Modelmakeroz

With the good seasons we had for a while (Lake Eyre filling twice and all that) the Parrot numbers, Budgies, Corellas, Rosellas, Parikeets, Lorikeets etc will be in really huge numbers. Now the seasons have turned and the big dry has started a lot of these birds will migrate to the Coast for survival, be prepared for some really weird ideas from the city folk regarding where they came from and why they are there. The huge numbers of Kangaroos that bred up in the big wet are now dying in droves. The land of drought and flooding rains strikes again.

Wow a Space Shuttle. I thought the Hughes Hercules was pretty damn good. The way it makes a centre piece of really effective. Do you know if there was a plan for a separate Shuttle hangar? We spent several days with our friends there, Paul is a Mechanical Engineer. He also directed us to the Antique Power Museum at Salem. That was also great. You lads and lasses certainly know how to make Aussies feel welcome.

Budgies fly pretty good though, apart from when they are being smuggled.

Yeah Wayne, assume has the same meaning in the electrical industry at least. The first time I heard the full derivation of the word was when I did my first HV switching operator's ticket in the 80s. Tends to make you think. I have a mate that lives not far from you around McMinville area, I visited him on the way to Oshkosh last year. He took me to Evergreen Aviation, Wow what a museum. Regards, Mike.

I have a few mates Stateside. I explained to one of them why "I'm rooting for ya" doesn't wash on this side of the ditch.

Welcome Wayne, I too work in the electrical game to pay for the fun times.

To quote Uncle Ernie, "Welcome"

Welcome Hieway66. My wife and I spent some time last year after Oshkosh tracking down as much of Hiway 66 as we could. tons of fun. By the way I know bugger all about aviation, I'm a beginner too.

Wivenhoe dam has a pumped storage arrangement. It was installed to provide a degree of load levelling of Thermal stations in SEQ before renewables came on line. In the renewable world of today they are more relevant than ever as provided watr quantities top and bottom are adequate the storage period is a lot longer each day. As installed the purpose of pumped storage was to absorb "shoulder" generation. The other advantages have been rapid load matching and security if a cascade event ever occurs. It takes a huge amount of power to restart the Thermal stations if they all fall over (assuming minimal physical damage). Regarding the pictures and clip GG posted with the fire in the wind turbine. Because of the distributed public locations of these devices any passer by with a phone can take footage. With established Thermal stations the "Smoke Escapement" events are mostly behind closed doors. An error in manufacture or operation tends to let the smoke out. Being up high inaccessible and in the wind tends to make sensational footage. Oil well fires are even more spectacular. Coal stockpile fires don't look real spectacular most times but stink plenty, ask the folks of Morwell. Something that I'd like to get across is the annual "Earth Hour" game is destructive. For that hour the Thermal stations world wide are forced to blow steam. The boilers have to run at over capacity as, when the joke ends, the load comes back on HARD. I hope this fiasco does not lead to a Chernobyl style event, rememember that disaster was caused by an experiment in power reduction gone wrong (at the bewitching hour). I try and keep things in balance and correct, I earn my crust as a Lecky and have put my money where my mouth is regarding Solar. It cost me heaps and for the privilege of supporting the weak grid in my area I get paid bugger all. The upside for me is my equipment works better with the designed voltage being delivered to motors (yeah I have a few). Prior to installing my own system we were being supplied 218 Volts in the middle of the day. My mulcher for instance used to stop and reverse on branches much smaller than design capacity, now it just powers on. So all in all Aircraft owners and pilots must be a bit smarter than the average bear, just keep researching and apply the sceptical "what is your interest" test to the self serving propaganda from both the "Inner city left whinge" and the "make me rich at your expense" crowd.

Bill, At small scale wind probably still isn't viable. A lot like small coal plants aren't viable. Part of the current installation activity is refitting existing wind farms with smaller numbers of new larger units. Allegedly the old units are exported to developing countries. As for downstream and other effects we can be sure they exist in one form or another. Like eveything else it becomes a cost benefit analysis. Regarding TBO. It is important to look at the maintenance costs. If you have bearing failure due to electrofluting for instance and therefore have to bring down the nacelle early. There goes all your profit. Early units had exactly that problem andthe manufacturer would not listen so customers had to solve the issue themselves. A crowd called Aegis provided the microfibre brushrings to keep the stray current out of the bearings. I have to deal with the same manufacturer on a different product with similar technology and have the same bearing issues. They still don't listen. So yes there are risks that take experience to understand.

Sorry about latching onto the hijacked part. Unfortunately a lot of it (hijacking with motive) going on. Wasn't the original photo sensational. Reminds me of the "Morning Glory" clouds up in the Gulf. No I don't think I'd want to play Don Quixote and buzz any of these windmills. Ouch.

