Bruce Tuncks

Safe speed near the ground huh.

There was a guy at Alice Springs, a real down-to earth guy, who had a similar experience to onetrack's. I have no doubt that they are honest guys and alien ships are the best explanation of what they saw. But just maybe we are putting our own interpretation on them as alien ships. After all, we have lots of fiction about interstellar travel these days. There is a lot of good reasoning against the idea of alien ships too, although Marty's list does not seem to cover onetrack's case. Alas, until and unless I see something similar to what onetrack saw, you will have to include me among the skeptics. I just wish that mobile phones had been around so we could see some pictures. Here's an interesting fact... UFO's became a big thing for the short time in history that we wanted them.( 1950's was a heyday ). They replaced religious sightings, and they have all become much less with the advent of mobile phones with cameras.

I agree nev. A Stol plane costs more to insure, as they are at risk when doing a slow landing that a sudden gust will drop the ASI too low.

The easiest shape to try and seal is a round cylinder. You only have to consider an old smoky motor to see that cylindrical is hard enough. I'm impressed that the rotary engines work at all, but they sure are battling hard with combustion chamber sealing.

great job guys! I sure look forward to seeing it one day.

It's the survival gear you can't carry if you have a brs which could matter a lot in a remote outlanding. But my main objection is to the cost and the on-going need for maintenance . Say the BRS was 20kg.... well that's the same weight as a lot of water which would be good to have in the outback while you waited for a rescue. ( when I had a seat'n'back chute for glider competitions it weighed 9.5kg) Fortunately for me, they never asked for proof of current legal repack, and I later heard that nobody who had to bale out ever used a current-legally repacked chute. ( I used to do my own, having been taught by a 1000 jump chutist guy.... He gave me a priceless gem of info.... "people always pack their own chutes more carefully", but it would be illegal to get caught having done your own these days. SOOO.... If your brs is out of current repack hours, are you allowed to use it or not?

AND one of the most horrifying vids I have ever seen is the one where a brs deployed on take-off by accident. The plane did a "figure 9" and hit so hard that those on board were killed.

What aircraft have the allowable weights to carry a brs without doing nasty things to the carrying capacity?

Hi area51, I have actually seen area 51 from the air! I was flying out of the Hilton ranch, past Hawthorn along a dirt road at about 15,000 ft. It was in Nevada of course. There was a mom and pop service station and nothing else on the road. In the distance you could see some white buildings in among some rocky hills. cheers, Bruce Ps i tried to look up the stuff but ran into a paywall I think. I'm surprised that the main guy is Canadian though.

You would have to really need an amphibian to buy one. There was one at Gawler a few years ago, having flown from WA. It sounded strange in the air. This is because there is a big separation of airflow just where the fuse contracts to make way for the pusher prop. The sound of the prop is different when travelling through the shaded zone and the unshaded zone. The result is poor performance and high fuel consumption. I learned about pushers from this... but I have to agree its a good-looking plane.

I have noticed that board nominations have been called for. I reckon that OME and Turbs would be good there, if we can talk them into standing....

I'd sure like to hear more, in particular his side of the story.

Well While I think Nev is right as usual, I have a great sympathy for skippy's views. Getting onto chutes, I flew with one in gliders for 40 years. They were mandatory for comps but it was looked down upon to wear one in a 2 seater unless you were doing aerobatics and you were both wearing chutes. There is a video of a BRS opening too soon and killing the pilot after a very short "figure 9 " flight. I reckon that RF guy is correct in that they are not necessary for the likely situations I will encounter. There was a case recently where the pilot used his BRS when I reckon he should have tried to land the ( Cirrus I think ) plane. I have never heard of a Jabiru falling apart in the air and that is what it would take for me to either bale out or to use a BRS. Here's an irrelevant bit of info... There were a few bale-outs from gliders, all after mid-airs. NOT ONE of the chutes used were in legal repack time, and they all worked regardless. I don't intend to use one in the Jabiru.

Yep, it folded right away into a compartment in the rear fuse. The prop was really big and this controlled how big the doors had to be.

Don't leave it too long old K.... I left it too long and Auntie Flora died and she was the one who knew everything.

I just have one comment....before shelling out your hard-earned dollars, check the security of (1) your land etc and (2) the security of the site's continuance as an airfield. It was a salutory lesson to me when the Masonic Lodge decided to sell it's old folks homes ( in SA) to the highest bidder. Bravo the Catholics says I to this betrayal by the Masons, I had been seriously thinking of trying to get my parents into those homes. I think they are now run by a consortium of Indians to the lowest legal standards. It still may be a good idea to invest, but you should know the whole deal before you do.

OME, I really wish you well, but please don't make the flight plan compulsory. Fuel, for example, is often just worked out with conservative assumptions to make sure there is plenty. Well I'm a bit lazy and that's what I do. Anyway, best wishes and I'm sure it will be fine on the day. (weather permitting of course ).

I hasten to add that this is just a morbid imagining thing.... Since 1968, when I joined, we have never hurt anybody at Gawler. The insurance company has made , at $30,000pa over 50 years, about $1.5 million profit. It's all about making money from people's morbid worries.

I once looked into the industry and you can too by putting yourself in the role of insurance provider... There are 3 big things that need to be paid out , these are claims, overheads and profits. If they are equal, it means that given average luck, you can expect 1/3 of your premiums back as payouts. At the club I was in, this was about right.... we made about $20,000 of claims per year and paid about $50,000 premiums. We never had an argument from the insurance company. Personally, I reckon its a better strategy to not be insured and to fly safely. I never had the nerve to suggest this at the club however, just because some fool might turn a young doctor into a quadriplegic.

I was saved from buying life insurance when the salesman said that flying would cost me more. I asked where was the discount for not smoking.. and where were the figures to justify this stuff? Well he lost any sale when he told me that it was not for the likes of us to question the actuaries who had worked out all the premiums. A colleague who didn't fly lost all his investment in the insurance stuff, but he was a silly guy anyway. SO... Don't pay them any money... buy something else.

mate of mine has an ASH25 with a wankel engine and it goes great.... the engine sort of whirrs and it has plenty of power. Of course, a glider , especially one with a modern open-class performance, does not need much reliability from an engine. My recollection of flying in the '25 was that once it was up there, it didn't want to come down. Of course this is untrue, but it sure felt that way.

And the J230?

That story about insurance is about 20 years old, and we have not made ANY young doctor into a quadriplegic.... In fact, we have not hurt anybody.

Apart from the insurance aspect, I wish you well OME. I'd like to come n say gday, but the insurance is a problem for me too.

Me too old K. I have never believed in insurance. Why would they pay me when they could use the money to advertise? When I told too much of this around the club, they made me Insurance Officer. Did I reform the paying? I wish I were more brave, but the club was paying about $50,000 in premiums and collecting about $20,000 a year in claims. all our claims were payed out wonderfully. It would have taken somebody braver than me to bet this pattern would continue.... What if a passenger flight caused a young doctor to become a quadraplegic? So I am no longer any sort of officer and I like that.