icebob

Thanks for the trip down memory lane Ozzie. That is how i leaned to fly a hang glider. To start with low sand hills just south of Woolongong and after two years of "getting the hang of it" graduated to Stan well Tops and took instruction from "Rabbit" and "Giggles" two local identities from the early 1970's and that was the start of a long and sometime bruising relationship, oh the follies of youth. On a number of flights i was successful in nose diving into the beach on landing. I too taught myself to fly my self constructed VP-1 with assistance from a number of extremely patient Navy pilots and yes at HMAS Albatross I was know as the ground loop king(sometimes the ground loop ace) fond memories and not one accident or injury in 18 years of flying the VP-1. Bob.

Hi, Nick may have it for you, on the photo of the head have a look in the 7 to 9 o'clock position at the seal and your "good" cylinder head at the 8 o'clock position, it looks like the start of a leakage there too. May be just shadows but both seals look suspect. Bob.

Hi Everyone, not sure if this should be in the "trips" area but just thought i would add this photo, a memorable day for me, I feel proud of the service i gave to this country. Bob.

Hi Tom, With the privicy laws if Pip rings the hospital and is not a direct relative of the boy(if parents are there they will be asked) then he will get little information at all, maybe the date of discharge if he is lucky. Bob.

Due to the confidentuality laws I am bound by I hope my last post helps, I can do little more without infringing the law, sorry.:confused: Bob.

Hi, The only way would be through the organisers of the event if his family contacted them, they were distressed at the time so may not have done that. The St.John people sometimes give the organisors information on injuries at the event maybe they do have his address. Loved the show, my neck is still sore, ha, ha. Bob.

Hi Pip, The boy from what I was told went to the St.john Ambulance guys there at the air show and did go to the hospital for checks. however due to our current medical/ first aid privacy laws I am unable to get that information also as I am a senior member of St.John i would not put pressure on the St.John people to brake confidentiality however if the family did see one of the organisers then that is the only way of getting his name and address. I know not much help, sorry. Bob.

Hi, Just got a call from Nowra, the young boy injured by the flying stones and stuff only has brused eyes and eye lids. The swollen eye lids were the reason he could not see. He is out of hospital and home. bob.

No jobs in Northern Tasmania so I joined the Navy and I wanted to do aircraft engineering/pilot and things developed from there in the Fleet Air Arm. Bob.

well how about people smoking in the shade in front of the hangers - common sense? There were heaps of military people walking by and no one said anything?????? anyway enough of the negatives, the wife and I had a ball, we caught up with people we had not seen in 40 years, some of them still the same ratbags and jokers. We got our fix of jets,jet fuel,military gossip and noise well lubricated in the Navy tradition. We got so many new addresses and phone numbers and our Christmas card list has grown like you would not believe. The only down side of the reunion is of the 107 guys(maintainers) of my old squadron only 27 survive today but all of them were there:big_grin:. Bob.

Merv, That kid was sent to hospital via ambulance soon after that. I was talking to the St.John Ambulance guy that was in charge and both eyes were blood stained and he could not see. Bob.

Hi guys, on a similar subject I overheard the allocated ground crew from the RAN, they were told to stay at the Western end of the display area and they had the towing arms and tractors to move the drover and the DC3 and the Connie if need be but were "told"/ordered to say at the other end out of sight. The drover had an engine issue and needed towing and it took 3 hours to get approval to bring the tow motor up to them????? One has to wonder who was in charge????:confused:. The Vampire was refueled within 8 meters of the general public and the was no - no smoking signs up AND the gravity refueling nozzle was not earthed - I got my wife out of there real quickly - the refueling team on the aircraft were not Navy/military but the refueling tanker was. The historical society DC3 leaked a little oil on the taxiway around 11am and it was not washed off until after the firefighters display, they spotted it and washed it down on their own initiative???. Bob.

Hell, I saw that but my wife had been into "B" hanger and picked up the S&W .38 revolver and said "oh like old times" the two gunnery guys there stepped back and I was a good boy all day, yes I know a chicken but she is a better shot than me with the 38;). She was the Gunnery Officers driver for two years so every day she got out on the range, me i was green with envy. I liked the back seat of the Lake anphib: boy couldn't you chaff the ears with your knees sitting there:ah_oh:. Seriously I walked right by you guys about five or six times, bugger! Not into being mauled by wild kids! Bob.

Sorry I missed you guys, the reunion dinner the night before went to 5.05am and i was definitely second hand, but enjoyed the airshow and the natter with current maintainers, the sound of the F18 repeated on me like a bad lunch and just had to have some of the"dog" to recover. Where did they park you guys? Although my eye sight was limited I only saw a couple of RAA craft. Bob.

