Thruster87

Great pics and we had 35,000 [so reported by Win TV] visitors. Hopefully that number will translate to gate takings for HARS. Cheers

YOU WILL NEED A CURRENT ASIC AT IRA.It is still holding on to have a RPT service resume there in the future so therefore they have maintained the security states. Cheers T87

Yes, so have your ASIC card on display and make sure your traveling companions that don't have one, stay with the card holder in required areas.Other then that enjoy the day Cheers T87

Hudson Ditching - More Info. And to think, all the following took place in approximately 2min 40 secs, busy little bees. Reports state geese were flying at 2900'. This would imply that the A320 would have already cleaned up from its original take off flap setting (most likely config 1 which would have a small amount of flap on the trailing edge and a small amount of slat on the leading edge) to a clean configuration and acceleration to 250 kts indicated airspeed, the maximum permitted speed below 10,000' in the US. The engines would have been in the 'climb gate' which means that the autothrust system would be engaged with the FMGES (flight management, guidance and envelop e system) computers able to automatically set thrust to whatever it requires between idle and approx 90% of the maximum continuous thrust. The copilot was the pilot flying (PF) for this sector with the captain playing the pilot non-flying (PNF) support role (radios, monitoring, system selection, etc). On fly by wire (FBW) Airbuses (Airbii?) the autopilot can be engaged from the later of 100' or 5 seconds after take off but most of us like to play awhile so I don't know if it was engaged or if PF was hand flying at the time. It would appear that on hitting the birds the power loss on both engines was instantaneous. I would expect that the flightdeck would momentarily have gone dark with all the screens blank while the electrical system reconfigured itself onto battery power. During this time a small ram air turbine (RAT) would drop out from the underside of the aircraft with a freewheeling propeller that spins up to 6000ish rpm in the airflow. Modern Airbus have 3 electrical systems referred to as the Green, Blue and Yellow systems (you can't afford to be colour blind in an Airbus!) with hydraulic dependent systems spread across these 3 providers to allow system redundancy. The engines have pumps attached that normally pressurise the 3 hydraulic systems to 3000 psi however these engines had now stopped so the RAT would supply hydraulic pressure at 2500 psi to the blue hydraulic system only. With only the blue system available the aircraft would have had both elevators but only the left aileron operational (the rudder is electric on the 320 so other redundancy caters for that). The loss of all the engine driven electrical generators would also cause the emergency generator to come on line. This is a small generator that is driven by blue system hydraulic pressure (effectively a windmill in the fluid lines) with enough output to power minimal flight instrumentation, flight control computers, FADEC's (computers governing thrust management), SFCC's (slat/flap control computers), etc, etc. The emergency generator means that the batteries can be saved for any future needs as they are only guaranteed for 30 minutes. So at this point the aircraft has flight controls and limited electrics. There would then be the most awful buzz of aural warnings and illuminations as the aircraft then reports itself to the pilots as being unfit for use. If the autopilot was engaged it would have dropped out and as the only pilot instrumentation showing would be the captains PFD (primary flight display) and the ISIS (integrated standby instrument system) he would now become the PF while the copilot now became the PNF. In normal circumstances Airbus flight guidance is unlike conventional aircraft as forward and backward movement of the sidestick does not directly control the elevators but does directly control g load demand. Lateral movement of the sidestick does not directly control the ailerons, it sends a request to the flight control computers for a desired roll rate. There are also flight envelope protections in place controlled by the flight control computers that prevent the aircraft exceeding preset pitch and bank angles, min and max speeds, min and max g loadings, etc and when all these are in place the aircraft is referred to as operating in 'Normal Law'. There are another 6 'laws' that the aircraft can fly under (alternate 1, alternate 2, flare, abnormal attitude, mechanical backup) including the reversionary mode the aircraft would have dropped into in this case, 'Direct Law'. In this mode the sidestick movement is effectively directly related to aileron and elevator movement and in effect the aircraft has downgraded itself 3 stages to handle the same as a normal aeroplane. We even have to start trimming! The aircraft appears to have reached a max alt of 3200' before transitioning to the glide. The Captain is now handflying and will also have taken over the radios while the FO now has the job of dealing with the systems and failures. The Airbus has a system called ECAM (electronic centralised aircraft monitoring) which not only displays normal aircraft system information on 2 screens in front of the pilots in the middle of the panel but also automatically presents checklists and operation procedures during failures scenarios. The upper ECAM screen would be awash with pages and pages of procedures for him to work through however the aircraft will prioritise the failures and put the engine relight procedures at the top of the list The ECAM would instruct him to: 1 - Switch on the engine ignitors. Jet engines operate with the 'spark plugs' normally switched off as they are a constantly burning fire unlike a piston engine. Relight will not happen without a spark though. 