Jump to content

IBob

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    3,048

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    26

 Content Type 

Everything posted by IBob

  1. IBob
  2. IBob
    I had a altimeter fail very gradually: the first indication of that was when I set the QNH correctly preflight , it did not show the correct field elevation. Over a number of days it drifted further and further out. I would guess that one of the two internal bellows or cells sprung a tiny leak, and on inspection it looked as though one of them had not been put through a final plating process.
  3. IBob
    Hats off to the pilots who flew the tests with the Northrop HL_10. I'll stick with something that actually has wings...........
  4. IBob
    The pic certainly looks to be doctored.......while at the same time having been taken from slightly below. Maybe this was one of the tethered hovers mentioned, with the tethers blanked out. Nice hat, BTW.......)
  5. IBob
    Marty, FWIW, while the Savannah wing root skins do not fair down like the 701, I don't think I have ever had a fuel spill anywhere near that area. I routinely fuel from a 20L container via a funnel. I thought it would be clumsy, but it has worked out to be quite straightforward and manageable. Typically I do the starboard tank first, with the full container resting on the main spar (after first running my hand under the container to make sure it is free of dirt and grit). I am able to bend the nozzle over into the funnel, so delivery there is very clean. I get 10L into that tank, with the heel of the container resting on the main spar. I then move to the port tank, and here I must lift the container to deliver the remaining 10L. Occasionally I do get a small amount of splash just initially when doing this but certainly not any quantity, and nowhere near the wing root. Perhaps drape a cloth on the wing while you get your system worked out? But do remember to shut the doors......there have been a few doors damaged due to that oversight.
  6. IBob
    Right. Hm. That went well................
  7. IBob
    Yep, I was a freelance automation eng.... in 20+ years I only ever did 2 jobs where there was a full written spec of desired system behaviour, and one of those left a lot to be desired. I also wrote 1 spec for a customer, and found it very challenging to put together a concise and all-encompassing description.
  8. IBob
    A mate and I organised to use a Fieldair 3 periodically for jumping, which we were able to do once they were confident we could pack everyone in to the rear of the hopper without upsetting the C of G. I asked one of the pilots if he'd ever lost an engine and he said he'd thrown a rod in one but had to keep it running while he got turned round in a valley. Somebody did pull a wing off one, shortly after calling in to complain the strip was too rough.........(
  9. IBob
    I don't know what the thinking was, Nev. It may have been something as simple as the 3s working off less challenging strips?
  10. IBob
    Some footage at 3:35 here
  11. IBob
    Here's one for you Nev: Fieldair, a topdressing outfit here, used to operate DC3s and Beavers. And I was told that if they had a pilot slow to learn the ropes, they took them out of the Beavers and put them into the DC3s.
  12. IBob
    Yes. Unstable openings (opening while unstable), every jumpmaster's bad dream. For which reason the training back then focused hugely on maintaining a stable position (spread wide and arch back) and didn't normally progress beyond static line until the student could demonstrate that. In training we used to cut a little skydiver out of paper, bend him into an arch and drop him: regardless of attitude he will flip into a face down stable position and fall that way. Nowadays they do AFF (advanced freefall) courses where the student exits at altitude with 2 instructors holding them stable from the first jump. Youtube has some horror shows as to what sometimes happens when the student is let go on subsequent jumps. Arching and relaxing is an easy position (it's the laziest of sports)...just happens to be the opposite of the foetal position that fear is recommending at the time.
  13. IBob
    Having said that, given modern methods, I'm sure the manufacturers will have made real progress in optimising openings. Also an aircraft canopy has no modifications (holes cut in to generate horizontal movement), and is attached via a single point (where a jump canopy is attached at two, potentially uneven, shoulder points), both of which will contribute to more reliable openings.
  14. IBob
