nickduncs84

Approaching 150 hours, if I'm being honest, I would say that it took me until about 1oo hours to stop forgetting things. Getting distracted and completing checklists in my head seemed to be the root cause looking back on it, so now I say all the checklist items out loud and start again if I get distracted. Seems to be working OK, but I'm fairly certain that when I start down the path of a new endorsement, I'll probably have a few episodes again. Things I've stuffed up include: 1) Forgetting to advance the throttle while priming the engine with the fuel pump on the fuel injected lycoming. Flat battery resulted. 2) Forgetting to turn the fuel pump off after takeoff. 3) Forgetting to turn off the carb heat on short final...multiple times! 4) Perhaps the biggest lesson, just prior to pass overhead a class D airport for a left downwind, ATC advised to join right downwind right. I didn't expect it and it and it really threw me. By the time I made the turn I was almost over the field and proceeded to totally forget the rest of my downwind checks. Landed with the fuel pump off. If I had my time again, I would have just asked for the left downwind given how close I was to the field. Anyway, fairly comfortable with what I'm flying now, but all of these experiences tought me to respect what I'm flying. Just because you can land it doesn't mean you can fly it safely. It takes a good number of hours to get comfortable with the ins and outs of each new plane I rekon. As for forgetting to turn off the master, luckily the vacuum system makes enough noise to prevent that!

Hey mate. No in the end it all got a bit hard. My flight wasn't till 3 but the rental car had to be back by 11 and they wanted to charge me a whole day to take it back 2 hours late. I told my wife that I would take her next time and check out the whitsundays so we'll probably be back in September with a bit more spare time and organisation!

I'm right handed. Started in a Jab then went to a cub which are both right hand stick. When I bought into the mooney syndicate I thought it was going to be really tough to fly with the other hand but surprisingly it wasn't the case. I'm not sure if it's because I'm not as bad as I thought I was with my left hand or because the mooney is quite heavy and stable and doesn't need as much finesse as the cub and jab. Probably a bit of both. I still would hate to fly a cub with my left hand

Bugger I fly out at 3. I would have loved to come and see your build!

Thanks mate. Not doing anything tomorrow morning so may take a drive out there

Hey mate. I'm in Mackay but have a car

Long shot I know but I'm in town for work and have tomorrow morning off. If anyone in or around Mackay wants a copilot for their Sunday morning flight, let me know! I'll return the favour next time you're in Adelaide!

I'm always reluctant to post second hand comments, but I spoke to someone who is a very experienced pilot and has flown almost everything from old war birds to jumbo jets and his comment after one flight in a lightning was that he wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. Take that comment for what it's worth, but for me it was enough.

Hi Peter. I did mine at Adelaide Biplanes too. Where are you building / basing your onex?

Actually come to think of it, I actually sent off the rpl paperwork prior to the mooney training using just my Ra Aus rpl. Did that knowing it would take a while to process. Then did the training while waiting for the paperwork. Once I got the rpl in the mail I was ready to have the endorsements signed off on.

Well yes and no. I had to get time on a Mooney as I had just bought a share. So I did about 6 hours total to get comfortable in the plane and get all the required endorsements signed off on. I was told that in theory I didn't need to do a flight review but for me it didn't really make a difference I guess. Ultimately its going to come down to your flight school. If you did your rpc at a place that does Ga as well I'm guessing it will be easy. If you have to approach a Ga school I'm guessing it won't be as straightforward as someone will need to sign you off and therefore presumably they will need to fly with you...

Wasn't my experience. Send in paperwork and go to the doctor. Pretty simple. More complex if you have to change planes to do a flight test, but most Ga planes are easier to fly than Ra. Lander a cessna will be a piece of cake if you can land a Jabiru! I also did the csu / retract endorsement in about 3 hours and the cta / ctz enforcement in another 3, but you don't need them.

It's a forum. You know a place to discuss things. Obviously he would have to speak to a cfi and the guy that owns the plane before he actually flies the thing.

That doesn't make much sense. Are you saying any time you have a question about anything you should hire a lawyer?

yes. but you need a class 2 medical as well.....i think...

I normally have a blanket rule to not get into arguments with religious people. Not because I don't enjoy it but because you literally can't win. It doesn't matter how much sense or evidence you introduce, you can't compete with comments like 'the lord works in mysterious ways'. But.... I almost spat out my coffee when I read that last part. You suggest people investigate these issues for themselves?? You do realise that the vast majority of religious people inherit their beliefs from someone else. This is literally the biggest issue and threat the world faces. And it's not just a few 'bad religions'. If you are willing to ignore science and the progression of society because of what was written in a book thousands of years ago, you are part of the problem.

Great looking shed! I'm starting to think 100k may not be realistic for a 18 x 36. One of the guys that works on the property used to be a concreter, so the original plan was to get the concrete supplied and get him to take care of it. But reading these posts, I'm starting to question that....

Hi Bex. Interesting. I'll send you a message......

Well the total project I'm trying to keep under about 100 to 120k. That includes concrete floor. It's actually a 3 purpose hangar so to speak. The whole structure will be 18 x 36 but only the end third ie 18 x 12 will be a hangar. Another 18 x 12 section won't need a floor. So concrete will be 18 x 24. Sounds like the horizontal bifold doors are expensive and can create issues, so it's probably going to be easiest to do sliding doors with the bottom rail as others have suggested.

I hear what you're saying re shed companies. I haven't decided the best way to go yet. Option one is Olympic industries shed and then organise the door myself. Option two is a local company that custom make the whole thing. They also do all the engineering and work directly with council. They seem to know what they are doing, but a fair bit more expensive. We're talking about a 18 x 36 x 4.2 shed and trying to keep the whole thing under 100k, so it's looking like Olympic Industries might be the only option.

You're probably right Nev. This is at our property which sports enough room for a 750ft strip at a 10% gradient, so it's really only ever going to be suitable for a certain type of plane. Even having to accommodate STOL wings, it looks like the vast majority of designs are under 12m. So maybe 4 3m sliding doors would do the trick and be a lot cheaper.

Thanks Gary. I'm starting to think that bifolds or stackers might be the way to go. I don't need the whole 18m to open up. 15m is probably enough. I've seen quite a few good looking options but again not that many in Aus. Although I'm guessing there are plenty of companies that can engineer something like this without too much trouble.

Does anyone know of a supplier for these kind of doors? Or a local supplier that does something similar? I'm trying to avoid the T style roller doors but can't seem to find many options. The span of the hangar will be 18m. http://www.bifold.com/note.php

I'm with TAL and I'm covered. No idea if I pay a loading or not. I'm guessing I do. I only disclosed GA at this point as I'm not flying Ra Aus at the moment. I noticed that in the interview there were a few things I said I didn't do which I'm guessing would have complicated things. They included ultralights, experimental and landing at a non conforming strip. Seeing as I plan on doing the last two in the next year or so I'll have to cross that bridge when I get to it, but for now flying a certified Ga plane I'm covered

easy to say when you're flying your jabiru a couple of hundred miles on a sunday afternoon. Probably a little different when you work for a company that has to constantly balance between safety, money and performance and that also has a stack of 100 resumes on file should you not tow the line. I'm sure there is plenty of weather that a weekend PPL wouldn't fly through in a cessna 182 that a regional freight jockey would have no choice other than to suck it up and give it a shot. point is, it's awfully easy to sit here and preach about PIC duties, but out there in the big bad world, things are probably a little more complex than they are for most of us....