bushpilot

Whoops!: One of our students bought ipad and ozrunways and discovered today that his new ipad doesnt have a gps! He didnt want a sim - but should have specified gps. I know there are external gps available - but has anyone had experience with different brands? And does the external work as well as inbuilt?

 

 

Anyone know if there are any YouTubes on using OR? We have several students & pilots who have subscribed to the app recently and are looking for some starter guidance.. time that we dont always have to give them.

 

 

Been in.. I'll be bacccckk..

 

 

Hi Wynand,

 

Like the graphics there; it's a nice looking 430. I'm interested in the sliding section in your side window. Was it installed by the SA Jab people, or did you have it done? If the latter, do you know the brand? Would be very handy for photography work.

 

 

You are on the money facthunter.. In fact I had earlier made enquiry about this incident.. as I have done the factory engine course (for L2) and was naturally interested.

 

It seems that this motor had a top-end done 19 hours before the failure - not by the factory. Some of the circlips were apparently distorted in the process of inserting them; this can occur if they are over squeezed on fitting. Jabiru are going to put out a maintainers advisory covering this.

 

 

Great summary, JG.. Something our club is talking about doing..

 

 

Well reviewing the photos again you may be correct, and he may also have tangled with a nastly looking fence. However there have been more than a few incidents where nose legs have failed on landing, also putting the aircraft on it's back. One a few months back at Ayr on a smooth grass strip..It is certainly not a rare occurance on Jabs............................................Maj...

I did over 200 paddock landings in my first Jab (J160) and never had an issue with the u/c. It is now owned by another person and has done about 1200 hours, with only routine maintenance on the airframe and engine (top end at 1,000 hours).

 

 

Hi bushieI read the other day where there are now more Jabirus in South Africa than C172's. They are making the airframe there under licence and fitting Australian built engines to them.

 

Kaz

And they are now offering a fuel injection option.. More power / less fuel / no carby heat needed.

 

 

And there are Jabs out there on the export market, including engines in a number of Savannahs in Denmark.Given the hours being put into Jabs in training facilities it is not surprising that we hear more about Jabiru incidents. More landings, more take-offs, more hours all add up.

 

It is a pity the RAA stats are unable to allow anything other than back of a (small) bus ticket analysis.

 

EDIT + The important metric is incidents per hour per landing. If the bird is sitting in the hanger idle, nothing will happen to it til the hangar falls on it because of age.

 

Steve, thanks for your little exercise.

 

Col

Spot on, Col. Between us and our sister school at Orange, we have 7 Jabs in service with TT around 5,500 hours and over 14,000 landings.. You dont get anything approaching those figures with 'weekend warrior' aircraft..

 

 

I wouldn't think any more problems than any other man made thing that has for the most part air between it's wheels and mother Earth!Rick-p

I agree.. And the sheer number of them in service meens that some of the incidents have to fall their way..

 

 

Thanks very much HH.. I'm on to them right now...

 

 

No, nothing to do with the NSW floods, but wondering if anyone knows where we can hire a self-inflating life-raft for 2 weeks.. Need it by mid next week.. for a crossing to Flinders Is.

 

 

Or any Repco or Auto 1. Haggle and u can get them down to $14. They are good for 500+ hours - so end up cheaper than normal NGKs at every 100 hours..

 

 

After spending some time in the real China (ie I didnt see another white person the entire time I was there) at Xmas time, I think private flying in China would all have be IFR, because you generally cant see much more than 500-1000m due to the pollution. Oh wait, im sorry, the Official Line is it's "Fog" low lying clouds. There Is No Pollution Problem In China.

I agree! I am in China a few times each year, for (non-flying) business - and am yet to experience a proper 'clear' day.. at least in Shanghai and Beijing. However, private flying is really taking off over there (pun intended).. One school has built their own airport with 1500m concrete runway and a mega administration and hanger complex, with control tower. Their first batch of training a/c are Jabiru 160s (21 of them!) - they took delivery late last year. Apparently if you go far enough West you run out of the pea-soup..

 

 

It distresses me immensely to see a pilot such as Rob discussed in such a way, it really is so disrespectful to a man who was clearly a passionate aviator, supporter/mentor to those who wished to embark on an aerobatics endeavor. Paul Bennet's comments have either been taken out of context by the media, or he clearly has no idea of the training that Rob had embarked on over the last 2 years. I sincerely hope that the ATSB findings will bring peace and closure to the family and friends of Rob Morgan.RIP Rob

I agree 100% with you here... Comments like that, irrespective of history between them, is abhorrent..

 

 

Seems that this configuration of a/c have a fair number of incidents... I wonder if the rate (per hours flown) is higher than for landlubber a/c..

 

 

Hope the mods dont think this is 'advertising' but given we are outside your territory it should be OK.... We have 4 Jabs (160, 170 and 2 230s) and hire them wet and insured for weekends or longer periods - with some advance notice, so they are not booked out for training. Minimum charge is 3 hours per day. No cancellation fee if weather no good. Details on our website..

 

 

I'm with the Dunkleys here> Go look at the Rotax forums and see the failures that they report.. Same with Lycs. and Contis.

 

We have 2 3300 motors and 2 2200s. They have done around 1170, 780, 690 and 340 hours - and have never had more than the required maintenance done on them. We did have a crankshaft gear failure on one 3300, but this was a very rare component failure. But, as others have said, they must be serviced / maintained in accordance with Jabiru manuals..

