Markdun

Forgot to mention..... aide memoir for outlanding: DLOSSS. Direction into wind first, then length, then obstructions (fences powerlines gullies), then slope, stock and sun. But remember if you have that catastrophic money to noise converter stop at altitude you will cover more ground to get to that good paddock going downwind.

Don, in NZ (Paraparaumu) gliding a guy bunged off at about 100’ because he took off with his brakes out (he misinterpreted the tugs rudder waggle as a wave off). We lost sight of him behind the tower... he was over some market gardens (not good landing). He did do the 180 degree turn, but wholly shit, despite being low, and landing on the first bit of airport, he was fast with the downwind component. He rocketed through all of us ; caravan & gaggle of gliders) at the downwind end of the grass, crossed the GA bitumen runway and only just pulled up before some hangers. You have to be pretty desperate to land downwind off field.

Don, it all depends on what you mean by ‘best’. If you are punching into a headwind and ‘best’ is travelling the most distance into the wind across the ground for a given loss in altitude you need to go faster than best L/D, & going with the wind you’d want to go at minimum sink rate which is usually a bit slower than best L/D. With climb there’s a few other factors. For example you know my Cygnet with the 1835VW would climb best (fpm up) at a bit under 65kts, but it’s best L/D was 57kts. My guess is this is because the engine developed a bit more power and the prop a bit more efficient at the faster speed. With all the extra horses off the Jab2200 i haven’t really looked as climb is always more than necessary and why cook the engine going slow?& And what about the beauty of side slips and air brakes; you stop it or put them away and presto, the plane is in takeoff configuration.... unlike full 40 degree flaps. Not sure what went wrong when I inserted the video clip of the Cygnet landing. Mark

IMG_0879.mov IMG_0879.mov IMG_0879.mov Here is a similar technique. On my strip the trees are a lot closer, and in any breeze you need to punch through the tree turbulence (I use 1.5 x stall speed + 0.5 wind speed for my approach), and then you get wind sheer with little breeze below the trees. In light winds like in this clip where I took the son’s GF for a circuit, I had a bit too much speed despite the slide slip dropping down over the power lines and trees and landing down hill. No fancy smanchy airbrakes. 10m wing span in a plane with about 420kg TOW. IMG_0879.mov IMG_0879.mov

Yep, but it’s not just ‘error’; its also chance... that willy willy or an engine hick-up, could deliver the same damaging result. I know I was thinking in the Blanik those many years ago... i hope there’s no gust because if there is we are going to land heavy. And it was my instructor who got the full wroth of the CFI. On the opposite of the equation the discussion in the article also clarified why if your approach and flair is too fast why you float, float, float and have to go around, particularly if your wings are long.

I saw on YouTube a clip about practising flying slow at altitude to build skills for short landings where you land with significant power with high angle of attack... hanging off the prop so to speak. It reminded me of a training flight I did in a Blanik as recent solo pilot where the instructor had me land without using the ‘brakes’ but adjusting glider path descent by slowing down below best L/D and minimum sink speed, with a sort of reverse flair a bit above the ground to avoid a hard landing. Our landing was OK, and it was a good learning experience except for the bit involving the CFI yelling at me afterwards. I think the article below explains the situation pretty well and why one should be very cautious, no, scared, of flying on the bad side of the lift-drag polar. https://www.aviationsafetymagazine.com/features/behind-the-curve-2/

I use Leukosilk tape 50mm wide which you can buy from a chemist. Its simple and it lasts about 10-15 years, is white and can be spray painted with acrylic or Stits Polytone which not only makes it conform to your livery but also protects it from UV. I use it to seal the wing root/wing fairing gaps on the Corby and the rudder and elevator gaps in the Cygnet. On some hinge joints you need quite a complicated tape arrangement and this would be the case for the Frieze ailerons on the Cygnet and all the Corby control hinges. The glider people are full bottle on those.

