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In an attempt to get this interesting thread going again, I have recently done a rating on a Chipmunk here in NZ. It is the actual aircraft that Prince Philip first flew in. Can anyone see what I missed on my first preflight?

my patterson lakes place is under the moorabbin flight path. i am going to make a fortune.🤣

Do it quick and no one notices it and it has been known to rain Cats and Dogs. but when a cargo plane blew up over Japan, it rained Datsun Cogs. Nev

What impression did you have of the aeroplane? I did my initial training on one. The best way to get rid of the cat is roll inverted and it will fall away. Don't worry about the cat . They always land on their Feet and find their way home. Nev

Well, I never knew that Chipmunks came with an emission control, cat converter! How forward-thinking of them!

Re did the w&b today and measured the moments had two mates helping out with putting on blocks and rolling onto weight cells. First weigh was 309.45 and 2nd 309.60. No fuel this time. Spoke with Jarod at Tech yesterday very helpful as usual. All images now in a photo record of the weighing and I'll do the other sheets and send in for next week. With luck may get back end of week or the week after. Have the new placard fitted for 600kg. New speed numbers below. It'll be a tough aircraft - rough air max is 112 kts. Shame they are not in schools as not many chances to experience by flyers or students. There is one factory build in South Australia but not hired or used in a school. Listing my empty weight as 310kg. Weather is not the best at present so no rush to fly and still need to do triple check and have an independent check of controls and the fitout. Can't wait to fly the upgraded bird.

RAAus Ltd is a Not-for-Profit company run by and for members. Keith Page was a director of an alternative to RAAus - EELA - which was a For Profit company, but it never got approval from CASA to operate. Rod Birrell has a long history with AUF / RAAus. There are others around who feel they have been snubbed by the changing organisation and have an axe to grind, or look at the AUF days with rose coloured glasses. There are people who want to go back to the days when the Board & employees failed 5 CASA audits and ignored all warnings - CASA then stopped any aircraft registrations and appointed someone to oversee the whole process (at members' cost) until they got their house in order. We still have a plane that was taken off the register then, and hasn't returned. There were complaints that the Board consisted of Flying School operators who were only there to protect their businesses. One downside of the Incorporated organisation, which was moved to Victoria at one stage, then moved to Canberra, was that the Secretary had to reside in the State of Incorporation. When a Board member was Secretary, he had to either reside in that State (or territory) or they had to nominate one of the office staff as Secretary (which usually happened). RAAus will never be 100% acceptable to all members. Part of that is the legislation they have to live within, which is a dog's dinner. Aircraft that can't fit anywhere etc.

Myself and this site has been there and done that which resulted in opening the door to the business people who stole our Association from us

Some interesting aircraft from early airline days:

You'd think he'd get enough of it in his DAY job? Nev

ZK-XBD recently converted from piston power to turbine here in NZ by Andrew Vincent, an airline pilot and engineer.

That's a bit of a cocksure statement, Keith. No-one in RAA Ltd has been found guilty of any law-breaking, yet - that will be after any criminal charges are laid, and after a trial is held, and the offender/s is/are found guilty. The DPP has to be sure of securing a conviction before they will press charges. Some people thought the Ball Bay crash pilot would almost certainly be found guilty of manslaughter - but the charge was dropped due to no certainty of securing a conviction. I'd suggest the fact that the pax in the Ball Bay crash went for a ride accepting the statement on the instrument panel that experimental aircraft are not built to the same standard as certified aircraft - and passengers accept the increased risk accordingly - had something to do with the Crown being very doubtful of securing a conviction in that case. At the end of the day, the Crown must prove criminal actions or intent, to secure a conviction. In the case of RAA Ltd, Public Liability covers negligence of the insured party, that leads to loss or losses - but it doesn't cover criminal activity resulting in loss or losses. The $64 question is, whether there was simply negligence on the part of the RAA Ltd employees/managers in this Matt Farrell case, or if criminal intent and actions were involved. Passing judgement before any police investigation occurs, or charges are laid, and defendants found guilty, is quite premature, IMO.

