metalman

I've just been looking at another forum and there's the usual talk of GA dying due to cost ,so I had a look at the stats on wages very briefly to see the difference between today and 1969( why that year, I happened to see some old receipts from RVAC ), 2014 average wage approx $1100 gross approx rental of a 172/pa28 $200-220ph 1969 average wage approx $75 gross ,approx rental of a 172/pa28 $29ph To rent an aircraft in 69 would be 38% of a weekly wage whereas it comes in at 20% of today's wage! now the 1969 figure is from memory ( I looked through an old logbook a few years ago and found a receipt in the back so I may have the figures wrong) but even if it's off by a lot it still works out cheaper as a stand alone figure to the past costs. So, is flying dearer? Is all the other parts of our life dearer leaving less for flying pursuits? Or is there other factors? One thing that I believe is killing aviation is the mundaneness of it in the eyes of the general public, when you can jump on a plane as if a bus and flit up to Sydney or Brisbane for $100 ( or less!!!) flying has become a lot less exciting in the public perception, is that a reason, it's just not as exciting as it once was? Something I've watched at my field is one of the guys there is always giving rides to people,,,always ! If you stand still long enough he'll offer to take you for a lap of the valley, is that's what's missing, this guy has 23000 hours as an ATPL and yet his enthusiasm is amazing, do we need to become more willing to take people up( legal ramifications are also a concern) ? Opinions???

Who honestly thinks Victor 1 is a safe route,?I've done it once ,but it is anything but "safe" a mile off shore at 500"!. This debate goes on and on,,,,,there is nothing stopping anyone from getting a CTA endorsement,,,get a PPL and a class2 med and go for your life,,,,if you can't get either of those then choose to fly where where you safely can,,,some may not like it but that's the rules as it stands. I don't know about the US system whether you can go into a CTA without a medical or not ,it is a lot more relaxed there although I hadn't flown in CTA while there

The only thing worse than walking out to an aircraft knowing its your last flight ,,, is walking out to the aircraft and not knowing it's your last flight. I've got a few mates who've hung up the headset and they all knew it was time, no one told them , they just knew it was time to give it away

Yeh I'll make an appearance I reckon

Really? Gay cabin crew,,,,,who would've thought!

What about a skyfox or a lightwing Tomo , bit faster, pretty comfy, and there's a few good deals around

My missus has just recently started to come away to flying stuff with me, I love centre line seating ,the decathalons and the Tigermoth are so cool as a pilot ,but it's just not social enough for flying with someone else, Matty

Take off and landing are obviously okay, plenty of airfields have approaches over roads, I'd really like to know who gives the thumbs up to this Avius rubbish?

I wonder how far above the minimum we have to be before we don't need a low level,,,2-3-400. This a Avius is a real tosser ,be interesting to know who he is ,,,,,so I never mistakenly get any training from it!

A safest aeroplane is a tied down aeroplane! Well played CASA ,,,we saw it coming and still couldn't halt it

I'd have to agree, I've been around nasty chemicals for most of my working life,,,,,no probs !

Here's a Toyota bag being deployed,

These ones appear to stay inflated ,although they may deflate at a slower rate than vehicle front impact bags

The steering wheel and pax side work like that, the side curtain bags inflate like a thin air mattress , I've fired dozens of them! Front impact bags are inflated by an explosive charge, side curtains are inflated by a compressed gas, they stay inflated to protect the occupants incase of a roll over

Most modern vehicles have a pretensioner system along side the airbags, it pulls you into the seat at the same time the bags go off, how this would be incorporated into an aircraft would be a huge undertaking, the whole thing would have to be designed around the SRS ,it's not really something that could be added easily. The other option could be a system similar to the side curtain airbags ( they're a different type to the front impact bags) but as with anything there's a down side, trying to fight your way out of a cockpit with inflated airbags would be difficult.

Yep, I'm hoping to tie down at hecks while visit family, I'll track him down, thanks

Dafydd would you have contact details for the guy doing the RV mod, I'd be interested to have a look at it

Information is good,,,,,deliver needs some work! My momma always said " you catch more flys with honey than vinegar" :-)

I go on a supercub forum in the states occasionally, one of the problems with the cubs in a stack is they have a single diagonal tube from the froward wing attach to the opposite rear attach, when the wing hits the rear wing rear collapses into the cockpit and does bad stuff to the occupants ,the easy fix is to weld another diagonal the opposite way . It's a pretty popular mod to the old airframes and I think a lot of the new build and copies do it from the start. They would have to be one of the most copied aircraft ever ,and going by the extreme places they fly them I guess pretty good in a crash, there's an alaskan saying that " your not a real bush pilot till you've put a cub into the tree tops" ,,,,,not sure I'd like to join that club though.

The latest version of the doctor killer seems to sell well, and popping the chute over the blue mountains was pure marketing genius( yeh I know I'm just being a smart as*e), personally I prefer the rag n tube types, they're strong ,fairly light, easy to repair and seem to handle a stack pretty well, vans 24000 ( with ,I think one of the highest completion ratios of any kit plane) smiling customers can't be wrong,,,,,,every aircraft is a compromise, from speed to comfort, and safety! I will be looking at the fuselage on mine when I get to that stage ,I'm thinking some 4130 tube running from the bulkhead where the belts attach through to the panel ,I'll have to nut it out when I'm building that part but it has certainly been following the thread

Wow, great read,,,,love the last paragraph ,as I was reading a definite pattern was emerging!

Fly tornado will be there,,,,gotta new suit pick out ,bit of a stash trim,,,,looking good

Just had a look at the iOS 8 for my phone and iPad ,,5.7Gig ,,,sh*t that's a third of the capacity of the phone! which it doesn't have available ,,,,not sure why they're being so mean to us ! (