kgwilson

I'm not writing anything off. I still fly my Jab 3300 powered aircraft and will continue to as long as I can. Venture capitalists look in to the future and it is not with fossil fuelled technologies. They will not invest in those industries any more. There are massive strides in renewable technologies and batteries are only one part of the equation. If only 2% of the new inventions & proposals get up they will blow everything we are currently at (including what's in my new EV) out of the water and on to the scrap heap of history. The transition will continue for decades. That is if we don't destroy everything first.

Yeah, it must be part of a job creation scheme to justify having such a dumb useless system.

I like the fact that you can opt for Steam gauges. The 230 price has skyrocketed lately largely due to the cost of all that glass & flash instrumentation plus the commitment to Gen 3 spares is a good reassuring statement. Continuous improvement is the best option engine wise, rather that a complete new generation especially as petrol powered ICE engines are in the twilight years of their existence.

No it achieves nothing apart from an industry and a better way is what the rest of the world does, nothing.

I bet they never even thought of or considered that possibility. They were too busy creating a hare brained scheme to rip pilots off and create a new industry with no precedent anywhere else on earth.

There is no logic to determine artistic taste. I reckon it looks good.

Sir Humphrey would have no problem explaining it in one 500 word sentence so that no one would ever know what it was about. And actually no one does know anything about it, they just rake in the fees & move on to the next gullible victim.

The whole system is bullshit. Your drivers licence provides sufficient ID for almost any thing else in the country except landing at some remote aerodrome that has decided it needs a security fence and ASIC clearance. What idiot came up with the ASIC requirement for my friends wife to renew it in he maiden name that she hasn't used for 20 years and every other bit of ID she has is in her married name. The stupidity of the requirement and the process is highlighted by the letter below. Dear Mr. Minister, I ' m in the process of renewing my passport, and still cannot believe this. How is it that K-Mart has my address and telephone number, and knows that I bought a television set and golf clubs from them back in 1997, and yet the Federal Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date? For Christ sakes, do you guys do this by hand? My birth date you have in my Medicare information, and it is on all the income tax forms I've filed for the past 40 years. It is also on my driver ' s licence, on the last eight passports I've ever had, on all those stupid customs declaration forms I've had to fill out before being allowed off planes over the past 30 years. It's also on all those insufferable census forms that I've filled out every 5 years since 1966. Also... would somebody please take note, once and for all, that my mother ' s name is Audrey, my father 's name is Jack, and I'd be absolutely ****ing astounded if that ever changed between now and when I drop dead!!!... ****! What do you people do with all this information we keep having to provide?? I apologise, Mr. Minister. But I'm really ****ed off this morning. Between you and me, I've had enough of all this bull****! You send the application to my house, then you ask me for my ****ing address!! What the hell is going on with your mob? Have you got a gang of mindless Neanderthal arseholes working there! And another thing, look at my damn picture... Do I look like Bin Laden? I can't even grow a beard for God's sakes. I just want to go to New Zealand and see my new granddaughter. (Yes, my son interbred with a Kiwi girl). And would someone please tell me, why would you give a **** whether or not I plan on visiting a farm in the next 15 days? In the unlikely event I ever got the urge to do something weird to a sheep or a horse, believe you me, I'd sure as hell not want to tell anyone! Well, I have to go now, cause I have to go to the other end of the city, and get another ****ing copy of my birth certificate - and to part with another $80 for the privilege of accessing MY OWN INFORMATION! Would it be so complicated to have all the services in the same spot, to assist in the issuance of a new passport on the same day?? Nooooo.. that'd be too ****ing easy and makes far too much sense. You would much prefer to have us running all over the place like chickens with our ****ing heads cut off, and then having to find some ' high-society ' wanker to confirm that it 's really me in the goddamn photo! You know the photo... the one where we're not allowed to smile?! .... you ****ing morons. Signed - An Irate Australian Citizen. P.S. Remember what I said above about the picture, and getting someone in ' high-society ' to confirm that it's me? Well, my family has been in this country since before 1850! In 1856, one of my forefathers took up arms with Peter Lalor. (You do remember the Eureka Stockade!!) I have also served in both the CMF and regular Army for something over 30 years (I went to Vietnam in 1967), and still have high security clearances. I'm also a personal friend of the president of the RSL... and Lt General Peter Cosgrove sends me a Christmas card each year. However, your rules require that I have to get someone "important" to verify who I am; You know... someone like my doctor - WHO WAS BORN AND RAISED IN ****ING PAKISTAN !!!..... a country where they either assassinate or hang their ex-Prime Ministers - and are suspended from the Commonwealth for not having the "right sort of government". You are all ****ing idiots!

New CEO AFAIK.

W&B is a requirement for registration of any aircraft RA or GA & also in NZ. Mine was done with a set of interconnected aircraft load cells. You can use 3 x bathroom scales that you have calibrated, at least you could when I built mine. I used the spinner tip as the datum & CoG limits are between 15% & 33% of the wing root aft of the leading edge. The empty weight of mine was 335kg or 22kg heavier that Garrys standard weight & included my mods including electric flaps, wing tanks, Matco disc brakes, etc.

