F10

Yes technically, but if your in IMC, you should be operating under the IFR.

Sorry, wasn’t commenting on your post, more on the topic. As far as I know, the only time you could fly IFR without a clearance, is if you were unable to contact Centre for a clearance, whilst taxiing for take off at a Class G airfield. In that case you can contact them once airborne. They have your flight plan, so Centre should be aware, you will be calling them at some stage. The system of SAR flight following and traffic separation, all becomes ATC responsibility, under IFR. Another interesting one is an IFR Dash 8 arriving at a Class G airfield. If the weather is bad, an instrument approach is flown, and in bad weather, no VFR aircraft should be bashing around the circuit. But for a Dash 8 out at let’s say Moree, when descending to join the circuit, radar contact will be lost at some stage. All centre can say is they “have no reported traffic”. In good weather however, the Dash 8 will be speaking on the CTAF, for normal Class G circuit traffic procedures. My experience at Tamworth (after hours) Armidale and Dubbo for example, is, they come in pretty fast, preferably on a straight in final, and most people just extend upwind, downwind or orbit on downwind, traffic permitting, to get out of their way, in respect and understanding of every minute extra airtime, eats into the profit margin!

“Look out” will never get old! Scary stuff, I remember flying back from a UN deployment to Burundi, mate invited me to the cockpit of our B707 tanker. We heard another aircraft calling up, close to us and because of GPS accuracy, we looked out. Saw this 747, going in opposite direction, the closing speed was terrifying. You have mere seconds....

Isn’t this the aircraft the USAAF had a number of spin accidents with? Not recovering from a fully developed spin. The strange thing is, it seemed the Brits never had spin issues...? Looks like a nice aircraft as such.

The VMC criteria, 5115’ 1000ft above or below cloud, 1500m horizontal clearance and 5000m visibility, define VMC, if you are not within these parameters you are IMC. Flying in clouds mean you can’t visually separate from other traffic, you need to change category to IFR, for ATC traffic separation. Flying in cloud. You will lose control of your aircraft in less than 30 seconds I think it is, if not trained. If trained....well what does that mean? Hopefully enough training so you can turn around and get out. True vertigo, or”the leans”, is not only very scary, but is very incapacitating and happens fast. I know...I once had it climbing out in dense cloud, in a Kiowa. All I could do, was grip the cyclic with two hands, brace my two elbows on my legs and just stare at the AI, I could not look away for a second, as the feelings were so strong, despite willing myself not to, automatic impulses went to my arms, banking the aircraft over. I was not capable of doing anything else in that cockpit, but stare at the AI. Yes, the fact a Kiowa is not a stable aircraft didn’t help, but don’t be fooled. It happened to me in an Oryx (Super Puma) helicopter, at least after selecting a S&L attitude on the AI, I could hit the trim release, locking in the aircraft stabilisation system, and then relaxing my grip on the cyclic, as she held the attitude. The feeling is so strong, when you look at the AI, you simply don’t believe it, when it shows 5 deg nose up and 35 deg of bank. Rolling the aircraft level.....gives you a very strong physical sensation, you have just rolled it into a 40 degree bank, 10 deg nose down ....it’s very scary. Luckily...it only lasts for a minute or so...holding a steady correct attitude, soon settles your inner ear down. Don’t mess around in cloud...if you do, have the correct instruments and have the training.

Well, first things first, CONVERSION IS DONE! 5 hours to the minute later! My CPL has had Tinkerbell fairy dust sprinkled over it and is now valid when it comes to aircraft with rego numbers instead of rego letters. Thanks all for the interesting comments....I can afford it as such, so this whole thing was to generate discussion, which it did. Again I will say, I fully understand the “low inertia” thing. If a 20 000 747 pilot wanted to jump in and fly my Gazelle, I would say no. Would he need five hours flying in the Gazelle, to fly it safely, I would say probably not....but if need be....then yes....that is my point. I do also fully understand, RAA walks a fine line, between its members and poking a stick at the sleeping rabid dog, CASA. But yes, maybe I will detail my case and suggest a change to “up to 5 hours” instead of “will do” 5 hours. But, again, we should be very happy to have RAA, as members, get involved and we should never hesitate to talk about issues that affect members.

