Smokey

For those that missed either, episodes 1 & 2 are available on tenplay. Alaska Aircrash Investigations Mark

Hey Nick, You might try Performance Metals in Windsor (NW Sydney). Performance Metals Mark

Looking at the website under camping they talk about Tent Town camping ie pre-erected tents for around $300 for the 3 nights, the only other option mentioned is under wing camping, what if you drive up with your own tent, anyone know ? Mark

It falls on the Wicked Witch of the East.

Hi Kev, I think BRS used to have photos of installations on their web site, which no longer appear to be there. I know there were some in the brochure I picked up some time back. Why not try emailing them (and any other manufacturers). Mark

Hi Spin Couldn't agree more, unfortunately I don't have any inside info either but would love to find out what really happened behind those doors, both in the US and in Cz. Here are a couple of articles published at the time, I think I saw a couple others which said essentially the same thing. http://www.eaa.org/news/2011/2011-01-12_piper.asp http://www.aviationadvertiser.com.au/news/2011/01/piper-dumps-czech-lsa-builder/

There's always 2 sides to a story. Apparently the ACFT manufacturers went into the deal thinking they would be able to push Piper into buying them out for megabucks. Piper pulled the pin when their attitude came to the surface. So now you're left with the bloodsuckers and have lost the quality assurance oversight. I for one would be a little wary of a company whose principles had already displayed their motivation in this way. Then, if another company does come along and buys them out, there will be some lack of loyalty to pre-existing customers. That's not being nasty, that's just human nature. As with everything else, consider all the angles.

Hi Brett I the builders manual for the Supapup. I imagine the systems will be the same other than the duplication for the 2nd seat. What part are you actually interested in ? If the Supapup drawings will help, PM me your email address and I'll scan them for you. Mark

I wonder if bookings for Sky Palace - Jupiter are open yet.

Hi Ralph A while back I was hunting up how to build an AOA indicator, not sure I'd actually build one, curiosity as much as anything. Couldn't find anything on the net at the time. Came up with a few ideas of my own, vane with optical sensors, 2 ports above and below the LE with some sort of electronic pressure sensor(s) to give the differential etc. Do you have any specifics or references on how to build/calibrate ? Ta Mark

Looking at the rain returns from Appin and TH over the last few weeks, the Appin radar certainly does not look like it's a doppler. Is it possible your friend heard that a new doppler radar was going in and assumed it was at Appin whereas in fact it was the one at TH ? (It hasn't been in that long.) I hadn't heard that Appin was getting a doppler but then there's no particular reason why I would. Mark

If you are talking about Top Gear Australia, I believe they usually use Camden, YSCN. Have they got some new shows or are they still repeating the repeats ? Mark

I've been looking throught the Foxbat builders manual, and they are all metric. So back to OME's original question, does anyone know a source for aircraft standard metric bolts, screws & fittings ? I for one would be very interested to know a source other than the aircraft's agent to at least compare pricing. If someone out there sells this stuff and is concerned about breaching forum advertising guidelines please feel free to PM me. Mark

Hi Dave If you're interested in this sort of thing and as a pilot I'd strongly recommend the Pilot Information Nights run by Airservices. The Sydney one is on the 1st Tuesday of the month at Mascot, bit of a hike from Bathurst but these guys are great, they explain what they do and why. They talk about violations of controlled airspace, how and why traffic is directed as it is and how that affects other traffic eg GA flights wanting to do a Sydney Scenic and why sometimes permission can be granted and other times not. They take you into the ATC simulator and explain what you're looking at before going into the 'operations room' (not the tower) where you can talk to the duty controllers. Puts a whole new perspective on things. They're open to pilots and students, RAA and GA. Mark Airservices Australia - Projects & Services - Industry Forums - Pilot information nights

Hi Friarpuk My understanding is that silicon is not petroleum compatible and should be avoided in any fuel or oil system. When I was replacing fuel lines a couple of years ago I stumbled across a reference to this effect. Just did a quick google but couldn't find it. Personally, I had a mechanic many years ago fix my beetle with silicon and I was pulling lumps of silicon out of the carb for months afterwards until I found what the peanut had done. Mark

Sorry guys, but to me cow-towing to the media is akin to getting the world to change its views just because a fruitloop with a piddly bomb has a 1 in 10 million chance of getting you. Our position shouldn't be to hide but to promote our sport in a positive way and don't give up until they 'get it right'. storchy indicated that Carol is already on board, lets utilise the skills we have available to us through the RAA and promote this as a good objective, 'How to build a safe aircraft in 4 days'. If the media screw it up yet again, then we have another go. We already have a head start in Temora, the town is behind the airfield and the local press is already on side. I really can't think of a better opportunity to put together a project that can be publicised outside the RAA community and educate the public to what we’re really about. Mark

