timshel

Hi all, I was recently at camden and it was HOT, I mean OAT was reading about 41 C. I have no idea how hot it got inside the plane sitting on the tarmac for a few hours but I got in to fly the plane home at 4pm burned my bum on the hot leather seats, and the Garmin 296 failed to load its database. All of my user way points were there, as was the topographical data, power lines etc. but airspace, licenced airports, wx, and any of my programed routes were inactive and missing. Even when we were well and truly cooled down and cruisng home, the unit failed to load the avaiation database. I was about to ring Garmin in the US late that night when I turned it on and presto it all fixed it self. I will be taking it out of the cockpit on hot days from now on. Also on the same day my EFIS Dynon d100 was reporting eroneous Altitude, for about 20 mins until it cooled and My lightspeed headsets ANR still don't work. They are fried. I will be getting a canopy cover to keep the heat out from now on. Some of you will probably say err...duh of course!!! I put it out there because it happened to me.

Hi there I also use a lightspeed zulu in my tecnam p92 super echo. The intercom/radio is a garmin coupled to a spa 200 itercom. What is your setup in the golf? By the way bluetooth and ipod hook up work brilliantly every time. I can hold a perfectly understandable conversation from 7500ft over mountains and all. Music is brilliant to on my iphone.

I am having persistent trouble with water in both tanks. I have purchased and religiously use MR Funnel as I suspected my supply, I tried topping the tanks as I suspected condensation (I live in southern vic) but eventually have identified the problem as the Fuel Cap on the wings. Being recessed and flush (a good thing) it can store water from rain or washing in the recess for several days or even a week later (a bad thing) and when the hinge cam is opened the water in the cavity can drain down the centre pin into the tank below. ( a very bad thing) I have personally witnessed this happening. It takes me several days and multiple fuel drains to get every last drop out. Any other experiences or fixes out there? Tim

This happened to me last week. I have a p92 echo super rego 5391 so quite new. LAME had a look and it Turned out it was the earth/sender wire on the top of the sender unit. The thumb screw was a bit loose and at higher revs it was breaking contact. :sad:and it is not a lockable nut. I expect therefore it will happen again.

Insured now with QBE for 150k ( i have alot of extras) costs a shy over 5 grand. I had less than 40 hours but now have 140. It will be interesting to see if premium goes down next year.

Hi Mazda. All things being equal will be in to camden on Wednesday 28th. Late arvo. So I am expecting CTAF not CTA. I will be comming in from Wagga. I am actually more concerned about wagga than camden due to the RPT there! I have never been to either so should be an experience! I have studied ersa and found it good. I have read sydney basin guide but found more detail in ERSA. Any other reading/tips/traps? Tim

Thanks for the info Guys, I will be planning a trip there in June. Can't wait.

Yep spoke to said organisation - service has been sensational. Very happy with the mods they have made on my plane. Seems sensible and safe and fully approved so I found out!! Nice that they have made a great idea also fully legal. Very happy with plane all round actually.

I read the entire posting. On your suggested website Check this out. http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2008/03/15/8879_gold-coast-news.html "Sen-Sgt Kelly said the cause of the crash was yet to be determined. "At the moment the investigation is at a very early stage," he said. "The coroner will determine the cause of the accident. He said a bird strike had not been ruled out. "There was nothing foreign found in the cockpit -- in fact, there was very little found in the cockpit," said Sen-Sgt Kelly. "From the wreckage it would appear to be a fast impact at high speed. Both wings are still attached to the plane." It seems that wings falling off is not the cause. Perhaps birdstrike, or some other canopy failure causing loss of control

Hi Sorry to hear about your near miss. I fly regularly with my kids and it would scare the beejeezus out of you, more for their sake, let alone yours. I have a business near camden and eventually I intend to fly my new tecnam from Bairnsdale here in Vic, to Camden, and I am intersted in your advice on Camden genarally and this contra cct business as I have only 40 hrs and no experience with contra cct's. ( I am also taking notes from my CFI's Rec and GA) but your perspective is very relevant to mine it would seem. Also I was kind of under the impression that GAAP aerodromes were out of bounds for Recreational flyers as they are controlled airspace (AIP ENR 1.2), and yet, here you are flying there legally, can you or someone clarify for a newbie/

