New member

[Phil Perry]

If I get caught out in such conditions Ill go and land at Bathurst (about 20 nm) on runway 26 and then plan my next move. Usually the wind drops late afternoon.I will make quite sure of familiarity with new aircraft and short field techniques before doing any of this stuff.

Cheers Steve

That's great Steve,. . . looks like you're approaching the whole concept the right way to me. . .

 

Especially darned good, intimated idea of chaining an old scooter to the fence at Bathurst for windy days !

 

Phil.

 

 

[Traveldoc]

Update 9th Jan 2016. RAAus Pilots Certificate with passenger endorsement....Tick.

 

Took me 54.2 hours in close to 6 months and about $10K. Five of those hours were just for the passenger ticket.

 

Flight test was great fun actually. (I thought it would be stressful). Steep turns, PFLs X 4, Short field landings X 2 and of course all the radio calls and normal circuit joins etc.

 

Now to get my Savannah delivered from SA so I can start on X-country!

 

S

 

 

[recflyer]

Update 9th Jan 2016. RAAus Pilots Certificate with passenger endorsement....Tick.Took me 54.2 hours in close to 6 months and about $10K. Five of those hours were just for the passenger ticket.

Flight test was great fun actually. (I thought it would be stressful). Steep turns, PFLs X 4, Short field landings X 2 and of course all the radio calls and normal circuit joins etc.

 

Now to get my Savannah delivered from SA so I can start on X-country!

 

S

Well done! Talk about motivated....

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Congratulatory felicitations Sir ! Well done Indeed.

 

I'll bet your X-country Navs will be conducted with surgical precision too. . . . .

 

I'll get me coat. . . . .

 

 

[Traveldoc]

Phil Perry............

 

 

 

I'll bet your X-country Navs will be conducted with surgical precision too. . . . .

 

 

 

I'll get me coat. . . . .

 

I'm hoping for a bloodless field.

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Welcome Traveldoc. If you want a short-field aircraft you might consider this one. They don't all have huge wheels and the Australian distributor, who is in our local club, might build you one to your specs.

 

http://www.flyingmag.com/aircraft/lsasport/just-aircraft-launches-stretched-superstol

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Phil Perry............ 

 

I'll bet your X-country Navs will be conducted with surgical precision too. . . . .

 

 

 

I'll get me coat. . . . .

 

I'm hoping for a bloodless field.

Oh bugger,. . .Sorry Sir,. . .I was forgetting that you are not a Surgeon but an exponent of summat else. . . . in the sawbones trade,. . . . I must start imbibing far more hydrogen monoxide instead of Cava,. . . . .

 

Phil

 

 

[Traveldoc]

Welcome Traveldoc. If you want a short-field aircraft you might consider this one. They don't all have huge wheels and the Australian distributor, who is in our local club, might build you one to your specs.http://www.flyingmag.com/aircraft/lsasport/just-aircraft-launches-stretched-superstol

Thanks O-K. I did look hard at SuperStol but: tailwheel = extra training, a lot more expensive and thirdly not many of them around, especially second-hand.

 

Actually I am almost a Quirindi local. Grandfather born at Balmy Flat, grew up in Murrurundi, taught to fly gliders by ex-Quirindi schoolteacher. The background of on of Brett's video clips is the Liverpool Range where I spent many hours fox hunting about 40 years ago.

 

My local doctor in those days used to fly from Quirindi twice a week after he lost his car drivers licence.

 

 

[eightyknots]

Update 9th Jan 2016. RAAus Pilots Certificate with passenger endorsement....Tick.Took me 54.2 hours in close to 6 months and about $10K. Five of those hours were just for the passenger ticket.

Flight test was great fun actually. (I thought it would be stressful). Steep turns, PFLs X 4, Short field landings X 2 and of course all the radio calls and normal circuit joins etc.

 

Now to get my Savannah delivered from SA so I can start on X-country!

 

S

Fantastic T-D!

 

Well done ☺

 

 

[Traveldoc]

Savannah delivered today!

 

5.5 hours flying time from Broken Hill!!

 

Waiting for me in the flying school hangar at Bathurst!!!

 

Ferry pilot reckons she's a beauty!!!!

 

Better stop now or I'll run out of exclamation marks!!!!!

 

 

[Robbo]

Savannah delivered today!5.5 hours flying time from Broken Hill!!

Waiting for me in the flying school hangar at Bathurst!!!

