lazerin

Still offline it seems. Taking a while to update.

You could try your local pilot shop. Otherwise, you could go straight to the source: Airservices Australia - Online Store - Aviation Charts

My instructor and I have set a limit of 600ft AGL for a successful turn back in the Sportstar. The most useful thing was that she pulled the power on me just past 600ft and I was able to turn back and reach the runway quite easily without ever being in a steep turn or dropping the airspeed below Vbg. It was also useful to see the effect of having a tailwind on your landing and how much faster everything seems as your groundspeed is higher. I highly recommend going out with an instructor and doing at least one practice of turning back to the runway at a safe nominated altitude with an EFATO.

*big sigh* of relief at the end. Calm under pressure :thumb_up:

Magnificent views, looked like an awesome day out. Nice wire contraption holding the GPS up

Yup, sounds like you were coming in a little hot. This can be exacerbated by using the sideslip because as you come out of the sideslip, you will tend to gain a little airspeed. As stated above, you should land on the mains first, not all three at once. You have to fly the aircraft and hold it off as long as possible in the flare, thus ending up with a nose up attitude and hopefully a stall perfectly as the main wheels touch down. When the main wheels touch, remember to hold the elevator where it is, DON'T push the nose down and DON'T pull back again. Keeping it where it is will naturally hold the nosewheel up and slow the aircraft down to a point where the nosewheel will touchdown on its own. This way, you will touch down with the lowest possible speed and gain control by using aerodynamic forces. So, try holding it off even more to achieve that nose up attitude and bleed off some more airspeed. The fine touch comes with balancing holding off and maintaining altitude and not gaining altitude.

Uh oh...controversy. Would those standards apply to CASA and Australia?

Hey Brent, my understanding was that the white windsock is supposed to be the "primary" windsock at an aerodrome with the yellow ones I guess being "secondary"....whatever that means.

Thanks Mikey, 30 knots seems like the right number. Any idea what the other positions would indicate? Is it a linear sort of scale? e.g. if the sock is at 45 degrees it'll be 12knots?

Well done, keep it up! Mind if I ask what the difference in opinion over your landing style was? Just curious to see what you had to change.

I'm getting conflicting information about what a standard windsock will indicate in terms of wind strength. I've heard that the standard modern aerodrome primary white windsock, aka "Wind Direction Indicator" (according to CASA), is horizontal at wind strengths greater than 30 knots. However, I've also heard 15 knots is the correct number. Can anyone shed some light?

Bas, I think they're going to get the exams in at Forsyth next week, hopefully. Have you had a chance to sit your flight test yet?

It would be the same reason as to why you don't use the aileron to pick up a wing drop. In a stall with a wing drop, let's say the right wing drops, if you try to roll left with aileron, you are increasing the angle of attack on the right wing even more and it will go into a "deeper" stall thus dropping further. When spinning, let's say right, the right wing would tend to be stalled with the left wing producing slightly more lift thus inducing the right motion. If you point the aileron into the spin, i.e. right, the right wing will now try to reduce the angle of attack and hopefully equalise the amount of lift and thus reduce the rotation tendency of the spin.

+1 for converting energy to altitude. I'm an ab initio and my instructor has taught me to do just that. If you're at cruise speed, rather than set the nose at glide attitude and waiting for the plane to settle to Vbg, just pull up and gain a few hundred feet and lower the nose back to glide attitude. Works well and gives you valuable extra time. Obviously, it only works in certain situations.

Rather than start another thread, I figured I'd jump on and add to this one. I was also a little perplexed as to what the RAA insurance covered. This thread has helped my understanding a bit but I still have some questions regarding hiring and flying. If I hire from the flight school that I train with, and something happens like a bad landing where the aircraft suffers some damage, am I out of pocket or are the damages covered by the RAA insurance? Or should it be covered by the FTF?

I was booked for a flight in a sportstar today but cancelled it due to the heat. You probably won't even feel it though, the excitement will dominate :D

Here we go: 4.5"SUCTION PAD Looks like it'll only work best on a flat surface though.

John, I hope I'm half as calm as you when I do get an engine failure. Being a student still, it's one of the things I always dread in the back of my mind.

Bas, I didn't even think of a clamp! That's a good idea. I've seen some "suction pods" on ebay but I'm not convinced about their holding power. I might trial one eventually though, see how it goes. A strong suction pod would be ideal to allow placement virtually anywhere, since the sportstar is all canopy. Something like this looks ok: Strong Suction Mount. Guys, as there's a bit of interest in an easy portable device, a really good small video recorder is the Flip Video. It's even available in a HD version. It's a bit more pricey though.

Welcome back to flying and good luck with your goals! I'm sure you'll reach them soon enough. The sporty is a great aircraft to fly, you'll have a lot of fun :thumb_up:

lbarnes, I can see where that'd be handy for RC flying etc, but I'd much prefer to use my own camera. The video quality from the flycam doesn't cut the mustard for me. I guess I'll just have to get my passengers to work the camera once I get my pax endorsement :thumb_up:

Ah, as you haven't turned 16 yet, it might be worth holding out until then. The problem is that if you reach a stage where you are able to solo but your age is holding you back, you might end up spending more than you need to. The way I see it, the design of the syllabus is such that the solos build on top of what you've learnt and you continue learning on top of that. However, this is only my opinion and I don't really have much to base it on, so take it with a grain of salt. Perhaps someone else can shed more light on it.

The sportstar we fly at parafield only has a single tank situated directly behind the seats. The filler cap is located on the side of the fuselage and as such, is at an angle. I imagine this is the reason that a dipstick wouldn't work very well. With the fuel cap off, it's still pretty much impossible to see the level of fuel until it's reached the brim (and overflows). I'm told the fuel gauge is calibrated and very accurate :big_grin:, here's hoping!

Nick, that depends how often you'll be flying and what your budget will allow. If you are able to fly everyday for an hour, then it'll take 20 days. Shorter if you fly more often. However, I wouldn't recommend flying more often that possibly 2 hours a day when you start. There's a lot to absorb and personally, I find that I absorb everything much better once I go away and come back. Keep in mind also that more often than not, most people will exceed the 20 hour minimum so that should be allowed for. I started my training last month (15/12/08) and I've logged 15.4 hours now. I've tried to fly probably about 4 or 5 times a week and I've had a couple of double lessons squeezed in there as well.

It's interesting to hear the comments on the unreliability of fuel gauges. In the sportstar, all we have to go by is the fuel gauge...:confused: There's no other way to check quantity.