danny_galaga

It's all in the video guys! Pretty illuminating stats. But I will say that it seems the chutes have been of some use as low as 300 ft 😲

I like Paul's stuff on AVWEB. 

Watch the whole thing before commenting 🙂

Glad they came out of it ok.

Does it really matter? It's not really the crux of the story...

On 01/04/2024 at 8:24 AM, facthunter said:

NT The last wild frontier. Cracker Night held in the DRY.  Nev

I am from the NT originally and can attest to fire cracker night lunacy..I used to be one of the looneys in my younger days 😄. Tides are very large in the top end. May just be you happened to be sailing at highish tides so never observed it. 

Regards corrosion. Not something to argue about for this story. If you can fly it out within hours, it can go straight to the airport (maybe 15-20 minutes flying from Casuarina) and looked at there. Much easier than trying to truck it out.

Yes, but still prudent to reduce fuel on board, no?

In so far as a compass is almost a decoration nowadays, I believe you still need one by law? Id want one anyway, since if all else fails at least you know within say 5° where you are headed.

What are some minimal set ups you guys are using? Has anyone just cable tied an orienteering compass to the top of their instrument panel 🧭 😄

Most interested in pedestal type mount situations. I have a panel mount, but decided against using it. It is for sale by the way 🙂

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

If you want to go somewhere and back at a wide choice of times, and meet a schedule, Fly with an irline Our planes are for fun but you still don't want it to be an unsafe dog. Any flying thing left exposed to traffic, the Weather and Vandals becomes unsafe very fast. . It would be cheaper to buy a good PLANE and a fairly good car. You'd need a long and sealed runway to lift off from with most of those combo's and landing something which has 4 widely spaced wheels is difficult. and impractical. Nev

For a lot of us, a good plane and then with the money left over, a crappy car 😀

The main advantage of a flying car, that I can see is you don't have to pay for a hangar. But you still have to take off from an airfield, even more so because with all that extra weight, drag and complication it's not exactly in the STOL class.

So then, extra cost of a flying car versus paying hangar fees. 

Obviously a different question if a rotor craft flying car.

15 hours ago, IBob said:

Danny, you may want to check the current output of that USB port: I have seen an aircraft equipped with them initially, but subsequently replaced with good quality conventional USB charging ports. I can only assume either that the output was inadequate for whatever they were driving (tablet?), or that they were electrically noisy.

Totally agree. I was building a linear power supply for that purpose but realised mucking around with little side projects wasn't getting my plane in the air. My USB is really just for the voltmeter 😄

You know what's really dumb of me? I recently installed a battery isolator switch in the instrument panel.  I put the isolator where the USB was. I had already seen I had a voltmeter in the radio some  before, but completely forgot and REINSTALLED the USB next to the isolator, instead of just leaving it out 🤣

DOH!

Totally agree, although if all the wiring is good the difference is negligible - no need to have wires going separately all the way to the battery.

Like you say, you want to know if it's charging or not. Even area 51s faulty one would be fine as long as it's consistent. Doesn't even have to read as volts. 

825 bananas- battery at rest.

990 bananas- battery charging (a few minutes after start). 

Over 990. Overcharging.

Somewhere between 825 990- something's going on (alternator not working fully, an unknown extra load has occurred etc). Monitor situation.

825 bananas or less in flight. No charge, battery going flat.

14 minutes ago, Area-51 said:

Be aware the usb volt meter may not read accurate; the one i installed reads a whole volt higher than actuals; confirmed with external test meter.

Already tested before I installed. Within 0.1V of my voltmeter. The radio of course is even more accurate 🙂

I noticed this too late for my build. My radio has a voltage display. That could have saved me some wiring. Mind you, my voltmeter is a USB port with built in voltmeter and USB seems useful nowadays. So I don't regret putting it in.

But especially if you are building something really small and light, worth seeing if your radio, or other instrument has this function before you get a voltmeter.

1 minute ago, facthunter said:

Don't know why they would be a lot different.  Plenty of people use them for checking pre heat assembling parts and welding. Nev

It's all about the angle you hold your tongue etc with those 😄 . But it helped me get my head around the front cylinders being a different temperature to the back cylinders. 

Hmmm, my only thought was maybe it was the wrong range gauge, but they look like 150°, which is what the Rotax sensors are. Which water sensors are wired? The front or the back? If the front, you may be able to swap the oil and water wire around. They are pretty close. They are the same sensors. See what happens then. Or if the back sensor is wired you can still put the oil wire on the front sensor. I did this recently to see if my oil sensor was ropey (it was)

If the gauges behave differently after that, that is an indication something is up. 

