dlegg

Wow, what engine do you have now?

Better get a bigger mower, or let the roo's back in:drool:

I have spent a lot of time flying through the Alice to the Tanami desert and can report that it can actually rain a lot out there. It doesn't just rain, it POURS down. So there's your red dust and moisture Maj.....Mojave without the red dust and rain is a far better location for aircraft storage. Just snakes to worry about.

Because then these pilots couldn't display their intrinsic deeply rooted aviation retractable knowledge and just prefer to jump to conclusions anyway. It WAS mechanical failure.....

Daffyd, you make a very valid point in that in considering an aircraft purchase it must be designed from the outset with safety in mind. There aren't any homebuilts or LSA varieties that I have seen that really can claim this. New certified "safe" aircraft are simply priced too high for us recreational pilots. I.E new 172 is close to $500k, and just how robust and safe is it really? Granted, a lot safer than a RV, Zenith, Tecnam etc, but a high impact accident I think is a hard thing to survive regardless of aircraft design. Clearly, operating a Drifter or Thruster carries a higher risk than a 172, protection wise that is. But the pilot must be aware of this and operate them accordingly. Is there any recreational aircraft available, for a reasonable price, that has a higher crash worthiness inherently built in, that is readily available?

Seems that latest car technology relies to a degree on air bag safety. Can this be adapted to low wing aircraft successfully? I mean incorporated into the construction, rather than just the add-on seatbelt type that is for sale.

Thanks, will certainly give it a go!

So just dip you in a river and a better model shows up eh......

My wife helped a great deal in constructing my current plane, envisioning a safer aircraft than my Thruster, which she flatly refused to fly in, and has in fact come for a couple of short flights, but unfortunately succumbs to motion sickness so my 2 seater is a long range 1 seater (until medical science catches up) But the will is there.....

Watching the video, it clearly shows the airflow on top of the wing slowing down.....

This is great, settling in with a carton of Boag's, nasty on the left vs's all comers on the right. All I know is birds have it right, follow them and lift just happens...........

I have a Q revision Microair and can't fault it. Is yours and older model that can be upgraded?

HR and OH&S people feel it's there duty to dumb everything down to the lowest common denomination of fools to protect them from themselves. We are surrounded with examples. Drive anywhere for 10 minutes and count the signs you past. Look at kids parks with the swings and slides removed. Then spend a week at oshkosh and marvel at the access available to all aircraft, no fences or serious security anywhere, and wow, no-one getting hurt or needing protecting from themselves. There parks have swings and slides, only basic signs on roads........

Before shutting down engine last time of day I always shut off fuel valve and let carby run out shutting down engine. Keeps all fwf lines and carby bowl dry but also ensures I have to turn on valve and check elect pump to start engine next time. Checks my fuel valve, flow meter and fuel pressure before starting.

The Zenith CH750 STOL plane can be registered at 650kg if GA. http://zenithair.com/stolch750/index.html Plenty of room in these aircraft, bigger version of the savannah, choose your engine type as well. Or the new Cruzer http://zenithair.com/stolch750/750-crz-performance.html Not STOL but can take off/land in 110mtrs and good cruise speed. Fit with new Rotax iS and you have a great aircraft.

RPL opens up RV's:oh yeah: How much spare cash do you have is the real question here.....

If you built more than 51% yourself and kept good logs then sure. Contact SAAA for the paper work. Seriously thinking of doing the same.

Bit like golfing really. Why do people try and get a hole in one or go around 9 holes trying to hit the ball the least? Where's the value in that? You pay big money in fees, clubs, balls etc, I reckon you should take at least 10 swings per hole to get your moneys worth...... Thats why my plane took me 6 yrs and 900hrs to build:pizza:

Electric/battery power is truly the way to go. Even with todays batteries, having an extra set and swapping out to get an hour or two of flight while the other charges is going to save flying schools a motza. Very quiet and neighbourhood friendly as well. The plane could also be equipped to tow gliders etc. I really can't see any downside. As range improves they become viable cross country machines as well.

Put a set of air horns on your plane, see how high they can jump then...

Well mine just arrived in the inbox, expired 6th Aug so only 2 weeks without rego. Still time to go for a blast this afternoon..........

31st July to 20th Aug= 3 weeks without rego.

I for one am sick to death of all this bull*8it drum beating, constant flow of personnel, managers, board members etc through RAA's doors, people saying that things will now get better. Yet, still, unable to process aircraft rego in a timely fashion without having unregistered aircraft grounded for extended periods. Flying schools and private owners still having to pay hangerage, insurance etc and loss of income as a result. As one of the primary income streams to RAA, WTF is really going on? The average person affected by all this must be dumdfounded. Then a new CEO shows up beating his own drum. WTF........??

I notice on my jab airbox setup that the k&n airfilter goes in back to front compared to a vehicle panel setup. Looking at the filter I can't see as how it could make a difference in flow. My filter is square in size, same measurements, and if installed horizontally rather than vertically, static rpm drops 150 revs, and full throttle runs much rougher. So even seemingly minor changes has a big effect on tuning.

