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kgwilson

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Everything posted by kgwilson

  1. kgwilson
    Rukuhia airfield, now Hamilton Airport in NZ was home to several hundred aircraft from B17s, Corsairs, P51s etc after WW2. Rukuhia was turned in to a refit and repair depot in 1942 for aircraft damaged while in service in the Pacific. Most were American of course. They were offered for sale in the late 40s but only a handful were ever sold. Most got sold for scrap & ended up as pots & pans. There was a scrap merchant there who got heaps of them for next to nothing and was still selling aircraft parts right up till the 1970s. There is nothing left now of course. I read a story written by the son of the caretaker there when he and his mates used to run around jumping from wing to wing. They still had fuel in the tanks and some of them had guns that still worked. He recalled when they fired the guns once and the police were called. Eventually the ammo was removed from them. He remembered that his fathers Humber Snipe was always fuelled with aviation fuel & went like the clappers.
  2. kgwilson
    I don't know why SE2 is unacceptable given that they can see you at about 20NM. The argument is that the SE2 cannot be interrogated which may be correct but it is transmitting your rego, altitude and position so as it is with a transponder your direction and ground speed is also calculated. I have checked this with ATC at Coffs Harbour. With a transponder broadcasting at squawk 1200 you have to contact ATC by radio to establish your rego & then squawk the provided code, press Ident & then key that into the system so it follows you. With the SE2 that is already there.
  3. kgwilson
    Coastal transit won't require much time in CTR with the North/South boundaries clipped. I suspect like it is at Coffs just call and request transit & usually it will be approved with or without Xponder or ADSB. 500 feet over the beach is fairly normal at Coffs. I'm not sure how this will work if there are no eyes in Ballina other than Brisbane knowing where everything else is when deciding on transit approval. A victor lane would be a better idea.
  4. kgwilson
    My first ever flight was in a Tiger Moth that a friend of my father bought after the war for a few quid. I was 8 or 9 & got to sit in the front seat of course so I almost thought it was me flying it. It all happened from a farm paddock near Timaru in NZ in the 50s. This got me hooked on flying & I've never looked back.
  5. kgwilson
    They have put plenty of faulty aircraft in to service as well but then so have other manufacturers, most not knowingly. Boeing has done so knowing there are faults and is the reason a number of whistleblower engineers resigned and have publicly stated they will not fly on a 787 as their concerns regarding sub standard parts from 3rd party suppliers were ignored by Boeing management.
  6. kgwilson
    There is no doubt that news reports should be greeted with a level of scepticism given the poor and depleted numbers of real investigative journalists around now. Many news outlets don't give a flying fig about whether a report is true or not so long as there is a provocative headline. Some even get their information from social media and that is where the majority of young people get their news from. In the US that is acceptable and even expected given half of them believe what Trump says even though he lied over 30,000 times while in office. Boeings woes have continued to build despite their lip service announcements of quality systems training etc. The outgoing CEO Calhoun should have been gone at the time of the Max 8 crashes and MCAS disaster, but no, he has handed everything over to yet another bean counter. The real problem is that Boeing has massive US government defence projects keeping it afloat and like GM from a US patriotic perspective it is too big to fail and will not be allowed to.
  7. kgwilson
    I remember reading somewhere that the US built no new cars after entering the war and aircraft production was delegated to most of the car companies where their mass production techniques were put in to devastating effect allowing huge numbers to be produced. This did have on going problems with quality control with many mistakes made causing numerous accidents in testing and training. Around 15,000 US airmen died in accidents before they got a chance to have a go at the enemy.
  8. kgwilson
    The engine is worth nothing, UV has destroyed the top fabric so it's a complete new fabric job, then there is the possible Gazelle wooden hangers issue. The prop looks OK though. I'd take it away for free for nostalgic reasons only. The Gazelle was the first RA aircraft I flew at Skyfox training in Caloundra. Slow & very easy to fly.
  9. kgwilson
    So the question remains Why? The answer is We will never know.
  10. kgwilson
    The problem lies with the fact that we are stuck with the crappy VHF band where everywhere else it is UHF and digitally encoded now. The trouble is there are not enough frequencies available for a complete Aviation shift. The GRN/ PSN (Government radio network/ Public Service network) is now fully digital with absolutely crystal clear transmission and with the VAN (vehicle as a node) system utilising satellites where required there is nowhere that communication fails. That is of course dependent upon perfect human operation and that absolutely never happens.
  11. kgwilson
    Correct, I have a D6 as well. That's why I mentioned the firmware glitch. A firmware re-image or upgrade would most likely fix it.
  12. kgwilson
    Firmware is often written for the top of the range hardware and lines of code edited out for lower specified gear. From the screenshot of that D6, there is a heap of information missing. The display is quite customisable to lessen clutter if required. There is usually a ribbon compass on the top of the screen, ASI, VSI, digital readouts & trends, turn co-ordinator, pitch & roll indicators & a voltmeter where the G meter info is. It is 3 lines exactly the same but lableled M for master voltage, E for External backup power input and I for internal battery. Almost all of these things can be toggled on or off in the Cluttr menu. There is also an AoA meter if the AoA probe has been installed.
