alf jessup

I think from what i have been told Hotham (Dinner Plain ) is something like $75 to land on in fees, so that works out to 75 cents a meter if your going to use 100 meters, me I would use full flap and ask for a price per meter and get off and stop asap, if not just use 1/4 throttle and get your moneys worth of their bitumen.

126.75 i think is the frequency and over 4000+ amsl.

Nice looking runway also, i have flown over it quite a number of times heading to Porepunkah and back

Cheers

Alf

Mike,

Also forgot to mention in my last post it could have also had some ice build up in the intake area which could have broken off and went through the carby.

Alf

Mike,

Sounds to me like a serious dose of carby ice, probably broke off the butterfly and deadened a cylinder for a few seconds, chunks of ice have been know to hit the plug tips and close the gaps.

I'm guess it was carb ice but that is only my opinion.

I have heard of a 6 cylinder Jab motor at my local getting carby ice on taxi and I'm guessing it happens to the 4 cylinder ones also

Cheers

Alf

Pete,

Just go buy some good quality tie wire and a set of tie wire pliers, cant remember what gauge it is but will look at mine when i'm next out at the airfield and let you know.

Cheers

Alf

Scott

It's all trial and error and i am sure you will work it out fine and i am also sure you and the boys up there will be far happier with the performance of the radios with this set up than with them set up on the strutt.

Cheers

Alf

Scott,

On mine the bottom rubber duckie can get to 1mm from the prop tip at its lowest point (bar fully forward) but that is only if you bend the rubber duckie back towards the prop tip hence that is why i angled it slightly forward.

If you go straight down like in your one it will be close to the prop arc and about an inch or more below the tip with a great possibility of being sucked into the prop.

With mine as soon as the bar comes off the front strut the duckie is well above the tip of the prop.

The only reason i put a bit of sash cord from the lower part of the flexible duckie to the keel wires at the rear was, 1. a bit of redundancy in the off chance the prop could suck the flexible part of the duckie back into the 1mm tip of the prop when the duckie is at its lowest point (control bar fully forward (not at all likely to happen) and 2, it will stop the antenna from undoing and would also prevent it going through the prop if it did some how happen to fall off.

I put a little thought into it before i made it.

Cheers

Alf

I can resend you the photos when i get back home if you wish to relook at them

Scott,

Should work fine mate, one thing for sure is it will work 10 times better than on the strut and that i will have a small wager on lol.

Cheers

Alf

Ray / Scott,

Just wondering if you have made up and tried out the keel block for the aerial and what your results have been if you have, me I am very happy now with mine.

Would be interested to hear from you.

Cheers

Alf

While attempting to remove left carby bowl on a friends 912 to check and fill the bowl as it hadn't been started in 3 months I put the very slightest upward pressure on the carby and the rubber flange pulled out from the mounting plate to the manifold.

Very surprised by the amount of pressure i applied to the carby while trying to get the bowl clip off for it to do this.

The machine has only done 160hrs TT, luckily for me I had 2 spares as i changed mine out recently just for the sake of changing them.

Could have been a fault with this flange as I have appleid far more pressure to mine and never had a problem, the rubber that failed still looked looked brand new.

Puzzling !!!!!

Cheers

Alf

Oh by the way all to you ga pilot licence holders out there i'm not intending to bag you all out i am just trying to say we are not all perfect and Mr Nan narrow mind needs to open his eyes and get off his pedestal and maybe get contact lenses so he doesnt have to look down his nose over his glasses at us mere mortals who fly other aircraft that dont have VH on the side or wings.

Alf

Geez Doug,

How come at my airfield it's always the ga trained pilot flying in that hasn't looked at his ersa that does his circut in the wrong direction or does the flyby down the centre of the runway at 500 ft with a tear drop turn past the end of the runway then lands or the cessna from moorabbin that makes no inbound calls at a aerodrome near me then enters circut without a call and then flys his final 20ft underneath a trike who has made all appropriate calls and is on final about 60 ft up and then doesnt even realise what he had done wrong (mind you they were not good speakers of english), yep if that is what they teach you no wonder every one is deserting the hi cost aviation sector.

