Sam the Swiss

I am also guessing why you would need a more powerful engine. The 914 maybe to cope with high altitudes in the Alps, but that one has been used already often. An other Italien motor?

It's not yet anywhere on their site. I guess they have just finished it for the most important fair in Europe.

When visiting the Aero Friedrichshafen last week, I found this new evolution model at the booth of I.C.P.. Unhappily I hadn't had the time to look closer at the demo model or talk to the people at the booth. I try to do better next year 🙃. But at least I got the flyer. Uploaded down below.

Flyer Savannah SR 1.pdf Flyer Savannah SR 2.pdf Flyer Savannah SR 3.pdf

Luca, maybe have a look at the 912 iS. To this end go to Vans page and compare the service ceiling of the 912 iS to that of the 912 ULS: It's 4300 ft higher! And this is just because the injection can adapt the mixture to low pressure better than the carburetors. This together with about 1/4 less gas consumed, and no balancing of the carbs. Maybe that's exactly what you need to fly over the alps: better efficiency.

Luca, maybe have a look at the 912 iS. To this end go to Vans page and compare the service ceiling of the 912 iS to that of the 912 ULS: It's 4300 ft higher! And this is just because the injection can adapt the mixture to low pressure better than the carburetors. This together with about 1/4 less gas consumed, and no balancing of the carbs. Maybe that's exactly what you need to fly over the alps: better efficiency.

Coming from Europe I am used that in Skydeamon, one of the most used navigation apps, I find most infos about fuel on airfields, and very often also the actual price. All this data is sent in by pilots passing by sending a message to Skydeamon via their app, and they update it rather fast. The data also carry the date, so you can guess how accurate they are.

 How about your OzRunways, does it have the same feature? If not I guess that would be a very good addition.

I tried a Stratux once. I was always tightly followed by an airplane, just one meter apart: my own ADS-B-out signal… Does anybody know how to filter that out?

SkyEcho seems to be a very good in /out solution, very simple.

Switzerland: English is understood everywhere, but sometimes answered in French in the French speaking part. Landing fees are high, 20.— to 30.— is common.

France: On bigger airports English is good, most of the other airfields are French, but if you greet them in French they very often understand a lot of the Englisch phraseology (but only if 🙂 ). Understanding the standard phrases in French provides you with a pictures what the others do. Landing fees are lower or will, as stated above.

Germany: English is understood about everywhere, understanding the standard phrases in German helps to get a clear picture of the situation, however. Landing fees are reasonable.

Check with each country whether your license / your plane is allowed (except for PPL which is valid everywhere), we are still very far away from United States of Europe…

Hmm, quite risky to relate to the limit g values to declare that it is alright to perform aerobatic movements…

Would you do that with your Savannahs?

What kind of PLB are you using in Australia, and what are the costs for the registration with AMSA?

Great day for flying yesterday, though hot. First flight across the Alps with my son.

 

 

To add a bit of perspective to some non Aussie's.

Day 1 I traveled 572 nm.

Day 2, 725nm.........

So 1297nm later, with no backtracking and tracking a fairly linear course, I'm still WELL within MY STATE............

Another 320 nm next week and I'll finally get to the border.

 

That would bring me to Iceland, or Finnland, or Egypt, or even the Sahara starting from my home town...

On my flight on Friday I asked ATC for a transit over Switzerland's biggest airport, Zürich (275'000 aircraft movements). Normally very dependent on the time of the day and often denied, ATC this time gave the permission right away and added: "you can make a low pass over runway 28, if you like." The situation makes things possible which are otherwise unthinkable (and otherwise normal things impossible). But I couldn't pass on this chance. The picture is not a beauty, but at this moment my license would have been in danger under normal cicumstances .

BTW do you have vortex generators installed on your Nynja? Just asking as the higher MTOW will increase your stall speed.

Hi 80 knots glad to see you have seen the light and picked the best aircraft :)

I have done a bit of prop playing and the Savannah s has 125mm prop Extension which changes the ball Game on prop choices . The lighter the prop the better for engine and gearbox life when you have a prop extension . If you had to pick a prop that wouldn’t break up inflight after a bird strike warp drive the only one however very heavy and lacks performance . I can’t wait to try a EProp and what I have seen and read so far It sounds the Best fit for a Savannah . It looks to solve a lot of problems of the prop extension which no other prop manufacture has over come . They have seen the light and have used a thin blade design to over come the drag of a 3 three blade on a 100 hp engine . I could bull **** for hours on props but it comes down to have the right pitch on prop for cruise but still have enough slippage of prop to get enough revs to take of and climb . As you aren’t a car with a multi speed transmission But you have a bigger speed range then most cars . Hoping to get a eprop with in a month to try .

