Happy New year for 2025

[Moneybox]

 

At some point I'm going to have to get back to work. I have hundreds of tonnes of dirt that I know has gold but I have nothing else to use to build the airstrip... 🥴

[Moneybox]

[Moneybox]

 

My only chance to get off the ground is to climb up there and hope I don't fall.

 

 

How could I ever consider building a hanger without giving it a trial run to keep the cook happy.

[rgmwa]

Beach umbrella would look good on the grader (a couple of pages back).

Edited April 3 by rgmwa

[Moneybox]

I looked at the weather on Wednesday and nearly stayed home but in the end decided to bite the bullet and head the 1250km to Esperance to do some flight training. I had to be here to commence training on Saturday.

 

 

The rain came down as expected but we had some gaps between showers on Saturday so we managed three sessions totaling 2.6hrs but by then my fatigue was showing through with some sloppy landings.

 

 

The aircraft is a Jabiru J160, not what I wanted to fly but I don't have a lot of choice. This is a scary little plane especially when it comes to practising stalls. When we did our stall training in the Evektor Harmony it was quite sedate sinking slowly after a slight warning vibration. In one case I had to see the vertical speed indicator to believe we'd already stalled.

 

The little Jabiru doesn't leave you wondering. Within a second or two of the stall you are fully inverted and diving towards mother earth at a massive rate. If I hadn't experienced it I'd never have believed an aircraft could tumble upside down so rapidly. I had to try it another couple of times to see if I could catch the stall before it was out of control, I had no chance. He wants me to practise that until I no longer find it scary. The idea of that is scary on it's own. If this aircraft was to stall at perhaps 200' you'd be done for with little chance of survival. 

 

 

[CT9000]

If you think a Jab stall is a bit aggressive go try a Piper tomahawk, they don't call them a trauma hawk for nothing. I haven't got lots of hours on Jab's but I find it difficult to understand it going fully inverted. My experience is that they will drop a wing fairly quickly but if you step on rudder to stop the yaw all is good. Perhaps someone with heaps of time on these will chime in with more info.

[BurnieM]

If you come over to the east coast Fly Illawarra at Shell Harbour have an Evektor Harmony you can hire solo or dual.

They also have access to an Evektor SportStar.

You need to book about 3 weeks ahead to get a slot.

 

 

Edited Sunday at 01:47 PM by BurnieM

[sfGnome]

I did all my training on a Jab 160, and I can still remember the near heart failure when it transitioned from nose pointing up and wings level to nose pointing down and me in total panic. However, I think your instructor is right. Do it enough times that it doesn’t stress you any more because you know you can recover (and then keep practicing it - at altitude - for the rest of your flying life), and then you’ll know to keep away from that speed/attitude/power when you’re near terra firma. 
 

p.s. During my last BFR, I was demonstrating a power-off stall recovery, and, just as it was about to stall, the instructor helpfully(?!) blipped the throttle to add some rotational torque. Now *that* flipped it quick smart and pronto! 🫣

[Moneybox]

42 minutes ago, sfGnome said:

I did all my training on a Jab 160, and I can still remember the near heart failure when it transitioned from nose pointing up and wings level to nose pointing down and me in total panic. However, I think your instructor is right. Do it enough times that it doesn’t stress you any more because you know you can recover (and then keep practicing it - at altitude - for the rest of your flying life), and then you’ll know to keep away from that speed/attitude/power when you’re near terra firma. 
 

p.s. During my last BFR, I was demonstrating a power-off stall recovery, and, just as it was about to stall, the instructor helpfully(?!) blipped the throttle to add some rotational torque. Now *that* flipped it quick smart and pronto! 🫣

 

Undoubtedly practice at recovery gives you a better chance but are you going to have the time to implement that procedure? 

My concern is that you are unlikely to stall at 3000'. It's going to happen at a time when you're distracted or there's an engine failure and somewhere near the ground where there is no time to recover. It's not a steady "whoops the right wing is dropping", by the time you sense the stall it's all over.  

[Moneybox]

12 hours ago, BurnieM said:

If you come over to the east coast Fly Illawarra at Shell Harbour have an Evektor Harmony you can hire solo or dual.

They also have access to an Evektor SportStar.

You need to book about 3 weeks ahead to get a slot.

 

 

 

I can go back to Cloud Dancer where the Harmony is fully booked a lot of the time. Times like this when the weather is bad and it strikes right on my flight time then I sit in my camper and wait to see what tomorrow brings. I just don't get enough time in the air to cover the cost of days sitting around. Here in Esperance it's fully overcast with showers coming through. We went up this morning between showers, had to remain at 600' maximum height to avoid the clouds but we were the only plane in the sky so performed low level circuits with touch and go for 0.8 hr in dead calm conditions before the next shower sent us back for the hanger. Now it's too gusty to go out but it could have blown over before my next booking at 12:00.

 

Yesterday was a wipeout with thunder, lightening and rain but I sat all the theory tests and passed BAK, Air Legislation and Human Factors. I've already done Radio so for now all my theory is out of the way.

Edited yesterday at 02:37 AM by Moneybox

[BrendAn]

3 minutes ago, Moneybox said:

 

I can go back to Cloud Dancer where the Harmony is fully booked a lot of the time. Times like this when the weather is bad and it strikes right on my flight time then I sit in my camper and wait to see what tomorrow brings. I just don't get enough time in the air to cover the cost of days sitting around. Here in Esperance it's fully overcast with showers coming through. We went up this morning between showers, had to remain at 600' maximum height to avoid the clouds but we were the only plane in the sky so performed low level circuits with touch and go for 0.8 hr in dead calm conditions before the next shower sent us back for the hanger. Now it's too gusty to go out but it could have blown over before my next booking at 12:00.

 

Yesterday was a wipeout with thunder, lightening and rain but I sat all the theory tests and passed BAK, Air Legislation and Human Factors. I've already done Radio so for now all my theory is out of the way.

if you wait til late may / june the weather is nice there.

[Moneybox]

Just now, BrendAn said:

if you wait til late may / june the weather is nice there.

Yes I was hoping to leave here with my RPC but I can' see that happening now. As soon as I'm home we're off to the goldfields prospecting until late may, then off to China until the end of the first week in June. Perhaps I'll get another go then.

[spacesailor]

Any chance of " flight training " in China .

Just a thought of keeping your training current .

spacesailor

[Moneybox]

2 hours ago, spacesailor said:

Any chance of " flight training " in China .

Just a thought of keeping your training current .

spacesailor

 

Maybe

 

https://youtu.be/exD-ZrG1XTA?si=IqkT5eAUhZtfewUB