kgwilson

Survival gear. 1. PLB, 2. Water. Everything else is just nice to have.

At standard pressure a litre of water weighs 0.999975 kilograms so that is near enough to 1 kg in my book.

Probably about 10 years after the rest of the world, 2025.

When all the air is at the top of the tyre it is too low, i.e Flat. If the tyre has a noticeable bulge at the bottom I reckon it is too low

I agree to being surveillable as that is the purpose of ADSB out and if it is picked up by ground stations fine though all I am concerned about is another aircraft in my vicinity on a potential conflict course. Primary and secondary radar are pretty useless on the east Coast below 5000 feet anyway so that may have some bearing on the latest Class E level proposal. Collision Risk Modelling is not evidence based and the modelling depends upon inputs from those proposing change including their own bias & even then they come up with a ridiculously minute collision risk. Pathetic.

So they went from 1500 to 4500 and different steps & now to 6500, 2000 below the existing level so why change at all. Again I ask the question is there any evidence to suggest that this will improve safety. I think not. This is a solution in search of a problem perceived in a few bureaucrats minds. Interesting to note that the ADSB rebate scheme introduced by Barnaby is currently under review. Will it be extended or scrapped? I am happy to go with ADSB in/out but I am not fitting a Mode S transponder as well. I like to see and be seen by aircraft in a 40 NM radius but not by some Airservices nerd sitting in front of a screen making decisions for me. If mode S was compulsory there would be another 3500 aircraft have to be fitted with 1940s technology & an increased workload on Airservices for no benefit.

Battery technology continues to improve and CATL's new QiLin battery has an energy density of 255 watts per kg at the pack (not cell) level and has a new disruptive water cooling system which increases heat transfer 400% as well and can be charged from 0 to 80% in 10 minutes. This will provide medium sized cars with more than 1000 km of real world range. CATL is planning to have the batteries in mass production by the end of Q1 2023. So an 18 kWH battery will weigh 70 KG (the same as 97 litres of fuel). Add the difference between an ICE engine and the electric motor (which weighs about 20KG) plus the fast charger and you will have an excellent training platform. The Pipistrel Alpha Electro has a 21.5 kWH battery and provides 1 hour of circuit training with a 30 minute reserve recuperating 13% of its energy during approach using 5 year old battery technology. Textron (Cessna, Beech Lycoming) recently bought Pipistrel so they see a very good future in electric aircraft.

The 737 Max is back in the headlines for all the wrong reasons again. There have been 60 mid flight problems since it was cleared to fly again in late 2020 and one in December 2021 when pitch and altitude systems began malfunctioning causing the pilot to declare a mayday. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-27/boeing-737-max-in-mid-air-emergencies-as-us-set-to-launch-probe/101175214 The design with its origins back in the 1960s has been upgraded and modified so it bears little resemblance to the original but the changes have always meant there is a tradeoff. It still has mechanical control systems and the undercarriage is unable to be changed to suit large engines for example. Boeing needs a new modern design as it is not keeping pace with Airbus which has now overtaken Boeing as the worlds largest airliner manufacturer. Much of the discerning travelling public are wary of the Max & Boeing since the original disasters and the fallout from the investigation. Still Virgin Australia has ordered 29 new Max aircraft for delivery starting next year. They must be confident that everything will have been forgotten. I am not so sure.