I have just purchased a Tecnam p92 super echo (RA AUS rego) and whilst awaiting and "awaiting" and "awaiting" delivery was concerned that the assembler here in AUS was replacing the "standard" bolts for wing attachment and undercarriage with "aircraft grade" bolts. He mentioned that the tecnam supplied bolts were carrying the wing and other loads on the thread and not on the shaft and in his mind this was not as strong. I am not sure if this swithc has been approved. I suppose I should contact RA-AUS about this switch and see what the go is. ? Names withheld at this stage.

Pretty Sure QBE number is in back pages of RA-AUS magazine. Yep it is - (03) 8602 9900 Head office - www.qbe.com.au/australia/aviation I have a p92 Echo Super due in January. Will look with interest to this thread.

"I understand that the fatality at LV last week end did have a chute. David" You mean the por man in the AVID? I did not see anything about a chute being deployed or otherwise in the reports? Did you read/hear that in the news or did you know the plane? Any ideas as to why it was not deployed? Also does anyone know for sure if the young student in the cessna was solo? If so he/she must have a cool head to land after such a fright. Tim

"Avid" pilot died today (1/12/07) north of Latrobe valley, after mid-air collision with a cessna 172- both on final . I wonder if a chute had have been an option for this poor man would it have saved him..We will sadly have to await facts. I have ordered a factory fitted chute on my new tecnam and would only consider using it in the following circumstances Water ditching... Mid Air collision/ large structural failure.. Accidental entry into IMC (prolonged)..obviously bad airmanship but I would still be grateful. Engine out over inhospitable terrain.. And I will train my passengers to use it in case I am incapacitated.. Otherwise surely a controlled forced landing is preferrable. Some facts I remeber from the Galaxy chutes LSA (600kg) model. Maximum deployment speed 132kt Minimum deployment altitude 300ft but have examples on website as low as 90ft? Cost Approx $7000 AUD fitted. Weight 13kg. Service intervals 7 yrs. There is some freaky video on this very forum whereby the deployment of a chute - A) saved a life for sure b) probably killed someone. It can go either way. I am still keeping mine as the Tecnam has good useful payload.

Mike (aka pelorus32) posted this solution in another thread, give it a go. "Jeppesen Database There was a recent discussion along the lines of "Tyabb [or insert another name] is not in the Jepps database on my new AvMap [insert another GPS] and it should be" There's a partial solution. You will have to work out the settings for your GPS but on the Garmin GPSmap 296 this is how you find places like Tyabb, Tooradin and Wallan: Press the "Nrst/Find" button - this takes you to the airports page; Press the "Menu" button and select "Set Airport Criteria"; Set that dialog to: Runway Surface "Any"; Minimum Rwy Length "0 feet"; and Check "Include private airports" and "include heliports". Press "quit" You will find that miraculously they appear - as Heliports (Coldstream, Wallan, Tyabb, Bacchus Marsh, Tooradin, Torquay) Regards Mike"

I have alot of hills around here: Mt Hotham and Koziosko to name a few (each well over 2000m AMSL, I would love to learn more about mountain and rough terrain overflying - any good courses or books or websites or any other resources you can recommend?

I am a fan of a Ballistic chute and will have one installed in my new plane but check this out... Makes you realise everything has a downside. watch the third take off with two trikes side by side. Cheers Tim

All sounds good, will have to check out this Airnav. Can it upload to pocket PC, thus enabling in-cockpit diversions?

Yeah that sounds about right - my processor was fine in the local circuit and had ample "headroom" to "smell the roses" - but get me out of the comfort zone and my processor was all backed up with the extra tasks. I need more RAM? Doing the trip again tomorrow so we will see if my performance improves.

