F10

Very nice, love the Colt, RV12 is a very nice machine, indeed, they were all very nice, what a pleasure to own!…My bad, but, I was hoping on this Gazelle thread, to get pics of any other Gazelles….but hey, who cares, these were great! I am just curious as to how many functional and well maintained Gazelles are still knocking about.

Ok, so no external power required. Seems to confirm why no issue is made in manuals about external power. I have always found this system complex, being an old magneto/distributor/coil/contact breaker man!

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Yes good point! You are correct, it was a CASA requirement for VH. Yes…I will have to try figure out how it was done. I think it may just isolate the battery from the alternator to battery charge input, but the battery can still power other systems? The Gazelle has an alternator switch, and an alternator out warning light…which is quite handy!

Well truth be told, flying back from Leongatha, I noticed when checking T’s and P’s, that the voltmeter needle was fluctuating quite a lot. Soooo, I decided to switch off the alternator which did steady it up. However, I noticed the battery voltage was slowly dropping even after switching off all other services. This seems to confirm the engine ignition system is drawing power…I think you would hit 10 Volts pretty darn quickly! Precautionary landing time with an actual alternator failure! All good when I switched the alternator on again. I think on the next bad Wx day, I might just clean up or roughen with some sand paper, the earths and some other electrical contacts……

Now I have heard that…which makes sense…but like I said, I still thought a current would still be induced. It seems very strange to me that the manual doesn’t give a “warning” or “caution” about this because it means if the alternator (yes I know it’s a different type part of the ignition at the back of the engine) fails and the battery runs flat, the engine will fail. You would think that’s a rather important detail! I think I will have to look at this. Even my Rotax maintenance manual doesn’t even mention the need for constant battery power?

Haha, have I got it wrong, wasn’t that the name of his crazy huge mate in the local pub in Croc Dundee?

Now I have heard that…which makes sense…but like I said, I still thought a current would still be induced. It seems very strange to me that the manual doesn’t give a “warning” or “caution” about this because it means if the alternator (yes I know it’s a different type part of the ignition at the back of the engine) fails and the battery runs flat, the engine will fail. You would think that’s a rather important detail! I think I will have to look at this. Even my Rotax maintenance manual doesn’t even mention the need for constant battery power?

The Gazelle flight manual states that with an alternator failure, switch it off and then “land as soon as practicable”. This means, you can fly to a field, where technical help may be available. In context. “Land as soon as possible”, means basically land at or on the first suitable surface. “Land immediately”, means, get it on the ground right now, even if it results in damage. So it seems the alternator failure is not too serious. However, in the manual, it also says it’s important to keep the alternator on at all times. So, what is the problem switching it off? Of course your battery will run down, but as far as I know, the engine will still run? After all, if you pass a magnet rapidly over or through, a copper coil, it will induce a current? So the engine should still generate a spark, even with a run down battery. The manual certainly has no warning about the battery running down with regards engine operation. Any opinions?

Most military aircraft I have come across in my career,have vortex generators located on the outer leading edge, ahead of the ailerons. They are located on the leading edge radius, in a position where they will only come into play as such, at high angles of attack, where the greater upwash will cause more airflow across them, generating vortices and so energising the boundary layer at low speeds.

Bonza! This is your Captain, Paul Hogan speaking. The last hijacker thought he had a knife…till I showed him mine! Any complaints, speak to Donk, the chief steward!

Another Warrie….! Years back flying the MB326 Machii the SAAF called it the Impala. Great little jet, and pretty quick, she would run up to 400Kts Full power straight and level, if clean. I was flying a tail base with Zandy Greef. Coming out of a loop, I was gaining on him, so throttled back to idle and lowered my nose, to let him gain some angles on me. As we bottomed out, lowering the nose caused me to hit his slipstream. I felt the aircraft roll and yaw, sensed rather than heard the “whump” I corrected and all was good. He was now getting away, so I increased power, only, the %RPM needle went backwards, instead of increasing….a glance at the JPT showed the needle unwinding below 400 degrees. In that instant I realised hitting the slipstream at idle, had caused the Viper to flame out. This was instantly followed by that horrible slide feeling in the gut! Now in the Machii, the re-light (ignitor) button, is ontop of the throttle, just above the transmit button. No prizes for guessing which button I immediately pushed….Zandy said afterwards, he was surprised to hear heavy breathing noises suddenly in his helmet earphones, he thought it was like someone making a dirty phone call! I realised my error and quickly hit the re-light button. With relief, saw the JPT needle kick and the RPM start winding up on throttle advance. The good old Viper 540 was always a good re-lighter! Feeling a bit of a tool…we continued the fun sortie, having a bit of a laugh in the de-brief.

I read a very good statement, by a guy writing about his SF260, one of the sexiest single engine aircraft out there. He said the nose wheel is there for one reason, to attach a tow bar to! What he meant was, often pilots will raise the nose off only on rotation, at times almost wheelbarrowing and on landing, will dump the nose down almost immediately after touch down. Nose gears are sometimes not that strong and are already having to carry the engine weight. Personally, I like to treat my nose wheel gently. On take off, as soon as the speed is alive, I come back on the stick, and you need a lot of rearward stick, because elevator not very effective at this stage. I select and hold, the climb attitude. This allows for a very smooth lift off and the aircraft also lifts off when it’s ready to fly. Can be tricky because you need to co-ordinate reducing back stick, as the speed increase, to hold the climb attitude constant. You don’t want to over-rotate. On landing, same thing, After touch down, I hold the nose wheel off as long as elevator authority make it possible. Yes, don’t let it slam down. This allows good aerodynamic braking and reduces stress on the nose gear. Of course, this is NOT done in a X-wind landing, get that nose gear down ASAP in a X-wind. Anyhow, this works well in my Gazelle and let’s the stronger main gear do most of the heavy lift work.

