KRviator

In the case of the RV, fly 10* pitch & full power until terrain clearance is assured, on the crosswind leg downgrade to Mode A on the transponder, and on the Coey's EFIS Button 7+8, select GPS FIX Status & climb at the CHT limit to fly the relevant GPS altitude to my destination while cursing the fact I didn't take the tape off the static ports after washing the plane - and missed it in pre-flight. If my routing is as usual, cruising at the base of CTA, I'd probably drop down to the next suitable VFR level to avoid an unintentional VCA. I certainly wouldn't entertain the idea of an immediate return - or any return at all, even if going away from home base.

True, but that argument appears to discount using those instruments that remain available in favour of - essentially - guessing your speed. Yes, it can be done, but if you have other sources of valid data, you should use them to confirm your speed/position/actions. Anything else is setting you up to be hung out to dry in the ATSB report..."Although the Pilot had GPS groundspeed data available to him and would have been able to use this to determine airspeed, he chose not to use it in favour of estimating aircraft performance based on power & attitude for which the airframe manufacturer did not provide such data..." or a similar writeup. I went out with an instructor for some additional training a couple weeks ago, and we scrubbed the flight about 15min in after the weather appeared to be worse than forecast, whereupon I promptly entered the departure airport as the DTO waypoint in the GNSS. That seemed to surprise the instructor who asked if I could do it without the GNSS. "Of course" was my reply. "But why would I? Putting the destination in as the waypoint gives exact distance for the 10mile call, lateral guidance and a precise altitude-intercept location." The point being, use the tools you have available to reduce your workload. Just because we're trained to navigate with paper maps and a stopwatch doesn't mean we should use them to the exclusion of everything else in this day and age - particularly when the AIP now allows VFR pilots to use TSO'd GNSS units for Area Navigation and to push the 'positive-fix' time out to 2 hours.

About the only thing they can do to an A380 to make it look almost decent...hideous looking thing it is. Some of the designs coming out on RV's and other Experimental's now that are being covered in vinyl wrap are stunning. Anything you can design on a PC can be printed and your plane wrapped in it - one RV Driver blew up the actual plan drawing for each section and wrapped his RV in them. I still get a giggle out of the Kulula 737 Flying 101 livery from a decade ago. They also did a This Way Up logo that is chuckle-worthy but not as good as Flying 101.

I've taken off with the pitot cover in place once. I did notice it on the takeoff roll, but with only a 600m runway with a 2% downhill gradient and no definitive speed I continued the takeoff rather than try to stop, pegged the VSI at +1000 and flew to the Council airstrip a few minutes away using GPS GS as a guide - bear in mind this was just after sunrise, so before the wind had picked up, and Vy in the RV gives over 1800FPM in the conditions that day. But what if you do have a significant wind to factor in? GPS GS can't be relied on in those conditions, can it? Wellllll... In any wind, a two-way run at a fixed power setting will give you your average TAS by adding the GPS GS & dividing by two. From there, you can work out what the approximate wind component is, and use a bit of mental maths to keep your speed in a safe range on final. Ie, 360*M & 120GS & 180*M & 80GS gives you 100KTAS. IF the runway is in the 160*-200* range, I could fly final as slow as 40GS in the RV, giving me 60KTAS.

IIRC Darwin and Amberley were 'officially' emergency landing sites for the Shuttle program, with various other abort sites specified depending on the mission. And to keep this on topic: Anyone landed at Point Cook in the last coue years? Did you have any problems getting authorization from Ronny? Where did they park you?

Truth be told, I found much better intel on the Vans Forums than RF during my build, as not only is it airframe specific, but the sheer volume of RV builders have cobbled together just about every possible airframe/engine/avionicky combination imaginable, and for any problems you encounter, you can almost be guaranteed that someone, somewhere has posted it before. That's not to say RF doesn't have its' place, but for homebuilders, the type clubs/sites/forums are likely a better resource.

I brought one of those cheap Aldi folding bikes years ago for the RV, but have never bothered to put it in the plane beyond initial tests - I just CBF flying somewhere that actually needs it yet - and truth be told, would probably stump up the $$ for an electric scooter these days, or even a petrol powered one - just drain a litre from the sump after landing and you're good to go, without the risk of a battery fire mid flight. The bike does work well after dropping the car into town for a service or the like though.

