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I've seldom seen so many column inches wasted by people wishing to blame the system. This is so obviously a case of an individual making the wrong decision. Regulators, instructors, qualified bystanders and family and friends cannot be blamed for the rash decisions of the victim of poor decisions. Coroners will often try to scapegoat by looking for 'system failings'. Recreational flying has and will always be potentially dangerous and, in common with all risk activities, will punish poor choices. Blaming instructors, regulators or regulations is a trap. The attraction of recreational flying is that it assigns the risk to the pilot. The obvious lesson here is to carry in mind, at all times, the knowledge that this thing can kill me.

Update --- Drum Roll I'm happy to report after meeting my Pilot neighbour that all's well with the world and good communication goes a long way. He showed me and my wife his meticulously cared for plane and his logs which gave us alot of confidence that he knows what he's doing and cares alot about safety for everyone. He's had decades of flight experience which I think, gives our family the best confidence that we're in safe hands. So, for any pilots with neighbours ... Please Please Please ... Communicate with them. We ended up laughing about the communication issues as we left. He's a great guy actually. So ... if I have offended any pilots out there, I apologise. I came from a place of keeping my family safe and not one of restricting peoples ability to enjoy their hobby. Thank You and Fly Safely Everyone Brian

Another beautiful weekend in the eastern isles. Headed to one of my favourite strips for an overnight hunting trip in the J230 ute. The dog is getting used to flying finally. D'Urville Island is the largest island in the Marlborough Sounds. Once again Wellington Approach very helpful with radar monitoring across the Strait. Its always reassuring knowing someone is keeping an eye on you in a single engine over water.

Its about to ship. So in a few months I will start a Kitfox build and a you tube. Stay tuned Lyndon

First attempt at lock wiring today. The prop bolts are nice and accessible, not so much the ones at the top of the nose leg...

Okay readers, please take a deep breath and stop bashing Zonsen simply because they are a Chinese company and PLEASE can we stay on topic about Zonsen specifically and the Zonsen products. Their factory is amazing! Immaculately clean, extremely ordered, fully automated (robots collect parts off the shelves and deliver to the assembly stations), technicians are uniformed and white coated and skilled, the quality assurance section is extremely well equipped with the technicians being skilled at what they do. On that topic, our first engine was delayed after the Zonsen QA process identified an issue with parts of our engine which were subsequently remanufactured. The QA system worked and the Zonsen desire to only send out engines that meet their stringent quality requirements was met. Their manuals were pleasantly fairly good, with some English language errors evident but feedback that I have given has been immediately addressed and they’ve sent me a new updated manual within days of me providing my feedback. With more feedback, their manuals will improve, but their first cut at them has been pretty good. We all get that hours need to be put on the engines and third party validation of the product is required in order to build a reputation. I’d love to drop 10 engines into the market here and have them fly their backsides off so that we can then point to a demonstrated history of reliability and associated product support. I reckon that is what we need, but as the distributor, I cannot wear that cost or risk. That said, there have been many sales into Europe so we should start getting more data on the success of the engines there, along with reports of first hand experience by unrelated parties. So please, back on topic and let’s stop with the generic China product bashing. Don’t tar Zonsen with that brush until there is evidence to support the tarring… or there is evidence to support a good reputation.

Final build video. Now that the Viper and trailer are finished, I am focused on saving to buy a truck to tow it. In the meantime, I dug through my hard drive for seven years of WIP photos and combined them into a complete build video, just under 9 minutes. Enjoy! Baz.

The pilot in question Ben, is a friend of mine. I will not say much, there is always two sides to every story. Hopefully you and Ben will have an amicable meeting to resolve the issue. As an experienced pilot, as is Ben, I can say you are not at risk. The wind in cowra today was around 20km/h with a peak gust of 35km/h.

