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sfGnome

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Everything posted by sfGnome

  1. sfGnome
    It amuses me to think of how ‘slapped together’ the final result would be to do it in 400h. No deburring, no corrosion protection, no checking, no good. 🫤
  2. sfGnome
    How to get depressed quickly. In the latest Kitplanes magazine annual roundup of kits, the ‘beginner’ build time for a Ventura is listed as 400 hours. I’m up to 380 and I’ve only just started on the fuselage… 🫣 p.s. I’m not really bothered; I just found it amusing. I know I like to take things slowly, but there’s no way a beginner is going to get anywhere near finished in 400 hours!
  3. sfGnome
    Is it possible that the POH is in miles per hour, not knots? Regardless, contact the factory directly. They’ll sort it quickly.
  4. sfGnome
    Congratulations!
  5. sfGnome
    I’ve got a Victa 72V mower and edger. About 5 years old now and going fine. Good wide cut (unlike the 18V Ryobi one my son was given which is absolute rubbish), and much lighter and quieter than my old 4 stroke. However, now that I have 1500 sq m of very fast growing kikuyu to mow, I got an electric Toro ride-on about a year ago. I can’t see me ever going back to petrol.
  6. sfGnome
    First time I had to drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road, I kept trying to change gears with the door handle. It’s surprising, though, how quickly you switch.
  7. sfGnome
    My beloved gets to choose our car colours, and her choice is normally red. However, her current car is white because she hated the ugly dark reds that seem to be the only option these days. Definitely a vote for nice bright fire engine red!
  8. sfGnome
    I used to use the foldable ones (no longer have them, sold with our plane). Never took them up when loaded, but really handy for getting fuel when away from home as they take diddly-squat space in the luggage area when empty. However, do check that you’ve tightened the cap properly before carrying them (full) I someone else’s car! I think my daughter has forgiven me… 🫣
  9. sfGnome
    Only time I’ve flown into Milawa (long time ago, so may have changed), I had to get written permission in advance.
  10. sfGnome
    Double post
  11. sfGnome
    Frank and Thruster’s posts struck a chord with me, and could possibly be summarised as: Things that I think will kill me Midair collision Structural failure Engine failure Things that will actually kill me Unintentional stall Flight into cloud Low flight/hooning
  12. sfGnome
    Don’t know if this helps (as it refers to a different headset), but my Lightspeed headset has a physical microphone volume preset control built in (somewhere, hidden under a little cover that I could tell you about if I looked up the manual again… 😛)
  13. sfGnome
    I can identify. 🫤 Just as I’m really enjoying building (every day!), one son wants me to build an office in his garage (new progeny means he’s running out of room in his quite small house), and daughter wants a fairly complicated new interior for one of her built-in cupboards. Happy to do them, but it’s really hard to get started on them when the shed is calling…
  14. sfGnome
    If you’ve watched a kid who’s been struggling to keep up in life suddenly be able to function after starting medication, you may not be so dismissive of either the diagnosis nor the treatment. No, it doesn’t need to be a ‘forever’ drug, nor does it turn her/him into a zombie. If you’ve experienced it, you’ll understand. If you haven’t, then please ignore all the mindless crap you read in the media and socials. 🙂
  15. sfGnome
    That’s the trick though. I am (was?) a software engineer, and if the marketing types/customers could actually define what they really wanted instead of complaining when we couldn’t interpret their vague handwaving, then life would’ve been so much easier. However, given that 99% of software engineering comprises just regurgitating, the same patterns over and over, I think AI will do a pretty good job.
