metalman

I deal with insurance companies and smashed cars all day everyday,,,,the only ones who get screwed are the ones who choose insurance based solely of cost,,,,AAMI and their cohorts are the worst for getting your car repaired with TLC ,,,,,still insurance is always cheap as chips after you bounce off something

$120 ph for an instructor does seem a bit high all right , I had an engineering shop up that way and $85-95 is a pretty standard shop rate,,cost of living can be higher in mining focused towns though! Be interesting to see if he's still around in a year ,if so then a new bench mark will be set,,,,,sadly for cheap fun flying!

I'm volunteering down there over the weekend, might catch up somewhere,

Had a look at the tecnam taildragger today, beautifully built plane ,,,,also about $150k,,,,,and pretty heavy 360kg with a a Rotax ,even heavier with the lycoming Met

Heading down there on Friday(Avalon ), so I'll be a happy snaps pest , hoping to see a highlander down there for a gander

Loses a bit with the lack of profanity,,,,,,,, I was wondering when this would become an outlet for some sort of crusader( not Slartibartfast), the bottom( excuse the pun) line,,, I DON'T CARE,,,I hope the yanks have a good holiday, and as long as I don't have someone else's lifestyle rammed down my throat( oops ,,,sorry) I couldn't give a rats what they do for kicks,

Thanks for the input, I've done a fair bit of glass work with non structural stuff ,this is a first foray into something a bit more critical ,and disastrous if I get it wrong, so I'm open to everything going to get as much info as possible. So far as I can see the fiberglass seems to be the way to go ,but I also like the look of the carbon fibre, it maybe a matter of doing a laminate between the two, I've seen it done with alternating layers of kevlar and glass ,seems to work well and is lighter than just glass fibre Met

as far as I can see ,the SIDS inspections will cost a motza even if everything is found to be good, wing removal ain't cheap !

Yeh the stall thing is because I dislike aircraft that don't give a real warning that something's wrong, I flew a seabird seeker a while back and with the stick hard back you can drive either rudder pedal to the stops,,,it does absoluly nothing, that's a real worry , if it drops a wing what are you supposed to do,,,same with a 170 jab ,just mushers down tail low ,probably not actually stalled but there's no teaching moment in that

Yeh, I'm a bit big to fit in one too!

The eurofox can come with either landing gear, David, and there is a lot of mis information about the Skyfox/gazelles, they have issues but no different to any other aircraft, the biggest problem with them is the company is no longer around so there's a big problem with any minor problems.the spars are fine ,they had a "life" imposed by CASA to be review as the aircraft spent time in service,the company folds so no review is able to be done, so far there has never been a spar failure in one with some aircraft doing double the "lifed"hours. ( in private use of course) So what is everyone's ideal trainer that is a good personal aircraft as well? To me it's the following Tubular fuse (easy to repair ,time tested strength, ) Stall speeds in the mid to low thirtys At least 45 inches wide at the shoulders Easily convertible from tricycle to taildragger 4 hours endurance 95-100 knots cruise ( in actual speed not salesman speed) Flaps ( I prefer manual but an option of electric) Simple panel 912 rotax ( although the UL engine seems to be a good thing but time will tell) Toe brakes Enough adverse yaw to ensure good rudder use Sharp ,defined stall ( no mushing down tail low) Spin tested ( must be recoverable even if we can't teach spins) Can't think of any more but that's a good start, Met

Interesting, why the concern for the nose wheel, apart from the brake wear is there any other reasons?

I could be gay and lesbian,,generally happy with fits of extreme joy ,,,and yeh I too have a thing for the girlies!!! Maybe being a gay pilot is helpful,,,last thing you'd want is some miserable bas)ard in control! sorry,,,,I be off now

Mine is a new engine and has the return line going back to the collector tank, seems to work okay but I've only done ground runs at the moment

Good point about the trade off between reliability and lightness, does anyone know what cloth is used in the jab gear?

Is rag n tube still considered viable for school aircraft, fabrics can be good for a couple of decades even outside, and 4130 tube fuselages have been a proven thing for a long while, easy to repair and can take a flogging, I know the slippery airframes seem to be the way but for training is it really needed,,, Met

I'm at the thinking about it stage, I started from the carbon fibre idea as I've seen it used in masts for yachts ,spars, chassis' for race cars and propellers ,,,but it'll also have to be "soft" enough to soak up roughing ground. There's a little bit on the net about it and from what I've seen on one sight http://curedcomposites.com/gear.html They are using woven rovings ,and epoxy resin ,I've got the time so I'll gather as much as I can before going shopping, as I wrote the motivation is weight loss so if it going to be heavier than 4130 chro-mo then I'll build them that way, the berhinger wheels/axles have very different attachments so I'll have to redo the gear either way .another option is Kevlar ,it has different properties to glass or carbon, and is still pretty light.

I've got a few sets of David Clark 13.4's, and can't complain, they keep the noise down to a reasonable level in open cockpit jiggers, although the Bluetooth would be nice, I think you can get an attachable one to put in line with the standard gear, I've flown with the ANR headsets in mates planes and although comfy I always wonder if they'd cancel out cockpit alarms ( retractable gear for one). A mate uses this tiny headset that looks like an iPod earpiece ,not sure of the brand, but it looks as comfy as your gonna get Met

Wow,,,,500ft circuits and keep it in tight,,,,although you'd get your x country at the same time if you flew it wider ;-)

I'll have to look in to it , I'm doing a new panel ,cowls and some components using carbon fibre for the Lobo, I want to get it below the 300kg . The eurofox and the Jabs use GRP gear but I'm not sure what fibre it is , I'm ordering some Berhinger wheels and brakes for it , lighter, sexier and the brakes will actually do something( oh and they come with 26 inch tyres)

Well,,,on one hand we have a whole flock of whiners lamenting how its all about GA or there's no innovators, everyone wants one off the shelf,,,well buddy perhaps I'm not an off the shelf kinda guy, I also rarely waste time on ,,,,,wits so from me pal this is your answer ,back under yonder rock with ya,,,,,,,,,,

I'll have to catch up soon,

Yep that looks. Like CASAspeak, gonna be some real cheap cessnas around ,

This is how it really happens

Best deal I ever got ,,,,C185 ,,,just pay for the fuel,,,,,I should've been living in the thing! Although that's still about $110 an hour !