Both Marty and Regular person have answered some questions playing in my mind, I was not going to post but have thought about my comments before doings so as i do not know either party. I live in a rural area in the Mid North Coast hinterland. When I purchased my property i was supplied a council letter advising me of the fact the area is rural, you cannot complain about rural noises and operations. I already understood this being a country person, but i can see why they issue the letter with a lot of city dwellers purchasing in the area for holiday homes. My driveway adjacent neighbour has lived on his 10Acre lot for 40 years. He runs sheep for eating on his land, Kept his 2 concrete pumping trucks parked there (day Job) Plants a few crops of melons and Pumpkins on a patch that other neighbours let him used in return for keeping the area mowed, planted and tidy. He had a 2 acre lot he split off and gave away to a daughter for a dwelling, she sold and people built on it, no probs for 8 years. Then the small lot was sold again. New people from the blue mountains area bought it. Instagram Yoga teaching types from Brazil originally. Suddenly he is getting complaints about sheep noises, riding his quad too much (it is hilly and he has 1 leg (prosthetic for other), tractor noises, burning off complaints. To top it off they pushed the boundary fence over, because it spoilt the view of the creek for their yoga videos. A creek they wouldn't even see if my neighbour didn't keep the vines and scrub cleared back for his melon crop. They, being internet savvy, started petitioning the council about every complaint, and because the squeaky wheel minority always get greased they achieved getting our area rezoned residential- putting everyone's rates up, having the trucks removed from his property as no business could be conducted on the land- his employees and himself drove off at 6 every morning to work on construction sites not on his land. Along with creating extreme animosity among neighbours from calling the police if he lights a burn off pile on his own land, taking out restraining orders against him has made an unpleasant environment with an us against them type situation. This guy couldn't do enough to help when we bought our land, gave us 50,000 litres of water to help out when we first built from his tanks, helped moving big items, keeping an eye on things when we weren't there. I tell this story as a precautionary tale, sometimes the consequences of disputes or minor differences can cause everyone some form of grief. I wasn't sure from the original post who was there first. Have you bought cheap land in the country for an idyllic lifestyle only to find there is country noises. Has he become a newly minted pilot and taken up a hobby in the last week, or was he a pilot all along and you were not aware of it- did the people sell you the dwelling because of the runway and noise then failed to mention it. I assume you are not in the town boundary and if the house is off grid it would be newer than his dwelling and maybe wasn't there when he first laid out his landing area, because people didn't do that stuff years ago, they had power lines for power. This is not an attack on either party but points to ponder. Like Marty said, talk to him, if he is not a cowboy and you believe he safe in his operations see if he will take you up and conduct a landing or 2 (with the missus and kids not home of course). Perspective may add some insight to operations and such. Even though it is a "Kit plane", someone spent possibly 2000hrs assembling and finishing the aircraft. Don't picture a model aircraft that takes a weekend or two to assemble with glue and rubber bands. I own a similar aircraft and they are sturdy, reliable , proven and perform well at slow speed and mine has 2 stroke under 600cc motor. You never know you might become friends, A friend is far more better value than a neighbour you hate with a passion and less heartburn.

Mike and I talked a lot about this when he was writing this article in Sport Aviation. Sorry I had to borrow so much from our older movies - and everybody else - REMEMBER! - "Area Rule for supersonic - Arnold Rule for subsonic"

If it was Spatial Disorientation it is well known that pilots disbelieve what their instruments are telling them because their mind is saying "No I am S&L". I once got sucked up into the base of a CU in my hang glider & got spat out the side. I thought I was S&L but was almost 90 deg to the horizon when in the clear. I also flew deliberately in to IMC in My Archer 2 about 30 years ago as I was in a valley surrounded by hills with tops in the cloud and no safe landing area. I set my original heading & climbed, eyes glued to the panel and saying to myself continually "believe the Instruments". I came out the top at over 9500 feet. I continually had to fight the urge to turn. The 5 hours under the hood was some of the best spent time while training for my PPL.

Good luck to all. Us boaties will be having fun, lots have moved into marinas which is the last place to be if it gets bad. I am on a extra sized mooring, the only safe place to be unless you can be 100,s KMs away from the storm. My biggest issue is been hit by broken boats, trees etc floating past. Many of the local commercial moorings are way undersized and expect some will break away. Stocked up on supplies esp my Peroni 🍺. Batten down the hatches

Well done. When are you starting your flying lessons.😁

Personally, I would not operate from that airstrip. I would have bought a more suitable place to fly from, that house is too close for my liking. The risk element is probably not that great, but its one I would not be happy with.