Have a look in your own nest before crapping in ours.

Recreationonal training is as good as the person that is teaching it as is yours.

Cheers

One of these untrained flyers

Bass,

I put about 200 ml of water in a glass jar and mark the jar at the water level, then add about 500 / 600 ml of fuel into the jar and shake the bejeezus out of it and then let it settle for 5 or so minutes, if the water level rises above the mark the fuel has ethanol in it.

That is what and how i have been shown to detect ethanol in fuel.

Cheers

Alf

Fuel only from the same major retailer and own test conducted at intervals for ethanol for this service station i use, 2 x 20 lt plastic fuel containers and Mr funnel when fueling the trike.

Never a drop of fuel ever been in the tank without going through the funnel and fuel tank always topped of completely full prior to coming offshore to work for 2 weeks.

And fuel tank drain after every fill and prior to next daily flight even if no fuel was added.

Alf

Mark,

Drop the carby bowls off (check and see if there is anything in the bowls) and give the float needles a tap as could possibly be a bit of crud holding the float needle open causing the carby to flood at idle revs.

Even with the bowls off and ignition switches off pull the motor through a few times as this will flush the float needles out.

Thats what is sounds like to me.

I'll give you a call from work when i get out there Tuesday.

Cheers

Alf

Ray & Scott,

I just been flying and didnt take my camera, I am just heading to watch my son play footy then off to Melbourne to take my mum down for her herart surgery tomorrow,

Will be back later tonight so will try and get some photos of it tomorrowe( monday) before i head offshore for my 2 weeks.

Cheers

Alf

Ray,

You have tundra tyres and I dont, anyway i fixed the problem and the radio works 5 times better now that with the airborne strut set up.

I got a block of nylon about 4 inches long machined up exactly the the same as the keel extension post where it goes into the keel.

It is held in place by the pin that holds the keel extension when inserted into the keel, I also tapered it down about 10mm towards the rear which bought the small aerial away from the prop and ran with the original cabling that use to run up to the kingpost.

The antenna is now away from from the electronic interference aroung the engine and now there is also no shadowing.

It cost me 60 bucks to get a machine shop to make it and it is the best 60 bucks I have spent.

I will try and get a couple of photos of it tomorrow and send them to you, trust me it is a far better set up than on the strut (atleast it is for me)

Reception and transmit is crystal clear now.

Cheers

Alf

Im not happy at all with the reception and transmitting of the new aerial on the undercarridge strutt as when I transmit it effects my skydat by shooting the egt's off the scale and making the alarm flash on while the button is pressed, i think the power generated by the radio coming out of the antenna is radiating to the instrument module box on the top of the engine.

I might turn over the antenna so the long one is on the bottom but i will have to use my old wire one as I can bend it to shape so it does not hit the ground as the new fiberglass one will be too long.

McGuyver do you have any details on this mounting out of the keel tube extension, do you cut down an extension tube so it does not stick out as far, also would you clamp it or drill out the extension tube, I am also gathering this would only be suitable for the V rabbit aerial.

My new aerial that i got with the sst wing works nothing like my old one ontop of the kingpost on the ST3 wing, frankly i think it was a waste of money.

Cheers

Alf

Welcome back were you Ben Hidin.

Cheers

Alf

I think all the decisions made were good ones as they are all here still to talk about it, we all at sometime in our flying career will get caught out by the weather, I have and have survived the experience and made me a little wiser.

I have never taken off when conditions have been not favourable but have looked at forecasts and trusted them only to be caught out by the unexpected not forecast situation.

we will never live in a perfect aviation world but as long as we learn from our experiences and take it onboard we may just live to fly another day like these guys have.

I say if you keep tempting fate one day it will bite you.

Cheers

Alf

My condolences to the wife and familys and passengers family.

If you continue to play with fire eventually you will get burnt if your lucky, in aviation you dont get too many chances.

Watching the video I was amazed the poor fellow lasted this long, not condoning his piloting skills in any way which he seemed to have, Just condoning his lateral thinking in doing it in this type of aircraft and let alone with friends in it.

Yeah looks great for all your friends to see you doing these awesome manovers but do it my yourself as you have the life of your friends in your hands, so all out there before you decide to beat it up have a think about the concequenses as you don't get any deader the death itself.

