MattP

Yeah avionics are nice but expensive. I had a mate that spent big on the panel for his rv10 although he never complained about regretting it, even though I think he might have sold a kidney 😉 as long as you use it, more power to you! It always makes me laugh when non aviation friends wonder how garmin make money when everyone has a gps in their phone now and Apple do smart watches. The look on their faces when I show them how much even experimental avionics cost let alone certified is priceless.

The thing is, what else can you get that's new for that price. All the equivalent kits are about 220-250k USD. Sportsman is about 300k USD optioned up and using TWTT, the sling TSI is better priced but still about the 200k+ mark here, so that would be in the ball park. Then filling the tanks is about another 50k. 😶🤑

It may do but 140 vs 82kg would need to move fairly far forward and be re-cowled / propped for a loss of 70 odd horsepower at sea level.

Looks like it will be most directly comparable to the sportsman 2+2 (they both have the IO390 as an engine option and look to fill a similar mission). Van's has been tight lipped on seating etc, and the last video released from Aviation consumer had them re-iterating this is a design prototype so it will change, namely flap settings / tail config etc. They mentioned the baggage area goes well back into the tail requiring the stabilator, which like the Sportsman could open up +2 seating? The sling HW may also fit into this niche, but its not designed as a STOL aircraft and has a lot less power (yes I know its turbo but they're not a magic). Its also marketed as a 4 seater. The sling (TSi - I think the HW is slightly slower) and sportsman both cruise about the same ~140ish and have BRS as an option. Both are also really advanced kits designed to be built quickly, so vans may have their work cut out here. I did notice pulled rivets in use a lot, so this may be a move toward bridging the gap construction wise. I have no doubt this will sell like crazy, as its Vans and a known quantity. Glasair have had their ownership issues in the past, and Sling may be a bit risky for some (thinking the US market here where they're less inclined to go with non-US things). Interestingly, both have innovated in construction to attract non-builders who want to fly faster.

Gnx375 / G3x should fit the bill assuming you have another nav source say vor nav comm, or second tso gps source. I can’t remember the reg exactly but those lists aren’t stacked, ie read for the or part. I’d also double check with the saaa as someone should be able to help. All this assumes you’re vh registering too. Also consider in au were about 15 years behind so don’t have LPV approaches, the most precise you’ll get for a gps approach (lowest minimums) is LNAV/VNAV (baro vnav). From memory the gtn 7x and maybe 6x are the only navs that can do that paired with the right panel. Read the Garmin fine print. TLDR is that WaaS GPS aren’t really giving you anything in au right now, although the sbas rollout is happening any time “read before 2100ad” 😉 As to conversion just mail casa, the faa site was clear on conversion of foreign ifr ratings, just pass the exam, but it looks like casa want that and the flight test, meaning doing the IREX and flight review. As for review / recency, the PIFR rating here allows for private ifr ops with a 2 year review and no ipc. That being said, you still need to keep your currency, the onus just goes to you as an individual. It’s designed exactly for that reason, allowing ppl to do pvt ops under ifr without the heavy requirements built into the ifr rating (old cir). Again once you have your faa ifr ticket, ask casa about converting to pifr here if you’re not commercial and it may be an easier way to fly ifr here privately. As you’re already familiar with the flying part, it’s just getting used to the differences and reg requirements which you’ll need to do anyhow. Best to talk with a school who can advise or who specialise in pifr training. I spent a lot of time searching when I did mine for the right place to not just do their full ifr commercial syllabus and only get the pifr. Shop around, and look for a place who will work with you to your situation not who will just ask you to re do the whole thing again. I agree you’ll need to fly regularly, which as I’ve mentioned on here before was a good forcing function for me to be current, as you’re building your own plane that should be a non issue. You can just file ifr regularly, use it or lose it. I find it’s usually much easier than vfr going anywhere as you’re in the system, e.g. rather than praying to get cleared through Melbourne class c from the east going west or north, just file overhead as per the aip and go. You may get vectored for traffic but you’ll not get a stay octa from them.

The combination of sim and pre and post flight briefings can’t be under estimated in your ifr training. Especially for holds and approaches as you can digest some theory, load up the sim, practice the work, have the instructor pause it then brief in the sim and continue as you go, helped me no end in the early stages compared to burning money and fuel in the air trying to get it right. Note I had access to a motion sim for the aircraft I was flying as part of this so immersion was much better than a basic fixed base generic sim but either way they both serve the same purpose. the other advantage of using a sim is home sims like xplane are good enough to practice the theory at home and re enforce the concept. Once you have that stuff click, the real thing becomes much easier. You just have to put up with the small differences in the way they implement some of the gps functionality and work around that, but for manual hold practice it’s not too bad. I also use the home sim to keep my brain in it when I can’t fly as often as I like, and before flights to just ensure I’m mentally there. One thing on the ifr flying aspect is currency is king, it doesn’t matter how many hours you have, if you’re not current and ready to go. I use this as a forcing function to keep as current as possible and fly regularly, or as regularly as time and money permit! Good luck with the training, and don’t forget to enjoy it too.