I'm glad they've corrected it for you. They've refused to do so for me - despite contacting them in writing over it. They're a parasite on the industry. Look at this very thread, people suggest bogus calls or bogus callsigns in an attempt to avoid being charged, to the detriment of safety overall. And they don't "only charge for landings" - I've been charged for overflying airports at 9,500' - verified by ADS-B - because I put "YGLA" on the flightplan as a turnpoint instead of the aid and made a deconfliction call with a departing RPT on CTAF. AvData, scum of the earth.

I have been receiving Avdata every month for the last eleven years, so have some experience with the system. They do determine billing based on radio data, and yes, they often do make mistakes. However, they have always corrected my bill when they they have made mistakes. It has been irritating to follow up the mistakes but they are pleasant to deal with and I have never found them unreasonable. Avdata provides a very convenient way to collect landing fees for aerodrome owners, so that is why it is so widely used. They only charge for landings, including touch and go's. In the Skippydiesel's case Avdata has made a mistake and they have corrected it.

I try not to be too critical of others misfortune - we know the cause (no fuel) but we didnt get to read what lead up to the loss of power. I have been lucky; Years ago, despite careful flight planning, unexpectedly/unforecast strong headwinds, had a drastic effect on my ground speed. After some inflight guesstimates, I decided my fuel situation was just too marginal to continue as planned. I diverted to a field some distance from my planned track. It was late in the day but luckily a "Good Samaritan" was working back and had 20 Litres of fresh 98RON on hand. On arrival at my planned destination - I still had that fresh 20L in the tank, but no more. 😈

I'd say because it was very Public. Nev

That is terrible news. I know Paul Bennet very well. There are a few of his pilots in his team. Jett his son has been up and coming in the aerobatics world. Paul usually flys the Wolf Pitts and Jett I believe is flying the red one. Not sure who was flying the orange one. It has 400hp the same as the Wolf I now know who the pilot was I hope he survives all ok

I think I'd rather visit HARS. Nev

Avalon is an Aviation Industry event more akin to Farnborough or Paris where all the latest civilian and military aircraft are on display & sales teams abound. Oshkosh is the US Experimental Aircraft Associations annual fly-in & everyone is welcome. About 10,000 aircraft fly in for the event. It is aimed at a completely different demographic.

Not according to the link you posted...you need to negotiate a purchase above and beyond your land ownership. In other words owning the land doesnt mean you own the airspace

I lived under the final approach to Essendon years ago. Missed out on a fortune charging tolls.

It is Nav lights. Same is with Seminole.

You've compelled me to look it up. Seems it's a variation on a compressed air motor, but using liquid nitrogen that is heated to become pressurised gas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_nitrogen_engine As far as I can tell, this is the only car to have used a liquid nitrogen engine

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

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.

Know your aircraft. Nev

Hope they lose patronidge and make even less money. IF they employ greed tactics. Maybe it time to start a ‘Do not fly to list’ Tell them, if their rules don’t exist in ERSA, they can’t be enforced. 👍

https://tooradinairport.com.au/rates-charges/ The Tooradin document just screams hostility. Could this be intentional? Drive all the private aircraft away & develope the site?😈

Here"s the two pics of Tori Mac"s Bede-BD5J . spacesailor

You would need an endorsement for low level aerobatics for this manouvre. Studies have shown cats can survive falls up to 32 stories - call it 320ft.

A new and nicely done video review of the Nynja from France. English subtitles are available by way of YT's CC button.

I think it is a FACT that no member of RAAus individually or in a group will be able to change any legal process that might happen. Life and sport&recreational flying will go on in one form or another. I have two CASA and two RAAus regulated aircraft, not concerned about RAAus future. We could be like New Zealand, just one regulator.

There were 2 in Oz back in the 90s's. Quentin's and another. Both shown at Tuggeranong Hyperdome "Big Boy's Toys" show. Don't know what happened to the other. Quentin's used the wing from a Smyth Sidewinder which he was also building at the time. He sold the partially complete Sidewinder into Queensland I believe. Colourful character was Quentin!

I don't think anybody can safely fly with a big furry pussy in their line of sight.

