cscotthendry

Mike: Just over a week to go now till the new arrival. I will have a look at that material at clark's. Thnx for the tip.

Perfect!

Perfect!

Mike: It's hard to tell whether you have it or not from the pictures, but some kind of brace on the throttle tube where the cable control arm attaches would be useful. That long crosswise tube will flex more than you'd expect under the force of pulling the two carbies and the friction in the cables.

Mike: It's hard to tell whether you have it or not from the pictures, but some kind of brace on the throttle tube where the cable control arm attaches would be useful. That long crosswise tube will flex more than you'd expect under the force of pulling the two carbies and the friction in the cables.

There is a height (forget the figure just now) where a geostationary orbit is possible. If the tower went to that height it should be possible to just step off at the top and you're in orbit. The trouble I think is the forces on all the stuff below that height. If I knew more about orbital dynamics I could explain ... but I don't, so I can't. Ooops, just noticed the post above.

There is a height (forget the figure just now) where a geostationary orbit is possible. If the tower went to that height it should be possible to just step off at the top and you're in orbit. The trouble I think is the forces on all the stuff below that height. If I knew more about orbital dynamics I could explain ... but I don't, so I can't. Ooops, just noticed the post above.

I wonder if GG saw the "humour" in that. If not, is he one of the "protected species" he mentioned?

I wonder if GG saw the "humour" in that. If not, is he one of the "protected species" he mentioned?

Oh and one other thing I really disliked about the plane. The airplane was a composite which included composite main gear legs. The brake lines running from the fuselage to the brakes ran down the trailing edge of the legs as they do on most light airplanes, but these were attached with nailed on cable clips! That's right, they hammered nails into the composite landing gear legs ...Errk!

Oh and one other thing I really disliked about the plane. The airplane was a composite which included composite main gear legs. The brake lines running from the fuselage to the brakes ran down the trailing edge of the legs as they do on most light airplanes, but these were attached with nailed on cable clips! That's right, they hammered nails into the composite landing gear legs ...Errk!

Bex: I wouldn't like to name the plane in public because it would instantly identify the dealer and people are pretty litigous these days. The quality issues I had were When we taxied to the runway, the instrument panel wobbled, rattled and squeaked on both airplanes we tried The hinges on the doors were molded as part of the doors (composite airplane) and were non replaceable. The hinges on both doors on both airplanes had been broken from over rotation of the doors and had bee roughly repaired but were still wobbly. The side windows on both airplanes had significan optical distortions from careless forming which is a turn off for me because I shoot a lot of flying videos. In the pictures, the instrument panel looked like woodgrain, but in real life the "woodgrain" turned out to be very poorly executed water transfer graphics, with no finish coating. Overall, the airplane looked good in the promo shots but looked cheap and nasty in the flesh.

Bex: I wouldn't like to name the plane in public because it would instantly identify the dealer and people are pretty litigous these days. The quality issues I had were When we taxied to the runway, the instrument panel wobbled, rattled and squeaked on both airplanes we tried The hinges on the doors were molded as part of the doors (composite airplane) and were non replaceable. The hinges on both doors on both airplanes had been broken from over rotation of the doors and had bee roughly repaired but were still wobbly. The side windows on both airplanes had significan optical distortions from careless forming which is a turn off for me because I shoot a lot of flying videos. In the pictures, the instrument panel looked like woodgrain, but in real life the "woodgrain" turned out to be very poorly executed water transfer graphics, with no finish coating. Overall, the airplane looked good in the promo shots but looked cheap and nasty in the flesh.

And the shoddy treatment didn't end there. When we returned to Brisbane, trying to get any queries answered was a non-event, and that was before he had our money. It made me wonder what he would have been like once we had forked over the cash. And the final nail in the coffin of the deal was that the airplanes looked great in the pics in the magazine, but the quality wasn't there when we saw the airplane in the flesh. Edit: after we returned to Brissy, I happened to mention the dealer's name to a couple of others who, it turned out had had dealings with him, and they all rolled their eyes and said things like "I could have told you ..."

And the shoddy treatment didn't end there. When we returned to Brisbane, trying to get any queries answered was a non-event, and that was before he had our money. It made me wonder what he would have been like once we had forked over the cash. And the final nail in the coffin of the deal was that the airplanes looked great in the pics in the magazine, but the quality wasn't there when we saw the airplane in the flesh. Edit: after we returned to Brissy, I happened to mention the dealer's name to a couple of others who, it turned out had had dealings with him, and they all rolled their eyes and said things like "I could have told you ..."

Sorry Bex, I left out part of the story. We travelled to Melbourne with another couple who had informed the dealer that there would be four of us arriving. The dealer said he would arrange transport for us to his airfield. When we arrived in Melbourne the dealer showed up in a Honda Civic, with a mate and gathered up the other couple and then said to my wife and I, "oh just catch a cab". As it happened, we had to wait half an hour in the que just to get a cab. If we hadn't pre-booked and paid for our accomodation and already set the flights for the two days we allotted to do the look-see / flight test, I would have been on the next plane back to Brissy. Given that the four of us were looking to buy two $140,000 airplanes, I think the dealer's treatment of us was pretty shabby. We forked out $1,000 to go see the airplanes and he was too cheap to cover a $50 cab fare. I don't think that it was unreasonable to expect him to cover the cab fare in view of his offer to "provide transport".

