KRviator

Personally, I can't see Van's going anywhere - they offer something no one else does, a (relatively) affordable Meccano set that can take you from Brisbane to Townsville in 4 hours that you can build in your back shed. When I brought the engine for my -9, the dollar was pretty much at parity with the USD, and the entire cost was $30,000 including GST & shipping. For a factory-new engine. The current price for a new O-320 from Vans is now $39,150USD or $62,000. Plus shipping, plus GST and you're upto well over $70K for an engine, or more than double what I paid. IF you want an RV going forwards, unless you can already afford to buy a Cirrus, you might have to be content with a standard kit, a well and truly used engine and basic VFR instruments...

Here's two great examples - and I mean no disrespect to the sellers - if someone actually wants to pay such big bikkies, take their money! VH-SMJ, a rather nice Comanche was sold in November 2020 for $139,000. Two years later, it's for sale again. For $225,000! A 62% increase in two and a smidge years. Could be why it hasn't sold for the many months it's been listed... VH-VVT a Turbo 210 sold a couple of months ago for $119,000. It's now listed for sale for $165,000 A 33% increase in 12 weeks! And apart from having its' annual inspection done, from what I can see, there's been nothing else completed - according to the logs, it hasn't flown in nearly two years and only 15 the year before- that's what put me off it, along with the engine being beyond TBO. If it was being regularly flown, she'd probably still be decently priced, but not at $165K! Coupled with the Van's issues, you might see RV prices on the up and up too in the year ahead... Realestate? Pfft. Invest in a plane!

I think that's a bit rough - for many, many years Vans has had their QB's assembled in (from memory) the Philippines- including mine! AIUI, they then started a new partnership with someone in South America, and I believe (but am not positive) that that is where the primer issue came from - not their long-established Asian partner. Apart from a few rivets that were a right prick to do when installing a canopy bracket after the fact that, IMHO, should have been done as part of the QB assembly, there's been little-to-no issues until the QB-primer one reared its' head. Again, that's a bit rough. The difference between "Standard" and "QB" kits for the RV's was (at the time I built) around $5,000USD - it's now about $9,000 - and it is worth every cent of that differential. The Phillipines guys doing it do it day in, day out, and do a very good job. The simple fact is Van's couldn't expand at the rate they needed. The RV's are very popular kits - witness the 18month-2 year lead time for the QB kits before Covid came along. Word of mouth is a very powerful selling agent and the RV's perform pretty much exactly as the brochure says, so the word went out. Vans has traditionally punched their kits, including to final-size on the later ones. But with the growth in business, they couldn't get enough throughput, fast enough, so they contracted with a third party to laser-cut some parts. For whatever reason, this provider modified the toolpath for the laser such that it resulted in slightly out holes, as well as spatter on the parts, as well as the aluminium now becoming prone to cracking while riveting due to the heat-affected zone caused by the laser. Now, the occasional bad rivet is acceptable - I have a half dozen flying in my RV now that'd I'd probably goober-up trying to fix so I leave them there as a reminder that I built this in my back shed - but builders were finding a lot of small cracks in a lot of rivets and they weren't happy campers, and rightfully so. Until this issue, no one knew Vans was laser-cutting parts. What's got me stuffed in this whole thing is not that Vans did it, I can certainly understand why they did! But that they have apparently zero recourse against the two companies involved - for the bad toolpaths at least (probably not so much for the cracking from the laser as that's something Vans' should have detected earlier) but especially the primer issue. That's something I would have thought either the supplier would have to make good on, or their insurer.

Only if they have an electrical system capable of powering it... Tigger Moth or a Chippy without an alternator = NORDO to the great race...

I don't read it that way. A VH- registered Tiger Moth, no radio, no transponder, can fly in without speaking to anyone, as could a VH- registered Jabarooooo (but not a RAAus registered one). But RAAus with VHF comm, GNSS and ADS-B can't come. There's no mandatory communication requirements, bar IFR on a separate frequency and cancel your SARWATCH via phone, so there's no clearance into the active R area provided. Which makes a mockery of the whole process, but again, this is airspace in Australia. Sometimes I wonder why we bother...

Right here, chapter 2.1: Furthermore, permission to operate within R960 is not required! (So long as you're VH- or an international visitor), as per Chapter 3.2: Too bad if you wanted to fly out there in your Jab or Tecnam...

Perfectly safe if the crew RTFNotam and apply the correct TODA in their performance calculations. In this case, I'd wager they didn't, for whatever reason and they're going to be in for tea, no bikkies with the CP... Our back yard is at the end of the local runway, such that if someone undershoots, or fails to get airborne the other way, the kids are gonna get a new cubby house. We've been mowing, doing earthworks and just flogging around on motorbikes with planes upto and including Falcon 8's and Herc's passing 100' over our heads and don't feel unsafe in the slightest.

Need to have Ian change the title to NOT stolen SkyEcho! 😛

SCAT is (usually) good depending on exact type. SCEET is bad. That's the one that has a lining in it to reduce turbulence, however, this lining can come adrift when used in negative pressure situations, such as induction tubing. Some SCAT hoses can also have the outer lining deteriorate between the wire helix and ingest that too, so it pays to keep an eye on it if its' used as part of your induction system. Here's a good writeup from FSA in years gone by, incidentally discussing a Gazelle. I remembered it, but CASA's ruined the FSA website, so had to grab it from Wayback... The Wrong Part

So, a quick followup. I ultimately decided to fly to Donnington Airpark and don't regret it for an instant. Was met on arrival by Christian, one of the owners, got an open hangar for the 2 nights, and driven into and picked up from our accommodation in Townsville. The 'taxi' service was $50 each way, and $10/night for a hangar, IIRC, $10 landing fee, for $130 all up - and I reckon that'd be about half of what I'd have been charged for YBTL and an Uber to our hotel from the big airport.... The runway was beautifully kept short grass, and about 900m long, albeit with a bit of shear on final from the easterly breeze. Unless you have to fly into Garbutt, keep Donnington in your back pocket - I'll definitely be going there again.