Nev, in anything less than 5 Celsius I pull carb heat for start too....yeh, yeh the exhaust is not hot right at a cold start, but it heats up bloody quick. Mark

Interesting. A couple of comments. First, what you describe is not a choke, but the starting enrichening system of the Bing CV carb (semantics I know, but it can have a consequence if you think it is a choke) . Second, the large hole in the enrichening metering disc does not need to be exactly lined up with the hole in carb body; it only needs to be open to that port which is pretty wide...as it needs to be so as the metering disc is rotated and the largest hole is covered up the next size hole (less rich) is uncovered. Third, at 2000rpm the enrichening system would be mostly bypassed as it needs the throttle butterfly to be closed to work. That is why one needs the throttle fully closed for the Bing enrichening system to work... it provides both fuel and air for a rich fast idle. A mistake people can make is to think that cracking the throttle open a bit (like a traditional choke) will help start a cold Jab...it won’t. Unlike a choke it will make little difference if any at all once the throttle is opened. It needs a big difference in MP vs inlet air pressure (vacuum if you like). Try pulling the enrichener at cruise throttle settings and watch your EGTs.... you may be surprised that they increase or stay the same... mine increase a tad. So don’t expect it to provide more fuel at higher than fast idle rpm. I have heard of ppl drilling the largest hole in the metering disc a bit larger... maybe your mod is easier, but I’ve never had a problem starting my two Jab2200s when cold: turn fuel on, turn mags on, close throttle fully, pull enrichening knob while pressing starter... engine starts once fuel fills the carb bowl in maybe around 12 compressions (if fuel in bowl, then usually in 3-6 compressions). Lithium battery, so no problem cranking. Once engine fires up I let the enrichening knob go (it returns to off from the spring on the Bing) and adjust the throttle for fast idle.

SE2 broadcasts position, altitude, speed and course (ie. velocity), plus your call sign (for Ra-aus it Romeo XXXX, the Xes being the last four numerals of your rego). Its low output (20W i think) & is not picked up by Musk’s satellites. The 200W ADSB devices are picked up by satellite and they now cover the globe. So Airservices ground stations are becoming irrelevant technically (maybe not economically) at least for the full power versions. That said, my airstrip is around 30nm from YCBR and they cant see me with the ADSB. They can see me from about 3500’ with SSR transponder. The app ‘flightradar’ seems to picks up my SE2 up a bit higher ~ 4500’asl, but of-course that all depends on some guy with a receiver on the ground plugging the data into the internet. The main reason I got the SE2 was to help avoid frequent low (500-100’’agl )military rotor wing aircraft overlying my airstrip and a situation one day where I had to dodge one on downwind when landing & they dont listen to the area frequency. According to the guy I talked to in the airforce they use ,see & avoid’, & they declined my offer to land at my place for a coffee so we could discuss how to better avoid each other. I found out they generally do have ADSB turned on, but frequently with data missing, like call sign. However the SE2 has been quite useful,,eg. finding a friend flying his plane and also being able to avoid a rescue helicopter coming directly my way...i could see them and they could see me (changing direction and altitude to avoid them) but as my aircraft didn’t have an SSR transponder, ATC was none the wiser. Actually ADSB should reduce the need for ATC and controlled airspace because it puts the info directly to the pilots. It really is amazing how many other aircraft within 10-15nm you see with ADSB, that you wouldn’t know or see without it. People are probably aware that many drones have SSR transponders in ModeS, but increasingly they will be full ADSB. Im told the ADSB devices for drones are already down to the size of s small matchbox, only s few grams and can emit 200W ... much more expensive than SE2 though.

My wife tells me that once my head hits the pillow I take 5 breaths and I’m fast asleep until sunup. She takes ages to go to sleep worrying about the state of the world, children starving and abused, people mistreating animals and all the other women (the sisterhood) around the globe awake & concerned, or tending their awake hungry babies. I think all the crap I think about is so unimportant it’s not worth worrying about and lose sleep over.