  13. kgwilson
    Also not likely in a Jabiru/Rotax. Seems more likely to be a firmware glitch to me. A complete re-image of the firmware or an upgrade would probably resolve this. The latest Dynon firmware is 1.1.4. I am currently using version 1.1.2. The D6 is no longer manufactured.
  14. kgwilson
    The EU has just introduced new laws that require all new cars to have speed limiters. How these are implemented will be interesting. Many new cars already have built in GPS and traffic sign recognition (mine has) and a backlash is expected. My car is already speed limited by software. It will not exceed 160 kmh, but that is hardly a disincentive to speed. I always set the ACC to the speed limit & have never taken it to 160kmh anyway. The rule will eventually filter down to Australia but given that we still do not even have any fuel standards (20 years behind the EU) I wouldn't hold my breath. https://www.autoweek.com/news/a61532276/mandatory-speed-limiters-europe-cars/
  15. kgwilson
    I want to die peacefully in my sleep like my grandfather, not screaming in agony like the passengers in his car.
  16. kgwilson
    I was first at a head on collision back in the early 80s. Both drivers and a passenger in 1 vehicle were killed. 1 backseat passenger survived. The driver of the car that was on the correct side of the road died instantly from the steering column penetrating his skull. We had kids in our car & tried to stop them looking at the horrific scene. I've tried to forget it but have not been able to. The modifications and safety processes that have been added to cars since then have made motoring way more safe. The thing is you still can't legislate stupid. When I hear of hoons having races on busy suburban roads and people caught speeding at 190kmh or more I realise there are people out there who just don't care what about happens to them or innocent parties.
  17. kgwilson
    Modern cars don't rust easily. In the 70s cars rusted out quickly which is why there was an industry for rustproofing with stuff like fisholene. My Holden HQ Ute & my Datsun 180B from those days rusted really quickly. Cars I've owned in the last 30 years have not rusted at all. I had lots of stone chips on the bonnet of My 2012 Mitsubishi which I never touched up in the 11 years I owned it. Never rusted at all. Also Bumpers are now made to give way and crumple zones of the engine bay are designed to direct the engine downwards to reduce the injuries both to those who you hit and the occupants. The passenger compartment is the strong part for good reason.
  18. kgwilson
    In the so called good old days many people drove home from the Pub after a night out drinking. I know people who shut one eye to make sure they could only see one white centre line. Some stopped to have a rest and woke up the next morning & then drove home, probably still drunk. Some got home OK but couldn't remember how, others crashed & didn't get hurt, others were injured or died. It was as stupid then as it is now but in the good old days cars were nowhere near as powerful or fast as they are now. Their brakes weren't that flash either & ABS, EBD & other features didn't exist, neither did crumple zones or the latest automatic features that will brake for you or stop. They (as my EV does) watch you via a camera and detect your blinking patterns to show when you have lost concentration and make sure your grip on the steering wheel is right. These feature cost money and are not present in all modern cars and in some cases can be turned off or disabled. Then again most can all be over-ridden by the driver. The good old days were not good at all. It is just a nostalgic look at the past to when things were simpler and of course there were a lot fewer cars on the road.
  19. kgwilson
    Ethanol doesn't affect glass reinforced vinylester fuel tanks which is the only resin to use. This can not be said of glass reinforced polyester tanks. These are not recommended for any fuel type.
  20. kgwilson
    You can argue all you like about range distortion and busy airports and clearances but that was just TOO CLOSE.
  21. kgwilson
    My Gen 3 has run Mogas since new. The plugs are always black after taxying back to the hangar. The insulator inside the plug is a lighter brownish colour. If you shut down after applying plenty of power they are probably a much lighter colour but that is virtually impossible to do so by the time you shut down they will be black. It isn't a problem, it is normal. The time to look at issues is when fuel consumption increases for no apparent reason.. The consumption of my Gen 3 3300A engine varies from 18 lph at about 95-100 knots low level at 2750-2800 rpm to 24 lph at 120 knots (130 knots TAS) at 8000 feet 2850-2900 rpm.
  22. kgwilson
    You can die falling out of bed and statistically a much higher percentage of people die in bed and while asleep than die in light aircraft crashes. So if you want to live go flying and don't go to bed & if you do don't go to sleep.
  23. kgwilson
    Never flew in a VC10 but was always impressed by their steep climb out. The Trident was excellent too. I flew in one of those
  24. kgwilson
    So when arriving at an uncontrolled aerodrome how do you determine the wind direction and runway to use if you do not hear any other radio transmissions? Arriving 500 feet above the circuit height allows you to check these plus other things like objects & animals, runway closed cross etc. yesterday I'd been away, flew overhead and noticed 2 large black objects on the runway. They were cows that had escaped from the neighbours farm. There was no other traffic so I buzzed them & they took off.
  25. kgwilson
    The term Overhead join refers to the whole process. Call flying overhead at 500" above circuit height check for wind direction, traffic, obstacles etc, descend to the non active side and then call joining crosswind so you are correct. It is just semantics
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