GraemeK

Yep Yenn, as I recall "in the vicinity" used to be pretty vague as you have said. Now it's in black and white in CAR 166:

Winton is a certified airport - thus radio carriage is mandatory "in the vicinity" ie within 10nm and at a height where conflict is possible.

I reckon the aircraft joining on crosswind has to give way, both because you're on his right and also he's joining the circuit, while you're already established in the circuit. But as you say, how? Common sense would say turn right I guess - it could be argued he's not technically in the circuit until he actually turns downwind, so should be OK - plus he's over the runway @ 1000' so should be clear of traffic taking off (but not necessarily, of course). Interesting question is when circuits are right hand. In that case, the aircraft established on downwind has the other on his right and should give way - but equally the joining aircraft should give way to the one already in the circuit! Again, guess the answer is try to avoid it happening in the first place through situational awareness, if it does happen, allow common sense to prevail .....

Welcome JG - I assume your flight was the one covered on the Jabiru website? Well done, brave effort!

David - 1948 was a good vintage, but I reckon 1949 was just a tad better! So as a slightly younger 60 year old I welcome you to the forums. I started flying when I turned 60, and my only regret is I didn't start earlier. Best way to help make the decision is to take a TIF at your local flying school, pretty cheap and you will get to fly the plane. But a warning - once you try it you'll be hooked!

Although I never had the privilege of meeting Decca I conversed with him via PM's and chat. A true gentleman, and he will be sadly missed - blue skies and fair winds Derek!

I'm inclined to do the same, call it force of habit if you like, but I've had a few occasions where 2 or 3 of us have called downwind at the same time - makes you have a seriously good look around and improves situational awareness. Without the calls things might be a bit more ugly (having said that, we all knew roughly where each other was anyway - but I like a belts and braces philosophy). And even at YLIL (with YCEM on the same CTAF) with several aircraft in each circuit or arriving and departing or transiting the airwaves really don't get too crowded, worst case you might delay your turning downwind call till mid downwind. What do others think?

'Twas conducted by Brett (former CFI @ YLIL, now with RA-Aus) from True Blue Aviation. Good bloke, knows his stuff, good value.

We have a few Ibis that occasionally hang around the runways, have seen some up close but never hit. The other day there was a pile of feathers at the threshold of 36R - don't know what hit it. Also seen an eagle in the circuit at 1000'. The highest recorded bird strike was at 37,000 feet, I think. Amazing the things can survive in what is pretty much a freezing vacuum!

Another vote for self study - although again a technical background so most of the physics/engineering came naturally. I'm naturally inquisitive, so spent a lot of time reading anything I could get my hands on. When it came to sit the exams, I had no problems. I did, however, do a 2 or 3 hour course on HF, followed by an exam (it seemed to me that there wasn't a lot of stuff around on HF - the course was built around the RA syllabus and followed pretty closely the exam questions so was good value).

Worse than that, 50% are below average, and it's about time the gummint did something about it ....

I agree some of the stuff is confusing. I hope they've got a proper education program planned for the next 6 weeks, because a lot of it is open to interpretation. I think circuit entry for slow aircraft is covered in CAAP 166-1, 5.6.3:

Hope to see you around there some time!

Some terrific shots there Tomo! Just gotta make it there next year!

Hi TC, and welcome to the forums - you'll find heaps of wise advice here! RA is definitely the way to go - even if ultimately you want a PPL licence. It's much cheaper to learn on RA aircraft, then if you want to do things like take more than one passenger or fly into controlled airspace then you can progress to a PPL licence. Or you can stay with RA and enjoy cheap flying! The Cessna 152 is outside of RA, so that's not an option. But we have lots of similar (maybe even better) aircraft like the Jabiru and the Tecnam. And most of our planes have a stick rather than yoke - but that's a personal preference! The RA aircraft will certainly hone your stick and rudder skills ... I fly out of Lilydale and reckon it's a great school - good instructors and nice blokes to boot, three fairly new Jabirus to play with. Plus the grass strips are great to learn on - bit more forgiving if you're not pointed exactly down the runway when landing, but with their own challenges in the wet. As far as cost goes - that depends on how quickly you learn (for me, at my age I'm learning slowly!). But at YLIL the Jabs are $180ph with instructor at the midweek discount rates. And you should allow an absolute minimum of 20 hours, probably 30 to 40 hours. Check out Darky's blog, she also flies out of Lilydale and it'll give you an idea of what's involved - A Need for Airspeed.

