flyvulcan

I’m disappointed I couldn’t make it in the end. Does anyone have any pictures to post?

As for Cessnock airfield itself, I think it was a very good venue that has good potential. The airfield facilities were fine; there was plenty of space to park aircraft; there was plenty of space for those that wanted to camp with their aircraft; there is space for more exhibitors; there was plenty of space for car parking; and the local town, Cessnock had plenty of accommodation options as well as many food options. Lots of pubs! It is also only 2 hours drive out of Sydney so is a viable day trip for Sydneysiders. I’d be curious to hear the opinions of pilots who flew in from the West. It looks to be tiger country. Is there any access that offers viable forced landing options at all times when flying into Cessnock from West of the ranges? I will be attending Narromine with the intention to benchmark the two events and venues and provide my feedback to the respective managements. I will certainly be raising the issue of the lack of cooperation between RAAus and the SAAA to the SAAA board at the forum at Narromine to get their side of the story. If there are not what I perceive to be justifiable reasons for the lack of cooperation, I will call them out on it. If it is an ego thing, heads should roll.

Thursday was raining until early afternoon but the day ended up being quite pleasant. There would have been around 100 cars in the car park and very few people wandering around amongst the exhibits. Yesterday was a very nice day and visitor numbers were up a bit on Thursday but visitors numbers still seemed low to me. Today was a great day and numbers were certainly up on the last 2 days. I had to leave at around midday but there were probably a couple of hundred cars in the car park and definitely more visiting aircraft, albeit still quite low numbers to me. I counted 21 aircraft in the camping area so numbers of camp under the wing attendees was quite low. I attended a few of the forums including meet the RAAus team. There were 4 of us that attended that forum. In general, attendance at the forums was quite low but probably in line with general attendance numbers. To me, it seemed well organised so credit to the RAAus team for that. Unfortunately, the numbers were probably a little disappointing. That said, the exhibitors that I spoke to felt that it was a success and got good interaction with potential customers. It was a nice and pleasant venue. My suggestions for next year is to provide some tables at the eating outlets where visitors can sit down and meet others. I found at Oshkosh that the dining tables at the food outlets was a great forced way of meeting and interacting with others. Also, it’s a pain having to eat standing up or sitting on the grass. Some tables would have been nice. As a visitor, next year, I will take my own chair and sunshade to relax in/under. And yes, I would go back next year although I’d really like to see the RAAus and SAAA get together for their fly-in’s. It would create a larger event, halve the cost to run a fly-in for each organisation, and halve the cost for the exhibitors who would otherwise attend both fly-ins. At the meet the team forum, I asked Michael Linke about the relationship between the management of RAAus and the SAAA and he advised that the new management of the SAAA was difficult to deal with. As a member of both organisations, this is very disappointing to me as a know that the previous SAAA management were building some very good bridges with RAAus. At Narromine, I shall raise this issue at one of the forums with SAAA management to find out why two organisations with essentially the same objectives cannot have a synergy that helps both organisations and their members. Sorry, no photos.

Hi Sotaro, By necessity, I have been focussed intently on my Turbine engine program. That program is progressing well with our 200hp turboprop engine in the detailed design phase. The theoretical performance numbers are looking good and time will tell if they can be achieved in practise. We have a very talented and experienced team of designers involved in the project and if anyone can make these engines happen, it will be our team. I am hanging out to put one of the 200hp engines in the nose of a Lightning Bug!! For interest, Milton’s Australian Lightning Bug VH-EMK is currently flying its first 40 hours off with about 10 of these completed. The speed envelope has been expanded out to 185 knots straight and level. The prop on it is not close to being the optimum prop for the set up so thought is being put into the best solution to give optimum performance. My Jet Bug is on hold while I get my turbine engines going but there are folks from the US that are encouraging me to get it finished as there is a push to get a mini-jet class of racing at Reno!

