Deskpilot

;) Thrasher, thanks for making my day with your humor. My wife got quite impatient waiting for my to finish reading your jokes. I don't know where you get them, but keep them coming. Thanks again my friend.

Cheers, Doug

G'day Adam, glad to see that you have some idea of what you want to do with your life. Too many of your age group have no idea and end up in boring jobs. I'm too far away from you to be able to help you in your quest, but I wish you all the best.

Have you considered an RAAF backed university course. Not sure how it goes but it might be a way into flying and or aero' engineering.

Regards, Doug (Obviously ex RAF)

PS Kev, the Blackburn Beverleys is in no way a dig at your supposed size :big_grin:

Hi Kev, If speed isn't an important criteria, how about a Lightwing (tail-dragger). I haven't flown one but have looked into the clubs example and the cockpit looks pretty roomy when compared to the Jabiru. Doug

G'day Nev, Go for the Jab160. I think your other half will feel safer with you in a real aeroplane Remember, one day, you'll want to take her up with you. Good luck in your quest,

Safe flying everybody, Doug

Very nice, if only I could afford it:crying:

Like all machines, they're safe as long as you stick to the rules, and the rules that kills gyro pilots is never to get into negative g. There must ALWAYS be an upward air flow through the rotors to keep them rotating. Tilt that rotor too far/fast forward and you're in trouble.

While I don't fly one, I did come into recreational aviation with a view to flying gyros but found that they did not really fulfill my quest for for long distance travel. They are really smooth to fly in, and I was astounded at their stability in strong winds. They can certainly out perform any three axis or weight shift in respect of flyable weather.

Doug

Now that's what it's all about

Bryony, one of my many grand children takes her first flight and loves it.

Hi cd, just Googled Kasperwing and found quite a few sites, all in USA. Did this plane ever have a following in Oz? It looks like the top half of the Sunny Boxwing, which is probably the better bet. There is a video somewhere in the forum which shows it off quite well ( the Boxwing )

Safe flying Doug

Hi Guys,

It's great to see this topics still going. I've stated elsewhere that my dream machine would be a scaled down Westland Wyvern so I've just done a quick check to see what percentage scale I'd use. The original has a wing span of 44 feet but more important is the cockpit width. The fuselage is about 4.8 feet but the actual canopy bubble is only 2.0 feet. Now to scale down and still get my 1'8" shoulders in without resorting to having drop-down panels aka Spitfire, I need to be around 83% scale. This would give about a 36.5 foot wing span. Hmmm, still pretty big.

Solution: Don't scale everything. Bring overall proportions to say 70% but accept an oversize canopy. This would give me a w/s of roughly 30.8ft, a track of 10.4ft and a fuselage of 3.4ft wide. This sound more realistic, but I've just thought of another problem. My garage opening is only 8' 10" wide........... There's gotta be an answer somewhere, and no, I'm not pulling the garage down.

This incident was shown on TV. Poor chap spent years building his plane only to have it smashed on it's maiden flight. I was wondering if any of you know him. He said he wouldn't be building another one, Says he hasn't got enough years left to complete it. I guess there's a motto here. Don't carry out maiden flights near anything that isn't a paddock or field.

Safe flying everyone, Doug

I'm not into weight shift but I quite like it. Just got to clean it up a bit by getting rid of the 'king post and wires'. Neat.

From time to time, we all sing the praises of a particular aircrafts ROC, i.e. Bantam. Well, you ain't seen nothing yet. Yes, it's at the other end of the scale but who wouldn't like to experience it. I hope you can all read it as reducing to a max of 150KB has taken away the clarity.

Safe flying, Doug

Hi Rod,

Ford Zodiac was the up market sister to the Zepher (Zephur?), aka Fairlane to Fairmont, or other way round. Correct me if I'm wrong Alan, but I believe there was also a combination model. I seem to remember a Zepher Zodiac. I also had a Zepher Farnham Estate (wagon). Good for carrying large load but again, no brakes.

Look forward to your report on flying your Zodiac Rod, have plenty of cameras on hand.

Doug

Alan,

All Lightning Sqdns went the RAF Anglesey for their gunnery training. I went once but our pilots didn't do very well. Missed the targets altogether but did manage to shoot down the towing drone (unmanned tug). If memory serve me correctly, the pilot concerned was grounded for a while because it was deemed he did it deliberately. Probably got bored with shooting at the target banner. Lighnings had two or four 30mm cannons and when they were fired, the plane actually hesitated with every round fired. There is a great photo somewhere that so the staggered flight of a short burst.

For anyone interested, go to http://www.thunder-and-lightnings.co.uk A very interesting site covering many UK fighters and bombers.

Cheers, Doug

Hi Alan, when I was young and reckless, I too had a Zodiac. Great machine although the brakes could have been better. One day I hit a hump-back bridge at speed and got it airborne. It didn't stay up long but that flight was so smooth, unlike the landing ;-) At least Ford have fixed the brakes now so I'm still driving one as well.

Nice to have you on board mate, you'll be in the sooner than you think.

Cheers, Doug

Our school used to teach that carby heat was only required when moisture was evident or in a long decent. This has recently been changed to always on downwind, base and until late finals when it must be turned off in case of a go round. I was not aware of this change until after the event.

As to last weeks incident, I won't speculate and neither should anybody else.

Just heard of the loss of 2 aviators on the Sunshine coast. May they find peace in their new environment. My prayers go out to their families and friends.

