slartibartfast

Anytime Chukcha - and welcome. I didn't start this month's thread with the usual blurb. Check a previous month for all you need to know.

Oops. Thanks for starting this month off with some great photos Philthy. I forgot in all the excitement. I took the Cougar for a fly. I'll write some impressions when I get a chance.

Owned up with class Marty. I'm not claiming any moral high ground after my contribution to the idiot quota on Saturday. For the first time ever, I called the wrong runway. I wasn't keen on the gravel and preferred 05. I thought that with the wind as it was everyone would prefer 05, so in my mind I made the leap of assumption - 05 was the 09 they were all calling. This was despite having the layout clearly written on my kneeboard. Doh. My pax was a bit chatty - I should have asked for hush. When a Tecnam called base then final and I couldn't see him, I asked for his position. About then the Unicom operator told me I was lining up on 05. How embarrassing. My point? We should remember that we're all capable of making mistakes. (I got over it when my pax let me take his BMW1200GS for a blatt after the flight)

Google is your friend. KUNTZLEMAN SELF CONTAINED<BR> 12 VDC STROBE from Aircraft Spruce

Great shots Tomo. Philthy's shot of my plane was on an Airservices slideshow?

Welcome to the forum Bill. It was good to meet you. I took my real name out of your post. There's too many women who would like to know where I am to allow Google to find it. Cheers, Ross

I think the figure Carol told me was $3 million. The council were amazed at the size of the gathering and fully intend to try to keep it. I hope they do. When Carol finishes sleeping (a well earned 3 days I would imagine), she may confirm this, and comment on the event from her perspective. I would like to congratulate Carol and the other organisers on their achievement. To have such a successful event with so few problems on the first attempt must have taken an incredible amount of planning and hard work. I didn't see Carol sit still the whole weekend. Kudos to the council and town for their support too. As for the poll, Aus-Kosh can be a cute nickname. Natfly should remain the official title. One of the ride-on support vehicles was getting around with an Aus-Kosh placard. It was very cute.

Hi Dirk. I'm finally back at work and have had time to read all the posts I missed. The closest hangarage to Canberra is at Goulburn (about 1 hour's drive), Polo Flat (about 1 hour's drive), Adaminaby (about 1 hour 20) or Moruya (about 1 hour 20). There is probably some hangar space at all of them. At Natfly we had a meeting about a new airfield for Canberra (the current airport is not GA friendly and RAAus is right out). Things have taken a turn for the better and it is possible we will have it running in 2 years. All your registration and licensing queries should be directed to the RAAus office. Do some investigation into those fields and if you need more specific information let me know. Good luck with the escape out of Africa.

Sure will Rob. Glad you got home OK. I missed you today. Decided the Temora trip was too short, so to get my fill for the weekend I decided to cruise to Wollongong and down the coast to Moruya today. I'll catch you next time.

There's more info and a photo in the Savannah forum (started for the other incident in Qld yesterday). There's a news report with crash photo here. Very unfortunate incident. I hope she fully recovers as quickly as possible (the reports I have read indicate severe injury, not death - let's hope).

Yes Cameron, but just for the exercise for now. It's currently RAAus registered so no aeros until Tim gets a PPL and endorsements, then reregisters the plane.

Tim Morgan has his Twister flying - basically a tail-dragger Super Diamond. Congrats Tim. Looks awesome. [ATTACH]10157.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]10158.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]10159.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]10160.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]10161.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]10162.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]10163.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]10164.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]10165.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]10166.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]10167.vB[/ATTACH]

Garry can answer that one if you give him a ring. He can also make you another prop to suit. I've been using his props for nearly 3 years.

Hi Sunfish. I believe the answer to question 1 was in this months RAAus mag. I don't have it handy, but look there if you have one - I think it was in Mick's column. I'll look tonight. Pretty sure the answer was that you just ring the office 48 hours prior with the details and they'll give the approval to you gratis. Question 2 - if you have a PPL and the aircraft has a transponder and an approved engine, and question 1 has been satisfied if it's a built-up area, then you're good to go. Someone else will set us straight if any of that's wrong. To get the definitive answers, ring the RAAus office.

Just to break up the Peterfest, I'd use something like this. As BigPete said, there's plenty of fuel available. I used to use one when camping under the bike. Haven't been on long enough trips in the plane to worry about stoves. I can eat my rats cold for a few days.

Built by a guy called Howard Hughes. No relation?

The VHF air band can never legally be used for chat. Even 123.45 is limited to air-to-air by "aircraft engaged in flights over remote and oceanic areas out of range of VHF ground stations to exchange necessary operational information and to facilitate the resolution of operational problems". (AIP Gen 3.4 - 3.1.5) To return to the original question, I can't find anywhere in AIP which suggests someone can have a personal frequency. All licensing is through ACMA. Even if you got a freq from them, it would be limited to operational broadcasts. John Brandon lays it out well on the RAAus site: An aircraft station may only be operated (i.e. transmitting) when it is on board an aircraft, thus you cannot operate your hand-held transceiver as an aircraft station unless you are in an aircraft and identify yourself with that aircraft's station call sign. If any condition of CL2006 is breached (for example, transmitting on a frequency not encompassed by the class licence) the operator is no longer authorised to operate under the class licence. In this instance, the operator would be liable for prosecution by the ACMA. An aeronautical mobile station (and an aircraft station) may only be used for communications that relate to: the safe and expeditious conduct of a flight an emergency a matter that relates to the particular occupation or industry in which the aircraft to which the aircraft station relates is engaged; or the aeronautical mobile station is engaged. Typically a flight instructor on the ground with a hand-held transceiver supervising a student in the circuit is operating as an aeronautical mobile station. The same might apply to a person advising traffic conditions at a fly-in. The operator of an aeronautical mobile station must use a form of identification that clearly identifies the mobile station. Hope that clears it up. You can be prosecuted and have your radio operators license taken away for chatting, or using a frequency for which you are not licensed.

That's harsh. I posted it here because I thought it was good. You should try drawing on the chat room whiteboard.

I don't know what was going through his mind, but here's his drawing on the chat room whiteboard of an unknown aeroplane in trouble. It was too good to waste.

Hi Maynard. It's so cool you're spreading your wings with a big trip like this. It's a long way in an XAir. I think the best mount is that one in the box. If you have 2 square inches of flat space, stick it on. If you have to, bolt it on. It has the advantage of having the power in place. You just slide it on to the bracket and it's powered and ready to go. Otherwise there's stuff like this.

That's because that one doesn't have a GPS. This model does. It's $549 from the same place. That's the one I bought and from the same bat-place for the same bat-price about 6 months ago.

I can and I have no shortage of sun. Even better now with a cheap hood from eBay. I don't recommend the 7" units though.

Hi Damo. Ozi is $40, the SD card is about $10, plus postage so call it $60 plus whatever maps you want. Or you can buy your own maps and copy them to the card. I'm not doing this for profit, just helping my brothers-in-flight get a cheap navigation aid that really rocks. Good to see Hunter is such a happy camper that he came out of lurking. Maybe you'll post a bit more now you know how?

I was going on a 3 hour navex for a final check before endorsement. I had only flown the J160 a few times before. On roll I noticed straight away there was no ASI. I told the CFI and asked if I should abort (heaps of runway left). He said "Nah - don't worry about it". So I did the whole navex and a landing at a new airport on the way without an ASI in an unfamiliar plane. That was a useful exercise. I pulled off a good landing at Tocumwal and in his typical laconic way, the CFI just said "I can live with that." High praise indeed. Glad you got through it OK.