Mick

Let the Darwin Theory run it's course...... All of this is just part of dumbing down the world. Too many people are no longer willing to take responsibility for their own actions. Hence the government and authorities are forced to cater to the lowest common denominator. One unfortunate side effect of this is that idiots are no longer killing themselves, thus living long enough to breed and multiply. :confused: I say let the Darwin process do it's work. ;) Some may feel this is a bit harsh, but it is my take on what is happening to this world. Another effect of this is that those of us willing to take responsibility for ourselves continue to loose the freedom to make our own choices. Cheers Mick

Model Cub Hi George, There are lots of what we call ARF ( Almost Ready to Fly ) models of the Cub available. These are usually about 90% complete out of the box. Generally just join 2 wing halves and fit the tail and cowl. If you only wanted it to be static there would not be much work involved. They are pre-covered, all you might want to do is get some-one to cut your rego in vinyl letters to customize it. They range from 3 feet wingspan to 12 feet!!! Naturally prices vary as much as size. E-mail me at [email protected] if you want to know more. Best we not hijack this photo thread talking about this. I can help you out in sourcing one and give you some advice about putting it together. Cheers Mick

Hi Pete, No need to yell !!!!!! I will bring the Skylark again, but this time it would nice to have some company for it.;) Maybe if I leave Bernie at home more people and planes will turn up ;) Cheers Mick

The gun sight you can see in the cockpit pic is actually the switch to turn the radio control system on and off. Pull the gun sight out and it switches the radio on! Gotta try to hide all the non-scale items!!!!! Cheers Mick

Camera Plane Maryborough Aero Club Cessna 172 which served as the camera platform for our photo session on Saturday.

Hurricane My latest effort, a Hawker Hurricane. Not huge at 1.8m wingspan, but I am happy with how it looks and it flies nice too! Just like my signature says, I will deny any accusations of me having an addiction problem with anything to do with flying!!!!! ;);)

Another Air to Air Another shot from Saturday -

Model Fleet Since Browng has started including models, this is a shot of my model fleet about 5 years ago . It has changed alot since then, no more aerobatic models, just scale ones. To give you an idea of sizes, the Spitfire is 2.44m wingspan, the Slingshot in the front is 1.75m span.

When I post something on here it is to share it. If you like it, use it! :)

A top day over the straights!!! This a small selection of air to air photos taken yesterday over The Great Sandy Straights, between Hervey Bay and Fraser Island. These were taken by a friend and trainee Rec Pilot. The camera ship was our club Cessna 172 with a door removed for the photo session, and flown by our club president. I was flying the Skylark and our local CFI was flying our Sportstar. This was some of the best fun flying that I have done. :);):) The Straights always provide a spectacular backdrop and usually the air over water is pretty smooth. 1) The Skylark 2) The Sportstar 3) The Sportstar over a sand bar, how cool does this look!!! 4) And finally, the Skylark and Sportstar together. The originals of these pic's are high res, 4 - 5 meg average. Cheers Mick

When you are head to head with a decent size RPT with a bit of cloud around for you both to hide behind, you will be really glad your transponder has you showing up nice and clear on his TCAS. Personally when you look at the $3,000 as a percentage of the cost of your aircraft, is it really that much? This is one safety device that has no bad effects unless you are doing the wrong thing ( that's when you turn it off ;) ). Both my aircraft have them fitted and they are always on. Cheers Mick

Something many may not be aware of - These systems must be serviced periodically, generally every 7 years. At this stage they have to sent back to the manufacturer overseas. Now here's the twist, you can not air freight them because they are too dangerous to carry in an aircraft?????? ;););)

Thought this might have drawn a few more comments. C'mon guys, tell us what you think..............

Skylark, A worms-eye view. Looking up at the Skylark with a dreamy sky behind. Another tough day at the office............... High resolution copy available. Cheers Mick

Optional! I currently own and operate a top end performance LSA aircraft, the Dova Skylark, that is fitted with a rescue chute. There are many more considerations than just cost and servicing. You also have to consider the weight penalty, a fitted chute can add up to around 20 kg. As a percentage this is a fair chunk of our usable load. In the case of my aircraft the chute is mounted in the nose. Once you have your head down in the foot wells to adjust / bleed brakes you become very aware that there is an explosive device only inches from your right ear. Also when working under my aircraft you tend to be very concious of the exhaust tube coming out through the bottom of the fuse. Unlike some others, the manufacturers of the Skylark have put a duct in to direct the exhaust gases out the bottom so the cockpit does not fill with deadly gases while you float serenely down under your "rescue" chute. Personally I also worry about the chute being pulled in panic. I know of at least one case in Europe where a chute was deployed by a paniced student during forced landing training in a situation where the instructor was perfectly comfortable. This deployment then opens up the possibility of injuries on impact ( remember they don't come down all that gentley ), it also does considerable damage to the airframe. Another horrific scenerio is where a chute is deployed in panic with an in-flight fire. Remember that once the chute is deployed you are along for the ride, good bad or otherwise. You must also consider the possibility of the chute deploying on impact in a forced landing or some other form of minor accident. This has the potential of turning something minor into a really bad situation. Further to that senario, I do not imagine that most people ( professional rescuers or just the first ones to get to you ) coming to your assitance after an accident will be aware that your aircraft contains such an explosive device that may have had it's activation system damaged. The popularity of rescue chutes outside of Australia I beleive is influenced by the differences in the terrain available for forced landings. There are few countries that have the open space that we have in Australia. Personally I think the only senario where I would want to deploy a chute would be major structural failure. Realistically these do not often occur in an aircraft that has been flown with in it's designed flight envelope. Having owned aircraft with and with out chutes, and having given alot of serious thought to the pro's and con's, I would rather not have one.

