metalman

I've just been looking at another forum and there's the usual talk of GA dying due to cost ,so I had a look at the stats on wages very briefly to see the difference between today and 1969( why that year, I happened to see some old receipts from RVAC ),

2014 average wage approx $1100 gross approx rental of a 172/pa28 $200-220ph

1969 average wage approx $75 gross ,approx rental of a 172/pa28 $29ph

To rent an aircraft in 69 would be 38% of a weekly wage whereas it comes in at 20% of today's wage! now the 1969 figure is from memory ( I looked through an old logbook a few years ago and found a receipt in the back so I may have the figures wrong) but even if it's off by a lot it still works out cheaper as a stand alone figure to the past costs. So, is flying dearer? Is all the other parts of our life dearer leaving less for flying pursuits? Or is there other factors?

One thing that I believe is killing aviation is the mundaneness of it in the eyes of the general public, when you can jump on a plane as if a bus and flit up to Sydney or Brisbane for $100 ( or less!!!) flying has become a lot less exciting in the public perception, is that a reason, it's just not as exciting as it once was?

Something I've watched at my field is one of the guys there is always giving rides to people,,,always ! If you stand still long enough he'll offer to take you for a lap of the valley, is that's what's missing, this guy has 23000 hours as an ATPL and yet his enthusiasm is amazing, do we need to become more willing to take people up( legal ramifications are also a concern) ?

Opinions???

Who honestly thinks Victor 1 is a safe route,?I've done it once ,but it is anything but "safe" a mile off shore at 500"!.

This debate goes on and on,,,,,there is nothing stopping anyone from getting a CTA endorsement,,,get a PPL and a class2 med and go for your life,,,,if you can't get either of those then choose to fly where where you safely can,,,some may not like it but that's the rules as it stands. I don't know about the US system whether you can go into a CTA without a medical or not ,it is a lot more relaxed there although I hadn't flown in CTA while there

The only thing worse than walking out to an aircraft knowing its your last flight ,,, is walking out to the aircraft and not knowing it's your last flight.

I've got a few mates who've hung up the headset and they all knew it was time, no one told them , they just knew it was time to give it away

Yeh I'll make an appearance I reckon

What, ask John Newcombe to come back and work for them again?Geez those Bloke's outfits look gay.

 

Wait, what??

What about a skyfox or a lightwing Tomo , bit faster, pretty comfy, and there's a few good deals around

My missus has just recently started to come away to flying stuff with me, I love centre line seating ,the decathalons and the Tigermoth are so cool as a pilot ,but it's just not social enough for flying with someone else,

Matty

It wasn't in the Prof Avious column. Why do people bag him without even checking? You end up as bad as you say he is.I'm going to phone RAAus this afternoon and see if they know more than we do.

Take off and landing are obviously okay, plenty of airfields have approaches over roads,

I'd really like to know who gives the thumbs up to this Avius rubbish?

I wonder how far above the minimum we have to be before we don't need a low level,,,2-3-400. This a Avius is a real tosser ,be interesting to know who he is ,,,,,so I never mistakenly get any training from it!

Sounds like CASA are doing what CASA does best, killing aviation in this country.

Well played CASA ,,,we saw it coming and still couldn't halt it

I'd have to agree, I've been around nasty chemicals for most of my working life,,,,,no probs !

Here's a Toyota bag being deployed,

These ones appear to stay inflated ,although they may deflate at a slower rate than vehicle front impact bags

Airbags only fully inflate for an instant; there are bloody big holes at the back to let the gas out.

Front impact bags are inflated by an explosive charge, side curtains are inflated by a compressed gas, they stay inflated to protect the occupants incase of a roll over

Most modern vehicles have a pretensioner system along side the airbags, it pulls you into the seat at the same time the bags go off, how this would be incorporated into an aircraft would be a huge undertaking, the whole thing would have to be designed around the SRS ,it's not really something that could be added easily.

The other option could be a system similar to the side curtain airbags ( they're a different type to the front impact bags) but as with anything there's a down side, trying to fight your way out of a cockpit with inflated airbags would be difficult.

Ooohahhh, Graeme Mudie (note spelling) would be rather sad to hear of his demise. I'm pretty sure he's alive and well still, I had a chat with him not all that long ago, and used to rent space in his hangar, so I know him and his lovely RV6 very well. I can't find his contact details MM, but I'm sure you'll find him easily through the GCSFC. I'm sure he'd love to chat, he's a very affable fella, formerly headed up the the SAAA chapter called SAOG (Sport Aircraft Owners Group) near Brisbane. I seem to recall you're visiting up here at Christmas, would be a good time to visit Heck Field at Jacobs Well and see Graeme's RV perhaps? It's the nicest one I've had a look at, he builds some lovely one-off replica historical sports cars too.

 

 

Haha - asmol, Dafydd rarely blows his own trumpet, though he can be a little dogmatic on occasions. He's one of the most experienced and best known Reg35 aeronautical engineers in Australia, and without any barrow to push that I'm aware of ...

Dafydd would you have contact details for the guy doing the RV mod, I'd be interested to have a look at it

Information is good,,,,,deliver needs some work!

My momma always said " you catch more flys with honey than vinegar" :-)

I go on a supercub forum in the states occasionally, one of the problems with the cubs in a stack is they have a single diagonal tube from the froward wing attach to the opposite rear attach, when the wing hits the rear wing rear collapses into the cockpit and does bad stuff to the occupants ,the easy fix is to weld another diagonal the opposite way . It's a pretty popular mod to the old airframes and I think a lot of the new build and copies do it from the start. They would have to be one of the most copied aircraft ever ,and going by the extreme places they fly them I guess pretty good in a crash, there's an alaskan saying that " your not a real bush pilot till you've put a cub into the tree tops" ,,,,,not sure I'd like to join that club though.

Thank you, gentlemen. Looking at this thread, especially posts #4, #5 and #9 - and also that somebody found post #18 funny - and also the limited number of respondents - shows me that whilst there are a minority of people who do care about " secondary" safety considerations, and some serious thoughts there, the majority of people really aren't interested. This demonstrates yet again what Edsel Ford found out - safety is not a marketable commodity.I wonder what % of the readers of this Forum would buy a somewhat more expensive aircraft, if it offered a higher level of safety? Not a sufficiently significant percentage, I suspect, to make it attractive to manufacturers to put out more than the most basic product; but to make manufacturers place some importance on styling.

 

So we get what we deserve - stylised garbage.

I will be looking at the fuselage on mine when I get to that stage ,I'm thinking some 4130 tube running from the bulkhead where the belts attach through to the panel ,I'll have to nut it out when I'm building that part but it has certainly been following the thread

Wow, great read,,,,love the last paragraph ,as I was reading a definite pattern was emerging!

Fly tornado will be there,,,,gotta new suit pick out ,bit of a stash trim,,,,looking good

Just had a look at the iOS 8 for my phone and iPad ,,5.7Gig ,,,sh*t that's a third of the capacity of the phone! which it doesn't have available ,,,,not sure why they're being so mean to us !

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What is the outer skin of the cockpit?