That's something that seems to be a huge difference between flying in Oz vs the USA - that "last mile" from the airport. In Oz, you land, refuel yourself, tie down and then either walk, get a ride with the hotel owner, or a taxi (if you're lucky the town has them) from the airport. In the US, you land, are marshalled into a parking spot next to a G5, the lineboy (sorry, line-LGBTQI-person these days) comes out and offers to carry your bags to the golf cart, refuels your bugsmasher and there'll be a courtesy car to take you in to town, and if you're lucky, they might even put your plane in a hangar for the night. Sure, self-serve AvGas is a thing there too, but there are actual businesses' in the US who cater to travelling GA pilots and their passengers. In Oz, they are only available at the likes of International airports and if you rock up in a '172, you're probably going to et laughed at. I've also not heard of (m)any airports in Oz that allow under-wing camping. There are a few, private, ones that do, but they are few and far between.

At present I'm probably in the 40-50 hour range in the RV-9, but if we can a 4 seater that'll probably double as all of us can go on trips away.

No, he did, Bruce, as well as a Union submission, he was fully defended, just that the Coroner wanted someone to blame other than the parents or kids themselves. To be honest, even though I've only ever worked freight trains, I don't think I would have done anything differently and that's the galling bit - besides the kids mother trying to sue QR for a quarter-million-dollars for "Psychological harm" 'they' caused her, that is despite deflecting blame for the occurrence in the first place! To her credit though, the then Qld Transport Minister basically said the Coroner is full of shyte, and it was unfair to blame the Driver who was a victim of circumstance, and despite the Coroner's recommendation, QR has not, and has no intention of, pursuing disciplinary action against the Driver. The actual Coroner's report if anyone wants to read it...

Couldn't agree more, @Flightrite.👍 The legal system in the country is broken, and not just the criminal system either. Around 10 years ago, a QR Suburban train hit and killed 3 kids, 8, 9 and 10yr old that were piling rocks on the track in an attempt to derail one. The Driver was told the kids were in the rail corridor (that is, inside the fenceline) throwing rocks at passing trains, no one told him they were, or went, on track. The Driver was running at 80kph in a 100 zone, and had turned his headlight off in accordance with the extant network rules to prevent blinding motorists on the adjacent Ipswich Motorway, and had pulled the cab blinds down to prevent any injuries from broken glass, all completely normal and permitted actions that any other Driver in QR could have done. The Qld Coroner who investigated these kids deaths laid the blame squarely at the Driver's feet, because running at 80k's, turning your headlight off and pulling your blinds down constituted operating his train in a "dangerous manner". No criticism of the Police officer who accosted the kids at a train station earlier (not that I'd agree with that either, mind you), nor the parents who had NFI where their kids were and let them roam around unsupervised all afternoon, and no criticism of the kids themselves one of whom had cannabis in his system. It was all the Driver's fault. That bloke never worked a train again. Lost his career, livelihood and was so psychologically hurt he couldn't even give evidence at the inquest. The law really is an ass.

