Vorticity

Good news! I have sold my certified drifter. The more interesting news is that it now has to be moved to christmas island out in the pacific ocean! Suggestions of putting a big tank in the back seat have been rejected so I am now working through moving it to a shipping company at Brisbane shipping dock. Does anyone have any advice regarding boxing up a drifter? Where could you get the boxes and what sizes would be best? It could be an interesting month getting this all done :thumb_up:

Maybe Kilcoy? I think there are numbers in the RAAus magazine.

I dont know about the aircraft but an electric paraglider would be amazing! I watched some guys down the gold coast with 2 stroke powered ones. At the time all I could think was 'pitty about the noise!'....well....that could be a thing of the past!

I like the reply about the male and female particles, I have always pictured them giving a high five and meeting at the other end. It has rightfully been stated that the important part of bernoulli's work is that with increase velocity there is a decrease in surface pressure. The big link regarding a cambered (or flat plate with an AoA) and the creation of lift is why. By studying wind tunnells and tracking particles we can show that the flow does in fact move faster over the top. One interesting theory is that a circulation effect occurs around the wing. If you watch your paddle next time you are canoeing you will see an eddy, or a starting vortex. If you read up in some reputable aerodynamics text they will outline the various things that add to slowing down the bottom flow while maybe contributing to the flow on the upper surface. This starting vortex is key in the process. It's all interesting stuff but as pilots my opinion is that we only need to know the things that increase the lift within our control. Shape, Velocity and AoA. You could look into the movement of pressure regions in various AoA and so on but its not as fun as just getting out and flying.:big_grin: Trust me when I say that if you really get into this stuff, including the maths, it will send you completly insane.

turbulance is my nemisis!! I agree with the advice of flying early or late in the afternoon in summer. In my area it is like the thermals 'wake up' pretty much right on 10am. My prefernece of late has been to fly in the afternoons as the air is great and the changing light can make local flying very nice. I am finding the different performance between aircraft quite interesting. I fly a tecnam sierra, a certified 503 drifter and a fisher sport. The fisher is 100 kg lighter than the certified, has no dehidral and a symetrical airfoil. In the normal bubbly turbulance I find it just 'hops' accross where the certified seems to get mushed around a bit. In quite serious turbulance, ie crossing the boarder range, it is like riding a body board in 3m surf:sad:. The tecnam is ok, though being tall I have been put into the canopy a few times. From flying the drifter I now find it intuative as to when I am going to get hammered. Flying with a gliding pilot/instructor will really educate you on this. On a recent flight out west in the certified I was terrified. I made the decision as PIC that it was definatly a safety call to exceed 5000ft. Unfortunatly it was also freezing in the open cockpit so I had to find a balance between freezing and being terrified! In hindsight going higher was not be the answer as at some point I had to come down and it was getting latter in the day and resultantly more turbulant. Same situation again; i'd divert to nearby clifton and enjoy the company of the club there for a few hours. There is always the afternoon to finish the flight.

Yeah, my drifter isnt quite as complex as an ejector seat. I bet those same pilots dont have an AAP (publication) in their hand when doing their daily inspection. Our aircraft are not complex with some having only 1 or 2 switches and a couple of instruments. Pretty simple stuff. They can also be open cockpit so any kind of un-required clutter should be avoided.

I tell you one thing I got from reading that post, we have a very pleasant and civilised forum here!

My memory isnt anything amazing, but then again the drifter doesnt have that much to remember either! If flying a new aircraft I will definatly go over the checklists. If I have a passenger in the back I will give them a checklist. One reason is to get them involved but the other is to check me that I am doing my checks. To me a checklist would just be another item in an open cockpit that is now becomeing clutter and needing to be managed. All to prompt a couple of very big ticket items that I would never miss anyway. I dont think it is scary but everyone is different.

Good to hear the second aircraft will be RAAus registered. Simple managment for simple aircraft

The last thing in the world I would want is any recreational aircraft of mine operating on the state register. This is not because it is lacking; far from it. My concern would be that the regulatory framework required to support registration on that register would be out of control. For instance, changing a set of plugs on your VP-1's engine would require three people. One signed for doing the job, one to supervise the person doing the job and another to do a final check that this was done. Fair enough when our military aircraft are doing such critical missions and placing so many lives at risk but why would you ever place this burdon onto your recreational aircraft?

