skydog

This dude has it all, talent, a nice woman and a plane with fat tyres!!!

Both are good planes. I have about equal hours in both type and the piper is more forgiving on landing and XW. Cessna fuel tanks system is more fail safe but I suppose switching tanks is just another part of your 'CLEAROF' checks.. Easier to get out of a crashed Cessna if you are still in one piece I guess. More shade whilst flying in hot weather too. Easier to fuel up the piper. best to fly a few and get your own preference.

Gary probably wanted to ensure enough rudder authority for his design deskpilot although Slarti says there is plenty enough Sexy plane isnt it? At 150 kts with the bigger engine its a real contender vs an RV kit. :face and heart:

hear , hear XCLNT VIDEOS Roscoe, Thanks for making me smile and reinforce why I go flying.:thumb_up:

lovely to watch

sealing of props Sorry to disagree Qwerty, Paint will not seal out moisture Lots of other proprietry 'sealants' also will not seal out moisture. Paint and other like sealants are permeable and allow the substrate to "breathe" this means allows moisture in and out in the right atmospheric circumstances. Our own Skin will keep out rain but it is permeable Dont let the paint ads on TV fool you.

ols wives tales One thing I have learnt is that " seemingly outdated aviation advice" as this wood prop question seems to have been taken, turn out to have very good sound reasons behind them, often obscure to some and nearly always me. Best in my opinion is to go with the 'general experienced advice' regardless especially if the worst scenario is a bit of bird faeces. I am sure water penetration of wood props has been decreased over the years with recent coating innovation and timber treatments but if you have to leave the plane outside then covers can be purchased for the blades which may help somewhat but if I had a wood prop it would be at the horizontal position. I always leave my metal prop horizontal too. Please make sure the master and mags are off before hand.

Classic shot spin that Jab sunset shot should be on every RA pilots wall

Definition of grunt.

BEWARE, There are a lot of bloody idiots out there

vero I know this is not a commercial site but for what its worth I have insurance from/thru Vero for the values mentioned above, about 3%++. They were fabulous to deal with on my claim.

screens An old instructor taught me to use nothing other than water ( apply it first to wash away dust) and use your hand [ not your ring hand obviously]to wipe down the screen. Wipe in an up and down motion, not circles because if you did accidently induce a scratch from dirt it is much easier to see thru the screen. To remove bugs, clean after every flight as they are easier to remove than later. That goes for the leading edges as well of course. Use a bug cleaner sponge which has a webbing of soft nylon over it. This webbing removes the bugs just with water without detergent and no scratching. Rinse again with water and best let the screen dry naturally rather than using a chamois or cloth which could have sharp dust or dirt in it.:gerg:

Bacchus Marsh I`m flying based at Bacchus Marsh where 3 Gliding clubs operate.Geelong, Beaufort and The Victorian Gliding club. Last weekend the cloud base was low about 2500` so the glider pilots were basically going up to cloud base then quickly down into the circuit for "circuit training" I guess. I was doing some circuits and it was as busy as hell as I dodged , 2 tug planes and up to 4 gliders in and near the circuit but they were all great on the radio and acknowledged me and made me aware of where they were everytime. They are bloody fast in the circuit coming downwind low and close in and final is relatively high and short with those magnificent air brakes dropping them down to the strip very quickly & efficiently. They operated on the grass left and right 95% of the time and land short of the displaced threshold where us not so good power pilots have to land.So do the 2 tug planes which frees up the main runway for us turkeys. I was frantic keeping up with the situational awareness and had 2 go rounds out of about 12 circuits but I think it makes you a better pilot at the end of the day.

That was soooo gooooood. We want more, we want more , we want more , we want more. WE WANT MORE:clap:

Jim Whats the wind like at the end of the day up your way. Usually wind dies in the last hour or two of the day near the coast and perhaps you can get up then?

BenDover, Thats a good one Ben. Just dont rush into any purchase thats my advice. Try and fly as many planes as possible of similar like and price range then make your decision. Jabs are the best value plane around new, thats for sure. You cant take it with you so take it

Tonym There are some rules about flying near to clouds for us mere RA and GA pilots unfortunately without IFR ratings etc. Something like no closer than 1000 foot vertical and 500 horizontal springs to mind. Seems a bit unfair to me but!

Fuel check after fill up Whats everyone thoughts on doing a fuel check right after filling up? Standard practise calls for this but as an instructor said to me once it is likely a waste of time as the water will be mixed and and not settled for quite a while? Best to wait but for how long?:stirring pot:

tHAT IS SUCH A SWEET SHARP SHOT SCOTTW

Darky Dazza`s suggestion is worth a try. I had an issue with my el cheapo david clarks a couple of years ago and it cost me 60 bucks for a headset specialist (Dr Headset) to clean the jacks with brasso!!!! Was I brassed off or what! Worked perfect after that so regularly, like every few months I give the jacks a polish up. Makes them perform much better. Since then I have bought some ANR`s , lightspeed thirty G`s. Brilliant product especially in a noisy cockpit like my RV but I do get some odd noises when the batteries are running out. So try changing the batteries too if you have not done so already. :rilla::rilla::rilla::rilla::rilla::rilla:

Naemick. Have you entering the monthly photo competition on this site? You can win a 6 months subscription to flying magazine. I think you would do extremely well. Some quality competion for Philthy:laugh:

Yes Dazza Thats her, fly Wanaka. Must do that myself some time soon perhaps after a visit to WARBIRDS OVER WANAKA YEEHAH!!!

The Cougar looks great Slarti and sounds like it flies great too. I I lose my GA license then I would sure consider one, toss up between the cougar and the Lightning from Dennis Borchardt down at Kingston. Do you know how rudder authority is at slow speed when landing ? The ruddder looks a little small. Could be an optical illusion?

I am guessing now from memory the flight from Ham to Rotorua is maybe approx 40 minutes so you could do a fly over the area or take a scenic flight off the lake when in Rotorua. Great views from there down to the ski fields of Tongariro Ruapehu too. Just stunning scenery. Sounds like fun but maybe one way around it is to call it an extra long tif?

fly NZ And if you get time do a mountain flying course at WANAKA or take a fly from Rotorua over the volcano`s.