Always an interesting point, this TAS IAS relationship. The lift formula does use TAS (V squared) lift varies as the square of the speed, so: Double your speed, quadruple the lift Double your speed quadruple the drag (😪) Double your speed, quadruple your control effectively. This TAS/IAS relationship means that regardless of your “actual velocity” through air at a particular density, the flow of air molecules around the wing, will be indicated by your IAS. At high altitude, you need a faster flow of air molecules (because they are less dense ) to generate the same dynamic pressure, or pressure pattern on the wings...so IAS (a measure of dynamic pressure) remains essentially the same stalling at 30 000 Ft, or stalling at 5000 Ft. In truth, IAS will vary slightly, but for most of us this is disregarded. My take on it anyway.

Yes an aircraft can exceed critical angle and stall at any IAS, but for all practical purposes, I think that’s a great idea of Gryder’s to mark a minimum safe speed on your ASI, I have already bought some thin pin stripe tape. Another reason is a lot of “low inertia” aircraft, don’t exhibit a noticeable buffet before the stall, “sloppy controls” are also not so obvious, nose attitude, maybe not so obvious with a large windshield? So, a lot of heavier aircraft will show clear stall warning signs, but not so much in an RAA aircraft? I think marking the ASI, is a good idea. Gryder came up with a pretty grim statistic, on low speed stall/loss of control accidents, can’t recall exactly, but an appalling number occur every month in the US.

Yeah, Gryder did show up some issues, the B17 crash was a big question mark, it should have easily been able to fly with one engine out....cannot believe this Avenger pilot flew on to do a display, with smoke pouring out 🤡....a fairly common failure on radials is the supercharger impeller (a centrifugal compressor) bearing, which fails because it spins at very high rpm, so is pretty critical. When it fails the seal goes, so crankcase oil gets blasted by the supercharger into the induction system, causing lots of white exhaust smoke, often followed shortly by a big power loss. This outfit sounds dodge. Military air shows I went too, if you missed the pilot briefing, you don’t fly, period. The warbird scene has some good people, clearly, but unfortunately, often it’s the size of your wallet that counts more than your professionalism of flight discipline. Kermit Weeks is pretty professional, but another ace up his sleeve is, he’s also a pretty good pilot. As for Lunken....well, she was once part of some Florida FAA flying standards and check unit....go figure!

Will keep a lookout!

Ok! tell me what it is. Even a black and white one will be ok for everyday use. Any longer trips and will probably take the iPad strapped it to my kneeboard.

Thanks! good idea, the iPad mini might fit up there too....will have a look. Yes, it seems I might buy some Lexan and give it a go. Seems Lexan can handle a bit of bending quite well. Saving it for when winter kicks in and keeps us pretty much AOG here in Gippsland.

The only "UFO" that worries me, is a UFO in my beer...Unidentified Floating Object.

Cargo pod a good/cool idea....The Skyfox baggage bay only good for 10KG, not bad... but if you were at a fly in or show, you would probably find people avoiding you after the third day.....

I know this should be in "Classifieds", but is that up and running yet? My question, has anyone (in Australia) got a second hand working/in good condition, Garmin 295 or any other relatively small Garmin system they might want to sell? A 295 would fit the panel I have nicely without serious modifications. Yes I have an i-Pad mini, but even that will take up a lot of panel space......

It's amazing how much noise a propeller makes, when tip speeds approach speed of sound. The buzz you typically hear from a Cessna Centurion on take off for example. I reckon about 70% of the noise generated by a Jetranger helicopter, is from the tail rotor.

