RossK

You've asked a basic question and then convoluted it to try to cause confusion. This is basic stuff straight out of the BAK, which i do think you understand, but you seem to enjoy convoluting basic concepts to cause arguments. How is that helpful to anyone? There is a word for people that do this on forums.

Pick your spot first and then line up as accordingly. The wind direction has zero relevance to the amount of time you will stay up there, it only affects the distance covered.

Croppies and Jump planes rarely follow the "rules" in my experience. I've had a jump plane overtake on my left on downwind. I've had a croppy cut in front on a 200ft right base (I was on a std left base)and a croppy take off with a tailwind on the same runway I was entering and lining up on, ie he took off towards us and passed overhead. To their credit, all were very good with the coms and let me know what they were doing. No experience with Tugs, but i'd guess they are under the same time pressures. On topic, the RAA reports are a bit wanting, some follow up root causes and preventative actions would be helpful.

Anyway, here is some pics from the enjoyable part of my last Flight 😁

Yep, that was my take away lesson. 10 minutes before last light may be legal, but smart, I'm not so sure? I would hate to be trying to find an unfamiliar grass strip 15 minutes before last light. Pic is 25 minutes before last light

Yes, to err is human. I don't want to make this mistake again, can't make these mistakes often and keep getting away with it. I just wanted to share to both dissect for myself and share a lesson learnt with others. Anyway, back to our regular more enjoyable flight reports please.....😀

My last flight was almost my last flight! After weeks of Melbournes coldest start to winter in 40+ years, the weekend looked good for a trip away with only morning fog being an issue. We made it to Hopetoun in NW Vic and spent the night at the local pub being entertained by the friendly locals. I can highly recommend Hopetoun as a weekend fly in get away. Sunday morning arrived with a good layer of low cloud/fog as forecast. This was due to clear by 11am. By 11am the cloud was still 500ft agl max. Our plan was to track direct to Bendigo and refuel and then home via Kilmore Gap. We sat around the strip waiting for the layer to lift and by 13:15 we were airborne at 1000ft agl. By Birchip we were down to 600ft and it was it was looking worse ahead. So we landed on 04 and checked weather with friends in Melbourne. We decided to walk into town and get some fuel whilst we waited for the weather. By 15:15 we were airborne again at 1800ft with a broken layer at about 2500ft I was constantly calculating nearest airstrip for the just in case scenarios. We were about 30 miles from Bendigo when there was a solid bank of cloud from the surface to about 2000ft, The overhead layer had gone and there was a higher layer of cloud at about 8000ft. I wasn’t comfortable with going over the top as we couldnt see past it, so we tracked north looking for a way around. We could hear on the radio that it was clear at Bendigo and reports from a friend in Melbourne said it was clear there too. So we just had get past this bank and we were home. The further north we went, the worse it got, so a quick 180 had us back tracking and I climbed to 2500ft, from here we could see through the two layers of cloud, so I climbed higher and we could actually see the end of the lower bank in the distance. So we headed back on track and went in between at 3500ft. Less than 5 mins later the lower bank just stopped and it was clear to 8000ft and we could make out Bendigo in the distance. I was now relieved that we had enough fuel and clear weather to get home, so we flew on and passed Bendigo at 3500ft, but. I had forgotten one thing. Time. The actual time. I had been counting minutes between airfields and concentrating on alternates. Half way between Bendigo and Kilmore I realised it was 16:50 and we were 30 minutes from home. Sunset was 17:08 and last light 17:35. I texted a friend to confirm last light as it was looking dim outside. Romsey was looking as a viable alternate at this stage. After confirming we could make it before last light, we pressed on. Along the VFR route I could actually see the reflection of the strobe on the wings, it was very dim outside! We made it to Sugarloaf reservoir and by recognising the road layout, I found the airstrip, joined base at 1250ft and 100kts, pulled power to idle, got to Vfe and put the flaps out. Turned final, and greased on probably my best landing of the year. At this point my wife asked “did you see the roos?”! There was three roos between the road and the threshold, but none on the strip! We taxied back and shut down. I think I sat there for a good two minutes, realising that we just got lucky! I have a time stamped photo of us at touchdown at 17:24 – 11 minutes before last light. The photo doesn’t look as dark as it was, but it was dark! The strobe was clearly visible without looking around, the landing light was casting a bright beam in front of us. 15 minutes before last light is dark when you are trying to find an airstrip. Had I realised the actual time when we were at Bendigo, I would have landed. Get thereitis is real, and it nearly cost me big. I will no longer plan to be that close to last light – I will monitor my ETA with reference to last light and if it’s under 30 minutes, I’m finding an alternate from now on. Never again. Never!