2 - Return the thrust levers to idle for correct fuel delivery during start sequence. 3 - Request PF to fly at 280kts which is the optimum speed for relight. In light of the low altitude I very much doubt they would have wanted to do this. If they had they would have needed a target pitch attitude of approx 2.5 degrees nose down and assuming a weight of 70 tonnes in still air the glide would have been 2.6nm per 1000'. I suspect the captain would in fact have come back to 'green dot' speed for improved gliding range. Green dot speed is computer generated and displayed as a green dot on the speedtape on the PFD and shows you the exact speed for max lift/drag ratio for that weight in the ambient conditions in the current configuration. I would hazard a guess that on a little Airbus (minibus!?!) this would be just over 200 knots. 4 - Select the emergency generator manually on in case the system has not come on automatically. 5 - Use number 1 VHF or HF radios and Transponder as only those are powered in emergency electrical configuration. 6 - Reset number 1 Flight Augmentation Computer allowing recovery of the electrical rudder trim as the unpowered right aileron would now start to float up hampering control further. 7 - If no engine relight after 30 seconds then engine master switches off for 30 seconds to purge the combustion chambers before restarting the ignition sequence. Below FL200 the APU can be used to assist with engine starting however even if the APU had been running it would not be able to be used within 45 seconds of loss of engine driven generators to prevent interference with emergency generator coupling. At some point the crew would then have to accept their fate that the engines are unlikely to restart and transfer to the Ditching checklist which is not on ECAM but would have to be accessed from the QRH (quick reference handbook) located to the side of each pilot. Now the FO had a new list of jobs to perform: 1 - Prepare cabin and cockpit. Ensure cabin crew are notified and doing their thing, secure loose items in the cockpit, prepare survival equipment, tighten harness and select harness lock, etc. 2 - Switch GPWS (ground proximity warning systems) and EGPWS (enhanced GPWS) systems off so that the aircraft does not start shouting 'Too Low Gear' or 'Whoop Whoop Pull Up' at you when you are trying to concentrate on a tidy crash. 3 - Seatbelt signs on. Somehow think this one got into the checklist to appease the lawyers at the subsequent board of enquiry! 4 - Turn off cabin and galley electrical power. 5 - Select landing elevation to zero on pressurisatio n control panel as this would currently be set to the landing elevation at the planned arrival airfield. If the aircraft was still pressurised on ditching it might not be possible to open the doors. The QRH advises the crew to ditch with the gear retracted and the flaps set to the max available setting (normally called Config Full). On the A340 we can achieve Config Full as our RAT supplies the Green hydraulic system. However, looking through the A320 manuals where the RAT supplies the Blue system I can only see a capability to deploy the leading edge slats only. It would be possible to get Config Full by manually switching on the Yellow system electric hydraulic pump to pressurise the Yellow system and then via a PTU (power transfer unit) the Green system would also be powered but this is not SOP so I suspect the aircraft may have ditched with slats deployed and flaps retracted but don't take that as gospel. At 2000'agl the FO then: 1 - Check that the cabin pressurisation mode selector is in AUTO. 2 - Switch all engine and APU bleed valves off. 3 - Switch on the overhead 'DITCHING' pushbutton. The outflow valve, the emergency ram air inlet, the avionics ventilation inlet and extract valves, the pack flow control valves and the forward cargo outlet isolation valve all close to slow the ingress of water. At 1000'agl the FO then: 1 - Makes 'Cabin crew seats for landing' PA. At 0A200'agl the FO then: 1 - Makes 'Brace for impact' PA. At touchdown the FO then: 1 - Engine master switches off. 2 - APU master switch off. After ditching: 1 - Notify ATC. 2 - Press all engine and APU fire pushbuttons to arm fire extinguisher squibs and isolate fuel, hydraulic, pneumatic and electrical couplings. 3 - Discharge all engine and APU fire extinguishers. 4 - Initiate evacuation. I have left out a lot of the explanatory text from the QRH for brevity but you can see that this is an almighty amount of work to achieve in an ultimate pressure scenario. I have not even touched upon the proper evacuation checklist. I have also done Monsieur Airbus an injustice but drastically simplifying my explanations of the key systems in an attempt to make them more understandable but I hope it is of interest to those that made it to the end of the text! In my company we do practice this event in the simulator for both ditching and crash on land. In fact I last did a 4 engine inop landing in the simulator just 6 months ago having simulated a departure from Tokyo followed by a volcanic ash ingestion at FL250 in the climb leading to 4 engine flame out with unsuccessful relight attempts. We ran the exercise twice and both times managed to successfully glide back to Tokyo with the only damaged being burst main wheels from hammering the brakes. We practice many, many other horrendous scenarios (such as flying the aircraft to successful airport landings with the loss of all power to the flight control surfaces) so you can see that the only subjects that we are not prepared for are the ones we haven't thought of yet. Hats off to the entire crew for a most amazing job done brilliantly and top marks to Airbus for showing all the doubting Thomas's that they were so very wrong about the strength of the aircraft.