Doug

G'day,Maybe substitute a bottle of Bundy for the coco, there is no alcohol limit on flying planes :)

You betcha, but probably not in RAA aircraft. We are too tightly confined to allow experimentation. Why, we can't even have contra rotating props which, ignoring weight and engineering problems, make for a safer plane than a single prop with its inherent torque. When I voted for part 103, I made comments to the same effect and requested that the door be left ajar so that we could add, in small ways, to the advancement of aircraft design and manufacture. It probably fell on deaf ears but I had my say.

Cheers, Doug

See my earlier post under Aviation News, same thread running. I went down to Aldinga today but none of my club members were around. I spoke to another instructor from Adelaide Biplanes,the school that was covering the conversion training to the Jab, but he was very evasive. All I found out was that it was indeed an engine failure after take off/touch and go? The aircraft had just turned downwind when the engine failed. The instructor is 70 years old and the training pilot is unknown to me. Apparently, there's a club, or syndicate, meeting tonight.

As for Jab engine failures, I had my first experience last Saturday.

Its been a while since I last flew and seeing as the rain had finally stopped here in S.A., I booked a plane for 1400 hrs. The weather on the coast was over cast with no wind, but over the hills at Murray Bridge it was clear skies and a steady breeze straight down 20. After an unforeseen delay, I eventually got airborne at 1500 hrs. The plane I was flying had recently been completely rebuilt by Jabiru after being landed on its roof by a student. I was briefed that its tickover was a little on the fast side so to make sure that I pulled the throttle fully back when necessary.

After a surprisingly quick lift off I got into the swing of things and carried out 4 circuits. Being satisfied that I hadn't forgotten any thing, or so I thought, I departed to the north eastern corner of the training area and climbed to 3000 ft for some stalls and tight turns. At this time I noticed that there were a few clouds drifting over at about 3500 ft. Fine, I'll stay below them. After 3 stalls at varying power levels, followed by a steep right hand orbit then roll over to a left hand orbit and straight into a low power stall, the engine stalled. Hmmm, maybe I'd pulled a bit too hard on the throttle. The prop tried to wind mill but stopped after half a revolution so, having ascertained that my glide was set up correctly, I tried a powered restart. Nothing. Tried again and the engine fired up and ran smoothly again. I decided to head back to base although I had only been flying for about 30 minutes. Turning back towards the airfield had me facing the sun that was getting low in the sky. At this time I noticed that it was getting quite hazy and that there were more clouds coming in from the south. Due to other traffic, I joined in the conventional cross wind fashion. I was at 75knots when I turned for base so I pulled the throttle all the way back and reset my trim ready to apply first stage flaps. Then the engine stalled again. This time I could not get it to go again. The battery seemed to be flat. I made a call declaring a glide approach due to engine failure and turned for a curving approach to the field. My only concerns were, 1, all paddocks have been recently plowed and seeded and therefore not ideal landing zones, and 2, there are 2 barbed wire fences running across the flight path just short of the threshhold, oh, plus a slight incline up to the runway height. 'This is going to be touch and go' went through my mind but I, thankfully, judged it right and cleared the fences by about 10 feet and just managed to get it onto the runway rather than piling into the upward slope. A slightly heavier touchdown than I would have liked but all was safe and I pulled off the runway as soon as possible. The plane stopped short of clearing the markers so I had to pull it clear just as a Tobago came in at what seemed a high rate of knots.

Now, what had happened. After some discussion with the CFI, it is most probable that firstly, I had experienced carby icing. Being a clear bright day with few clouds, I didn't think carby heat would be necessary. In fact, I didn't think carby heat at all, at any time. I had no problems during my circuits so why should things change in the following 15 minutes, and I certainly didn't switch on to the increasing humidity and dropping OAT. I will own up to poor airmanship but believe me, I won't make the same mistakes again.

As for the engine not restarting, it turned out that the fuse in the charging circuit had blown and for whatever reason, there's no charging failure indicator fitted. Obviously the battery had been going flat over a couple of flights but no one had mentioned starting problems. Just my luck I guess, that it should finally have only enough grunt left to power the radio.

I still can't get over the fact that I was so calm about the whole episode. Still. it's what we all practiced during our training and hopefully are still practicing. If you're not, make a point of doing so on your next flight. I must admit, I liked the silent glide. Maybe I'll try my hand at slope soaring some time.

Cheers, and safe flying, Doug

Oh how true. I used to dread retirement, now I'm enjoying it.

Good one Case, cheers, Doug

Hi Doug, Nice story, perhaps you should consider writing comedy for a living.

Now we've all congratulated you on getting your 'nav' endorsement but I'm beginning to wonder why you bothered. After all, your chosen mode of air transport is soooooo sloooow that it'll never reach your intended destination, and your gonna need a huge bladder. Must admit though, there're plenty of gaps in your plane just in case :big_grin:

C-Ya Doug, hmmm, perhaps not, I'll pass by too fast

Hi Guys,

Quote "I wouldn't see E-LSA as a disadvantage. You do get the 600 kilos and the fact that it's experimental is no different to 95 amateur built."

Please point me in the right direction to check this out, or is this only for PPL pilots?

Cheers..........Doug

G'day Redair,

I seem to recall sending you a greeting once before, so If you're going mad, so am I. Anyway, welcome to the forum. What part of SA are you from and are you intending to take lessons?

Cheers.....Doug

Well I'm not going to be the first.

Cheers..........Doug the....OK, you win!