ducksrus

I have a set of airhorns fitted under the cowling pointing downwards and a button mounted just under the LH throttle. I must admit that I have never heard them on the ground when flying, as I am always the one flying, but as Mark Kyle mentions (#27), he heard them ok when I flew over his house at 1200'. They are quite handy to scatter the roo's when taxying out at Ycab and generaly to get peoples attention on the ground sometimes. I also fitted two cheap plastic shoo roo whistles, one to each wing strut. I was a bit sceptical about them, but my son fitted some to his motor home and prior to that he had a few near misses with roo's, but after, he never saw one again. They were only $5 from Supercheap and create minimal drag, not sure what speed range they work in though.

Hi Jackolantern, I always thought, if my own strip doesn't work out, the next best thing would be owning a hangar at a nice queit country airstrip, well I have now ticked that box. Having just retired and selling up in the city, I will move to that area and if the right property comes along that is suitable for a strip, I will still do that. It would be somwhere where fliers who are just looking for an excuse to go flying would be welcome and perhaps some basic overnight accomodation, not to operate on a commercial basis, but just for fun.

Hi Puk, I went looking for Leyburn airfield one day and spotted what I think is where it used to be. From one of the history plaques in town, it was a secret WW2 airfield used by Z force for training and to launch off on missions. I didn't mark the GPS co-ordinates, but if you fly around the Leyburn area, you can eventually spot it and see where the runways once were. It appears to be all farmland/private property now. Steve

Yes, I ended up buying one and fitted it to my Savannah, very happy with it. The parameters are all very accurate once you calibrate it. The heading bug on the primary flight display is great, I tend to fly on the HSI display (compass rose) and set the VOR needle to my heading and use it like a heading bug. The only time it glitched was early morning at Broken Hill, it was quite cold and the display took a while to power up. This can be typical with digital displays when it's cold apparently.

I had similar compass errors recently when I fitted a standby compass to the top of the combing panel. I only fitted it because my precision vertical card compass must have slipped a cog or two and started reading about 70 deg out. It was mounted at the top centre of my panel. After a few compass swings, I couldn't get any accuracy with the standby compass. I decided to remove the vert card unit as it was no good anyway and tried another swing, I now have very good accuracy at all points. The vert card unit had a significant effect on the standby compass and was mounted about 25 cm away from it.

I'm thinking about purchasing an Avmap Ultra EFIS, it's a mini EFIS with a 95mm square display and fits in a std 3 1/8 " hole, with built in solid state gyros, accelerometers and magnetic sensors. It looks like a nice little unit for about $1700. Apparently the earlier version didn't quite fit a 3 1/8 hole which had to be enlarged, but I think the newer version is ok. Has anyone got one or had any experience with them.

For everyone"s info, I was able to view an MGL Alt - 3 instrument (altimeter) with my polarised sunnies on the WE and was able to read the display without problem.

I am thinking about purchasing an MGL ALT-3 digital altimiter with the monochrome display and not not sure about it's readability with polarised sunglasses. Has anyone had experience with this.

I attended a Casa mock ramp check at the Thangool flyin recently, which I found to be very informative. The volunteer pilot passed with flying colours, except her Ersa was out of date by about 1 week (apparently a new one was on order but she hadn"t received it yet). It got me thinking, with the 6 monthly reissue of charts and ersa, how much information actually changes, to warrant having to purchase new issues. If a record of amendments was made available and there were only minor changes, what if you could hand amend your old issues and write a statement on the chart that all amendments for the new issue have been annotated and sign it. Obviously for major airspace amendments you would need a new chart. It just seems a waste to me, having to throw out old charts, when the new issue may only have a very minor or perhaps no new changes. What are your thoughts ! Ducky

Recently a friend of mine had a couple of lifters that were soft on a 2200, the symptom was rough running at low RPM. Upon dismantling, he found one of the little internal springs collapsed on both. He subsequently replaced all of the lifters as a precaution. All good after that..

Thanks Avocet, I am pretty sure I can modify my aircraft as I see fit, as a 19-XXXX aircraft under para 1.2 (e) of the the CAO. But it gets confusing, because there appears to be another classification of 19-XXXX under para 1.2 (h) which I think is for experimental LSA, which I assume cannot be modified without approval ? So it may not be true that ALL 19-XXXX aircraft can be modified without approval ??? Ducky

I have just spent the last couple of hours trawling through CAO 95.55 (2011), also the "overview of the legislative framework enabling sport and recreational aviation" tutorial on this site and sections 3.5.2 & 3.5.3 of the RA-Aus tech manual, which relate to "modifications to aircraft". I have a 19-XXXX kit built Savannah VG XL of which I am the builder, so it is non LSA or Experimental and I am trying to conclusively establish if I am legally allowed to modify my aircraft, as I see fit, without any external authorisation, as is the case with some aircraft in other categories. As I understand it, new CAO 95.55 para 1.2 (e) is applicable to my Savannah. Trying to find the answer to a fairly simple question amdist the reams of documentation for all the different classifications of aircraft is quite daunting. Any feedback appreciated. Ducky

As per my previous post, I recently fitted a DM electronics ANR kit to my David Clarke. The 9V battery was lasting about 15 hrs so I took out the battery box and wired it into the aircraft system through a 9V regulator, very easy and cheap to do. I found the David Clarke with the ANR kit to be as good, if not slightly better than my Lightspeed Sierra. My mate had the same opinion.

Hi Brett, I flew my Aeropup (she is now with a new owner) with and without spats, I gained about 2-3 knots from memory, I also made fairings for the landing gear donuts and aileron and flap push pulls, it all helped. I originally had a 60X 42 prop which gave me about 90 kts, then changed to a 60 X 38 prop and lost about 2 kts cruise, but much better takeoff and climb. Steve