prwood

Used to be a strip next to the old hangers where they are restoring the Liberator. Hasn't been in use for many years although I was lucky enough to be able to fly my trike out of there a few years ago at an LAA club meeting during an open day at the hanger. You could always try a sneaky touch & go at the old Laverton airbase if the housing developers haven't ripped up the strips yet.

Hi Scott,

Great looking trailer. Just a little concerned that the wing is supported directly on what appears to be steel sections at 3 points. Could be potential for damage to wing spars & or sail due to vibration & rubbing when on anything other than perfectly smooth bitumen. I used to suspend my wing with wide webbing straps with no damage caused even on fairly rough tracks.

Rgards Pete

Hi Brett,

I imported 3 BRS units a few years ago. If I remember correctly it was through their Aus. agent who was also the agent for, I believe, Bantam aircraft. Freight was quite expensive as there had to be special packing for the rockets to allow them to be carried as airfreight. Had a few contacts with BRS direct & they required a photo of the completed installation to satisfy themselves that it had been done correctly. All in all it was a fairly easy process.

Rgds Pete

Hi all,

The Lightweight Aircraft Association is running a Human Factors Course on Saturday 19th September at the RSL club in Hampton. The course should run for about 4 1/2 hours & will include all course materials & a light lunch. We have a limited number of places left. Please contact Peter Wood on 0402-599 306 for further information.

Hello Si,

I haven't progressed to the FMC yet. Still having fun doing things in a 737 sim you can't do in real life!!

Rgds Pete

Mr Ply&Wood outlets in Qld & NSW. I believe they import aircraft grade plywood from Finland. mrplywood.com.au

Hi Ian,

IMHO X-plane is worth it. I have been using it on a Mac so I cannot comment on how it runs on a PC. It's only $39 US from Home of the X-Plane Flightsim Community - New Server & comes on 8 DVD's. I think the scenery is great, with the terrain as good as if not better than FS. The flight modelling is better. Weather is terrific. Good selection of a/c. Scenery tiles are good with quite convincing generic rendition of countryside & cities. Downsides are smaller comunity, resulting in fewer freeware & payware add-ons, although with the demise of the fs team this may well change. No airfield buildings, but many free download packages. ATC is pretty average. Amazing depth to this sim with ability to design your own a/c. Huge range of variable parameters. A demo is available for download. It's time limited (10 minutes). I bought my copy 18 months ago & I get free updates until the next version, probably in another 2 years. Give it a try,

Rgds Pete

Fire up the flight sim, jump in the Viggen & hoon through the Grand Canyon at 400 kts. Guaranteed to put a smile on your face:keen:

Hi Brett,

The x737 Project

Also worth checking is the release of the aussie pack scenery available from the download page at Home of the X-Plane Flightsim Community - New Server

Will be interested to see what you think. I have been using X-plane 9 on a 24" iMac for 18 months after changing from PC & MSFSX. Sad to see the demise (perhaps?) of that software development team. I have been simming since the days of Bruce Artwick & am amazed at the level of sophistication that has been achieved to date.

Rgds pete

Try this one for size. Rotating fan compressor blades, reverse thrust animation, flexing wings & engine mounts, available in many liveries incl. Qantas. Simply brilliant & it's free!! Go to the Xplane.org site & follow the download links.

Pete

The issue with the caravan parked across the E-W strip has a long story behind it involving parachute ops & all sorts of stupidity. Hopefully this situation is shortly to be resolved, following which the airfield will expand, hopefully. :thumb_up:. I am sure you don't need to phone prior. Barbara does prefer people to use radio, but I used to operate without radio for a short time early in my flying career. Feel naked without one now. Just be aware that there is a parallel strip just to the East of 17/35. This is not to be used & was put in without council approval & is connected with the aforesaid stupidity:exclamation: Hope to catch you there one day.

