Old Koreelah

Sad to see Mike Arnold passed away. He sure influenced a lot of builders. Reading about how fast he went with 50hp must have made an impression: after several phases of modifying my Jodel Babe it started looking a little like his amazing AR-5…if you squint your eyes and ignore the ruff-as-gutz finish.

Jim a couple of our club members have Savannas with nose wheels and are happy with them. Given their draggy appearance I have been surprised that they can cruise near 100kt, if enough petrol is poured into them.

Drilling a few self-tapping screws thru the rim will stop tyre creep.

With our very light little aeroplanes landing on soft ground, it’s tempting to run low pressure in the tyre; too low and that may risk tyre/tube creep and damage to the stem.

Can’t find a thread that this topic fits in, so new thread: Late- night scan of OR to see what’s in the air. Not much activity in this part of the world, so zoomed out to see who’s using OR in other parts of the world. This bloke’s cruising much higher than commercial aircraft tend to; do the military use OzRunways?

I’m glad I don’t have to do my test flying over such unforgiving territory! Jodels are amazing aeroplanes, but not immune from engine failure.

Best to wear a PLB, in case you have to get out fast.

As rgmwa said. We should already have a landable field picked out as part of our normal “gazing out the window”. Also that old gem: “we shouldn’t be surprised when the engine stops; we should be surprised when it doesn’t.

Impressive landing, considering the situation. Near a house is always a good idea. Livestock is a factor; even if you miss them on landing, cattle are likely to do some damage to a parked aeroplane.

Not necessarily a great idea, KR. If you have to clamber out of a mangled cockpit, cargo pockets might tangle on debris and hinder your escape. I like wearing work clothes with lots of pockets, but a couple ot times when wriggling thru tight spots the damned pockets have caught in stuff- being workwear, you Can’t Tear ‘em loose! I like to wear elastic-side boots so I can easily slip my feet out of them if trapped.

A compact disc makes an excellent signalling mirror- you can look thru the centre hole to aim it. I also carry a few mizzo soup packets and a hiker’s stove, which can run on petrol. A couple of big orange garbage bags- very visible and can keep you warm and dry.

Do Good advice, Nev. I drink green tea several times per day, but not if I’m going flying- it goes thru you in about twenty minutes! I have a water bottle mounted in a bicycle-type holder near my leg, but got so focussed on the flying that I forgot to drink. “Don’t go loopy” is good advice for many situations. Our mental fitness is being assaulted from all sides today: the mental fog of long covid, creeping old timers disease, substance abuse and even something as simple as not drinking enough water. Do we need a checklist for that?

That second engine seems to be the inverse of a Wankel rotary: triangular chamber, double-circular rotor, giving three power pulses per rev. The potential of a V-12 in your microlite!

Mike it’s hard mental work! Last Friday night I had a pretty bad headache after almost four hours bumping around between earth and cloud. Had been so busy I only had one sip of water and no food between breakfast at 0615 and arriving home ten hours later. Next time I’ll hydrate more regularly and keep a few healthy nibblies handy. Even better, return the plane to the plurry hangar if I encounter a solid cloud barrier!

Sadly true, FB! In discussion with our local council, I have pointed out that some of we Aero Club members are pensioners. My own plane has cost me about $40k over 15 years, yet the average caravan and 4WD outfit costs many times more- and they get FREE CAMPING and do far more damage to our roads and infrastructure than my little bug smasher ever could.

The concepts of shrinking the market and killing the Golden Goose seems to have escaped these turkeys.

Bruce you mentioned Waddington and his impact on maintenance in a previous thread. As a result of this, I bought this book, which I presume you’ve read:

Feedlots for humans.

Today I had intended to be flying to parts unknown out west; instead, I’m glad to be sitting up in bed at home with a cuppa. After weeks of planning, yesterday I flew to Narromine to meet other flyers for a BFR with Dan of Wings Out West, which was supposed to be followed by a trip around small towns with an airstrip and a pub… Weeks of watching the weather map assured me it would be fine, clear and smooth. Instead, thirty NM west of Quirindi I ran into a solid bank of low cloud, forcing me down to about 1,000’ agl. The flight plan abandoned, all I could do was follow cleared valleys on my way west, keeping under the cloud blanket. Over Mendooran I found a decent-sized hole and started climbing up on top, into the sunlight. That turned out to be a very dumb idea, as it started closing on me. On coming back down, one tight turn took me momentarily into the soup; it’s frightening how fast things turn to crap when the ground disappears! Eventally finding Gildandra, I was ready to get on the ground, but the way south appeared clear. Got to YNRM okey and had a very useful session in Dan’s Cub. Because it’s his specialty, I got Dan to give me a few tips on getting down safely in case the noise stops. The crappy weather put paid to the weekend so we decided to head home. On the way home low cloud stopped me flying high over the big forests common out that way, so I regularly swapped between OzRunways and Google Earth, which does show forests. Something I learned (and still cannot explain) is that there’s a lot of forest areas that don’t appear on GE! One lesson from this trip: just because you’re in the middle of a large High on the map doesn’t preclude crappy weather! Those slight wobbles in the isobars mean something!

Beautiful countryside. Pilots obviously have great faith in their engines.

Nothing that couldn’t be fixed by a robot clamping his wrists! https://jalopnik.com/the-thought-of-a-single-pilot-airliner-is-just-a-bit-sc-1677413476

Instead of designing for umpteen possible human stuff-ups, they’ll most likely design for total autopilot, with optional human input (on the proviso that the human plays nice).

Didn’t the Brits have autoland on the 1960s Trident? In a few years pilots might be lumped together with blacksmiths and stenographers.

Who’d want the responsibility of ordering major defence assetts to be put on line even five years ahead? Defensive weapons are evolving so fast your new toy could be a cooked goose. Just look at how many advanced attack helicopters the Russians have lost in the last two months.

Just happened on this thread, so the actual layout of the plane baffles me. More pix please, or even a video.