eightyknots

Amelia's plane found??

This is from today's electronic newspaper in New Zealand (stuff.co.nz):

Seventy-three years after the aircraft flown by aviatrix Amelia Earhart went missing, the wreckage of a plane some claim is hers has been found in deep water 800 kilometres east of where she was last seen.

But claims that the Lockheed Electra – with the remains of two humans in it – is lying in the Solomon Seas, off the west coast of the island of Buka in Papua New Guinea, have provoked derision from professional Earhart hunters, who believe she got further.

"It is causing a lot of excitement here," journalist Stain Sawa, from PNG's National Broadcasting Corporation, said yesterday.

Although he has yet to see it himself, he says experts say the plane is an Electra, the type Earhart was flying when she disappeared. "The plane is still intact but is partly covered by coral reef."

The fate of the American celebrity flier and her navigator Fred Noonan has been an enduring mystery since they took off from Lae, in New Guinea, on July 2, 1937, for Howland Atoll, an uninhabited United States island 3000 kilometres southwest of Honolulu.

Some claim she fell into Japanese hands and was taken prisoner and killed as a spy, while others say she crashed on the island of Nikumaroro in Kiribati and died there.

Tighar, a foundation based in the US state of Delaware, has a contract with Discovery Television to explore Nikumaroro for Earhart, and claims it has found evidence.

Executive director Ric Gillespie said that while Buka would have been on the route Earhart flew, Tighar believed it could prove she got much further. "Someone finds an Earhart plane at least once a month," he said from Delaware.

The find at Buka, which is at the northern end of the province of Bougainville, has turned into a political drama with fears that an American group is trying to take as much of the plane as it can.

Local politicians have become involved and an expedition is to be mounted next month in a bid to confirm the identity of the plane.

It lies in waters up to 40 metres deep.

SOURCE: Claims Amelia Earhart's plane found | Stuff.co.nz

Engines and Insurance in aircra

What is involved in the certification process for new engines? I am starting to look around and found the UL260i engine (Meet the future of light aviation: ULPower Aero Engines). Micro Aviation in NZ are currently having this certified for the Bantam B22, and I think South Africa already offers this. Several light aircraft types in other countries are using the engine.But if I wanted to use this engine, would I need to seek certification so that it is recognised by RA-Aus for insurance and operational safety? Or does RA-Aus do the certification?

This leads to another question: how do people get insurance on other non-standard, ex-automotive engines such as the VW, Suzuki, Subaru and Honda engines?

Tunnels under Sydney

Bunkers..... lets have a quick look at Sydney. most of these places are now well and truly off limits thanks to world events. but during the 70's i don't think that even the govt knew they were there. Every city has some sort of tunnell network

Thanks, I have found him on the site. I'll keep this info for future reference.

glass **** pit.

How do the prices compare with steam gauges? Perhaps the day will come soon enough when they match or even exceed conventional instruments in dollar value.

I always thought that if you bought something you owned it...seems Apple doesn't doesn't think so...they want to take your money and still think they own your phone, iPad etc to shut it down if you do something to it that they don't like

Similarly, my NSW drivers licence: I just paid quite a bit for a new 5 year licence but it remains the property of the state government nonetheless.

A third example is diskware such as CDs, software and DVDs. In each case it is only a licence to listen, use or view.

The reality is that many things you thought you owned are really not yours at all.

Apple has now taken this one step further with hardware such as telephones. i_dunno

as statistics don't lie, jab engines are failing all the time and not too many make TBO, a 160 we had here, had the cylinder fly off and then the brand new replacement engine failed as well, (was at another place at the time). The other 160 I just sent the engine back to jab as it lost compression in 1,2 and 3 cylinders after being rebuilt for the same problem 400 hours ago, my 3300 needed top end rebuild at 230 hours all the engines suffer badly from icing and poor mixture distribution across the cylinders (injection would help). If you dont hear about too many of them failing, where do you live? it is documented world wide!

Does anyone have similarly brutally honest 'failure' statistic on the Rotax 912? Where would you get them from?

I wonder if anyone who has finished their kit plane has any good second hand clecos for sale?

Weight'n'Complexity

There are water cooled heads coming for Jabirus

I can see the UL engines go well, once the market accepts FADEC for light aircraft. Description

Interesting solution to a issue that I was only wondering about about a week ago. I was flying into the sun and the glare was quite pronounced and I thought "why don't planes have sun visors?"

Someone may also have an answer to my question: why don't planes have windscreen wipers, especially for during taxiing? (some WW II British planes had them).

This sun visor looks like a nice, simple, lightweight solution!

I think I like JG3's solution to the problem of a light not directly in view of the pilot, which is to replace it with a flashing LED.

I wonder how long the defective float switch has been in use? I also wonder why ICP chose six litres as a reserve tank (it seems quite small): is there perhaps no more room for something a little larger?

Perhaps all older Savannahs should check their float switch for good operation?

Gee. Been doing that since time immemorial with any make of aneroid barometer..That reminds me. Physics question: How do you measure the height of a building with a barometer? After failing the question, the teacher asked the student, who was pretty bright, why he had given a wrong answer. The student's reply: Actually there are three methods:-

 

1. Take the barometer to the top of the building and drop it off the side. Time how long it takes to get to the bottom and knowing the value of gravitational force you can calculate the height.
    
    
   
2. Go the the Janitor (obviously an American student) and say "I have a lovely barometer here and it is yours if you tell me the height of the building.
    
    
   
3. Measure the barometric pressure at the bottom and top of the building and calculate the height from the difference.
    
    
   

*Tying the barometer to the end of a piece of string, lowering the barometer from the top of the building and then measuring the length of the string and barometer once the barometer touches the ground.