My LAME was testing as much as he could without flying the plane. Engine, Propeller, Brakes, Park Brake, Steering and instruments. A few seconds of high stress was not going to blow up anything that was not about to let go in flight. I thought that was FINE of COURSE.

I've also read the coroner's report and apart from some poor airmanship decisions, I am dismayed to see how poorly RA-Aus senior management came out from the investigation. Hopefully senior management have taken these issues very much to heart and made the necessary changes. Our "corporate culture" was lacking. The conflict of interest in being both the administrator and the investigator is also a cause for concern, but that seems to be a result of the ATSB refusing to investigate any accident which doesn't involve either a GA or RPT aircraft. Perhaps it is time to put together an independent organisation to investigate accidents occurring in any of the SASAOs. We are very much behind the curve in this respect. The APF in my view, does a far better job in this area than we do, releasing a statement of facts within a few days of a fatality to squash all the rumours and plainly state exactly what took place without making any prognostications as to likely cause(s) etc.All we do is a bald statement about a fatality with bare details as to the aeroplane, location and how many persons were involved. The APF provide a high level of detail as to equipment used, age and experience of the person(s) involved etc, whilst preserving their anonymity. Of course, there are the questions of "who constitutes it" and "who funds it" to be answered, but the fact is we are somewhat impoverished in the field of independent investigation, and this leaves it to the Police and the coroner to come up with answers. In my view this is very unsatisfactory. The membership remains poorly informed when what we really need is information we can all use to try and prevent such an accident happening in the future. The single most obvious thing for me was what we already know; if you are not trained for IMC flight, and your aeroplane is not equipped for IMC flight, don't go IMC. On top of this, if you think conditions may render you prone to ice developing on your aircraft, don't fly in those conditions. There is no place for hubris in any form of aviation. I was once asked where my sense of adventure was. I replied "one step behind my sense of self-preservation and determined to stay there". That finished the conversation.

Burnie, it is not possible to give you what you want because the engine is new enough and not prolific enough to be able to furnish you with the data that you want. You are essentially seeking third party validation of quality and reliability. That data is not yet available and that has been stated already several times on this thread so continuing to ask for it is not going to change the fact that the information that you seek is not yet available. Please ask again in 2 years and we should have the independent validation that you seek. We are aware that sales will likely be slow until such validation is available. I think we probably all agree that an initiative by the manufacturer to incentivize some customers to take the engines, build time on them quickly and get the third party validation of quality, safety, reliability and customer support so that potential customers need not fear that element of the buy decision.

As the two replies above say; at least get an inspection report that include for example engine model (with Rotax 912 its better to get a later than 2006 engine due to the better crankcase, some model numbers around 2011 require frequent crankshaft checks via an inserted feeler gauge as examples) If Jabiru and engine not conditioned for storage it would likely need extensive work and good refurbishment is available. One of the cylinder pressure tests is a good guide and best done. Both engines would likely require maintenance and parts. Then the airframe and surface covering condition and electrics. As an example I have done inspections that list 20 plus matters for attention; 6 maybe needed before next flight and the others done when suits; my comments are supported by images and if the interested purchaser is not present at the inspection time I would say to them to speak with a local to them maintainer about the listed items and get a cost guide (I will give them a best guess parts cost and time to do guide to assist their considering purchase price if they go ahead. I've seen some rip-off buys where too much was paid for the aircraft and heaps of costly work required. Sometimes (almost always) better to pay more for an aircraft in flying condition; unless you want a project. Hope this limited reply helps.

Believe me, I hear you. The aero division of Zonsen have been very good to deal with, but I think they are still coming to grips with Western mentality and mindset. Building a reputation needs to come from the manufacturer and there are clear metrics around what elements of a business and their product will positively enhance a reputation, particularly in the aviation sector. A demonstrated history of a reliable, safe and well supported product is critical, not just on a sample of one, but on a sample of many and over a sustained period. Distributors have the ability to support the initiatives of the manufacturers to raise the level of credibility and trust in a product, but ultimately, responsibility rests with the manufacturer to enhance their own profile.