Something you don't see every day.

another glider story

Walrus; Up until Australia was cast adrift by the British during WW2, we were completely dependent on the Poms. All facets - cultural, economic & military came from the "mother country". Even after WW2 we continued to depend on British market for the sale of our products. Then the Poms delivered a final "kick in the goolies" when they entered the European Common Market - cast adrift once more, we had to find other buyers of our products. We should have learnt from those hard lessons , but nooooo we transferred our dependency to Uncle Sam. Willingly subverted our culture to a pseudo US one and sent our troops to die in futile, unwarranted/ ill-conceived wars in the name of Yanky colonialism. The American came to our aid in WW2, not out of the goodness of their hearts/kindred spirits but because we were an unsinkable aircraft/troop carrier in the Pacific - a launching platform. Since day one of european colonisation, we have looked to others for manufactured goods, rather than develop industry of our own. The car industry is such a good/recent example - Australia developed two very good cars (Ford/Holden) - should have been the Volvos of the southern hemisphere, sold to the World - but no - we tried to bribe, with bucket loads of taxpayers $$$, the US parent companies to continue. Their allegiance was elsewhere and we lost not only a jewel but also a strategic industry. Our Gov should have done what they recently did with Whyalla - we would still be making Australian cars today. Despite our immense geographic size we are a small country. It behoves us to have allegiances with the more powerful. This should never have been allowed to develop into dependency, with successive prime ministers, behaving like whipped puppies, when in the presence of American Presidents - sickening! Like all great powers before it, the US is a bully. No country should get too close to a bully, least the bully flatten the unsuspecting sycophant for no good reason, other than a display of strength.. There is a chance that the Trump may inadvertently be good for use - our leaders may learn & work towards true independence😈

The Current USA Gov't have to accept FULL responsibility for the way they have "chosen" to treat former loyal allies and broken existing agreements, unilaterally Them's the facts of the Matter. Nev

Money: Actually NOT off the topic of this thread because we buy military aircraft to fight wars, not just entertain children. There is an exception to this for military transport aircraft that are dual use. So when we acquire military aircraft, we should consider for what cause we will employ them. Obviously, defence of our own homeland is most likely an honourable use, assuming its not another nation coming after us for our trangressions elsewhere. However outside that direct defence usage, we start getting into grey areas quite quickly - things like "coallitions of the willing" and similar bullcrap. As a result of our "buy american" strategy we no longer have operational sovereignty over large chunks of our equipment. The F35's wont work if the USA decides they shouldn't, similarly other stuff. So its time to review : Considering the history of the countries the US has helped, how far should we go to support them?

Sorry, I must have missed something at the start of the Ukraine/Russia war? I seem to recall it was a massive attack launched on the Ukraine by Putin - who called it a "three-day special military operation" to root out those terrible Ukrainian Nazis - but obviously I got it all wrong, it was actually a massive attack launched on an unsuspecting Russia, by those terrible Ukrainian Nazis. 😞

A number of displays were held at Laverton RAAF base. I attended a few there and saw English Electric Lightnings, Avro Vulcan, McDonnell Douglas F4E Phantoms, Lockheed C124A Globemaster among others.

Wait until I get my airstrip done with a trip wire on either end triggering a camera. I'll make a fortune off the kangaroos and emus 😁

I don't know why yanks get so excited about this thing. As far as I know Elvis never set foot in it.

I continue to get nasty-grams from Avdata claiming I owe money for landings at places I've never been. Tried to sort it out with the morons there to no avail, so simply wrote back "When you work out which fees are legitimate and issue a true and correct invoice, it will be paid". Till then, my dollars haven't become their dollars. Parasites. Bottom dwelling pond scum.

Maybe because this is an aviation forum 🤷‍♂️

A Dynon, or similar PFD, is only able to report TAS because it's fed air data (pitot/static) along with outside air temp and is privy to pressure altitude, so it has all it needs to calculate TAS. (Like you can do manually - and roughly - on some old style Air Speed Indicators by dialling in OAT against PA). But an EFB - if we're talking portable tablet devices - has no clue as to TAS because it gets no air data.

Japan does get some serious weather - but I wondered if it more as a result of America loosing interest in anywhere that wasn't one of the 52 current or targeted 'states'

There's Plenty of servos in VIC that don't have LPG anymore. Vic used to have the Most extensive coverage of any state. Nev

My son is down to Avalon this week. Here he is with rocket racer Rosco Mcglashin.

Gotta get there somehow. Aviation fuels bloody expensive!