It was a sad day for me yesterday as I took the wreck of Lightning Bug#1 to the tip. It had a forced landing during the Sun100 air race in Florida in the early '90s. It had been running faster (around 220 knots) than the Glasairs etc that were in the race when it had an engine failure. The pilot, Johny Murphy (whom I bought my kit plus the wreck from) deadsticked it into a paddock but hit a cow with the left wing and wrote the aircraft, plus the cow off but he got out ok. I have photographed everything that I could from the wreck and taken off all salvageable parts. It's been sitting against the ceiling in my garage for the last 8 years but has now gone to that big hangar in the sky. Here are the last few photos of it: And then, off to the tip it went.... On the good news front, the flight envelope of EMK has been expanded out to 185kias. The prop is clearly still not the right prop for the engine/airframe and options will be considered. Also, the nosewheel fairing has not yet been refitted so there's probably a bit more speed to come. I'll keep you posted.

There are two Arion Lightning’s available in SA on the market for $75k. They have a higher cruise than 110ktas and should meet the rest of your criteria.

For interest, the mass balance system has already been designed for the Lightning. This was a requirement for the German authorities and this modification is standard for Lightning kits shipped to Germany.

Anyway, on to Day 1 and 2 of Week 2 of the build. The aircraft is now back up the right way. A temporary engine mount has been fitted to allow it to sit on its gear and complete the gear leg fairings and wheel pants. Flight control systems are being fabricated and installed; control surfaces are being installed; the canopy and widows are being assembled/installed and a myriad of small jobs are being done. Photos as follows:

The Arion Lightning is not an Ultralight, it’s an experimental aircraft. It was released as a LSA to meet that market but the latest XS model has a significantly higher mtow and Vne than the LSA version.The Vne is currently set at 180 knots with no balancing of the controls and the aircraft has been dive tested accordingly in that configuration to over 220 knots. The designer has indicated that with mass balancing of the controls, the aircraft is both structurally and aerodynamically capable of a 200 knot Vne, and likely probably more. An aeroelastic analysis of the structure was part of the design process to evaluate the flutter scenario. We would like the extra 20 knots on the Vne so that we can cruise at 180 knots and give us margin for turbulence and stuff ups. For someone with my low IQ, a round 3 miles a minute in still air is almost within my faculties to work with... We are not doing this irresponsibly; we are working with the designer to ensure that safety levels are maintained at a high standard. It’s my backside that will be flying this aircraft and with well over 10,000 flight hours and many years as a Safety Manager for Flight Operations under my belt, I understand the considerations that go into this risk management matrix. If you have any specific concerns, please feel free to pm me. I always welcome constructive dialogue and if you have any concerns that are validated through investigation, I will be most grateful that you spoke up and potentially saved my backside. Dave

Ted, It’s a pity I missed meeting up with you there. Thanks for the hand on the first day. Having finished the first week, I can thoroughly recommend the builder assist program. To get it from kit to finished (firewall aft and without panel) in 2 weeks is a great attraction of this process. Well worth the cost I’m my opinion. Given that my aircraft will have some differences from the standard XS (i.e. mass balanced elevators, higher Vne etc), if we can get the Turbine engine developed as planned, our Lightning version will be released as the XST model. Word had gotten around that a Turbine version of the Lightning was under construction in Nicks hangar. Visitors were popping in and the phone was running hot with enquiries. We selected our paint scheme which was pretty exciting. It’ll be going into the paint shop the week after next. We also chatted with the interior fabricator about the interior and will be deciding that next week also. He was installing a really nice dark interior into a Lightning on Friday, but I quite like the light grey interior that has gone into Arions new demonstrator aircraft that is nearly finished. Standby for week 2 of the build. Dave

Day 5 and the first week of the build is finished. Today, we mounted the rudder pedals; fabricated the aileron and elevator pushrods; fabricated a number of brackets; assembled the wheels and assembled the nose gear fork. Photos as follows:

