BlurE

Happened to visit Windytv, wind forecast just now to try to glean just how cloudy the BOMs 'cloudy' forecast for tomorrow was. In the past windytv gave a prediction of what was called 'low cloud' as well and wind speed, direction rain etc. But now to my delight windytv.com newly gives cloud base, (and medium, high, and total cloud if you care) Also a prediction of VFR, MVFR, IFR. Click on "rules" to change the units. This forecast is available by the hour ten days out. Obviously don't trust any weather that far out and be sure to check the official Air services NAIPS - but this is a great tool for initial planning. ...oh the result was crap until midday then contracting to the coast - all beautifully animated. Windytv, wind forecast

Apparently the Instruction was 20 left. Must have been one wide black strip too far across. Mind you the lack of numbers, piano keys and other markings should have been a clue. Maybe a case of fixation? But then I'll admit to landing on one runway with a white cross at the threshold.

I am curious about mt beauty. Haven't got there myself yet, but it looks like the strip is right next to town and the lake. Maybe a fly-in fishing trip? Also curious about the storch. I have considered them for a potential future purchase but the mtow concerns me. It looks like you can't get much fuel on if you're two up?

I am very interested having some sort of AOA feedback, but I think it would be best if it was audible. Say a slow rate of beep.......... beep........... beep starting as say 60% of critical and increasing to a solid tone just before stall. Think of a vario or reversing sensor type thing. Maybe?

Some Stunning aerial photography. Rural Australia Like You've Never Seen It Before Be sure to check out the video at the bottom of the page. J430 sans rear door.

Glass..... According to some instructors.

Another vote for the nexus 9 here. Love it. Goldilocks size, 4x3 format, real shame it's discontinued, Although it meant I got a bargain on runout. Also ozrunways for Android, while behind iOS, now has traffic which is very welcome.

And while I'm being honest a bit of confirmation bias was in there too. I expected to see nil wind so guess what I saw...

Yes, paralax can be a problem too. What I thought was limp against the side the other day, actually tuned out to be 5 on the tail. I was working rather hard to get down for a few circuits before a good look from a different angle made the reason all to clear. Fortunately I had plenty of runway length and would have gone round if I got really long. Might have been a good exercise to do on purpose one day - rather than by accident. Ha ha.

Swamp gas. Or a weather balloon..... Or a weather balloon filled with swamp gas. Regardless no cause for alarm. Move along.

Someone on this site recommended "windytv" a while back. I suspect it uses BOM data, but presents in a much better format. For example you can look at the wind direction and speed at different altitudes. You can also 'play' a video over a period and see the wind pick up during the day or a front come through. And you can see the forecast several days ahead. Very, very good. I still check NIAPS first for the official story, but windytv for a more complete picture. Web based: Windytv, wind forecast Android app: Windyty - Android Apps on Google Play

Ok so here's some fun. The centerfold of the recent "clear prop clear mind" contain some interesting statistics. Looking at 2015 for a whole year. - Total hours flown 211431.9 - members 9117 - average hours per member 23.19 So far so good. - Average age of pilot 60 - Average number of hours flying experience 1780. Now to accumulate the average number of hours (1780) at the average rate (23.19) would take 77 years. But the average age is only 60.... lies, damned lies, and statistics!

wow!

I don't know if there are any potential liability issues, but I would suggest a new factory built aircraft is wise. The foxbat A22LS at AUD $99k inc GST flyway is decent value. Aeroprakt A22LS prices and options.

It must take a good bootfull of rudder to keep that straight on throttle up! In fact I image you have to advance it fairly slowly to get some flow over the rudder first?

Thanks Octave - looks like fun. I wend down there last night but didn't hang around and didn't land on this occasion. The Cloud was starting to thicken and drop over the ranges and I got squeezed down more than I liked. Still above my LSALT, but would have certainly put me in the trees if the fan stopped. Additionally was becoming a bit concerned about remaining daylight also due to the cloud. I had a good look at the strip but had trouble gauging how steep it was. The information phone line does recommend a precautionary search. Not sure about wind a ground level, but it was a pretty strong at 2000ft. (I had had 45-60kn from the East) I think it would have been a down hill/ into wind or nothing. Decided to play it safe and came straight home via Anglesea where the cloud-to-hill gap was much bigger. Wye River looks pretty sad from the air.