Oddly enough the successful investors in wind farms and wind technology have done their sums. The value of wind generation has nothing at all to do with subsidies. We had a good look at the situation while travellling around the US last year. We would be travelling along barely able to keep the camper van on the road due to wind and not one turbine would be turning, then one cue one would unfeather its blades and before I could get a second look (driving remember) it would be at full speed. In small groups on they would come to match the peak demand. Now if I were a novice regarding the electrical grid this would seem bizarre, but over 40 years in the industry can provide an insight or two. The most expensive power is peak power. Base load stations are now 1 Gigawatt or bigger per generating unit it does not pay to stop them (like the greenweirds think happens in"earth hour"). The time to actually bring up and synchronise a large set is measured in days and if brought up in hours has serious implications for the longivity of the units. Traditionally old wornout sations have been used as peak loaders with the peak and trough fine tuning achieved by diesel fired gas turbines which could be on line in 2 minutes. Those units installed around Australia typically employed 2 Rolls Royce Avon jet engines as compressors pushing a single turbine wheel. This technology is still current with an order of magnitude or two bigger compressors. GE hae just built the largest to date in France and are commissioning the type in the US. These new units mostly are natural gas fired and once again come on line quickly. A short time later (around 30 minutes) the flash boilers is fully pressurised and the unit becomes combined cycle bringing overall station efficiency to approaching 60%. Two minutes sounds good, but it is nowhere near fast enough, so the wind turbines which are fully powered up by the afternoon breeze but feathered really make a difference. It is not only the power capability but also the linearity of the rampup that is so valuable. Further to that, in a large grid as in the US or Australia's East Coast where power is transmitted across large distances and time zones the watts are easy enough to tansmit allowing for I squared losses, but VARS are quite difficult to tansmit and are extemely necessary, especially during periods of heavy loads. VARS provide the magnetising current to enable the transformers to operate. It was lack of VARS that caused the 2003 grid cascade failure in North East US and Eastern Canada. Suggested reading; official report on 2003 cascade failure, several hundred pages long. By being distributed along the axis of the grid renewable power sources not only significantly lower the grid impedance but provide a cheap linear source of VARS. The rollout projects have also include long overdue stiffening of weak spots in the grid (at least in the US). This long overdue capex is what is being labelled as subsidy and of course nothing could be further from the truth. By way of explanation, output from a genset, station or system is a mixture of Watts (Kilowatts, Megawatts, Gigawatts depending on scale) and Volt Amps Reactive (kilovars, Megavars, Gigavars) added together they make up the VA, KVA, MVA, GVA rating of the set, station or system. Managing the balance of VA, VARS, Watts, Frequency and Voltage has been a dark art. It was lack of understanding of the issues that allowed Enron to perform their scam. In the last year or so there has been a major anti-renewable pushback, not because it is unviable but because it is very viable. The Australian Newspaper has been a forum for these vested interests, I have also seen trolling in Silicon Chip magazine. Now here it is in an unrelated magazine, probably only repeating the propaganda. The purpose of the pushback and source seem to be State owned supply authorities who want customer provided energy to be theirs for free or preferably with charges applied. Remember State Govts are fattenng up the assets for sale. I will leave readers to do their own research on this, the paper trail is there. Hydro. Hydro has many of the same attributes as other renewables, speed to synchronise being a major beneficial factor. Pumped storage is our most viable storage to date but limited in scope. Unfortunately Australia has poor hydro prospects and the greenweird lobby have prevented the few viable sites that exist being developed, think Franklin River. Once again think international. The Hoover Dam is a major hydro dam and it is so overcommitted that during the day 2 sets are running and even as a peaker it is struggling. To get aound this problem the existing transmission lines to California now take power from Solar 1 and Solar 2. That was an interesting site. Once again prior to peak over 10% of the troughs were feathered out of service. It all changes come peak time though. One more snippit. The generation of rooftop inverters now rolling out in Europe are to include active power management to control the VARS on the grid. Supply authorities will love it, current units support the voltage very well and more expensive ones already control power factor (VARS). When mandated and there is talk of enforcing retrofitting software, they will take money for jam.

Russ, It is about logistics options. Get somewhere, camp then radiate out looking around. I have done plenty "see what I can on the way" trips. I'm thinking of the time not too far away when deadlines will be less important. I have been following and will continue to follow yourself and a couple of others I saw who trusted your own judgement and bought Jabs. They are nice looking little planes and it seems some other manufacturers also think so, with the amount of clones out there. My research into Jab began last August while I was at Oshkosh when a chap I met from the Watertown WI chapter told me about his 6 cyl Jab engine in his homebuilt and how good it was. The stuff Rod Stiff has posted on "Jabachat" floored me, here I was with nothing but positive feedback and trying to find out more, then Thud. One thing that is important to me is freedom from leaded fuel. So I'm interested in real information from owners how they go on modern fuel including any issues to watch. Regards, Mike.

Thanks, I get to WA a fair bit. I will keep what you have said in mind. It could be worth a look once I am licenced and experienced. I like the way JG drove and flew around the US with his Kolb in a modern day covered wagon. Also liked his descriptions of flying around Oz in his Savannah. We have been across the country a few times by road and of course I get to play freight in a 737 or bigger quite often. So much of the country would look great at 500 to 1000 feet. Regards, Mike.