Here's the ATSB report, reproduced below: The pilot of the Lancair had built the aircraft as an owner-builder. He and his passenger had intended to fly from Perth, Western Australia to an airshow at Mangalore, Victoria. On the day prior to the accident, the aircraft arrived early in the afternoon at Aldinga, South Australia, where it was refuelled in preparation for the next leg of the flight. The pilot and passenger then stayed overnight with a friend. The following morning, the aircraft departed for Murray Bridge, South Australia in order to meet up with another aircraft for the remaining flight to Mangalore. When the aircraft was 3 km to the north-east of Aldinga aerodrome, witnesses heard the engine surge and lose power. The aircraft was then seen to enter a spin and crash into a dry creek bed. Both occupants were fatally injured. The accident was not considered to be survivable. Traces of aviation fuel were found on the ground at the accident site under the wing fuel tanks. There was no evidence that a significant quantity of fuel had been released during the impact. There had been no post-impact fire. The investigation established that the aircraft had been refuelled the previous day at Aldinga to a capacity of approximately 80L. It was operating within weight and balance limitations, close to its maximum weight, and close to the aft limit of its centre of gravity. There was no evidence to suggest that the aircraft was not airworthy prior to the accident, nor was there any indication that either the pilot or the passenger had been incapacitated immediately before the accident. The aircraft utilised three fuel tanks: one was located in each wing below the level of the engine, while the third fuel tank was located in the fuselage, above the level of the engine. The engine could be fed with fuel directly from any one of these. It was the pilot's normal policy to use fuel from the fuselage tank when priming the carburettor prior to starting the engine, and then to select a wing fuel tank once the engine had been started. During the flight from Western Australia, only the wing fuel tanks had been filled at all refuelling ports except for Ceduna, where it was not possible to ascertain how the aircraft had been refuelled. Investigation revealed that at the time of the accident, the low-fuel warning light for the fuselage tank was illuminated, indicating that only a small quantity of fuel remained in that tank. The investigation found that aviation fuel had been spilled on the ground, chemically burning the grass, at the aircraft's overnight parking location at Aldinga aerodrome. The shape of the burnt grass area was consistent with fuel having been spilled over the sides of a 20 L fuel drum. Police reported that fuel had been stolen on other occasions from aircraft at Aldinga aerodrome. A road near the aerodrome was regularly used for car racing, and it is possible that fuel was siphoned overnight from the aircraft's fuel tanks. Damage to the aircraft systems precluded a determination of the fuel tank that was selected at the time of the accident. A lack of both fire damage and evidence of fuel spillage at the accident site indicated that there was only a small quantity of fuel in the aircraft at the time of the accident, despite the aircraft having been refuelled the previous day. It was not possible to ascertain if the engine lost power due to fuel exhaustion from a wing fuel tank, or if the fuselage tank had been selected prior to takeoff and that that tank had become exhausted. The reason for the aircraft entering a spin after the engine lost power could not be determined.

Having recently moved next to a small country airport - let's call it "Crumpet" because, well, "Scone" is already taken, the builder & previous owner of the house & hangar that we brought was out mowing the grass on the airport side of the fence one day, when Crumpet Council's contractor was conducting an audit of the airport. Do you reckon they said "Gidday mate, 'ow ya travelling? Good to see ya taking care of things and showing an interest in keeping the grass down. Whaddave you got tucked away in ya hangar??" Nope. They wrote him up as he " ...was observed mowing the taxiway without a rotating beacon or high visibility clothing, or without any co-ordination with the ARO." Now, bear in mind this "taxiway" was one the PO had exclusive use of, as it linked his, and only his, hangar to the threshold of Crumpet's runway, the "taxiway" wasn't much more than a bit of flattened grass, with a few gravel patches and by and large, it was closer to the perimeter fence than the gables and absolutely no threat to anything with wings unless it also had feathers...But officialdom and red tape must prevail. Fast forward a few years and now we own the house & hangar, and Crumpet Council has provided us a new gravel taxiway as part of the Crumpet Airport upgrade, and are going to replace the perimeter fence to stop pesky kangaroo's getting on the runway. But, in another dazzling feat of red-tape and officialdom, CAsA have told Crumpet Council that we cannot taxi through the gate unless the gate is 31m wide, because, you know, an RV with a <9m wingspan is at risk of hitting something if the gate is any narrower, never minding the fact that a 4-seat Cessna has been going through the existing gate for 20 years... SO what to do? Do we drag the RV-9 (or Comanche/Bonanza/182 whatever we get) from the hangar onto the taxiway with the ride-on? But then, we'll be on a taxiway without our plane-proof vest & whoopy-lights! Egad! Or do we say "My plane, my property, my gate, if I hit my gate with my plane taxiing through onto my property then I'll fix my gate and my plane myself! As it is, I blithely ignore Crumpet Council's previous NCN's and happily take the ride-on & sprayer trailer out through the gate to keep the grass down around the new taxiway & spray the weeds that they seem happy to let grow. This serves two purposes, firstly it keeps the weeds out of my yards & paddocks, and secondly it just looks nicer. It's also interesting to note, the Crumpet Aero Club weren't the ones to install 4 HD weather cameras up here, nor was it the Crumpet Council. It was a local charter operator who arranged it, and mounted them on top of one of the maintenance mobs hangar's here. I'm planning on adding a 5th one at our end of the airport overlaid with METAR or PWS data, but need to find the best one to use.

