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Bruce Tuncks

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Everything posted by Bruce Tuncks

  1. Bruce Tuncks
    Maybe we should all do more engine-out circuits like Jim Bair recommends. I don't think they are allowed where I fly from, but they should be mandatory.
  2. Bruce Tuncks
    You come down fast. Once, I tried a simulated engine out to a new airfield. I got there so high that I went to a standard circuit, only to find that on turning to base from downwind, I was out of range. So now I reckon that the best strategy is to get to the base leg and to "S" turn as you beat up and down until the height is right to turn onto finals. Always turning into wind of course.
  3. Bruce Tuncks
    I looked it up.... they only got 9 in total
  4. Bruce Tuncks
    Part of the reason for liking metric is that they only have one tonne. There is the US ton ( 907kg) and the olde english ton of 1016kg. All too hard for me, so I like the kilograms. And yes, baby powder would be much better on a tyre than wd40.
  5. Bruce Tuncks
    Apenname, I thought a liter of water was exactly a kilogram. Thus a kiloliter is exactly a tonne.
  6. Bruce Tuncks
    I've never had a forced landing in powered planes so I'm grateful for this discussion. As a weight-saving fanatic, I would like to know the total weight of the setups described though.. That is why I liked Nev's thing about plastic bags and Old K's ides about the cd disc mirror. Negligible weight with these items. Personally, I carry a plb because I thought it was compulsory.
  7. Bruce Tuncks
    Just about every post here has been correct. But nobody much has given the initial height!. In a glider, from 12,000 ft you have more than half an hour before thinking of landing. But in a Jabiru at 2000 ft you need to head for that into-wind landing spot right away.
  8. Bruce Tuncks
    I reckon there are some things which may well be correct on heavy planes but do not apply so exactly to the light stuff we fly. But the second pilot ( the one who tried the 270 degree turn from 300 ft in the Sonex) was a recently retired 747 check captain...
  9. Bruce Tuncks
    I watched a power failure ( take-off from 23 Gawler) where there was a total power loss at 300 ft and nothing ahead. The pilot rurned 90 degrees and made a good landing in a safe paddock. That stuff about "no more than 15 degrees turn" could have got him killed. In a glider, you can do a 180 CLIMBING turn slowing from 60 to 45 knots. A jabiru loses 200 ft at most doing a similar thing. Try it at a safe height. But I also saw a very heavy landing where a brand-new Sonex tried to do a 270 turn to land back on a runway from a similar position so the advice is not complete crap.
  10. Bruce Tuncks
    Did they get many bombers? The others in the formation should have noticed.
  11. Bruce Tuncks
    Thanks Old K. Yep, I liked the bit about how " the old fashioned" idea that more maintenance was better than less was now confined to the sector of aviation " where we all hang out ". But going through the maintenance jobs list for the Jabiru, I can honestly say that there are few things I have an issue with. For example, is the leakdown test unreasonable? I think not and further think that it is not very intrusive. Some items like taking the alternator off to check the flywheel screws are quite intrusive, but these have been forced on us for well-known reasons of field failures. Incidentally, my old engine has the small flywheel screws but there has never been a problem, I think it is because the prop has always been well attached, but this is just a guess. What I really like about Mike Busch is his emphasis on " reliability centered maintenance", which is not no maintenance but it is smart maintenance. The worst thing my engine has ever done was to lose a valve-seat... Why? Because I was dynamically balancing the prop, and the engine must have got overheated.. The engine was better left alone than what I did, that's an example of dumb maintenance.
  12. Bruce Tuncks
    Waddington was an amazing story. He was an academic who knew nothing about planes, but he was an expert at reading evidence. He probably doubled the U-boat kills, and was instrumental in turning the tide of the war. He had to fight the senior maintenance NCO's and I reckon he only won because Churchill was the big chief. Of course, here in Australia, we are well against Waddington. Does anybody know more of the story?
  13. Bruce Tuncks
    Well in 50 years of flying at Gawler, there have been no fatalities involved with flying. Not that our members are supermen, they all eventually die from medical reasons. One memorable guy died from a heart attack while holding an aviation medical clearance. But he didn't fly for a few weeks before dying because he felt unwell. That's why I reckon we can be safer than professional GA. We fly for fun in good weather when we feel like doing so, and all of these things go out the window if you are flying for a living. Sorry to be cynical about the official statistics, but if I were keeping them it would be to prove something and so you need to know the whole story. Like the CPI , which rhymes with " big fat lie" and it shows whatever the masters want it for.
  14. Bruce Tuncks
    How many lives have been saved by the medicals business? I reckon the answer would be NONE. But I did know a guy who had type 1 diabetes. He knew when he was too crook to fly. He knew days in advance, and never flew when he was crook. My guess is that the powers that be would fraudulently claim him as a success of their policy. Nothing could be further from the truth.
