JG3

I just finished fitting dual caliper Matco brakes in place of the single caliper that came on my Savannah. The improvement in braking effect is dramatic. Same master cylinder. And also no fade now, which used to be very noticeable when trying to stop downhill. The disc is much thicker and is steel instead stainless. Stainless is a very poor conductor of heat, so doesn't conduct heat away. JG

Mike, I recognize that as a Permacool brand oil thermostat. Several of us have tried them and found disappointing results. I found the Thermo-Bob coolant thermostat to be much more effective, without all those hoses and hoseclamps running hot oil. JG

Gday all Southerners, It seems like a good time for some of you in southern parts to start planning to fly up to Monto next year. We'd really enjoy seeing you again, and showing some real country hospitality. There's nothing quite like standing around a big open fire swapping aircraft stories, and sipping port, or whatever is your preference. It's a whole different experience from the formal and commercial feel of Temora. It's a really easy x-country flight, and a chance to see some new country; we've done it to Narromine so many times. The weather here is very dependable this time of year, with almost nil chance of rain. Daytime sunny and mid 20's, night time maybe a frost, but that won't bother you fellas, eh. So start planning, eh........ JG

you could consider giving a call on the international distress frequency 121.5. And also call on the area frequency. The line-of-site range to high-flying jets will be considerable, and they have means to forward a message for you. JG

In automotive comparison, the original Savannah looks like a real 4WD, which is just right for what it is. The S is trying to look like the pansy 4WD's meant for city use. I like the original much better. I've done video tuft testing on that square fuselage, and the airflow is much better than you'd expect. Nice clean flow, even at the corners. That rounded shape won't improve speed at all. Construction is so much easier with the square corners. I don't think it will be any lighter because of more complex internal framing. That's an interesting idea that the slab sides improves stability. It may well be so, because the Savannah is very stable in flight. I regularly fly x-country for hours at a time without touching the stick. JG

The traditional 'aircraft aluminium' is 2024. It's stronger for it's weight, but very prone to corrosion, fatigue, and bend cracking. Most of the recreational aircraft these days use structural aluminium 6061, which is very corrosion resistant, and less prone to fatigue and bend cracking. It's an excellent material. JG

I'm mystified by all those complaints about the cold. It was only about -1C and calm, no problems dressing for that. Canadians have a saying, "There's no inappropriate weather, just inappropriate clothing." I was toasty warm all evening and night. At sundown I just put on long johns, thick wool socks, a beany, and a couple of jumpers under my flying jacket. Bulked out like a teddy bear, but warm and cozy inside, even moving around between fires. At night just take off the flying jacket and jeans and into my double sleeping bags. Yes, double bags, just get a light weight summer bag and put it inside your regular bag. The double layers are even warmer than an expensive down bag. The summer bag weighs .9kg and fits in the palm of the hand. And that summer bag is good for those summer nights that are too warm for the regular bag. I have a lot of experience of light weight camping, and have learned how to be comfortable in all conditions. For more info on how to keep warm at minimum weight have a look at http://www.stolspeed.com/id/75 JG

Yeh, that 19 ft take-off at Valdez was into a strong headwind, flags fluttering straight out, and when you see all the snow on the surrounding mountains it was a very cold wind. Those aircraft are specially built for that competition, and tuned just for that role. Stripped down to absolutely minimum weight, such that they're too delicate for real bush use. Prop pitched so fine, that they can only fly at 60 before red line. A fair comparison would be the specially built dragsters you see at the race track. And in the Aeropakt video you can hear the wind roaring in the mic, and no leaves on the trees so that's cold European winter wind. To see STOL action in Australia, at 26degrees and 8-10kts, have a look at Hans in his 701 with extended wing and VGs at http://www.stolspeed.com/stol-videos JG

Yeh, been thinking about them, but no action yet. Too many other things more pressing, and I'm not real optimistic about the benefits on our aircraft. There's some claims around, but I've yet to see any real life comparison tests on aircraft. Differences that can be measured in a wind tunnel don't necessarily carry through to real life aircraft ops enough to be worthwhile. And since they're such a tempting opportunity for manufacurers for image marketing, as a skeptic I'm prejudiced on the suspicious side already...... JG3

