BoxFat

It just beggars belief that these ladies could jump out of a spitfire into a Mitchell or a Walrus or a Mosquito and fly them across the country often in bad weather with map, compass and watch navigation and do it day after day after day. Now that is a consummate aviator and a very courageous one too.

Tks Hans - I am in the process of replacing my Xcom with a Funkwerk which I think is the same radio as the Filser. Have you got the tundra tires on your FB ?

Hi Ikreis (sounds like "I travel" in Dutch ?)' Re your dream of a property with B and B and airstrip one of your countrymen has done just that and has also built a genuine working Dutch windmill on the site. Talk to Pleun Hitzert (see www.thelily.com.au). One of my favourite places on Earth. Pleun is currently converting a DC-3 into another B and B suite and he flies an immaculate Jab 160. A visit there is what re-ignited my interest in flying and two years on I will soon fly my own Foxbat into the Lily strip. Met Vriendelijk Groeten BF

Will that beer be put through the Mr. Funnel ? I hope so, I wouldn't want to find harder to pee than I already do.

Update for those in WA: Just spoke with Caltex Sydney office: Their Vortex 98 sold in WA comes out of the same tank as BP Ultima 98, just with the Colonel's 13 herbs and spices (trace things) that Caltex add to differentiate them from BP. That is, no addition of toluene or other aromatics (content stays at 16 - 18%, Toluene, up to 42% total aromatics). Nevertheless asked them to confirm with their distribution point here and revert. I suspect, but don't know for sure, that it is the same situation in SA and most other places. All of these companies say, as a matter of course, "we do not recommend the use of our motor fuels in aeroplanes". To which I respond "Yes - but Rotax do not recommend the use of AVGAS in their engines, so aren't you guys lucky ?".

Yeah this fuel thing goes around and around. I've just had a discussion with a BP technical specialist and am awaiting a call back from the Caltex equivalent. (I do have an advantage that I can speak geek chemical language having had some training in the area). If you check with your Caltex SA info provided I suspect you may find that the high figures you were quoted for toluene content were actually for total aromatics (which is typically in that range in premium gasoline). Toluene content is likely to be the same or similar to what it is in BP fuels, i.e. between 12 and 16%. This distinction only matters if we want to have a uniform point of comparison between two different brands of fuel - your fuel lines may swell just as much if the total aromatics are at the high end of the range, regardless of how much of the total is toluene (the rest will be xylenes and cumenes which also make rubber swell though not as much as toluene I understand). Here in WA there is only one refinery (BP Kwinana) and one import terminal (Coogee). Caltex buy their fuel from BP and then add their magic ingredients to it. I will wait to hear for certain from Caltex but I doubt these ingredients include toluene - it's more likely they buy premium blend from BP and add minor things. So.. if one buys Caltex Vortex 98 or BP ultimate here in WA you may just be getting the same thing. There is a simple test to see if your fuel has an abnormally high amount of aromatics - the density will be too high. The spec is that it should not be more than 0.75 g/l (umm..and what do we use in our weight and balance calcs ??). I'm thinking that I might see what it would cost to buy a little densitomer and make it available for our club members to use. This would also help in monitoring the loss of volatiles in storage. If you have fuel with the right density, right colour and free from particles and water I think one can feel fairly confident about it. Goo from tank sealant etc if dissolved in the fuel would also show up as increased density. Happy Aviating BF

Strewth! 35 to 48 % Toluene in Caltex 98 ?? There is no way I want fuel that could be almost half toluene in my flipping tanks ! I use 95 not 98 normally but my tanks were filled with 98 during a recent service. Hmmm...

Hi Avocet, Toluene is a natural component of gasoline, typically being present at 5 - 7 % m/m. Perhaps Caltex add more though (I don't know), whether to increase the octane rating or for other reasons. It causes rubber to swell, this property apparently having been suggested as a quick semi-quantitative test for the toluene level in gasoline. Cheers, BF

Ahh good another Foxbat owner to compare notes with - just wish I could park mine outside my door as you can - that's fantastic.I might drive the 80 mins to where mine is this week in my pyjamas too just to make it feel closer. Welcome Hans. May I ask which radio is fitted in your FB ?

My wife tracks me at 5 min intervals wherever I am. She doesn't seem to need any app to do it. The signal gets stronger, for arcane reasons of physics. Whenever I walk in the door of a pub. More seriously, we use "Life360" but it sometimes doesn't update properly I find (and also has a bug which falsely places me in the pub :)

Older Xcoms may be good. Newer ones ?? My recently purchased Xcom had a fault as delivered - stopped transmitting anything except sidetone after engine start. RX was OK. Went back to the factory and came back "repaired"..with the same fault. At least one other user has reported a similar problem in this forum. An older Xcom of the same model, which I have on loan works fine in the aircraft so it is nothing to do with the installation.

All flying is risk management. In fact, I think that's a large part of the fun of it - assessing the risk, doing what you can to manage it, weighing up what you can't mitigate against the benefit. Exactly what you have done in fact. The Foxbat is part of the risk mitigation over Tiger country because of the STOL capability, great low speed manoeuvring and excellent downward visibility (cockpit safety structure is pretty good too). I certainly don't want to poke a stick in the Jab vs. anti Jab engine hornets nest but from my own experience...no way would I do what you are doing behind a jab engine. For now, happy to watch your vids of e.g. the Gordon and just nibble at the edges of the wild stuff if I ever get my FB down to Tassie.