 

Ferry pilot reckons she's a beauty!!!!

 

Better stop now or I'll run out of exclamation marks!!!!!

Good work mate.. Enjoy

 

 

[eightyknots]

Good to hear about your Savanah. We'd all appreciate some pictures at some stage!

 

 

[Traveldoc]

We'd all appreciate some pictures at some stage!

 

[Traveldoc]

Lightening trip on Ducati to see the new machine. (Had to be back in Sydney by 1pm.) No chance to fly in it yet.

 

Overall looks well made and fit for purpose. Need to fix a few minor bugbears and move foot controls forward as much as is allowed. Only one pilot available who can endorse me on this machine = the ferry pilot! Says it will be pretty easy.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Congratulations! And you'll never run out of exclamation marks. They're inexhaustible!!!

 

 

[Phil Perry]

[ATTACH=full]40880[/ATTACH]

Hey,. . . Nice lookin' machine Blue. . . . . .

 

( goes to fetch coat. . .)

 

 

[eightyknots]

Yes I like it too. It still has a "new" look

 

 

[Traveldoc]

Finally flew in my own aircraft!

 

Only 45 min worth due to stormy weather around Bathurst.

 

Toe brakes pretty useless in current config. They work but cant actually feel them to be separate from the rudder pedals. Hopefully will be better when pedals moved forward.

 

Quick lift off and rapid climb: 1000-1100 fpm at near MTOW. Steep turns tight and easier than on training aircraft. Power off stall very sedate. No wing drop, mushy controls, VSI jumped -200 to -1000.

 

PFL will need some practice: slow glide speed had me struggling to get down to chosen paddock without overshoot. Felt like I could do some of the SMH cryptic crossword to pass time.

 

My 1st ever landing hampered by brake feel but pretty short and survivable.

 

Day 2 familiarisation flight cancelled when incoming radio calls were barely audible. LAME will sort this out next week I hope.

 

 

[Traveldoc]

Lame reports that he moved pedals 40mm and equalised toe brake angulation. Said it was much better, at least while taxying!

 

Radio guru to practice his black art later this week. Looking forward to testing these modifications.

 

 

[Traveldoc]

Update

 

Saga of the ICOM A20 repair is Icelandic in scale... Local LAME had a go then avionics dude from Bankstown. Then radio taken away to ICOM skunk works, "repaired", brought back, reinstalled ==> no different..... More farting around for weeks on end...... My new aeroplane sitting in club hangar unusable....... Eventually I bit the bullet and bought a brand new Garmin GTR2000 ( I think it was?). Installed quickly and works perfectly. Whew! Cost me nearly $3000 all up + just received a $550 bill for repair of ICOM which was not repaired and currently not in my possession. LAME told me a bit later that he has had similar trouble with other ICOM A20s and would never recommend one.

 

THEN, after 10 weeks, I could finish aircraft familiarisation flights and do what my licence says...hurrah!

 

Learning curve: Rotax hardly ever starts first time like the Jab engine used to: choke toggle turns itself off with vibration. Carb heat toggle a lot more effective at dropping rpm than in the Jab. Might be a good thing? Temperature gauges hardly seem to get above their lower readings at this time of year. Obviously the Rotax rpm nearly double the Jab. More like a Japanese motorcycle engine that I am familiar with.

 

Leaps off tarmac nearly straight away. Climbs 1000 fpm easily at 50kt and 5200rpm. Had trouble at first with flaps getting "stuck on" but I was holding the release button in. Just press the button once and its OK. Noticed that rpm tends to creep up after its set at 4800.

 

She's a bit slow in the circuit and long trips will be able to be savoured :-) Suits me perfectly! As a 60 hour pilot I'm not really qualified to make definitive statements but seems to be very forgiving and easy to fly. Taking photos is possible with hands off stick for a few seconds but I have since bought a GoPro.

 

Have pretty much explored the territory allowed by restricted pilots certificate, time to get into the X-C training and sample a few $100 hamburgers!

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Oh dear,. . . .

 

Isn't it always the way ? I've owned around six Icom ICA20 models, and they have all been great. If one wnet bung, I'd fix it myself, having the training and the kit to do that. . . very good audio both ways on this if correctly set up. Still, having a new radio was obviously the best way to go in your circumstances Sir !