*Lowering the barometer from the top of the building on a piece of string, then swinging it like a pendulum and measuring the period of its oscillation;

*Counting the number of stairs climbed whilst carrying the barometer up to the roof and multiplying that by the height of one stair riser.

*Placing the barometer against the building at ground level, marking the top, placing the barometer above the mark, marking the new top, and so on until the building has been measured in "barometer units";

*Measuring the barometer, finding the length of the shadow cast by the barometer when stood on the ground, then finding the length of the building's shadow in the same conditions.

...and then, a less dishonest method:

*Chuck it at the teacher, then whilst he is knocked out, read the answer sheet.

As facthunter said, there is a real readability problem with digital readouts.

The issue with that is, during a rapid change (in this case ascent or descent), the unit "samples" and then displays the output in digital form and then samples for the next display a second or so later. This means that anything displayed is really historical, i.e., it has already happened. This could become a problem (a) during quick descents, and (b) when trying to keep a steady height. By the time you see it, it is no longer the actual height.

The second matter is that we are able to interpret needle positions more quickly than rapidly changing numbers on a screen. During the 1970s, digital watches became all the rage. Now, most watches sold are analogue for that reason: it's easier on our brain to see that it is "ten past" by the position of the hands than 12.10 on a digital readout.

The CH-701 seems to be designed to have a power plant range of 65 hp - 100 hp. How much power is the VW engine?

What about a Zenith CH--601, CH-701 or CH-750. There is a four-seat CH-801 as well. The Zenith aircraft factory sells plans for their sheet metal aircraft. See: http://www.zenithair.com/stolch750/data/750-flyer-1440.pdf for a summary of some of them.

1I know the engineer that works on mine regularly balances the carbies, but I never heard him complain that it is hard to do or takes very long.

This person WAS saved by his BRS when his wing fell off mid-flight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn4k_Fek4Dg This is amazing footage!

Apparently his only injury was a slight burn on his foot.

You shouldn't need a book as your instructor's briefing should suffice, in my opinion, but if you want something to read on the subject then try:Talwheel Transition FAQ

www.taildraggers.com - Documentation

 

Chapter 13 of the free FAA Airplane Flying Handbook

There is a comprehensive glass-panel comparison in this month's Kit Planes magazine.

It appears I could easily spend more on a glass panel/autopilot set-up than I am willing to spend on the entire kit plane. On the other hand, there are some better value-for-money ones worth having a look at too.

:bad computer:One thing that does concern me is the amount of software upgrading that needs to be done during the life of the glass panel; wouldn't it be more fun to spend the time flying?

BTW, what IS the expected lifetime of a glass panel installation?

Hello Mark,

If I choose to build a Savannah, I'll certainly use this idea for a very handy table! Thanks for the pictures: they're nice and clear.

Hank

Thanks for the detailed description, Mark.

I look forward to when you can attach the photos too.

Regards,

Hank

:jump:Hi JG, I'm really glad you found your logbook!!

Got a chance to do some more work this weekend on the Savannah. Last weekend I finished off the tailplane and went to work on the elevator but discovered I had the skins but no internals for the elevator it was left out when they packed the kit so couldn't get onto that and they have been ordered but there is plenty of work to do. Got all the ribs and brackets out for the right wing and proceeded to do the deburring and cleaning then etching the bits that contact each other. That took a while so that was last weekend. This weekend I got the top of the fin and rudder plastic tips organised. JG gave me some .5mm 6061 sheet which I cut into 30mm wide strips and installed them between the skin and rib in the fin and rudder to allow the plastic caps to be fitted. The plastic tips both needed to be sanded flat at the bottom so they make a nice fit a couple of pics on how I did this as the manual does not mention how to fit these then I set to making all the edges of the ribs to 90 degrees so it fits well on the skins. Its hard going trying to get that right so I screwed a piece of 35x70 to the bench and held the rib flat on its widest side onto the bench then put the edge up against the secured piece of wood then used another piece of the same size wood and tapped and rolled the edges. this worked really well I must say and I had all the edges done in about 10 mins, next made up the rear longeron and did the main assembly of the ribs to the main spar and fitted the strengthening brackets and rear longeron also the small rear ribs and brackets. I hope to get there during the week to do a bit more work on the wing and also should be able to get a lot done on it next weekend

I'm considering building a plane, such as the Savannah, probably starting next year. I was wondering about your work table: it looks pretty good. Could you tell me the approximate dimensions? I'm trying to figure out a place in my garage where to build it and I need to know the size.

It looks like you are making good progress!

Welcome to you and your husband. I started flight training this week. I had my first 'ground' lesson and the next one is in about ten days time. I hope you both go well.

John Lennon v Jesus etc ...my thoughts

To be sure. Just like John Lennon and the "we are more popular than Jesus" statement. What better way to grow than to make something affordable? With the advent of RA (and RAAUS being appointed the administering body)it has meant a significant reduction in cost. QUOTE]A Bible is cheaper than a John Lennon CD Album! In a hundred years Jesus' words are more likely to be quoted -eg "blessed are the peacemakers"- than John Lennon's eg "give peace a chance". (Making peace requires action, giving peace a chance remains aspirational)

 

Seriously: RAAUS should not be too demanding or insistent in increasing the dimensional requirements for planes under its 'wing' . For instance, if you look at the LSA trend, for the extra 56 kg maximum -from 544 to 600 kg- means aircraft owners have to give up a number of rights (or privileges?). For instance, an LSA modification is only possible if the LSA manufacturer permits this mod ...which in many instances they will not allow. By way of contrast, an ultralight owner has more freedom to alter aspects of their 'experimental' aircraft.

 

Higher speeds or greater aircraft weights will cause bigger impositions of rules by the government. Before long, all recreational aircraft owners will be weighed down with red-tape requirements, even those who were not near the boundaries in the first place.