IBob

Here is how it went for our group of about 20 in the chamber: At 18,000' we all took our masks off and it was like being at a party where everyone has had a few beers (or something) and are thoroughly enjoying themselves. We were asked a few questions about the lecture we had had beforehand, nobody could much remember the details of that, but this was generally hilarious. Masks on and we went to 25'000, masks then off in pairs while everyone else watched. We had scratch pads and were to subtract 7 from 301, 7 from the result and so on. After about a minute you can't do it...but that's fine, you're happy to keep trying. Every minute or so the instructor holds a finger up in front of you, and you are to repeatedly to touch his finger, then your nose. After about a minute this becomes very difficult: you can touch his finger with a lot of weaving around, but you can't seem to accurately touch your nose, the best you can do is somewhere on your face. You are required to hold your arms out straight in front of you, and you can't maintain that: they go out, but then fall down and you repeatedly jerk them back up, they fall again: hypoxic flaps. It's all fine, but after about 2 mins (or hypoxic flaps, if sooner) you are told to put your mask back on. Whereupon your colour vision comes back, though you'd not noticed you had lost it. We had folk wouldn't put their masks back on, so far as they were concerned they were doing just fine despite being unable to do any of that above. And we had one outstanding example of target fixation: with the nose touching exercise, one of the group wouldn't let the instructor put his hand back down. Each time he tried to, she grabbed it and put it back up in front of her so she could continue trying to do it. Got very indignant about it too. Recovery is usually surprisingly rapid too once you get the mask back on. Though apparently some continue into hypoxia, and we had one of those needed extra oxygen for a bit. And we had one who apparently functioned fine at 25,000ft, and a smoker at that.

Insidious is exactly the right word. I attended one such course and what surprised me was there are no warning bells: nothing at all, in fact quite the opposite, it is euphoric and everything is just cruisy. That is in complete contrast to just about any other physical danger we may face and where we invariably experience a reflexive physical and/or mental alarm. And it explains, for instance, why a hypoxic diver (same problem) may happily just swim on down...

Okay, so it looks as though the recorder itself would function through a power outage, provided the cutover is seamless ( I would be surprised if it is not). I wonder what powers this lot. I guess my thought is that, while the FDR may continue to operate, in the event of a power loss there may be no data arriving for it to record.

Question: do the flight recorders have their own emergency power? And how much can they 'see' to record if other systems have lost power?? Yep, two questions again.........

Air India will get a pounding: an article I cannot now find explained how India's aviation authority is chronically undermanned with a very large proportion of positions (40%...50%???) unfilled.

Also on the Bing, you may want to check the idle throttle stop and idle jet settings. These are very simple static settings, just so many turns of a screw in each case. One of mine was out on a new Rotax, I think one idle jet, but I'm not now sure.

Hi Lyle, if the Bing is the same as on the Rotax, the 'choke' does nothing unless the throttle is fully closed. The reason is that it's not really a choke in the conventional sense, but a separate fuel circuit that delivers through a port only when the butterfly is closed. I had thought this would be common knowledge for Rotax owners, but you can still fish up 'how to start a Rotax' stuff on Youtube, from supposedly knowledgeable operators, where they crack the throttle open then pull on the choke...

If something went wrong with the aircraft..........let us hope not, but if.........whoever has those recordings is sitting on dynamite............(

If there's a loud hissing too, it probably means your coffee is ready???

Question: who has possession of the flight recorders, and who gets to extract and analyse the data? Okay, that's 2 questions.......

This has K thermocouple temperature/voltage tables. You may be able to check at ambient with a good voltmeter: https://www.thermocoupleinfo.com/type-k-thermocouple.htm

I don't have much experience of other aircraft, but it seems to me the Savannah, basic as it is, is very well thought out in various ways. A credit to the original designers of the Zenith 701 and those who have developed and modified it since.

Hi Mark, I'm pretty sure that ICP made a similar adjustment to the stick pivot point. I think the problem emerged with the adjustable seats, not only can we sit further forward, but we are now sitting higher. My kit was dated Dec 2014. Here is a pic of my ICP handle, and beside it the ICP bracket that came with my kit. And the full flap position appears to have their stick vertical.

So far as I know, not yet, Skippy. But, given his history of providing solutions and improvements..................

I bought the excellent Kyle Communications 3 position brackets (above) and fitted this:

Skippy, it's not so much strength as the position of the flap handle now that we have adjustable seats that some of us have set forward. The earlier Savannahs had fixed seating, fully back, so it wouldn't have been an issue. As for how much flaps: the Savannah is pretty much a STOL aircraft if you want it to be. So it depends whether you're STOLing or not...........)

Interesting! 2030: I'll set my alarm (by the rocking chair......)

Someone has been trying to sell a couple of these here for a while. NZ$50 or 60K each, with very much to be done......

They're not shouldered...and it's a sh*t of a job. I cleaned the old sealant out of the thread in the head using a shotgun cleaning brush and acetone (I think that's right?) And initially I misread the manual and used the wrong sealant......so I did it twice. I don't know why Rotax don't do the same as the upper elbows, which just clamp down onto an o-ring, but I expect there's a reason...........(

There are online models for calculating the flow. Yes, the joints seem a bit clumsy, but they are a very simple, economical and reliable way to do the join. And the 'rubber' end may serve to buffer vibration. It's not too hard to support or secure it all to avoid major vibration.

aviatorpl I have messaged you.

Hi PeterB, ICP who manufacture the Savannah have been supplying the metal hose with their kits since 2014, perhaps earlier. So far as I know there have been no problems with it, and I would think we would have heard if there was. As you can see in the pic, it is terminated with short lengths of 'rubber' hose. It certainly allows for a very compact installation.

I wouldn't conflate the service style with the product. My position would be that you're wanting to buy a good product to do the job reliably: if that comes via a less polished sales outlet, yes that's pesky, but does that effect the product?

Yep, it's a nono..........but can happen......

Curious. I asked because, thinking of the various Rotax powered aircraft at our airfield, I'm not aware of any having that failure. No doubt there will be a limit to the design output: I see 13.5A quoted. There is also a potential problem (no pun intended) with turning off the master switch with the engine still running, in which case the DC output spikes. Or that's my understanding, hence the fitting of the external capacitor, to take the edge off that. Will that damage the regulator, or is that principally to protect avionics etc?