Narromine also has an airpark............... But not much else!!!!!

Hi Disperse, There is no 51% rule in LSA, thus enabling manufacturers to supply kits 90% complete ( for example ). There is the possibility that the Skylark will be available this way in the future. I am not sure how this effects paying someone else to build / finish a kit for you which is a no-no in the other home-built categories, even though we all know of people that do it.:ah_oh: Cheers Mick

Hi John, I find it amazing the level of restrictions re what can and can't be carried aboard an aircraft. I recently travelled to Europe ( after the latest round of liquid restrictions came into force ) carrying medication in a liquid form and syringes to administer it. Every time through customs or security I would declare the bag that contained all this. Not one person was interested in looking in the bag to confirm it's contents??? Another point is that I hope no-one tells the government that we are flying around with BALLISTIC rescue chutes in our aircraft!!!!! Surely they must be dangerous!!! Go Figure ;). Mick

Right there with ya Matt, how cool would it look with the Kiev 5 blade prop ;)

Remiss of me not to mention the classic Piper. I was told that it was not specifically there for the fly-in. The crew did not spend much time at the airfield. I was a little dissapointed after walking around such a pretty old style machine, to look through the window and see a Garmin 296 right smack in the middle of the panel. Also in plain sight was a CD player. Shame these modern conveniences could not have been a little less prominent. Cheers Mick

Hi Peter, Thanks for the kind words re the Skylark, glad you enjoyed the flight. Cheers Mick

The Conclusion........ Some Statistics for the trip - Total flying time - 23.1 hours Distance travelled - 1970 nautical miles ( not including going backwards and around in circles due to weather ). Days Away - 7 ( despite all the bad weather I did manage some flights every day ). During my report on this event I have made light of the lack of turn out for this event. It was however a real shame that the weather did not allow more people to participate. The events that Ian had planned for the weekend would have been great. Also the hospitality shown by the Echuca club members was above and beyond the call of duty. When Ian chooses to hold this event again at Echuca, I can highly recommend that you all try your best to attend, you can be assured of a good time and to be well looked after. I will be doing my best to get there. Unfortunately there is a sad footnote to this report. Over the couple of days at Echuca we witnessed some impressive flying by a local two seat gyrocopter. Many of those who attended got to meet the pilot. Unfortunatley this machine has come to grief during the week with the loss of a life and another person critically injured. Best wishes to the survivor and condolences to the friends and family of the deceased. Cheers Mick PS. For a better look at the pic's in this report, they appear in the gallery under Rec Flying Forum Fly-In's. They appear slightly larger there.

Wednesday. And still not looking good.......... We get out to the field about 9.00am with the skies still not looking flash. From Dalby our next waypoint is Kingaroy. The Bunya mountain range lies between us and Kingaroy with tops about 4065 feet. Cloudbase is only about 2500 ft. I am thinking in these tricky conditions I am going to want more fuel before home so I ring Tony Pratt at Kingaroy to check fuel is available and to find out what the weather is doing on the other side of the range. Tony tells me that if I can get through or around the range we will be fine to get in to Kingaroy. We depart and I manage to find a high spot in the clouds that happened to be over a low spot in the range so we got through only diverting a couple of miles off the direct track. After only 0.8 hours the Skylark is down at Kingaroy. After a quick visit to the facilities in the terminal I taxi the Skylark over to the bowser. Upon stopping at the bowser we are swamped by a cloud of flies. I know there has been plenty of flies around most places lately but Kingaroy put them all to shame. Check out the flies in these pic's - With wings full of fuel the Skylark departed Kingaroy into cloudy but flyable skies. 1.0 hours later we finally touch down back at Maryborough and put the Skylark away for a well deserved rest. "End Part 7"

Can we make it home today????? Tuesday we leave Dubbo still punching into a hefty headwind, however the cloud does not look too bad ( YET! ). Passing the Warrumbungles mountain range - After 2.7 uneventful hours we land at Moree for fuel - ( that's Bernie with the Skylark ). Out of Moree next waypoint is Goondiwindi, with cloud increasing ( Again!!!! ) as we head north. Overfly Goondiwindi and track for Dalby. about 25 miles from Goondi we hit more rain. So back to Goondi to put down and wait awhile. This leg took 1.6 hours. An hour later we make a second attempt at Dalby. This time we get within 20 miles and the weather starts to close in. This time we hedge hop our way into Dalby with visability at a bare minimum. Another 1.3 hours on the clock. We tie the Skylark down and leave it to hang out with the Aggies while we go find some accomadation for the night. "End part 6"

Dubbo or Bust........... Monday we awaken to a more friendly looking sky, there is also a nice Southerly blowing. Out to airfield we top off the tanks and depart to the north. From about 1000 ft AGL we hit 25 kts of northerly, right in our face. So much for the tailwind. As shown below, as we pass Narrandra the weather is looking OK, but we still have the 25 kt headwind. It is also pretty rough. I decide I need a break, so after 1.7 hours I put the Skylark down at West Wyalong in I reckon is the strongest wind I have landed in. Here is a shot of the windsock just after landing - This was the first time both Bernie & I had heard a windsock. This baby was fairly whistling in the wind. ( could this be an aid for the visually impaired???? ) Taking off into this wind we head for Dubbo. As we near Forbes the cloud begins to build and for a while we fly above it as there are plenty of holes. As we get closer to Dubbo the cloud begins to thicken forcing me to drop through a decent size hole to keep the ground in sight. 1.6 hours after leaving West Wyalong we put down at Dubbo and head to my mum's for a baked dinner that only a mum can make. "End part 5"