The Simonini Victor 2 Super is a 95 hp engine with the Mono Exhaust. The TBO is 450 Hrs. I am the USA Dealer & maintenance facility. It has 801 cc's. The Rotax 582 was made for 8200 rpm but they made an exhaust that would work at lower rpms to get a sooth power band without flat spots. Simonini lowered the port hight for 6200 max rpms so you get a lot longer powder stroke & globs of torque at lower rpm's. Also they use Reed valves instead or the RV disc thats separated by an oil cavity to lube the RV shaft , gear, bearings & had the water pump impeller on the other side. Simonini has an external water pump thats belt driven & that makes for a shorter & much stronger crankshaft, plus no internal oil / coolant leaks & it is easily swapped out. Simonini uses much improved flat slide carbs, and they use the same Ducati dual ignition system used by Rotax. I had a customer with one of my 92hp 670's who switch to a Victor 2 Super with the dual 110 exhaust & he said it smoked the 670. The Victor 2 Super uses the same engine mount as a Rotax 503 or 582. You can also limit the rpm to make only 52hp or 65hp if concerned about the extra power & with EVERYTHING the Victor weights only 115 lbs. To clear up some of the above comments on the 618, it was the very best 2 stroke liquid cooled Aircraft engine that was ever built. I can convert a 618 into a 666 that will smoke the 670. They also have a larger crank pin than the 670's have. The problem was Rotax kept the same .003 piston to cylinder clearance. The 618 used the same piston as a 582 but had 78hp so cold seizures was a problem if not operated CORRECTLY !!!! They had the exact same cylinder head thats on the Blue Head 582 to try to prevent the cold seizure issue. Rotax dropped the 618 because it was to close in power to the 912 & Rotax knew the 912 was the future. Well thats my 2 cents. Rotax Rick

Hi folks, Does anyone have, or know of someone who has an airworthy J160c that is not flying, possibly due to engine issues or simply languishing in a hangar somewhere, not being used? We are looking into installing a 100/110hp Zonsen engine into a J160c under the provisions of MARAP, and then potentially offering conversions to J160c owners to the more powerful engines. Under the provisions of MARAP, the J160c would still be eligible to undertake training school activities. The folks with the 100hp Rotax 912 conversions have all been happy with that conversion from both the performance and reliability perspectives. The Zonsen engine (Rotax lookalike) is relatively new but there are several in Europe that have over 500 hours and have performed reliably. Anyway, if you have or know of a J160c languishing away that we could potentially breathe new life into with a new engine and an EFIS display, please pm me. Another option is installing the 145hp (137hp max continuous) turbocharged Zonsen into a J230 or J430. At 10,000’ with the IAS limit for rough air (117kias), that would represent a cruise speed in rough air of 135ktas. The still air cruise speed would be higher. That level of performance would make the Jab230/430 a more serious cross country performer. Takeoff and climb would also be better than with the 120hp Jab3300. Anyway, if any of this discussion piques your interest, reach out to me and let’s discuss. Thanks. Dave

I bought a car parking tent and erected it in the workshop. It was early spring, so heating was required. At one end of the tent I had two bathroom extractors venting to the outside. At the other end I cut a hole to take a 2.3Kw electric radiator...one of those cheap ones on little wheels. So with the fans on, air was drawn into the tent via the radiator fins. This gave steady gentle air movement that didn't kick up the dust. In the 'booth' I had a cheap wall thermometer. With aircraft part/s in place, I would switch on radiator and fans, then wait until the temperature stabilised at an appropriate level: as I recall, I would suit up and start mixing once I had about 23'C. The painting itself is pretty quick, I think I turned off the radiator before picking up the gun, as there would be plenty of residual heat in the radiator. This worked well for me. As mentioned by others, you need lots of light. This may not be essential for skilled painters, but I found the only way I could see what actual finish I was getting was to move my head so as to get direct lighting reflections off the surface. With just a few points of light you can't do this. I had lighting all down one side of the tent, that worked okay if I ran round the other side of the job. In a perfect world I would have had lighting down both sides. And if you look at professional high quality spray booths, the walls and ceiling are solid banks of lighting. (As an aside to that, if you get a 'dry' spot or area (too much air or gun held too far away) you can sometimes remedy it by loading up quickly with thinners and applying a light overspray of that. But you do have to be quick to spot it, before the paint hardens.......which requires that good lighting.) So, yes, lighting: you can't have too much. As a complete amateur (I once applied a coat of paint in an orange-peel finish to a Fiat Bambina, 40years ago, and that was it) I figured I would need all the help I could get. So I spent some time making supports to hold the wings tilted up towards me, as that was the easiest angle to be working the gun. And I rotisseried the fuselage with a suspension rope round the engine mount, which allowed me to paint it in four stages. Initially I had too much air at the gun, and had to clean back one complete wing underside and start again. I bought an air gauge to go on the gun, as the gun pressure is not the same as the compressor when you are spraying. Once I got that sorted out, and with careful focus on gun distance and speed, it went quite well. I did the colour last, and found it much easier to see how that was going on than with the white.