Fair comment. You can get the full TO HP with a constant speed prop or pitching a ground adjustable for top RPM. I get around 115HP @ 3100 RPM on takeoff with 1500 fpm climb @ 80 knots & WOT 3300 rpm which will push me along at over 140 knots (& 40 LPH). The original power curve for the 3300 gave 125HP at 3300RPM but Jabiru reduced this to claim 120HP. Various tests have some engines making 128HP. Jabiru airframes have never IMO got cooling airflow right. I spent a lot of time planning this when I built my aircraft using the 1981 NASA CR3405 study on air cooled aero engines as my bible & also installing at large 7 row Positech oil cooler with its own NACA intake & exhaust completely separate from the rest of the cooling system. I have never had overheating issues even on 40 deg days. CHT is always well under 180 deg C & EGTs are 900-1100 deg F, considerably lower than any in a Jabiru airframe. How do you lean Bing 64 pressure compensating carbs? Agreed less cylinders to deal with at maintenance time but a much more complex engine and considerably more expensive. Those who run their Jabiru 3300s on Avgas are crazy. The engines run better on 95 or 98 Mogas. The oil stays clean the engine stays clean with no piston, valve, head or plug deposits. I have run mine on Mogas since new & only used Avgas when at an Airfield where I couldn't get Mogas. I didn't even bother installing a cabin heater. I just wear a jacket in the Winter. I have had OAT of -7 deg at 10,000 feet but survived OK. I don't have any tropical fish though I did catch some on a fishing trip once but ate them all.

Why? You are replacing 120 HP with 100 HP & that is only for 5 minutes. Fuel consumption will be lower but what other advantages are there other than perceived reliability?

Your PLB is number 1. I have a Spot Tracker which tracks my path & is also a PLB. It sits on top of the panel & if the noise stops I can put it in my pocket in a few seconds. All the rest of the stuff assumes you will be waiting for a long time if you survive. Water is the most important second item. Then if you have survived & activated your PLB you can sit under whatever shade that is available & wait for the rescue. I can then send messages from my Spot via satellite to my chosen contacts to say I am alive & waiting. If emergency services are a bit slow my contacts can put on the pressure.

Typical of bureaucrats. The precedents are there from other civil aviation authorities around the world, but NO, CASA has to make it as complex and as expensive as possible to eventually come up with something 10 years behind everyone else that bears little resemblance to the original purpose.

The object of the exercise was to see which aircraft could overtake the Concorde from the rear & it was only the Lightning that could. It wasn't hotted up for the exercise but they did polish it the night before. http://www.lightning.org.uk/oct04sotm.html

If CASA adopted the same principles as they did when the UK surveyed its pilots back in 2015 all GA & RA pilots would be self certifying by now. The result was that UK private pilots flying aircraft under 5700kgs self certify once up to the age of 70 that they are capable of driving a car (There is no requirement to actually have a licence) and every 3 years after the age of 70. This is from the UK CAP 1284 published back in June 2015 on GA regulation To guide us in doing this, we set out the following principles:  Only regulate directly when necessary and do so proportionately;  Deregulate where we can;  Delegate where appropriate;  Do not gold-plate, and quickly and efficiently remove gold-plating that already exists. The GA Policy Framework1 was published in November 2014 and is the mechanism by which we will deliver on those principles while continuing to meet our statutory duties to protect the public. Based on past performance I guess we should be grateful that they are even considering medical self certification.

Yes there were a number of aircraft that could have caught the Concorde but when the deal was done it was only NATO Interceptors that were invited. F104s, F14s, F15s, F16s & Mirages, could not catch the Concorde. The MIGs would have run out of fuel before they even got to the European Atlantic coast.

The U2 was pretty slow but it was supposed to be able to avoid being intercepted due to the altitude it flew at. The Lightning was able to intercept it by climbing straight up at over Mach 1. The SR71 could have caught the Concorde but it wasn't part of NATO's arsenal.

As he says it is all about money, nothing else. Coffs Coast Airport was recently sold with a similar 50 year lease & 49 year option to renew. The cross runway was closed for some time on the pretext that there was construction work going on near the threshold of 10 for an "Enterprise Park". Now they have closed the GA taxiways and decomissioned the lighting. It is pretty obvious what is going on.

The real problem is that the design of the Rotax has put 2 carburettors in virtually the hottest place they could have chosen.

The only aircraft ever to be able to keep up with the Concorde, catch it up and overtake it was the English Electric Lightning. The same lightning proved to the Americans that their U2 spyplane was easily caught.

The Concord was a product of genious engineering out of the 60s that has yet to be surpassed. It is such a shame that its flying days ended the way they did.

I have only ever used Avgas in my Jab 3300 engine when I couldn't get automotive petrol. I noted from another thread that 83% of all piston engined aircraft in the US do not need Avgas. There may be a lower %age in Australia as the GA fleet could be older, I don't know. Quality is not an issue except maybe at outback servos where the usage is low & storage tanks are old. Anyone using Avgas when they don't have to is nuts IMO.

Jabiru engines do not need a fuel return. The carb is at the bottom of the engine and there is a heat shield protecting the whole induction system from the exhaust system. The air that passes the carb is warm as it is heated from the heat transfer from the heads and cylinders. The mechanical pump obviously has to be part of the engine as that is how it is driven but it does not get specifically very hot. A high wing aircraft like the jabiru has the fuel gravity fed from the wing tanks into a header & then to the engine so the engine is not sucking fuel and vapour lock is highly unlikely unless after the aircraft has been sitting on the ground and fuel in the lines overheats. All fuel lines under the canopy are shielded and insulated. The standard Jabiru engine start up procedure is to use the electric fuel pump for 10 seconds to push fresh fuel in to the float bowl both in a cold and hot start situation. Gravity fed fuel and an electric boost pump in the fuselage virtually eliminates the possibility of vapour lock in flight. I have 2 wing tanks and a main fuselage tank. All the fuel to the engine flows from the fuselage tank which is higher than the engine fuel pump & obviously the carb at the bottom & I have an electric boost pump in the fuselage. I have an auxiliary higher pressure fuel pump and a L/R tank selector to pump wing tank fuel in to the main fuselage tank. I know exactly how long it takes to pump the 35 litres in each tank into the main tank & usually change it 4 times to empty. This takes the fuel gauge (main tank only) from 1/4 to full once I have emptied both wing tanks. My total fuel capacity is 170 litres. The problem is only a Rotax one with the carbs sitting at the rear on top of a hot engine.

The Hawker Siddeley Trident was originally designed by Geoffrey De Havilland as the DH-121 in the mid 1950s. It was designed from the outset to autoland so that fog which was very common then due to a lot of coal fires etc would not prevent landings. It was the first by a country mile and 70 years. De Havilland was a genius ahead of his time having designed the most versatile aircraft in WW2 the Mosquito and out of wood to boot as well as the first ever Jet airliner, the Comet.

An aviation medical is only good at the you get it. You can walk out the examiners door & drop dead even after all the checks. In the UK they surveyed all GA pilots and then went through the statistics of over 45 years of GA fatalities & were only able to identify 4 fatalities that had medical issues that may have contributed to the crash but none, not one in 45 years was found to be 100% due to a medical issue. This plus the survey was the simple pathway to self certification for GA pilots in the UK & it has been there since 2015. The Europeans wouldn't budge though so if you hold an EASA licence you still need a medical. Now that the UK is no longer part of the EU I don't know what the requirements are if you want to cross the channel. Medicals are a crock & always have been.

I painted my aircraft myself. I'd never spray painted anything before. Preparation is the most time consuming. I watched several you tube spray painting clips & practiced on my hangar doors. The aluminium & fibreglass surfaces were treated with Prekote, then primed with HiChem super etch. I used a high quality 2 pack gloss paint, Dulux Luxathane for the white & Dulux Quantum FX medium fleck metallic blue. The paint cost was about $600.00. I bought a HVLP spray set on Ebay for $35.00, an in line dehumidifier & I already owned a 2.5HP compressor. I painted the aircraft in the hangar on still days without any booth but I had the front door open & an extractor fan in the back wall. Never got any dust or bugs on anything. Practice and paint consistency is the key. Several light mist coats is always better than 1 solid coat as you avoid runs & the final gloss is free from orange peel. Total cost for everything including sandpaper, mixing cups, masking tape etc was less that $1,000.00. A cheap professional job will cost about 10k but you will need to do all the prep & priming. 20k is probably about right if you do nothing.