Do you mean the potato jammed up the exhaust pipe prank? Don’t think it works all that easy at 8000rpm. I’ve only ever had an aero 2 stroke Diesel engine running backwards..... can’t recall whether I stopped it with a rag in the prop or my fingers in the prop....in the days of youth and control line model planes.

The other way Spacey is for engine lubricating oil to leak into the air inlet via a failed turbo bearing and the diesel engine will also do an uncontrolled runaway unless you are quick enough to put in fifth gear, drop the clutch while standing on the brakes. Best advice is to stop, get everyone out, stand back a good distance and watch and listen to the self destruct.

Glen, agree. Potential higher currents (& reduced voltage drops) just more likely to show up wiring faults. But wouldn’t an isolation relay just do two things: (a) enable the pilot to isolate the battery after the blue smoke emerges (a good thing to be able to do); and (b) prevent a runaway burn out, short when the plane is shut down, ie. no live wires going through the firewall or elsewhere for rodents to chew through etc (also good). I don’t get how they would stop, say, a VR or stator windings in the alternator catching alight because a lithium battery has a lower resistance than a lead acid battery and may allow charging currents to exceed the capacity of the wiring, connectors or the VR and stator, or indeed a wire glowing red hot because it has shorted out going through the firewall.... with no fuse or circuit breaker protection at the battery? The lithium batteries we use are intended to be drop in replacements for lead-acid batteries in cars and motorbikes and have a BMS that is meant to handle the differences. How many fires do they have in cars and bikes? In my view, if someone wants to drop a lithium battery in their plane they should, in order of priority, do the following: (a) eliminate wiring faults and review capability of the wiring to handle higher currents; (b) ensure adequate protection with fuses and/or circuit breakers at the battery terminal and in the charging circuit as an absolute minimum (applies equally to lead-acid batteries); (c) install a current limiting device in the charging circuit (either integrated in the VR or the various DC-DC lithium charging controllers now available for 4wds); and (d) install a cockpit controlled battery isolation device. People with electronic ignition or EFI may want something a bit different too.

Bruce, that’s all fine, but do you have unfused wires from the battery going through your firewall; is there a fuse in one of the wires (AC) from the alternator to the VR, or in the wire from your VR to your switch to turn charging off? It’s not whether it works when everything is working but what happens when there is a failure. I’m cautious because I’ve had an inflight ‘blue smoke’ cockpit in a Jab powered plane I was delivering caused by the standard VR outputting to much current caused by a failing lead acid anchor battery, the VR allowing the bus voltage to exceed 15.5V, and the fool in the pilot seat (me) toggling the charge switch every 5 minutes to keep the bus voltage between 11.5 and 14V. Glenn raised the issue with my setup in that the lithium batteries’ BMS will isolate or disconnect the battery if voltage drops below 11 volts, in which case my 12V bus would be powered by the VR with no battery and this could fry my avionics. Worth thinking about.

My guess that instead of blaming the battery, the more likely culprit is the absence of adequate circuit protection in many Jabiru powered aircraft, including factory made. How many have unfused wire cables from the battery going through the firewall to the circuit breakers and master switch on the panel? No battery fuse! How many have no fuse or circuit breaker in the AC circuit from the alternator to the voltage regulator? And how many installations have yet to ditch the plastic Voltage regulator connector which has a pretty consistent burn/melt rate caused by corrosion and poorly fitted connections, not to mention that some lithium batteries and their BMS just weren’t designed to cope with the standard voltage regulator output. I’ve got lithium batteries in my Jabiru powered aeroplanes..... saves heaps of weight, cranks engines over really fast; don’t lose charge when not used regularly; and the battery is not wrecked if flattened. But i do have a 20A fuse in the alternator AC circuit; I do have a 150A (starter motor) and a 50A (12v bus) fuse on the battery terminal, and I have a voltage regulator that regulates voltage and current and doesn’t need a huge capacitor or lead acid anchor battery to temper the avionics killing voltage spikes produced by standard voltage regulator.

