Neil_S

There is zero reason to learn hard maps..

Having worked in IT for nearly 40 years there is one thing that is certain - it is not a question of IF hardware or software will fail but WHEN.

I know of iPads failing, overheating, and batteries running flat. It is also the case that software bugs exist. Don't get me wrong, I have AVPlan on an iPad Mini, and on my phone as a (non-legal) backup, I also have an Aera 500 in the panel, AND I also have paper charts and, of course, a compass.

You can never have too many backups, and Sod's Law says the hardware or software will fail at the most inconvenient time.

Learning to navigate from first principles using paper maps and compass as part of your initial training is beneficial, because it gives you the foundation to understand all the electronic stuff. If the electronic stuff failed you would still have the ability to track your position using map and compass, and navigate to a safe location.

Although it is very unlikely that we will have an off-airfield landing we still practice them - in the same way it is unlikely that the electronic stuff will all fail, but I still think it is good to have that knowledge as a backup, just in case.

Cheers,

Neil

Yep North Queensland - 30 minutes from the Ocean. Happy to PM - I am still to make an offer on this business but not keen to get gazumped :)

Cheers, Neil

I seem to remember that when dealing with ATC on Area frequency they are happy to have you use nomenclature " Light Sports 1234", which is apparently good enough for them to distinguish you from the big stuff, and GA.

When in the circuit and on CTAF then use type and numbers, eg "Savannah 1234" as the other aircraft are most likely light aircraft whose pilots would be familiar with Jabiru, Skyranger, Savannah etc, and that would be better to allow them to distinguish between these aircraft.

Cheers,

Neil

Hi Everyone,First time in Western Australia - almost done my RPL.

Quick question (for which I can see no answer on the RAAUS site), I have done the L1 maintenance exam - which allows me to maintain my own aircraft. Can I make modifications to the instrumentation - eg Add an EFIS, Fuel flow monitor and transponder?

 

Any info apprectiated.

 

Thanks

 

Murray

You don't say if your aircraft is homebuilt (19 rego) or factory (24 rego). I think if homebuilt you can do any mods you like, but factory-built you still need to get approval from the manufacturer (and do a new weight/balance calc). I could be wrong, but why not call RAAus and ask the Tech Manager? They will be able to give a definitive answer.

Cheers,

Neil

Hi Deskpilot,

Very familiar with Thundersley - I used to live in Leigh-on-sea!

Used to fly various model gliders and small RC planes down on Leigh tip. One landed in Leigh Creek on a Christmas Eve, and I got very wet and cold wading in to rescue it. My mum was less than impressed :)

Cheers,

Neil

Yes, and I fell off one. Actually, my first posting in the RAF was to 47Sqdn Blackburn Beverleys at Abingdon, Oxfordshire. We often had to clean the soot from the top of the wings and that required a stiff broom and lots of soapy water. A safety harness was mandatory of course and actually saved me from the long drop. Slippery stuff soap. I was left dangling between the engines until a "Giraffe" (pump up ladder) was bought out to rescue me. The mighty Beverley was a magnificent plane to work on and I wish I had more time with them. Only one exists today it has had its spars cut so will never fly again.[ATTACH]52240[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]52242[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]52241[/ATTACH]

Also being a Pom I am familiar with Abingdon, but I used to live near Southend airport. When you mentioned Beverley aircraft I thought I recalled one at the Historic Aircraft museum near Southend airport. Sure enough - a check on Google confirms it. Here is a link to a picture of it :-

Blackburn Beverley C1 XB261 Southend 18th April 1976

Cheers,

Neil

Seems like my Great Grand-kids are taking a liking to flying and following in my footsteps [ATTACH]52227[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]52228[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]52229[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]52230[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]52231[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]52232[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]52233[/ATTACH]

Tattershall Lakes Country Park, UK

He believes all light aircraft flying over his property are 'terrorists', what's surprising is he still has a gun licence. I would expect they will remove all his weapons now..

I will be attaching that Vickers to my Savannah tomorrow....

the advertising issue with channel 31 is a delicate one. We need to be subtle but yes, we can and have promoted aviation products, certain aircraft etc. We've just had news that channel 31 are now continuing to 2018 and we've been asked to maintain production so the foxtel project "MAY" be on hold (not sure). One thing is certain, we will be going nationally through channel 31 and we're hoping to do some serious travelling to cover overseas events etc. so keep watching!!

So pleased to hear you will be continuing into 2018!