Flew a motor glider called a Motorvalk, it was fun! You flew the approach with airbrake out, the glide performance was so good when you retracted the air rake, it felt exactly like opening a throttle, so pretty much like a powered aircraft in a way. Using the airbrake it was easy it seemed, to judge your ROD to the runway, if you were under shooting, you just “opened the throttle” as such. Of course having the little VW engine up front was a get out of jail card!

Very interesting Utube clip!...Have some hours on the Da40, diesel was neat, oil just would go very black very quickly after an oil change....at least you could see it easily on the dipstick! FADEC was cool, press one button and hold, the engine automatically runs through a complete power check....Always wondered why motorcycle engines haven’t worked out in RA aircraft...take a Yamaha R1 sport bike engine, 1 litre, pumping out around 140 Hp, will rev for hours at 10 000 RPM, so you should be able to run it a lot longer at a much less stressful RPM? It’s light, small, pretty good on fuel, it seems to be all there.....? Another thing, RPM apparently is a bit of a mystery, to me anyway. Cruise power setting in a Harvard was 20" MAP, 1850 RPM....not much faster than idling RPM! On that radial, it must have been very low stress, that’s why I guess they are still running after 70 odd years? However, some engines don’t like low revs, it’s to do with harmonics, piston weights, crank counter balances, the bottom line, it can be quite complex. So, don’t think running at low RPM is always good....., read what the power tables say in your owners manual! Would be good to hear any other views?

So what makes a Thruster “difficult”? Is because if the engine stops, you lose all the speed “instantly”? Or it is so light. You need 30 deg nose down to keep the speed? Is it because in a wind, the control authority is so bad, you can’t control it properly? Is it because it has such a bad power to weight ratio, that its performance is marginal? Is it because the controls are so sensitive, you can easily over control or get into PIO? Is it because it’s tail volume (tail surface area X tail moment arm) is so poor, so it is very unstable longitudinally and directionally? If so, then what that means me, is it shouldn’t have been certified and it shows what a good design the Gazelle is and as other members have said, how nice to fly. Like I said, I think I have enough experience to totally disagree about the Gazelle being “so easy, you struggle to fly anything else”. I think that is rediculous. Challenge me more? As I’ve said, been there got the T shirt. At my age, I don’t need to fly something that will try to kill me.

Correct Nev, SAAF Museum one had a opposed 6 cylinder, Lycoming or Continental I can't recall. Quite versatile, you could fly with the back pod door removed.

I stand corrected! Thank you for your service. I had a Cannon AE 1 program, awesome camera. Was stolen....

Yeah, in my experience, fortunately not often...but once you have a few hours on an aircraft, when something changes, it’s the changed needle position that first gets your attention, rather than reading the gauges. Modern systems have attention getters and bells and whistles now.....

I wonder if they could look at shortening the engine with air tubes and a rear combustion chamber, like the the Alison 250 engine used in the Jetranger helicopter. That reverse flow layout makes the engine really small. 3000 hour TBO! I think like the rotor drive of an Alouette III, I wonder if a fixed pitch prop could be used, with a freewheel unit and centrifugal clutch? So any ground idle, no drive to the prop, any over speed and the freewheel unit de-couples the engine from overspending with the prop, in a dive for example. Fuel governor keeps the prop speed constant with changing load. This would however add a lot to complexity and cost, so the VP prop cheaper in the long run? Very interesting this turbine!

Awesome! Looking at dates, any recent news on this? Imagine starting up my Gazelle, with it making a turbine whistle noise like that!

That Duke had one glaring problem, glossed over in the tube clip. Essentially a rotating engine block, with a still standing cylinder head....😬🙈frought with potential probs...cooling not really discussed either. You would think with computer cad drawing tech, modern electronics and materials available today, (ceramics?) someone would be able to produce a small gas generator turbine, in other words a very small let’s say 200 SHP turboprop. Surely this technology doesn’t need to be so expensive anymore? They certainly aren’t very complex. Fuel consumption I guess, will be possibly an issue.....