Some very important points you raise @Ignition. Some very important points indeed. I built and fly my RV so they ain't hard. Even old school 3's or 4's, if you can understand Lego & Mecanno, and have the $$ to finish it, you'll finish it. Note I didn't say "time" as $$ outweigh "time". Less time = more $$ for easier-to-implement parts... I do want to help other's get into aviation, and on my local airport. We put up a new windsock at our back gate, as there wasn't one at our end of the airfield. We've installed a pair of ADS-B ground stations for FA and FR24, I'm going to install another weather camera facing our windsock & the runway threshold here, and this arvo I took Mini-Me's friend (10yo) for his first flight in a small plane. But.... I refuse to join the local Aero Club here as I really CBF dealing with the politics that go on behind the scenes, and unless you own a plane such as an RV, I don't think anyone who doesn't already own their own home can afford to fly for fun these days enough to be current. Even insurance on the RV was $3,000 a year - for only $100K coverage. At 50 hours a year, that's $60/hour Hell, I insured a fully decked out Landcruiser for less than half that, for $150K agreed value. Add in $2.446/L Avgas (current price here) at 25L/hour and that's another $60/hour. Oil is $10/qt * 6 every 50 hours ($1.50/hour), AD/RAD/47 certification and you're looking at close to $150/hour - for a dead simple RV that we own. At 50h a year, that's $7,500 to fly an hour a week. $4-8000 more if you don't have your own hangar and a hell of a lot more if you have to hire one! GA in this country is dying. Council's bunging on exorbitant landing fees (It's all "cost recovery" you know...Can't go giving all those rich RV Driver's a free landing when they fly in to spend money in our town), CAsA and their....shenanigans', ASIC, RAAus and the direction they're going now and a lack of things to do when you get to an airport after going for a jolly except buy more Avgas and go home. Coupled with the AUD/USD making it prohibitively expensive to bring in an aircraft from overseas, yet alone a new aircraft and the vast majority of the GA fleet is rapidly closing on being older than the pilot's parents. Properly maintained, we know that's not an issue, but tell that to Little Johnny and his Ma & Pa who rock up wanting to learn to fly, "This here is a Cessna 152, it has over 13,000 hours on it, and it first flew in 1978, it doesn't have fuel injection yet alone electronic ignition, the radios use old-school AM instead of FM and there's no EFIS, GPS or even electric trim . Oh, and it is still valued at $78,000 - which is about what a brand-spankers 2021 Toyota Prado VX costs... And this is what you're gonna learn to fly in Lil' Johnny!" Great look for aviation, innit?

To answer the question: "No" But to expand on that, unless I was doing hardcore aerobatics, or single engine NVMC/IMC solo I think I would prefer to stay with the plane, certainly if it is the RV-9. I am of the belief - and have absolutely zero data to support it - that you're less likely to suffer injury if you can fly the plane to a safe (controlled) crash landing, even if you destroy it to protect you. That being said, being able to safely egress your plane will be a huge deciding factor. The sliding canopy RV's are un-bail-outable. The Tip-up canopy ones require you to retain the canopy jettison system. Even coming down in a forest in a light plane, if you do it under control, you're likely to survive better than coming down in a forest in a parachute, with lacerations & getting hung up in the trees.

The original 'Prune thread was about those specific forums, not aviation as a whole, however, there are many parallels. FB has cost a great many decent forums their membership as people have a finite amount of time to spend online, and when they connect with their friends & family on FB, they can also be told about new posts on any relevant groups. I'm on two aviation buy/sell/swap sites, two local community pages and two Comanche groups, as well as RF/Pprune & a couple of industry-specific forums and all the internet/PHP-based ones have suffered a significant decline in members since FB came along, and that's outside aviation. Aviation's general decline in Australia does not help matters, whether you attribute that to decreasing spending money compared to years gone by, the Cretins Against Sensible Aviation, Aero Club politics or simply people finding more interesting things to do. Don't forget we had the thread last year about the general decline in planes for sale on the RAAus classifieds, and you can also see that with the various Broker's and their current listings. Some seem to delight in leaving a dozen "sold" planes on their webpage to hide the fact they only have 3 actual ones for sale. Now is that because more people are hanging on to their planes and actually flying them? I don't think so, people just CBF doing maintenance on them, so they become a lawn ornament and eventually unsellable, and those that want a new plane can't afford it these days.