Dpearting into c Flight planned route is generally what you'd get, with first way point as per previous. If there's a change, you'll get the amendment, e.g. Xyz amended clearance moorabin, Monty, Arbey, flight planned route 5000 to get you out of the way of big stuff. For departure into class g you just make a departure call airborne, first waypoint, altitude, what your climbing to and eta to the next fix. In the usa its e almost everywhere so clearance required ifr. I have noticed on some of the us yt videos they have airways in the read back. I normally plan with the air way but never get it in clearance.

That’s interesting, and funny that my spidey senses were tingling too, but I couldn’t put my finger on it, something just not right there. He’s stuck at the same point you are, logs / docs or lack thereof. Given the age, unknown history, prehistoricish panel, low ttr engine (with no real data to understand how long you might realistically run on condition) and even with the current market craziness, this one might just be one to carve a wide berth around. If all sellers offered the level of detail / transparency you did with your rv things would be a lot easier.

@KRviator just curious if you ended up hearing any more on the debonair? A friend was looking and mentioned it, along with the fact he’s tried with the broker to get basic details and hasn’t received response. It rang a bell and I did a search on here, and voila! Given it’s been up for about a year or so you’d think they’d be keen to move it?

I agree - although not from any logical standpoint, the market for used aircraft is like houses at the moment, logic and the actual cost to own them aren't taken into account by most people buying it would seem. Someone will buy it and spend the coin, and well good luck to them. Used SR22's aren't 250-280k any more, there isn't much out there below 350k. SR20's are in the low to mid 300's. From memory the chute repack is also different G1 to G2, and there may be some differences should you want to upgrade the 6 pack / sandel to glass - ie you can't just drop in an avidyne from memory and the SR22 isn't on the G3x STC list, I think you'd need to go g500txi or Aspen. once you'd gotten it flying again. On the bright side you can repaint it in one of the Cirrus copyright colour schemes with permission, so it will look pretty 😉

Speed Comfort Modern design and interior that comforts passengers and has a safety design from this century Chute - love or hate it ticks spousal boxes and that can often justify the cost of entry A/C A/C Did i mention air conditioning? 😉 Oh and maintenance, if you have to ask to can't afford it. You're making a comparison that isn't in line with the target buyer for cirrus. Rv10 is an awesome machine for those inclined that way either building or buying into the experimental community but cirrus is a lifestyle purchase or tool for business primarily, and aimed at a similar market to bonanzas 50 years ago.

I'd arguethat's what it's there for, managing workload. Using it to reduce workload is good management. In this scenario, I'd back an autopilot over a surprised and un trained pilot. By this point our intrepid aviator needs any help they can get to be able to get out safely. If it's a newer raa plane with g3x and autopilot it's a fantastic digital autopilot and the reason they have that blue button on the first place.

Agree with the idea that cloud shouldn’t sneak up on you if you’re following the rules. Re: lowest safe I’d just use the grid lsalt rather than calculate it in a pinch but again not an issue for the context of this example in a plane with numbers on the side and using an raa pilot certificate. What’s consistent with nearly all of the accident reports you read on this is the decision to press on despite deteriorating conditions and signs. The reasons vary but it’s primarily a decision making issue, the idea to avoid it is to train the human factors and decision making to not end up there. The good old superior judgement vs skill idiom. As I mentioned beforehand this also gets highly experienced pilots so it’s not a case of superior skill, it’s recognising the factors / conditions accumulating and breaking the chain by turning around / diverting before you’re in the soup.

There are some that use an external gyro / accelerometer but the internal ones aren’t great and you wouldn’t rely on them. Try using one and doing a coordinated turn. The stratux accelerometers do ok but have dedicated hardware, I also wouldn’t bet my life on it. I wouldn’t imagine you would have time or want to take your eyes off the instruments to get it out.

I thought the in command bit was pretty clearly defined both in training and in the regs. Personally it was re enforced by my instructors many times regardless of being at ctaf, tower etc. Also afaik there are no raa regs per say, casa let them administer their patch as a raao under the casr's. Either way not sure that anyone's passengers take flight with us under the belief we're only 35% responsible for their lives.

Yep gentle is the key, but without some reference the odds aren't great. Trying to do division at the same time you're trying to get out of inadvertent imc probably would not be the best either. At the end of the day should you put yourself in that situation, gentle turn to a roughly reciprocal heading and maintaining altitude / airspeed is what you're trying to do. It doesn't need to be exact in either the heading you end up on or the rate. Just don't rip it into a steep turn or think it might be a good time to try out your ifr skills for a while.