Day 4 of the build is now completed. Tasks undertaken included cutting leading edge for landing lights, preparing landing light inserts, installing inserts; fabrication and installation of horizontal stab inspection panels; final installation of NACA ducts in forward fuselage for air vents; final mounting of left wing flaps and aileron; glassing of wing/tailplane root fairings and installation of main gear legs into fuselage mounts. It is a full on day starting at 8am and winding up at 5pm. The pace is steady and the guidance and support of Arion owner, Nick Otterback is excellent. He is an absolute pleasure to work with and really knows how to put his aircraft together. Photos as follows:

Day 3 of the build. Flaps and ailerons were installed; aileron bellcrank inspection covers fabricated and installed; landing gear fittings attached; nose gear brackets primed:

And a few more photos

Anyway, moving on to Day 2 of the builder assist program, we installed the tailplane, mounted the hinges on the tailplane surfaces, completed the mounting of the chromolly frame that support the wing spar stubs, prepared 2 x NACA ducts, glassed the tailplane and wing root fairings, mounted the main wings including setting the angle of incidence, setting the correct sweep and ensured all was square. At the end of the day, we flipped the aircraft over in order to work on it upside down tomorrow. Photos as follows:

Thanks Skippy, I agree with your sentiments and comments. There is not always a level of impartiality when reporting performance and handling characteristic. I will make sure that when I report on my aircraft that the data has been verified in the appropriate form. Here are some photos from Arions Facebook page from Day 1 of our build. I missed Day 1 but will be raring to go at 8am tomorrow morning.

Skippy, the Lancair line started with the Lancair 200, then 235, 320, 360, ... Evolution, including adding more hp is not necessarily a bad thing. The Lightning is also evolving. It started with the Jab3300 and is now going through the O320, O340... evolution. Cruise speed has been demonstrably improved with the increased hp so for those who want a little more speed to get from a to b, that helps them. Perhaps some builders simply want better runway performance or better climb performance. This is where the hp really helps. In your quote above, what is your actual concern about the Lightning? Are you concerned that the manner in which the Lightning is evolving by adding larger engines is compromising safety in any way? Are you concerned that the Lightning structure may not be up to the task of handling the extra weight/cruise speeds etc.? Could you please elaborate? If you have no concerns about the Lightning, why submit posts with negative connotations in a thread about the Lightning? As you say, you know nothing about the Lightning. Perhaps your Product Warning is not warranted or appropriate in this thread. If it is, I’d be curious to know what claims by Arion Aircraft about their Lightning have been demonstrated as being false or not achievable since I’ve just bought one based on information provided to me by Arion (plus a number of local builders as well, one of whom is on his 8th I think it is).

Me too!

I’m now looking forward to meeting up with recflying member langted in the US in a couple of weeks. He will be joining me in Shelbyville at the Lightning builder assist shop to check out the build process for the Lightning. The main participant in the build of my Aircraft will be an Adelaide University Aerospace Engineering student. My company Turbine Aeronautics is sponsoring her to participate in the build in order to get some practical experience to complement her theoretical experience. Once the airframe is back in Adelaide, we also have additional students from Adelaide Uni and UniSA who will undertake work experience with us to design the firewall forward package for our turboprop engine installation and to finish the build of the aircraft. This is going to be a fascinating project for all concerned. Dave

Definitely one of the most beautiful aircraft ever! While I didn’t fly in one, a number of times I sat at the intersection holding point at Charles de Gaulle while the Concorde took off using the full length. The roar and crackle of the engines, the noise shaking my own aircraft and the view out of my cockpit window as the Concorde swept past and into the air are sensations I will not forget. RIP Concorde.

Kestrel K-350

Deleted post (bad answer!)

AIDC AT-3

The big brother and precursor to the Lightning Bug was the White Lightning, a 220 knot 4 seater. They were both designed by Nick Jones, an F1 racer pilot who died just last year. Nick certainly designed a couple of Aircraft that provided tremendous performance on small hp. The White Lightning shown below belonged to Will Mathews (now owned by his wife after he died a few years ago) and raced at Reno managing 277mph from memory. The aircraft is for sale if anyone wants a bargain high speed aircraft.