 

 

To be honest I preferred the tighter focus on recreational aviation... Why? Well, several years ago I stumbled on this site whilst searching for anything to do with our category of aviation.. I looked at, but didnt engage with, the general and commerical aviation sites because I was a member of a specific interest group and wanted to exchange with like people - and to feel part of that community - a subset of aviation. And, since then, this site and service has more than met my expectations and my needs. However, I think it's likely that others new to rec. flying might not see this site for what it is (or was, at least) when they do a general search and find a portal and forum with such a generic name as "aircraft pilots".

 

With that title and the sub - 'the home of pilots, aircraft and aviation' - the focus will change and over time it is going to take a lot more weeding to get to the stuff that I am interested in. That label, after all, covers a miriad of layers of the industry, including RAAus & HGFA (3 axis, 2 axis, gyros), Gliding, GA (3 axis, helicopter), Commercial passenger, freight, courier, agricultural, etc.. (3 axis, helicopter) and the Forces - RAAF, Army, Navy airwings.. and all the equivalents outside of Australia. I think in time the site will be barely recognisable for what it was.. and that will be a loss..

 

 

A 'prune' is a plum from last season that didnt make the cut.. So sure, some of the traditional aviation establishment will fight to preserve some dignity as they wither on the tree... and some will refuse to accept the fact that Rec Aviation is taking some of the mystic and exclusivity out of flying and opening the skies to all.

 

(Disclosure declaration: Our school is launching GA operations - but this does not mean a move back to the 'grey side'; it's to allow our students to have access to career or sport progression to other levels of certification)

 

 

BTW: One other thing - on handling the media.. Whilst we were waiting for our retrieval crew to turn up, a TV news outfit came along and proceeded to off-load gear into the paddock and set up to film the scene. I thought - will I allow them to interview me or not? And decided to do so - to help get the story told my way, not have them make stuff up.

 

So I did the interview and basically said that it was an event that we all train for and, in my case, I have a paddock strip at my home and this was no different to the many landings I have done on it.. They then shot some more angles of the a/c and packed up and headed off..

 

And, you guessed it, the story was such a non-event when the station editor would have looked at it, that it never ran on our local (regional) TV station at all. So I figure tell the story straight and avoid the inventiveness of an inquistive journo who might otherwise just create a story to go with the footage..

 

 

Thanks for all the positive comments. The surmising on the affect of no power and prop speeds is interesting. Even though my motor was as dead as a door nail due to no spark at all, the prop continued to windmill all the way down. I have to say that I noticed no real difference to descents and landing at idle.

 

And, yes, it was a bloody big paddock, ozzie.. That why I chose it.. Figuring that the stoppage might be something minor and fixable (without an engine removal) - and I wanted room to fly out again..

 

 

Why wouldn't you charge a student for a "real" experience other than a simulated one? He would have got his moneys worth. Nev

Good point you make... The student actually phoned me the same evening to say that it was the best experience he could have had.. and that it actually took away any fear he had had about the fan stopping on a single engined a/c. But I still figured best to give him a credit on that one!

 

 

I held off from making this post until I had some more information on the cause of my engine failure, so as to be able to give an accurate report, to benefit others. But this incident actually happened on 18 October.

 

In short I was flying in one of our J230s with a student when the engine stopped abruptly in the training area - about 10NM from Bathurst aerodrome. The student offered the controls to me to deal with the situation.

 

The link below is a truncated version of my Mayday call.. and some photos – both courtesy of Dave Carroll and his scanning website - and a report by a web journalist – but I don’t know him. The reporter over-stated the ‘cool’ thing a bit; there was still a certain sphincter-factor happening... but I did get my calls out and brief the passenger on each step of the process - which you would expect of an instructor.

 

Time from first call to the actual landing was almost 4 minutes – so a nice long glide from 3,000 AGL to choose a good clear paddock, close to a bitumen road (for retrieval access) and to get set up. “Rescue 22” is a chopper that was operating in the area. They came and landed next to us in the paddock to see if we were OK..

 

The retrieval of the ‘plane was easy - just unbolt the wings and wack it on the trailer.. Had the new engine delivered 5 days later (weekend in between) and we were back in the air after 9 days. No charge for the new engine – covered by warranty.. Jabiru service was quick and efficient - as was their recent report and photographs of the internal damage. The problem was failure of the gear/s mechanism driving the distributor rotors off the back of the camshaft. This problem is rare indeed, with 3 occurrences to date over 4,500 engines.

 

I guess if there is one key message to pass on - it's to stay calm and think clearly. This gives you the best chance of choosing the right paddock and set up into wind and get spark and fuel isolated. And once you are down and stopped, check for any damage, leaking fuel etc., then switch the master switch back on to make a final call on CTAF letting everyone know you are OK. I did that, as I figured they would get a bit anxious if all remained silent after we had switched off the master switch on late final (After getting the flaps down!)

 

Importantly, that student came back for his lesson the following week.. and several times since. We didn't charge him for the 30 minute lesson with the abrupt ending!

 

http://www.bathurstscan.com/?page_id=25701

 

 

A lot of our members (RAAus) come from GA - so this will likely slow that migration; but the main thing is it will allow more pilots to stick with the a/c with which they are familiar..