 200 feet when control was re - established. The yaw itself was not the biggest problem, it was the fact that I ended up going in a direction that put me so far from the runway.

Bluey.

Thanks Alf, this has been really helpful. It does sound like mine is quite characteristic of what the SST seem to all do. I am however, going to go for a quick flight in another newer one to be sure it is the same. That way I should get a better idea of how mine compares and be more confident of what is normal and what is not.

Bluey

Have a look at the attached image to see the kind of gap I am talking about. This small gap made a big difference in the amount of twist possible in the control bar when the trike was on the ground.

Make sure the gap between the mast and the hang bracket is completely closed. Ie, you should not be able to see any hint of hangbolt between the mast and the bracket. Tighten the wingnut up by hand preferably to ensure the gap is closed down. My SST wing had a gap because a washer was missing therefore not allowing the nut to tighten properly. This caused an exagerated left hand twist on take off, particularly at full power. Under the right conditions, the yaw was exagerated by a widening gap. I have now closed this gap and significantly reduced the yaw/twist on take off. Mine goes to the left rather than the right as in yours. I believe the difference is related to the torque of the engine which in the two stroke is to the left where as in the four stroke it is to the right.

Bluey.