 

$550 repair ? OUCH,. . . I bought my last three A20s for under £100.00 each. . . but there are many new ones from differing manufacturers around and we have the 8.33 Khz spacing rule starting in Jan 2018 so they will all be scrap after that.

 

Still, it will be nice to have three times the channels available than wwe now have. Never know, our airfield might be able to get it's OWN frequency ! we'll see.

 

Even IF we vote to leave the EU on June 23rd, the 8.33 system should still be introduced in my view, since the whole of Europe is going that way, it would be pointless not to do the same. I believe that the UK had a lot to do with development of this system anyway, and we won't be changing ALL of the EU directives. ( If we win that is ! )

 

 

[Traveldoc]

Similar bill from same Avionics firm for installation of new Garmin. At least I got something for that money so paid without quibble.

 

They charge a hefty "travelling" fee for work done at Bathurst which seems doesn't seem quite right to me. Yes, I know, let the buyer beware.

 

LAME reckoned that "radios are like engines. They go bad if you don't use them". This was not my concept of solid state electronics but I'll accept his advice and make sure I use the new one regularly!

 

 

[dutchroll]

I'm fairly convinced that avionics techs use 32 carat gold wire strippers and crimp tools. It's the only way I can make the billing sound right.

 

I had a large Bankstown avionics mob charge me $300 for a cowl removal, which works out to about $60/minute labour charge (complex labour though......it involves undoing a couple of dozen machine screws with a Phillips head screwdriver and dropping the cowl off).

 

 

[planedriver]

You should have ducked next door to Bunning's for a cordless screwdriver dutch, and given it to them on the house, but the bastar*rds would have probably still hit you for $200 bucks for the charger! but at least you might have saved $100 towards a few of your enjoyable aero's.

 

 

[Blueadventures]

UpdateSaga of the ICOM A20 repair is Icelandic in scale... Local LAME had a go then avionics dude from Bankstown. Then radio taken away to ICOM skunk works, "repaired", brought back, reinstalled ==> no different..... More farting around for weeks on end...... My new aeroplane sitting in club hangar unusable....... Eventually I bit the bullet and bought a brand new Garmin GTR2000 ( I think it was?). Installed quickly and works perfectly. Whew! Cost me nearly $3000 all up + just received a $550 bill for repair of ICOM which was not repaired and currently not in my possession. LAME told me a bit later that he has had similar trouble with other ICOM A20s and would never recommend one.

THEN, after 10 weeks, I could finish aircraft familiarisation flights and do what my licence says...hurrah!

 

Learning curve: Rotax hardly ever starts first time like the Jab engine used to: choke toggle turns itself off with vibration. Carb heat toggle a lot more effective at dropping rpm than in the Jab. Might be a good thing? Temperature gauges hardly seem to get above their lower readings at this time of year. Obviously the Rotax rpm nearly double the Jab. More like a Japanese motorcycle engine that I am familiar with.

 

Leaps off tarmac nearly straight away. Climbs 1000 fpm easily at 50kt and 5200rpm. Had trouble at first with flaps getting "stuck on" but I was holding the release button in. Just press the button once and its OK. Noticed that rpm tends to creep up after its set at 4800.

 

She's a bit slow in the circuit and long trips will be able to be savoured :-) Suits me perfectly! As a 60 hour pilot I'm not really qualified to make definitive statements but seems to be very forgiving and easy to fly. Taking photos is possible with hands off stick for a few seconds but I have since bought a GoPro.

 

Have pretty much explored the territory allowed by restricted pilots certificate, time to get into the X-C training and sample a few $100 hamburgers!

Hi Traveldoc Good to hear your in the air. Re choke it's actually a fuel enricher and unless in the fully opened position it will not do its thing. Its not like a choke of old that you can regulate any percentage of choke from full to none. If the enricher when you have its control set to on needs to have the enricher on the carbs at the open stops as per the rotax manual. Maybe worth checking. Also maybe worth have a prompt sheet about how to start the rotax if hot or flooded, its all in the operators manual and worth having available as a reminder. The procedure woks a treat. I've got a sumerised procedure in the cabin. I'm not on my computer but I'll find it and pm to you. I've got a small pocket clear page booklet in the cabin with the little bits of useful info eg haw to adjust factor settings on my Trig radio, the rotax start procedures for differing engine conditions, propeller torque and adjustment info, my epirb rego with AusSar etc. The booklet is an army field Viewee2ee of ebay.

 

Cheers Mike