KRviator

That's the kicker right there, innit? At the latest Census I am officially classed as Unemployed. I'm am not. I have a job, I just can't get to it. I was off work 11 months last year, will probably eclipse that this year/round with that arsehole in WA pushing his Covid Zero mantra because he's stuffed the healthcare system there, and personally, will now probably lose well over $200,000 overall in lost leave, wages, superannuation, etc. And I am just one person. Except it is not achievable - we have demonstrated that time and time again. It gets out from HQ, it gets out from the staff driving the aircrew to the hotel, it gets out from the HQ security guard snogging one of the inmates. It doesn't matter how it gets out, only the fact that it does! And each time it gets out, states like QLD and WA shut their domestic border's throwing the country into disarray. Granted closing the international border was a smart move, however look what closing the domestic border's have done to families, weddings, funerals, everything with the exception of the NRL has been screwed over by it, and they simply wave a wad of cash under the nose of an unelected public servant and she waves them through into the state with open arms. As above, I'm closing in on $200K in lost dollars due to the WA border being closed - and there are many colleagues in a similar boat. Either that, or they have not seen their families for a year or more because they are being held hostage by WA, with WAPOL saying "If you leave, you won't get a G2G pass approved to come back..." Yes, take advantage of our nation's island status. But we are a bloody nation we are not 7 different countries, though you wouldn't know that now. It's even demonstrated in the lockdown measures. Mexican's cannot fly. I can in NSW. I can even fly to QLD so long as I don't leave the airport....

Quoting what? Zero-Covid? Look at McGowan and his "I will not accept any cases or deaths on my watch!". Source. Then there's Victorian CHO Brett Sutton just this morning, "Victoria's hope for achieving COVID-zero again has been thrown into doubt with another 73 local cases of coronavirus recorded today. Of the new cases, 52 have so far been linked to known outbreaks, with 21 mystery cases under investigation. Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton today said he was hopeful case numbers would continue to stabilise due to the lockdown, noting the state was still following the aggressive suppression strategy for managing the virus." Source. Oh, then there's Queensland and their Covid Zero "Queensland is likely to reopen to the rest of Australia and stop trying to eradicate COVID-19 when its vaccination rates hit 80 per cent." Source. So...Uhhh...what's that about not working on Covid-Zero?

So what if we have? The whole "Zero Covid" mentality is a crock of shit. It's unsustainable, uneconomical and unethical. The goal was to Flatten the curve. We did that. We tolerated lockdowns to do that. No one agreed to Zero-Covid, and the whole "Let's blame NSW for our states cases" is disingenious and only highlights their own unrealistic expectations compared to Covid reality. Look at any other highly vaccinated jurisdiction in the world. Any other jurisdiction...And look at their case numbers then convert them to a percentage of our population and see what you get - I'll give you a hint, it ain't Zero! Or even close to it... I went flying last week and make no apologies for it. I have an exemption from Qld to fly up there to check out a plane for sale, and that's fine so long as I don't leave the airport, then fly direct back to NSW.

@turboplanner at least put a reference on that so you can A) prove it's true and not just someone's opinion, and B) Know what state you're referring to, because in NSW you can fly for training in NSW as it is deemed "Education that cannot be done from home". Service NSW has confirmed that.

Asbestos and Thalidomide were both thought to be the ducks nuts early in the piece too...Just sayin...🤨

It would appear that lockdowns do sweet FA to stop the Delta variant spreading, only slow it down, so Glady's failure to lockdown early is a moot point. Otherwise, Oz's best premier, (who achieved that title by declaring he would arrest and sentence to death* any 5 year olds who dared challenge his directive that they were not to play on a jungle gym, btw)) would have achieved Covid Zero by now with his lockdown measures, rather than having...what was it...?? "92 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19, a number not seen since the middle of Melbourne's deadly second wave in 2020." according to the latest figures...A figure which appears to be rising daily not dropping. *May be a slight exaggeration, but you get the point

"Technically" you aren't required to make any call, except as required to avoid a collision. If you can confidently say you're the only one within cooee, you don't need to make any calls, though a broadcast turning base is recommended... CAR166C refers:

No flamin' idea where you got the 10,000 kids dying every year, but ABS says different. Very different...According to them, there were 32,473 deaths in Qld in 2019 - so to suggest 1/3rd of them were murdered and children is utter bollocks. Their actual number of "Other external cause of mortality - Assault" was 41 males, 12 females.