The full flying elevator (stabilator) needs very little movement to effect pitch control & some people find this a bit disconcerting. I flew an Archer 2 for 20 years or so so I prefer this to fixed horizontal stabiliser & elevators. The Archer had a pitch activated trim as well as an electric activator. Half the time the electrics didn't work though so the wheel had to be spun manually. My first bent nose leg had nothing to do with the position of the mains, it was the tendency to float in ground effect with a little too much speed on (plus the engine idle set a bit fast) & the weak nose wheel leg hitting the mud. My new one would just plough through it now. The second was a brain fart when making the leg 50mm loo long. The attitude for landing is quite subtle so the nose wheel is only about 50-60mm off the ground when the mains touch down. After I reset the idle screw I often stopped the engine when pulling the throttle and did quite a few dead stick landings & restarted on roll out. I have 2 x 35 litre wing tanks as well as the 100 litre fuselage tank. I have never landed with 100 litres in the fuse tank but have with 80 and had no issues.

Messy panel & a few odd construction bits but a massive bargain. The engine is worth more that the asking price.

For me approach speed is 70 knots & about 55knots over the fence. Fly the aircraft to the ground & only flare at 1-3 feet off the deck. With full flap the speed degrades very fast. Stick movements are small until 30 knots is reached otherwise the aircraft will rise. At 30 knots the stick can progressively be pulled right back and the aircraft will grease on to the ground. Ground effect will keep the aircraft floating all the way down the runway if you are too fast. The wing at the root is only about a metre off the ground. I always land on the grass where possible to reduce tyre wear. I keep the stick back till on the seal & aileron in to wind if there is cross wind. A lot of people have problems taxiing in cross winds with a castoring nose wheel but it doesn't bother me. Sometimes the into wind brake is needed to keep straight in a stiff breeze.

The 30 knots IAS was maintaining altitude. A smidgen slower and it begins to mush losing altitude. Stall with full flaps in landing configuration is 27 knots. This depends on the aircraft as they are all different. Pretty accurate for mine though. The ASI is not accurate a low speed & is reading pretty much zero at touchdown.

The original noseleg was .083 Chromolly Steel. The new ones are .095 so much beefier. I have landed on some really rough strips and never had any issue with the .095 chromolly noseleg. The early ones were pretty weak. The first one bent when I ran in to some (muddy) soft ground on the over run to the main strip. I'd slowed quite a bit so was probably only doing about 15-20knots when it bent. I got towed back by a bloke in a ute who was a dickhead & put his foot down & the already bent and weakend leg collapsed. Luckily there was no other damage

There have been mods made to move the mains forward and this apparently makes landing easier. Garry Morgan always resisted this and I understand why now. I must have well over 600 landings (I'll check) & can just about land blindfold or asleep these days. Full flying stabilator & a low stall AofA gives the Sierra deceptively little back pressure to stall for landing. I can fly it fully stalled with no flap & only about 30 knots indicated at height. Fully stalled it won't drop a wing unless you have 30 deg of flap with about 1800-2000 rpm & give the rudder a full kick, then she'll go.

I built a Morgan Sierra from scratch starting in 2011 & completing the build in 2015. I have a bit over 400 hours in it now. I too bent a noseleg on about the 12th flight after a long float down the strip & then running in to soft ground. Replaced it & somehow made the new one 50mm longer. This time I almost wheelbarrowed, bounced & broke it properly including prop. There are plenty of horror stories of owners breaking nose legs but once you learn to land it, it's easy. I created a build blog on this site https://www.recreationalflying.com/forums/topic/13034-sierra-100-kit-build-underway/ so if you need any help just ask. What engine is in it & does it need a bulk strip?

I knew Rick Duncan (original owner of Airborne) back in the 1980s when we were both Hang Gliding. Was a real nice bloke then. Is/was he still involved with Airborne? Their products used to be good quality.

Excellent pun

The UK gave up the requirement for medicals in 2015 & implemented self declaration of medical fitness for a GA PPL. Then of course their decision was based on evidence and logic. Of all the crashes causing death in the past 45 years they found 6 that had a medical issue involved but not one had a medical issue as a primary cause.

The weight of a Rotax 912 ULS including its exhaust, radiator, coolant etc is 194.69 lbs from the Zenith website not including the airbox. The weight of a Jabiru Gen 4 with everything except the airbox is 180 lbs. Why do you seem to think a Rotax is lighter? You cant use it without all the coolant and parts.

ASIC is a total crock. I have been challenged a couple of times but telling the security to get stuffed in the nicest possible way has worked for me. Mostly nobody cares.

It probably is around the RPT area but that's not where any of us GA & RA types go

Nothing. The Tower is closed from 5pm & airspace reverts to class G till it opens at 8am. GA & RA aircraft are not allowed on the RPT apron or terminal but use all the taxiways. There used to be grass taxiways around 10/28 but these are now closed so you have to taxi up the runway. ATC always direct you to the GA area where the aero club is & also 10/28 if there is no other traffic around using the main runway 03/21 & there isn't much crosswind. If you are new to Coffs the taxiways can be a bit confusing. Taxiways are numbered A to H with E having 4 sections E1 to E4. During ATC hours you are directed obviously.

Good grief, what on earth is the purpose of that. Sure does look like it had a stroke or the designer had one.