  15. Bruce Tuncks
    I got an email asking for any nominations, so it is all going again.... I have voted in the past according to advice got here and I reckon it was good advice.
  16. Bruce Tuncks
    Well I operate on a family farm AND I fly Jabirus. The most dangerous thing I do is get older at the rate of 1 year per year. But some bastard put my life on fast forward just when I wanted it slowed down. 76 !!! And yes, I don't ride a quad bike these days. They have been swapped for buggies on safety grounds mainly. A guy I knew from school died near Alice Springs on a quad bike.... if you roll one of these, you get crushed when the bike is on top of you.
  17. Bruce Tuncks
    You guys are both right!... There is some sort of a doctrine which says " you can't sign away your legal rights". ( ie " you can't cut us off from the gravy train"). Also, there has always been the fact that legal remedies were never open to workers... the legal system was put there for the rich. That's why we need fundamental change. Or we could just do our own thing and not get caught or come unstuck. I used to tell the story about the Mildura Pik 20 glider and how it crashed and the 3 owners tried to sue CASA or whoever preceded them. They argued that the glider should never have been granted a certificate of airworthiness. The glider was worth about $15,000 at the time and the owners got to pay a legal bill of $90,000 before giving up. The moral? Stay away from the law if you can.
  18. Bruce Tuncks
    Here's where jackc is right ... he wants to be able to do things at his own risk. I couldn't agree more. Even in the exercise class I go to, the poor instructor has to worry if one of the clients falls over etc. Why we can't sign a sheet to say that we want to do the class at our own risk is beyond me. Maybe such an agreement cuts out the lawyers and the judges are ex-lawyers? If so, then there is a dreadful deal going to impoverish everybody to enrich the legal types. Personally, I would still take passengers , in fact I always have, but I fly them over wheat-lands so they will not be injured in the case of an engine failure. Yes I know that worse scenarios can be imagined, for example the wings could fall off, but I choose to live according to reasonable probabilities, and even an engine-out is getting close to this limit. You have to assume that a hitherto sound engine will pass a DI that morning and then fail suddenly. The alternative is to live in fear of millions to one events.
  19. Bruce Tuncks
    My understanding was that the property below 300 ft belonged to the landowner. ( I thought it was 500 ft, but the 3 hundred feet is probably right in Australia. The biggest trees grow this high, and you don't need permission from CASA to plant a tree on your own farm. ) Anyway, while you are clearly correct turbs about the resulting events from killing or injuring a passenger, that was not in my thinking at all. If you can operate without such events, and you will only endanger yourself ( if then ) , then I stand by my assertion that this operation is fine by me. Thanks for the idea of actually learning from real lawyers, that sure would be better than a classroom. Personally, I found that going to traffic court was a great learning experience. I found that 90% of speeding-fine people were going to a funeral at the time, and were so distraught that they forgot to monitor their speed. This had exactly zero effect on the beak, who clearly had heard it too many times.
  20. Bruce Tuncks
    I like your ideas jackc, but alas turbs is more mainstream than we are. The common judge would likely have a secret fear of flying etc. I wonder about the legality ( or otherwise) of operating below 500 ft on a freehold farm. It is my understanding that the AUF started off like this because they could not be stopped. And, as you say, who cares what happens after you have died? Now if you strayed, for example above 500 feet, I for one would never tell.
  21. Bruce Tuncks
    You can't blame communism for what Putin is doing. They are fascist capitalists. Last time there was "elections" in Russia, the communists stood against Putin's lot and were beaten by the oligarchs who own the media over there. And maybe here too.....
  22. Bruce Tuncks
    I am aware that the USA has terrible inequality too and it is getting worse there. They were strongest I reckon in the 1950's when they were more equal.
  23. Bruce Tuncks
    I reckon the worst poison a society can have is inequality. The Russians have this more than we do and the difference between the oligarchs and the average is obscene. This has not yet dawned on the voting public anywhere and we are becoming more unequal by the day. Why should an Australian risk his life to defend Gina Rinehart's billions? I was deeply shocked to see a Russian village, only about 20 miles from St Petersburg, and it had no electricity or piped water or paved road out. Why they are so easily propogandized is a great mystery to me. I would like our political discourse to focus on just how many times richer the top person can be compared to the bottom.
  24. Bruce Tuncks
    Thanks onetrack. I stopped going to pickles car auctions when I found that they had high but undisclosed reserves. They would then transport the cars interstate and try again. Some people who thought they had bought a car were told to increase their offer or go without.
  25. Bruce Tuncks
    Will those trainers be bargains? I thought that Grob had gone out of the aircraft business, but maybe it just went out of building gliders.... please let me know.
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