rankamateur

Not yet I hope! He has to get my BFR and IFA prop endorsement done before he is allowed to retire.

Found the other half! Now final inspection complete a just getting acceptable paperwork through RAA for a Permit to Test Fly.

Military airspace is like nuclear reactors, great idea as long as they aren't in my backyard!

I considered posting this story under the title "Fraser Islands plane crash caused by drunk fisherman!" The statement about the frequency of sand bogging is going to do nothing to improve the operators insurance premiums.

Yes, that was probably understood.

This would be part of the reason they kept him circling for an hour, to get the right people in the tower where he needed them. The other would be to get the fire trucks fuelled up.

Mine are pulling on the retaining rivets, so no risk of a gap. If they pop the heads off the rivets I will use them for a pattern to make a couple of thicker ones.

Does it seem strange to anyone other than me that the factory supplied( in my case factory fitted) 600 Kg upgrade spacers are of a thinner aluminium section than the clevis on the strut which straddles the two wing attachment plates that the upgrade plate is rivetted in between. The result is that the attachment plates have a lot of stress on them at the closest rivet on the upgrade plate. It feels like the upgrade plate should be the same thickness as the strut clevis.

Glad to see that white on the leading edge, It scares me to see the wrinkles popping in and out in the sunshine on a nice dark purple or dark blue leading edge as it expands and contracts. Ever bent an aluminium can back and forth two or three times?

I have been waiting for you, what has taken you so long? I am waiting for Mark's instructor to finish a few repairs and get his mind back on instructing and we will take care of the non-currency.

Cowlings of the same period required a hell of a lot of preparation before painting, at most they were a scaffold to build fill onto. Gel coat is heavy no doubt but by the time they were bogged up enough to paint, I wonder how much weight advantage remained. On the build wiring strobes to controller, fit 3A circuit breakers to Radio and C/S prop, fit rego decals, fit battery and add fuel. I have done my Weight and Balance course so will drain to unusable fuel, Weigh and get L4 inspection done and then it will be just paperwork. I am badly non-current on my licence so will have to do some refreshment with an instructor and get my BFR done too.

Good to see they have moved away from the one piece fibreglass wingtip. Mine (13-05) are some of the last fibreglass forward, aluminium to the rear. Looking at the PITA that the full fibreglass tips cause to get anything like a decent fit, it is a good move. ICP are not shy about evolving their design, continually seeking improvement. It would make the parts inventory a problem to keep track of. I also took up the extended rudder which was designed at Aerokits Yetman factory and adopted by ICP for their tail dragger version of the Savannah S.

Just had a look around the internet, looks like Xcom has gone the way of the DODO which is a shame if true.

I stand thoroughly corrected, only saw what was on TV, no NBN internet out here!

All over the TV they refered to the dangling bloke as the studeht who the instructor didn't hook on. I got the impression the instructor may have hung around too long while setting the student off solo, and ended up hanging on for dear life when the ground ran out.

Would it be more tedious that epoxy filling and sanding all the rivet heads as I have already done? I am thinking that would be a good start to getting a good wrapping result but I would still be a bit concerned about the weight difference between wrap and a conservative layer of paint.

Well Bob you have got me half motivated again.

I did a four and three quarter hour nav at the end of my training, came up from Evans Head to Glen Innes on the way home. It was the most enjoyable part of the whole project. Due to a misleading wind prediction in the weather report, our track took us much closer to Grafton than first planned but it made for a very scenic flight home.

Replacement!!! I used a Maricat for years with rusty stay wires, all went well until the day it didn't. they just snap when they go with no warning. We dismasted, rolled the sail around the boom, lashed the mast and boom to the trampoline and started paddling back to the beach. Or you could wear a parachute.

They sound a bit wet to me!

Commant 121 in the kit I got, I installed it on top, but put the unity gain UHF antenna under the fuselage, it still has plenty of ground clearance.

Xcom add a harness to a standard dash mount GME uhf set to interface with their airband set, I installed them myself, nothing challenging, just regular tools and farmer skillset.

Time they had an Australian agent! Do they have any on going subscription costs?

When the prop is hard to pull through and the cause is a bent crankshaft!

Good!