Thalass

I know many of the (younger) pilots at work have a NAIPS program for their iphones - which i'm told is weather and flight planning. I wouldn't touch an iphone with a stick. I wouldn't want the lobotomy and free membership to Steve Jobs' harem that comes with it. :P I'm getting a Nokia N900 soon (vodafone contract expires in november, I may have to cop a couple of months early-termination fee), but I'm an engineer and linux nerd so I'll enjoy fiddling around with all the neato stuff it can do. haha

I vaguely recall something mentioned in high school (aero class) about GA having an option for someone to fly who has a potentially severe medical condition, but with restrictions. Namely no carrying passengers, and possibly others. I don't have any reference for this and it could be completely wrong (I think I was told this in reference to asthma - at the time mine was pretty bad), but it might be what your friend will have to agree to. And if all your friend wants to do is fly, then really it shouldn't be much trouble.

Bah. It's still an instrument. :P It's an odd thing, really. Where is your static sensor? For the VSI to indicate a descent, the pressure on the static port has to be steadily higher than the restricted hole in the case - as when you're descending. How is your altimeter behaving? Of course it could be the needle is bent or something similar. Does the indication vary at all? -300fpm when you're doing a 100fpm descent, -100 when you're climbing at 100fpm? If it's been dropped, perhaps that'd do it.

This is why engineers are so expensive. We have to pay for all this top-notch expensive equipment - never mind the parts! Guess who goes to gaol if CASA find something from Super Cheap Autos or something? heh.

That's a great picture! The second one is great too! Makes me want to go flying in a small plane again. 25 hours in various airliners isn't nearly as much fun. :(

haha thanks. I haven't really started any serious design. Just sketches when I have a quiet moment. But yes! One day I'll start. I've got too many house-related chores and an electric motorcycle to do first!

This is a great insight into the sort of stuff you have to go through to design your own aircraft. I've been tempted to build my own tandem two seat amphibian lately, but one project at a time! (Mainly it's been images of kayaks with wings, so it's best that I let it simmer for a while to mature. haha!)

Yeah, that's why some people don't trust aircraft from a certain Brazilian manufacturer. Pull some kids off the street and give them a few cents pay per day... hah. At least it wasn't something vital for flight. Might pay to have a look around at other wiring, though.

You get what you pay for. :P This is why you need a proper avionics guy (or electronics technician!) to do avionics-type work. haha

I wasn't planning on transmitting any data for this, but as a geek and an avionics AME I am interested in that sort of thing in general. Getting my amateur radio license is on my list of things to do, up there with ultralight pilot's license and converting a bike to electric power. Sadly the interested party doesn't seem to be interested any more. So there isn't much reason to do this until I've got my own ultralight (which may not be for years). But it has gotten me interested in picaxe so it's not all bad! hah

When I was in high school one of my aero teachers told me about a guy who replaced the petrol engine on his trike with four (or six?) model aircraft gas turbine engines. It sounded like a fighter jet, but trundled along like a trike haha.

Thanks for the link to the Flightstar site. I almost thought nobody built that sort of aircraft anymore! Though I prefer pushers to forehead-engines myself. heh. Having read this thread and looking at photos I might prefer drifter-style flying. At least until I move to Canada. Brrr. Of course I need to get a pilot's ticket first haha. I'm interested to see the numbers so far for this electric version of the flightstar! I could go around 60km on a motorcycle with a similar sized battery pack. I wonder what kind of range/endurance they expect from this aircraft.

Being a GA pilot he may not have thought to consider your different flying style. He takes off, follows his route over standard beacons or other navigational markers, and lands at a 'proper' airport. So communicating so often with other aircraft is to his mind probably excessive. He possibly didn't realise you were in convoy. Sounds to me like you did nothing wrong.

