Vev

Personally I think the whole notion of a medical for a ppl is a nonsense. There's practically zero evidence that RAA pilots are falling out of the sky due to medical conditions.... Why would this change because one has a ppl. My observation strongly suggests that a med examination is nothing more than a snapshot in time ... One is better off having a long term and open relationship with ones own GP and allow them to help YOU manage your OWN health issues. A medical examination undertaken 1,2 or 4 years ago is not going to direct me not to fly if I have a bad flu today ... We are already left to decide if we are not fit to fly when unwell. Why can't I be trusted to work with my own GP and decide in a more complex medical conditions my fittness? I fear, pilots are avoiding talking to their GP's to cover up any illnesses, that could be easily treated, through fear that CASA may find out. Cheers Vev

You will see condensation react with the zinc in the lubricant if the engine is run for a short period of time and not getting to its normal operating temp for 45-60 min ... This will appear as a cream on the oil tank cap and neck. It does mean you will have a reduction in anti-wear protection, it will also accelerate oxidation of the lubricant. If this is the case, don't be overly alarmed but just change the lubricant and clean up the emulsified zinc and try to avoid short low temp runs, albeit you have other engine issues sort out. As a suggestion to your engine issues, you may want to consider ensuring your idle system is clear of any old fuel residue, which will mean a detailed demantling and inspection of all jets, mixture screws and air and fuel way galeries.... I have seen the symptom of where engines will only run at low engine (>1500 - 2000 rpm) with only the choke on. Others may be able to expand on a cleaning procedure. Good luck ... Hope you find the problem. Cheers Vev

Mostly everything went to plan, a couple of ac went US and a couple of changes to the aerobatic displays ... We managed to get everything up into the air we wanted and ran 10 min over time. I think it was a fabulous Airshow and had a record number turn up ... We have received nothing but great feedback. Keen to hear what others thought? Cheers Vev

G'day Nev, Sorry you can't make it but thanks fir the well wishers. Ride safe Cheers Vev

Yes there is a cost for your entry ticket. It's a charity event ... the main beneficiary this year is Headspace. Youth depression and suicide is a real issue in communities on the Mornington Peninsula. The Peninsula Aero Club and our members have decided to use our collection of aircraft and facility to raise money to support a school programme about teaching mental first aid. https://www.youtube.com/user/headspaceAustralia We have over 150 volunteers, including unpaid pilots, and access to some spectacular aircraft which are donated by the owners. I hope you don't mind paying your $40.00 entry which all goes to a good course to help manage youth depression... in return you will get to see flying some of the only flying examples left in the world, not to forget some military hardware and some very cool displays and antique aircraft. Cheers Vev

Hi All, Attached are the arrival and departure details for the Tyabb Airshow - Sunday 13th March. http://www.tyabbairshow.com/flying_in_3.html There will be plenty of fabulous flying displays, some surprises and many ground displays to see. Hopefully we will see many of you there on the day. http://www.tyabbairshow.com Let me know if you are coming? Fly safe Vev

http://www.tyabbairshow.com/ Here's some more info on the airshow. It will be hard to see the quality and depth of these classic warbirds in Australia or indeed the world. Fly or drive details in the link. Cheers Vev

I can confirm the FW190 will be at the Tyabb Airshow Sunday 13th March. There will be lots of surprises flying on the day. Hope you can all make it. Cheers Vev

If the augments can be supported by real facts, what would it take to press for some real reform of the med system? Whilst I know the RAA are currently unaffected by the GA style meds, we could become subjected to these requirements if controlled airports or space become within scope of our privileges. ... This, in my view, would be a backward step! Where would one start to challange the current system and protect the RAA from this nonsensical approach to Medicals? Cheers Vev

