Soleair

Yesterday the weather finally came good. Bit of early fog, looking eerily beautiful in the valleys, but the early sun already hot in a blue sky soon after dawn. At last, a bit of flying weather after weeks of grey sky & rain. And it was the biggie - at last my instructor threw caution to the wind & pronounced me ready to solo the trusty Jab. Yaay! I opened the throttle & we bounded into the air. A surprisingly rapid rate of climb meant I saw 1000' agl before the end of the runway. So a short circuit to the first of my solo landings in the Jabiru. It's a squirmy little beast, as many will know - but like any aeroplane, it only does what you tell it. So it's your own fault if you hit the ground sideways. . . I did 3 circuits, then a full stop after the 4th. Basically ok, but the plane floats a lot longer with only me on board. I was reasonably satisfied with my flying, but I still need to work on my touchdowns - it's very easy to slew slightly, or be too heavy-handed on pitch, leading to balloning. To be fair, this was actually my second 1st solo, but my first one was 30 plus years ago, so my skills were a bit rusty! Apart from a summer of gliding in 2011, this is my first flying for over 25 years. I enjoyed the whole solo thing all over again. This morning was the same settled high, though it took until 10:00 for the fog to clear completely. I did a bit of pootling about in the locality, and a few more landings, to consolidate my newly refurbished skills. All great fun. I think the little Jabiru makes a great training aircraft, demanding proper and precise use of all 3 axes. Very different from the Cessna 150/2 that I gained my PPL on years ago in UK. That was very easy to fly adequately, and tended to flatter vestigial skills. The rudder pedals were a handy place to rest your feet. So once I get my MiniMax signed off, I can start flying an aeroplane with the little wheel in the right place! I ran the engine up again yesterday, after fitting a second battery giving me true dual electronic ignition. The Max told me she was fed up sitting in the hangar & wanted to fly. I had to agree. Narromine here I come!

Wow - you're flying over one big emergency landing field. Must be relaxing. Not many flat fields round my way. . . Great vid!

Channel 4 has the TV coverage of F1 these days. Beeb just do radio. Personally, I'd pay 300 bucks a year over here to avoid the dreadful rural TV adverts. They're like something out of 1960's cinema ads!

Nice one Romeo!

In my work on prototype aircraft design & builds, we would design the airframe first. Then build it. Then use that build as a test item, and test it to destruction. In this way, the assembly methods could be proved, the expense of using aircraft grade materials was not wasted, and valuable insight into how the structure failed at ultimate loads was gained. Bex's system looks interesting, and I wish him well. But it would save a lot of time, effort, & money if he were to design it on paper first, then build & test to destruction a fully representative structure. It will help his own & his future customers' confidence, provide hard evidence to back up tech specs, and go a long way to assist in certification. Apart from the cost element, it is much quicker to rub out lines (ok, hit 'delete' in CAD) & redraw, than to bin hard structure & rebuild.

Could there be a Freudian slip in there somewhere? Good luck David!

Castrol TTS. As recommended by Leon Massa who builds the MZ 202 engine I use. He rebuilds lots of engines from the helicopter boys, & says TTS produces the best protection & least carbon.

Thanks to all for your help. I am leaning toward the simplicity of simply wiring the 'ballast battery' into one of the CD units via a panel switch, & charging it via a diode from the main battery. This way, each CD unit has an independent power supply. I can check voltages on each battery via a panel mounted toggle switch.

2 stroke oil & measuring flask.

And I presume you include in this her incorrect plural form, and the rogue apotrophe . . .

As I said, white man's magic. But any opinions on my original question? The alternator is not wired into the ignition system - only the battery.

Because the alternator produces AC current and the ignition units need DC.

Thanks for your reply, Spacey. I don't understand it though! My CD's use DC power, so alternator is only charging the battery. I'm trying to wire 2 batteries to the ignition circuit such that if one goes down it doesn't take the other out. Charging of the batteries is a lesser issue.

My MZ202 engine uses dual CD ignition, with each CD unit firing a plug in each of the 2 cylinders. But these are DC CD's, not the Rotax AC type. This means they require a 12v battery to run, & the engine will die if the battery fails, shorts, or rattles a terminal loose. Because of this, I have fitted a large bright LED voltage meter on my panel. But to try to get away from a single point of failure, I'd like to fit a 'standby' or auxy battery as backup. As an aside, my W&B measurements tell me I need some 2 or 3kg of ballast in the nose, so I'd rather use a battery than carry deadweight. At the panel, the master switch supplies separate switches for CD1 & CD2. All 3 switches must be closed for operation. I would like to do one of the following: 1/. Feed power from auxy batt to one CD unit via one of the CD switches. Thus in event of one battery or wiring going down, I still have single ignition on both cylinders. 2/. Have auxy batt 'standing by', wired in via a voltage sensing electronic relay which would change over to aux batt in event of primary batt failure. (This would be for ignition only - too much hassle to wire the aux batt into starter system. So would need to be a few milliseconds in operation to keep engine running). 3/. To charge aux batt, either an off the shelf auto dual battery charger (as used in 4WDs & campervans to charge service + domestic batt), or just charge the aux batt in the hangar occasionally. Even a small battery will outlast fuel reserves. I would value the observations of those who understand such things. As a mechanical engineer, I struggle with the 'white man's magic' that is electronics. In particular, I am having trouble finding a voltage sensing changeover relay. I'm hoping these exist - I'm sure there must be other applications they'd be used in. Or am I just being paranoid? I never used to worry about such things, back in the day, cheerfully taking off with single ignition & no instruments whatsoever. Ah, ignorance is bliss. . . Bruce

If it isn't a mandatory fit, just keep it in your pocket and say nowt. . .

I've also seen very thin grease or thick oil spread over the area before flying. Airflow shows up as patterns on the surface after flight.

Loved the tale, AB. looking forward to hearing how you get on with everything. Once you have the sail off, it would be a good idea to photograph everything, & then take all the fasteners out. You'll prolly find quite a few are rusted. Good luck with the project.

Hi David Taildraggers are defo the way to go. And living where you do, your'e just down the road from Narromine - see you at OzKosh there in October? (assuming by then we forumites have evolved a means of mutual recognition). Lots of real aeroplanes there - maybe even mine!

Ian - is this something you could do to inspire in your band of acolytes a glow of mutual recognition?

Blimey ron, 22 million feet! That's seriously high - good on yer!

Welcome Jc. I hope one day soon you'll get the other 1/3 of a bartender so you can send him out to earn some money to pay for your flying

Last time I went I enjoyed the event very much. But I didn't meet anyone from this forum, although doubtless many were there. It's a shame we don't have some means of spotting/meeting fellow forum tragics. Any suggestions? (apart from rolling up one trouser leg or wearing rotating bow ties, etc. . .)

I'm hoping to fly my MiniMax there. Major cross country for me from Mudgee!

The article from the link was interesting, but didn't have much depth. OK, so plastic jerrycans (& presumably fuel tanks) build up a static charge. But how do you earth the aircraft's polythene fuel tank - or the plane - when the structure is wood & fabric? Is there any benefit in running a cable from the onboard plastic fuel tank to the engine earth? Without an earthing cable as found at avgas pumps, how do you earth the aircraft before refuelling from a (metal) jerrycan? Is it necessary? I don't seem to hear of any fires resulting from refuelling, yet this practice must be an almost daily occurrence across the country.

Looks a very pretty aeroplane Gary. Do you (or Aeroworks) have intentions to market it as a kit for homebuilding? Is it intended to routinely derig for transport/storage?