Traveldoc

Lightening trip on Ducati to see the new machine. (Had to be back in Sydney by 1pm.) No chance to fly in it yet. Overall looks well made and fit for purpose. Need to fix a few minor bugbears and move foot controls forward as much as is allowed. Only one pilot available who can endorse me on this machine = the ferry pilot! Says it will be pretty easy.

Savannah delivered today! 5.5 hours flying time from Broken Hill!! Waiting for me in the flying school hangar at Bathurst!!! Ferry pilot reckons she's a beauty!!!! Better stop now or I'll run out of exclamation marks!!!!!

Thanks O-K. I did look hard at SuperStol but: tailwheel = extra training, a lot more expensive and thirdly not many of them around, especially second-hand. Actually I am almost a Quirindi local. Grandfather born at Balmy Flat, grew up in Murrurundi, taught to fly gliders by ex-Quirindi schoolteacher. The background of on of Brett's video clips is the Liverpool Range where I spent many hours fox hunting about 40 years ago. My local doctor in those days used to fly from Quirindi twice a week after he lost his car drivers licence.

Phil Perry............ I'll bet your X-country Navs will be conducted with surgical precision too. . . . . I'll get me coat. . . . . I'm hoping for a bloodless field.

Update 9th Jan 2016. RAAus Pilots Certificate with passenger endorsement....Tick. Took me 54.2 hours in close to 6 months and about $10K. Five of those hours were just for the passenger ticket. Flight test was great fun actually. (I thought it would be stressful). Steep turns, PFLs X 4, Short field landings X 2 and of course all the radio calls and normal circuit joins etc. Now to get my Savannah delivered from SA so I can start on X-country! S

Where can I buy Mr Funnel large. $125 on eBay. Bought the eBay one. No reply needed.

I had no dramas with the council with mine. It was put up as a "machinery shed" 270 sq m. The inspector asked why it had sliding hangar doors. I said to him well if you can lift a 15 mtr wide roller door dude you can call it that The shed needs to be lockable and I cant rely on power as we are on a SWER line for a motorised door. He accepted that explanation...knowing full well that it was going to be a hangar...oh sorry machinery shed Mine will be minimalist in the extreme compared to your Taj Mahal A big carport with 3 walls. No doors. I'll put some kind of heavy duty motorcycle anchor chain set into ground for security. And farm gates across the front to keep cattle out. S

2011 built by an engineer. 250 hours spent in the desert! Wired by a LAME. 2-pack paint. Aera 500 GPS. ICOM 210 radio. (Does my enthusiasm show?) S

My new machine (at Broken Hill?) Delivery was interrupted by adverse wind. 35kt on the nose. Try again soon. Next question: Where can I buy Mr Funnel large. $125 on eBay. Steve

Hoping to fly to Taswegia one of these days.

Shed frame is only 12 X 7m. Being on top of great divide at 1150m elevation we get some very strong westerly winds on occasion. Thinking that smaller frontal area exposed to wind = better. I can shorten the overall shed height to about 3m easily and use the left over steel for more strength. No problem with council approval as its a "farm shed". And airstrip is a manicured cow pasture. The windsock?......needed for spraying operations. And thanks for the advice. Comment about bigger wheels especially as I had forgotten that!

Hello Savannah people Just finishing my RAAus cert and just bought a Savannah VG to fly off my farm at Oberon NSW. No doubt I have a big learning curve ahead and I'm hoping this usergroup will have some answers and advice when I need them. I'll keep the machine at flying school until practised and confident enough for landing on my own grass airstrip. Might be a while as I'm a pretty cautious individual. First question: How high does hangar need to be. I have some shed framing about 4m high in centre of gable. Maybe I can shorten the walls somewhat and make it stronger and less wind-exposed. Cheers Steve

Rod, sounds like me 5 months ago. All a bit unnatural and slightly nerve wracking.....Is this really for me?? 40 hours later much more relaxed and basic flying inputs are starting to become automatic. Now looking for an aircraft to buy! Steve (originally from Murrurundi)

I'm still fairly healthy at 58 but free time is not plentiful. Hospitals 4 days + on-call. Cattle farm 3 days. 2 hours flying each Fri and Sat. Cows are feeling a bit neglected. Having an aircraft at the farm will save 3 hours a week commuting. -Well that's one of my arguments anyway. S

