Spin

Nah, I have no concerns about having my privileges usurped and I enjoy the company of woman, my other half included.:big_grin: I just find it rather patronising to suggest that it is up to men to encourage women to participate in these kinds of activities - truth be known most of them are too sensible to blow their time and money on something like flying for fun. My wife has no aviation background, but thoroughly enjoys an outing in good weather. She has said straight out though, that she has no further interest in flying and wouldn't give it a second thought if it weren't a passion of mine. 'Sides we should probably ask the ladies here to say their piece, were they discouraged from starting to fly and was that discouragement any greater than many men experience when fronting up to a flying school. I know plenty of people here (self included) have walked out of a school without having received any positive response from staff.

I agree 100% kaz, I am very uncomfortable with the potential misuse of legislation of this sort. That said, word on the street is that these aircraft were siezed following a criminal conviction. The full story will no doubt slowly filter out.

Time to bring this one to the top again, it's this weekend - a great pity that the forecast isn't a little more positive, ah well will have to keep a close eye on the weather.

Good to hear a good news story Jim, please keep us posted. Happy flying!

Hey jabbawok, some familiar territory there - I used to live in Northern Natal and the battlefields were a staple for class outings. I also remember the Jabiru factory in Natal, it was out on the edge of the Valley of a Thousand Hills in a converted chicken shed, I went out there when they were putting together the first J400 and later had a test flight in an SP very like yours at Cato Ridge.

Maybe I just need another cup of coffee (and a day off!) and am reading too much into this, but why is it that every facet of life has to be socially engineered to reflect overall demographics? I love introducing people to flying, including some delightful ladies along the way, but having to target a particular group, because there is a perceived need for more of them in the sport, whatever, would take all the joy out of it for me. I'll repeat what I said in another thread; the surest way to increase female participation in flying would be to ban woman from holding a licence!

David, I know that would be ideal, however the major stumbling block is finding an aircraft to hire for my typical GA usage which is trundling off for breakfast or going to a fly in or possibly even a meeting out West ie. aircraft will be gone for quite a few more hours than the hobbs is going to show at the end of it. Understandably, owners aren't partial to that, hence the attraction of a group. My "problem" is that the rest of the family are pretty keen on the breakfast / fly in side of aviation too, so my heading off alone or with only one of them doesn't go down too well at the moment. All that will change as the youngster starts to make his own way and an RA type will fit the bill very nicely - that is however a good 6 years away. There are worse problems to have I guess:big_grin:. Cheers Carl

Nasty - pretty amazing footage though, especially once the camera man got out. Looked a bit like an inverted spin, the rate of decent didn't seem much more than a skydiver's terminal velocity.

Que! Not quite sure I follow all of that, however I suspect that this is one of those deals (Ross's Cheetah, the original one advertised in this post) that I'm going to kick myself for not looking at more closely - what is by all accounts a nicely built aircraft with the bugs ironed out and for kit price or even less! Unfortunately for the next 5-8 yrs, 2 seats just isn't going to cut it a lot of the time, so I'm probably going to buy a share in a GA machine and occasionally hire an RA type to keep my hand in - in an ideal world I'd have a share in a 4 seater AND my own RA machine for cheap(er), fun flying but that's ever less likely to happen as the various tiers of govt. find ever more imaginitive ways to gouge money out of my wallet.

Shhhhh:freaked:, someone probably just forgot.

Agreed not real, but then again I watched twice anyway - it's a pretty dramatic sequence and I can tell you that it fooled at least one older pilot who isn't au fait with the fantastic graphics capabilities of the newer games. Worth a look, thanks for posting.

Yeah Microsoft displaying a bit more of a sense of humour than we might be used to - Danish ad for Vista I believe.

Tim whatever you do, don't analyse the money spent on aviation - the result is almost always depressing!

, love it!

Welcome aboard jabbawok, nice part of the world you have to fly in. No shortage of Jabiru pilots in this corner of the globe:yes:, you'll be in good company. Is your Jab factory built or a kit?