Oil and wear debris analysis are powerful tools in the right hands, particularly on some equipment where it may not have a spanner put on it for hundreds of hours. It will provide some insight if things are going wrong before something breaks and allow you to undertake corrective action or take it off line in a timely manner too repair. However in the context of the type engines and flying we do, I think it's an over kill and almost behind the curve as we change our oil at 25 or 50 hour intervals and should also be changing our oil filters too. The oil filter will give a reasonable view of wear metals, both ferrous and non-ferrous, along with combustion and foreign ingress materials ... to keep a trend of this simply photograph the residual materials. If you see an increase in debris you then need to start looking harder. As Nev said earlier, do proper pre-flight checks ... I personally believe in doing a pull though before every flight ... if you get a soft blade, find out why! Cheers Vev

A simple process to undertake a wear metal and particulate examination of your filter content. http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=3735936001 Cheers Vev

Correct Nev .... the white stuff is water reacting with the zinc anti-wear additive in the oil. There is very easy field test you can do to test for water contamination, which will measure down to about 0.5%.... take a representative sample of oil (after running and hot) and put a drop (use an eye dropper) of this into the middle of a small aluminium tray (the same as you use for cooking a small tart) and put a lighter under it and heat. If it spits it has some absorbed water, if it doesn't it's free of water. Cheers Vev

Here's an interesting report with 3 decades of data .... I would suggest this indicates that CASA's approch to managing GA medical conditions adds little value in the context of what really causes a medical related incident. https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/29965/b20060170.pdf Cheers Vev

G'day Dutchroll, My argument isn't about Commercial Pilots meds, but private pilots. Never the less, I still think there is merit in challenging the notion of the process for commercial pilots too. Whilst you have modified your post and had used an example of some bad behaviour, it didn't cause an accident as the multi-crew in the cockpit provided safety redundancy. We all work in an environment that require us to follow rules around safety, that become sackable offences and some even have criminal repercussions when not followed. When a commercial pilot knowingly gets into a cockpit and they are not well, you have to question the culture of the company and his fellow pilots and if the rules and training are being followed. Having a class 1 CASA medical will not identify you developing a medical issue between check ups .... in fact that how it goes, one year your fine the next your not. Back to the private pilot issue, which we directionally seem to agree .... I did raise the topic with RAA about 18 months ago and asked about the stats re accidents owing to medical issue. At the time the response was given as being very small in the context of more than a decade of history. As I said, I'm not aware of RAA planes falling out of the sky owing to medical reasons, notwithstanding there will be some. I'm not convinced that CASA's approach to PPL & RPL medicals is of value, I wonder if it is causing pilots to avoid being open with their Dr and their medical conditions. I think the RAA approach allows pilots to develop a good work arrangement with the Dr to access proper treatments and management without fear of big brother stepping in and grounding pilots with an over reaction in the name of safety. Food for thought? Cheers Vev

Well that is a significant step forward for our US friends. However, I feel compelled to argue why a private pilot requires a medical. My observation tell me that RAA pilots are not falling out of the sky through medical related causes owing to the lack of a GA style med. I have to say that pilots are by far and away sensible about and manage their own health and do ground themselves when not well. Our GA meds really only provide a snapshot in time of 4,2 or 1 year ... One still needs to manage ones fitness to fly between medicals. I will suggest that the GA medicals add little for safety and think RAA got it right. It would be far better to educate pilots to implement a personal health programme with their family doctor and own their own health issues in an open relationship without the need for big brother. Vev

Hey Russ, Best to give Brumby a call for a price as I have no idea. Including a new engine there won't be too much change out of $38-40k to have someone do the fully Monty conversion ... cheaper depending on your capability do the mod yourself. Cheers Vev

Phil & Paul at Brumby designed the engine mount which takes the Rotax engine ring mount ... they got the whole thing perfect in terms of W&B and offset ... it didn't need any adjustment at all. I know they have also done the full job on a J230 as well. I'm currently achieving 15.5 lt pa @ 110 knots and 18.5lt at 115 knots. Climb is around out is >1000 ft per min @ 90 knots.... it's just way too frightening (for me) to do a 65 knot climb out (it's very steep) on take-off so I can't give you a number, but seeing 1500 ft a minute on my own is nothing unusual. BTW ... I'm selling this AC if you are interested? Cheers Vev