There's quite a long discussion on VAF about these LC parts, and the angst it's causing builders. My concern, FWIW, would be even if Vans comes out and says "WE've determined there's no issue if these LC parts are in X-Y & Z structures, build on", the known cracking, even if it isn't an issue structurally will lower the resale value of aircraft so fitted, in the same vein as the 3L Patrols compared to their 4.2 Brethren...I paid for a kit that "won't crack", I expect to get a kit that "won't crack". Not "It'll likely crack, but we've determined it'll still be OK". Granted, even my pre-LC-debacle kit will likely have a few hairline cracks around the occasional dimple, it isn't every dimple, or rivet.

I don't think you can use the words "sneak in" for any aircraft equipped with JT8D's....😛

Why limit yourself to HDX? I have twin SV Classics and love 'em. And they're a lot cheaper on the used market.

You can, and crews often do, "request high-speed climb", and for a lot of heavy-weight airliners, minimum clean speed can be above that magic 250KIAS. And remember, we all fly by IAS, but ADS-B is GPS-derived GS, so in this example, with a bit of windshear giving a now-decent tailwind, he may have been indicating 250knots, but booking along closer to 300 or more.

True, but you can use other runways if necessary. I've done so my self at Caloundra for a departure. Multiple aircraft using 12 meant I couldn't get a safe gap to enter and backtrack, so after waiting and realising this, I promptly turned 180* and took off on 05 and stayed at 500' until I was clear of the circuit, then climbed to altitude. In saying that though, I could ensure both lateral and vertical separation from that other circuit traffic while doing this. Here, it looks like there was no separation assurance for using intersecting runways, and this is the outcome. While it's all well and good to say "a landing aircraft has right of way" that'd predicated on the fact they're both using the same runway. If the Jab was using the into-wind or current runway-in-use, then the Pawnee would be obliged to give way to him.

Gympie had a VH-reg too, and they didn't give a rats arse. Contrary to popular belief, the ATSB can pick and choose which incidents they investigate. I was indirectly involved in a multi-million-dollar derailment and the ATSB didn't lift a finger - and when they were directly asked "Why aren't you looking into it?" responded with the line "We don't think there's any learnings for other rail operators to bother with the effort involved...."

Taking bets how long it'll be before the ATSB comes out and says "We CBF undertaking any investigation here, nothing to learn from it, anyway" like they did for the Gympie one last year. I'm tipping by Tuesday arvo they'll have a press release out.... An unusual coincidence there's been three midairs in 18 months or so within 100nm of each other, though...

In other words: We are going to build our own because we don't trust the Japanese flying boat won't need a CTRL-ALT-DEL reset when we go to war with China. If only the Yanks spent as much time and money looking after their own as they do on preparing to kill everyone else they'd be in a damn sight better position on the world stage... I reckon that Shinmaywa thing would be ideal for long-range coastal patrol and SAR for us here in Oz, with a 4,000km range and (naturally) the ability to land on water. A 1,000km & 2 hour transit, perhaps 5 hours on station and a 2 hour transit back home makes a mighty impressive SAR vehicle.

Lovely little aeroplanes those Gazelles. Would happily have one in my hangar for evening sightseeing flights with a bigger 4-seater for away trips. Good luck with the sale!

I have an XCom, but I don't believe you can buy them new anymore. It's been fine for me, dual watch to listen to AWIS/ATIS/Guard if needed, music input that's wired to my Dynon for audible alerts and the built in intercom made it a simple choice. Consider what features you need, and see who makes one with those features.

I wouldn't have thought so either, but it's in the NOTAM. And we all read them, don't we? The actual NOTAM template explicitly says "IFR in G" and one of the NOTAM's mirrors that, but several don't include the magic IFR bit - thusly implying all fliers in G must ring up. Typical government efficiency...

A mate and I are planning on flying up to Townsville shortly and was wondering if any locals can share some tips. At this stage, we'll probably fly into YBTL, Donnington and Bluewater both look to be a bit far from town for public transport or a cab, but I did see Donnington to have an entry about transport to town, so I will touch base with them in a day or two to cover my bases. Has anyone flown up there recently that can shed some light on where itinerant aircraft parking is at YBTL, it's not obvious from their aerodrome charts and are there any gotchas or tips for flying in the area up there? Ta muchly.

Question is "What do the SV-D1000Ts sell for?" and last I looked it seems to be around the $2,500-3000AUD mark. So you can either write it off, or spend a grand getting it repaired to make the extra $1,500-2000. I'd have it repaired. Personally, I prefer the Classic over the HDX with the engine band along the bottom. Dunno why... Just what I'm used to I guess.

The other thing to note about these Restricted Areas is this...Even though you now require clearance to fly in the Class E - if you are flying in Class G within (or below the associated Class E) restricted area, you are still required to contact ASA. From the Temora-area NOTAM: And one of the YBBB ones: Make sure we're all good little boys and girls and flood those phone lines with questions about doing circuits at Temora and Cowra and Uncle Bobs farm strip down past Mildura...

Today's Airspace closures... Temora (Class E), Mallee (Class E), Bathurst / Dubbo (Class E), Huon, (Class A,C & E), Hobart & Launy Approach (Class A,C & E). These are some bloody big swathes of airspace that are now off-limits to VFR traffic. The one saving grace for areas such as Temora is the Class E LL is FL125 - but for the Dubbo area it is 8,500.