Me too. Because that is exactly what i did when i first used the ADSB....I called Canberra Approach (& it’s not like they are busy with only a handful of flights all day) and asked whether they could see me on ADSB at 5000’asl. And yes the SE2 is low power but I’m all 25nm from YCBR, maybe further from wherever they have their base station. But that’s irrelevant, I was told they don’t look. Area controllers seem to use every bit info they can get,including Ozrunways GSM phone positions, for example, when chasing people up for Sartime log offs (that is not from my own experience).

OK. I’m fine with ADSB. I have a declaration though. My brother, now semi-retired, was Australia’s (& one of the world’s) top engineer on ADSB. He has been awarded the Hargrave Award from the Royal Aero Society for his work. He has recently been working with the SpaceX guys getting global coverage by sticking ADSB base stations on their satellites. Some years ago Airservices proposed that ADSB transponders be fitted to all aircraft, including RAA, for free, fully funded by the fuel savings of RPT aircraft. This was vigorously opposed by RAA and others because of fears of the govmt tracking your movements etc. I too, like the SE2, but I don’t find it reliable .,, the WIFI bit. As I said before I originally got it to better avoid conflict with military Helios.,,& it does that. What I found surprising is that ATC (Canberra approach) don’t monitor it (I’ve called them on the VHF). On one occasion at 4500’ over Lake Bathurst I heard a GA aircraft request clearance into Canberra reporting their position as 4500’ over Lake Bathurst. I couldn’tsee them. I immediately contacted ATC and of-course they couldn’t see me on either primary or ssr (as I didn’t have a transponder). They asked what I wanted, and i told them safe seperation from the other aircraft. They then directed the other aircraft to a higher altitude. This is all in Class G. Since then I’ve often heard them give clearance to aircraft at Lake Bathurst for 4500’ to Canberra, but the CTR at that altitude doesnt begin for another 10nm. And this is why I’ve installed a mode C transponder. On another occasion flying in to Caboulture through Oakey airspace with an aircraft with a mode C we werehurrying to depart Oakey as they were broadcasting they were re-activating the restricted airspace (unplanned) and we inadvertently went into Brisbane CTR (due to an error in the electronic map). ATC contacted us and we were able to rectify the problem without the shit hitting the fan. Another reason for the old ssr. Another reason i went for the little ADSB SkyEcho is that I sail a yacht with an AIS transponder (marine equivalent of ADSB). That has been fantastic. Previously if on a possible collision with a ship you would call them up, ‘motor vessel at approx lat. long. on my port bow, this is sailing vessel Tom Terrific’. And you would get zero reply. Now AIS shows you their name, so you can call them, ‘Motor vessel Yashin Maru near NewcastleHarbour this is sailing vessel Tom Terrific 1nm off your port bow. Do you see me? What are your intentions to avoid collision? I will attemptto pass you port to port.’ And you always get a reply. And if you dont, you can always send an alarm message via DSC VHF radio which will make an annoying alarm ring in their bridge. Very nifty. The AIS data gives you their speed over ground, course, bearing and rate of turn....so it’s easy to compute how close you will get.

I’m told by experts that the GPS position and the ADSB out are working if the little leds are not red. The WIFI connection for ADSB ‘in’ is another matter. The point, i think, of the SkyEcho is more to make you reliably conspicuous to the heavies than to provide you with reliable info, afterall you are in Class G or E if you have just the SkyEcho and responsibility to avoid conflict is based on the unreliable mark I eyeball and neurons and uncertified brain software. Still its nice with the SE to notice the odd aeroplane in the sky nearby.