Yep, its about a 5nm trip from where my drifter is hangered so I'd be mad not too! :thumb_up:

Yeah, that photo doesnt accuratley show those prickles and bindis that where everywhere. A little tornado came through and picked up my mates KR2 (yes, if you where there it was the one that had a prop strike on sunday ) just as he grabbed it. I had left all my polar tec and thermal gear on the front seat of the drifter and it got carried of....spent a few hours pulling the bindis out so I could be warm on the way home.

yep, they go fast. I managed to get mine before it made it into the RAAus mag. There where a few that a rang the minute it hit my post box and had already been sold

Thanks for that. I have just put in a new set of BR8ES's and bought a second set at the same time. I wll keep your advice in mind once I get through these though. Then again if the wind doesnt settle down over the weekends I may get a long time out of the plugs that I have!

Thanks for you info about the VP1 crash, plenty of things for all off us to learn, from what was a very unfortunate loss

hahaha no worries I knew what you ment! Thanks for the advice :thumb_up:. Changing the pitch of the prop was what I was thinking but I will take earlier advice first and install a tiny tach to get an acurate reading. If this confirms that I am climbing out at 6800 rpm I start looking into changing the pitch. The plugs look good and are only slightly brown with no melt spots or excessive gunk at 25hrs.

The plane I flew in was actually waynes trainer but an austflight drifter (25 rego for training) I will be ordering a tiny tach in a week or so after I measure up the length of lead required. This should give me an acurate RPM and maybe I can reconsider from there. I am generally cruising around 50kts at 5600 rpm one up in calm conditions. 2 up on the same nice day was 5800-6000 rpm.

It seems even what we would all call rag and tube aircraft are getting pretty expensive, just get a quote on a bantam or similar in recent times. I hang out at a field with a KR2 that does well over double my airspeed yet we have a great time. He takes me for a spin, I take him for photo flights and I just leave well before him to meet at other strips. They are completly different machines but we both have aircraft that suit us (our experience, ability and expectations) so we are each very happy with our machines. Though another 25kts wouldnt hurt the drifter..... As a thought as to what can be done to increase the cheaper and more moderate performance end of the spectrum you might want to look at the Texas Parasole. The design is interesting and the full plans are available for free. The story is the most interesting bit to me. These groups had identified an need for a simple, cheap aircraft for their members to build and fly together. So the experienced ones got together and put in the effort to design what looks to be a great little plane. They then went and gave it to the world for free; as long as 'the plans are not sold or used in anyway to make a profit'. I think it's a great success story...and I find myself looking over those plans and buiding instructions and thinking even I could put one together!

Can I please get some info from other drifter pilots and even others who fly a 503 powered aircraft. I am not happy with the climb performance of my plane. I went for a spin in another 503 powered drifter and it really out-performed mine. The first thing I am wondering is what the maximum RPM reached on takeoff and climbout is on other aircraft. Mine is up at 6800 rpm which is the far limit on the perfromance graphs and from what I can work out, past the best torque or power areas. The drifter manual from the 80's lists 6250 rpm as the max. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

This explains something that has been driving me nuts! The only way I could describe it was like I couldnt keep the drifter up. But then all of a sudden, in a different area or after a break on the ground it would be fine again. I could maintain alt and get a good IAS. Thanks for the explaination. I am thinking of ditching the VSI from my plane is it depresses me with the 503 and I could use the space for something else. The drifter I learnt in didnt have one and I didnt miss it.

Sounds great, I will try and get out on the sunday morning. Thanks for the info Yenn.

where is the airfield?

G'day, I have always liked the look of the little RANS S-9 Chaos. When I was lloking for a plane they had stopped production of kits. I have just found out that they are back in production and kits are available from July (I think). Has anyone got any experience with the S-9?

I have had a bit of a look over the fishers Mk1s and they seem great. There are some notable changes that really make sense to me. One easy to spot one is the fuel tank that wayne uses behind the pax seat. I have not flown one but have been told they are lighter and perform a bit better than the Austflight drifters. I would love to take one of the 582 or 912 versions for a run!! :thumb_up: Is your field ready for visitors?

Looks pretty good from the pics and at that price you could afford to have the skins replaced and engine checked over if need be.