rollerball

300 hours for a 582 is VERY conservative. Yup, we can and do fly them 'on condition' here in the UK, as we do also the Rotax 4-strokes, but a clued-up owner monitors the bearing wear with a dial gauge and occasionally has a look through the exhaust ports to see if anything looks amiss. If you do that and fly it conservatively, it's unlikely that the engine will let you down. As we say over here, print in pilot hand books and frequently placard even when brand new, 'this aircraft is not certified for any public purpose and pilots should assume that the engine can stop at any moment' (or words to that effect). You lot certainly seem to have become very browbeaten down under - even worse than in the UK and that's saying something. Mind you, I now live and fly in the real land of the (flying) free, France, where they say 'you and you alone are responsible for the airworthiness and safe operation of your aircraft' and then let you get on with it. That's how it should be in a grown-up world

Brilliant video and balls of steel from where I'm sitting. I kept having visions of those float tips dipping under the surface...... I think I'm just a scaredy cat and will have to stick to wheels

Hear hear. There's always someone who comes on and starts to berate everyone else for being 'critical' or not showing enough 'feeling' or 'respect'. All that does is stifle debate on what seems to me to have been a useful discussion about flight safety and weather related problems that has reflected an interesting range of varied and differing opinions. I don't see how doing that has said anything about this unfortunate pilot's skills or experience and I'm sure that if he'd been asked beforehand, like all the rest of us I'm sure, at the very least he'd have wanted some good to come out of what has happened. Not talking about it prevents that happening, so nothing personal extralite, but I also disagree with you.

Nev, I'm sorry that you took it personally but it wasn't intended to be so. You and I both have strong opinions and are entitled to express them without it developing into a slanging match surely. But the fact is that these accidents keep happening and all I'm saying is that it's wrong to suggest that unqualified pilots in unsuitably equipped aircraft should think that even if they have superior knowledge they'll be able to dodge the weather and wing it. In recent months here in the UK we've had a whole family wiped out in an IMC equipped aircraft (but pilot not qualified) on a family trip to Devon, a young boy severely injured and his parents both killed within sight of Popham airfield returning to the UK from the continent in marginal visibility, a young couple killed flying into a hillside in Scotland in low cloud on the way to a family wedding reception and a businessman, his wife and his brother lost in a helicopter in Wales similarly on their way to a family wedding in Ireland. And that's just off the top of my head. The common factor in every incident was that they knew what the weather forecast was before they took off and thought that with their superior knowledge and experience they could beat it. But they didn't. And it looks as though it was the same for this Cessna pilot. What a tragic waste.

Please do not misunderstand this reply - I am not seeking an argument for the sake of it. However, as a pilot who was trained to fly in IMC and had a rating to do so, this kind of reply makes me weep. It implies that so long as you judge that you can beat incoming bad weather, even if things become a bit touch and go in the process, you can do it and get away with it. The fact is that you might a few times, albeit it with a few brown trouser jobs, but on balance over an extended period experience and the air accident statistics say that you won't. The first thing that you are shown by your instructor when commencing instrument training is that in IMC you, an experienced pilot, cannot rely on your experience and senses that have stood you in such good stead up to then. He tells you to close your eyes and then tell him what the aircraft is doing. When you do, he tells you to open them again and to your surprise (and hopefully, dismay) you find that it's in an incredibly extreme attitude that you had no inkling of whatsoever. Then you are told that without three things, your chance of survival in such conditions, is extremely limited - these being a stable, properly equipped instrument platform, proper training and regular ongoing instrument experience. Most pilots don't have these things - not all, just most. And when I start to read about needing to understand 'air mass analysis and mixing, orographic uplift, adiabatic cooling etc etc blah blah', I just say to myself that, if I'm having to ask myself about such matters, is my flight really worth it? Accidents such as this one, and it's just one of many as they come along one after another after another, tell me that if there's any doubt and you have to get there, FFS go by road. I also disagree that 'weather can change so quickly that it can catch you out' but that I think is another discussion.