Like Kiwi, I have two Raa planes; one has a mode C ssr transponder, the other the ADSB on/out SkyEcho which goes from one aircraft to another. So I voted yes and no. I got the SkyEcho mainly to maintain better separation from military helicopters which often overly my airstrip at less than a 1000’agl, which is disconcerting when landing and taking off. A few things with the SkyEcho. Its low power, so the ADSB satellites don’t pick you up, & ATC (at least at Canberra) don’t see you. If your wives want to track you via Flightradar, then its hit or miss depending on whether some local amateur radio operator picks you up and plugs that data into the web. The LEDs seem to fail. And the WiFi connection with my ipad (& using Ozrunways) unpredictably drops out about 3 or 4 times every flight. I’d be keen to put a mode C xpdr in my Corby, but there is no panel realestate available. The EFIS (MGL XTREME) on the panel can work as a xpdr control head via RS232 but only for a $5000 specific brand remote one. Yet a remote mode C can be picked up for a couple of hundred dollars. Problem is they use different RS232 proprietary protocols and no-one publishes them. If only the regulator required them to.

Nev, I’m well aware of that. But ownership and registration (or safety) are totally different things. I once contemplated buying an ex RAN Vampire jet for a few thousand dollars, complete with spare engine cans etc. Probably some dry rot in the wood. However, the RAN had lost the aircraft log books.... nothing on total hours etc. it would have required disassembling and reassembling the wings etc to even get close to being approved for registration. ‘Static display’ only.

A couple of legal issues raised. First, false advertising is not fraud. Secondly all photos are old, it’s just how old. But that aside there is nothing legally wrong with using an old photo. Most advertising is what is called in Iaw as an ‘invitation to treat’ and not an ‘offer to sell’. For example a pawn shop had a pistol in its window with a £10 price tag attached. The owner was charged with the offence of offering a hand gun for sale. He was acquitted as the court found the display of the gun with the price tag attached was not offering the gun for sale, but an invitation to people to come into the shop to offer to bargain or to make an offer to buy the gun. In Australia, thanks to Gough Whitlam’s reforming government, it is unlawful to engage in false and misleading conduct in trade and commerce. This is reflected in both federal trade practices and consumer law as well as State and Territory fair trading legislation. But these statutes dont cover all transactions. They dont apply to government sales (like railways, buses, etc); they dont apply to selling by people not engaged in ‘trade and commerce’, like buying a secondhand car or aircraft from some guy on eBay or gumtree; and they dont apply to goods or services not normally bought by household consumers, say like an old aircraft carrier or Darwin’s port. The other thing that Gough Whitlam’s trade practices law codified was the the law of equity on ‘unconscionable conduct’ which I think in Australia includes the legal doctrine of ‘equitable estoppel’. What this means is that if a seller make a false representation (or fails to declare a known defect) about something they are selling, and knows you are relying on that representation, and fails to disabuse you of it (say by saying that buyers should make their own inspections etc), they can be liable. But this is quite hard for you to prove in court. I have only tried this once in court and it wasn’t looked at by the judge because I won on an easier to prove ground. in general the courts are pretty soft on false advertising as in their view a person of average intelligence expects ‘huff and puff’ in advertising, and therefore a lie in advertising is unlikely to mislead people. Hence, telcos for years got away with clearly false advertising of ‘capped’ mobile phone plans when in fact they were the exact opposite of what was advertised ie. instead of payments being capped to a certain maximum amount each month the ‘capped amount’ was actually the minimum monthly payment.

Ummm. The worst I’ve been in was on tow in a Schleicher K6 behind a supercub in NZ. At about 1500agl the tow disappeared from view below my nose, as I went to bung off I was then flung downwards, and my hands were ripped off the controls (I didn’t get a chance to release the tow) and flung upwards with the negative G (along with several years of dust and crap) just as the tug reappeared, rising rapidly from downunder to go upover, and which I quickly followed. Oh, the joys of rotor. But when i bunged off a very short time later I was in ultra smooth wave giving about a 1kt vertical climb. since then I’m inclined to believe turbulence isn’t severe unless you get dust and grit in your eyes, and perhaps you see that pencil you lost s year ago go sailing upwards and around the cockpit. I remain nervous of iPads and phones being dangerous projectiles off left on seats or laps unrestrained!

