Greetings from Scotland......

[XAIRVTW]

That's really good ! Your extra fuel capacity compared to mine gives it great range (er, which I guess is handy in Oz :-) ) Mine runsReally well, although I seem to get plagued by punctures. (No jokes about hard landings, heard 'em all ! ) I'm just lucky like that........ I've been wondering about sticking some bigger tyres on her for rough strip work, not sure how much of a drag penalty I'll get.... Here's a photo..[ATTACH=full]19892[/ATTACH]

Great looking Xair Bruce. I haven't had any punchers as yet all my flying is from sealed runways. My be instead of a bigger tyre size get a tube that has a thicker wall or higher ply rating than the ones you are using now.

 

Cheers

 

 

[Guest brucet]

Yeah, I agree, I think a higher ply rating might be the way to go, all my punctures have been on sealed runways to boot ! Probably

 

Cuz I'm a tight sod and haven't spent enough on a nice thick tyre. Oh well...... Buy cheap, buy dear in the end, eh ?

 

Great looking Xair Bruce. I haven't had any punchers as yet all my flying is from sealed runways. My be instead of a bigger tyre size get a tube that has a thicker wall or higher ply rating than the ones you are using now.Cheers

[Guest brucet]

Lovely plane, Bruce.

Thanks for that, eightyknots, yep, ticks all the boxes for me....... What do you fly ?

 

 

[eightyknots]

I've been doing flight training in a Piper Super Cub taildragger. At the moment, this has been put on hold until the finances improve. I am also contemplating changing from PPL training to completing my flight training in an ultralight (AUS)/microlight(UK+NZ) aircraft. I'd like to look at an X-Air H/Hawk/Hangman one day. They appear to be interesting aircraft and I understand they're good value-for-money fun machines that have great flight characteristics.

 

 

[Guest brucet]

I've been doing flight training in a Piper Super Cub taildragger. At the moment, this has been put on hold until the finances improve. I am also contemplating changing from PPL training to completing my flight training in an ultralight (AUS)/microlight(UK+NZ) aircraft. I'd like to look at an X-Air H/Hawk/Hangman one day. They appear to be interesting aircraft and I understand they're good value-for-money fun machines that have great flight characteristics.

Great aircraft, the super cub. Depends what you want to achieve with your flying in the final analysis, I suppose. The advantage

That ultralights / Microlights have I guess is cheapness, without neccessarily sacrificing range, speed, stol, etc. they're certainly

 

Cheap to operate. From a personal point of view, I dunno why, but I really enjoy a machine that is rugged and has superb stol qualities. which the super cub does have. But they do cost a bit more than an X-air Hawk / Hanuman. Your pays yer money and takes yer pick, as they say. :-0

 

 

[eightyknots]

Great aircraft, the super cub. Depends what you want to achieve with your flying in the final analysis, I suppose. The advantageThat ultralights / Microlights have I guess is cheapness, without neccessarily sacrificing range, speed, stol, etc. they're certainly

Cheap to operate. From a personal point of view, I dunno why, but I really enjoy a machine that is rugged and has superb stol qualities. which the super cub does have. But they do cost a bit more than an X-air Hawk / Hanuman. Your pays yer money and takes yer pick, as they say. :-0

Strangely enough, the Piper Super Cub is not really a very STOL machine, despite the fact that many people think so. This is probably because the one owned by the fight school is quite old and only has a 100 hp Rolls Royce engine. Later Super Cubs had much larger engines which made them true STOL aircraft.

 

 

[Guest brucet]

Strangely enough, the Piper Super Cub is not really a very STOL machine, despite the fact that many people think so. This is probably because the one owned by the fight school is quite old and only has a 100 hp Rolls Royce engine. Later Super Cubs had much larger engines which made them true STOL aircraft.

Ahhh, live and learn, didn't know that. I imagine it uses upwards of 20 lt ph though ?

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Hi Bruce welcome to the forum. I fly an Xair Hawk/Hanuman fantastic aircraft to fly. Im currently grounded at the moment for 8 weeks I snapped my archilles tendon, 1 week down another 7 to go. Going to be a long road ahead.Cheers.

Hi X'Air,

 

Sorry to hear about the AH situation, why not just fly without using the rudder? Ours does that quite well,. . . . . . .oh, hang on, yes, the nosewheel steering. Delete previous comment.

 

Or just M a y b e. . . . you could train the Missus or a close friend on ground steering control? . . . . . .