Bit scarce on detail that news story; two most likely scenarios are a retractable with dicky legs or someone emulating a porpoise down the runway and eventaully overloading the poor old nose leg. I shouldn't complain, at least the newspaper seems to have stuck to the facts and not tried to dress it up, we could have had inane comments like; "enquiries revealed that no flight plan had been completed!"

he he, lots of traps for young players not yet familiar with the radio!

http://www.aircraftowner.com//videos/view/piper-cub-tight-landing_1873

Experts check if debris linked to missing plane <HR style="COLOR: #000063" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->By Brad Ryan Air safety authorities are investigating whether debris found yesterday in the Torres Strait, off far north Queensland, is connected to a missing plane. The plane, flown by a 37-year-old man, left Cairns for Horn Island last Thursday. Authorities say search crews yesterday found debris, including a tub, near Dugong Island, about 80 kilometres east of Horn Island. The debris is being assessed, while air and sea searches focus on waters between Dugong and Moa islands. There has been no sign of the pilot, who last made radio contact just before his twin-engine plane was due to land at Horn Island. Authorities say it is a mystery because the pilot spoke to air traffic controllers 15 minutes before the scheduled landing and there was no indication at any stage there were problems. (ABC)

I did a quick there and back to Townsville on one of Virgin's Embraers earlier in the week, experiencing all the usual irritations and frustrations that are part and parcel of flying commercially in this day and age. I don't know about anyone else but there doesn't seem to be much "aviation" involved in the experience, rather some sort of sausage machine that grabs you about the time you queue to get into the parking garage and eventually spits out into a cab at the far end. Anyhow business complete I was waiting at the gate for my return flight and noticed a young fella of about 4 who was driving his mother demented whilst he bounced around. He was well nigh unplayable and becoming a serious irritation to the rest of us grumpy old ....., until they moved to where he could look down onto the apron. Well the excitement didn't diminish but became focussed on the activity below, from the preflight preparation in the cockpit, to loading baggage and a series of circuits by a Blackhawk and a Chinook. Obviously not such a bad youngster after all:big_grin:, anyhow he ended up a few rows behind me and I was vaguely aware of a never ending stream of chatter until part way back to Brissie we hit some apparently unforseen and moderately severe turbulence. Where most of us either muttered about spilt drinks or gripped the juice out of the armrest, this youngster was absolutely delighted and there were a series of whoops and shrieks as we banged, rattled and lurched our way out of the cloud. Well I must say it made me think a bit more about this flying lark and just what it is that attracts us all to it. I spent the rest of the flight gazing out of the window at the cloud formations below and dug my camera out to take a few photos. Even the drive home didn't diminish my sense of well being which lasted until I went on line after dinner and read the latest saga at a flying organisation that I have been considering getting involved with - petty backbiting and politicking:ace::csm:, multiple factions of members, committee members resigning in disgust, all while the very future of their access to the airfield is under threat. Makes you wonder who the childish ones really are!

This one? Nasty incident.... [ATTACH]13255.vB[/ATTACH]

Welcome mate, sounds like you have things nicely set up and even better to look forward to. I had a good look at an RV9 the other day - just beautiful!

Bandit, I've just reread the thread - I may have been a bit harsh on the VP, the only reason I commented was because of my own investigation into possibly buying one, the feedback I got from a fairly no nonsense, experienced pilot who had flown several and the fact that you mentioned a Starlet as another option. I'm inclined to think that if you could get one cheaply and it fitted the kind of flying you do, go for it. My only concern is that if you were to build one, it is probably not going to cost much less than a Starlet, Nipper, Turbulent, Jodel D9 and others that Facthunter mentioned but is likely to be less valuable at the end of it. It would be a pity to sink money and a lot of work into something that isn't really what you would want. Edit, I did a quick search online and found one listed for sale in Aus, $12K but I notice they claim a 60kts cruise.

Corby Starlet and Volksplane are two very different beasts, maybe think Lotus 7 vs Mahindra Jeep:big_grin: ie minimalist sports car against very basic transport. I don't have personal experience of the Volksplane but can only relate what someone who did, had to say when I showed interest in one; "about the best thing you can say about it is that it can get off the ground". He was not very complimentary about the experience and in particular about the control feel and balance. I suspect the cost of the build would be fairly similar but cannot comment on the relative difficulty - that said a well built Starlet is probably much easier to sell if that time ever came.