ha ha I like the bit about ''you need more than one aircraft'' as I have 3 at the moment - but more by accident than design as I'll explain in a moment. Like many I started back in the day on Cessna 150s and after flying several single types and briefly owning my own Piper Tripacer Caribbean became a member of a group owning a Cherokee 180. That was back in the 80s and I was fortunate to be able to use it occasionally to fly between Biggin Hill and Rochester in the UK and Zurich where the company I then worked for had its head office. And the best bit was that they paid me the then BA Club Class air fare, which I was entitled to, when I did so, so I could head off for a meeting taking my then wife with me and then take a couple days holiday afterwards before heading back. Great fun and as the aircraft had 2 VORs, a wing leveller and mode C it was pretty much ideal for the job. That came to an end in the mid-80s recessions that bedevilled the UK at the time and the aircraft was sold, following which my flying exploits more or less tailed off. Until around 2007 that is, when said then wife decided that she wanted to seek pastures new, which allowed my thoughts to return to ideas of flying. But times - and my needs - had changed. With family grown up and approaching retirement, I had very little, if any, need to fly at high speed, 4 up over long distances, so returning to the scene I jumped instead into microlights. Rag and tube was for me the way to go and I added a microlight rating to my by now lapsed UK lifetime PPLA in an elderly Cyclone AX3 - Rotax 503 50hp, endurance approx 1 1/2 hours at a cruising speed of 50mph. Lovely - just what I needed to get the juices flowing again. In fact I bought the aircraft as a 'scrapper' from my instructor after she'd removed its engine and most of its instruments to fit to a newer AX3 that she already had and renovated it and restored it back to flying condition before spending 2 or 3 happy years flying low and slow over the countryside of southern England which were marred only by one gust related landing prang that made me restore it yet again to even better condition than before. But that's part and parcel of flying microlights, isn't it. Then in 2012 I made the decision to move to France. People thought that I'd trailer my AX3 down to the Dordogne but I said 'No way' and flew it down over 2 days of the then Easter weekend in appalling vis. But what an adventure that I'd never have missed for anything. I had to leave it parked up for a few weeks while my dog was sorted out to travel and my move was finalised and for reasons I won't go into then had to move it to another airfield. The first chance I had was the day after a storm and not having the experience then that I do now I didn't know that the sloping runways can drain here leaving the lower end still soaked and wet even though the top is almost bone dry. So tried to take off, just failed to gain enough airspeed and ended up in the canopy of the trees at the runway end. Luckily only my pride and the aircraft were damaged leaving me and my passenger the task of descending 10 metres like monkeys out of the treetop back down to ground level. Fortunately my insurance paid out and as they were in England, allowed me to keep the wreckage, which we recovered by chopping down the tree trunks that had been supporting it. This was actually a great opportunity because the engine and the aircraft apart from its wings and upper fuselage were undamaged. But I'd learnt my lesson. My next aircraft, which I still have, was an X-Air. With no doors (so lighter), a 582 Rotax blue top and an almost unbreakable undercarriage, this was my aircraft of choice in which I enjoyed many happy hours in the skies over the Dordogne and Western France, including a 6 day tour from the Landes to the Mourbihan with a pal, cooking on a single burner stove and sleeping in our tents next to our aircraft. What a fantastic and unforgettable way to see the French Atlantic beaches and meet such an amazing bunch of people as are the French ULM community. But again time and tides move on. The West Coast tour opened my eyes to the fantastic potential that France has to offer pilots but it's a big country. Also, with the passage of the years I've developed a hankering to be able to pop back over the Channel from time to time to see much-loved friends and family without having to bust a gut and as a result, last year I acquired my Rotax 912S powered Savannah MXP740. This has proven to be ideal for my needs with a cruising speed of 140/150 kmh, an endurance of 4 hours+ with reserve and a fantastic short field performance. It has the slatted wing and with a fair wind, I'll be able to do the VG conversion some time, which should make it even better, but I'm not too fussed for now. So in a way I'm almost back where I started, but this time with just 2 seats rather than 4, but it's not the end of the story. A year or so back I came across a damaged French AX3 Weedhopper which I acquired for not a lot of money. It had suffered a hard landing but was otherwise in good shape and was being sold without engine and instruments. You can probably see where this is going. After several months work combining the two damaged aircraft, I'm now also the owner of a splendid little 503 powered AX3. It's been ready to fly for a few months now and as I'm typing this sitting in hospital after emergency surgery, I can't wait. A bit more low and slow seems quite appealing at the moment ;)