The Flying Show (and Guitar Gods and Masterpieces) on a Wednesday evening on Channel 31 is essential viewing for me!

Cheers,

Neil

Hi all!I'm a newbie who got my RPL in Moorabbin Airport at Learn To Fly Melbourne on the Sling 2. I currently fly in the Hong Kong Aviation Club however I am moving back mid-November. I am 18 years old and from Hong Kong, name is Howard and some people call me Honky Nerd as I am from Hong Kong (although I study in the Aussie school here) and I can be a nerd at times in front of airplanes.

 

When I move back I aim to complete my PPL, RA-Aus Instructor Rating, CPL and then the Grade 3 flying instructor rating.

 

Great to be here and looking forward to learn more!

 

--

 

Honky Nerd

Let us know how you get on.....

Cheers,

Neil

Thanks for sharing; great to see inside!Just thought I'd add that pre about 1920, it was actually the cylinders that rotated (with the propeller attached to the cylinders essentially), and the crankshaft stayed stationary, basically just bolted to the front of the plane. The main advantage was that as nearly all the mass of the engine was rotating, it basically became it's own fly wheel. This saved weight (having a separate flywheel) and because the engine had a very large mass, improved reliability just by having a lot more energy stored in the flywheel. To get fuel, air and oil to the engine, it was fed through the crank case and centrifugally pulled to the cylinders.

 

Ultimately though reliability of engines improved and the downsides ended their reign - they're a total loss system, as the centrifugal force wont allow the oil to go in any other direction than away from the crank case; the spinning cylinders create drag as they spin & add a gyroscopic effect that interferes with handling; planes were getting faster (as were engines) compounding the problems. Plus as they were fading out, designers were starting to realise you could get a little thrust boost by shaping the cowling on a radial engine - essentially the beginnings of a journey that lead to the jet engine - and that worked better on stationary cyllinders that interfered less with the airflow across them.

 

Hope it's interesting/new info to some :)

Hi AllI'm Nate. I've not flown for nearly 20 yrs. I got my pilot cert at Lismore with Wayne Fisher on a drifter many moons ago.

 

I've been thinking taking up flying aga in lately and have been drooling over photos of foxbats online.

 

Anywho.. happy travels all

 

Nate

Go for it! You know you want to......

Cheers,

Neil

That's not flying! That's falling with style!

(You probably need to have kids/grandkids to understand that.....)

Hi All,0 Hours! First lesson booked for Wednesday, pretty excited.

Thanks for a great forum, so much information which has helped me decide which route to take.

 

Plan for me is RPC, the Passenger endo then XC endo.

 

Ross

Good decision! Hope you have fun learning (I know you will....)

Keep us informed of your progress.

Cheers,

Neil

The Sav be it a XL or a S fly exactly the same. They are a no brainer to fly and probably the safest aircraft I have flown. There are no vices at all except when you use full flap on takeoff and using full flap on landing they can get a bit waffly but other than that would be the best aircraft to train on

The only other thing I really notice (compared to the Gazelle I used to fly anyway) is a bootful of right rudder on takeoff.

I am sure you will really enjoy flying a Sav!

Cheers,

Neil

Not bad thanks Neil! How are you?You're right - on re-watching, it does have the sloping wing roots. The early Savs had the slats too remember - and what fooled me was the standard fin/rudder, the Zenith definitely doesn't have. Plus there's some corrugations in the side.

 

Maybe a Russian 701 knock-off with some Sav tendencies?

I am fine, thanks! Shame the same can't be said about the weather here......expect the hangar to blow away any time soon!

As for that plane......hmmmm..... Let's call it a Savzenconcordski....

Cheers,

Neil

Looks for all the world like a Sav... with some sort of belly tank??

Howya going?

Don't think it's a Sav, it has slats on the front of the wing and the way the wing roots slope down to the cockpit make it look more like a Zenith to me.....

Cheers,

Neil

Hello,May I introduce myself. I worked in the UK in aviation since 1961. The airlines that I worked for were British Eagle International Airlines, Seaboard World Airlines Inc. and EL AL Israel Airlines. Served as an avionic tech in each of the airlines..

Although very much retired I run the British Eagle Airline Archives here in the UK.

 

I came across this website as a result of some research for the archives regarding immigrant flights in Britannia aircraft. The fact that Eagle ran many immigrant flights to Australia in the sixties has meant that we now have collected a fair number of Passenger manifest which also give the registration of the aircraft. I am more than willing to pass on this information to relatives.