This is a copy of a blog from a pilot in the USA who flys a lot and puts a lot of hrs on a Jab 3300. He is currently on his second 3300, 900 hrs on the first, 600 on the 2nd. He bought a FWF kit from Jab USA and this is his thoughts. Having flown my Zodiac XL about 600 hours with my Jabiru 3300 and Bing carburetor I must say it has had it good points and bad. The short story is that initially the performance I got was quite poor. With some minor changes, performance improved to the point where it seemed acceptable. However problems remain which are perhaps serious. Now the longer story... First, in defense of Jabiru and the Bing I will say that the firewall forward kit I got with the engine did not properly address installation in the Zodiac. Essentially the kit seemed to encourage installation techniques that produced bad results and were in direct conflict with the installation recommendations in the Jabiru engine installation manual. Note too that the manual itself has improved over time. The most recently released manual (dated August 2009) is the best yet. To make matters worse, when I built my airplane I was new to the entire process, so I hired a certified A/P to install my engine. He did a mostly reasonable job but actually did not read the installation manual. I assumed he knew what he was doing. I have learned: hay, it’s your life, read the manual no matter who is on the job. The firewall forward kit I got failed to address the following two issues mentioned in the installation manual: 1) Do not connect scat tube directly to the carburetor. 2) Avoid a 90 degree bend from the side in the intake tube coming into the carburetor. In addition, I have learned though independent study and personal experience that scat tube in general offers significant turbulence and drag in the intake system, especially when bent. If you choose to use it, use as little as possible and avoid sharp turns. I no longer have any scat tube in my cold air intake system. I almost never use my carburetor heat system so I am not worried about scat tube in that system. In your climate, perhaps you need carburetor heat, in my climate I don’t. With my initial setup, which had scat tube everywhere, I found that the engine ran very rich at higher throttle settings. At full throttle the engine burned about 13 GPH – not exactly what I was expecting! Also at 10,000 feet the engine ran so rich that it shook the airplane badly at full throttle. I knew something was wrong so I started looking into it. I learned that air does not like to turn corners. Because the air traveling along the outside of the bend has further to go than the air traveling along the inside of the bend, turbulence results. Scat tube is not smooth, especially when bent. The uneven walls of the scat tube create drag and turbulence. Inducing turbulence right at the carburetor intake creates problems, especially for the Bing carburetor which as sense ports at its opening. I have read that A 90 degree bend in an intake system produce drag that is roughly equivalent to 3 feet of straight tube. Because of the way my intake system was put together, when I computed the total effective length of the tube in my cold air intake system it came out to about 12 feet! What a mess. No wonder the engine was performing badly. My cold air intake system now uses only radiator hose. The hose is as short as possible with as few bends as I could manage without a complete re-work of the system. Simply eliminating all scat tube and replacing it with radiator hose eliminated the high fuel consumption and added a very noticeable amount of power – it was not subtle. However a new problem showed up. At wide open throttle the EGTs were very uneven. To help reduce this problem I added a piece of aluminum inside the radiator hose running from the air box to the carburetor. The aluminum is centered in the hose, is vertical and is bent such that it runs down the center of the hose as it makes the 90 bend. This helps the air make the corner, reduces turbulence and has evened out the EGTs a bit. All these modifications were made about 550 hours ago. EGT temperatures are still not as even as I would like and vary considerably with throttle and altitude. Different cylinders are hotter than others depending on throttle setting. On some days when I fly at about 1,800 feet MSL and have a certain throttle setting at least half of the EGTs get too hot. It is necessary to change altitude or throttle setting. About 150 hours ago I re-pitched my prop to make it steeper. That lowered my engine RPM by about 100 RPM. That has helped keep this annoyance to a minimum but it is still there. I have noticed that on my engine it is the back cylinders which seem to have high EGTs. I have always suspected that this is because their intake runners connect to the intake manifold on the extreme left and right. The Bing’s main jet is in the middle and the Jabiru’s intake manifold is quite small so mixture is unevenly distributed to the cylinders. The two rear cylinders run lean as a result. Just a theory mind you… About 80 hours ago I found a burned exhaust valve on my number 5 cylinder. It was easy to replace but got me to thinking. Perhaps that cylinder has been running too lean. More recently oil consumption has been going way up. The engine now burns about a quart every 4 hours. When I replaced the burned valve I notice some scoring in the cylinder wall. I am not sure but at this point I am suspecting broken rings on #5 which might explain where the oil is going. In the next day or so I am going to run another compression check with the hope of learning what is wrong and where the oil might be going. So, is it possible that in 600 hours with un-even EGTs with the tendency for the rear cylinders to run lean I have shortened the life of my engine? I don’t know – I am just wondering… I have been considering one or more modifications. 1) Redesigning the air intake to eliminate the 90 degree bend from the side. This would be done with a custom air box intake system to replace the radiator hose. 2) Replacing the Bing carburetor with a Rotec TBI-40. In summery one of the Bing’s strengths is also one of its weaknesses: the lack of a mixture control. I like the simplicity. I don’t like the lack of control. I am attracted to the Rotec TBI-40 because of the claim that EGTs are more even. I am not looking forward to re-running my throttle cable, turning my coke cable into a primer cable and adding a mixture control. On the other hand I can’t say I am thrilled at the prospect of an early engine overhaul either. I wish I had more information…