I saw this a few months ago, and it looks good to me! With it's large aspect ratio, I'd say it could possibly be used as a motorglider, perhaps, which would increase the endurance as long as there were thermals around, and you were into that sort of thing. As much as I'm into electric vehicles (I'm planning a motorcycle conversion) I don't see battery-electric aircraft being practical until lithium-air batteries are commercially available at the earliest. But I'd like to see a series-hybrid aircraft and how it compares to a similar piston or gas turbine aircraft. Ideally what you need is a Mr.Fusion like in Back to the Future 2 hehe

I think after I get my ultralight ticket, I'll get about in a rag and tube for that very reason. It's better to be flying than dreaming about it. I guess it's like driving a car - your first is the one you make all your mistakes in so buying something fancy and expensive is just silly! Having said that, I think my ideal plane (the one that exists, not the love-child of a tiger moth and a catalina that I imagine) would be the upcoming AAK Bushman. Rough and read, but a bit more substantial than a Drifter or something. And probably better in the cold Canadian air that I'll be buzzing around in in a few years. *edit* Baphomet already suggested this! Actually, this might be an unpopular suggestion. But the solution might be to have all new RAA pilot licenses for low-performance aircraft, and requre a minimum number of hours flying before you can get the high performance rating. Much like motorcycles with the 250cc restriction. This would mean all new pilots would learn to fly real ultralights, with their advantages (any open space is a field, not just a black stripe!) as well as limitations, so they would (I think) be better pilots. Additionally the number of LP enthusiasts would increase, I think, which would increase the influence of more "traditional" members. But that would be very unpopular with instructors who have invested in a few plastic aeroplanes!

That's pretty cool. The prop drive system would be pretty complex, though. But nice.

Haha then all the ground-based yahoos can swear at you all you want. Though I wonder, how does CTCSS deal with two people talking over the top of one another. I know that on the airband when two people try to talk to the tower at once you get a squeal and the two voices mixed together. I suppose from that description CTCSS would let it all through, as it only controlls the squelch. So you might still get random interruptions on an otherwise quiet (to you) channel. What you need to do is have everyone bring laptops, and one guy bring a wifi router, he can be a host using Teamspeak on his laptop and everyone else connect to that. Of course that might be a bit awkward, but you'd have it all to yourself.

Moderated due to disguised language

I was wondering about this. What do people do when they're flying in a big group on a tour or something? Airband isn't for chatter (Unless I suppose you pay for the rights to that frequency), I thought that maybe UHF CB would be good, as long as your proper calls are done on the appropriate aviation band. UHF cb handhelds are fairly cheap and you can say what you want on there (just listen for a few minutes and that will be evident hah) without hassels from The Man. (or a grouchy instructor)

This looks great! Like a real little fighter. Where are you going to put the landing gear when they fold up? Could the nosewheel fold rearwards to sit under the pilot? Not the best direction for a nosewheel to fold, of course, but it might fit like that. And I suppose if the wheel itself still protrudes slightly, you could possibly land it glider-style if the gear fails to extend. I was also going to say that if you have CoG problems with an engine in the nose, perhaps you could put an electric motor up front (small, light) with a heap of batteries behind the pilot to pull the CoG back towards the centre of lift. But then I'm biassed like that heh.

Nearly all turboprops with variable pitch blades can go into negative pitch beyond feather. I know our dash8 doesn't use it at certain runways, as it'll just throw up a cloud of gravel and dust for the engines to eat, but it is possible. I've also been told of aircraft using reverse thrust to push back out of a gate in the USA, don't know if I believe it though. I'd hate to be the guy on the headset for that! It's bad enough when they're taxiing away and blow you over.

Man, we haven't had rain (other than literally a few drops the other day) for about 100 days! You guys over east are hogging it all!

Yeah my coworker uses his iphone now for NAIPS and BOM radar in his RV6. And quite a few of the (younger) Qanaslink pilots use it, as the line hut computer has a patchy internet connection at best. And, of course, that way they can claim their phone on tax! (I'll be doing the same with my netbook once I can get a copy of the manuals on it ) Quite handy, really. It's a great product, I just don't like having to join a cult to get one. I like the cult I'm in at the moment, thank you. hahaha

Uh... I suppose, but that wouldn't be a real AH then. Much like the one a coworker has installed in his RV4 - the 'horizon' changes with VSI and turn coordinator! I WTF'd at that. If you had a very sensitive array of accelerometers on all three axes laterally and rotationally, and your aircraft was level when you aligned the system, then it could work. But I'd personally rather a few laser ring gyros or even crusty old mechanical gyros to that.

I dug out my old C&C Tiberium Sun cds the other day, and what do I find on the GDI infantry list? Jetpack soldiers! haha. They aren't that effective, though. I suppose you wouldn't be able to use this to commute to work. The minimum altitude over built up areas might make it tricky. And worse for me, at least, as controlled airspace comes right down to the ground where I work. But of course CASA wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.