Also, I used one of those thermometers that you point at objects and pull the trigger to get a sense of what's happening. A guide only because those temps will be quite different to the sensor temps. 

12 hours ago, pmccarthy said:

My new engine (80 hours) has never seen the green band on either the oil or coolant gauges. It worries me. Smart air, the Foxbat agent, say it is normal. I would mask off part of the radiators, but am not convinced that the problem is not just the gauges. I need to get serious about diagnosis.

Do you mean the needles aren't even moving UP to the green band? 😲

Now that's cool! Needles are moving though?

Motor on condition. If new I definitely wouldn't run it until taxi trials. 

People often say the Rotax 912 seems to cool TOO well at times. Of course that is better than the reverse. 

With that in mind, my plane isn't yet flying and I'm just running the engine each weekend to keep things dry and oiled up.

Because there's not much load, and the weather is getting a smidge cooler it's not easy to get it warm enough. My engine has two oil coolers, the same size and one radiator. Last week I taped one oil cooler up, and it didn't make a difference. Today I went further. I taped up BOTH coolers and half the radiator. It finally went from just under 90° to nearly 95° 😄

Obviously, in reality I haven't blocked 100% of the oil cooling because there will be air turbulating behind each cooler, taking some heat away. And needless to say, I fully understand if there was a proper load (taking off) I would soon know about it with all that taped off 😂

Still amusing though. It will stay taped off for now, so I don't have to run it for 30 minutes trying to warm it up.

3 hours ago, Thruster88 said:

General Aviation Accident
(8/March/2024)
- United States of America 🇺🇸 :
On March 8, 2024, at about 1418 local time, a privately-registered Cirrus SR22, N2824M, experienced engine issues and a subsequent pilot-deployed CAPS and forced landing to heavily wooded terrain near Mendocino, California. The private pilot and two passengers received minor injuries. The personal flight originated from Shelter Cove Airport (0Q5), California, at about 1413 LT.

ADS-B data shows that the airplane was climbing to 2800 feet when it began to losing ground speed values. For the next minute, the airplane descended to about 2100 feet before the CAPS was deployed. The airplane came to the rest inverted, but there was no post crash fire.

According to FAA records, the pilot held a private pilot certificate with a rating for airplane single engine land. His third class FAA medical was issued on 7/2021.

- ADS-B:
https://globe.adsbexchange.com/?icao=a2d859&lat=39.982&lon=-123.982&zoom=14.9&showTrace=2024-03-08&trackLabels

- Photos:

[UPDATE 5:19 p.m.: More Photos/info from SCVFD] BREAKING NEWS: Plane Crash on Usal Road in Northern Mendocino

KYMKEMP.COM

---

Scanner traffic indicates a report has been made of a plane crash with a possible explosion in the 76000 block of Usal Road, north of Whale Gulch School.

 

Very difficult to avoid the Forrest in most of northern California.  

 

 

I've driven the whole length and yes, northern is heavily wooded and/or mountainous. It stays that way from Vancouver, BC through Washington and Oregon and peter's out somewhere along the southern half of California. What a beautiful drive, but I think if I flew anywhere around there, I'd either get a floatplane or just follow the highways so there's a chance of landing somewhere in an emergency 😄

46 minutes ago, BrendAn said:

xair is a brilliant ultralight. still in production. heaps of room in  the cockpit. 

Way too posh if you yearn for a Quicksilver 😄

I'm guessing it's this

https://www.winchesterstar.com/winchester_star/pilot-avoids-injury-in-plane-crash-near-front-royal/article_77aaf69a-8392-55d4-b05f-3768d0a33814.html

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13207749/amp/Preston-Melbourne-hot-air-balloon-emergency-Reports-person-fallen-hot-air-balloon.html

They are reporting it as a suicide.

1 hour ago, Student Pilot said:

Wasn't the Quicksilver just two axis? The GT had a yoke type control with teflex cables for controls, made for pretty ordinary feedback. As Nev suggested, go Thruster. The single seat Thruster is a great machine with a control feel similar to a Tiger Moth.

Originally 2 axis, but by maybe 1984 it was 3 axis.

30 minutes ago, facthunter said:

The headline is misleading. The balloon didn't fall. An occupant who was in it, did..  Nev

I wasn't confused. I don't think you would describe the balloon crashing as a 'fall'. 

In any case, I wonder what could have happened? I've been in a hot air balloon. And while it did give me the Willie's a little (believe it or not I'm not great with heights 😄) the side of the basket was pretty high.

Maybe not quite up our alley, but it is recreational aviation.

https://amp.9news.com.au/article/343b724d-4c88-458a-b757-a634b8bfce65