Ding

Just returned from the scene. Not in the school yard, in the paddock next door. Pilot and Pax checked by the ambo's 100% OK. Can't say the same for the Savannah though. Precautionary landing when the weather closed in around them Saw every power line except the one you can see in the photo above. No more speculation from me. Leave the rest up to the investigators. See ya, Ding.

Hi Ian, I have just caught up with all the specs etc. Looks fantastic. You can put me down for a 10" one when they are available, just as a computer. It looks like it will crap all over the other tablets out there. If it was dual, Android and Win 7, what a bonus, although I have been playing with a cheap 7" Android tablet recently, as a replacement for a traditional lap top, and I reckon they are heaps of fun, and easy to use. I will wait with a breath like bait. No, thats not right, oh, what the hell. Cheers, Ding.

And peeing on their slippers. Ding

What an absolute tragedy. I can't say I knew him well, but as a fellow member of GSA spent many hours listening to his wisdom, and admiring his skill as a pilot and builder. Peter was jusr one of those guys who only had a good word to say. Steph and my thoughts are with Annette at this time. Ding.

Skyranger fuel system There is nothing "wrong" with the fuel system, its just the fillers (1 for each tank) are inside the cabin, therefore if you spill any fuel, even a drop, its in the cabin. The US Sky people extend the fillers to on the top of the cabin (where the BRS would normally exit), but this gets in the way of the luggage hammock, so there is a trade off. I think the alloy tank option has the filler on the outside, on one side, i'm note sure left or right. Haven't had anything to do with one, so can't make further comment, but would logically seem to be the way to go. Talk to Greg the agent for more info. I have sold my Sky recently, and the new owner didn't see the filling as an issue. I also made up a filler system that used a low pressure air pump to pressure a steel gerry can (with a pressure relief valve) and a hook shaped filler nozzle with an on/off valve that worked very well. Even with the hammock fully loaded, we could still get our fill, even from a large diameter commercial unit. Thats my 10c worth. Ding.

Lost foam casting. Probably off topic, but the question was asked. Lost foam casting is where a polystyrene plug is used to set the green sand. In conventional casting a wooden plug is used which has to be removed before the metal is poured. Lost foam means the plug can be left in and when the metal is poured it vapourises. Cheers, Ding.

Fuel flow measuring. Morning all, What about one of the Stratomaster range. Available usually ex stock Canberra. No complicated shipping or currency conversions. To easy and local support. Just an idea. Ding.

LED lights Good morning all, On my Skyranger I use a pair of 5W MR16 led lights, mounted in small aluminium driving light housings I got from Repco. Pricing: MR16 globe. Approx $30 from the Alternative Technology Association. www.ata.org.au Housings from Repco, was some time ago, but I think under $50.00 for a pair. The housings originally had 50W Halogen globes as you would find in a domestic down light. There are 10W MR16 globes available (equivalent light output to a 50W halogen) from www.ledcentral.com.au You can get different light spreads (concentrated or wide angle) and different colour temperatures. Hope this helps. If you need more info pm me. Cheers, Ding.

Welcome Steve I spent a week in Hawaii on Maui. The most amazing place. Fell in ,love with it. Will go back one day. Great place to fly. Caught a Dash 8 from the main island to Maui. Had them flying constantly like taxi's (cabs). You just waited until the next one came in, climbed aboard and away you went. Enjoy the site. There is a very broad range of interests here. Cheers for now, Peter.

Close calls When I was learning at Moorabin years ago, there was a tip off the end of 17L & R which attracted seagulls, close calls were the rule rather than the exception. Another example of urban planning. At Lethbridge, there is (or was) a wedgetail eagle that used to fly beside aircraft on down wind. Got so close you could see his eyeball. Never attacked, just kept close company. Decending into Temora circuit this easter had a wedgetail cross just behind us. I was concentrating on the circuit, only allerted by my pax. Another set of eyes is a good thing to have. Cheers, Ding.

Twin engine ultralight I wonder what the single engine performance would be like? Not wether it would hold altitude or anything, but the asymetric flight characteristics. Would be interesting to find out. Cheers, Ding.

Sky v X air Hi Tommo, I have a Skyranger, I am 6'2" and 110kg and I fit no problem. Had no difficulty dropping the seat down a notch and I don't bang my head on the roof bar. I hope you gat as much enjoyment from your X-Air as I have from my Sky. Cheers, Ding.

6 engines C-130 with drop tanks? The only 6 engined aircraft I can think of is that Russian heavy transport that visits occasionally. But it is a jet, not turboprop. Pity you didn't get a photo. Cheers, Ding.

Hours. Hi all, This sort of thing really gets my goat. The hour meter in my Sky starts as soon as the engine exceeds 100rpm. So is a real indication of the hours that the engine has been running. I currently have my plane for sale, and unfortunately, this sort of experience tars us all with a bad brush. Who can blame potential purchasers for being sceptical. Or is this the role of the condition report. If the seller is confident in the product, then why be shifty about the history. Thats my two pennies worth anyway. Ding. PS. Only to pleased to have a purchaser have their own level 2 do the condition report.

