Kenlsa

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Wings our West

I am sure we have all wished we were on the ground instead of battling the elements from time to time. I know I have. My SP cabin is a bit on the cozy side and when the air gets sporty I have hit the left side of my head on the flap handle a few times leaving me wondering what would happen if I were knocked out. I fly solo, so I should think on it some more…….and I see that a few stol jockeys fly wearing a helmet. Here is one that should be fit for purpose. I would remove the “do I look cool in this?” visor and have a peak on it instead. When I get the Colt back in the air it will have a skylight, with all the exposed metal work that entails, so the helmet looks like a good idea. So long as I don’t look like a tosser that is. They come in a number of colours; I picked the green so you can see the detail. Ken

Linotype. When casting bullets I didn’t see any difference to lead, as it is mostly lead with tin and antimony added. Ken

I think this may be in order Ken

Ignition, I have to agree with most of what you say, but stick with it. Our club seems to be doing ok though. We have increased our membership year on year (320) and I think it’s coz we have a large fleet of Rec a/c (5) and gliders (7). We have about 60 private planes on the field as well. Rec training days are Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and at the moment we have 60 new pilots waiting for a training spot. Ages seem to range from 15 to 50 by my reckoning. Costs are “relatively “ low at $130/ hr. This is due to the oldies donating their flight training for free and the maintenance people service the planes for free as well. Only trouble with the low cost is the high churn rate. MOST just want to tick the “yeah, I used to fly” box before finding the next thing to tick off. Their membership lapses after solo. on a slightly sour note, of all the maintenance I have done over the last 5 years, I have only been thanked once…..by a mother of a gliding student…..and I don’t even look after gliders! I will end this post by way of a reverse example……A few of us oldies were having morning tea to take a rest due to the heat, 38deg. Jab flights had stopped due to the heat and a young gun came to join the group. Conversation progressed to post solo flights and club activities to keep pilots (him) keen and interested. He was disappointed that the club wasn’t doing enough. I asked him what he was going to do to fix it, was he involved on any of the committees and maybe take the lead, as we were a little puffed out. He started to abuse me until I pointed out the 83year old driving the slasher in front of us. 38 degrees remember, so he had a nice airfield to fly from. The guy was never seen again at the club though I heard from a mate of his he constantly bad mouthed the club afterwards. So I guess that it can come both ways. NOTE, Bruce…the 83 year old was Noel Smeddley, RIP. Ken

I do understand this, and I also live in the country. But that doesn’t let her off the hook for slow delivery. Ken

Bird Dog, I ordered a part from Aircraft Spruce (USA) last Thursday arvo and it was delivered to my house by courier on Tuesday at 1200. That’s 2.5 working days or 4.5 calendar days. DHL I think, all the way. Glad the Australia Post CEO got the chop. Ken

For those who watch the video, you will hear different figures to the ones I gave above. This was to ensure anybody trying to replicate our shoot would end up with a squib…..Trade secrets.. Ken

Sport Pilot, I can actually say that I (and my mates) were world record holders for a short time. in 2005 we were doing pyro for the Wide Bay Airshow held at Bundaberg. We were asked for something special to put the show on the international stage. Any that were there may remember one display of flares/candles following the Super Connie….looked great. But to the world record; Teed it up with Channel 7, Guinness Book of Records TV show, and did a Wall of Fire of 1127m, that consumed nearly 5k litres of our special fuel mix. It consisted of over 400 individual explosions. We got an ARDU scientist ( rockets and missiles were his specialty) involved as the rolling explosions may have gone supersonic, breaking surrounding house windows. Even though each explosion is super sonic in itself, the problem compounds if one builds on the other, a rolling thunder as such. Great display……but the record only lasted a few weeks as some yanks wanted the record and laid out 2.5ks of Det cord and Bang…a world record with very little effort. You can see it on YouTube, but I don’t know how to provide a link. I am good at blowing things up, not anything computer related. Happy viewing. BTW, the group spokesman on the vid died last week, so all the fun ends. Ken

As yours is 24 reg you will have to get the ok from RAAus as to E24 reg requirements : 912 ups has been approved for the jab but no other options at this stage. Don’t plan the hell out of it before you are sure of the paperwork Ken

Doesn’t need to be certified so I got mine from Sprint Auto Ken

Further update on our club Roko NG4 looks like it was the factory display model at Friedrichshafen expo so may have had an extra good paint job, maybe explaining the extra weight. It sure looks good. So the seats will be moved 75mm forward and 5kg of lead on the prop reduction drive housing. This will give us a useful load of 220kg. So that will be 2 x 85kg pax (all up with headsets, dressed, any water, iPad etc must be included in the number) and 70lt of fuel. Not ideal but workable for most of the club members. All up we lost 30kg oh useful load. Ken

