Nightmare

Hi Cespal2

My understanding is that you'd need to make a "I'm medically fit to fly" statement, and pass a BFR. Best to chat with your local flight instructor about it.

Welcome nsialan9. I got mine nearly 3 years ago. jasmreid, better being on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground..... I've also got the itch to fly after an extended time of not so good conditions.

Hi and welcome to the forum Timbo! I fly into Caboolture often, as do a few of us on here. It's my local avgas supply, plus close to family.

I know a guy who quite recently had a total engine failure in flight. He did as you you said, bled off the energy until unfortunately he hit a tree, but he was so slow, he came out of it with only a cut lip. The plane was a write off though.

Hi Trevor and welcome to the forum. I'm sure you'll find heaps of good advice on here for your up and coming project, there are many on here who have built their own aircraft.

Hi and welcome Storm! Hope you enjoy, and wish you all the best should you decide to get into flying. Let us know if you book in for a TIF in the future.

My plane is up for sale if you're interested, 95-100kt cruise, 12-15L/hr fuel burn. 65L tank and 2 seat usable weight 181kg. RAAus registered. Cheep to run and maintain. Aviation Classifieds

I'm guessing that once you have passed a written test and it's signed in your log book by the CFI, I don't think you'd have to do it again, especially after only 18months. Of course you will be playing catch up, big time, as far as your practical training goes. Expect to be doing a few more hours to get to solo and the completion of your certificate, as it is competency based, as you know. BTW, your flight school is required to keep your training records, so talk to them. I changed schools at about 10 hours. I had to learn a new plane, a new airfield and a new instructor, so it took time for things to settle in for me. I feel it made me a better pilot.

Glad you recovered well from your experience. The beauty about RAAus is the medical declaration.

If you don't mind me asking, what happened?

Hi and welcome Sav

Luckily, being able to put it in idle saved my engine. The emergency procedure for loss of oil pressure is to reduce the power to just enough to maintain level flight and to land as soon as possible, and to expect a total engine failure. I don't think I deserve a medal, it scared the living, you know what, out of me, and still does, and it happened over a year ago. Make sure you renew any perishable hoses, fuel, oil etc, every 2 years.

I had an oil hose burst in flight once. Luckily, I was in the circuit on the downwind leg about to depart the circuit when it happened, smoke in the cabin and no oil pressure. I still had engine power, but I was thinking, how how long can an engine last without oil. So I reduced it to idle and landed with no power, rolled off the runway, with just a touch of power, then shut down as soon as possible. When I exited the plane, I saw the oil gushing down the nose wheel, and I realized just how serious the situation was. I am amazed how automatic my responses to the situation. It is a credit to our training.

There may be others that would disagree with me, but I don't think there would be any noticeable extra drag with the engine being out. Those props are there as drag when they are spinning. That's probably why we learn and practice our forced landing with the engine at idle.