 

And C L I V E . . . . . . I didn't know you had emigrated to OZ as well ???

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Sun, wine, good food........ Remind me....... Why am I still here ? :-))

OOps, forgot to say,

 

Welcome Bruce, Nice forum this, I've been here for a couple of days myself.

 

Phil from othertonairfield.co.uk

 

 

[Guest Duane]

Hi Bruce, Beautiful plane you got, I love my x-air-h and jabiru2200A.

 

I just turned 40hrs on it and knock on wood shes doing great. Would love

 

to see yours but I'm on the wrong side of the pond.

 

 

[Guest brucet]

OOps, forgot to say,Welcome Bruce, Nice forum this, I've been here for a couple of days myself.

 

Phil from othertonairfield.co.uk

Hi Phil, interesting that you fly from Otherton....... I was down there a year past October. that's where I bought my Xair Hawk !

 

 

[Guest brucet]

Hi Bruce, Beautiful plane you got, I love my x-air-h and jabiru2200A.I just turned 40hrs on it and knock on wood shes doing great. Would love

to see yours but I'm on the wrong side of the pond.

Hi Duane, thanks for that. They are great aircraft, but I guess we're biased ! Did you build yours ?

 

 

[Guest Duane]

Sure did Bruce it is the first for me. I helped build a mini-max and now have a wag-a-bond project going. I love anything that flys its in my blood. Grew up on a 1000' strip on the coast of Maine. The little x-air is fun to fly and very forgiving.

 

 

[Gentreau]

And C L I V E . . . . . . I didn't know you had emigrated to OZ as well ???

Who let you in here Phil.

 

They had instructions at the door to keep you out !

 

 

[Guest brucet]

Sure did Bruce it is the first for me. I helped build a mini-max and now have a wag-a-bond project going. I love anything that flys its in my blood. Grew up on a 1000' strip on the coast of Maine. The little x-air is fun to fly and very forgiving.

Yes, it's pretty much vice free isn't it ? Well done for building your H, it's something I just wouldn't have the patience for, I just like

to enjoy being airborne, and I absolutely love to take people flying with me, to give something back, you know ? Flying in the Uk can

 

be challenging with wx / airspace issues, but very rewarding. I've not flown across the channel to France yet but would like to, some day. What do you think of the Jabiru 2200 as an engine ?

 

 

[Guest Duane]

Hello again Bruce,I'm a bit proud of my Jabiru. I searched for another choice and followed the changes in the Jabiru for some time. They give us a lot of power for a small weight engine and I can't understand why more aren't in the air. My 2200a has given me no problem unless for not firing in cold weather is an issue. So when the mercury drops to freezing I warm her up with a heater adapted from an old hotel style hairdryer. This rig doesn't put out much heat but @ 5 degrees below freezing for 60 minutes the engine started like it was summertime. Pryer to the heating, the ignition didn't even try to start. We don't get much colder here and the X-Air-H is quite drafty to fly in the cold. I am attempting to plug the drafts but the plane is not easy to make tight. That said I'm still a big fan of both X-Air and the Jabiru engine as a hole.

 

 

[old man emu]

I just looked at the weather for your part of the world. Have you got skis on your plane?

 

Only 6 days to go before I board an A380 for Heathrow.

 

Old Man Emu

 

 

[Guest Duane]

Howdy down there, Emu's are mighty fast:victory: . But as for the weather it changes around here like the wind blows. I'm on the northern side of South Carolina,USA and 2 Sundays ago saw 28 degree morning and this past Sunday it was in the 70's. We don't get snow but every 10 years or so but do miss flying of skis in Maine.

 

 

[Sapphire]

Duane said: That said I'm still a big fan of both X-Air and the Jabiru engine as a hole.

 

I agree as well.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Hi Phil, interesting that you fly from Otherton....... I was down there a year past October. that's where I bought my Xair Hawk !

Ahhh well Bruce, I was probably the miserable GIT on the air / ground radio, as they normally leave it to me, as they are all too darned lazy to bother talking to inbound aircraft. !!!

