KRviator

I'd have preferred the ATSB to....suggest....that Vans do something about the longeron issue in sudden stops rather than fix what is essentially a piloting issue for the -A models. There's been more than a few incidents of fatal injuries from relatively minor prangs caused by the longeron spreading aft of the seats, bringing the shoulder harness attach points forward, in turn slackening the shoulder harness. The pilots torso the pivots around the lap belt, the head hits the panel and theres your fatal injuries. On my phone tonight or I'd link to some of the reports, but the -6A at Somerby and the -3 in Toowoomba both come to mind.

Does it have to be Rotax specific? Could you grab an oil cooler from Vans?

I think I would personally avoid PlaneSales on principle now. They banned me from viewing their Feacesbook page after I commented on that Bellata Cirrus needing a significant amount of work a few months ago!

Yep, there shouldn't be any duty payable on aircraft parts if they're clearly labelled as such. GST on price + shipping, yes, but not duty. Sure it wasn't GST you paid?

I won't post Pete's contact details publicly to avoid them being crawled and harvested by a bot, but they're listed in the Somersby (YSMB) ERSA entry. He's a good bloke, flies a Maule.

If you're on the northern side (doesn't sound like if it you've asked at Wedderburn though!), you could give Peter a call at Somersby. It may be Short, one way and EFATO is likely to be painful to fatal, but may be an option. I loved my time there with the RV, very convenient for me and a good bunch of folks.

Came across this on PlaneSales tonight, a 2023 "TL Ultralight Sparker". Looks somewhat like a Sling, but what made me snort my cuppa over the keyboard was the price! $294,500 EUR - which works out to $483,000 AUD - and that's before delivery and GST, so you could say that is well north of $525,000 AUD....For a two-seat ultralight! I mean, C'mon, who's going to drop Cirrus (or an extremely nicely equipped RV-10) money on what is at the end of the day, an ultralight!?? You can easily put a -10 in the air for $300 to $400 for a beautifully equipped one, and the balance would buy a lot of Avgas. Or 98RON if you wanted to go that route. Is anyone actually buying these new-fangled things?

Looks like it sold normally with an agent listing it on Realestate.com. 15 Wirraway Ct, $285K. And for those Scone blocks adjoining the airport, found out one's already sold, the other's listed for $347K. The other two adjoining residential properties recently sold for $800K (3x2, no shed) and $1.15M (5x3, + hangar-sized workshed) just two days apart last month!

The only way I've found is to have either FlightRadar or FlightAware receivers - or your own DIY ADS-B solution - at home. Their server will often block the public display of MIL TFC on their respective websites, but you can often see them when you log into the receiver directly. Of course, they (Ronny) also have a habit of running with their IFF off which makes sense in their training environment, so this is not a guarantee.

In their defence though, it's hard not to stall it when you shut down the wrong engine! Then there's the Dash at Buffalo, AF447 of course and a host more besides.. Hell, even GT's "Worlds safest airline", Qaintarse, came within a bees dick of stalling a perfectly good 747 in CAVU conditions entering the hold because they overwrote FMC speed and didn't monitor the PFD and injured a half-dozen pax and crew.

Doesn't seem to be easily available in Australia - typing it into Google only brings back Insurance policies, the Assurance providers are in the US or UK. I've certainly never heard of it before down here...

From my post over on 'Prune - a quick and dirty map of BP-only airfields around the country. Subject to corrections of course, and data pulled from the ERSA, and not confirmed or validated in any way...

I looked at it several years ago with a couple of insurers and both rejected it when I said I flew privately. Same thing, anything smaller than RPT and you're not covered. One of them (BT ? The default one from St George, anyway) had a clause to the effect of "I do not partake in any activities in the list of prohibited activities" and when I rang them up asking "Well, where's this list, it's not in your PDS" they replied "Oh, no, it's not. It's commercial in confidence, you tell us what activities you do, and WE will tell YOU if it is on the list" - they had no comeback when I said "Well, how can I avoid doing anything spontaneous or off-the-cuff if I don't know I won't be covered if you won't provide 'the list'". Arsehats. Short answer is, if you fly recreationally, you've got little to no chance of finding life or income protection insurance at any reasonable rate.