CAO95.55 is what you want. It does mention LSA there, but there's also an amateur-built category, and there's no airworthiness standards. It's your signature saying your design is airworthy. But make sure it is, or you might get an assigned test area 100nm out back of Walgett, between 1200 and 1205 on the 4th Sunday of every month to fly off your 40 hour test period!😝

I figured this'd be the best place to put my updated nav log for anyone that's interested. I'd originally done this up as a static Excel page that required external calculations, but have since updated it to do the calculations for me, as well as adding things like W&B and a few automated warnings and such that can utilise the additional inputs. The basic idea is you plan on the left, fly from the right, and there should be no red boxes when you print it out. If you've done that, in theory, you'll have enough fuel to fly the plan, you won't be outside the CG or MTOW limits and you'll (hopefully), not get lost by screwing up the wind correction angle or introducing some other manual error. Orange boxes are used for inputs and the only spots that should be altered, grey for automatic calculations, whitespace (ETA/REV/Notes) for handwriting. This form is customised for my RV-9A, but the limits can be changed to suit almost any aircraft by updating the various values used in the W&B or fuel calculations. By the same token, CG is shown as an arm location, but could easily be shown as a percentage of available, to give an at-a-glance indication as to whether you're forward or aft of neutral so you can set the trim accordingly. I may well end up changing it for that reason... Here's a typical long-rage flight, two people, a bit of baggage and full fuel. The TOW & ZFW CG's are in limits, as is the MTOW, so they're all green. The CRZ END box up the top right shows how many minutes you have until you hit your fixed reserve on landing. Climb, cruise for 248 minutes, descend and land, and you should have your FR (only) left in the tanks. Fuel flow for all these calculations is hard-coded to 25LPH, typically what I get but you could introduce a variable if you wanted low-speed or high-speed cruise or something in between if you're really keen. Same for CLB/DES fuel. That's hard coded at 10.5L, which is what I've demonstrated I use to climb to 8,500 and descend from 8,500 - but that can be changed if you're keen. I've uploaded the Excel file here too, but as always with everything I put out there, verify it works for you before you try to fly with it - if you get lost, run out of fuel and crash and die, that's on you! 😝 If anyone want's help tweaking it to suit your CG/plane/fuel flow, let me know and I'll do what I can. Here's an example with a ridiculous loading and insufficient fuel. The MTOW box is red, as it's above 1,800Lbs and it's also thrown a warning in notes box - as have/is the TOWCG & ZFWCG's as well as an Insufficient Fuel warning. The total fuel box is also bright red to draw attention to the fuel being less than required. In both this instance, and the one above, the Margin boxes are red, as the fuel margin, that is, fuel above what is required, is less than 30mins. They will turn yellow for a 30-60 minute margin, and green above 60 minutes. This is a "feel good" feature, nothing more, but is meant to draw attention to the fact you're getting close to using all your available fuel and should keep an eye on things. And here's a more normal example. 2 POB, a bit of baggage, full fuel and a couple of hours airborne with a healthy 80 minute margin to the fixed reserve. Everything's green, no red & no warnings, nothing to worry about. NavLog.xlsx

Scintex have quite a few options, including ready-to-run hose reels and trigger nozzles. 1" 'pump discharge hose' (don't say ID/OD) is $15.50/m and suitable for ULP.

My RV is the same, I fly the approach almost full nose-up trim and when I to touch and goes, it has an aggressive nose-up tendency. It's not at all hard to counteract it while the trim is running but you do need to be prepared for it.

Well, Ian hasn't mandated the wearing of pants while posting, so I think we've got a bit of leeway there...😁

Bet that bloke with the Sierra & the Ferris wheel at Old Bar doesn't feel so alone anymore!😛

So if the SoE can be renewed for a seemingly endless period - are we really in a democracy anymore? Demonstrations in Sydney, Melbourne and to a lesser extent, Brisbane, suggest we are not. When you can be arrested for planning a protest, yet alone actually participating in one, we have serious problems with Governance in this Country. Protesting Government decisions is a fundamental human right, to which Australia is a signatory, yet how to you protest a lockdown when you're arrested for violating the very lockdown you're protesting? The worst part is it is not even an elected official who has ordered these lockdowns, rather it is an unelected public servant, with zero accountability who is making decisions with zero accountability for those decisions. We cannot vote someone else into that role next election - and in the case of the QLD CHO, she's been promoted to Governor of the state, despite openly admiotting richer people pose less of a risk than poorer people - that's her understanding of science...