John, I don't know anything about trikes. I don't even know anyone with one. There are a mob in WA that do training for about GA pricing and the trikes themselves seem awfully dear for what they are. Am I missing something?

RA and Nev, Thanks for the advice. Where I came up with the idea was after seeing a couple at Oshkosh down in the area near the untralight barn with a Kitfox and a trailer and Chev van and an awesome collection of photos. I wasn't planning on the Gibb River Road, but you have really made me think. Why shouldn't I fly over the road less travelled, can't do that with a road rashed plane can I. Probably impossible to safely fix in a remote area too.

Less preflight than my chainsaw.

Thanks Geoff, I was thinking of sending you a PM to see how you were going with the Hanuman. Useful weight sounds just that, useful. Sounds like the third stage flap is for STOL, certainly something for the future. I haven't flown behind a Jab engine yet, I am so inexperienced I've only been behind 2 Lycosaurs and a Rotax. Didn't like the Lycosaurs at all, gutless and noisy. I'm thinking a nice indicisive look around right now could be a good thing. I want to concentrate on getting trained, then licenced. Another thing I want to do is get to meet fliers in my (and other) area. I've met a few and they have been great, however finding things out has all been word of mouth including finding an RAA instructor. Web searching would have been ok if I had wanted to pilot a ship. I haven't had a life long ambition to fly, I've always been jnterested in aviation but never actually imagined myself flying. Oshkosh was a turning point, we got in early and spent 9 days going around with my mate Ron from Wisconsin. I had never heard of LSA, RAA or Jabiru before let alone Rans, Vans, Sonex or Zenith. On about day 7 my missus said, "So when are you gonna build a plane?" Yeah righto you're just taking the piss outa me. If it was feasible I'd help Ron build his plane. A couple of weeks after we got home Ron died, without getting to build his Flying Chipmonk or get his licence. That really put a burr under my saddle. From there began my initially bumpy journey towards flying.

Jimmy and Geoff, You two are 6 months or so ahead of me. Funnily enough we have asked the same questions. I'm now training in a Savannah S and finally starting to enjoy it. Light, high wing, STOL seems to be my preference too. The more I dig around the more nice planes I see. I think folding wings and trailer could also be good, not just for hangarage, but also for a low stress around the country slowly sight seeing tour once I retire. There are a few contenders there, but I think the Gazelles on offer are too far gone to be worth the trouble. Any I've enquired about have had engines way beyond TBO and when I checked with Bert Flood there is no "on condition" option whatever the vendors or their LAME have to say.

Unfortunately they or at least some of the fixed wing devices can get to quite some height. I recently came across a bloke that has a 2 metre span RC motor glider. He has attached blue and white ultra bright LEDs to it in a cross formation. He tries to pass it off as a UFU, to the point of putting some hoax video on youtube. Places where he flies are at least bordering on controlled airspace around an Airforce base and in the downwind leg area of a civil airport that I know of. I offered to show him where the local model flying field was. His answer was, "No I'm not registered, the model mob don't approve of what I do." Same bloke flew a model indoors at work around people and still whinges about coming under disciplinary action. In short the gear capable of being misused is easily available and those that will use the gear any way they see fit are plentiful enough. The bloke I refer to is not a child.

Same sort of parents that buy the cheap go and annoy someone else motorbikes for their kiddies. Wouldn't think of club membership though. Rules, regulations, social responsibility, nah, "my kiddies can do whatever they want so long as it isn't in my face".. The cheaper the product the worse the clientelle.

There is a really good video on the EAA Tips For Homebuilders area which talks about why, how and the need for 2 people. Then they demonstrate the procedure starting with required tools, how to prepare, how to find TDC, how to secure the prop. Then they show exactly what will happen if the prop isn't secured. There are hundreds of tips for home builders on the site.

Thanks, I've posted an enquiry and will go back and look at trailers. I earlier made some enquiries about Gazelles for sale and thought "an awful lot of money for worn out GA trainers no longer being LAME inspected". How did you arrange your training? The 25 hours bizzo if I kit build would just about snooker me as I'd need to pay someone to fly them off then I could take a trainer on board, from how I read the regs anyway. Regards, Mike.

Thanks for tbe comprehensive reply Alan, Chrome moly traditional frame would interest me. Welding isn't new to me, but fabric covering would be a new experience. I like the idea of STOL and it was seeing the 7 day wonder (a CH750) going together at Oshkosh this year that set the hook. I have been taking lessons at the local GA school and have recently tried to get lessons with a local RAA instructor but no joy so far (he has a Savannah). I've looked at the X-air aircraft that robinsm suggested and made an enquiry to the dealer. I've spent a lot of time researching and I still know nothing (even less than Sgt Schultz). Regards, Mike

Rob, Is your Xair foldable trailerable?