robinsm

Yep Tomo, thats what its all about. Beautiful scenery, good plane. Lifes sweet.

Remember the day when everyone complained about anything made in japan. Look where they are now. The same thing will happen with china. The chinese industrial are masters at copying and I can see them being a major force in manufacturing, and producing quality goods in the near future. The chinese, as were the Japanese, are consumer driven, and if the consumer wants quality then they will get it faster and cheaper than we can produce it. Look at the spread of the great wall brand of vehicles etc. As far as Jabiru engines go, compare how long they have been in production compared to the major established brands and then tell me the established brands, like lycoming, rotax, continental etc did not have their teething problems as well. The best way to get a quality australian motor in your plane is to support the newer manufacturers like Jabiru who are prepared to put it out there and develop a local product. Your new cars have inherent problems that are fixed in the next model, why should an engine be any different. Just sayin'

I have come across rpt's at a number of airports, mudgee, Broken Hill, Bathurst, Armidale and Flying doctors at Ivanhoe and B/Hill and I have to say that I have never had a problem with them. Communication has always been good and polite. I normally circuit and let them land first unless I have plenty of time to get in before them. Common sense applies.

Just before my radio failed 2 yrs ago, I received a commercial radio broadcast for a few minutes over it. Ghosts in the machine.....I agree.

Did my BFR last weekend, instructor got me to do stalls in steep turns. I was really concerned about this but doing them put my mind at rest and gave me a lot more confidence in my aircraft and my flying.

Congratulations Eric, well done!!! There will be no holding you back now that there are no distance limits. It was a great day for flying at YGLB today.

Does being a member of the gay and lesbian pilots assn maake you fly better, if so then can I please be a lesbian???

Eric, when you start doing a lot of out landings, at other airports and strips, you will develop a feel for what is good and what is bad. I found it is something that you cant put numbers on. The procedure in the flybetter books is great and I practice this when I can. Keeps you within sight and landing space of your chosen landing place. Better to come in to high and have to sideslip off some height than miss it "by that much". How does the Jab sideslip by the way???

Am I naive. To fail an audit, or a number of audits, you have to ignore the rules already in place. If you follow the rules then you dont fail audits. Simple as that. The person who is responsible for overseeing and making sure things happen is then CEO. He is employed to to make sure things are right and the procedures in place and policies are followed. Why are we not requesting the organisation prosecute this person and request any bonuses be repaid. (obviously any performance bonuses should not have been paid as there was no performance.) That being said, we are also to blame to some extent, after all the requirements are all there in the manual and Raa Aus will send tyou out a list of what ais required so you cant stuff it up. The sheer incompetence shown in this whole sorry episode should be published as a lesson on how not to run an organisation. I registered my aircraft about 5 years ago, I followed the procedures in the manual and ticked off the requirements as listed as they were done. No mates deals, no nods and winks, no "send it later". Just done properly and no furthur dramas. Its not hard people. Just foww the rules and neither you, or the organisation should have any problems.

If the weather is right I will go this year again and camp under the wing. Hopefully they will have sorted out the problems of last year (no criticism of the organisation, just the exhibiters attendance and Raa-aus stuff ups). With a new organiser this year, it will be interesting to see if they can match the quality of organisation shown by Carol in previous years. (she cant be held responsible if the exhibitors and Raa-aus stuffed up). I only stayed 1 night last year instead of the planned 2 so this year will be interesting. Ausfly is interesting but this one (Natfly) is about our side of the sport and should be supported by us. The township of Temora is to be complemented on the facilities they provide.

I pay $500 yr to the operator of the local airfeild for avdata exemption fees and dont have a problem with that. I do have a problem in that the maintanence of the airfield has gone to pot, possibly because the operator has realised that he can't make a profit and actually maintain the airfeild at the same time. I recently had occaision to land and take off from Mudgee in the states central west. Here we have a council owned airfield that is maintained, looks good and has no landing fees. Airfields are like ambulances and local sports fields. They are a public service. They are available in emergencies, cater for the local sporting people, and have industries that rely on them, but I defy you to get your local council to charge, at a profitable level, the local sporting groups for use of the local football, cricket ot other feilds around your town, and see local sport, both adult and kids, survive. In the case of the Goulburn aerodrome, the land was originally GIVEN to the people of the city for use as an airfield by a local family. The land is now beeing leased with a sale option by the council to a private developer whos only interest in the feild is to make a profit. This arrogance is morally reprehensible. The only saving grace, at the moment, is the provisio from both the original donor, and later the local council, that it must remain an airfeild with fair and reasonable access to be granted to the public users. As you can imagine, the politics and financial crap floating around for the last couple of years has been of legendary proportions. We have had threats of having hangers fenced off by the leasee because people would not pay an "access fee" to take their aircraft from their hangers to the taxiways, (this fee in most cases ran into $thousands per hanger). This operator will place a notam on a runway, or taxiway because he is to tight to get the area mowed so the grass is at an acceptable level for safe aircraft operation.. I would like to know where the line is between user pays, and outright usuary. We seem to be going the way of the almighty dollar where people no longer matter. Only the bottom line is important. I do not have a problem paying a reasonable and fair landing fee. If the fees benefit the users, and generate a profit for the owner then that is as it should be.

edited by Robinsm as I realise the comment I was about make assumed I really cared about the subject, and that was incorrect.