Yeah, fair point. you should certainly unload the aircraft before rolling, if high g is being experienced. Rolling g limit being a consideration, (when you roll, you will be increasing the loading on the “up” going wing, possibly over-stressing it). I guess the only criteria here is avoiding any forward check that may worsen or delay recovery. Yes, aileron at the stall, or trying to roll the aircraft out the spin, with aileron is not a good idea. The Mirage III had an interesting spin recovery, by rolling into the spin….this was using the pitching moment of inertia of the heavy fuselage, (compared to the light wings, yes, disregarding any pylon weapons) in the spin. Unusual, because it used the moments of inertia, rather than the aircrafts aerodynamic stability for recovery. I can try explain this, it’s quite interesting, but how much time have you got…..!

Dang….still pretty pricey!? But I like it, I would buy one, for sure….but I’m married!💀”for richer…or poorer”…you can forget that second part. Guess for now I will just tighten the lap strap a bit more!

To Jabirus credit, I think they have put a lot into improving their engines and the latest Gen 4, seem to be pretty sorted. It’s great to have a local manufacturer in Australia too. I’ve certainly never seen anything come up on UTube regarding Jab engines in the USA. Even Katherines Report does not show a tendency that occurred here in Australia? Let’s face it, if you look at overall cost, performance, comfort and load carrying ability, the J230D is hard to beat. Nice looking aircraft too. One personal small fruit fly in my ointment… I have just never been a fan of “side” sticks, I can live with them but… call me a traditionalist but there you are. I think it wouldn’t be hard to offer a traditional centre stick in the Jab. Simple re-routing of the elevator Bowden and surely a simple bell rank setup for ailerons? Anyhow, the J230 is a great all round package.

That’s a nice looking helmet. After many years military flying, I felt a bit exposed, flying with a headset. I still wear flying gloves, but maybe now, not so much for fire, I’m just used to the feel of switches and controls. I do like how they reduce those fatty grubby finger oil staining that you will often see in the tired old club Cessna 172. There is a reason military tend to wear helmets and it’s not just because of possible ejection. Another helmet bonus, they are handy to hang stuff off, we don’t need O2 masks but using Velcro patches, you can. Lunt a head torch. If you could afford ANVIS gen 6, you could fly Day VFR rules at night, 👹 as long as they don’t fail ☠️Your local Taliban rep might sell you a unit, one careful previous owner only… I’ve ridden motorcycles for a while, in my book, anyone who rides a bike without a helmet should be certified insane. Take a ripe watermelon and take a half strength swing with a baseball bat and it may give you an idea. Worse than driving without a seatbelt. Another thing is the visor. I wear glasses and a visor is a great way to reduce glare, without messing with flip up sunny lenses, prescription sunglasses and the like! But seriously, I like that helmet. Where did you get it?

Yeah! ”Gubbmint”, like that! Reminds me of a T shirt I saw at the Joberg Light Plane Club, it said “He who dies with the most toys wins”!

Cheers dude! Personally I love the “Boxing Roo” decals I put on the tail fin!

This “raw materials supplied” quick build kit wasn’t what I had in mind.

See what happens when you start an aircraft construction company….with poor financial planning!

Or remove before “big fright”?

To me, most RA aircraft airframes can handle around 3g, in a steep turn (60 deg) you need to maintain a constant 2g once established in the turn, to maintain a level turn. So, 3g is quite a lot. Turbulence would have to be pretty severe to exceed that. Negative g airframe limits an RA aircraft are less, but again, weight acting in the same direction as a negative load on the wing in level flight, seems to reduce this stress in turbulence. Slowing down to your rough air penetration speed, top of the white arc, will put you into the stall boundary area of the Vg diagram or structural envelope, which means in severe turbulence your aircraft would stall, if hit by a big updraft. The wing would stall, before it reaches it’s structural limit. Stall is not great….but I would choose it over losing a wing! I big threat in turbulence is ending up in an upset or unusual attitude. Recovery from that, could cause an over stress. It’s unfortunate, most people when badly frightened, will instinctively pull back on a stick, you might not even realise you are, because pulling back has always meant “up”. If inverted, this will lead to looping it out, very likely to exceed VNE here. I was taught for UA recovery, power down, roll wings level, then pitch. An significant upset on final approach is clearly about as bad as it gets. This Saturday, I was getting a few good kicks from turbulence on final. I pushed my approach speed up 5Kts and was ready for a go around. Close to the ground, the air has no room to move vertically, so turb reduces, but you are also probably dealing with a X-wind! I think all pilots are aware of wake turbulence and how bad that can be, close to the ground. Those if us who may encounter the odd Q-Link Dash 8, beware. Interesting in that vortices only form when lift is produced, I try to firstly delay…but, stay above his flight path, take off before his lift off point and land beyond his touchdown point.

Did another “before the weather comes in” trip. Short but fun, the “hundred dollar burger” but in this case, a snag at Latrobe Valley Aero Club. Smooth trip Yarram to LTV, taxied in and parked the Gazelle. Open hangar on east side of apron had a P51D Mustang in it! They pulled it out, parked next to the Gazelle, illustrious company! Started her up, it’s been a while since I’ve heard a two stage supercharged 27 litre V12! I offered to swop….but for some reason they weren’t interested! Flight back was good, but westerly had come up a bit, so about 7 miles north of Yarram, it got a bit lumpy in the lee of the high ground, a few good kicks, slowed right down all the way from 75 to 70 Kts 🤓 so not too bad in the end. The Gazelle actually seems to handle turb a bit better than a Jab 160 I was in once..I think the Gazelle airframe flexes a bit more! Kind of a springy ride…So once more a great day spent having the most fun you can with your clothes on!