Sorry Bex, I left out part of the story. We travelled to Melbourne with another couple who had informed the dealer that there would be four of us arriving. The dealer said he would arrange transport for us to his airfield. When we arrived in Melbourne the dealer showed up in a Honda Civic, with a mate and gathered up the other couple and then said to my wife and I, "oh just catch a cab". As it happened, we had to wait half an hour in the que just to get a cab. If we hadn't pre-booked and paid for our accomodation and already set the flights for the two days we allotted to do the look-see / flight test, I would have been on the next plane back to Brissy. Given that the four of us were looking to buy two $140,000 airplanes, I think the dealer's treatment of us was pretty shabby. We forked out $1,000 to go see the airplanes and he was too cheap to cover a $50 cab fare. I don't think that it was unreasonable to expect him to cover the cab fare in view of his offer to "provide transport".

It's not only the "budget" suppliers that give lousy service either. Late last year, my wife and I travelled to Melbourne from Brisbane to do a pre-purchase test flight for a new aircraft purchase. We spent the best part of $1,000 travelling to and staying in Melbourne to do this. The airplane would have cost us around $140,000 to buy, but the dealer left us to find our own way from Melbourne airport to his airfield and didn't even offer to cover the $50 taxi fare. So we were off to a less than brilliant start. Then when we returned home, we tried to ask the dealer some more questions, but answer came there none! No response, nothing, nada. Soo, we went looking elsewhere. We eventually fetched up with Silent Wings who have treated us marvellously and have assisted us in the purchase of our new airplane. I had to fly to Europe to do the test flight and SW paid my airfare because they didn't have an airplane in country that I could see in the flesh. I know the economics of this and that ultimately, I paid my own airfare via the profit the dealer will make from my purchase, but it's the attitude of the dealer that counts. Where the first dealer wouldn't trouble himself to offer $50 for cabfare after I had spent $1,000 of my own money getting there, Greg from Silent Wings proposed and offered my airfare to Europe without hesitation or quibble. Guess who got the sale?

It's not only the "budget" suppliers that give lousy service either. Late last year, my wife and I travelled to Melbourne from Brisbane to do a pre-purchase test flight for a new aircraft purchase. We spent the best part of $1,000 travelling to and staying in Melbourne to do this. The airplane would have cost us around $140,000 to buy, but the dealer left us to find our own way from Melbourne airport to his airfield and didn't even offer to cover the $50 taxi fare. So we were off to a less than brilliant start. Then when we returned home, we tried to ask the dealer some more questions, but answer came there none! No response, nothing, nada. Soo, we went looking elsewhere. We eventually fetched up with Silent Wings who have treated us marvellously and have assisted us in the purchase of our new airplane. I had to fly to Europe to do the test flight and SW paid my airfare because they didn't have an airplane in country that I could see in the flesh. I know the economics of this and that ultimately, I paid my own airfare via the profit the dealer will make from my purchase, but it's the attitude of the dealer that counts. Where the first dealer wouldn't trouble himself to offer $50 for cabfare after I had spent $1,000 of my own money getting there, Greg from Silent Wings proposed and offered my airfare to Europe without hesitation or quibble. Guess who got the sale?

I have a friend who has a saying "There's nothing as expensive as a bargain". It often turns out that way. Some years back there was also a very clever tyre advert on the radio. Two guys are chatting in the pub, let's call them Jim and Bob Jim: Hey Bob, how come you always buy the cheapest tyres? Bob: How else could I afford to replace them every three months?

I ordered a couple of items from the pilot shop of the forums here and it wasn't a pleasant experience. It took over two months, numerous unreturned phone calls and emails to get my stuff. In the end I did recieve the goods, but in the process got quite a few lame excuses from Ian ranging from him not having credit on his phone to tales of suppliers not supplying goods. When I finally did get my stuff two months after I ordered it, it came with an apology of sorts stating that he had ordered the goods from the supplier "more than two weeks ago". Quite clearly, it was some time after I placed the order, that he placed the order with the suppliers and I assume that my order got lost in his "system". I fully believe that if I hadn't continually chased him, I might never have got my stuff. I won't be rushing back to buy from this shop.

I watched that low flying video (only after the crash) and what struck me was not just the low flying, but the way the pilot was chucking the thing around apparently unnecessarily. It just looked like aerial hooning to me. I know we're not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but it didn't look like "safe" flying to me.

Rod: Not sure what the miss might be, but the roughness could be carby balance. Rotax engines operate like two independant engines tied at the crankshaft. Any differences between the carbies makes the two engines fight each other. This can come from having different lengths of throttle cable or the balance not properly set up. If it is a new engine, did you hook up the soft start connections to the ignition units? The soft start retards the spark timing for about 8-12 seconds after startup when it is wired up. If it isn't wired to anything, that is an open circuit input which could pick up electrical noise and trigger the soft start function. The easy way to check if your engine has the soft start modules is if they have yellow part number labels rather than white. For new engines, don't worry about the different indications on the spark plugs. That is normal until they're well run in.

Gary: That photo is amazing when you think about the fact that they were flying in a controlled way for the first time. A lot of the methods that the Wright brothers pioneered as applies to aviation development are still relevant today.

Felix should go and speak to some of the heli musterers here in Oz. i saw one practising at Teewah airfield when I was training to fly trikes out there. It made the maneuvres in the video look tame. Having said that, we do lose a few of the Robbies they use from time to time mustering cattle in the outback.