    Round canopies can open very slowly, or fail to open at all. It was unusual but not that unusual in sport jumping and there was often no identifiable reason. It used to be assumed that meticulous packing, with every gore laid out absolutely identical to within fractions of an inch, would help prevent this. But slow motion footage of openings shows that, once out of the container, the canopy may move around in all sorts of ways prior to opening. Back when all canopies were round, one jumper at our dropzone routinely did twice as many jumps as anyone else. And to do that...to land, pack and be ready....he would 'trash pack': just a basic standing one sided flaking of the canopy, then pull on the sleeve (as distinct to the standard, which was to tension and split the canopy into L and R and fold each side carefully on the ground, then fold in and pull on sleeve.) He never had a malfunction or bad opening in the 2+ years I was there.
  15. IBob
    I have much the same as perrynz above. And once I put on more than 1/3 flap (I have Mark Kyle 3 position flaps) I then run out of up trim and have to hold the nose up. I believe that is normal, and I have come to like flying slow approaches like that.
  16. IBob
    Wish him a speedy recovery....)
  17. IBob
    ???????
  18. IBob
    Christin, I have old style discharge tube wingtip strobes, ordered with my kit when I knew no better. But I would not go that way again as they are relatively useless in daylight. Following fatal midairs here, especially one at our local field with the reports and studies that then raised, there is an increased realisation of just how challenging 'see and be seen' actually is. I hear you on the budget, but it is not something I would be looking to economise on. As an aside to that: we are taught that effective visual scanning can only be done by shifting the sight in a series of steps, pausing at each step to process. In reality, how many pilots actually fly like this? I must have sat next to dozens of pilots over the years, and I can't say I have ever seen this in action: the most I have ever seen is periodic sweeping checks. Anyone?
  19. IBob
    PS well done spotting them proud rivets! And...I actually wrote to ICP more recently about the Savannah manual.....endeavouring to point out that translation is best done by native speakers (in fact, prior to the interweb, professional translators translated only INTO their native language). To which I received a polite reply from the technical manager........in broken English. Well..........I tried.........(
  20. IBob
    sfG for my Sav build, I found it useful to put the parts listing (with it's exploded diagrams) into a separate manual, so that I could have both that and the build manual open at the same time. I also benefited hugely from build pics posted by others on this site....so much so at times that I also had an old laptop on the bench where I could look at the pics. Also in the first part of the build there was another builder in the area: initially I was ahead of him and he would ask me about stuff, then I took a break and he got ahead so I was calling him. I also messaged Mark Kyle on occasions, and he was always helpful. And finally I would bounce stuff off the then Australian agent, who was hugely knowledgeable. But I didn't bother him unless all else failed. All of which is to say I think it is far harder if you are working in isolation. And much easier (and less error prone) if you are in contact with other builders.........
  21. IBob
    The Savannah manual calls for countersunk A4 rivets fitted flush there.
  22. IBob
    Hopefully dey got a natif English speaker to translate Die Ventura Book.........)
  23. IBob
    With the riveting 'beads', suggest you make several as they tend to fall off and roll under the bench when you pull the rivet. And I think steel (mine were just MS reinforcing rod) would be better than aluminium, which does not slide freely. In retrospect a bit of soap on the stem would probably help when doing this.....though it's not something I tried.
  24. IBob
    You and every other builder, ever, sfG..........) BTW a few rivets will probably be in tight corners. Looking at what others had done, I filed as much as possible off the top of my rivet gun to make it less bulky there. And you can also pull rivets without having the gun straight: I drilled a rivet stem sized hole down the centre of some 1/4" steel rod, then cut it off into individual 'beads'. By filing an angle onto one end of the bead (which you then thread onto the rivet stem), you can pull a rivet flush with the gun at an angle. There are obvious limits to this and sometimes the stem breaks high, rather than in the rivet body, but that is easily cleaned up.
  25. IBob
    sfG, as discussed elsewhere here, the corrosion proofing of joins is very important. I primed everything, but initially used the black stuff and brushing or speed brushing did not work well at all, giving me uneven cover and a lot of black stuff pushed through the rivet holes. Were I to build again, I would definitely invest in the Paint Buddy. While they are not readily available in NZ or Australia, I would see the cost and inconvenience of sourcing from elsewhere as very minor in the context of the build, both in terms of ease and economy of use and making a proper job of it. If it is anything like the Savannah, you don't need many tools, but it makes a big difference to speed and quality of build if those tools are well matched to the job.
×
×
  • Create New...