Found using a forklift with wing on a mattress was perfect for removal and refitting wings. The springiness of the mattress allows for small movements to allow removal and refit into attachments. Then when inboard is connected use a jack to support to fit struts. Doing the 2,000 hourly wing bolts and some other things. New motor to go in next on this A32. First wing removed with 3 people, owner thought up using forklift and it's a winner. I’ll be using same when I do my Nynja wing upgrade in a few weeks.

Love to see your posts Franco, with just so many you have given some flight experience never to be forgotten to. Well done mate, you are a legend!

I'm not even flying yet but I expect to have a lot of trips Cue to Perth and back. My plan is to see if I can become a member of the Northam Aero Club and use that as my southern base. It's 261.9 nautical miles each way and an hours drive to Perth. Yesterday we left Cue at 4:20pm and arrived here in Bindoon at 11:38pm stopping for about half an hour at Paynes Find for a bite to eat. We are still an hour from Perth. If my plan works out I'll have a little Mercedes van with a bed and basic extras parked at Northam for the travel to Perth. I bought the van to travel around the country a few years back. If that works out my van will be available to known visitors dropping in.

Warning . It's addictive. Nev

I would advise not going down the path of a formal airstrip/field/landing ground, unless there is some other intent/plan that needs this sort of asset. A nicely mown, well drained paddock, of a suitable length, orientation and clear arrival / departure routes, will meet most aircraft needs. For sizeable rural properties, a farm track can be improved, to serve as runway. In most cases, neither of the above will require planning / zoning approval. Why prod the beast (Council/Planning Authority) if you don't need to?😈

What About Flying Neighbourly and keeping people onside. ?" I CAN therefore I WILL" is NOT good enough. It's a $#!t ATTITUDE and does the Movement NO GOOD It has legitimate SAFETY concerns and there's NO Cause to be rude to a Very genuine enquirer and HERE on this forum, WE should welcome such enquiries. I've been flying since 1959 including Instructing it the type and in windy/ gusty conditions you can't reliably fly over obstacles at low heights. Not can you rule out an engine malfunction. Nev

This is an interesting read; better than the daily telegraph or sun mirror... If RU1 zoning then landing and taking off of aircraft is not an illegal issue. Flying under 500' during the procedure of take off or landing of aircraft, complies with CASA regulations. Landing and take off of an aircraft from a paddock; CASA regulations, in short, area must be suitable for the aircraft in command of to safely clear flight path obstacles according to aircraft's climb performance charts and atmospheric conditions. Aircraft Stalls... aircraft do not just suddenly fall from the sky during a stall as many may believe. A proficient pilot will train for this and recover the aircraft well before the aircraft is beyond the point of control. Wind Shear... aircraft can fall from the sky in the event of severe wind shear; but not like in bugs bunny cartoons Proficient pilots will train for this and anticipate an occurrence during both take off and landing in particular wind conditions. Experimental & General Aviation aircraft accidents and incidents... currently statistics have General Aviation aircraft leading the score board on this one. Council restrictions upon airfields... depends how many people complain to council and how regular aircraft movements occur. Flying Neighbourly... most community and commercial airfields have a policy to minimise pissing off the neighbourhood. This does not always align well when the aircraft pissing off the neighbours all come from another airfield and do not land or take off from the airfield the neighbours are complaining about... Risks Profile & Mitigation Strategy... What are the risks and what is the likelihood of them occurring? Low or High? What are the impacts of each risk should they occur? Low or High? Flying an aircraft is primarily all about constant risk management; it does not end until the engine is shut down and keys are removed from the switch. Talking is always best; flying is even better 👍👨‍✈️