Rgds Pete

Hi Adrian. Don't know how Barwon Heads got that reputation. I am hangered there & have been for the past 8 years. The owner (& CFI) Barbara has no problems with any one dropping in as far as I am aware. Many of my friends have flown in from other strips & been made welcome. Don't believe everything you hear, come & see us some time.

Pete:welcome:

Ian, there is quite a lot of good free software for macs. Gimp is supposed to be very good for photo editing, I use Neo Office for word processing, spreadsheets etc I'm not sure what's available to replace autocad. You can always use bootcamp which comes with osx to install Windows which will allow you to keep using your existing software, see my post above re FSX. X-plane will run under either os.

Rgds Pete

I visit the site every couple of days & usually find new a/c & scenery available. Many of the a/c I have downloaded are for v8 but most work ok in v9. I tend now to download only those a/c with a v/c as I can then pan round in the cockpit using the mouse. Great fun & great site.

Rgds Pete

Hi Matthew. I switched from pc to 24" imac & love it & Leopard. I fly Xplane 9 in Leopard & Fsx in Windows XP running under bootcamp. I find myself flying 99% Xplane as I get far better frame rate & quite frankly the terrain looks fantastic. Drawbacks of Xplane would be far fewer 3rd party aircraft & scenery than Fsx, but I have found enough for my satisfaction. The latest imac top spec machine has the otion of an Nvidia graphics card which I would recommend for consideration over the ATI card in my machine.

Good luck

Regards Pete

Jim Tatlock is the Vic dealer. He has a Hanuman at Lethbridge with a Jabiru motor though. Went for a test fly a couple of weeks ago, very impressed but have to stick with the X-air standard. Jim's contact is 0403 22 8986.

Regards Pete

Mick, You can airfreight. I bought a BRS out from the States a few years back. The shipping was very costly as the rocket section had to be packed in a special container. The service time from memory was about 7 years & it would probably be easier to buy a new rocket rather than send the old one back for servicing & pay the freight both ways!!

Regards Pete

Try this on if weather permits. Mt Cook airlines 2kms from Mt Cook village. Glacier landing was amazing highlight of our trip 3 weeks ago.

Regards Peteglacier.jpg Hope that attachment worked!

Hi Ultralights,

I have a 24" imac 2.4ghz with 2g ram. I installed WindozeXP using bootcamp & have installed FSX. It runs beautifully with frame rates in the high 20's, although I am using fairly conservative graphics options. I also run Xplane under Leopard & reckon it's better than FSX. Try the demo available for download on the Xplane website.

Rgds Pete

Hi Ultralights,

FSX will only run under Windows. You can install windows using an application called Bootcamp, which is part of the Mac OSX. From what I hear, it would be preferable to install XP rather than Vista, which is a huge processor hog & has a lot of issues. I used to run FSX on a windows machine, but after putting up with Windows for the past xxx years I decided to switch to a Mac. I have just bought an Imac 24" 2.4g & have decided not to install Windows. Instead, I am in the process of installing the latest version of X-Plane which will run on a Mac or a PC. There is also a reasonable free flight simulator called "flightgear" which will run on either platform. My advice is to try running FSX under Windows by using Boot camp. If it doesn't work stick it on E-bay & buy a copy of X-plane.

Merry Christmas,

Rgds Pete

Loved the vid Sunny. How are you going with the pursuit?

Rgds Pete

Oops, sorry, didn't read following post!!!

Ian, Google Easyjet, Sky Europe, GermanWings, & as a last resort Ryanair. We used the first three airlines last year, all booked on internet & no problems. Have a great trip,

Rgds Pete

Try a couple of the larger flightsim sites. Flightsim.com & avsim.com.

Rgds Pete

Hi w3stie,

I built a single seat trike from a set of plans & it was pure magic to fly. Unfortunately the plans were withdrawn due to possible copyright infringement. There is a 2 seat trike available as a kit from the UK called the Huntwing. I'm not sure if there is a local agent.

Pete