Nico13

Hi Ross, Sounds like you're having fun and keeping your instructor on his toes at the same time. Can't be all that bad if he's laughing and apologising at the same time. Crosswind keeps the feet busy, enjoy.

The first time I saw that done was about thirty eight years back at Avalon on a couple of Army Nomads that had come back in for some mods. The factory had set them up as per normal but the Army boys had spun them around so normal ops were all at 12 o'clock. Yep a smart idea.

Ah you mean this bit

You wouldn't want to be underneath that lot coming down in bits and pieces. That'd be a pretty big halo to be wearing.

Undercarriage testing from Bookface.

There has been a lot of discussion over the years re T tails and flat spins and the blanketing effect over the tail in a flat spin. I recall many years back, too far back to recall the details but I was doing a bit of gliding and there was talk of a particular glider, T tailed, that had a problem if in a flat spin. I guess over those many years there have been many more than one would want to hear about and as was mentioned the video pointed out there was a bit more than a neutral stick and opposite rudder to get out of this one. Again condolences to family and friends of this accident.

Holdens were invented to keep the idiots out of Fords but this one slipped through the net

What a day for flying at Lethbridge. It's been three weeks since my last outing and that was with the CFI for my XC test flight, Passed by the way so I'm free. Been that busy at work though and elsewhere and the weather has been atrocious. Finally the sun came out and the wind vanished but had to be at work by 2:00pm. The plane was free at 11:00 so a few circuits were in order. For the sake of brevity I'll refer to the planes out of the hanger as 1,2,3 - 6 etc. I get to the hanger and three of the six planes normally there were gone, a fourth about to be gone and mine about to make it five. Out the front, pre flight about done and the owner of number six rocks up and says, where is everyone? I could have just pointed at the sky but I was a bit more courteous than that. So that was it all six out and about and that was just this hanger. Warm up done and sitting in the run up bay doing final checks and plane #1 RV had heard my taxi call and was a few miles out inbound. We could hear a very feint radio chatter on our CTAF so he called me and asked if I could hear the chatter any better but no I couldn't so advised just keep your eyes open. I was just about to Taxi for rwy 28 as the RV was about to join circuit when I noticed plane #4 sitting at the far end of rwy 28 on the piano keys of rwy 10. Well not quite on the piano keys. No wind he had decided to use 10 but had slipped a wheel of the edge and down she went. I called the RV and told him the situation as he was about to land on 28. He chose to land on the grass on 34 to be safe and I thought that could be an issue as well but all was good. About that time I had taxied back to the clubhouse and shut down and was heading out to help free #4 from the mud but others had already managed it so I returned to my plane and strapped in ready to go again as #4 taxied back to the hanger to check for damage. Number #3 a Pioneer in the mean time was sitting in the run up bay warming up so I called taxying for 28 only to find Cessna #6 had arrived and was blocking my path and he also called taxying for 28. As he entered 28 he invited me to follow him down which I did and as he turned just past the piano keys at the bottom of 28 he invited me to turn early and go first. gladly accepted I turned and giving my rolling call I was away followed shortly after by plane #6. I thought great I'll do my few circuits and get away early to work. Turning down wind I hear an entering and back tracking on 28 call, you guessed it was plane #3 the Pioneer so feeling in a courteous mood I called and said I'd do a long down wind to give him time to get off. Touch and go number one out of the way and another down wind call and oh what perfect timing, another entering and back tracking 28, so again a long down wind so it was getting busy in circuit as there had been a couple of other calling inbound. So touch and go number three went without delay as did number four for a full stop. A clear blue sky and I had to go to work what a bummer. I got back to the hanger just in time to see #4 just refitting the wheel pant after removing the mud and checking for damage, fortunately none. All good off to work.

I used to love flying my TRex 600 electric but if ever flew like that it was out of control most of the time

Hey, what's that you say old chap

Ailerons are a bit stiff, hows those tie straps?

I was looking at a Whitman Tailwind a couple of weeks back out in the Eastern Melbourne burbs that has been thirty years in the build. Still a bit to do and now the gentleman's son is also building one and his is only about three years into the build and at about the same stage as his fathers I believe. I wonder who will finish first???

Could be an alien imposter took his place and his airplane and flew away with it. He's just recovering from being probed.

I was just reading the ATSB report on FaceBook of the Jan 2016 Piper PA-28 VH-PXD where four were unfortunately lost in a poor visibility crash of the south coast Vic just west of Port Phillip Heads and it went on to mention a couple of others including the one I think you're talking about. I was out with CFI just recently in some poor conditions and I can see how things can go pear shaped very quickly. He made comment that he was pleased with the way I handled things and the choices I made in those conditions. I hope I never stop making good decisions. A sad day, condolences to family and friends.

I've been thinking about this for a while now but have been busy. When I'd first looked all I saw was large cumbersome setups and so didn't look much further. This looks like a reasonable setup and it's a shame Vilros is out of stock as they had when you looked at all their items a discounted kit for $59. I love playing with this sort of stuff so I think I'll look a bit more. One question though is what's the advantage of the dual channel setup?

Yes you are correct I saw one at the Avalon air show, can't recall the details of it but there was one there with a hopper fitting for it.

Thanks Ian, yes that's exactly what it is. We had some exhaust smells in the cockpit which I'd mentioned to David and he fitted the detector. We found the exhaust problem a little later and had it repaired.

Automotive, an area I work in generally does not have the individual cylinder temp problems that aircraft engines do because of the inherent design and physical structure with their full water jackets and overall mass. Although most modern all alloy engines are a lot lighter they still maintain reasonably stable temps throughout. A single O2 sensor is all that is required for primary engine control and is close coupled to the engine pre Catalytic converter and all its looking to do is control as mentioned previously is stoichiometric ratio of 1 (=Lambda 1).

Ah yes, not that far back for me either. It was as you say, heavenly, when the instructor says go on, go out and enjoy yourself, do a circuit of the training area. And of course while you're out there you have a real good look around, I know I did and I even came across a wedge tailed eagle, he had a look at me and I had a look at him. Will never forget it. Lots more enjoyment to come.

Hi Carlos, Great show, I certainly enjoy each episode, keep up the good work.

I see my post has attracted a caution from Kasper, I'm wondering what is wrong with it.

Last Saturday Kyneton had a fund raiser morning tea on so Peter G and I took the GSA club Gazelle from Lethbridge with the idea of attending and I was to use the flight as a map reading exercise from the right seat as I'm in the middle of doing Navex training. As is common this time of year though with the morning fogs and smoke haze from the burning off everywhere we struck a wall when we hit the ranges. We turned east for a while looking for a way through and wound up over near Gisborne and under the 2500ft Melbourne step before we decided we'd had enough and turned for home. It was always clear behind us and we made sure we kept an eye on that for a way out as it wasn't good to the north unfortunately. So what started out to be a practice map reading Navex for me turned out to be an adverse weather exercise. All good and back in time for the club BBQ at Lethbridge.

A sad outcome. Condolences to family and friends. RIP forever flying.