Below is a link to a FAA brochure on sunglasses which pretty well covers most of the issues. Personally I prefer brown lenses for their tendency to enhance contrast and I frequently find that I'm wearing them comfortably long after others ditched their 'neutral' glasses in failing light. Some people don't like the colour but I think that's something you get used to fairly quickly, I certainly do when switching colours in shooting glasses. The more extreme red 'clay pigeon' glasses Pylon mentioned or the yellow target shooting glasses, will take longer to acclimatise, not that I’m suggesting you wear them flying. Specifically, I've been wearing Serengeti Aviators since well before I started flying, gone back to cheapies (brown, green and grey) on quite a few occasions both by choice & circumstance but gone back to the good ones every time. Moral of the story, if you find some cheapies you like, don't try the good ones, it's hard to go back. On the subject of polarisation, there may be a few who are not aware that Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) work by polarising crystals under the influence of a voltage, by polarising 2 layers at 90 degrees you block any light from the backlight and by aligning them you allow (almost) all the light to pass. (If there's no powered backlight you're working off reflected ambient light.) Throw a pair of polarised sunglasses with random polarisation alignment into the mix and you could get full transmission to total blackout. Hence the recommendation against them with any LCD instruments. With the imminent introduction of polarised TV's (for 3D), I would expect those manufacturers that aren't already using screens with polarised displays to take advantage of the cheapening technology to produce better daylight screens. www.faa.gov/pilots/safety/pilotsafetybrochures/media/sunglasses.pdf Mark BTW Arthur, those red glasses will show up dust beautifully, if it’s red dust from a ‘blown’ clay pigeon.

Looked like a Cub to me .... built by Picasso :big_grin: Mark

Hi Andy I've had occassion to talk to VDO several times over the years, always most helpfull. I'd have a chat with them, you'll probably find they've got a choice to suit. http://www.au.vdo.com/generator/www/au/en/vdo/main/home/home_en.html Mark

Hi Burbles, by the sound of it you're already familiar with the rules restricting the Recreational A22 to 450kg. If you're particularly after an LSA to fly I'd contact the distributers (www.foxbat.com.au) and ask them if there's one in the Sydney basin. But if you're just after STOL training I'm not sure that an LSA would be that different to an recreational Foxbat. We have a Foxbat at The Oaks which is possibly the one you're already aware of, if you're flying out of Camden you could pop over and visit. Next Saturday is not a 'training' day due to Christmas so I'm not sure if there'll be anyone out there but there will be people out there on Sunday. If you wanted to have a fly you can contact our booking officer on 0425 251 939 Mark Sydney Recreational Flying Club

Hi Pud Whitworths carry Plexus for $24.99. Bias lists it at $19.95 but despite the description, the picture that comes up is not a can of Plexus but somthing called VuPlex, but that could just be a problem with their website. While the major yacht chandlers both carry a lot of fittings which, by their nature, are not cheap, on like for like products they often very competative price wise. For instance both Whitworths & Bias are both carrying MT410G PLB's at $549 at the moment. Not trying to promote anyones business here, just trying to break a myth. Mark

Hi Thomo You're quite right, Greg Davies is specifically referring to the situation where you are taxying in a tail wind although he does not explicitly state that. He was not working to a script and ad-libbed the whole thing. David Venish, the videographer, has done a couple of these with Greg and each time we learn things like clarifications of points which at the time were self evident. During the rest of the video you will notice he is emphasising keeping the into wind wing down. Mark

Very stronly implied that the Air France loss was attibutable to the same problem QF72(?) suffered from, just held off stating it as a fact, maybe they're scared that Airbus is too big to buy off in a libel case. My understanding is that we don't actually know what happened to the Air France. Nor do they mention that half the QANTAS fleet already has upgraded software to handle the problem and the rest will be in the next couple of weeks. There was also a comment about procedures being changed to handle the problem in the original software, but this was naturally glossed over. Plane Crazy Down Under will probably have something to say about it in their next podcast. Could make interesting listening. Mark

Hi Jack, The proposed tower site is on the airfield side of the bush fire bridade station. It's not tall enough to affect Camden inbound, not even the ones that fly though our circuit below circuit height , but it will certainly be tall enough to be in the way of someone doing an emergency return to field. Mark

Hi Mike I think there was a change of terminology, so please don't start quoting the terms I've used as I may get them mixed up, it was discussed in the Natfly forums so perhaps someone can help me here. Put simply, to fly into CTA you need an approved/recognised aircraft engine. Rotax (including 2 stroke) and Jabiru are designed as aircraft engines and are recognised as such. Auto conversions are not. I took particular note of the 2 stroke bit :), when CTA endorsements come into play I just need the endorsement to fly my plane into CTA (and perhaps a transponder with certified altimeter depending where I'm going). Mark