Vorticity

Wow! Thats something I would not have expected. So he had built it himself from a plan or what? And how did he think he would get $18k with bent wings? If thats what a bent, kinda drifter is going for I may advertise mine! Straight wings and all ;)

You can probably read more into the aircrafts use from the landings than simply how many times it has been put through the forces of landing. A landing generally means a takeoff-landing cycle at some point. That means high throttle settings etc. So if you have two engines from 503 drifters both with 250hrs, one with 200 landings and the other with 900 you could start to think the second engine had recieved harder use. But as you say all of this is based around a presumed flight profile where the aircraft climbs, sets cruise power, decends and touches down normally. Doesnt take into account flying around over the constant max power setting or lawn darting it on each landing:laugh:

Maybe try Wayne Fisher. I know he makes skins for thrusters. his website is http://www.spectrumaviation.com.au

So if we are relying on our pilots to identify when their health is a risk, or a peer group to point out an issue to a friend, should we maybe have some aviation medical content in the RAAus syllabus?

I think GPS is a great tool but must be applied with thought as to how you are operating. Not so much different to all flight planning, I know I dont do any serious planning if I am flying a 20 min leg that I regulary do, and yet some have told me I am crazy for this. Since I fly around at 50kts in a 2 stroke engine I am mainly concerned with flying map to ground (since I have time) and choosing the best outlanding fields. To simply follow an imaginary line accross the earth could lead to trouble for me, given what I am flying. The strange bit is that the 1 time I have been really scared during a Nav was using a GPS, I misread the information things where happening fast (obviously not in the drifter this day!) and I started making decisions based on some pixels rather than sticking my head out the window and having a look around.

Wadeair carry the solid terminal BR8ES for about $4, will have them delivered pretty much next day.

Sounds good, lets hope you get weather like yesterday and today. :)

Let me know when you are taking visitors at your strip, I'll gladly bring my 503 drifter to the party! ;)

I spend a fair bit of time getting thrashed around in the drifter, light plane and plenty of freshly plowed paddocks where I fly. I have often found the only way to maintain an altitude is to use throttle. Just as I feel an 'up' through the seat I will ease back 200-300RPM and then wait for it to stop. Once it stops I am waiting for the down draft so ease the power back on. This seems to work in the drifter. That is until I get stuck in a big one like the other day and have to cut power to idle just to get down to the circuit!:)

Thats actually a great point that Tony put forward! I know I was really lucky with my instructor. I did most of my training mid week so was quite often the only student. During the initial training we would take off, do an exercise for 20-30 minutes and then land at a different airfield. We would stop, have a coffee and talk to whoever was there. Quite often I would only log 1.5-2.0 hrs or so for a whole day. I actually asked at one point "cant I do more? shouldnt I be practicing X activitey again" only to be casually told, well I could, but it would be a waste of time. This was in contrast to 'value' offered by some other schools that put me off flying for a long time. It wasnt their hourly rate that was poor value it was their attitude toward training and coaxing the dollars out of you. One school demanded that if I learnt with them I must sit through a $600 set of night classes to learn BAK, even though I have a degree in Aeronautical Engineering...... My eventual instructor just used pre flight briefings to draw out my own knowledge and apply it to stick and rudder skills. Value for money training means more than a cheap hourly rate.

Could be a nice flight and only having to do it one way would be an advantage!

Some of the damage we found was quite odd. At some point it had been ground looped as there was a chunk of damage under a patch on the wing tip. There was also dints in spots that required repair. One piece of damage was along the aileron. Some brackets were worn out and needed to be replaced. There did not seem to be a pattern, just random things throughout. Nothing that major that wayne couldnt repair it.

...sorry! the compass is a marine compass that I have completed a compass swing on. As I am sure you will find, there isnt a great amount of room to play with and with an adjustable mount it works great.

I was lucky and only had to replace one wire, I honestly cannot recall the exact criteria wayne gave me so it would be best to ask him. HE had a rule for how many broken strands. The helmets are micro aviation. They are pretty good. I have flown for just over 2 hrs at a time with them with no problems. I also seem to have my ICOM A6 working through their radio interface. I am told the A6 has issues with a number of headsets but this mix seems to work. Fairly pricey though...mine package was kind of an impulse buy! :big_grin:

Hi guys, Yep I agree on the testing but I stand by my opinion that you should find someone who is an expert. I can only assume that part of their assesment would be to conduct these tests, in the correct way, in the worst possible spot and interpret the results for you. If the owner does deny the test or you can see that they are rotten it's no problem, just adjust the price to include new sails in the budget and if the seller is happy than you now have an aircraft (after a fair bit of work and effort) with new sails for your money. If you just want to fly straight away then yeah, I'd walk away. As far as costs go I used $17,000 as my starting figure and than minused all the items I wanted to get fixed. I also had quotes for overhaul of the engine or replacment to count a per hour rate of depreciation. Excluding the helmets/radios/antenna etc I have come in under my budget.

