kgwilson

My kit including avionics cost 47k in 2011. 3300A engine 18k. I added a few things like Dynon EFIS, EGT, Carb Heat etc & painted it myself. Total cost flying of 70k. My guess would be at least double that now, probably more.

There were no spare hands to activate the flaps in the last 2 seconds and no spare brain capacity either. Discounting reaction time 2 seconds of flap travel would be about 4 degrees & make no discernable difference at all.

I reckon the LH wingtip would have been less that 3 feet from the edge of that last roof based on the shadow & sun position.

Absolutely, the wing tip was only a few feet above the roof of the last building actually at the airport as the aircraft banked to make it on to the taxiway for landing.

A Cessna (looks like a C172 RG) apparently with engine failure only just makes it to Bankstown Airport this afternoon. Check out the good video of the incident. The 2 occupants waked away unscathed. The undercarriage was not deployed which based on how low it was, I reckon was a very good move. Light plane appears to only just make Sydney runway as it narrowly avoids trees and rooftops - ABC News WWW.ABC.NET.AU Aerial footage shows the aircraft flying right above suburban houses before it lands and skids across a taxiway, tipping onto its wing on the...

Can't remember but it was a spray can also bought from Bunnings. I used it to paint the panel. (probably the cheapest). The white I remember was a bit of left over 2 pack from painting the plane.

I made mine out of a piece of pine dowel from Bunnings. I painted it matt black and calibrated it from the minimum of 10 litres to 100 litres with an indent mark at 5 litre intervals that runs around the dowel using a lathe. Each line was then painted white with a fine artist brush with the number of litres inscribed above also in white. It took a while to make but I have had it now for 10 years, it is dead accurate & the fuel doesn't wick. I also calibrated the other side (180 deg) of it for my wing tanks

Watts per kilo is the power to weight ratio. Watt hours to Kg is the energy density so yes that is correct when looking at the amount of energy able to be stored for a given weight in kilograms. If we manage to get to 1 KWh/Kg (at the pack level) then the battery in my EV would only weigh 64 Kg instead of the 400 Kgs it weighs now.

There are dozens of companies working on electric short haul passenger aircraft. If battery technology gets to the magic 1000 watts per kg they become quite viable for a range of around 1000km. At present the best (semi solid state) batteries out of China come in at 720 watts per kg. CATL already have aviation lithium based batteries batteries with energy density of 500watts per kg compared to the very best EV Lithium NMC batteries of 360 watts/kg. These are mainly aimed at the Vtol commuter market. Battery swap technology is very advanced in China. They already have battery swap stations able to swap out a battery in an EV in under 4 minutes with the largest swappable batteries providing up to 1000km of range.

I had no idea these things existed. I watched a video of a racing drone beat a Tesla Model S Plaid which has 1020 HP & 1420 NM of torque as well as a Red Bull F1 car over a standing 1/4 mile track. The drone took off vertically, transitioned to horizontal flight and went from 0 to 300 km/h in 2 seconds. That is insane.

The drone footage at the beginning was superb. Pity it couldn't keep up with the aircraft but then that was part of the clip when it came back for the landing taxi and stop.

The other gaffe was just plain funny. Their so called "Aviation Expert" on TV stated that they decided to do a "Belly Up" landing. That would have been great to watch, if a tad dangerous.

There have been a few wheels up landings of late. Another bit of stupid reporting. First they say correctly the pilot was circling burning off fuel, then they interview a local and quote the statement "I knew he was dumping his fuel' which of course he wasn't as they had already said. Then again accuracy is not a trait of modern reporting.

Knowing how to fly it successfully would be an advantage before getting to Oshkosh.

Yes it worked out for the Gimli glider and also the A330 that had to land at the Azores through fuel starvation in 2001. Both were very lucky, more so the A330. The Atlantic is big & mostly empty of landing places.

Flying on none will be a fairly short flight.

The A380 may not be the most efficient aircraft but it is the most popular with passengers. It is the quietest and (obviously) the largest passenger aircraft ever built. Technology improvements and innovation mean everything becomes outdated and less efficient than the new designs like the A350 family, I think now the most efficient jet aircraft ever.

It seems Bonzas problems stem from being financed by 777partners a US based private equity company that has been also investing in loss making football teams including Melbourne United with their latest efforts to buy in to the English premier League team Everton with investigative journalists exposing the business failures of 777 partners when they unearthed a swag of court cases, mostly for default on loans. Sounds like it is straight out of the Trump song book. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-04/777-partners-the-private-equity-firm-behind-bonza/103802624

That was quick. Absent for 24 hours & it's now a motorbike forum.

This whole affair smacks of a cover up by RA-Aus. Jill Bailey advised that she had inadvertently signed the pilot Certificate papers and stood down for a week. The deceased instructor would have submitted them with the recommendation that an RPC be approved. I reckon some heads will roll at RA-Aus based on the Coroners comments. The instructor may have been highly experienced and well regarded but a lot of experience in a paraglider counts for very little when flying a powered aircraft. I flew Hang Gliders for 20 years and also powered aircraft at the same time. It's chalk & cheese. I have flown an early paraglider & I know one thing for sure, you can't fly them in strong wind conditions. Modern versions are obviously better than when I flew them but after all they are modified parachutes. Why he chose to fly in such terrible conditions we will never know & can only speculate on the possibilities. Maybe a false sense of security in a heavier rigid aircraft weighing 5-600kg compared to the light flexible paraglider he could carry in a backpack. Whatever, that is not the issue that the coroner is going to be looking at, it is the process of the issuing of the RPC that is now front and centre of this inquiry. Did the process become a box ticking exercise based on history rather than due process requiring professional judgement and oversight? This could become very messy and very embarrassing for all at RA-Aus who were involved.

It has been announced that Bonza has entered Voluntary Administration which is what I expected would happen. It is possible that they will be able to restart but this will depend on the extent of the debt. The process is pretty much the same as Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in the USA that VANS Aircraft is currently going through as discussed in another thread.

So is $40.00 from Brisbane to Melbourne. These were ridiculously cheap and not every seat was this price. The aim of these airlines is no frills & full aircraft and to gain customers offer super cheap starter prices. Eventually they have to raise the prices as they are losing money but their business model runs so close to the wire that any hiccups that occur, increase the debt till they fail. Often their aircraft leases are cheap when there is a glut of aircraft available but next time the lease price increases so their fares have to go up too but then the market begins to shrink. From there it is a downward spiral, sometimes starting slowly and then coming to an abrupt halt when the bank says "no more".

Budget airlines have been boom and bust since the 1980s. Some like Easyjet & Ryanair have survived but then their market is huge. Several startups in the 90s between Australia, NZ and Fiji were great but eventually all folded. I used to fly between Australia & NZ for $200.00 return.

It was a nice day for flying. I went South to Coramba at 2000 climbed to 3800 through the Mount Moombil gap down to Bellingen to check things out, coastal to South West Rocks & returned coastal past Coffs turning inland at Brooms head (it was raining around Yamba) & back via the Clarence to South Grafton. The Coffs tower was grappling with some Chinese students but managed to figure out what they were saying (I think) as I couldn't.