Add to that the John Quadrio and Richard Rudd scandals too. Once might be a mistake, two, an unlikely but remotely possible co-incidence. Three or more? Yeah, nah, that's not either of the above....

True, there's always more than one way to remove the dermis from a feline - but remember - if old mate knows his stuff and wants to be a prick, he can still arrest you and hand you over to the Rozzers and your afternoon has just gone to hell. All that that 'defence' would mean is you'd likely be found "not guilty" of breaking the law, it doesn't negate the arrest process. That being said, what's the chance of it actually happening? Probably between "never" and "stuff-all" unless you have the sort of luck I seem to...😄

Do we have any 4-lane tunnels in Australia? I think the ones on the M2 in Sydney might only be 3 lanes if they are meant to qualify as a tunnel, proper... Anyway, I dunno what the big deal is. Doesn't everyone remember Mission Impossible? Tom Cruise was hanging off a helicopter in the Channel Tunnel - and that was 20 years ago! Yes, I know Le Chunnel is but one train wide, it is Hollywood, yadda yadda....

An emergency command declared by whom? The Government, or in many cases, an unelected public official! Who is not accountable to the public for their actions, beyond getting a bad performance review next quarter... There are no checks or balances applied to these "Declarations of Emergency" beyond time limits, which IIRC, the Victorian Government had a bit of a brouhaha with wanting to extend. Declare a SoE, and you can do (almost) whatever you want, such as imprisoning residents of an apartment block, or stealing (sorry, "Confiscating") alcohol being delivered to residents of said locked-down tower, among a host of other measures.

You picked the cause yesterday. It's meant as a compliment (for those that never had teachers - or SAAA MPC instructors - giving out Freddo's when you get the right answer). 😉 I reckon that's exactly what's happened. Pump on, changed tanks & descended back towards the runway ( which cooled everything off) to the point it didn't happen again, and the subsequent circuits weren't at full power vs low power long enough to reheat things.

So today, I went out to the hangar (read, I walked out my laundry door and past my clothes line to get there....🙃) to do a bit of troubleshooting to see if I could work out what happened yesterday. I drained 55L of fuel from the right tank, had a look at the vent line (clear) and also a look at the CAV-110 fuel drain that showed it had a few small bits of accumulated debris in its' ports which led me to break out the borescope to try to verify the fuel pickup was unobstructed. I couldn't get a good view of the pickup, simply due to the angle and the borescope not being able to bend sufficiently - though I did get it stuck on the fuel sender for several minutes while I contemplated both how long it would take me to remove the tank + borescope from the wing to unjam it and how long Vans would take to get a new tank access plate gasket to me in the post.... After getting it sorted, I added 5L of the removed fuel and pulled her out to do some ground runs, and she started and idled smoothly on the right tank as she has for the last few years, ran up to full power and held it beautifully, but lo and behold, after getting everything up to temperature, she's stumbling and pig-rootin just like she did yesterday, however, using the diaphragm override on the Rotec, I could recover the RPM each time it faltered. Not well enough to hold a specific RPM, but enough to keep me airborne if needed. On shutdown to add some more fuel, I left the Dynon's powered and fuel pressure climbed from the normal 5PSI to well over 20PSI in around 4 minutes - the highest I can ever recall seeing it and well above the capacity of the electric boost pump, suggesting the fuel is indeed boiling in the lines. She wouldn't restart and idle, yet alone run smoothly, after adding the extra fuel so I had to tow her to the Avgas bowser, but I refueled the right side with Avgas, added a few litres to the left to top it off and will repeat the ground runs tomorrow to see if she is more stable with Avgas instead of 98, but for now, I think @BirdDog wins the choccy frog. I use the same pump at the same servo every time, so all I can put it down to, is having different blends (summer v winter?!?) of 98RON in the left & right tanks though I thought that was more a diesel thing, a bit of Googling suggests it happens with unleaded as well.

