metalman

Yep to the steep approaches , and the side slip, my jigger has very few options to get down in a hurry so a side slip is top of the list in the bags of tricks, sadly it doesn't seem to be taught a lot in the schools today, I was taught to glide in with RAA but the GA schools seem to prefer long flat finals Matty

A mate showed me some lines strung across a valley near his place at Maindample,,,,sitting in a ute ,parked, I could barely see them , in a plane ,no hope, I try to be the highest thing in the valleys but it's not always possible if your landing somewhere,,,,again I always ask the locals about this kinda stuff. There's a nasty high and long pwr line across eildon , I've been told about it ,and it has claimed lives ,but never seen it. A mate who flies AG reckons if you can to go under them, less chance of getting hung up, of course you have to see them first,,,,any thoughts? Matty

Give Craig at Lilydale flying school a call re the MTOW , I believe he has his eurofox sorted out, I'm not positive but had heard something to that effect, Matty

I guess I cross the range a lot more than I think, flying out of Coldstream I'm regularly tracking through the gaps in the mountains , there's a few rules I follow to stay safe , the main one is if it's low cloud and windy I don't ever bother , other wise I never cross a ridge at 90deg , never fly in the lee of a ridge, always leave a back door option, and always take the long way if it's safer ground,,,,,till I moved to Melbourne I hadn't flown around the mountains and valleys much , local knowledge is paramount I've found, Matty

Crossed it a few times,,,the last time was the hardest, had a 40 + headwind was only getting 38-40 across the ground ,it was a very slow trip from maitland to Bathurst , I wouldn't go that way again Matty

Yeh, agree, VDO is sometimes called tacho time, the other method that is very rarely used by flying schools is air switch time, it doesn't read till you reach a certain airspeed, I've rented a Tigermoth that was on air switch ,and it was reading slow too :-) Matty

Savage cub with extended gear and 26inch bush tyres, it lives at Lethbridge,,,,,and I'll be heading over to have a bit of a lap in it soon, beautifully built and can land on a postage stamp,,,,almost Matty

No one gets out alive! Life is 100% fatal! I've even heard the frightening statistic that 10 out 10 Australians will suffer death at some point in their life,,,,truly shocking figures! My Dad visited me from the USA a few years back, he was astounded at how regulated we are in this country ,even down to static speed cameras, reckons they'd last ten minutes in Michigan . Everything here is regulated to protect the dumbest moron in the crowd, thing is they keep producing "new ,improved fools" , Matty

I'm am neither trying to get people to lie or being a bully,,,,just saying that just because things aren't all rosey isn't a reason to miss out on what was a good event , (Edited by moderator)

I didn't take a lot of pics but here's a couple

How far is too far,,,my costs for the weekend would've been about $400 ,from Coldstream in Melbourne including food and a bottle of jamesons,,,,,if I'd stayed at home the I would've spent that much in bunnings ,and would've been sitting here with a sore back instead of a buzz from a good weekend flying I get what your saying but there will always be reasons NOT to do things,,,,,, Matty

Can't argue with any of that,,,but everytime time someone says ,"RAA is stuffed I'm not going " it spreads like a cancer, sure there's problems but not one single problem you mentioned stopped me or the hundreds of others who went from actually going, and having a great weekend,,,,but focusing on the problems ( or the past) stopped plenty,,,and if pilots boycott the events they will cease to exist,,,I'm not very vocal on the political side of RAA issues , but to sit at home because of that part of it isn't healthy doesn't make sense to me ,especially while there's a serviceable aircraft sitting in a hangar just begging to be flown somewhere. Discuss the problems all you like ,,,,but be aware that in doing that those discussions will become part of the reason Natfly may fail to exist , or we can all acknowledge there's a problem but still go flying . One of the major differences to the flying scene in the last ten years that has had an effect on this event more than any other ??? This forum( I'm not picking on Ian Baker either) , there have and will always be political problems, but this forum has been responsible for bringing it all out into the light, now that's NOT all bad, it had to be done ,and hopefully we will still be able to have an RAA in the future, but the flip side is that it has been bad for morale, and that will kill this event quicker that a shoddy board member . Maybe a very honest poll on why pilots didn't go, because everything else aside WE ,US ,ALL OF US, make these events worth going to ,,,,and if we don't bother going then we all loose out,,,,, Matty

Yep, things are a bit slow around the place, and the cost of flying new aircraft has gone up up up,,,$100 k doesn't really buy much today, once you add avionics and tick a few boxes on the order sheet, that's for factory built , there's still plenty of bargains in the used department and building your own is a really cheap option. The only budget aircraft on offer there was the quicksilver, a single seater kit is in the mid $20 k inc engine !! Not particularly fast but as we're all discovering "fast is not cheap" there's a lot of planes around that cost less than an average tinny ,the guzzles/skyfoxes, light wings, older jabs are all in the sub 5o grand , not that fast ,and a few limitations, but they a easy to live with and with a bit of tenacity can be flown long distances, cheap flying is still available but not if you have " champagne tastes on a lemonade budget " There's some guys planning a trip to westfly next September , from the east coast, I'm keen in my 80knot aircraft ,it'll be a long and probably tough trip, but it'll be worth it to be flying ,with mates, swapping stories, a cold beer at the end of a long day,,,,,,and ,did I mention flying! Our type of flying ,especially in sub 100kn aircraft is the closest we can get to the pioneers of aviation,,,and I like that,,,, Matty