Sunday morning at Monto, temp -1C. My Rotax started immediately, and warmed up much quicker than others that I watched ground running for ages to try to get the temps up. This difference was due to the coolant thermostat that I have recently installed. It makes a heck of a difference to warm-up time, and keeps absolutely constant 92 degrees in flight. See the story at StolSpeed Aerodynamics - Performance Enhancement for Light Aircraft Also noted that a quad bike with booster battery was making the rounds to start Jabirus....... JG

Yes, the RAAus Northern FlyIn was excellent! A good turn-out of just the right sort of flyers for really interesting visiting. An excellent venue of a country airstrip, with the catering by local service clubs. All home cooking, and the proceeds to good causes. There was hot soup until late, provided by the P&C of a school with only 46 students, and desperately trying to earn the funds to keep the school open. I really like to be able to help support such efforts! Several big open fires with heaps of good firewood provided. If the conversation turned to politics or some such boring trivia, then just move to another fire to find airplane talk. We'll all look forward to it again next year. JG

Yes thank you very much Rafael, We can learn much from Brazil about real life ethanol use. Brazil has many years of practical experience, and a good technical expertise, to know how to use ethanol successfully. We make such a big fuss about the possible dangers of 10% ethanol, and are afraid of it, while Brazil has figured out how to use much higher concentrations. I have heard of crop dusting aircraft running on 100% ethanol, and Australian-made Holden cars imported over there running on 20% ethanol mix with no problems. - You say you have not personally had problems with moisture. Has it been a problem for other users?? - We hear that it will be a problem for some rubber and gasket materials. Has it been a problem there?? - We are told that the Rotax 912 series is OK with some ethanol, but the fuel system itself may be a problem. Do Brazilian users take special precautions?? Hopefully others will ask questions, and we can all learn more from the Brazilian real life experience, rather than just our 'arm chair experts'. Once again, thank you for offering to help. Please don't feel embarrassed by your English, it is quite adequate. Ciao, JG

Just a reminder to periodically photocopy your pilot log book. I just remembered to do it recently, and noticed that I hadn't done it since 2007. That's much too long ago...... To lose the log book without a back-up would be a disaster...... JG

Hey Mark, don't ever feel anal about fussing about weight of your finished aircraft - it's REALLY important. Every once counts. So many make the mistake of adding weight and then are disappointed by the performance. JG

I just got back from a flight and need to correct my previous statement a bit. The screen doesn't highlight the button when you touch the screen, only when you press, but it doesn't activate until you release the pressure. In this way you can verify if the entry will be correct before releasing. If it isn't correct then you just slide away from the button and the highlight will disappear before releasing. Works really well. No I don't have map source or such. I would like to have better ground maps in there, ie Explore-Oz, but don't know how to do that yet..... JG

Yeh, I was also concerned about a touch screen in turbulence until I bought a 500, and find it's no problem. It's not a touch screen at all, it's a 'press' screen. It takes a distinct press to register. And very well designed, in that just touching the screen causes the item to highlight so that you know you've got the right one, then you have to press to trigger it. JG

I have a 500 and find it really good. The screen is very bright and clear. It's not really a touch screen at all, it's a 'press' screen, and well designed so that it's not a problem in turbulence. Just accidentally touching some part of the screen doesn't trigger it, you need to deliberately press it. Terrain resolution is entirely adequate. Terrain avoidance is a totally useless feature for our sort of slow flying machines. For terrain avoidance we just need to look out the windscreen. I can't find a way to permanently turn it off in the 500, so have to disable it each flight, and that's a damn nuisance.... But it can be a laugh if the voice feature is left on. On my first landing with the 500, the voice feature was still active. As I approached on final the lady kept warning in that expressionless computer voice, "Terrain, terrain" , until on short final she started shouting with panic in her voice, "Terrain, terrain, pull up, pull up, Terrain, terrain, pull up, pull up!" Once landed I soon silenced that annoying back seat driver..... JG

Three Savannahs and a 701 from Kilcoy went to Childers on Sunday, and really enjoyed the day. Good turn out and excellent hospitality. Look forward to doing it again! On the the way back we dropped into Gympie and just got the tail end of their fly-in/comp day. Same deal, good turn-out of keen flyers and excellent hospitality. Sure wish we could have been there for the whole day, but had previous commitments to Childers. Sure is great to see both those airfields with new enthusiastic members determined to make them active and interesting. But PLEASE get together and draw up a calendar that doesn't conflict so that we can support both efforts! I also heard that 45 aircraft turned up at Dunwich Breakfast the day before, which goes to show that there's now a large flock of flyers just looking for somewhere to go, and many aircraft under construction and soon will be out there wanting to join in. So there's some really active fly-in social times coming up in SE Qld! JG

Yeh, that was the silver/grey Drifter 'flying' at Inglewood all weekend. Need not say more........ Sad......