Gday mate. I'm doing anaesthetics in western Sydney since 1998. Long story but I was doing ICU training, went to Theatres for 3 months airway training and never went back!! ....a true story. CareFlight Sydney 1999 = 200 hours in 412 and BK117. Then "weekend warrior" at Orange in Agusta 119 for a few years until dropkick state premier sold off the helicopter retrieval service to Canadians. Had an unofficial "fly" of the 412 3am on a cold winters morning over the top of Sydney Harbour Bridge. An amazing treasured memory. Of course multi-thousand hour Vietnam vet pilot in RH seat!! I have thought of building a Savannah or Super STOL but time is marching on. Would take me a few years probably and be in mid 60s before I can fly it, and not really any saving either. Want to get some value out of this training. Yes I have found the aviation crowd very pleasant people. But I am still surprised at how old most of them are! :-) Cheers Steve

Phil Perry Thanks Phil this is most useful information for me. I appreciate your reply very much. A bit more background: My farm is at ~3900' AMSL in what is considered a "cold" district here in Australia. Snows a few times every year but summers can get warmish = 30 Celsius in mid summer. Did an aerial survey with my CFI few weeks ago and he rejected my possible airstrips due to terrain and prevailing westerly winds. He did find a nice smooth ridge that runs slightly uphill to the East and is 430m long, about 50m of which probably too steep really. Checked later on the ground and it's nice hard packed smooth basaltic soil with close-cropped grass (almost lawn!) There are some BGTTs at the eastern end, actually its a state-owned pine forest. So we are talking one-way strip. Winds usually calm to mild early mornings can get quite strong westerly in afternoons. So here's my take on this: Should be OK for STOL aircraft in good conditions. Cold air and westerly downhill takeoff with 400m to spare and firm lawn surface sounds pretty ideal even at 4000 feet elevation. Hot summers day with strong tailwind I'll avoid flying even though landing will be uphill. If I get caught out in such conditions Ill go and land at Bathurst (about 20 nm) on runway 26 and then plan my next move. Usually the wind drops late afternoon. I will make quite sure of familiarity with new aircraft and short field techniques before doing any of this stuff. Cheers Steve

About 30 hours logged now. 2.4 hours of solo and 2 exams left to do + precautionary search + steep turns. Vastly more enjoyable flying solo. Feels like I have achieved something. Looking forward to flying my own off my own strip.

Lets see, CH701, Savannah XL, Foxbat, X-Air Hanuman, Hornet Cub, JA Superstol. That's my contenders. Probably any one of them would be satisfactory but it will be quite some time if ever before I can hire each of them and land on newly formed one-way farm strip. Nice idea though. JB your cabin photo gives me hope. Maybe I'm 6-7 cm taller from backside up. looks OK. With a roof as in #482 I'll be laughing. S

Picture taken during recce flight last week. As you can see there is plenty of room for a hangar but need to build it first. Until I'm happy and confident I'll probably leave the aircraft at YBTH parked on the grass.

Just checked different websites. Some have diagonal still in place. This is what I'm thinking of:

Correct. Still working full time + cattle farm + flying lessons. Finding it hard even to do RAAus exams time-wise. (But I have enough time to post on here you ask?.......on call for main job as we speak) I have seen a few posts on US websites where people were disappointed with the CH750 performance.....Probably OK with 130Hp. Beanie mod pictures seemed to show that diagonal brace having been removed. I might be wrong. I was really interested in Superstol but again need time for build and not the cheapest kit around. And tail dragger need extra skill to fly.

Thanks for replies. My "possibles" list of Foxbat, Savannah and Zenith relates to what I have seen that is for sale, and what I can afford. Zenith 701 are at the lower end in terms of cash requirement and with beanie mod might be big enough for me. (Also with bubble doors fitted) If I had enough time available I'd go for the savannah kit no question, but it would probably take me years. Foxbat is at the high end but with advantage of 600Kg MTOW = better for carrying heavy passenger + full fuel. Have only seen one X-air Hanuman for sale, looks good but similar price to all-metal aircraft. I may have to park out in the open for a while. S

Hello chaps, Newby chiming in here. Currently doing my RAAus pilots certificate specifically so I can fly around the farm in my own STOL aircraft! Up to hour 23 of training. I am 186cm (~6'2") 105Kg and had a short test flight in Foxbat. Good shoulder and head room but knees a little close to the instrument panel. Sat in Savannah XL at Narromine Air Show seemed snug but tolerable. Looks like used Zenith 701 are the most economically viable option for me but are they big enough? Now, the reason for this post: If I bought a registered 701 can I do the "beanie" modification (where cabin roof is raised and formed into aerofoil profile) legally and still be allowed to fly it? Apologies if this topic has been covered already. I have only seen it on US websites. Regards, Steve