 

I trained over 30 operators in the air / ground art, and we now have 3 left, the rest have migrated to other places. . . . so I usually operate the station on Sat and Sundays in order to give visitors a nice welcome. I usually buy a sausage and bacon sandwich ( with brown sauce) for the visiting pilot who has read the approach procedure in all the national manuals, and conducted the cleanest overhead circuit join. We never had to do that at Casey airfield, Berwick, . . . we just called "KQM over the top at 1500 descending for 12 or 30, . . . .and just got on with a freestyle approach !!! (** Editor's note ** ) all circuits were to the South at Casey Field, no flying over the village see. . . . .! )

 

Moorabbin was different, it was usually a right or left base join, which of course, is a lot simpler, same with Essendon airport ( wonder if that is still there ??) my old instructor from Casey field, Alan Basket, was supervising a guy in a Partenavia P68 one evening, after nightfall, doing night circuits, when the electric pitch trim went wrong and ran to full forward. They were unable to control the resulting dive ( at low speed on takeoff towards the Freeway) and the aircraft crashed on top of the houses bordering the airfield. One of the wing tanks fell through the roof of a house, where the family were sitting around a kerosene heater, and it fried everyone there, five of them I think, the Dad had just nipped out to the local shop for a packet of cigs. . . . . very sad. Alan Basket woke up still in his seat in what was left of the aeroplane, with fire all around him, with the semicircular bulkhead above him burning like the fiery circus ring that the animals jump through ( his words ) and managed to scramble out, the student survived with massive burns, but a passenger in one of the middle rear seats was killed on impact. I missed that flight by sheer luck, I was offered a back, observer seat on the flight also, but had to leave the airfield shortly before the flight on urgent business.

 

I guess I wasn't intended to go out in a blaze of glory. . . . .

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Who let you in here Phil.They had instructions at the door to keep you out !

Ah, well, you see now,. . . . . .

 

I are a product of AUSTRALIAN FLIGHT TRAINING.. . . . . OK, ok, I was taught to fly bell 47 in Indonesia, but thats a helicopter, ( bloody dangerous things them...) so it doesn't really count ( Sorry Alan ) But I learned my proper flying trade in OZ. so there !

 

I had an interesting array of Interesting instructors, . . . starting with Alan Basket, ( See other post ) who smoked more cigs in an hour than anyone I've ever met in military or civvie life !. Geez, could that man smoke. It was a good job the local C-150s had a dash mounted cig lighter and ashtray, as we were semi - IFR in the cockpit most of the time what with me being a fagger as well. . . . . then I had Kevin. . . can't remember his surname, . . .Nice bloke, but VERY, er, "Military" in his teaching technique, ie, three paddock widths to the front, two paddock widths to the left, and that's your circuit turn point .... ( ? ) he always did the Preflight briefing and After flight debriefing as if he was addressing a hall containing 300 people. . . . . as I said, . . . very good pilot, but a strange teaching technique. I used to wince if Alan Basket or their youngest instructor, ( ** Editor's note see below )** whose name I cannot recall. . .. wasn't about when I tuned up for some flying. .... I used to LOVE flying with Dave Squirrell, a cropduster turned instructor, as he was so laid back it wasn't believable. He checked me out on the Tiger Moth, using those horrible Gosport tubes ie, stethoscope intercom, where the instructor yells" MMMMUUUUghhhh" ? So I used to do the

 

manouvre, and he'd scream, Noooooo, I meant"MMMMNNnGGgRrrmmmm YOU STUPID T**T " Thank God for electric intercoms ! After one particularly spectacular bouncy landing in VH-TIG, He said, "well, . . . that was entertaining, . . . what were you playing at exactly ? " I said, . . . ( And I swear on my kid's lives this is the truth ) " I thought you said. . . "I have control . . . " !!

 

Anyway Clive, that aint the quarter of it, I got plenty more. . . . . .

 

** Editor's notes ** The young instructor was named "Dougie" can't remember the surname, but an EXCELLENT instructor who was about to depart for Ansett Airlines. . . he was shagging Helen, who worked in the office, and her husband Dave was also a member at the same time ... ( ! ) I guess I'm not telling tales out odf school now, as I'm sure Dave found out. . . . There was also a guy called Baron Von Eric. . . but THAT. . . is another story.

 

Phil

 

 

[BoxFat]

Geez now you are stirring murky memories Phil. Not sure it's a great idea to make reference to who was bonking who (or is it whom ?) because, as this thread proves, many of the characters in your interesting narrative are still around - believe me the statute of limitations in such matters NEVER expires in the way things in civil law do (and, no, I was not involved personally in any such stuff - t'was completely oblivious in my youthfull naievette and utterly focussed on aeroplanes.) The gentleman of military bearing you refer to is probably Kevin Moore who was the CFI for a while and did my Nav flight test with me on 28th April 1979. A that time the test still required a landing within a primary control zone and mine was at Tullamarine. I vividly remember being followed down finals on 27 by a cargo DC-8, hanging on the edge of the stall with landing lights ablaze against the backdrop of black smoke from the 4 P and Ws., to stop from running up our rear while I flew as fast as I could before plonking half way down close to a taxiway and exiting. I then did a quick circle and came round behind an Air New Zealand DC-10 to follow him off after letting the wake turbulence settle. Ah...them were the days...