Without knowing the exact situation it's hard to know whether the landing path is unsafe or not. Many airfields have houses up to the boundary fence, I remember the first time I flew into Adelaide (passenger) being shocked at how low we approached over the rooftops. And that's 90 tons of metal, meat and fuel travelling at 135kn, not 600kg doing about 50. As a father I can also understand your concerns about your kids safety. You're doing the right thing by getting information. With forums like this you'll get some different views. What I can agree with others about is that good communication with your neighbour is the most important thing. If you take a friendly approach, express interest in his aircraft from your engineering perspective, maybe he offers you a flight... then that's a good starting point to discuss your concerns. Maybe he can allay them, maybe you can work out a system where he lets you know his estimated arrival time so you and the kids can be out of the property while he lands... something like that. One thing is for sure, if both parties get upset and angry - you because you think he's callously putting your kids at risk, him because he thinks you're selfishly stopping his hobby... then no one wins and it'll be hell living next door to each other.

The Kitfox is about to ship. Wednesday from Idaho to San Francisco. So by the end of next week it will be waiting for a LCL in San Francisco onto Adelaide. Hopefully late May early June it will arrive in Port Adelaide. Ordered September 2024 with a two year wait time for these aircraft. I'm thinking they like the sound of the long wait, but in reality its pretty much straight away for a build slot. Thanks Lyndon PS. Is this the right place to update my build. ???

Login to raaus, member training, L1 maintenance. Enrol, do the learning module then pass the test.

I've just gone through the process of preparing for registration of a 24-**** unregistered aircraft. RAAus have very comprehensive history on the plane even though it's been sitting in a shed/hanger for 12 years. They were very approachable from day-1 which was well before I made the decision to travel from WA to QLD to check it out. I've had nothing but friendly support from them up to this point nearly 12 months on. I have a lifetime of experience in maintenance and manufacture of mechanical things, mostly automotive and qualifications to go along with it but without an L1 I'm not allowed to work on the plane. I have been told unofficially that until registered I can do the work although I'm not sure on that. I can't get an L1 until I have a pilot's license even though I have qualifications in mechanical engineering, auto electrical, transmissions, diesels, air conditioning and more. Anyway to cut a long story short I did all the required upgrades to bring the plane up to scratch but I couldn't sign anything off. I had to tow it to an aero workshop so that they could paw over it for hours confirming that the work was carried out to the required level. My LAME flew for nearly three hours and spent a day and a half. We fitted the wings, tested the instruments with calibrated equipment, performed the engine leak-down test again, ran it up and down the taxiway to check maximum engine revs at various propeller pitch settings, tested the brakes and park brake and more. We removed panels all over the place looking for control connections, corrosion or anything else. He went through the inflight adjustable propeller manual checking for service life etc. He updated the logbook and maintenance manual with all work carried out and replacement parts fitted. Now it's ready to fly but it's chained to the ground waiting for the red tape to be cut..... I'm patiently waiting.... are we there yet?

It could just be the rego lapsed because the owner got ill/died, lost his job and could afford to fly, wifey seperation etc. Its not always a neferious thing that causes a rego to lapse. He could have just also lost interest.

China is the worlds factory. My MG EV was made there. The quality is better than my last Japanese car. The manual and all service documentation is in perfect English and it has a 10 year warranty. Most Japanese branded electronics are made in China. Almost all mobile phones in the world are made there including Apple & Samsung. BYD make the best busses in the world. CATL is by far the largest battery manufacturer in the world and leads the world in technology and innovation. The list is endless Zonsen may be new here but is well known in other markets. In Australia we have a huge bias against Chinese made anything fueled by our politicians who are always going on about about the threat of some Chinese takeover, influence in the Pacific or their aircraft flying too close to ours when we are flying surveillance missions on the edge of THEIR airspace. The prejudices run deep. Early stuff was a bit suspect but it was cheap. The old adage of "You get what you pay for" is as true today as it ever was. Quality has never been cheap. So that is reflected in the price so the 4k saving of the Zonsen engine may not be much but hey a lot of Chinese made stuff now is better than Western equivalents so watch this space.