Well shucks Nunans, them thar jabbyroo thingys dont even have a frame in them. Shute, they aint even gotten fabric on thair wings. Damn new fangled things, Whats the world coming to?

Two points: 1. I pay the local airport owner a yearly fee of $500 to cover all my landings at that airfield instead of the $20 per landing and parking fees that are normally charged, 2. I recently received a bill from Raa Aus for landing fees at Taree. I have never been at this airfeild and could prove the aircraft, and myself were never there. (I was giving blood at the time at the local red cross so it is documented.). I rand up aavdata and the lady that answered the phone was pleasant, listened to me and the bill went away after a discussion. (No need to threaten them. A p..s in the pocket is worth more than a poke in the eye and gets better results most of the time).

Not the advice I was given by Raaa Aus when I was doing it. Only the constructor is able, NOT the sunsequent owner. (thats from the gods in Canberra)

Nunan is correct, I did this with my Xairr. I built it so was allowed to be trained in it after the initial 25hrs had been flown off and all the paperwork was completed. Only the buillder can do this, not anyone who purchases the aircrtaft after assembly.

Apparantly the aircraft were flying tag and cut the trailing ribbon in the south of europe/mediterannean somewhere. Seen it before on another forum. The apparant speed is a function of the filming angles. Yep, scary stuff.

[Comment removed - Mod] I thought the duty of the CEO was to oversee the day to day running of the organisation, that includes the monitoring of the correct adherence to rules, procedures and operations requirements. Why is this incompetent being allowed to fade into the sunset instead of being pilloried publicly for continuing to oversee an organmisation with a history of incompetent, self serving senior executives. The term here is PROFESSIONALISM. I hope for our sakes he did not get any sort of a performance bonus. For goodness sake employ a professional MANAGER, not a CASA cast off wannabe or someone looking to climb on our backs to get into CASA positions.

I dont think its the up and down that is the problem. It is the wing droping without notice in thermals and gusty weather that tends to be uncomfortable. I do a lot of Xcountry flying in the X air and find that in Summer I have to go high (5000 plus) to get out of the thermal layers. Or I cam stay at 4500 to 6500 and ride the bumps out. I know the aircraft is strong enough to take the bumps and track deviations both in yaw and pitch but it still remains a good feeling when you get out of the area. Case in point... last saturday, left Goulburn arrived Bathurst, good weather. Left Bathurst for Mudgee, still reasonable but mechanical turbulance building over the ranges. Departed Mudgee and the rotor was operating above the airport, lifted off, and at about 100ft the aircraft dropped a wing and it was a battle to get it straight and level. Continued north to Casillas area over the plains and had to climb to 7500 to get some smooth air. Thermals giving 800ft up and down with pitch and yaw excursions in the uncomfortable range. At 55kts cruise you tend to be in the rough for a bit longer than usual. The rough lasted untill 200ft above ground and then totally disappeared. You can imaging what the crosswing approach deteriorated into. Yep, bump tolerance is a really good thing and the onl;y way to get used to it is to trust your aircraft, fly in it a lot and relax. Have fun. (by the way, the return trip to Goulburn was just as much fun.)

Nobody remembers who came second. Did anyone remembers Pearces birthday, he came first.

A dead idiot is still a dead idiot if an engine failed, etc etc.

X2 please

Deleted by robinsm. Information found in Raa Aus manual. My mistake.

I am lucky that I can use either mogas or avgas in the 582. I used an aerorefuellers card at Temora for avgas, I walked into town with a jerrycan on a small trolley that I carry in Ivanhoe and refuelled at the local gas station. (its only a 20min walk into tpwn at Ivanhoe)., and used avgas from the bowser at broken hill. I have a full set of carnet cards I carry with me. I landed at packsaddle and topped up from the mogas pump at the roadhouse and refuelled with mogas at cameron corner. Still able to taxi up to the bowser there as well. Same in reverse. (griffith takes a carnet card as well).

The local ultralight people have their own strip some miles to the north of Broken hill at Stephens creek (I think thats it). You wont need an ASIOC there and see if one of the members can run you into the Hill from there.