GPS Failure over east gippsland about three weeks ago. Garmin 196 was tracking 12 sattelites then six then 3 then 1 and they were all gone...... Lasted for about half an hour. Then came back online without a word of apology. Am told it happened to others but don't really know why. I am committed to inflight use of map and whiz wheel, I will purchase two GPS, and I have flight planning software on my PC and PDA. I believe in redundancy. The cockpit is no place for regrets.

I have used the Ultranav but it kept crashing, (works fine on my instructors PC!) command seems to have gone broke? So I bought champage 3000 and its really very good. Expensive but you get what you pay for. I love the NAIPS interface (downloads ARFOR winds automatically) and the decode weather jargon functions, as well as the accurate fuel planning features. Support is quick and personal. Just wish it would upload to my PDA - I use mobile windows and it only uploads to a palm.

My story... I did solo in 15.7 hrs (according to my logbook) but my instructor said it varies greatly between pilots but as a "generalisation" it is easier to teach kids than older people...I am 35 and probably sit somehwere in between. He teaches in a gazelle and after having now flown a jab 160c I can certainly say I find the gazelle MUCH easier to fly. (this probably means the Jab students make better pilots?) To illustrate the age point - He was recently on school camp (never had flying as an elective at my school!!) where they had sixty (60!) kids go solo from ab initio, in 1 week. There were, I think, 18 instructors and as many planes.Jabs, tecnams, and gazelles. They flew on average 8 hrs per day. It was reported in the Age newspaper. The record was a sixteen year old girl who went in 6.7hrs!! Apparantly she was the best student he had ever had and said she was certainly destined for the airlines. He said she appeared to be "fatigue proof." I wonder if there has ever been any studys done on age versus piloting skills. ? Not trying to make a point here - just wondering. I also wonder if there has been any correlation between "time to solo" vs. incidents and accident rates? Anyway back to my story, I went solo in 15.7 and went radio endorsed at that time as I passed the BAK. Got my certificate in 20.7, PAX endorsemet 5 hrs later, and am about halfway thru Nav endorsement. Have just over 30 hrs total avaiation experience. I started training Easter 2007 and got my PAX on 30.09.07. I kept the whole thing a secret from my wife and my kids and my first PAX other than my instructor was my wife. I told her I knew how to taxi - thats all. Should have seen the look on her face when I started making radio calls and rolled down the runway at 60 knots. She was freaked to say the least!! My "greenness" was well illustrated as we did a dual (my instructor hold a commercial PPL) 3.5 hrs navex into military airspace 2 times, flew VFR routes into two airports, mid air - diverted across mountains (again into miltary airspace) to a third strip before again having to organise a 4th clearence to fly via the sea back home. Honestly I can handle the little gazelle pretty well even in weather at home but as soon as things got unfamiliar- at times I was overwhelmed - made mistakes, got runways confused (why can't they paint numbers on gravel runways??), even once mixed up live and dead sides of the circut, misquoted my altitude once etc. I never do this in my home circuit. My instructor made me do all the piloting, navigating, (GPS was off) and radio work. Whenever I was unsure he would say "you're the pilot in command...." He let me make mistakes and he let me feel the pressure of a busy cockpit over unfamiliar territory. At least the weather was calmer than predicted. I am glad he did, as it brought me down to earth. (not literally) Sure I may have my certificate, but I am not yet an airmans bootlace. I am fully aware that is my lack of knowledge, not my lack of skill that is the greatest threat to my life in the air.

I doubt any poor soul in the last few moments of their life as they spin out of control towards a doubtful outcome ever said: "Gee I'm glad I opted not to have the parachute installed...think of the savings in cost and weight I've made" I am not being flippant, but that poor soul could be me one day. I'll obviously be installing one. With Respect - Tim Go to BRS website in the states they have the full video of that story including interviews with other BRS "survivors" http://brsparachutes.com/Movies/CNN_OFF_AIR.wmv

Hi paul, whathappened in the end - I was learning alot, but your result posting link was a dead link, whats the end of the story?

its not an Evektor...one of those skylarks by Dova - from Chezch republic. Nice performing plane accordingto my research.