All well and good and I am interested in an electric aircraft, but just parked in our local off street car park and saw a Tesla sedan plugged in and charging. Dad was out shopping while mum sat in the passenger seat looking board. I don’t know how long it had been there. I returned to my 4.5lt/100km for 580km to the tank, Picanto some 20 minutes later and asked her how it was going…….”A while to go yet” was the reply. Fantastic! EVs from our mainstream manufacturers would sell a few more if they looked like cars and not squashed cockroaches Ken

1994 from my not so good memory

Do astronauts have 5 stripes on the epaulettes of their white shirts? Ken

Ours is serial number 1. that could mean first built, first Oz import, first prototype or first to fail! About a year ago we suffered an unreported heavy landing in it. Damaged the nose leg mount and the floor area and tunnel immediately behind the fire wall. Fixed with replacement parts (no weight added). But was/is of interest is the number of experienced pilots who said the flare speed had to be perfect or you had trouble getting it on the ground. I have witnessed a couple of small PIOs in the early days. I have discussed this with your maintenance man and this MAY have occurred due to “being out the back” and became evident upon landing. Also a few high time pilots, with many GA hours, reported that it was not a comfortable plane to fly when the conditions got a little sporty…….I at first put it down to a low wing loading compared to what they used to fly, but they have been flying RAoz for years……maybe the balance did not make the flying any more comfortable.. Luckily it doesn’t have an all flying stab…..that would have made life interesting. Curiouser and Curiouser, if I may borrow from Alice. Ken

Flew ok but over the about 200 hrs that we have owned it we only have allowed experienced pilots to fly it. We have never allowed training in it. Lucky….. Our Jabs are for training. it sure was a good move that many eons ago the regulators built in margins with all the limits to protect us from ourselves. The holes had not lined up for any pilot and we will see where it all ends Ken

Further to the above. The Roko was weighed by CASA certified person. noted that the prop was changed to a lighter version, by 5kg. (that actually makes it worse!) There is no aircraft level indicated either in the hand book or the website, so had to ensure true tyre psi was to pilot notes. semi reclined seats did not have a moment point indicated for weighing. 1lt of unusable fuel in each tank. So, any not mentioned - stations, points or arms were taken as a standard in the industry. Bottom line —24kg over weight BUT there is more….. ALL loading puts the weight out the back! To fix it……We have to put in 25 (fark!) kg in the cowl so it can be flown and only as a single seater. RAoz have been informed. Our club is looking how to get some weight out of the rear and have identified a few kg that can be deleted. Hopefully we will be allowed to do it, as ours is a E24 reg. we think there are 4 in Oz, poor bastards. Ken

Switch on the GPS so the pilot can input the plan into the auto pilot to get to the destination. All the while informing the passenger how great it is to be a LSA pilot. V’s Planing the trip on the kitchen table, marking the map and filling out the flight plan sheet. Then actually flying the plane and navigating as you go, all the while talking your way thru the steps as you keep a good lookout; impressing your passenger with your skills. I know what system I prefer. Ken

I was once flying to another airfield exactly on the gps line, just below 3500 ft that was the upper limit of military air space. I didn’t have clearance above this step. A Piper Archer was descending thru controlled air space directly in front of me on the reciprocal gps track. I saw him for about 5 seconds and I climbed. I guess he was dropping to the next Lower level step behind me. I guess see and avoid worked, BUT, while assigned altitude works, climbing and descending has its issues. My co pilot (many thousands of hours, including military) reminded me to stay to the right of the Gps track to minimise the problem of another aircraft flying the reciprocal track. Head in the cockpit, slavishly following the magenta line can lead to tears. Ken

Good one Glen, Airfield cameras are great for us. Early in my flying, unless I could phone the strip so as to ascertain local conditions, I was hesitant to visit. With more and more cameras installed it will sure help safety. Ken

Lightweight pilots and a small amount of fuel no longer applies. You now have to get the empty weight to 413kg or less and that will put it on the LSA list. Looks like I can do it on my Piper and that will allow 2 pax and 2.5 hrs of fuel…….tho I am waiting for 760 (600 LSA is only if it all falls over) Ken

On my Colt I could cope with 45 if that is all that is on offer just by getting some VGs via the STC from Micro Ken

According to the web cast on Wednesday looks like 760 is reliant on part 103 that has an implementation date of 2 December this year. Mark K asked to get 760 in and worry about stall speed later. This doesn’t seem the way RAoz want it as they think should be done at the same time. RAoz has a working party on it now to take advantage of that date. Is that how you read it Mark? Ken