  16. sfGnome
    I’m staggered that ATC could see it. They aren’t big. I was driving (not flying ☹️) on a fast winding road down on the Monaro (the locality, not the car) and came across an echidna waddling across the road. I pulled over and went back to it, whereupon the idiot marsupial rolled up in a ball right in the middle of the aforementioned thoroughfare. I ended up rolling it gently over to the side with my shoe (thus being missed by a burst of traffic that came through), at which point the animal displayed its supreme intelligence by waddling to a small clump of grass into which it stuck its head. Body completely exposed, but apparently working on the basis that if it couldn’t see me, then I couldn’t see it… 🙄🫣😁
  17. sfGnome
    Reminds me of when the (then) new Brisbane airport was nearing completion. They’d installed a newfangled fibre-optic system for all the control/data/speech/etc from the British parent company of the company I worked for, and it didn’t work. Despite us Aussies having nothing to do with the system or its installation, it was cheaper to send me up there than to bring someone out from head office. Thankfully, it was a 5 minute fix (the installation technicians thought they knew better than the engineers who wrote the manual - they didn’t 🙄), but it mean that I spent the next few hours getting a guided tour of the as-yet-unopened airport, including driving at high speed down the middle of the runway which seemed to go forever. For a young bloke who always looked up whenever a plane flew over, it was heaven.
  18. sfGnome
    Looks like a bought one*! 😁 * as the leading hand used to say when I was an apprentice…
  19. sfGnome
    The bloke I learned from swore blue blind that Mr Sheen was the go for aircraft windscreens. Used it for years and it seem to work well.
  20. sfGnome
    Oh, it gets better. The manual does make a big deal that the 2.5mm rivets that hold the captive nuts in place must be countersunk, but neglects to note that two other nearby rivets also must be. If you haven’t looked many chapters ahead to find what mounts against that area, then you’ll be drilling those rivets out again one day. I caught this one, but how many of those kind of things am I going to miss? Lucky I’m not a fast worker… 😛
  21. sfGnome
    Thanks. The Ventura manual (a paragon of brevity), just says "Install the rear top skin UV026 and then the nose skin UV002". That's it. No mention of the rivnuts or countersinking or any such useful advice. In fact, you have to look forward to the much later chapter where the tail is attached to the fuselage to see a picture where it is clear that there must be rivnuts... 🙄
  22. sfGnome
    OK, a question for the Sav/Ventura builders out there (the aspect I'm about to query is the same for both builds as far as I can see). On the side of the fin is an access panel, held in place by rivnuts. Between the rivnuts are standard rivets (ie rivnut, rivet, rivnut, rivet, etc). Now, as these all sit proud of the tail skin, this means that the access panel will likewise be sitting away from the tail by a mm or so. What's more, as the rivnuts are slightly thinner than the rivets, this means that the panel will scallop as it passes over the rivets. Is this a problem, or am I just worrying too much? Should I use c'sunk rivets under the access panel, or is it ok as it (appears to be) designed?
  23. sfGnome
    I was part of a syndicate for a number of years. I’ll say up front, the most important aspect of choosing syndicate partners is to make sure that they are easy going people who aren’t afraid of spending money - the kind of people who say “you want it today? That’s ok. I’ll go tomorrow”, and “we need a new farnarkle for the sprugleplatz? Sure, how much do we need to add to the kitty?”. I was very lucky to find partners just like that. As for organisation, we set up a Pty Ltd company that owned and registered the aircraft, with the 3 of us as directors (one of had to be specified as the maintenance manager). Primarily, that was to provide some legal protection for us, as in the case of one of us causing some major mishap, the aggrieved party could come after the company and its insurance policy, but not after the rest of us personally. From memory, it cost about $500 to set up the company, and the only overhead was that one of us (me) had to be the company secretary and file a report to ASIC once a year, and we had to have a ‘board meeting’ (ie I sent an email to the other two) where we agreed that we were not trading insolvent. Send me a message if you want more details. It was 10-15 years ago, but I probably still have some records that I can dig up.
  24. sfGnome
    Enjoy the restart. It’s a bit like riding a bicycle, you don’t forget the basics. However, it isn’t a case of just hop in and go. I was amazed at how much relearning I had to do. Worth every minute though.
  25. sfGnome
    Wow! You’re roaring ahead. From what I’ve seen so far, I don’t think anything in the manual is going to surprise me. Today I even took to zooming in on photos of Venturas to try and understand one particular part. As for why my progress is a little on the slow side, this might explain it. 🫤 Thankfully, I finally lost the sling yesterday, so things should be a little easier from now on.
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