Just watching some of those videos again. It occurs to me that you could use them for advertising Rotax engines as a large proportion of the flying recorded is over the most rugged and remote country imaginable. In short, "engine stops, you die !" kind of country.

It took 37 times ??

Great videos - I watched some before deciding to buy my (red) Foxbat. Some photos taken by a professional recently are at http://www.mdwpix.com/galleries/day-trip-too-the-superlight-aircraft-club-of-wa-north-of-bindoon. I am also a geologist (well, geochemist) by the way. Will be interested to hear your progress with Aeroprakt and approval of a specific external camera fitting - will get a GoPro or similar when that issue is resolved. Cheers, BF

Acetone dissolves more stuff than hydrocarbons so maybe not. But...acetone tends to contain acids and absorbs water so possibly some corrosion if the drum has been empty for while.

Ahhh this is gonna sound dumb...probably because it is. Does higher octane fuel translate into more power in the same engine ? I can see how it will allow a higher compression ratio without detonation occuring but if the compression ratio doesn't change...is it burning more efficiently or something ?

Any experience/thoughts on the battery life of the mini vs. full size iPad with OzRunways ? I have the big one and it only gives me about 3 hours without plugging into the 12V socket, which is a bit awkward when I have it in the knee-dock. I don't have a SIM card the the GPS is fine without it. However, when I need internet access for weather or whatever I just connect it to my iPhone Hotspot with Telstra coverage and that works fine. The iPhone also has OzRunways and acts as a back-up in case the iPad hangs. It did so one day in summer over here in WA when it got a bit hot and shut down..something to watch out for.

Thinking, thinking (it's a curse !). It should be pretty simple to set up a test for total aromatic content of gasoline using a diode UV or colorimetric method that each pilot concerned about this could have in their hangar. I published something 30 years ago about such an analytical method as applied to environmental samples (aromatics are the most toxic part of pollutant hydrocarbons in sediments and shellfish etc). It's not ATSM and would be semi-quantitative but good enough to track variability. Reckon that'd be useful to ppl ?

Tks Nev..I learn something new every day. So AVGAS is a narrow distillation cut to isolate just the isoctane fraction (no wonder it's expensive !) and hence it would only low aromatics and cause less issues for plastics/rubber. And they still need 1/2 g per litre lead to get it up to 100 I see from Google.

The comment by Biggles about potential loss of potency (anti-knock rating ?) during storage has started me thinking. There are undoubtedly a wide range of professions represented in this forum so what follows may be superseded by someone who is a refinery chemist or an automotive engineer or whatever. I am a petroleum geochemist by profession but have never worked at the downstream (ie. refinery) end of the business: 1. I understand the anti-knock capability expressed in the 98 vs. 95 octane rating is achieved by an enhanced content of aromatics. Toluene is one of those but a more correct description might be "BTEX" which stands for benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene and xylenes. I assume 98 is higher in all of these than 95. All are natural components of all hydrocarbon fuels (and of coal extracts, hence the angst about CSM and aquifer waters etc). All are also pretty good plastic solvents and paint strippers (benzene is the only seriously carcinogenic one by the way). The rest of the fuel is mostly paraffins - these are straight chain molecules which propagate free radicals a bit too fast in combustion and therefore tend to lead to detonation (knocking). Branched compounds and aromatics slow down radical propagation thereby preventing knocking 2. Aromatics are less volatile than paraffins. Hence, on storage, any loss of volatiles will occur faster for the paraffins so in theory the anti-knock capability should increase, not decrease 3. Paraffins are also much more susceptible to bacterial attack. This needs water and occurs quite quickly when it is present. So..if you have a little water in your fuel tank or jerry and the bugs start to eat it, again octane rating should increase rather than decrease. However..the oxidation by-products, primarily volatile organic acids, might not be good for the donk. The bodies of the bugs themselves also mean particulate content goes up. It would be interesting to deliberately leave some 95 fuel to evaporate by, say, 20% of it's volume and then have the octane rating re-measured. As for AVGAS 100 without tetra-ethyl lead to get it's rating up...must be chockers with aromatics and hence more of a problem than 98 for any rubber/plastic stuff I would have thought. Unless...the refinery IS adding pure toluene or xylenes to bump 98 up...hmmm.

I have a red A22LS too - fun innit ? Not so many red ones around - haven't seen another here in WA yet.

Ahh...found the other thread. Said missing Jab has turned up in a Canola paddock just south of York. See... http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/stolen-plane-may-have-been-taken-on-joy-ride-20130617-2oe2t.html

Can't find the other thread...but it's been found in a paddock near York http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/stolen-plane-may-have-been-taken-on-joy-ride-20130617-2oe2t.html

Dunno (what else was in there). Maybe the same Jab that appears in the mysterious video and apparently belongs to the Tassie Aero Club. My personal belief is that when they find the Jab they will also find Elvis. And Harold Holt.