Anyone upgrading the 601xl plans for the new 650. Cheers T87

As of today received emails from sports air confirming outstanding orders are arriving soon [delay due to heavy snow]and they are taking new orders as usual.I spoke to them two days ago[Liezel] and they are getting ready for Narromine Airshow.So it appears everything is still on track. CheersT87 [601xl builder]

Talking about Jabs,these have the highest number of improper use of nylocs that I've come across Cheers T87

What mods are you doing on the 601xl ? all or some or none of the 650 changes.Would like to compare notes Cheers T87

Our chief LAME mentioned a while back that one of the bigger aircraft manufacturers in the USA now accepts flush but I still prefer at least 1 1/2 threads as min.Cheers T87

Recently in my inspections I have been seeing improper use of Nyloc nuts and bolts. AC 43-13 is very clear in that nyloc nuts should not be used on assemblies that rotate or high temperature areas. Important assemblies that rotate are the push rod ends in the flight control system, elevator, rudder and aileron hinges and any other rotating assemblies. These areas should have a drilled bolt and a casellated nut with a cotter pin. Cheers T87

Hi techie49,Bought a old brand new 3300 jab [solid lifters] for the right price[one went for $11,500.00 on ebay a little while ago model was a 2001] but a new one from jab will come in around the $18,000.00 cheers T87

I ended up getting 100 x 3/32",200 x 1/8" and 100 x 5/32" and has worked out OK.Like Ian I got some from eBay and some locally.Putting a Jab 3300 on mine and got the USA FWF kit with the sensenich prop.Waiting on replacement engine mount as first one was not up to specifications.Cheers T87

I'm fitting a NEW engine into a NEW Zenith 601xl.I was just wondering into the pros and cons of the single or dual exhaust outlets from the muffler, which are tig welded in place.Cheers

What brand Tacho/+ sender, Oil press and Temp Gauges are you using on your Jab 3300 and where did you buy them? Want to put a couple of steam gauges on my a/c. Jab supplies VDO,has anyone got part numbers? so I can compare prices with say Repco Thanks T87

Shell oil convinced people [40 yrs ago]that the new synthetic oils where better.Yes they were for engines that are running most of the time.Engines that were run only now and then [weeks between runs to operational temps] started to experience corrosion/wear problems sooner then when using the mineral oils.It seems that the mineral oil stays on the surfaces longer protecting it.Haven't read any data on the latest oils so see how they have progressed. Cheers

Brentc, Any idea on the Diameter of the single exhaust pipe? and are they putting the outlet approx. center of the muffler or to the sides Cheers T87

Any advantages or disadvantages [noise,power output etc] with having one hoon size exhaust outlet [from the muffler] or the two smaller pipes.Getting close to putting the muffler on the Jab 3300 engine.Cheers T87

What ever happened to these grants ????

Wings Over Illawarra Coming soon don't miss out

The Aerodrome Local Ownership Plan (ALOP) The ALOP was established in 1958 by the Commonwealth to provide technical advice and financial assistance to 234 regional aerodromes. Financial assistance was given in the form of 50 per cent funding of the cost of approved maintenance works. Between 1992 and 1993, 230 of the original 234 ALOP aerodromes were transferred, largely to local councils, along with $73.8 million of grants to provide councils with financial support for the future maintenance of their aerodromes. With the transfer of ownership, local governments gained the ability and responsibility to make decisions regarding maintenance and capital expenditure. 23 Typically, the ALOP Transfer Deed between the Commonwealth and the local council contained, inter alia, the following: • The local council agreed to operate the aerodrome and to keep it open for public use. • The local council accepted full financial responsibility for the aerodrome, and agreed to maintain the aerodrome to a certain standard. • The local council would not be permitted to sell, lease or otherwise dispose of the aerodrome without the written consent of the Secretary of the Department of Transport and Communications (now the Department of Transport and Regional Services). In addition to the transfer of these assets, upon execution of ALOP Transfer Deeds, the Commonwealth transferred to councils and local governments an amount for specified works and future aerodrome maintenance. The grants were intended to assist in meeting expected net operating losses during adjustment to local ownership and long-term business management, and were generally equivalent to the expected net losses over the following 10 years. The ALOP Transfer Deeds clarified that these payments would be the full extent of the Australian Government’s commitment. As a result, the Australian Government no longer has a direct role in the operation, maintenance or development of local aerodromes. In January 2004, to maximise the commercial opportunities for airports, the Australian Government waived its rights of enforcing the relevant transfer deed clause that required aerodrome owners to seek consent from the Secretary of the Department of Transport and Regional Services for alternative use of their aerodrome, except where the alternative use would result in the closure of the aerodrome or change its use to the extent that it no longer operates as an aerodrome. Other Airports The Australian Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association lists a total of almost 2,000 airfields for the information of its members. These sites vary in size from airports supporting large jet aircraft operations, such as the former FAC airports, to small grass or dirt airstrips used by small aircraft. Regulatory and planning requirements for these strips vary according to whether the strip is publicly or privately owned and according to local and state planning requirements. T87

I personally like anchor nuts ,Dzus and camlocks, but I repaired my sons surf ski foot strap the other day and it had an SS insert which needed to be re-epoxied which looked a bit like a rivnut with spikes around it so as to give it grip once the whole thing was epoxied in place. I have no idea what they are worth or where to get them. Cheers T87

I highly recommend you DO NOT USE RIVNUTS.Both wing fairings on the C47's I work on are held on by rivnuts and we are forever replacing them.If you get even a small amount of corrosion on the end of the fastener the rivnut will spin as it jams [the friction of the swag is all that stops it from rotating unless you get the one with a notch] and you cannot get it of other then having to drill it out. Been there and done that. You may wish to look at how surf ski foot straps are held in place Cheers T87

Rivnuts are a bit of a pain to put in correctly even with the right tool as they strip [thread inside the Al insert] very easily.If you want a long lasting solution use Dzus or anchor nuts. Cheers T87