Hi, Yes that is the formula I used too however my old notes say .76 sq inches per rated horsepower to the next highest HP (not actual HP). 1600cc VW motor is 52 HP, and 2100cc is 68HP by my old notes for calculating. Your calculation is for the smallest opening for cooling not the largest. I did trials at altitude to balance out ground and flight temperatures by slightly modifying the cowl and airflow guides. I found in summer i could only idle on the ground for about 20 minutes before an overheat condition started, in winter all day if i needed. flight was different i did get over cool a few times and once i fitted the oil thermostat that fixed the issue. The thermostat is basically a bypass valve that sends the not cooled oil back to the sump to mix with the cooled oil. Bob.

Hi, I have seen a few of the Aerovee fences fitted and they looked like they worked well and fairly easy to make too. Bob.

Hi, I went down that path too with little success. I went to an "overall" cowl with guides inside to redirect the air, I found the exits were too small and air was choking at the exits, not helpful. mine had the heads slightly redesigned where the fins are with an airflow ram tube about 80mm opening and directing the air onto those fins you talk about and that did not work either. I was advised to check the oil cooler tempratures as that may be the sourse of some loss of heat exchange and to a degree it was, i got another built and it dropped my overall enging tempratures about 9 degrees but not enough for me to be happy with. In the end i purchased from Great Lakes in the USA a set of 4 heads for my 2100cc motor the fins are longer and slightly thiner than standard heads and are made from cast aluminum and have the screw in point for the temperature gauges inbuilt above and between the exhaust valves, it was not until i spoke to someone from Brisbane that i learnt the dune buggy re manufactured heads are the same thing and that would have saved me just over $300, bugger! The smaller motors still should not give the temperatures you are getting unless there is another issue hidden there even the old cast iron heads were cooler than that. The imported heads and a bigger oil cooler (40% bigger with thermostat)fixed my heat problem so my cowl is just the conventional form conforming with about a 30mm air gap all round and the exit size slightly bigger than the airflow entry size. Bob.

Hi, Forgot to ask what brand of oil are you using? I noticed when i changed to castrol GTX2 the running temperatures were lower. I do oil and filter changes every 200 hours. I did notice there was less sludge and deposits after changing oil brands. As well some rise in temprature can be attributed to the heads, incorrect valve clearances or wronge/weak valve springs(using after market springs) valve seat damage or internal seal leakages. Bob.

Hi, Checking my old records of the VP-1, at a temperature of 41 degrees and 47% relative humidity nil wind with a/c standing in the sun two hours then after 15 minutes of ground run the CHT,s were 370-380 with cylinder 4 about 5 degrees hotter. On fast taxi the temperatures dropped to around 360 degrees and stayed there for the whole takeoff climb(3300rpm) on leveling off and reducing power they were 310 to 320 degrees. Motor had 961 hours on it and heads off twice, second time had valve grind, new plugs and leads just fitted. Bob.

Hi, I got sent this information, have not tried it yet but the guy that sent it is a computer geek so it should work. Bob. create a folder in FSX .... called Aircraft , then edited the Configuration file like this .... [Main] User Objects=Airplane, Helicopter SimObjectPaths.0=SimObjects\Airplanes SimObjectPaths.1=SimObjects\Rotorcraft SimObjectPaths.2=SimObjects\GroundVehicles SimObjectPaths.3=SimObjects\Boats SimObjectPaths.4=SimObjects\Animals SimObjectPaths.5=SimObjects\Misc SimObjectPaths.6=Aircraft SimObjectPaths.7=VOZAI SimObjectPaths.8=AircraftAI SimObjectPaths.9=My Boats Cars Now all I do is install manually to this folder , and the Effects to Effects , and Gauges to Gauges etc , and make a thumbnail for the textures , this works well for me . Now the Carenado , I ran the installer to a temp folder and installed manually Doing it this way it keeps things where I want then , eg. VOZ AI , My Boats and Cars , and Aircraft , and easier when I want to make changes .

Hi, Thanks for that, down memory lane,I used to fly r/c aircraft just down the road from there. We used to pop in from time to time. Do you know what ever happen to Frank Stella? He took me up for a few laps, oh so many years ago.:confused: Bob.

My Dad used to sing a song about "the age of" in his hippy days:laugh: Yes I know:faint: Bob.

Hi Tony, There is a pilot supply shop in the Melbourne area that has the gloves that are to the military quality standard and are about $80. Sorry can not remember the name of the shop, maybe old age:keen:. Bob.

Hi Trevor, any chance of getting a copy of the sapphire? the one i have is not complete and crashes the computer. The Jab is the basic one there is an update coming but the guy doing it went on holidays(maybe cused by working on this file;)) The CT is also needing some cosmetic work done, it can be flown. Bob.

Hi Big Pete, there is a programme called addit pro for flightsimulator that makes the job of adding aircraft and other things easy. I have the Jab file that works, a CT that mostly works(cosmetic things) a Shapphire that sort of works and am working on my Volksplane now. If you want the zip files please PM me with an email address and i will send them. Bob.:thumb_up: