kgwilson

I had dual probes and gauge initially on No 5 & 6 cylinders. I have a bulbous cobra head between the airbox & carburettor which sits horizontally with the air from the airbox exiting on the left with the cobra head expansion chamber about 350mm long and it narrows to the diameter of the carb intake and clamped on directly. I have installed a vertical vane at the carb end to split the air left and right and with a combination of moving the carb itself in the horizontal plane and bending the vane I got the airflow through the intake plenum and induction tubes almost spot on so the CHT & EGTs were even. Once I got it right I didn't need the EGTs & didn't bother replacing the probes when they failed. Jabirus just have a bit of scat hose between the airbox & carburettor. This is the cobra head set up. This is the vane installation which is curved vertically to get the R/L airflow laminar. When I got it right I sealed the top.

The Gen 3 6 cyl engine installed in an airframe that has decent airflow through the heads and ability to climb at 1000 -1500 fpm at 80 knots (aka my aircraft) means you don't need to monitor all cylinders or have any EGT gauge at all. All the early Cessnas & Pipers had terrible rubbery gauges, some with no CHT or EGT at all and were flown all over the world in scorching and freezing conditions. Now everyone is obsessed with monitoring every cylinder and freaking out when they all show different values. I've got news for you all. They always have and it hasn't made them all fall out of the sky. I decided on a Jab 3300A when the Gen 3 was released. I got number 14 I think in early 2013. At the time overheating seemed to be the big problem with Jabiru engines. In reality a lot of the problem was new recreational pilots had never been taught how to treat an air cooled aero engine, not warming them up properly and assuming you could just climb out at full power on a hot day or idling in for a glide approach without thinking about shock cooling and everything would be fine just like driving a car. The rest was poor airflow in Jabiru airframes. At one point Jabiru had a negative pressure lip kit to install on the lower cowl air exhaust to try & suck more air through. I did something different. I did some research. The best information came from NASA and it was produced in 1981. It is the NASA Contractor report CR3405 entitled "An Experimental Investigation of the Aerodynamics and Cooling of a Horizontally-Opposed Air-Cooled Aircraft Engine Installation". The 152 page document has everything you thought you knew but didn't and everything you had no idea existed. So I spent a lot of time making sure airflow was right, sucking it through with good air sealing, appropriately located and angled vanes, a huge air exhaust with negative pressure lip and keeping the oil cooler completely separate with its own cool air intake and exhaust. I have 1 CHT which I have shifted around all cylinders & finally left it on No 3. I had 2 EGTs & they were on Nos 5 & 6 & were close all the time till the probes failed so now I have none. Oil temp, oil pressure & CHT is all I have and is all I need.

P76 was a much reviled car but most owners loved them. I remember the TV ads where you could put a 44 gal drum in the boot.

No mechanic, sorry "automotive technician" gets under cars any more & haven't for a long time. They walk under the hoisted vehicle but still get a stiff neck.. I gave up any home mechanicals 10 years ago but won't let anyone near my aircraft & still have to turn myself in to a contortionist to get to stuff under/behind the panel.

When taking a pretty young thing for a joyflight the only aircraft to use is a PA28 or other righty door variant as the view after being seated and assisting her in was often something to behold.

I have heard that the Nissan CVTs are problematic. My 2012 Mitsubishi Lancer 2.0 litre had a 10 year or 160,000 km mechanical warranty & has now done 210,000 km without any problems. The CVT has never been serviced (there is nothing in the warranty or owners handbook to say it ever needs servicing) but there is a dipstick to check the fluid level & it has never been topped up and is still crystal clear. Towing capacity is 550kg unbraked & 1000kg braked with a maximum 100kg downforce on the towball. I don't have a towbar so can't comment further. I believe come CVTs are sealed and you cannot check the fluid level or top them up which does not sound like a good idea to me. What would happen if a seal failed and the fluid started leaking out?

That is easy. WEEO here & NOSE across the ditch.

The Daf was the first vehicle to use a CVT transmission. Many now do including my car. Super smooth. I wouldn't go back to a multi speed auto now.

But if you are on a South track its is odds+ to the left and evens+ to the right so better to think East/least and West/best.

NOSE made sense in NZ & on the east Coast here you are often on a track up the coast so close to magnetic North you chop & change a bit so it is hard to keep to a regular cruising altitude. I am not going to porpoise around so just stick to what I originally planned. Of course depending on the wind your track and heading can be quite different as well.

CASA has created these in little cheat sheets with other useful stuff like cloud clearance etc. They are giveaways. Ring them & they will send you some or download them if you can find them on their website. The Part 91 Plain English guide has everything in it as well.

The recommended torque for the wheel nuts on my car is 88-108 NM, alloy wheels. Whenever I get new tyres the tyre shop tightens them so tight with a rattle gun they are impossible to get off with a standard spare wheel brace supplied with the car. They are even hard to remove with the long handle of my 1/2 inch drive socket set. I then torque them all to 90NM and if I have a puncture I can undo them all with the standard spare wheel brace. So many people have never changed a wheel these days and have no idea what to do except make a phone call. You won't usually find the torque settings in the specifications or Wheels section of the owners handbook. Check the "For Emergencies" section which will have details regarding changing a wheel. That is where the torque settings are in my cars handbook.

So there you have it. They were either stolen or pirated or they could be the Chinese Rotax knockoffs or they could be as other news sources have noted VW clones.

The Comet was the first commercial jetliner which first flew in 1949 and as such paved the way for the rest and I don't think you can put all the blame on engineers for the failures. Square windows were what the designers and airlines wanted and the engineers of the time had no indication that the corners would be the points of failure with multiple pressurisations and depressurisations. The concept of metal fatigue was not well known or understood at the time. There have been hundreds of failures in Aviation that have killed many people but the important thing is we have learned from these and made changes to eliminate each to make aircraft as safe as they are today. Any armchair pilot watching Air Crash Investigation can probably recount dozens of failures by poor design, inadequate strength or poor materials etc. Through a process of continuous improvement the final Comet 4 debuted in 1958 and was in continuous service till 1981 but the military variant, the Nimrod was not retired till 2011. That is a pretty good service record (1949-2011) despite the early setbacks in my book.

Or nothing about everything.

I have a Motobatt MBTX20U 21 AH battery in my aircraft & has been there since 2015. I accidentally flattened it by leaving the ignition switch on about 3 or 4 years ago. I have a smart charger but it is not that smart. As it detected no voltage at all, it decided the battery was stuffed and would not charge the battery at all. I connected an old basic charger for about an hour. The battery had got quite warm in that time but then I put it back on the smart charger which went into pulse mode for a while then trickle for about 15 hours before it said the battery was fully charged. It is not as good as new but still starts my engine every time. Most of my flights average an hour or so and the battery keeps well charged but it never gets to a full charge. I assume this has something to do with the regulator. The same occurs with both cars. I will put the smart charger on occasionally and it will show about 80-90% charged. It usually only takes an hour or 2 to get back to full charge.

The wake turbulence from the helicopter was already almost as low is it could go as it was so close to the ground so that is why the Cessna pilot flew through it at almost the same altitude as the helicopter but that was only 20 seconds beforehand. It can continue for at least 3 minutes after it is generated but begins to decay from the time it is generated. At RPT controlled airports there is usually a 3 minute takeoff separation to avoid wake turbulence and especially if a small aircraft is following a large one. If you do a perfect rate 1, 2 minute 360 degree turn you will fly through your own wake turbulence.

Currently RA-Aus operates under an exemption from CAO 100.7 which is a detailed Weight & Balance Order.. Section 10 of the Technical manual V 4.1 says:- 1.1 The requirements of CAO 100.7 apply to all RAAus registered aircraft. Subsection 1(c) of CAO 100.7 will apply to RAAus registered aircraft when procedures are accepted or approved by CASA for the aircraft. Subsection 1(c) or the order states This Order does not apply to the following: (a) a balloon; (b) an airship; (c) an aircraft that: (i) is registered by a sport aviation body; and (ii) has been weighed in accordance with the sport aviation body’s procedures, as the procedures have been accepted or approved by CASA at the time the aircraft is weighed. So it would appear that there is a review going on because there is virtually nothing in the Technical manual regarding Weight & Balance, just 3 paragraphs (less than 1/2 a page) and a reference to Form 6 which is the RA-Aus weight & balance form & that requires a signature from the owner that W&B has been done & a report is attached either from the owner, a CASA W&B Authority or an L2. Clearly there have been issues previously with poor data or procedures/processes to prompt this review. This does not surprise me based on the quality of some Lames & L2s.

Just like the taper roller bearings for my Matco TSOed wheels. They have a Matco number and exorbitant price but are standard Timken taper roller bearings. The number is right there on the edge of the roller cage.

Personally I prefer PNC over ANC headsets as I can hear the engine note and can detect any little anomaly. I hate foam earplugs & can't see the point of having these as they will reduce the level of radio traffic information being received & this what the headset is for.

One of the guys at our aerodrome went on the Outback air race in his Mooney M20J. We were discussing the benefits of ADSB in. He was unaware that the SE2 interfaced with his Avplan and the latency of the cellular system. He noticed an aircraft on a closing course on Avplan & called Brisbane centre. They advised that they had seen the aircraft & it had already gone past his track.

When I did the W&B on my build I had to get it signed off not with a L2 but a L4 (a highly skilled and qualified (old retired) LAME who also signed off my final inspection. That was in 2015. I did have proper electronic aircraft load cells but at the time I could have used bathroom scales. As mentioned earlier I did another W&B a bit later on with bathroom scales I got from a bloke who had the hangar next door & the result was very close to the original.

In the 70s a friend landed his hang glider in the surf at a beach. The surf won. We folded it all up & but it in the boot of a Morris Minor.

I used a set of aircraft scales I borrowed. I did a follow up later using 3 digital bathroom scales & the difference was f*#ck all. Surely the rumour can't be true. Determine the datum, specify the level reference, determine the CoG & fore and aft limits & do the measurements & calculations. Before you do anything at all download & read the FAA Weight & Balance handbook. It has every minute detail you ever need to know in its 97 pages. Once you have figured it out the process is easy. Mind you I have met some pretty dumb L2s so there may be something in the rumour..

Aircraft are being towed around the country all the time in all manner of home built trailers. All you need is a trailer long enough to take the fuselage and wings and plenty of packing, wrap, (old blankets, foam, cushions, pillows, expanded polystyrene etc are great) and be meticulous how you tie it down, cover the whole lot with a decent tarp fully tied down to prevent all flapping and no air leaks. Make sure the front is reasonably aerodynamically streamlined. When I moved my build from my house to the hangar I borrowed such a trailer and spent a day packing, covering and tying down. I got it there without a single scratch.