The reason for the u-turn is because the weather behind you is a known quantity and will be better than that in front of you. Proceeding into IMC further will likely put you in further deteriorating conditions and without the situational awareness or equipment to deal with it. Clouds can have various unpleasant things such as rock, electricity, ice, hail, fast moving aluminum in them. Remember the difference between you and an aircraft / pilot which are IFR rated going into the same cloud (other than the regs) is that the latter has the deck stacked in their favour (cloud bases, LSAT, ATC contact and weather updates, precision navigation, icing levels, a way to get down safely, backup systems), you have none or little of that in an RA aircraft. The situation is also not likely to be you encountering a solid wall of cloud or simply a fluffy cumulus in an otherwise blue sky, its likely going to be either a sucker hole you got yourself into (kgwilson's example) or a gradual loss of VMC conditions into deteriorating weather. The idea you should never have gotten there in the first place holds true, and is the reason why they teach that type of decision making. As private / rec pilots we can always just can it and stay at home, we never HAVE to make a flight. I guess the teach or not will have the same debate levels as the spin training debate. IFR isn't hard, anyone can do it with the right training, and its a perishable skill, hence the recency requirements. In real IMC adding in the bumps / sensations it takes some getting used to. It can add a dimension of safety to your flying as well not having to go under the crud and in the bumps. It isn't a ticket to ignore the weather, actually the opposite and can make the go/no-go decision harder to make. I would not fancy needing to all of a sudden have to rely on Chuck Yeager level skills on a partial panel (which is what you'll be on if you don't have the right instruments) to save your life. The 180 described here is an emergency maneuver, but doesn't need to be executed at 60 degrees of bank and 2G. I guess they don't train it to ensure pilots of Rec aircraft don't push it at all. There is also the variable of how your aircraft behaves in various axis stability wise and how that translates to hands off control. Not a great time to work out the great roll response you love the feel of will mean a roll off into a spiral if left in IMC. Autopilot would be a good idea if you have it, just level the wings, or press the level button if its a relatively new one, and then hdg mode and spin that bug around. George will fly it better than you will anyhow. Damn robots don't panic. If you do want to experience it for yourself, the great thing is you can, just find an instructor in the GA world and get some IMC time. Remember VFR-IMC this also has gotten experienced instrument pilots, so its not something to muck around with.

There's a difference here in blame vs responsibility and intent. Nobody is suggesting old mate got up and thought about how he could find another un original way to bend an airframe but he did accept the rather big responsibility of being pic and as a result made some choices in that capacity that contributed to the outcome quite significantly. Given the update posted before about Efato, this suggests not handling that situation or the takeoff appropriately for whatever reason. The question then becomes why and what can we all learn from this to ensure it doesn't happen to us?

Yep, it's judgement, sometimes you can't have it perfect so you choose the least bad option. Slope, terrain, runway length. This was all covered at ppl with da consideration, w&b in theory and then practically. Is this still taught or part of a syllabus?

If you look at the eyewitness account we're not talking 15 or 20 kt gust or crosswind a 5kt quartering tailwind will have 2.5 kt of tail and 2.5kt of cross component. If he ran out of authority in essentially nil wind conditions, something is amiss in the system either the aircraft or fleshy bit between the seat and controls or both. I do notice a lot of (or what seems like a lot) runway loc incidents in the raa mag, this looks by the account to be that with the decision to try and fly out of trouble instead of stop. I wonder if there was a pre take-off brief done? Either way glad it ended as well as it could have.

Yep those. To kgwilsons point your relying on the input to be right and should always plan what works for the situation, and be prepared. Just hitting the button and going isn't a good habit to get into. Case in point was recently when taking a friend who can be a bit nervous for a trip. Warm day with a slight northerly in the morning on the ground and low and westerly higher up above 7000. I knew it was going to be rough low as we went so took a 20kt headwind at 8k to make sure he was comfortable. Only added 20 min to our fight time but much better spent and more comfortable. Trip home later that day was fun looking at the gs 😀

If you get the winds in the flight plan page it pops in it’s guess of most optimum cruise level hemispherically based on those for your plan. Usually works well if the winds are right. Always best to check it though like anything you plug in electronically. Garbage in and garbage out.

This video shows a good view of stall and the start of autorotation close to the ground and what happens.

Its come a long way on Android but still not fully featured. I carry a Samsung tab A7 as a backup but use an iPad pro 10.5. Everything else in my life is Android but the decision for an apple tablet was driven by the fact the Android tablet ecosystem seems to never get itself sorted, the apps are always kinda nearly there, so I just went with what worked. Also the apple pencil 2 was game changing and finally let me go fully paperless in the cockpit. Best pencil for a tablet I've used hands down, and I've tried a ton in the past. You might want to consider holding onto the Samsung and getting another (maybe apple) tablet to ensure you have the requisite backup should you decide to go paperless. I know you can use your phone but that sucks to read.

Ah ASIC cards. You could always grab a bunch of $50 notes and burn them for a similar effect. I just treat it as another in a line of not cheap things required to aviate and get on with it. My last renewal was fairly painless and all online, with only the ID checks at pick up required, so overall without arguing the actual need for one / utility of the whole ASIC system, it wasn't too much of a drama. I did get caught out years ago without one landing at an RPT serviced field for an unscheduled diversion due to bladder endurance problems, by the time I finally offered to either wet the security guys pants or for him to let me use the facilities, I figured any expense was worth not having to hold on / argue the point in future 😉 I do draw the line at hi-viz vests though!