The thing that staggers me most with this one, is that they crossed a known VFR route to enter cloud into rising terrain. A VFR route that is there to help VFR pilots avoid this exact scenario! I know these guys are commercial and time is money, but a diversion to Kilmore gap would have added only 5 miles to the trip. Is the time pressure really worth the risk? The outcome suggest NO.

Is there still 2 Flight schools at Riddells using RAA aircraft? You could ask who they use.

Dave's Camair is at Riddells Creek. No experience with their work as we're based at Lilydale, but have only heard good things.

You're probably better off with the GM LFX 3.6l V6, more power for less weight and more compact. The Ford Barra 6 though is near bulletproof, a nice feature for an aviation engine. But it's long, tall and heavy. Restricting the Aussie sixes to 3-3500rpm is going to drastically reduce their output, The LFX would only put out 110kW @ 3100rpm, it's rated for 210kW@6400rpm at the crank Adding a redrive and letting it spin to 5000rpm will push out 170kw at the crank. I suspect any redrive for these would be custom though.

It's an informative video, worth watching and keeping in mind. Video also has a clip of a high wing, fixed gear ditching and it doesn't nose over like we expect it to. Exec Summary - 90% of ditchings are survivable, scary yes, but don't discount the option.

Short answer, Yes. Anything more than 2 hours from home and I am looking at fields with fuel availabilty. Mogas is the preference for us, but will use Avgas when Mogas is unavailable, Happy to walk for about 1km to get Mogas over Avgas. Budget accomodation onsite or camping underwing and you're now a priority stop over 🤩. Tocumwal is a great example; no landing fees, camping or cabins available onsite. 30 minute walk to town, taxis also available Cafe on site Aviation Museum on site Avgas available.

Hmmm Stuck in Salt Lake Clay

The recent Redbull one is also interesting. Whilst the Redbull guys may have done a lot more research and testing with safety measures inplace, they still jumped out of working aircraft (leaving them unmanned) with the result being one crashing. All done after the FAA rejected their application to perform the stunt.

Jabiru J430 is supplied as a kit with MTOW 760kg. Build it without the rear seats and you've got a huge baggage area and a typical usefull load of 300kg with full fuel.

The strip at Phillip Island was bought by a deveopler with the intent to close it all and put houses on it. Council rejected the plan apparently. So the developers response was to stop maintaining it and put crosses at the end. It's now a heliport only strip. Why he doesn't develop it into an airpark is beyond me, that way he would get some return from it an keep the strip active.

Ooohhh, turbine sounds ✈️ Start up

The flaw in the whole system is that someone with bad intentions is not going to apply for an ASIC or AVID. Only law abiding citizens get them, or those forced to, to do their job. You can leave from a small local field and simply fly into a regional airport with RPT aircraft and voila, you have access to a much larger aircraft. After typing this - I'm probably going to get flagged by big brother and have my Red Card revoked.

Rotaries are typically high wear, short TBO engines though.

Sheesh some are hard to please 🙄 They have a flying version, in an established airframe, give it time guys, they are well ahead of the local develpement, as are these guys; https://www.turbotech-aero.com/solutions/#turboprop flying version in this; https://news.jmbaircraft.com/2022/turbine/ No affiliation with either.

The predominant black pigment is actually Black Iron oxide. Carbon blacks are typically used where you need a deeper black or "jet black"

Bruce, the figures are also based around stall speeds. There are some airframes that will happily carry more than 600kg but won't meet the 45kt stall speed. Our own Sportstar has an official MTOW of 575kg, but there is an Evektor Bulletin that increases this to 600kg with the addition of VG's. So, pay the $$ to Evektor for the paperwork, fit VGs, submit paperwork to RAA and an extra 25kg presto...🙂

Which is why I plot starting fuel (top right of the red line) all the way to zero fuel (bottom left), at all fuel quanties the CofG is within the envelope. We saw one W&B cert for a plane that had to have a minimum of 50lt in the tanks to keep within the envelope with 2POB, 90Lt tanks, so usable fuel of 40L!!