Awesome thanks guys! I'll check it out.

Just wondering if anyone has some recent information on Apollo Bay/Marengo YAPO? I assume anyone in the area would be on Peterborough CTAF 127.1 Google earth makes it look like it has a reasonable gradient up away from the water. It this correct? I found the post below which as some good info. Any other tips appreciated. http://www.recreationalflying.com/threads/nearest-strip-to-lorne-vic.9748/#post-96557

I wonder if the wings came off due to overload in flight - or on impact where they might have floated off for some distance before sinking?

ATSB Preliminary report: https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2016/aair/ao-2016-006/ The tight turns over Ocean Grove are concerning - and it's hard to image they're sightseeing on a day like that. "Wreckage examination indicated that the aircraft’s fuselage and associated components were subjected to high impact forces and subsequently failed in overload. The aircraft’s wings were not located. A number of aircraft components, including the engine and propeller, were recovered for later technical examination." How sad.

Is this it? "Plane Resurrection" (preview only) Thank god it's not an American psuedomentry the quality of some of those is dreadful.

What a ripper idea. I have been thinking about syndicates lately, but just don't know where to start. It would be great to be able to access some sort of guide with suggestions of what is a fair split of fixed and variable costs as well as a list of "what ifs" for those scenarios you wouldn't necessarily think of up front but could sour the relationship. Maybe a framework agreement that could be customised as required but atleast providesa solid start.

The numbers in the scenario and the conclusion "probably resulted in an accelerated aerodynamic stall" come from the ATSB. In level flight I think the analysis is solid. I am not so sure about the application in a high rate descending turn.

Some numbers have come up in another thread which caused me some trouble. I thought I might discuss this scenario in a new thread but with no reference to the source. Please let's just discuss the physics here not the incident. Scenario: Slow descending turn - possible accelerated stall. - Stall speed 48kn - Angle of bank approx 48 degrees - descent rate >1500 ft/min - speed during turn 59kn Let's agree a stall is caused by the angle of attack exceeding the critical angle. We use speed as an indication of when a stall will occur and we are told that stall speed increases in turns. Firstly: Lets consider a 48 degree level turn. Say vertical component of the total lift is 1 - in order to keep the turn level. The horizontal component is 1.2 which pulls us around the turn. The resultant or total lift is 1/cos48 which is 1.5 The stall speed increases with the square root of the load factor √1.5 = 1.22 So the level turn stall speed becomes 1.22x 48kn = 59kn Which is also the reported airspeed - so in this turn it is possible the airflow was starting to sperate from at least part of one wing. But, and here is my problem. Everything above assumes a level turn. Or at least is calculated on the special case of a level turn. This is where my concern starts. To be descending at a steady rate the system must be in equilibrium, that is the weight + lift + air resistance = 0 resultant force weight is fixed at mass x acceleration due to the earth's gravity. (yes, apparent weight might change with g, but mass is fixed for a given fuel load and the earth always sucks the same.) Air resistance goes up with the square of speed (from memory) In this case we are looking at the vertical speed and the vertical component of air resistance. 1500ft/min is around 8 m/s. Pretty quick really. So I am thinking to obtain a steady 1500 ft/m the lift required is much less than the force of 1g. (Yes, technically 1g is an acceleration not a force - but it's convenient.) Maybe pick a number of 0.8g vertical lift component. In the scenario above this would make the total lift 0.8/cos48=1.2 and the stall speed √1.2 x 48 = 52kn Maybe 0.7g - which is 49kn. (the other 0.3g would be providing around 200kgf to work against the air resistance which doesn't seem huge at that speed over that projected area?) These numbers would suggest a stall is unlikely. Am I missing something here?

The GoPro 3 onward does not have a 3.5mm jack and instead uses a special mini USB plug. It's very hard to cobble one up because it uses the 'other side' of the mini USB plug - which actually allows for a total of 11 pins - where nearly all other USB cables only use 4. Where I have very hard you may as well read impossible. These ( http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/pa80s_hero3.php ) do work well, but as you say there is no ambient noise - so it is eerily quiet when there is no voice to trigger the intercom or radio. (So yes they record both) You can get adapters from the micro 'GoPro' USB to a 3.5mm socket and then plug in a microphone. Or just get a Gopro compatible lapel mic.