 

Regards eric

Although I now live near Melbourne I was in Shropshire a few weeks ago visiting some friends who live in Child's Ercall, and stopped at the RAF Cosford museum on my way back. What a great museum it is! Lots of very interesting aircraft. I assume you have visited there?

I worked for British Airways at Heathrow for about 11 years when I lived in the UK, in the IT department. Great fun watching all the planes on a day to day basis..

Cheers,

Neil

Hi Neil,I have the Garmin also, and was just looking how I get it to update maps etc. :(

 

Why not look at leaving a cable in it permanently and then just tuck away when not using it.

I guess I could do that, but it means the battery is exposed, which doesn't really do it much good........ I still think it's crap design

Cheers,

Neil

I came across this Australian site. Well worth spending some time on.GEOFF GOODALL'S AVIATION HISTORY SITE

 

OME

Wow - what a brilliant site! Stacks of amazing old photos and masses of info for each aircraft.

Thanks for posting! I could waste hours browsing through it !!

Cheers,

Neil

Windy.com for preflight planning, AVPlan on iPad mini on a kneeboard in the cockpit, Garmin Aera 500 in the panel. All good (apart from the Garmin requiring me to remove a backplate to access the mini-USB port to transfer plans from my PC! This requires a screwdriver...Poor design IMO)

HTH

Neil

My name is George Bartlett.I'm a brand new member here, I just found this forum yesterday. I'm currently building a 7/8 scale Graham Lee Nieuport 11. I don't have much fixed wing experience, I will be getting my training in a tail dragger. I am a former US Army helicopter pilot qualified in OH-58, UH-1, and AH64s. I read thru a bunch of posts yesterday and i was compelled to join this forum because I see such great people that contribute here.

Welcome to the forums!

I am building an Airdrome Sopwith Pup replica, so am interested in your Nieuport build. Tell us more!

Cheers,

Neil

There's more to it than all of this.Ag ops operate under a different set of rules ( I forget the number but it's something like Part 135 or something like it Agricultural Operations - number given to me by an ag operator when I raised the issue with him. ) as best I remember They are allowed to use AGL as long as they don't climb above 500ft AGL when they have to revert to AMSL. Some other rule changes include self selection of runway against the flow other traffic and a few other crazy things. )

There is no option for helicopters to operate under part XYZ Ag Ops unless they are doing ag Ops but when I was flying Helos we did it all the time and especially out over water flying coastal,or in and out from the reef ( using the same principle that as soon as you climb up you revert to AMSL.

 

I have no issue with any of that except at YATN we have a number of RAAus guys who have begun mimicking the ag guys and using AGL but for ridiculous heights like "microlight XYZ 10 miles south at 3500 AGL" or even greater heights. Airfield is at 2500 AMSL so when they use this it becomes very confusing especially if they have crackly Comms and you miss the "AGL" part. It's been raised and the regs looked at. But surprisingly there actually is no regulation that says in black and white that "calls must be made in AMSL".

 

There is circuitous statements that say altimeters must be calibrated and set to reflect altitude as AMSL and that you must make certain radio call stating your altitude. The average joe would interpret that to infer that the word altitude means what's on the dial as AMSL and you should call what you read on the dial but but nowhere that actually says you have to state the altitude as you read it from the altimeter. We looked at it to try and make these guys call in AMSL but we couldn't find anything. CASA said they interpret it that way but these guys just say "F__k them. It doesn't say that at all and we'll do what we want to do because what we want to do is within what the rules say ". A legal guy ( non aviation) said even though they are stupid they are legally correct.

 

These guys here doing their own calculations and their estimates of the ground level, and where they are ( which could be anything as it's hills, valleys, flats and peaks everywhere) and give calls as AGL which can have no bearing on their altitude AGL in a few seconds time.

 

Very problematic.

Altitude is always height above mean sea level ie AMSL

Elevation is the height of terrain above sea level e.g an airfield's elevation or mountain's elevation

Height is the difference between altitude and elevation i.e. AGL

So given these definitions if the manual says you should state your altitude then it means AMSL, and if you are cruising above hilly terrain how the hell can you give an accurate height AGL? It varies every second.

Cheers,

Neil

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsBGPjc8DFE

Tootle Pip!

Neil

The Tyabb Airshow is back on March 11 2018Preview of the promo video

 

Cheers,

Neil