But first the manufacturer needs to provide a volume of 'in use' engines in Australia, lets say 10 x 912ULS equivalents. One here and one there is going to take a very long time to build a reputation. I would have expected the manufacturer, not distributor, would have born a lot of this cost. For $4K more I would buy a Rotax.

If the fuel pressure is normal with boost pump on and low with engine pump only then yes the mechanical engine pump is faulty. This happened to my RV6, the engine still ran fine with just the engine pump but the pressure was very low, new pump pressure normal.

I'd have to opine the Lycosaurus' were a lot cheaper than any high-tech FADEC, Mercedes-based diesel - and I understand the Lycosaurus produces more grunt? (180HP VS 168HP). Also, it seems the Austro AE 300 engine has a shorter lifespan, and no ability to overhaul, so you need to buy a brand new donk every time, at around US$60K? And finally, the DA40 NG has a lesser climb rate, and a higher landing speed than the DA40 XLT. Looks like a no-brainer in choice, to me. https://www.diamondaircraft.com/en/private-owners/aircraft/da40/tech-specs/

It was super generous of this young pilot to share the excruciating experience of his first flight with a pax. Things didn't go as planned. But a great lesson for aviators all. Who hasn't, at some point, found themselves confused by unexpected panel layouts (even in familiar types)? Anyway, our brand new PIC solves a sticky situation by aviating, navigating and ... well, wing-wiggling to a green-light landing into Bankstown. In his later vids we see that he's gone on to grow in confidence and competence and to nail his commercial ticket. (And we see that he's a true believer in the joy of flight.) Apart from anything else, the GoPro video is an enthralling little human drama. Who couldn't identify with and feel for these characters?

RC model. Some should like it.

Having Clive Palmer cancels that out.. PLUS Pauleen (please explain). Nev

Absolute rubbish. If you take off when everyone else is staying on the ground because the weather was bad at the point of origin it means you made a bad decision. You don't need hours of training to know if conditions are bad. People need to take responsibility for their actions. Always looking to blame someone else these days. If the pilot was still around he might agree he made a bad decision.

Keep an eye out for this aircraft. I'm checking it out at 9:00am tomorrow at Jandakot. I was here this afternoon when it went for a test flight after assembly but I didn't know it was here until after lockup. I don't know if I'll get my bum inside but I can only hope 🤞 Apparently it'll be touring the country for promotion so if you have a spare $400k tucked under the mattress it might be a good time to pull it out. 150kts cruise with a 912ULS and retractable landing gear.

Wings sometimes just have to be forklifted. It's not pleasant, in fact it's generally quite unpalletable.

A fast plane with 2000 fpm climb rate gets up out of the hot air quickly, love the RV.

Hey Guys! Stuart Perkins, is a fb friend of mine! Known him for quite a while now! You can reach Stuart on fb here, Facebook or Email [email protected] Franco.

Personally I use 60 mins res everywhere drive my planes, remember min 30 mins is what you must have at the completion of landing, that’s cutting it too fine for me. some years ago I was about to join the circuit after a lengthy flight to a drome where there was a 25 kt westerly and EW & NS Rwy’s, only trouble was that a plane had flipped on landing on the EW strip and people where frantically trying to remove the driver so hence to say either take the 25 kt X wind or divert elsewhere, hence 30 mins to me is not enuf! I even double the min gas on the Jet I fly as well!

He had one hour in a 172 over 20 years prior. And over 200 hours in UNpowered paragliders. I've no idea how many touch n gos etc,or how recent the unpowered paraglider experience was.

Mat's small number of posts on here indicated a reasonably good understanding about the limitations involved in flying light aircraft, but it appears he succumbed to the age-old problem of poor pilot decision-making, in taking off into inclement weather, obviously feeling a pressing need to carry out his flight. I would opine we've all seen reports of reportedly good pilots with modest levels of experience, making poor decisions to take off, when they should've stayed grounded. I'm not so sure that another 15 or 20 hrs of pilot training would have benefited Mat, unless that training really hammered decision-making, relating to whether a flight would be able to be safely carried out or not. The problem centres around the fact that everyone is different when it comes to decision-making, and some of us are more impulsive than others. https://www.recreationalflying.com/profile/11812-mat-farrell/content/