G’day, I have noticed a bunch of posts over the past few months from people wanting to buy their first ultralight. I finally bought a drifter late last year and thought people may be interested in a few experiences I had with it. The aircraft I bought was a wire braced R503 Austflight drifter. The Rotax 503 has been overhauled approximately 25 hours ago. The undercarriage was bent, the skins where very faded and there was signs of minor damage on the wing tip. It had all the normal instruments, some old helmets but no radio. I paid a fair price given this kind of wear and happily got a L2 to do the inspection. Just because someone is a LAME or has built their own aircraft does not mean they understand 2 stroke rag and tube aircraft. Aside from a few minor things the aircraft passed through its inspection. Now is when I had to deal with things that seemed very minor at the time. It had no compass, which amazed me. It took quite some time of searching and in one case buying a compass before I finally found the right one. The aircraft was missing numbers under its wing, and I can only assume had so for the past 10 years. I say assume because the maintenance records had been ‘destroyed’. A quick rule that I would apply here; no records than take a few thousand off. I’ll explain latter. So with these items fixed I started the frustrating job of fitting radios, intercoms and good quality helmets. No point spending all that money, skimping on helmets and not being comfortable. I did as many jobs as I could making slow and very frustrating progress. I made contact with Spectrum Aviation and booked the beast in for new skins and any other work that Wayne identified. After a 2 hr flight to Lismore I was met by Wayne, who promptly put his fingers through the sails. This was the first of many times that I realized the difference between a LAME used to dealing with GA metal or your average homebuilder at your local airfield and an expert like Wayne Fisher. As we pulled the red rocket down we found damage, after damage, after wear. This is where the extra few thousand come in. Without records a lot can be hidden. Who put the last set of sails on? What really caused that patch on the wing tip? The trip to Spectrum with new sails, a straight undercarriage and many other jobs set me back around $4000 (with me helping…or sometime maybe hindering!). So my hints: No records, take around $1000 off a drifter. Get someone who is an expert on the drifter. A Cessna or Jabiru is no drifter. Consider an aircraft with worn sails, but factor in the costs. I was happier to do it this way because now I know what is under them. Flying an airworthy aircraft takes time and money. Do you really want to own an aircraft or just want to fly? Do you want to be cleaning plugs instead of flying, or chasing around for a part or repair during an amazing spring day? All those little things add up to be a big bill. New fly wires, AN bolts, a compass, numbers, windscreen, any range of small things will add thousands to that cheap buy. As with anything in life you will learn with experience and mistakes, you must minimize every single risk so that these mistakes don’t kill you. Last, find an experienced friend with some maturity in the game of owning and operating aircraft. Mine was indispensable every time I wanted to sell my drifter after hours of work with no flying. Those who have done it understand the patients required and will quickly motivate you to keep going. So that’s the longest post I will ever write! The final question I guess is was it worth the months of work? (in fact the tail is off as I type awaiting a new bolt!). I don’t know yet. I guess I will just have to get out and fly every single chance I get. I can too…because it’s my own drifter!;)

I'll second the opinion on aircraft spruce! I have been chasing a bunch of different things for my plane. It become very disheartening when a US supplier has the item you want, an easy system to order it and gets it to me in Toowoomba quicker then an Australian supplier. :;)1:

Thanks for that, I was pretty sure that the quality would make a difference but was a little concerned with the inability to adjust the gap. With the platinum could you adjust the gap?

I just picked up a new set of BR8ES's as part of my 503s 25hr service. The first place I went to didnt have the normal ones but did have the NGK Iridium plug in an equivilant. As far as I could see from the limited info on the box the main difference was better life but you could not adjust the gap on the them. Has anyone tried the iridium plugs in their rotax engines??

skydart west of caboolture

tyro Yeah I went and had a look at that Tyro as well, pitty was it was too windy for a test flight I agree with Chris, it is a nice plane and the owners have all kept detailed maintenance logs.

Manual Thanks Farri, That could be interesting. They have a manual on the dalby drifter factory website but I noticed a few differences. The main thing was a 50kg lower MTOW then my aircraft and no reference to the second fuel tank that is shown in the aircraft configuration drawings. I took mine out for a fly for the first time on sunday. Aside from the rather bumpy air it went well and all the speeds listed in the manual felt good. It handles a little different to the 582 I learnt in, the most noticable being in the glide. I really had to push the nose forward to get 50kts but once I got it the drifter just kept flying and refused to come down! So I guess what I am asking is does your copy have the MTOW as 450kg and a reference to the second fuel tank?

Hi, I have just bought a 1988 wire braced 503 drifter. I have located an operators manual for the 1996 model but it seems a little different to my aircraft. Does anyone have a copy of the operators manual for the drifters around 88, 89 ?

I'm interested that the engineers don't know if it will bounce or shatter, what context and form did they say this:;)5: Having seen the results of a composite helicopter that crashed you wouldnt be able to tell which had occured anyway as the entire thing burnt to nothing.