Fly safe and let us all learn something from this unfortunate accident.

Alf

Hi Ray,

Well time will tell on the strut as of this morning i removed the old one I had on the kingpost from the strut where I had it installed while waiting for the new on to arrive,

Only have a short lenght of cable now instead of 4 meters coiled up with this new one.

All I am waiting on now is the weather to calm down as it is blowing it's butt off here and the SST is itching to go flying, hmm maybe that is me itching to go.

I will let you know the results as soon as I can get airborne.

Cheers

Alf

Well I had no problems with the transmit and reception with the wire antenna ontop of the kingpost on the ST 3 with it pointing upwards and the short flexible diapole down along the kingpost, this is what come with the trike when I got it and I had nothing but good reports about my radio from other aircraft in the 400 odd hrs i used it.

Now, SST wing on and original set up now on the right strut of the XT reception seems a little less good, mind you I have finally recieved in the mail today the anrenna set up that comes with the new sst wing as they had none when they sent it hence the temp set up from my old kingpost antenna, I still dont fancy the set up off the right under carrige strut but this is what they recommend, the difference is with the new gear from airborne it is 2 x fibreglass flexible rubber coated ariels the larger stiff and the short one flexible which will be good as the angle of the installation contacts the belly bag.

Hopefully the reception side of things will improve otherwise where too from here as there is no kingpost on the sst and I dont particicular fance mounting it on the pod at the front even though it would probably get less interference.

Will keep you posted on result after i fit it and get to fly it again once the weather calms down.

Cheers

Alf

Hi Alf,Whats involved in the repacking?

Does it have to go back over seas with all the associated freight problems?

 

Bill,

 

I know you cannot sent the rocket back with the chute, as far as i can recall you have to send the chute cannister back to BRS minus the rocket.

 

When the rocket expires i guess you just have to re order one and go through the motions of getting it into country.

 

Alf

My 2 bobs worth,

I fly a trike and flew over 450hrs without a chute feeling totally comfortable in the machine I was flying.

Then one day coming out of a turn i came across 4 ibis's directly infront of me (yes i scanned b4 the turn but didnt see them) at about 20 ft above me with no time to react and they dived as they do, one missed my leading edge spar by inches and there i was picturing myself spiraling to the ground with one and a half wings.

I got home that day and had a think about what my life was worth and realised it was worth much more that the $6400 it cost me to get the chute and fit it if it gave me a possible second chance at living if i needed it. I have no doubt in my ability and my machine it is for the unexpected like i found out that can jump out from the unknown and the known.

Yes i did do some research on the BRS 1050 chutes designed for the XT912 before i commited and one of my concerns was the chute deploying in flight.

After reading all the info on this chute by BRS the only way they "say" the chute will deploy is if the activation handle is pulled to fire the pin or the cable running to the chute gets snagged on a branch or some fixture that could activate the firing mechanizm, the chute they say will not deploy with a hard landing or even in a fire.

It is an induvidual choice whether or not you like ,dislike, want or don't want a chute but rest assured if the time came where you may need a second chance you might just wish you had one of those gimmicks on just to see if it would have saved you.

Let me tell you if i ever need to use it and it don't open you will all know what the last thing going through my mind was on the way down, I will be cussing the crap out of the BRS for the $6400 anchor i have been carrying around all this time.

If it opens well i might just be smiling or then again i might just well be crapping myself as i drift towards the 66000 volt transmittion lines but i'll take that chance as my life i feel is worth it to my family and my kids let alone my love of breathing.

Oh btw i think the chute need repacking every 8 years and the rocket is good for 10 years.

Ok sorry it was a bucks worth.

Cheers

Alf

I think new sails for airborne trikes depending on what wing are between 4 & 5 g's, I personally would have someone professional like them making it as it is not just a simple stitch up and she'll be right mate, you life is totally in that thing sitting above your head.

I have a therory on flying, if you can't afford to do it right or want to cheapskate it on genuine parts you can't afford to fly or have some kind of death wish.

That's my opinion only so no one please take offence at it.

Cheers

Alf