FlyBoy1960

The electric Pipistrel aircraft have been there for 3 to 5 years from memory. There was also an electric trike with lead acid batteries about 25 years ago so it's hardly the first electric plane in the UK ? Also an electric Cri-Cri from memory about 10 years ago.

I got this at a talk at our club also. Rotax Operating Temps.pdf

This is from Rotax in Austria Can I use Avgas? Yes, Avgas is approved. But; special consideration must be given to the lead contained in Avgas. This lead will be found in the oil and combustion area as it is not completely burned by the engine. Please note the following for Avgas use: Changing the oil every 25 hours Use a semi-synthetic oil as a fully synthetic oil does not capture the lead. Use Good operating practices such as high manifold pressure high RPM to minimize the build up of lead. An engine that is “lugged” will accumulate more lead as it is not burned off in the combustion chamber. Watch for sticking wastegate on the 914. Lead will gum this up as well. Good operating practices Successful operation of the 9 series engines depends on understanding its differences and treating it accordingly. The basic difference is that this is a geared engine that is designed to run at 5500rpm. The other conventional aircraft engines are direct drive and run at about 2500 RPM. Gearbox: anytime you have a propeller and pistons connected you can have problems, huge forces are at work and the gearbox is able to handle them but the operator must treat the engine properly in order to maximize the longevity and reliability. This is not a snowmobile or chainsaw, do not use rapid throttle movements as this causes undue wear on the gearbox. Smooth and steady is the mark of an expert. Avoid low idle speeds; at idle the piston pulses are more pronounced and the gearbox has to deal with a lot of pulsing. This is worse when compounded with a heavy prop. (Rotax has a limit for the propeller “moment of inertia”) Do not take off or cruise at low engine speeds. The engine was designed to take off at 5800rpm and run its whole life at 5500 rpm; the ignition, carburetion and valve timing are all designed to be at their best at this rpm. o Low piston speeds actually contribute to piston wear as the “rocking motion” duration is increased. o High prop loading at low rpm increases stress throughout the drivetrain. o More combustion byproducts (carbon and lead) build up in the cylinder head with low engine speeds. Avoid excessive carb heat; this is not a C-150, this engine is not prone to carb ice so the teachings of the average C-150 pilot are not relevant. If safe and sensible a quick check for a normal rpm drop when carb heat is applied is all that is needed.

Best choice you could make going to the Rotax. The Subaru aircraft at our strip have all failed at one time or another

Interesting video, provoked a few new thoughts.

Now, you just need to fly each one !

All of the German registered ones have a chute, it's required by law over there.

an old flying school instructor once told me if you are going to land on clay pans or on beaches to take a decent sized rock with you about the size of a tennis ball. fly over your intended landing area and throw the rock out the window. If it skips several times then you are safe to land, if it disappears, you will to !

it was because a board member from Victoria who is no longer a board member sent an email saying he was going to nominate and then didn't send in the required information package for several weeks after the deadline. He then send in the required information package and was told he could not stand because he did not meet the requirements of the Constitution and the Companies act. He then raced off to court and it cost RA-Aus an undisclosed amount to seek legal advice. It doesn't matter now because this member is no longer on the board but it shows the fragility of the system somebody can take the association to court and cost a lot of money to the membership.

it looked like they were trying to get rid of some naughty board member to me so I rang up you got an explanation and the 2nd email gave additional information. Basically, it is only aligning the Constitution we the companies act. Nothing to see here, move along

I will try and find the video I came across when they were trying to promote it. Everything originally was in Greece but some of the video was taken in Italy, but I may be getting mixed up with a similar aircraft.

From memory most of it is fabric over an aluminium tube frame

interesting concept and I have seen the video of the aircraft flying, it is going flat out at about 95 kn and the drone of the two-stoke engine doesn't do it any favours. I could not work out how you got into the aircraft. The cabin is so far off the ground and the wing is in a bad place it is looking impossible to get into and out of the aircraft. They did not show the pilot getting him on the video

mmm, how would you know this Beaver Expert ?

the cheap ones are crap and barely do the job. mil spec doesn't mean everything you think it does. Sure it gives you specifications for what the tool or product is meant to do but it also refers to other specifications like operations and use. A cheap one may last 1000 crimps where the one indicated may last 100,000 crimps. You get what you pay for with everything in life. I paid nothing for my first wife and I got nothing in return

it was just reported on another website that the exact location that the aircraft started its descent yesterday into an airport before landing is exactly the same spot that today it went into a vertical dive. Sounds like they screwed up something with the programming of the flight and it went from 29,000 feet to ground level based on a flight it did the previous day. Of course I'm not an expert on this on just repeating what it said somewhere else.

Bert Floods are in Melbourne and sell Shell products

me spell cheka is in me brane

You can actually buy some purpose made nipples that screw into the rim, much better than a self tapper. Used in trials bikes for years

Sorry i can't resist. Because the engine has stopped ? or The only reason they saw you was from the trail of white smoke

If it's Beringer then its really good. I have been very fortunate to meet Claire the owner of the aviation part of the company and the products they make are absolutely world leading. Head and shoulders above any other product on the marketplace and I guess this is why they have so much of the market now. Anything that Beringer makes is going to be first class, fully engineered and reliable for dozens of years. I have no financial interest in them just an honest opinion from looking at their products in detail and actually seeing them on aircraft at our airfield

Half the runway goes underwater very, very quickly and this does not give you enough length get airborne in anything but a true STOL aircraft. The grass itself is really spongy and holds you to the ground. Like the other poster said, by the time you get a couple of inches the runway is flooded so then you can forget it. The hangars are probably 3 m above the normal flood level but on days like we have just seen there is not much choice but to have a floatplane

there were 3 or 4 aircraft in photos from the airfield yesterday. They could not have moved them out because the runway was partially flooded. I suspect there are going to be many more aircraft destroyed at this airfield. Perhaps the others have floated away.

the "clear coat" as you call it is just the resin, if you're looking the other photos you will see it has been sanded back so it can accept paint and it now has the matt finish