Octave, I know this is not your piece, but it’s this sort of incorrect logic that really gets my goat....particularly as it purports to be supporting the argument to get vaccinated, when actually it doesn’t, it undermines it. My father used to ask us kids whether white horses ate more than brown horses in Australia. We of course dutifully always said, horses all eat the same....their colour doesn’t matter’. And he would always respond with the fact that, in Australia, brown horses eat substantially more than white horses, because there are substantially more brown horses in the country. If we have only 5% of the population vaccinated, then even if the vaccine is totally useless, the overwhelming majority of hospitalisations will be of the unvaccinated. And vice-a-versa, if over 90% of the population are vaccinated and the vaccine is 90% effective, vaccinated people are going to be showing up substantially more in hospital admissions. And it then follows, using the same flawed argument above, that those opposing vaccination will use the same wrong and seriously flawed argument to counter the benefits of vaccination. People should learn the stats on horse eating. Or consider the fact that lawn bowls is the most dangerous sport in the country....the percentage of people dying while playing lawn bowls (or recovering in the clubhouse afterwards) is far more than any other sport. I say let’s ban lawn bowls or require participants to prove their fitness to play! I know, why not allow old guys who agree to never play lawn bowls or golf have more freedoms, for example being exempt from CASA or RA-Aus rules? two other points. First, people DO equate vaccines that are almost 100% effective, like smallpox, diphtheria, polio, with Covid. Even my sister, a very experienced triple certificate nurse does so. And the circumstances of the UK with their ‘freedom day’ which was followed by lots of partying by mostly young vaccinated people (with reduced transmission, but transmission still), resulted in a further wave of Covid with increased hospitalisations and deaths (hello NSW). Second, I raised the onus of proof as a serious question. The analogy with a drivers licence is wrong. If you fail to show your licence to a police officer, the onus is still on the police to prove in a court of law you didn’t have a licence (if you are charged with that), or that you failed to hand over your licence when asked. I’m not against reverse onus of proof per se, but there needs to be a substantial case to justify it. Indeed, I have proposed it in legislation I’ve been involved in drafting. Why not have to prove you haven’t been charged or convicted of spiking someone’s drink to enter a club? What about when you first register a vehicle....they usually ask for ‘proof of ownership’, but (and putting aside that being an owner and registered operator or not the same), they accept a receipt or statutory declaration from yourself, ie. I declare I own the car. And I’m not sure where the ‘duty of care’ comes into it. Does this mean a dodgy nightclub is liable when a patron is injured from laced illegal drugs sold inside the club? I for one have absolutely no trust in any government database system from personal experience. I was once advised in relation to my top secret security clearance that ‘I failed to disclose my criminal conviction’. I advised them that there was a good reason for that...I didn’t have one. But evidently the AFP reckoned I did. I demanded the reference to the court proceedings that recorded the conviction.....answer, ‘sorry someone made a mistake’. A person I know was declined a job offer on a police record check because CrimTrac unlawfully and outrageously disclosed to the company a juvenile offence (juvenile offences are meant to be sealed). I have more examples. Sorry about the 3 posts....not sure what went wrong. I’ll blame it on the NBN satellite, or too many tin foil hats in this place. Another great morning for a short flight around the local area today....strong 40 to 50kt northerlies above 5000’, but nice and warm at 12C, and an interesting very rough approach until below the trees and over the airstrip. Southern Tablelands NSW.

Jack, so it seems I’m not the only person with a perfectly good smartphone that’s more than 5 years old! I’d like to know why the reverse onus of proof, ie. why isn’t it up to someone enforcing the regulations to prove you are not vaccinated? If it’s good enough for murder, rape etc that the onus is on prosecution, why not for breaching health regs? Isn’t this one of those freedoms, innocent till proven guilty?