 

I also recall that horrible, horrible accident at Essendon. I didn't remember about the trim failure but know it triggered a lot of discussion about the advisability of conducting single engine out training in light twins from places like Essendon with wall to wall houses near the upwind end of the strip. Mangalore is not too far away after all. Not long after I followed the same route in the Casey C172 VH-EJM which had some trouble with plug fouling and coughed a couple of times at 300' on climb out. Not pleasant. CFI at Casey following (?) Kevin Moore was John Hewatt and two younger instructors were my mate Bruce Hamilton and Stuart Barson. Mr. Squirrel signed my hours off when I transferred from Tyabb to Casey half way through my PPL. My last flight in DH-82 VH-TIG was an hour on May 19th 1979 - that must have been just before YOUR last fling in her :). The PA-28 was VH-CHR and the C182 had the pleasure of flying around central Oz in on the traditional post-licence getaway was VH-AHJ.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Please accept my most profuse apologies, and that goes for anyone who read that post. I am utterley ashamed that I mentioned that at all. One possible Reason ( No Excuse ) is that I'd just crawled out of the taxi from a stag evening ( Buck's turn ? ) with a group of friends, and have to admit to serious consumption of mouth (Brain ?) loosening liquid. Having re-read my post this morning I am appalled, and will never repeat never post again unless it is following coffee or tea.

 

Thanks for the memory jogs regarding Kevin Moore, I don't know the later instructors obviously. I never saw CHR have a bingle, the aircraft in my photo was a visitor I believe, but my friend Rog HArt almost Bought EJM but something went wrong with the finance and the deal fell through, I used that aeroplane regularly, It was in pristine condition and a pleasure to fly. I used to use it to nip up to Bendigo, and occasionally to Merimbula where I had business, if the 210 ( IWK ) wasn't available. Keith had a 182 for a while, which was my second "jump up" from EJM, I remember flying down to Pakenham where it had been dumpedd by a PPL who had got lost in bad vis one day, and abandoned it. It had sunk in the soft ground and it took quite a while to pull it out, following which Dave took it back to Casey, whilst I flew the 172 back. John Hewat had a really dry sense of humour, I did some I/R training with him, and whenever I started to sweat a bit, he started telling jokes ! One of our members, Dick Donnely died of a heart attack, he was a really BIG bloke, and I remember they put him in the back of the Cherokee six 300 along with three other worthies to carry out a "Load Check" after Dave Squirrel had checked me out in it. . . The full flap "Go-Around" was , er, "Interesting" We broadcast Dick's ashes above his beloved airfield as he had wished in his will, but regrettably, it was a very dank, wet day, and afterwards we had to quietly remove most of the ashes from the side of the fuselage, tail and fin. . . . . Dick would have been most amused about that, we had a really nice bunch of people then. . .

 

I chuckled aat your story of the Tulla landing,. . . . I landed IWK at Merimbula one Saturday afternoon, after announcing on the radio what runway I was going to use. After a fairly short run, I was following the runway to the top of the bump in the middle and an F27 appeared, also on the ground, directly in front on a reciprocal heading, I swear to God I never saw him on the approach, we had to vacate fairly quickly off to the side !!

 

I don't see many similar incidents on the forums nowadays, perhaps pilots don't wish to recount these stories, especially the commercial lads ... ? or maybe we are just a lot safer nowadays. . . .mmmm.

 

Phil.

 

 

[Guest brucet]

Hi Bruce welcome to the forum. I fly an Xair Hawk/Hanuman fantastic aircraft to fly. Im currently grounded at the moment for 8 weeks I snapped my archilles tendon, 1 week down another 7 to go. Going to be a long road ahead.Cheers.

Hi xairvtw, merry Xmas to you, how's the Achilles' tendon coming on ?

 

 

[XAIRVTW]

Hi xairvtw, merry Xmas to you, how's the Achilles' tendon coming on ?

Hi Bruce

Merry Christmas all the best for the new year. I have 3 weeks to go then the cast is off & the physio starts hope to be back in the air by February.