rdarby

So how does the ASIC card work there? I want to go to Hervey Bay but don't have an ASIC, and it will take a long time to get one as I need to get foreign police clearances first. Is there a GA area that is seperate from the RPT area, or do you need an ASIC if you go there no matter what?

ERSA has nothing but there are references to it being built on the web. I want to go up there for a holiday once I pass my XC endorsement, is there anywhere to land up there? Thanks, Ryan

I currently fly a Sportstar and realise that an X-Air is in a different league, but when coming close to buying a Sportstar I have also thought that I should maybe start smaller and cheaper, as it will mean not pulling equity out of my house! How usable is an X-Air in the day though, is it only a morning in the calm type of aircraft like a trike, or can it do more than a trike in terms of withstanding weather? How does it do in cross winds? At the moment I'm fine (with white knuckles and ground teeth) in the Sportstar to land in a 15kts cross wind, but I suspect an X-Air will just get blown away? Ryan

It says MAX. 100HP Rotax, constant speed prop, normal (not glass cockpit) instruments, electric trim, leather seats. I love it.

how do you get a full screen picture in? Mine looks a lot better in normal size.

This is the Wednesday the flooding really started in Brisbane. It had stopped raining and was a fantastic day, so I went for a flight. Blue sky and calm, and rivers swelling everywhere. This is the Sportstar at Redcliffe. I went up over the Caboolture river which had turned the land around it into a lake.

Kilcoy may be an option, depending again on where you live.

I got hold of my instructor, he advises to use the dual listen for both frequencies, as since it's a narrow corridor between two areas of control I am likely to clash with the control traffic if I drift or they do, but I need to broadcast I am going through there to both.

I know to change to an area frequency when 10 miles away from the airfield, but say I pass between Amberley and Archerfield on the way from Redcliffe to Boonah. The area frequency is 125.7, but given the density of traffic at Amberley and Archerfield, would it be best to use one of their frequencies instead? Given they are controlled space, would it be the CTAF or the tower? Ryan

It took me 10 years, true with most of the time not doing anything in between, but when I got my certificate just before Christmas it was a huge life goal. It's never too long. You can fly even when it's only in your mind, and that can keep you going until life moves aside so real living can go on!

Thanks very much. I think that based on the above 10 years of flying is easily achieved, you would probably want to upgrade then anyway, but as part of the equation for buying or not, I think it's okay to buy (other factors exluded) from the point of view that your plane won't fall apart too quickly, unless you do it to it of course! So it is an asset that can last. Ryan

I think the key is that if you do follow a series of points on the ground that, as mentioned above, you only correct yourself when directly over that point, or you will be all over the place.

Okay, so lets so I start with a heading of 200deg, and I know from my point of departure that a hill 5 miles away lies at 200deg magnetic. I fly to it. So my track will be 200deg, but my heading could be anything as I will have to point slightly away from the hill to counter the wind, and by countering the wind (i.e. heading is different from track) I will follow a track of 200deg. As long as I make sure that regardless of heading I do in fact pass over the top of that hill. Is that right? That scenario does not include a wind correction angle. If you work out a wind correction angle to allow you to have say a heading of 215deg that equates to a track of 200deg, you still pass over the hill. That is the explanation my instructor gave me. You can fly so as to fly over the hill, but your nose may have to point somewhere else to enable you to get to the hill, as you want the hill on your track but your heading my be 15deg to the right of the hill. But, and this is where I am confused, if you work out a wind correction angle and aim at say a house that is at 215deg, and make sure you pass over it, you end up with a track that follows your corrected heading. If that is true you will be 15deg off on the map, won't you? So to me you either fly the compass and use a heading that corrects for wind, or follow a series of points on the ground? Am I closer now? Ryan

Won't this scenario lead to track and heading being the same? If you pick an object a few miles ahead that is on your desired heading, and then make sure yo fly right over it, have you not essentially made sure that what you are tracking is your heading? So you neutralise the wind by making sure you fly from physical point to point, at each point finding another that is on the heading? If you do this though you need to ignore where you are pointing and just make sure you go over the spot on the ground? This confuses me.

I think I'm missing something obvious. By looking at that flowchart again I see there is a GA BAK exam and a PPL theory exam. What's the difference? What else is there to learn, or is it their equivalent of the XC exam?

To clarify, once you have the RA Pilot Ceritificate and Cross Country Endorsement, do you then need to do the GA BAK as well? Or do they accept th RA BAK exam as the same as the GA one? Doing the time to learn to fly the GA plane is obvious, I'm just not sure if I need to start preparing for a GA exam as well? I completed the RA certificate a month ago and am doing RA nav's, but want to plan my year out to get the PPL too, so need to factor in more study, or not. Thanks, Ryan

Which one are we talking about, Dec/Jan? Are we getting blue bags? All I ever got is one of those re-usable shopping bags which I left at some airfield somewhere.

How about from a financial perspective a proportional amount of hours to a GA plane that is small, if there is such a thing. What did a C150 cost when new compared to a good RA plane, and work out a ratio of the expected hours. Given that RA seems to be developing much of the future of light aircraft with composites etc, maybe we will all be wanting a new one before the current ones have a chance to wear out. One thing I do fear with buying something expensive now is not that it won't be flyable in 10 years time but that there will be so many much nicer ones around I won't want to fly it. Although the designs of the 80's are still going strong, or at least their offspring such as the CH701 and Savannah.

What is the useful life of the typical 3 axis RA aircraft? I guess we would need to consider the airframe and the engine. You see adverts for Cessna's with 4000 hours all the time, made in the 1960's. This indicates that with the maintenance they do last. Along the way they get new engines etc. but you know that if you can afford the maintenance there is still an aircraft for you in 40 years time. Does something like a Rotax 912 last as long? I understand you get about 2000 hours out of them before a rebuild. How often can that be done? I've never seen a RA aircraft for sale with more than about 1700 hours on it, they tend to be under 1000 hours. Is this because they don't last or because they haven't been in existance long enough to build up the time? The reason I am asking is because I am considering buying, but if the aircraft only has a useful life of say 2000 hours, which is actually a number of years, but not the 20 years of payments added to my mortgage if I use equity to pay for it, then it isn't worth buying. Not financially anyway. This brings another perspective to it, if I need to buy a new RA aircraft every 10 years but a Cessna last 40 years, is RA in fact cheaper than GA? Ryan

Quite a bit of Brisbane is without power due to the floods, so very likely it's affecting them too.

A digital watch is easier if you want an exact time. You set it to UTC. With digital you can also get a stop watch for use in navigation. And a second time zone. I bought a basic Casio. i've never met anyone who says a pilot watch is better than a whiz-wheel, especially for the price. Don't get polarised sunglasses, they filter out glass cockpits and fine lines on water showing you wind direction. Sunglasses and a fancy watch are part of the image, but the reality is that I fly with glasses that work but look stupid, a simple watch, old clothes and i usually spill fuel on my shoes. Which have a hole in the one.

Besides checking NOTAMs has anyone seen Gympie airfield recently? I am due to do my second nav there on the weekend and want to know if it's both safe and won't get in the way of rescue helicopters etc. Any advice appreciated! Ryan

You might want to ask this at http://www.pprune.org/ which is a professional pilots forum, and they have a group discussing those entering the profession.

[ATTACH]12868.vB[/ATTACH] I woke up to sunshine so did a 6am flight from Redcliffe to Beachmere and Caboolture and took some pictures. Very hazy so I didn't go further to hang around long. Mainly seems the small holdings on the South East of Caboolture affected. Funny thing is you can still see the river clearly, it's like it flooded, went back to itself and isn't taking the water back.

That is a great website, thanks!