Rotory wing to fixed wing

[Russ]

After 35 plus yrs owning flying gyros, it's now time to cross to the dark side. I'm now a F /Winger

 

The jab 160 arrives next week, really looking forward to this next chapter. So.........i,m opologising in advance here, as i'll be seeking your wealth of knowledge from time to time as i settle in.

 

Craft was sourced from Mildura area, done 300+ hrs, am told it's a ripper.

 

 

 

[facthunter]

You might have a few habits to get out of your head. 35 years of Gyro's . Fantastic.. Good luck with the new acquisition. Keep the weight off the front wheel. Nev

 

 

[facthunter]

A jet anywhere is better than a prop at the front. (Unless it is a jet of water fuel or oil) Nev

 

 

[farri]

nothing better than having a prop in the front..

Depends on what you`re flying!... Some of the things I flew in the early days had nothing in front of me but the prop and motor. I`d get fuel and s**t blown back at me. Swore I`d never have an Ultralight with the motor up front.

 

Frank.

 

 

[facthunter]

A pusher gets all the objects that fall out of your pocket through it. DICEY. nev

 

 

[farri]

True story.

 

Way back when, a guy I knew asked me to go with him and have a look at this Ultralight he was thinking of buying. It was a very basic three axis, engine up front, high wing with what I called a garden chair under it. The owner of it was a very well known Cairns buisness man and owner of the local ship building firm. He had tried to fly it several times but all he managed to do was run into a fence a couple of times, without getting it off the ground.

 

He told us he was too valuable to the buisness to get hurt so he decided to give the idea away and try and sell it. In the sales pitch, he said that because the engine was up front, it was a safer aircraft than one having the engine behind you, because if you crashed, the engine behind you could break away and kill you. At that point, all I was thinking was, " If you crash this thing, you`re going to die regardles!" Anyway! The guy bought it.

 

There`s quite a history to this Ultralight. I`m happy to tell it, if anyone is interested.

 

Frank.

 

 

[Guernsey]

Do tell us Frank.

 

Alan.

 

 

[facthunter]

Yeah, C'mon Franco. Nev

 

 

[keith.b]

Frank,

 

Go on, do tell.

 

 

[farri]

Ok guys, but first I need to appologise to Russ for hijacking his thread.

 

This occured well before I got the flying bug. I was going through a pavillion at the yearly Cairns show and hanging from the ceiling was this Ultralight. It was a very basic three axis controll,engine at the front, had a single surface, red and black checkered wing and in the seat sat a straw dummy in overalls. I look up at it and for a while, my immagination took over. Back then Ultralight aircraft were very few and far between. I moved on, then forgot all about it.

 

I think it was about two years later when Warren asked me to go and have a look at this Ultralight, for him. By then I`d scratch built my Chinook WT2 copy and learnt to fly it. Ultralights were still as scarce as hens teeth so I was happy to have a look at another one. When we got to the owners place ( The Cairns buisness man, in my previous post) I was amazed to see that it was the one I had seen, hanging from the ceiling, at the Cairns show. Warren decided to buy it.

 

Warren was a farm boy and pretty skillfull at driving machinery so I thought, " He`ll have no trouble getting the hang of this " and I allowed him to use my strip. I was completely wrong! No matter how hard Warren tried, he just couldn`t controll it. One day he flipped it over, end for end. He wasn`t hurt but was left hanging upside down, in the seat belt. We had to get him out of it. After that,Warren didn`t want to have anymore to do with it. He said I could do what I liked with it. I thought, " The first two guys couldn`t fly it, wonder if I can?" so I had a go. I got it into the air and managed to keep it there but the motor kept loosing power. I was running on pure adrenalin and kept flying. Over a period of time, I ended up doing ten hours flying time, at around 250` AGL.

 

I won`t go into detail with the next two accounts because the story will get too long.

 

Warren finaly decided to get rid of this thing that had been trying to kill him! A guy and his teenage son became the proud new owners. The farther crashed it on his first attempt to fly it. He did a fair amount of damage to the aircraft but miraculously! wasn`t injured. For the third time, the aircraft was put up for sale.

 

After that, I didn`t know if anyone had bought it ,until one day, I happened to be talking to a local AG pilot who told me he had bought this Ultralight. It was damaged but he was going to repair it and was determined to fly it. On seeing the Ultralight, I was once again amazed that it was 'the one and only' that I`d seen years ago hanging in the pavillion at the Cairns show. The same one I`d flown!

 

I don`t know what became of it after that but I do know that it was never repaired by the AG pilot who has since passed away. It may be sitting in a shed somewhere, waiting for someone to come along and have another go at trying to fly it.

 

Frank.

 

 

[Guest Howard Hughes]

After 35 plus yrs owning flying gyros, it's now time to cross to the dark side. I'm now a F /Winger

Actually now you are a 'planker', you were an 'f winger' (flingin winger).

 

 

[Russ]

ok, 1st query...

 

Both wing tanks are full, to the top......left sight gauge reads full, but right sight gauge reads about half a tank, so what,s the go

 

BTW.....I like this 160 very much, 95+ kts, 15 L per hr....I,m happy

 

 

[fly_tornado]

its a jabiru

 

 

[JabiruWeekendWarrior]

Hmmm J160, Russ must be the model with round fuel gauges and not the glass sight window.

 

I have the round fuel gauges, and they never seem correct, I have made dip sticks, to measure the wing tanks to be sure.

 

My J160 is flown with two large chaps (90 + 110kg), gets close to MTOW, so the fuel level needs to be accurate to keep under MTOW.

 

Filling both tanks and two average people will put the J160 over the MTOW.

 

 

[Russ]

That,s right, round gauge with elec wires attached. One each wing root. Anyway, sourced the prob, a gentle tap on the underside of the wing root....bingo the gauge needle moves to the correct position......FULL, as I knew it was . So "sticky" needle it was.