Constant speed is not really a compromise - in fact, it is the next level of complexity from the in-flight adjustable. Thus, with in-flight adjustable you might set a particular pitch - say coarse for cruise. If you then start to climb, the RPM's will fall since the prop is working harder (just like a fixed pitch prop) - so you will have to manually adjust it towards fine to optimise the performance. Whereas with the constant speed, the prop will automatically move towards fine to maintain RPM - which is what you want it to do to keep thrust as high as possible. The constant speed units often have a manual setting, so you can set pitch directly.

Nicely put Darky! :thumb_up: :thumb_up:

I've been taught to use half flaps for landing (but previous instructor taught full flaps). Works OK at YLIL where we often have crosswinds - plus I guess it leaves you the option of dropping extra flap if you're high. Note though, that while Jabiru recommends half flap in strong crosswinds, there is no data for landing distances in that configuration in the POH. So yer on yer own in that respect - "Honest yer 'onour, I thought I had plenty of strip .....".

My only complaint with the electric Jab flaps is sometimes the switch sticks - so on base you lower to stage 1 and let go the switch but the flaps keep on coming down. Bit of a gotcha!

Well done in getting it down! I agree with the others, three things: 1. The school knew there was a problem, but ignored it - that is simply unacceptable. 2. Practice with the ASI covered - my original instructor did that every lesson until I could judge it accurately from attitude. 3. Forget the GPS for airspeed. As far as bugs in the pitot goes, we have had several instances recently (never happened before). So now all our Jabs have pitot covers.

Nearly right, but there's more .... At 60, you had to think about things as they happened and on occasions had to rethink and the car got ahead of you a couple of times. At 70, you bunny hopped, had trouble steering around corners, had to think about gear changes and so on. At 80, you knew you wanted to, but had no clue where to start. At 85, your kids handed in your licence.

Just a thought on why this debate sometimes gets heated ... Maybe we are talking about two different things. The first is the aerodynamic theory - the stick moves the elevator, which changes the angle of attack and hence speed (all other things being equal, like thrust/drag couple). Throttle controls power, which affects energy - add throttle when trimmed and the extra energy has to be reflected as potential energy, ie altitude (again, all other things being equal). That's the law! The second is how you actually fly the plane, which is a different thing - and depends on a whole lot of other things, including type and personal preferences. There are many ways of achieving the same thing in practice, and none is particularly right or wrong, it depends. An example would be the approach in a typical GA aircraft - I actually think it would be pretty hard to work out which method the pilot was using by watching him/her - the adjustments would be smooth and continuous and in both cases the aiming point would remain constant in the windshield. Which is just as well I guess :patch: Sharp End - you might be able to help me on one point. I'm sure someone (probably an instructor) telling me one reason you have to use stick for flightpath in the jets is that the engine takes a finite time to spool up and hence is too unresponsive to make quick changes to path.

It's all about energy management - and I'd prefer that when I get that sinking feeling I'd instinctively respond with throttle rather than stick - apart from that, both methods produce the same outcome and neither is right or wrong. And in the real world, on approach for instance, we make frequent small simultaneous changes to both, we would hardly notice which came first anyway, it pretty much becomes instinctive. Nevertheless - in terms of aerodynamics, the natural aerodynamic behaviour is that stick controls speed (more correctly, AoA - but in most GA aircraft speed is a good proxy for AoA) - after all that is what decalage is all about. As others have pointed out, that normal aerodynamic effect is modified in some aircraft by effects such as the thrust/drag couple. And, as Destiny pointed put, pulling back on throttle actually increased airspeed first, then returned close to trimmed speed - but the aircraft started to descend rapidly. As predicted. Then increasing throttle without touching anything else resulted in a climb at marginally below trimmed speed. And as Mazda rightly points out - don't get your advice off a web site. Always talk to your instructor and take their advice. :thumb_up:

Good point Tomo - for a while I used to be so tense I couldn't "feel" the messages the control surfaces were sending me through the stick. Now, every now and then (and on every approach) I let go of the stick completely (only briefly) just to ensure that I've got the thing trimmed properly and to release any tension in my hands. Plus wriggle your shoulders a bit also to relieve tension, just like you're lining up for a golf shot. Much better if you're not tense!

At take off, I'll take all the thrust I can get thanks. :thumb_up: After takeoff, I might well exert a bit of forward pressure if necessary to achieve max rate of climb speed after I come out of ground effect .....