rgmwa

It depends. You should know if there are suitable places to put down in the country you’ve just flown over. If so and they are within gliding distance that may be the better option especially if yo can turn back into wind on final. On the other hand if you’re over tiger country your best bet may be to continue and find the most survivable spot you can.

Matching colours?

Mine cost $6500 by an auto shop with previous aircraft painting experience in 2014. Three colours, no heavy coats. That included all prep including finishing all the fibreglass. I thought it was good value. Another builder just had his RV12 painted by a well known local aircraft painter - also three colours and I think he paid $16,000.

If you landed with propellant on board there was a good chance of a fire or explosion.

Bang!

It's based at Serpentine, and the guys who own it know their stuff when it comes to building and flying. They've got the jet powered Cri Cri among other things, and Dawie Botes is the author of Kwik EFIS, the Android app. Apart from seeing it flying, I don't know much about the plane.

In summary, the air moving over the wing mostly holds it up, but sometimes it doesn't.

Wonder if he ever made it. He didn't seem very confident and certainly wasn't well prepared

They must have developed a very good feel for handling the plane in unusual attitudes and flying on the edge of a stall in tight turns. Being young, fit and a risk taker probably helped. Flying a fighter in combat must have been a very uncomfortable ride, and the stress of constant flying must have been debilitating, although the time they actually spent in dogfights probably only accounted for small portion of the time they spent in the air. The ones I really admire were the PR pilots who had to be both pilots and navigators flying unarmed on long missions with no guns and no support. That would have been a tough job.

I have an ACR ResQlink, available from BCF for about $350. Similar to the GME.

In another video he obviously knew where to look for his descent rate and talked about the nav screen, so he had either spent some time around aircraft, or was good at flight sim. He didn't panic, which was impressive in itself, and saved both of them.

Good effort!

FWIW, the RV-12 has a ground adjustable prop and Vans suggest a WOT of around 5650 is a good number.

You can work on a VH-Experimental, but need a LAME to sign it off unless, as KR says, you have built a similar aircraft.

This might be useful as a guide to what's involved in building. It's for RV's but would generally apply to other kit-built aircraft as well. https://www.vansaircraft.com/building-an-rv/. Their quoted hours to build are on the optimistic side, unless you've got some previous experience. Building is a lot cheaper than buying a new aircraft of similar performance, but you need the time and interest to spend the 3-5 years it typically takes. Hard to do for most people bringing up a family as time and cash are in usually short supply, and if your wife/partner is not on board with the idea, probably best to forget it. As for buying, it comes down to paying more (unless buying used), paying for someone else to maintain it, but flying as soon as it's yours. You could also pick up some copies of Kitplanes magazine to get a better idea of the ins and outs of building.

Even the ABC newsreaders say airplane. It's only semantics, but still grates. On the other hand `aerocraft' would sound a bit odd.

On the other hand if more people respond we might see some progress. At least they're making the right noises.

More likely to remind you of all the household maintenance jobs still not done because you’ve been too busy in the shed.

I think the real builders are the scratch builders who start with a few drawings and sheets of aluminium or a load of timber. They're the ones I really admire! Kit builders are essentially aircraft assemblers rather than builders. Putting a kit together is certainly a big project that requires a fair degree of determination and some skill, but it's not particularly difficult if you choose a high quality kit, like a Vans. Good kits are certainly not cheap, but the saving in time is very substantial. We have one builder at Serpentine who fairly recently completed a superb scratch-built Piel Super Diamant, but it took him 38 years! One of the main reasons I chose the RV-12 was that it came complete with engine, prop, avionics, wiring, hardware etc. I also knew up-front what it was going to cost, which was another big advantage. A further consideration was that it could be registered either VH or RAA, so if I couldn't maintain a CASA medical, there was still an opportunity to keep flying it. Also a bigger market if I ever sold it. Building taught me a lot about aircraft, and I also made new friends along the way which was a bonus. I was also fortunate to buy when the dollar was high. Now it would cost me at least another $30-$40k to finish one. Consequently I consider myself lucky to have a relatively high performance, relatively cheap and very economical aircraft that looks good and flies superbly. Vans like to claim their planes have `total performance', but however you do it, building and flying your own aircraft gives you a `total experience'.

The Sling 2 would be a good choice.

I built a Vans RV-12 over about a four year period and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Vans have been in the kit business for over forty years and it shows in the quality of fabrication and documentation. Their builder support is also excellent and the VAF website is a goldmine of information and assistance. As an LSA, the RV-12 is the lightest and slowest of their range (which will shortly include their first high-wing, the RV-15). \ Early on I started making a list of all the RV-12's that I could find that were being built in Australia. It's probably well out of date now, but I got to 44 under construction or flying. Of those, 15 were VH registered and the rest were/are RAAus as far as I know. Mine is one of three based at Serpentine, with possibly a fourth coming soon. It cruises at 112-115kts at 5200-5300 rpm and will do 126 at WOT. That's fast enough for me. If you really need to go fast, the RV-12 is not your aircraft. Mine is pretty well equipped for long trips and also has a bigger fuel tank than the standard 75 litres, which gives it a bit over over 5 hours endurance.

Here's another one. Not my idea of a fun job or if you don't like heights.

Nice flying!

You also need a second antenna for ADSB-IN. Received this from Horsham Aviation (Dynon distributor): The GPS 2020 will provide you with ADSB out functionality, however for the system to function correctly you require the following: ADSB in: 102985-000 SV-ADSB-472 102629-000 SV-HARNESS-ADSB 102608-000 SV-TRANSPONDER-ANTENNA ADSB out: 101409-000 SV-XPNDR-261 102558-000 SV-HARNESS-XPNDR 102608-000 SV-TRANSPONDER-ANTENNA

Starting point for the RV12 is 4,600 on the ground at WOT, although I wouldn't assume that's necessarily applicable to other aircraft. Vans want the blades ideally set to within 1/10 of a degree of each other. I use a laser level as an inclinometer with a simple bracket that clips onto the prop. It's not too difficult to get it that accurate.