A slightly stressful 1.1 today, stay-at-home orders notwithstanding... 🤐 The plan was to simply recalibrate my AoA sensor and update the ASI speed bands to reflect the increase in weight & stall speeds. That went fairly well, taking off and climbing on the right tank with no issues, and after a series of pitch maneuvers to setup the calibration routine & 3 stalls the calibration was successfully saved and then a minute or so later, the engine decided it had had enough, pig-rootin and carrying on refusing to spin up above 1800RPM or so, even with full throttle. OAT was +10*C, DA around 6,500, T+P's all fine, no EMS warnings for low fuel pressure, etc and both L+R Pmags tested okay at the time cycling them off then on (their switch state is recorded on the datalog too) I ended up changing tanks and all was well with the other side for the rest of the flight, to the extent I felt comfortable doing some circuits afterwards (plenty of places to put down in the event of an EFATO here until I can get to turnback height). I've pulled the datalog and be damned if I can see a cause. A mate who has an RV-10 suggested vapour lock, but at +10*C it wasn't really hot enough for me to consider it a problem but it's about all I can think of at the moment. The Rotec TBI has never given any indication it is susceptible to icing, but that's the only other thing I can possibly attribute it to, but doesn't explain why it didn't happen on the opposite tank during descent. That being said, I have had vapour lock several times with the Rotec, most recently being last week after a quick turnaround, but never actually in flight. Both L+R vents are clear, proven by the puddle of fuel under each after refuelling last week & having it expand in the hangar a couple days ago. Fuel drains before and after the flight were clear of water & debris, I used the same batch of fuel in my ride-on with no problems and can't see it being a gascolator problem if the left tank was unaffected, my thinking being, at present, it has to be upstream of the fuel selector to the right tank, or the fuel itself. I'm going to drain the tank and use it in the ride on, then refill with Avgas and go repeat the profile to see what happens, but if anyone has any ideas, I'm open to suggestions as to what else to look at.

Well, the question by the OP was "The Coey need's to take a piss. There's an airport right below me, but it's PPR. What can they do if I land anyway?". Taking a piddle is not an emergency, no matter how it may feel at the time! But you're still right. SE pilots are always looking for the next suitable field in which to put down, but for a non-emergency situation, I'd want to know I had permission to be wherever I land, rather than doing it and saying "Sorry about that" once I'm down...

Stop trying to play the emotional card, "But what if it was your mum or dad?!?" The Government has put a dollar value on Australian lives since Noah was a fullback. And they threw it right out the window for Covid, and they keep right on doing it! Even if we lost the full 30,000 they thought we would at the start, that's still less than the cost of what they've done, and are doing to people and businesses, and that's purely the financial cost. (Incidentally, that cost would be "only" $150 Billion...What are we up to now in lockdown's/JobKeeper/Covid Disaster Payments/etc?!?) And that's not mentioning the heartache of missed funerals, weddings, travel the things you can't put a price on. Sydney's lockdown is costing a quarter billion dollars per day! THAT'S the reality. I didn't decide a healthy 40-year-old Aussie is worth $5.0M. The Government did, and they did it loooong before Covid was on the scene. I didn't decide a "Statistical Life Year" is worth $217,000, the Government did decades ago, and it affects everything from road funding to CAsA-issued AD's. How many "Life years" have we saved with our reaction to Covid, given the original variant was predominantly fatal to those over 60 (with an ~83 years life expectancy)? How many are being saved "now" with 2/3rds of our Citizens in lockdown and millions more unable to travel without going into quarantine for two weeks, or risking losing their holiday should the border rules change mid flight?!? If you don't want to take that risk - that's on you. Carry a bottle of sanitizer. Wash your hands. Wear a facemask - hell, I'll wear one too, as I think that's reasonable but I'll be damned if I should lose my career, my livelihood, my house and my family to protect you! But that's what's happening, nationwide. Personally, 11 months off work last year, 3? months off so far this border closure and if McGowan continues his populist rhetoric it'll be close to 11 months again, but we're one of the lucky ones, we both had good incomes, and the KRviatrix still has hers. I'm rapidly reaching my tolerance level for these ongoing shenanigans and I dare say I'm not alone, it'll only take a few angrier people to start geeing up others who are in a similar boat to really cause unrest. After all, when you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose!