.Evan.

Awesome stuff!! Looks great... I'd love to try a heli ride one day...

Great work Andrew! :thumb_up:

It's how my Dad eventually got back in the air. A friend of the family said, "I can't keep up the hours because of my health going up and down. If you pay for the fuel, you can take my Cessna 210 out any time you like!" It's hard to turn down an offer like that! What a pity you're not over my side of Vic! I'd happily keep it clean and up to date for 'ya, Skyfox!

Cheers Tomo!

My friend Janine, who is a very talented Army photographer based in the ACT had been keen for a fly with me since the beginning of my training. This weekend was the only one she'd be down in Victoria for some time, so I was keen to take the opportunity to show her what it's all about. It seemed that Old Man Wind had a different plan for us. I got up this morning to find a large, gusty wind blowing from the West. However, upon checking the weather stations around the area, I discovered that it was not as bad on the other side of Mt Buninyong. So, I got in the car and headed down to Lethbridge and met Jeremy, the CFI of All Axis Aviation. He said that the couple of bookings for today had cancelled and the aircraft was all ours if we wanted it. The wind was still pretty gusty. So I thought we might head off and grab some lunch and see if it dies down. Janine arrived at Lethbridge, and we headed down to Moorabool Ridge Winery which also has a cafe. Don't worry, I didn't even have a taste of the wine - I stuck to their home made olive oils and preserves! After the best part of an hour, we returned to Lethbridge to find the wind slightly better. A beautiful old Cessna 190 was being wheeled out, so we hung around to watch it's big Pratt and Whitney radial fire up and take off. Worth it. I ummed and ahhhed for a while over whether Janine would find the wind gusts uncomfortable, but she reminded me that she'd flown in Blackhawks, Seahawks and Hercs. Jeremy told us to go have fun... So we did. A pre flight done, we taxied over to runway 29. On the way to the threshold, I told Janine about what to expect in the flight, and the possibility that it might get a bit bumpy. She wasn't worried. As it happened, she needn't be. It turned out to be fairly smooth in the air - owing to the fact that the area to the West is quite flat and has little to cause mechanical turbulence. Me, after levelling off at cruise. (Photo courtesy of Janine) "The landscape is like a patchwork quilt!" says Janine. (Photo courtesy of Janine) The obligatory arm-length self-portrait... At two thousand feet! (Photo courtesy of Janine) We had a look at the farming area out to the West, and then a quick look at the deep valley of the Moorabool River (where we had just been earlier for lunch). I could see some rain squalls around in the local area, so I decided to cut the flight just a little bit short and stick close to the airfield. We made our way over to the North West and joined downwind. After my downwind checks, I told Janine about how I was about to reduce the throttle to idle. She thanked me that I warned her about it and didn't just 'pull the engine on her'! Because of the crosswind and the gusts, I opted for a flapless approach. It got a little bumpy as we got down to treetop level, but other than that it Janine was amazed that even though the engine was clearly at idle, I was still able to bring the aircraft to a nice flare and float to the runway. That's what it did! Even in the gusts and the strong wind, I was able to finesse the landing to be an absolute greaser! One wheel at a time. No bumps or lumps at all! I put it down to the wonderful lift characteristics of the Tecnam's wing design - even at slow speed! Pressing the patented Tecnam "Land-o-Matic"© button seems to work every time! Next time Janine is in town, I promise we'll go on a longer flight. This will do for the moment. She was all smiles as we pushed the Tecnam back into the hangar. Yay! One more light aircraft fan!

I think it is important to practice both.

Sorry mate, didn't mean to rub it in! Ok, maybe just a little! Going by Ozzie's post above, it looks as if Ballarat people don't send or receive much snail mail!

Great work, Tomo! :thumb_up:

Woohoo! I certainly feel honoured. :1st: I just hope everyone else gets it soon too!

Woohoo! What do I win?

Arrived today! Yay! Have read most of the articles and have really enjoyed it so far. Good show.

Isn't that the point, though? Impacting the ground at the slowest speed possible at the end of the flare/hold off - it's reaching too slow a speed too high above the ground/water that is the problem, isn't it?

Nothing in mine, either! C'mon AusPost, do your thing! :mail:

Wow, a celebrity amongst us!

Nice work Ryan!

Abs-0-freakin-lutely!

What are you thinking of buying? Will you stay with the Jabs, or look elsewhere? Cool! I wonder if our paths have crossed at some stage. I absolutely am! I'll PM you.

Cool! Looking forward to it. Do you fly your Jab out of YBLT, Adrian?

No need to go behind anyone's back! I thought it before and now firmly believe that getting a wide amount of experience in various aircraft (once you have the fundamentals all sorted) is a good thing. I think that it gives one perspective. I hear THAT! I'm really curious about taking a TIF in a heli. (Don't tell my wife this!!!! ) I absolutely plan to, Adrian!! I just have to wait until the RA instructor over at the Aero Club gets back from his holidays! Yep! I was too busy looking forward to see where exactly I was in relation to the clubrooms, but at 500 feet I could still see the end of the runway over the cowl!!!

Hey PF, Just as Adrian mentioned above, it is much more responsive at the slower end of the scale than the Jab's I've flown. It's closer to how I imagine the Gazelle to be (gotta try one soon!). I think the wing had a lot of lift still when slow, and you are able to finesse the aircraft (that might not be a/the right verb, but oh well!) right to the ground. Even in the last few milliseconds of the landing, you can make tiny changes to the elevator that have affirmative effects on the touchdown. For the photo nerds out there, I liken the difference between a J160 wing and the Tecnam wing to be like film versus digital. Flim has a soft roll-off in extremes of brights and shadows, allowing for a little more wiggle room here and there. Digital gets close and then bang, it's white or black. Both are good, and both get the job done in their own way, but one must be aware of how they react in various circumstances to get the best results.

Thanks Tomo and Owi!

I recently went down to Lethbridge for conversion to their Tecnam P92E with Golden Plains Flying School CFI Bruce Vickers. The first difference that I saw upon entering the cockpit was the floor mounted control sticks. Under the cowl, the 100 horsepower engine is partially air/partially liquid cooled with no carby heat, and is some 15 horses bigger than the Jab's. It has an all-flying elevator and very large flaps. I was relieved to see that it had two throttles (one high on the left like a Jabiru, and one low in the centre like a Cessna). I immediately put my left hand on the throttle. Bruce saw this and said, "I'm going to get you to use the centre one with your right hand, so you can get used to flying different types of aircraft. It will feel different at first, but I guarantee that by the time you turn downwind you won't even give it another thought." He was right! We strapped in and went through the checklists (which Bruce had programmed into the Dynon D100 EFIS - a nice touch). I was introduced to the slightly different starting considerations with this engine, then we taxied over to the cement slab for the run up. Water temperature was close to optimal, but the oil had a little way to go. Bruce explained that this would be up by the time we taxi to the end of the runway. I released the parking brake and we trundled off to the start of runway 29. Flying this Tecnam is a breeze. It climbs very well, even though we were two-up with full fuel. We departed crosswind and headed out to the West for some upper air work. I found during the turns that I was well over using the rudder. My feet would add in the same amount of rudder for the Jabiru, and I'd look down to see the ball waaaay out one way. It took a couple of minutes to rid my turns of this, but eventually I was affecting nicely balanced turns. We then moved on to stalls, with emphasis on stalls during turns as this aircraft does not have a stall warning horn. Upon returning to the circuit area, I accidentally closed my radio call with my usual 'Ballarat'. Oops! I quickly got back on the button and amended it. Bruce laughed a little and said "That's ok, we've all done it!" We went through the various approaches - flapped and flapless - glide and power assisted. The first landing I attempted was a flapless full glide approach. I was flying the numbers that I am used to seeing in the Jabiru and came down to find that the elevator was very responsive all the way through the hold off - ending in a real greaser! Wow. This aircraft makes me look like a much better pilot than I really am! I was then told to do a flapped approach. This was not too dissimilar, but the maximum flap extension speed is 63 knots - meaning that you really have to work to slow the aircraft down before deploying them! I came in again, this time at 57 knots, flared, held off, held off, held off, held off.... I snuck a quick peek at the airspeed... 38 knots, and it was still trying to fly! I think it eventually touched down at 36 or so knots. Amazing stuff that you wouldn't see in the J-160 with it's high wing loading. The circuits continued for some time, when Bruce started introducing practice emergency procedures. Engine failure after takeoff, engine failure in the circuit, etc. He then demonstrated a rather impressive short field landing. After that he said, "You are doing really well. We'll stop for a lunch break and after that we'll do one or two more circuits and then I'll send you solo." Wow. It was like my first solo all over again. But then I thought, "Wait... This is nothing like my first solo. I can do this!" Bruce explained that there was a student coming in a few minutes, so do two circuits and we'll talk when you're done." With that, he got out and shut the door. I was amazed again by the climb performance of this aircraft. I reached 500 feet and prepared for my turn to crosswind, when it struck me that I was still able to see the end of the runway in front of the cowl! Had this thing gone straight up? It certainly felt like it. I decided to make use of my two circuits effectively, by doing one flapless approach and one flapped. The flapless was fairly unremarkable, but the flapped one had a bit of excitement. The aircraft is difficult enough to slow down when two-up, it is even more difficult when solo. I had eaten up so much time trying to reign it in that I ended up a little high. I finally saw the speed I wanted and got the flaps down. I ended up landing a little long on the runway, but I was easily slowed to taxi speed by the runway intersection. I parked it in the same place that I found it earlier that day and shut the engine down. We then went into the office for a debrief. Bruce said he was very happy with my handling of the aircraft, and my workcycles are clearly working. He added that normally he's looking for somewhere between two and three hours for a conversion, but he was happy to sign me off at 1.7 hours! So, for my logbook I have 1.4 dual and 0.3 pilot in command of a Tecnam P92E. It was worth every minute! Not only for the extra experience, but for the extra time with a different instructor and now I'm 'on the books' at two different schools. I can now rent either aircraft at any time.

Thanks David! I agree totally!

Great stuff Alf! Thanks for sharing. I was also flying on Sunday - at YLTV. Perfect day!