True, but that won't work at Broken Hill or Moree, where it's an AirBP bowser (for example), and there's no other alternative. That's why the SkyFuel gig was so good, they held the accounts with BP / Viva (Shell) etc etc, and the suppliers charged them, and in turn they billed us (me). They were big enough for AirBP to bother with, but me in my RV who is lucky to use 1000L of BP AvGas a year isn't worth them even picking up the phone it seems. So even if you stick with SkyFuel and have the Viva & WFS cards, you're still going to be SOL if you need to go somewhere like East coast -> Adelaide via BHI after hours. Not at all. But I'm just disappointed as it is another nail in the coffin of GA. I get that Viva = Shell and Shell & BP are mortal enemies, but this seems like a case of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Sure, if there's a choice of bowser, Viva/SkyFuel would prefer you to use theirs, but where it's BP-only, well, what happens then? The flier doesn't use that airport, or doesn't fly that route at all because they can't get fuel. And that does no one any good in the long run.

It's probably not a huuuge issue for most RecFlyer's who can refuel themselves, but I reckon there's enough out there for this to be a royal PITA, as BP are the only fuel supplier on the airfield... Many years back I signed up with SkyFuel for their suite of fuel cards, so I could get motion-lotion wherever I needed it, no matter what bowser was installed on the airport. I've not long got an email basically saying Viva Energy has brought out SkyFuel, and WEF 01 July, all AirBP cards will be cancelled. If you want one, you'll need to go through AirBP directly". Which was kinda the problem - AirBP won't, or at least, doesn't want to deal with us plebs directly, hence the SkyFuel arrangement, which I always thought was the ducks nuts for private fliers. Still, thanks to the staff at SkyFuel for their support and letting me get fuel pretty much anywhere I needed it over the years, it's just a shame your new owners don't want to deal with AirBP - or at leaast, have AirBP deal with us directly to benefit GA. But I guess we should be used to that in Oz, right? Anyone have an alternative to the AirBP cards for their bowsers that won't accept credit cards and AirBP won't allow you to open an account?

UUhhh, what are you on about? I quoted OME not you? The only things you have posted earlier in this thread relate to the AustRoads Commercial Standards, which don't apply as Sleep Apnoea is a disqualifying condition for the AustRoads Unconditional Commercial medical standards, which is required for the Basic Class 2. it matters not one whit whether you could obtain a Conditional licence medical, as the Basic C2 requires your health to meet the unconditional standards. What is important though, is the qualifications contained within the AustRoads standards, for Sleep Apnoea "if the person has an established sleep apnoea syndrome (sleep apnoea on a diagnostic sleep study and moderate to severe excessive daytime sleepiness". OME has a diagnosis of Sleep Apnoea (presumably), but if there's no evidence of daytime sleepiness, then the threshold is not met and OME would meet the AustRoads standards unconditionally...

OME the DAME won't be managing your condition, he'll simply want to see reports from those that are managing your condition to determine it's risk "to the safety of air navigation". So before you go to 'im (the DAME2) get the (or go and get a) report from your breathing quack to say "Yes, OME does have sleep apnoa, it's been and continues to be, successfully managed by the CPAP machine, for which I have read the automated reports of him using it appropriately and as such, as a breathing quack, I deem him safe". Will save you playing Doctor Ping between the DAME & specialist pong getting reports etc etc.

Should buy the right car then! 😛 I had an old (1993) Patrol with the 4.2 diesel. Brought it from the father in law of a mate with about 250,000 on it. Did nothing to it mechanically except change the oils & filters, replaced the alternator and the seal on the fuel pump. Mostly highway driving initially, then medium (30km or so) distances around town. Drove it for about 50,000km with no speedo after the correction box failed. Fixed that, then sold it to a mate with 550,000km indicated on it (worst thing I ever did), and he's still driving it around 5 years later. If you assume an average speed of 40km/h, that car has over 16,000hours run time, and probably closer to 18-20 if you factor idle time as well with nothing done to the engine except consumables. No rings. No pistons, no gaskets, no new head. Though in saying that, it did need me to pull over twice. Once was the throttle cable came out of the bracket after I'd forgetting to tighten the jam nut. Did it up finger tight, forgot to tighten it once I got back home and never had it happen again. And the plug fur the fuel solenoid must've wiggled lose, the engine just stopped dead. Coasted to the emergency bay, had a look, unplugged and reconnected it and she fired straight up and never had the same problem. It was slow as all get-out, but you would get there. Wherever you were going.

I think we need to distinguish between electronic fuel injection which is just controlling fuel vs EFII that does fuel and spark dynamically, based on a pre-set table. OR, as an option, will attempt to maintain stochiometric based on closed-loop EGT. And, IMHO, aircraft don't necessarily need EFII, but most would certainly benefit from EFII, in part due to the ability to run LOP, for greater efficiency through better fuel atomisation and the ability to trim fuel to specific cylinders on the fly and get your GAMI spread to the lowest possible value. EFII, in an aviation context, is now mature enough technology that the bugs have been worked out, by a couple of manufacturers and it's racking up thousands of hours in Experimentals around the world. If you added a PP-FS14B or a B&C 410 backup alternator on the vacuum pad, both will put out nearly 30amps at cruise RPM, which is sufficient to power your EFII system and allow the battery to run your electrics, which, if you have EFIS & LED's like most of us these days, draw bugger-all power (3.5A for Skyview for example) so your battery would most likely outlast both your remaining fuel and your bladder. IF you have the setup properly, your primary will put out 14.8V and carry the load throughout the flight, but if i fails, your backup will pickup instantly at 13.8V and your only indication would be the difference on the voltmeter.