Plenty of planes as far as I saw , the best way to make sure the event disappears is to bag it every year, even being lower numbers than previous it was still the biggest fly in we have in this country, and if WE support it , it will grow into something really huge, BUT ,we have to support it , and realise that our revisiting and making new mates is the reason to go , Matty

We'll I enjoyed it, I stayed away from the seminars and instead met up with some fellas I'd only known via the internet , and for me that's what NatFly is all about, Im not about to by a $130 k plane but the event was pretty good , not the best but pretty good , and to be honest it's only a reflection of us as a group , we after all make up RAA so if our event is crap then look in a mirror people . I went had a great time , saw some nice planes and met up with some old and new mates , and , surprisingly the evil CASA didn't harass me at all , perhaps I'm just luckier than most Matty

And that is the hard thing with aviation,,,we all make mistakes ,sometimes it's a real hard ,cruel ,even fatal lesson,,,,others get to sit down and quietly reflect on what went wrong , and learn from it! Even Morgans have suffered not because their aircraft was at fault but in the aftermath it was found to bit a bit of a sh1tbox. The pilot was posting here , inspite of his stuff up I'd hope he's still flying ,at the end of the day it's just a crash that thankfully everyone got to go home from ,,,,,,if/when I have one I hope I'm as successful ! Matty

From the north to the south mate, the guys at Nagambie are good clean operators,,,,,other than that I've not seen anything to convince me they're interested in good ops,,,,and that's not old news! "Don't wear the plane out on paper" " circuits are for other pilots, just drop in on base and land" Going into CTA over Melbourne with crap radios A prop strike on a completely stuffed CSU, sent it to a LAME to replace the prop ,but never mentioned the strike,,,LAME had a fit when he found out he'd been tricked into signing out an engine that needed a bulk strip. Taxiing along past hangars with the tail up in a taildragger. Climbing and descending through cloud in non IFR aircraft with a PPL ( VFR rated)at the helm. I know of three airfields that have kicked meatbombers out for dangerous behaviour , Just to name a few instances, I'm not trying to insult you Ozzie, but these are things that are happening NOW, the fact that there aren't more accidents( reported) is more due to good luck than good management ,I'm not going to say who and where, but to think the skydiving sector is all good boys n girls just isn't true, Matty

Not trying to insult anyone , I've had a guy under canopy drift across at 300agl on initials , if I hadn't taken evasive action we'd both be dead, I've also been around plenty of meat bomber ops and although they all spruik professional they often play pretty lax with the regs. Not every op is a bit loose but most that I've seen are, even down to not logging flight times in the MR to keep the plane flying longer, facts are facts and I'm sure all the skydivers will have a go at me but if you're honest with yourself there is a lot of rule breaking in the industry Matty

Contact CASA with an incident report every time they do that and get them shut down,,,,,I have nothing against meatbombers ,but I do have an issue with stupid people being airborne! Matty And agreed ,,,damn shame to see another old classic wrecked!

I surprised to find out they had Honda cars shortly after Jesus did his thing,,,,,apperently "all the disciples were in one Accord" Matty

It apears your horrible sense of humour will follow you to the grave! Matty

Legally ,yes, but the reality is unless you own the plane you will have to prove to someone, usually an instructor ,that you can operate the type, as for landing accidents,,,,we've been smacking aeroplanes into the ground at various velocities for over a hundred years,,,,,and I doubt it'll change as long as gravity sucks, Matty

I'm wondering where all this corrosion is coming from, my DC headset has been in my use for 8 years and was used when I got them, my pax set is even older, and unless the corrosion is microscopic they're as good as new. Another point aswell, everytime you plug them in the contacts are getting a scrape ,,,,,,,so if your headset is getting rusty,,,,well you need to fly more! Matty

I bought mine mostly because I needed a funnel and they were highly recommended, it is a bit of a slog holding a 20l jerry can up to fill a high wing but the funnel filters well, I don't bother with an AVGAS refuel ( very rare if I can help it) for two reasons ,the funnel is a bit big to take on a long nav with other nessasary stuff, and most AVGAS systems are very stringently maintained,much better than MOGAS outlets, with thousands of aircraft doing thousands of hours relatively problem free. With MOGAS though ,I only go to BP or SHELL for 98 octane , and so far no bad fuel but I'm not so sure of the budget fuel mobs, Matty

Very true, it's a challenging bugger,,,,,but also a huge amount of fun, Matty