Agreed, however, if he wasn't happy with the departure routing, he should not have accepted the takeoff clearance. IMHO, that's the time to say "Hang on, our cleared SID will put us through a cell, is an alternative routing available?" rather than launching and then creating a massive headache for all involved...Of course, in hindsight, there's a simple solution: "Shamrock 104Heavy, descend & maintain 1,000, orbit present position, right turns, advise when you can accept the Greki departure". 😈 Get's him low enough he's out of the way and puts the onus on the PIC to say when he considers it safe...

5 deaths, but 87 cases of severe clotting... I guess that's ok if you're not one of those 92 people...Given a relative had severe clotting and was on anticoagulants for it for the rest of their life to prevent a potential repeat. For a pilot, if you hold a Class 1, you can only fly Multi-Crew, so no more taking your family for a jolly on the weekend, or an evening sunset flight around Sydney. No ferrying a 182 or Chieftain by yourself, you'll always need a (rated) Coey... For my Cat 1 Rail Medical (virtually equivalent to a Class1), if the treatment is deemed stable, you can be issued a medical, having been deemed Fit for Duty, Subject to Review but typically only for a 12 month (not 5 year) period, but there's no guidance on what would actually be deemed stable - so I might lose my medical for a year or two until that occurs. I think I'll take my chances with Covid for the moment. Out here in regional NSW I'm more at risk of dying in the RV than catching Covid at present, and until that risk/reward balance significantly changes I can't see that mindset changing either.

Unless you're Aer Lingus and then you get to orbit off the departure end of the runway as a pi$$ed off New York ATC'er tries to manage the problem you've now caused!

So a bit more of a follow-up in my saga of dealing with dealers...I sent an email off to the listed contact about this Twin Comanche, and got a response along the lines of "I'm in quarantine at present, I'll get the answers to your questions and get back to you when I get out". Fair enough. That was on the 4th June. Nothing heard since. But here's the kicker... I sent an email to the broker about this Debonair on the 18th May asking for total fuel, a more recent W&B than one from 1962, wing bolt status and engine overhaul year - and never heard a peep from him with answers. But I've covered that previously... So I got the address from CAsA and wrote an old fashioned letter to the owner, with a brief spiel, those questions, and my phone number. Fast forward a week and I get a call from him, and we had a great chat over about 45 minutes, but he dropped a bombshell when he said the price on the ad is not what he is selling it for, the broker apparently dropped the price without the vendors authority and he won't sell below the original listed price of $124,000. As anyone can see, it is currently advertised at $115,000. The difference is a Dynon AP install (during a SkyView upgrade, not a stand-alone), or a GI275 to tell the existing autopilot where to go. And, given it is now only $35,000 less than another Twinkie that's listed in Bankstown and is veerrrryyyy nicely equipped (with a BEW to match, though), it is nowhere near as competitive anymore. So I wrote back to the broker asking essentially "I've talked to the owner, he says the price is $124, I've got the $$ ready to go if all checks out, but where does this $115 come into it?" and here's the response I got back "KRviator, You can deal directly with David. Sent from my iPhone". How's that for service, eh? I can tell you who I won't be engaging for any sales or ferry services, flamin' clown.🤬 I also have a potential lead on a Comanche up Monduran way, after posting a WTB ad on one of the FB buy/sell/swap groups earlier this month, so will follow that up in a couple days, as well as giving the RV a bath before I get some photos for her 'for sale' ad. And, on that note, and at the risk of exposing myself to ridicule & derision, here's the proposed text for the ad I'm going to put on PlaneSales when I get around to it. IF there's anything else I've missed that should be there, or that you would want to see in the ad, please throw it out there. I'd rather give all the information a buyer could want from the get-go than play email ping-pong like I've had to!

Beautiful work - but where's the wing spar going to go?!?

When you absolutely, positively want to win the Red Bull Flug-tag...