If it's the one I found, they jumped both engines, but didn't allow enough time to charge the battery following engine start. As the gear is electric, when the pilot selected gear up, the current draw of the gear motor caused the buss voltage to drop below that required to power the ECU's, which killed the engines, and when the engines failed, the props auto-feathered, so the alternators went with them. The ECU's may well have recovered, but there wouldn't have been time to attempt a restart, assuming the draw of the starter motor didn't cause the same issue. Had the checklist been followed, it wouldn't have happened, as the battery would have been at a sufficient level to withstand the transient load imposed by the gear motor. If I were building my RV now, I would install EFI in a heartbeat. With a small backup alternator on the vacuum pad though. Yes, the ECU may fail, but so might the throttle cable, or an oil hose, or the prop governor. Single-point failures are a dime a dozen in our aircraft, so to focus exclusively on EFI/ECU as something that may cause an accident doesn't do them the justice they now deserve in terms of engine management, (consistent) fuel delivery, leaning and economy.

To answer the OP's question - I used 0 Gauge cable from Jaycar and crimped terminals on the RV for both starter current and engine ground and used a double layer of heat shrink over the ends, one about 6" long, the other 3" on top. Suitably supported with Adel clamps, I've not had any issues in 5 years and nearly 200 hours.

True, it can be a double-edged sword, but, from memory, it was written into the Temora DCP for their airpark development that "Hey, dickhead, you brought a block of land on an airport. There will be noise. There will be smells. There will be airplanes flying. You brought on an airport. So you can't complain about the noise!" Or [politically correct] words to that effect. To my mind, it'd be a win,win. Council gets their $$, and they get 30-40 idiotic families like mine who want to live on an airport and are happy to tolerate the noise of a Spitfire flying aeros overhead.

So, as I have flown in there a few times, I got an invite to attend an info session about goings-on and discuss the future direction for the airport, landing fees et al. With their Hunter Warbirds, the airport is losing a collective $900K a year ($400K warbirds / $500 airport) and Council is displeased. One of the things thrown out there to investigate was selling off (via subdivision) a 6Ha block of land Council owns on the NW corner of the airport, adjoining the road. It was mentioned the recent releases of Temora & Narromine went like hotcakes, and Council should look at this option a bit more, as not only would it solve the immediate $$ problem, but also provide around 30-40 new residential blocks with rateable income too. So...My question to the masses is, "Would you be interested in buying a residential [airpark] block on Scone Airport?" along the lines of Temora ( about 1,250m2, freehold, zoned Residential, taxiway access, etc etc.). NFI on pricing, but would speculate it'd be around the $125-150K mark, which compares favourably with blocks in town. This is not to say Council would ever go ahead with it, but to provide a potentially viable option and at the same time, benefit fliers and bring in more families to the region to boot, if it can be shown there's sufficient interest in such a proposal, Council may well decide to do it. There's no timeframe proposed, and this pol is not sanctioned or endorsed by their Council, but just something I'm putting out there to gauge any interest to send to 'em and say "Hey look, you do have quite a few people who would look at such a move, if you were to go ahead with it."

Okay, going back maaaany years to my DG Course with the Defence Force, there's no state-based standards, the "official" book is known as "Australian Code for the Transport of Dangerous Goods by Road & Rail". And it applies nationwide. Even in the Democratic People's Republic of McGowanstan. And this bible says you can carry a total of upto 1000L or KG of [most]dangerous goods before it was considered a "Placard Load" - which is when you need UN marking, training, PPE and all that jazz. "Dangerous Goods in Bulk" is another matter, and meant goods in a single container whose size was greater than 1000L, from memory and DG in bulk = automatic placard load. DG not in bulk, such as your 44's, jerry can's or your 9Kg BBQ bottles comes down to the aggregate quantity of DG on board your vehicle. So, the short answer is you can carry upto 4 x 44's of gasoline-based fuel on a vehicle before you need to worry about officialdom . Of course, filling those 44's at a lot of servo's is getting harder and harder...

Just be aware that you need a C2 not just RAMC or C2 Basic to go above 10,000 too. It's not just the airframe & oxygen.