Raytol

Hello Head in the Clouds, Could you put me in contact with John McCarron, please. We need a simple ultralight aircraft made in Australia to help reduce the price of flying. Raytol at tpgdotcom dotau

Hi Blackhawk, Did you advertise in Aviation Trader in September last year? I can certainly help you. Send confidentiality Agreement or Deed of Non-Disclosure to raytol attpgdot com dotau so that we can talk candidly.

Can't really see the difference to a Col Winton Cricket either! That was designed in the late 70's if I remember correctly.

G'Day Muzz, I'm at CamVegas if you want to stop in some time!

yes

Yes, Anyone with the non-de-plume of "Crazy" always welcome! Call the phone number on the sign if I'm not there. I wont be far away. Ray

I have the wing moulds at Camden

Hi Danny, It could be a Pober Pixie Twin, a version of the engine used in the original Ron Wheeler Skycraft Scout. If I remember correctly it was built using Victor lawnmower barrels, etc. Cliff Van Praag may know more about it.

Unfortunately, it is real! I heard the Minister talking on the radio about it. Safety and security are the new buzz words if you want to get anything ( even the most ridiculous thing) done! I could not believe what I was hearing! They are going to increase security fencing at regional ( back of tobuggery) airports to stop those nasty terrorists from taking off in their Cessna 150 and then flying all the way to Sydney or Melbourne to blow the creama off the poor unsuspecting public's cappocino! User pay principle deems that we will be paying for it!!!! Last one at the airport can you turn off the light.

Hi OME, The sewage works at Camden was always good for a thermal in winter! Ray

Hi Frank, Good to hear you. I was at the first meeting of the AUF as well. I have a placard in my aircraft that could by pass all the efforts of the lawyers and it reads " DO NOT FLY, OR FLY IN, THIS AIRCRAFT WHILST FEELING REASONABLE" Ray

Hi Frank, Good to hear you. I was at the first meeting of the AUF as well. I have a placard in my aircraft that could by pass all the efforts of the lawyers and it reads " DO NOT FLY, OR FLY IN, THIS AIRCRAFT WHILST FEELING REASONABLE" Ray

Gelcoat is such a brittle surface treament. The flexure of the structure of the blades may deflect more than the gelcoat can handle.

Structurally speaking, reducing the wingspan is safer than lengthening it! The bending "moments" due to lift increase incredibly with extra length. Note that adding winglets to a wing is the same structurally as increasing the span by the height of the winglet. A lot of the benefits of winglets is derived from the increase in aspect ratio of the wing. Usually, the wing span, wing loading/ power loading defines the performance of an aircraft that is mostly chosen to fit into some bureaucratic system.

I forgot to say, The biggest advantage is that Marine ply comes in 1200 by 2400 sheets. Ray

Hi Duncan, Try using the "marine" ply. The A-A marine has very similar allowances for manufacturing faults and has an A bond glue the only difference I could find is that the product is not heat treated to kill a bacteria in the wood ( which only exists in wet cold countries anyway!) Best ask a more expert person than me! Be careful using "Airex" foam. Ask the supplier if it is a "crosslinked" PVC foam as some of their foams are not crosslinked. The beauty of this system is that you can pre-bend or shape the foam with heat ( as in boat hulls, etc) but means the wing will sag on a hot day. Yes, I speak from experience! The best foam I have found for thin sections is called Rohr foam and it is mail ordered from Singapore. They use it in speaker cones. Ray

Try to put Undarra Lava tubes on your list.

Hi Pylon 500/ Arthur, Ray Tolhurst here. I am building Vampires at Camden Airport. We could use your help if you were willing. Lots of small design changes and would love to hear what changes you would make. www.wedgetailaircraft.com.au

Yes Turbo. As one of the original 44 founders of the AUF it is certainly a different world now! Gone are the days of the dawn buzzing of two-strokes over the camp site and the disappearance of the "characters" that came along with it. Now it is more "corporate", safe, responsible, insurance and lawyer driven and becoming "owned" by the people that could easily afford to fly GA but use our hard gotten system for their own ends.

I'm just back from having a trade site at Airventure. I think that it was a good first effort for the organisation and improvements and changes will make the next one better. The weather was a problem for the first two days and a lot of pilots and aircraft could not get there. Jabiru not making it left a noticeable hole as I was particularly looking forward to seeing the new Gen 4 engines. The trade sites being relatively expensive did lead to a predominance of sites aimed at the "upper end of the market".

Sounds like a really easy repair to me. Check with the Gliding Federation of Australia to find a GFA repairer over there. Ray

I had a friend of mine killed in an accident when the flaps were deployed and only one side was attached. Wound it into the ground in a spiral dive. No chance to recognise the real cause. All the spin recovery won't fix the problem! Just sayin'.

Hi Marcov, The whole IDEA behind composite structures is there ability to withstand damage! Airliners, military and Lancair aircraft components are manufactured out of a pre-impregnated fibreglass or carbonfibre material (which means the resin is already with the fibres). The process for moulding the components then includes heating the resin and honeycomb or PVC foam, under vacuum or pressure in an autoclave, which then flows and and wets the fibres and the post-cure is done as it is held at a temperature. You haven't said what sort of aircraft you are looking at but I would bet it is NOT made with pre-preg! In this case it will be wet laid, cold cured resin possibly under a vacuum bag with the post cure done in an oven. The resin system could be an Epoxy or Vinylester system, the manufacturer or any GFA repairer should be able to tell you. If the wing skins are made with a foam core then the damage often looks worse than it actually is. Send me some photo's of the damage as I can possibly save you from making more work for yourself. Ray raytolattpgdotcomdotau

Hi Mark, Did you try to email me? Ray Wedgetail Aircraft Pty Ltd

A local bloke did this, got caught on arrival. Got 18 month suspended sentence. Protected species?