Hope to read some results when you have got it. Such promises make me sceptic, but their way to look at it impresses me.

As the 912iS has a dramatically improved economy (25% I heard) the compensation of the carburetors must be limited. But probably still a lot better in real flying than most lycosaurus are flown.

Tell us more, Sam. Does the dust float on the water surface?

Dust blown off the Sahara is known to add nutrients to ecosystems from the Atlantic Ocean to Central Asia.

It seems to float, looking at the pattern. In the right corner you see a replica of the lake shore line, just as it happens from waves beating the sand back into deeper water. And the fuzzy stuff looks like wind crossed with current.

In the mornings of the last few days before this flight our cars were covered with yellow dust. Conifer pollen season is almost over, but the meteorologists in the news said that it is dust from the Sahara. It happens rarely, but repeatedly in our region, more so in Italy or Spain. Looking down from the plain and having seen this I just have no other explanation for it. And yes, it is an important source of some scarce minerals. Nature has fantastic ways.

I've not had a shutdown of my "Istuff" whilst inflight even in warm direct sunlight cause I don't rely on it all the time. I bring it to life to check every now and then my position and ETS etc but keep it off probably 70% of the time whilst inflight, I never fly without current area maps!

Maybe that's another way to go, at least if I am flying in known territories.

I could be wrong but I think the screen is the number one cause of heat.

An external gps will probably give a more accurate location and save some battery power....

Ok, I will try to protect the screen from direct sunlight and then see, if overheating is less of an issue. I know that the newer series of iPad don't have this problem, but the one I've got is a iPad mini 3.

I use the iPad mini with Sky Demon for navigation. On warm, sunny days I get the problem that the iPad shuts down because of overheating, not nice when you are.just searching for entry points of an airport solar unknown for you. I use the GPS which is in the iPad (it's a GSM/GPS version).

Now I have heard the rumor, that using an external GPS source reduces the amount of energy used and thereby reduces also the risk of overheating. Do you have similar problems, or better: solution to this problem? I guess it's not the Sky Demon and it probably also happens with Fore Flight or OZ runways.

Sam - Your emergency landing sites are certainly pretty low in number there! But I guess having some serious altitude on your side is a big help. Absolutely stunning scenery, we have nothing like it in Australia.

Flat land is scarce there, I agree. But gliding back to the lake and ditch is a good survivable option. There are very few mountain strips there, all very short. I guess I wouldn't dare it if I suddenly would become a glider.

On the other side of the ridge it's the glacier, and I don't want to try that. Later you can try the next valley, but you are right: people flying here tend to look very well after their machines...

Thanks for all the comments!

Had a marvelous flight last Thursday, from Basel over Bern, over lake Thun with interesting patterns of Sahara dust on it, along the north face of Eiger, climbing to 12'300 feet (my personal record :-)), over the Jungfraujoch, down the Aletsch glacier into the Goms valley and then over the Nufenen pass to Locarno.

Electric CS propellers adjust slower than hydraulic CS propellers. The only time I can see that this really matters is when you do aerobatics, however.

Nice pic...Looks very unforgiving. I was looking at a trip to Bourketown which is up in the gulf and I am in South East Queensland (not sure if you are familiar with the geography), so I'm not even leaving the state. At 90kts it's almost 10 hours of flight time and I need at least two fuel stops. It would be longer than that in reality because any airport or town I can get fuel at is not on the direct route.

Most of the terrain is quite forgiving though, with a safe forced landing being possible for almost all of it.

I checked it, yes, that's quite a distance. From Basel where I live I could get about everywhere in Europe except Scandinavia with a travel like that. What a huge country you have. And I complain for the 130 km to the alps :-)

The terrain is very unforgiving, so your friend is short landing and - even better - good gliding properties. Right where the picture is taken you only have two viable options if the noise stops: close by, nearly below, is a mountain strip about 250 m long (but I guess difficult to hit if you are in that situation) and the other, probably safer method: turn around, glide down the valley to the lake nearby and ditch… Not fun, but highly survivable.

Just below centre & slightly to the right, there are about 8 white rectangular objects - just wondering what they might be ?

I fear that this is a reflection of the window.