/The Smiths// //were unable to conceive children and decided to use a// //surrogate father to start their family.. On the day the proxy father was to arrive,Mr. Smith kissed his wife goodbye and said, 'Well, I'm off now. The man should// //be here soon.' Half an hour later,// //just by chance, a door-to-door baby photographer// //happened to ring the doorbell,// //hoping// //to make a sale. 'Good morning, Ma'am', he said, 'I've come to...' 'Oh, no need to explain,'// //Mrs.Smith cut in, embarrassed, 'I've been expecting you.' 'Have you really?'// //said the photographer.// //'Well, that's good. Did you know babies are my specialty?' 'Well that's what my husband and I had hoped.// //Please come in and have a seat'. After a moment she asked, blushing,// //'Well, where do we start?' 'Leave everything to me.// //I// //usually try two in the bathtub, one on the couch, and perhaps a couple on the// //bed.// //And sometimes the living room floor is fun. You// //can really spread out there.' 'Bathtub, living room floor?// //No// //wonder it didn't work out for Harry and me!' 'Well, Ma'am, none of us can guarantee a good one every time.// //But if we try several different positions and I shoot from// //six or seven angles,// //I'm sure you'll be pleased with the results.' 'My, that's a lot!',// //gasped Mrs. Smith. 'Ma'am, in my line of work a man has to take his time. I'd love to be In and// //out in five minutes,// //but I'm sure you'd be disappointed with that.' 'Don't I know it,'// //said Mrs. Smith quietly.// / /The photographer opened his briefcase and// //pulled out a portfolio of his baby pictures.// //'This was done on the top of a bus,' he said. 'Oh, my word!'// //Mrs. Smith exclaimed, grasping at her throat.. 'And these twins turned out exceptionally well -// //when you consider their mother was so difficult to work// //with.' 'She was difficult?'// //asked Mrs. Smith.// / /'Yes, I'm afraid so. I finally had to take// //her to the park to get the job done right.// //People were crowding around four and five deep to get a good// //look' 'Four and five deep?'// //said Mrs. Smith,// //her eyes wide with amazement. 'Yes', the photographer replied.// //'And// //for more than three hours, too. The mother was constantly squealing and yelling-// //I could hardly concentrate,// //and when darkness approached I had to rush my shots.Finally, when the squirrels began nibbling on my equipment, I just had to pack// //it all in.' Mrs. Smith leaned forward.// //'Do// //you mean they actually chewed on your, uh...equipment?' 'It's true, Ma'am, yes.// //Well,if you're ready,// //I'll set-up my tripod and we can get to work// //right away.' / /'Tripod?'/ / 'Oh yes, Ma'am. I need to use a tripod to rest my Canon on. It's much too big// //to be held in the hand very long.' / / /*/Mrs. Smith fainted/*

A successful rancher died and left everything to his devoted wife. She was a very good-looking woman and determined to keep the ranch, but knew very little about ranching, so she decided to place an ad in the newspaper for a ranch hand. Two cowboys applied for the job. One was gay and the other a drunk. She thought long and hard about it, and when no one else applied she decided to hire the gay guy, figuring it would be safer to have him around the house than the drunk. He proved to be a hard worker who put in long hours every day and knew a lot about ranching. For weeks, the two of them worked, and the ranch was doing very well. Then one day, the rancher's widow said to the hired hand, 'You have done a really good job, and the ranch looks great. You should go into town and kick up your heels.' The hired hand readily agreed and went into town one Saturday night. One o'clock came, however, and he didn't return. Two o'clock and no hired hand. Finally he returned around two-thirty AM, and upon entering the room, he found the rancher's widow sitting by the fireplace with a glass of wine, waiting for him. She quietly called him over to her. 'Unbutton my blouse and take it off,' she said. Trembling, he did as she directed. 'Now take off my boots.' He did as she asked, ever so slowly. 'Now take off my socks.' He removed each gently and placed them neatly by her boots. 'Now take off my skirt.' He slowly unbuttoned it, constantly watching her eyes in the firelight. 'Now take off my bra.' Again, with trembling hands, he did as he was told and dropped it to the floor. Then she looked at him and said, 'If you ever wear my clothes into town again, you're fired.'