Skyranger v xair Hi Octave. I built a Skyranger for several reasons. 1. The local agent at the time was a fellow flying club member, so there was an element of dealing with and supporting a friend. 2. Price. Even though Rotax are not cheap. 3. Ease of construction. Straight tubing, no bending. All bolted, no welding. You wouldn't want to fly in something I welded. Simple build process, I built mine in 7 weeks. 5-6 days per week, 8-10 hrs per day. Then, when I flew it and fell in love with it. I am a big person, 6'2" 110kg and I fit comfortably in the plane. It carries me and the significant other, plus a comfortable luggage allowance. Big doors, easy to get in and out. When trimmed, flies hands off easily. Yes, the standard fuel set up has its foibles, but there is an alloy fuel tank option that fixes them. Excellent short field performance. I could go on, but you really need to find an owner and go for a fly. Cheers, Ding.

Fuel cells Good find Ozzie, There is a company in Europe that has been working on a fuel cell that runs on LPG. Much larger than the unit you showed that can run a camping fridge. They have been talking about a release date for a couple of years now, but they did have a unit at one of the major European camping and motorhome shows this year. The idea is to ultimately replace generators. Unfortunately can't remember the company name, but if you googled LPG fuel cell I am sure you would find something. Its good to see this type of technology filtering down to the consumer markets. I have an interest in this sort of thing (not financial) as we have run our house completely on solar power for the last 22-23 years. Can run everything in the workshop except the welder. Cheers, Ding.

Calipers Hi Turbo, I was refering to Howard's post where he mentioned HRT and FPV. I agree, your speedway cars would be very light. Braking is very much an exercise in balance. Get it right, and its fantastic, get it wrong,,,,,,, Because our runways etc vary from wet grass to dry bitumen, its a compromise all the way. It comes down to pilot skill. Cheers.

Calipers / brakes. Surely we are not trying to stop something as heavy or as often as a Commodore/Falcon. Therefore if we increase the friction area (twin calipers are used with bigger pads) then we are increasing the likelihood of locking the wheels, particularly on grass. So there is a down side to just increasing caliper/friction area without looking at the pressure being applied per square area etc. Of course removing heat from the system is a good thing to do. Larger pad area, means a larger area not open to the cooling air. Presumably, the Jab people have done their homework if they sell an upgrade kit. Probably includes a different master cylinder. My Skyranger has drilled disk brakes and single calipers, and I have to be very careful not to lock things up. Locked wheels just add to breaking distance, and wears flat spots on the tyres. Just my view, there will be people with differing views. Next step ABS ????? Cheers, Ding.

The new Ninja from the Skyranger stable has winglets. The designers apparently spent a lot of time in the wind tunnel and decided they were a worthwhile addition. I haven't followed up on it, but they may be a retrospective add on to the standard Sky. Cheers all, Ding.

Hand on throttle Right from my GA days 35 years ago, hand on throttle if in the circuit. Then when in cruise, make yourself comfortable, but the right hand was never far from the quadrant. Just in case. Thats why I fitted the centre stick mod to my Skyranger, so I could fit a centre throttle, and fly left handed. Could have just sat in the right hand seat, but it just didn't feel right. Cheers, Ding.

Crimper Bought mine at Jacar. Mid range price. Around $40 if memory serves. Best tool I ever bought. Don't use cheap terminals. They are made of harder cheaper metal and you will get varying results. You want consistency. Red terninals are for 3mm wire, blue for 4mm and I think yellow for 6mm. Thats square mm conductor area, not diameter. And no solder. As already noted, causes the wires to break from vibration fatigue. You want the connection as soft as possible. Cheers, Ding.

Shutting down. I'm with Jeffc. By the book for me. Seems to give as smooth a stop as you can get. Mr Rotax must know something. Ding.

Metric aircraft / bolts Back to the original question. My Skyranger was manufactured in Europe, and all the bolts in the kit were metric. All the drilled holes were metric. So worked fine. Problem is that there are not the small increment sizes available in metric that there are in the AN series, so you end up with more than 2 threads showing in most cases. Sometimes it flukes it and you get just 2 clear threads showing. Other problem is that sometimes you end up with a part of the load bearing on the thread because the threaded part is to long. You could replace the metric bolts with AN but there is no perfect equivalent metric size for the fractional sizes, so you would have to drill all the holes to suit AN. OK if you are starting out with a blank sheet, but in my case I wasn't about to start removing metal or have bolts rattling in too big holes. Not being an engineer I didn't want to change anything from the design. Having said all that, my Sky is now 3 years old, and nothing has fallen off, no bolts have broken and when inspected closely, there doesn't seem to be any chaffing where the thread is "down the hole". The next part of the problem is that you can never be sure of just how well controlled the manufacturing process has been with metric bolts bought off the shelf. AN are carefully controlled so they meet a defined standard because they are used in aircraft. I guess if the aircraft is designed for metric, with the above things considered, then all should be well. At some point we just need to trust the designers. There was a good article/s in fairly recent RAAus magazines on just this subject. In the last 12 months by memory. Thats been my experience anyway. Over to the experts. Ding. PS. That was the best desciption of the AN sizing process I have ever seen. Good job.

Phones etc. Your right Jim, We flew back from Tasmania recently, and everyone was aked to turn off their electronic devices including mobiles. Didn't mean that everone did, nor did the crew ask anyone who hadn't. It was pretty obvious from where I was sitting who was using their phone. Regarding cameras, all cameras these days have some form of microprocessor in them to drive the light metering etc, and all microprocessors have a clock that keeps them syncronised. Sometimes these electronic clocks run at a frequency that either directly interferes with on board systems or generates a harmonic that interferes. So they ask all people to please turn off electronic equipment. The chances of interference are billions to one these days, but would you want to be on the one flight where it happens. Cheers, Ding.

Elevator tape. Hi Phil, A mate of mine uses book binding tape. Seems to work for him. Cheers, Ding.