Yenn

Bruce, you are sounding like Scott Morrison. "Yes he did, he said that lycoming etc used "fit for purpose metal" therefore implying that Jabiru did not." You could also imply that Rotax and all the other manufacturers did not and I still cannot see any mention of Jabiru in his post.

Did Thruster mention Jabiru heads? If he did I didn't see it. You seem to be putting words into his pen.

i recently tried BP super or whatever it is called in my Jab 2200. I didn't fly for a couple of weeks and had terrible trouble starting it. It would not run properly and no matter what I tried, the only way to get that motor going was to revert back to Avgas. NO more mogas for me.

They could also differentiate between ailerons and elevators. Poorly written reports do little to increase safety.

If you have something the same as the David Clark headset, you can buy a noise cancelling modification for a reasonable price and end up with a good set. I haven't looked at pricing lately. It is also possible to buy or even build your own in ear set. Not noise cancelling, but the noise is stopped from entering your ear by the ear buds. These are lighter than a normal headset and have no clamping pressure.

No problem extending the date of the inspection and you can get an extension, but for GA that will cost an arm and a couple of legs. I had to extend the inspection date for transponder and instruments and did the right thing. Cost about$400 from memory. Extending for annual only means you cannot fly and the annual will be dated later, so its expiry will be later.

The class D has changed where you are in the last few years, it used to be D 2500 min. I doubt that any aircraft would be down at 1000' in that area unless they were local. You can fly in class E if you have a transponder, but I reckon your mention of class E was not what airservices were worried about. D is the thing you have to avoid. Do you get access from Webb Rd, I know the area and have a friend who lives there. The country to your East is not suitable for low flying. I have walked a bit of it.

RAAus does not have a maintenance release. They require you to do a daily inspection and also an annual, but some of us use the MR as it is a far easier document to use than the other alternatives with RAAus. With GA, the MR has to be signed off any day the plane flies and has to be in the aircraft. So it must be GA. The owner is not necessarily involved with the MR, it is the responsibility of the "operator".

I drove there years ago and can thoroughly recommend it. It was not what I expected as a tourist destination, but more like a camping site with good facilities, but easy to keep away from the madding crowd. Take the boat trip to see the Bradshaws and feed the archer fish.

Do not rely on polystyrene to insulate you from vertical seat loads. that has been proved to be bad policy, but you can get Conforfoam which will do the job. Nowhere near as cheap, but it will not burn and give off poisonous gas, plus it stays comfortable for at least 18 years as proved by my own seating.

Airservices can be contacted easily on line. Go to their web site and down the bottom, click contact us. There will be a list of optional subjects to talk about. Using the phone only means that you are wasting your time and not theirs.

Why would the LAME have to talk to CASA? If he is convinced the plane is still airworthy, he can issue a MR.

You could get the LAME to issue a new release. He should have the records of what was on the original release. If you are the builder you can re issue your own release. All a release does is state that the aeroplane was airworthy on the date it is issued and the upcoming maintenance required in the next year.

When Airservices thought up their original proposal, they had completely forgotten that they had caused a mid air collision between two IFR aircraft. I think they were just trying to get more aircraft involved in their poor service. I am not saying that the traffic controllers are poor, more that the bureaucrats are poor.

If you go to USA and get a quick PPL you will be able to convert it to Aussie PPL with air legislation and possibly other things to consider. You will be OK flying whatever you learnt in, but you will not be ready to fly some of the RAAus fleet of lightweight, fairly high performance, Rotax engined aircraft. If you go the other way and learn with RAAus type aircraft, you will be pretty well equipped to step into the ageing GA fleet. You may not enjoy suddenly finding yourself in what feels like a heavy truck type of vehicle, but it will not be really dangerous. The other difference between GA and RAAus is when it comes to cross country work. It is my belief that RAAus does not equip you for cross country flying. Just noting on this site that others have said they have several electronic means of navigation and they trust them to never break down. I have experienced a GPS telling me to turn 45 deg when I could see my destination directly ahead, not once, but twice. High tech is great, but we need to know the basics. Whichever way you go. Enjoy it.

That allows it to be used when it would usually have to be stripped and all seals and perishable bits replaced.

I could not find the reports when I looke yesterday and was wondering if they have been discontinued. I put in a report years ago and it was edited and printed up. It stated that I had not checked the tailwheel spring when I pre flighted, even though I had stated that I had checked it. Even so it is good to read what has happened as it can open our eyes to something unexpectad. My thoughts are that nosewheel damage is one of the most common events. Good to read what has happened as it can open our eyes to something unexpectad.

Has anyone looked for the incident reports lately. I thought I would look to see how many involved nosewheels, but cannot find any reports on RAAus web site.

I wonder what the accident rates for tail wheel are compared to tri gear and what type of accidents are most common. From what I have seen over the years, one of the most common accidents is nosewheel collapse or similar.

I wonder what it would cost to register one of those Roulettes planes.

We all know the dangers of quad bikes and I am sure Kiwi knew them just as much as we do. We don't know exactly what happened, but in my estimation Kiwi was aware of any dangers. It could have been a moments inattention, or a mechanical failure, who knows, but Kiwi was careful with all he did in my experience.

Going the experimental way is obviously a good way to get into high performance or interesting aircraft, but it is not the way to go to learn. You may be lucky to find an instructor who will teach on your experimental, but it has to be yours. That means you commit to a certain aircraft even before you start to learn. As for age you are old when your kids have retired and your great grandkids are teenagers, don't ask me how I know.

Such a sad thing to hear. Being an Old Station ex member I knew him well. Great bloke, will be sorely missed, also his old Cessna with the tractor tyres. Safe in the air and let down by those well known killer quad bikes.

I used two pack polyurethane on the RV4 and only a very thin coat on the wings. I later put on a finishing coat, but for some reason it didn't harden properly. If a piece of cloth was left on the top of the wing, it would stick very slightly so you could feel the drag as you pulled it off. The paint supplier had no answer as to why. I ended up using MEK and washing the coat off, then left it for ages before having another go. It took an awful amount of work to swab the faulty paint off and was never a good job afterwards. I would go with automotive finish if I ever had to do it again. We do not go into the high cold temps which is the downfall of auto paint.

Avplan and Oz Runways are a good way to go and I used to use Avplan. There are drawbacks though. The screen can be hard to see in a plane with a nice big canopy and also there can be problems with overheating. In my RV4 I had to relocate the iPad to a location where it was out of direct sunlight and even then angle it so that the reflections were reduced. Probably not a problem in a wide cockpit, but a single or tandem seat is harder to deal with. In my Corby the iPa is useless, there just isn't enough room to have it working and be able to see it.