No, no bulge on top of engine cowling. I think you'll find that it's a Bingo (same family, Rotax 582 engine)

Thanks for the warm welcome folks. Thanks for that info IBob, I wasn't aware of that. A SB recently came out of the UK about nose wheel bracket cracks that I hadn't paid much attention to to be quite honest and when I checked mine I didn't see any obvious cracks so hadn't followed it up at all. Then a few days ago I foolishly allowed my Sav, that has no handbrake, to move forward into an obstruction while warming up causing the present damage which luckily is mainly limited to my wallet and not to the aircraft. However, as there is now a slight bend to the nose leg, which did much to halt to the forward movement, it'll have to come out and be straightened and I'm pretty sure that closer inspection will again show no damage to the bracket. But it's fingers crossed until later today or tomorrow. Neil_S, re the scimitar prop, the props now coming out of the Ukraine have a fantastic reputation for both quality and price - I'm getting the 3-blade carbon prop, spinner and pitch gauge for under a third of the cost of a replacement 3-blade Duc - and all the reports are that the workmanship is superb. There's been a lot of comparative work done down your way on the stolspeed.com website (the guy who was the first to cut the slats off the Sav and fit VGs) and amazingly he found that even with various prop diameters and blade shapes, if all are pitched to the Rotax specified 5200 RPM at a climb speed of 57 knots, they all have almost identical performance in take off, climb and cruise to within a knot of each other. He found it to be so amazing that he did the tests all over again to confirm. Here's the link - I'd be interested to hear what others think. StolSpeed Aerodynamics - Performance Enhancement for Light Aircraft The prop that I'm getting is more or less equivalent to the Kool and Kiev with a diameter of 1750cm and a spinner 205mm dia x 220mm Yenn, I live no great distance from the area you mention. I keep the Sav on a private field, Chateau Malbec at Fleurac. The chateau was owned years ago by a Mr Sterckeman, the owner of the caravan company that still exists in Europe, and he used to keep a small aircraft there. A pal of mine who lives close by found out about it and as he was looking for somewhere to establish an airfield checked with the owners (now Anglo/USA) who agreed to his reopening it. We even found the old wind sock pole still in place and completed the basic job in May 2015. The runway is pretty short (160 metres) which discourages most casual visitors and like many (most?) here in the Dordogne is on an upslope, meaning you always take off downhill and land up. I've made a few vids and here's one of one of my better landings last autumn. I also made a web site for the airfield mainly because we need anyone wishing to visit to be aware of how it is and sign a release form, which is quite common here in France. My Sav and the Citius that's also based there feature in the home page graphics. http://malbec-ulm.rf.gd/wp Once again, many thanks all for the kind welcome and I look forward to contributing whenever and however I can to the forum in the future.

Rotax 912 ULS powered Savannah MXP 740 owner here, British but retired in France, just logged in after googling the thread about cracks in the nose wheel bracket. Great to find such a lively and well informed forum. Came across the thread after stupidly bending my nose wheel leg and smashing my Duc 3-blade prop. Now in the process of getting the leg straightened (only a slight bend) and fitting a new 3-blade Ukrainian scimitar prop. Hope to be logging in regularly from now on and especially following news and updates on the good ole Savannah.