We live within spitting distance of the threshold of a Council runway, that is both lit and has an instrument approach to that threshold. Our home insurance I think it is with Allianz but would have to check, covers impact by aircraft, and also views our good-sized hangar as a typical workshed. They seem to view our property as a standard residential risk, notwithstanding the airport proximity or the fact we have private taxiway access to it.

Note, it doesn't say what frequency you must be monitoring, be it Area, a nearby CTAF, 123.45, 121.5, 122.7 (for possible gliders) or trying to get a nearby AWIS to broadcast the QNH so you're complying with the AIP. Definitely more than one way to remove the epidermis from a feline. The thing that troubles me about that is the RPT seemed to "expect" the survey job to get out of its' way. Captain Fourbars ain't paying for his fuel the way the survey operator is. Try that with me when I'm out and about and you'll get a not-so-polite reply. RPT does not equal right of way, though, I will try to help commercial operators out where I can, I object to them telling me to do so because they think they're better than everyone else by virtue of skippy on the tail. Damn good question - but one better directed at CASA - since they ae banking on GPS availability by allowing sole-means GNSS navigation for IFR in IMC with no backup!

Properly maintained, I'd have no problem flying a B35 Bonanza - a model that first took flight nearly 70 years ago! Same for their Brand C or P equivalents, too. The only downside to aging aircraft is lack of parts or manufacturer support for critical items and it'd be something like that that would stop an older aircraft flying, not because the fuselage fell apart. Maybe its' time for CAsA to consider something like the Transport Canada "Owner Maintenance" régime? But that's another topic! @skippydiesel LVA = Lachlan Valley Aviation, methinks...

Add to that the risk of a broker discounting potential purchasers as legitimate and either ignoring, or simply overlooking responding to them, as this thread shows. There's (potentially) two Bonanza's and a Debonair listed through brokers that could have been sold much earlier and for a higher price had the broker actually responded. The Deb is still listed over 3 months since I first made contact with the broker, however I am led to believe the Bo's did go but much later than my first enquiry to the respective brokers, and probably for a lower price given the extended time on the market. After my email seeking the W&B back in March, I waited several weeks and followed up with the Deb broker to ask where the details were, and the excuse was "the photos were still sitting in my outbox" - he didn't even check to see if they were sent! And you as the vendor are paying for this kind of service. As above, ISTR this particular aircraft was initially listed at $124K, was dropped to $119K and it is now $115K... So that's at least $9,000 this particular broker has cost the seller - and that's not counting his fees on top of that! I think a big problem with brokers and the "he's a tyrekicker" train of thought is the laziness brokers put in to their ads. Let's consider the Deb that's advertised on PlaneSales that I'm interested in, as a case study: What year was the engine overhauled, topped & had the bottom end done? What is the BEW & CG? Who manufactured the tip tanks? ISTR there were at least two, and both had different MTOW's & capacities... What is the MTOW with the tiptanks? What is the total fuel capacity? "Long Range with Tip Tanks" means sweet FA as the Deb's had optional in-wing LR main tanks, as well as the tips. "140Kts at 50LPH" - is this KIAS, KTAS, CAS or GS (Yes, I've seen that advertised...) and at what altitude & power setting?!? (Since found out it is KIAS @ 6,500 - otherwise I'd be thinking "Bugger me, that Deb has something wrong with it, it's sooooo slow" - given most cruise speeds are measured & described in KTAS) "PROP OVERHAULED 2017 1900 HOURS TO RUN" - What make and model is it? The Flottrop propellor listed on the CASA register, a Hartzell installed under an STC? McCauley? Will it have repetitive hub inspections required? "Dual Nav/Comm" - what make & model is it? Mode C Transponder - What make & model is it? GPS AirMap 2000? What about the Garmin GPS100 that's installed in the panel and (hopefully) interfaced to the CDI? When were the wing-bolts done? AIUI this is a kinda-really-important thing for Bo's & Debs, with 5 yearly inspections and mandatory replacement at 15 years. This isn't an overly comprehensive list of questions, but basic descriptive information for that particular aircraft that should be included in any description - if only to save a bunch of calls to the broker seeking that information that then reveals that Deb isn't actually suitable for the potential buyer. As a seller, it's stuff you can put in your PlaneSales ad rather than having the broker-vendor-buyer ping-pong chasing this kind of stuff.