I have found a broken sf282 bracket as part of the nose leg support. See photo. There have been absolutely no hard nose wheel landings, but lots of taxiing on rough strips, 700hrs on the aircraft. There are three layers of metal at this point, so no concern of immediate failure. Conversations on the yahoo Savannah forum indicate that several other aircraft have noted similar breakage. To repair I made up a doubler to bolt to the side of the broken part. I used 2mm (.080) because that is the max thickness that fits against the firewall and inside the lower bolt heads. I used two AN-3 bolts above and two below the break. Increased the width at the narrow point as much as full lock on steering will allow, about double the original width. Much easier than replacing the entire part, and plenty strong. See photo. JG

With the new module on A side, it starts every time - so far..... So I guess the old module is marginal and intermittent at low revs. The old B module starts now, but didn't before, so maybe not quite as marginal, but needs to be replaced as well.... At least neither one ever even hesitated at flight revs. Now the question - why??? I don't think it was ever cranked with leads off and nowhere for the spark to go, but maybe.... That's just the sort of thing that could do the damage.... So it does appear to be the module after all. Yesterday I was doing lots of flight testing of reflexed flaperon settings, so many shut-downs and start-ups. Always started on the one module, and never a miss.... I'm guessing now that at an oil and plug change I must have cranked the engine with one or more plug leads dangling. That can cause tremendously high voltage spikes that have nowhere to go, and surge back and damage the primary side of things. I know that we must always put a plug back in the connector and lay the base of the plug on the engine block so that the spark can go safely to earth. But there are 'seniors moments', always have been come to thing of it, never was all that smart........ JG

With the new module on A side, it starts every time - so far..... So I guess the old module is marginal and intermittent at low revs. The old B module starts now, but didn't before, so maybe not quite as marginal, but needs to be replaced as well.... At least neither one ever even hesitated at flight revs. Now the question - why??? I don't think it was ever cranked with leads off and nowhere for the spark to go, but maybe.... That's just the sort of thing that could do the damage.... Sure be good to get flying again! JG

This morning it wouldn't start on the old A module, but did start on the old B. Once running it wouldn't run on the A side at lower revs again, but after less than minute of running then it would run on A right down to idle, and restart again only on A..... Not running near long enough for temperature of the module to change.... Thinking now that the significant clue to follow may be that the new module didn't show a spark at first cranking, so maybe it's not this old module that keeps changing it's mind, but something in the wiring after all. Maybe the running engine makes a contact re-establish... But that doesn't really explain why it would run above 2500pm but not below, and then a few moments later run fine right down to idle..... Probably two intermittent problems happening, independent of each other, which makes logic really confusing.... Sure wish I could find something broken and just replace it.... JG

Yesterday received a new module. Installed on 'A' side. Saw no spark at first while cranking...... Then more cranking and a good strong spark, but also now a spark on the B side with the original module which didn't spark before.... Engine now started immediately on A alone, or B alone, and mag checks good at all revs from 1400 to 3000rpm. Replaced the original module on A side to check it again. Wouldn't start. Started on B side, and wouldn't run on A side at less than 2500rpm, mag checks good above that speed. After about one minute of running, 'A' side decided to run well right down to 1400rpm... Now starting easily on A side old module alone.... These clues don't help narrow the mystery, but make it even more confusing..... ???????????????? Puzzling...... Going out to the airfield soon to see what surprises today will bring.... JG

Arkaroola?? Very welcoming to all flyers. All fuels available. No town and airstrip a long way from the resort, but the resort usually offers great transport service. Some accommodation as little as $15 a bed or campground facilities. Good food, but bar prices high (they have to make it somehow).... Absolutely the most spectacular mountain scenery, with real desert and salt lakes all round - great 'adventure' country. Celestial observatory. I'd really try to make it all the way from Queensland for that destination.... It's great to hear this talk of regional Fly-Ins. I think it might be a winner! A chance to meet everyone in a region, so worth a long flight. A lot more 'grass roots' fun and not so commercial as NatFly is becoming..... JG ps- Your comments on clubs thinking they own airstrips is so sadly true....