Hi J, I have done the conversion on a J160 and it has transformed the aircraft into something quite special. Fantastic climb and speed, very smooth and quiet to fly. There is quite a bit of work involved to get it right, but nothing outside of the norm ... you do need to be mindful of managing the weight and balance so not to go adding weight in the tail, as some have done, which isn't in my view the best approach. We were very careful with the W&B and actually reduced the stall at MTOW by a few knots. Happy for you to pm me. Cheers Vev

Hi SDQDI, The oil companies have a protocol they use during the seasons for each geography and manage the Cloud Point ... basically there is no need to buy a winter diesel these days as it already comes delivered to you in a fit for purpose formulation. There are cloud point depressant additives but good old heating oil or kero (Jet) works very well ... however you need to be mindful of how much sulphur you are adding in terms of meeting environmental requirements and, more importantly, the impact in reducing the viscosity of the fuel as well as the diluent effect on other additives in diesel fuel. By adding kero or heating oil you reduce the hydrodynamic film with the viscosity reduction and can cause accelerated wear of injector components, you recover a little bit of the anti wear factor through higher sulphur (which acts as a boundary lubricant) but it's a fine balance. In the Antarctic they basically use kero/heating oil for diesel fuel but they do add a lubricity agent to manage the wear on injector and pump components and a good dose of other additive to manage various combustion characteristics. As I said in an earlier post, Ecofly also recommended Jet A1 and I assume they have considered the impacts of lubricity and combustion in their engine systems. You can reliably know without doubt that Jet A1 will not turn into wax even in the most extreme recreational flying. I feel quite uncomfortable about using Aust diesel for aviation use as I am very aware of the scope of the local diesel product and how easily it could get you in trouble in the wrong application. I know some will say they bought diesel in Darwin and took it to Melbourne mid winter and all was good, that will happen but you can't rely on this always being the case... I can tell you of hundreds of stories where it didn't work out. Equally I am not supportive of someone attempting to blend up their own fuel as no consumer is going to reasonably know the starting point of the formulation and what they are adding. I hope this makes sense? Cheers Vev

Sure often this will happen as a ship load of low cloud point fuel will go into northern port as there is no harm going into a warmer climate. It's simply the oil companies managing a supply options with tankers i.e. doing milk runs down the coast into cooler cilmates and use one size fits all fuel spec. However you can not rely on a low cloud point that will be suitable to take south or up high if you buy it in a warmer geography. Sometimes it will work and then other times it won't. Cheers Vev

Even FK recommend JetA1 ... in Europe diesel Cloud Point is managed differently than in Aust and they do have Arctic quality fuels, furthermore the time variations and transitions are differently managed. What they do in Europe doesn't work in Oz.

As an example, if you fuelled up in Darwin (Savflyer's home base) in September the Cloud Point (when waxing occurs) is 15 deg C and fly to Brisbane were diesel is managed down to 2 deg C you could have a real problem. Alternatively you take a September batch of Darwin diesel on a 25 deg day to 5000 ft you could be pressing the boundary of the fuel remaining liquid. Not forgetting that the difference between months going from summer into the winter months will make things much worse. In darwin the Cloud Point drops from 15 deg in Feb to 8 deg in just over 60 days. Even in WA, your home base, there is 15 deg difference between Port Hedland and Perth between Feb and March, which is worse than between Darwin and Brisbane. There is roughly only around 8-10 deg protection between cloud point and normal low ambient day temps and waxing within the same geographic areas. I suggest that you don't need to start flying in extreme climatic conditions to expose yourself to some considerable risk.

Even though it's a Diesel engine, it's not safe to use diesel fuel in an aviation environment. There is a very real risk of diesel fuel turning into a lump of wax when it cools. Diesel fuel is managed to meet the geography it will be used in each month. There are 100 regions in Australia and the waxing point is changed so as to remain liquid... As I said this happen every month. If you fuel up in a warmer month and don't use it for a couple of months or fuel up and fly south or fly high into cooler air you may find your fuel lines could be full of wax. I'm still very doubtful of the practicality in this context.

Whilst the idea of a Diesel engine is interesting to reduce fuel use and load... However I wonder if the practicality is achievable in Australia with the lack of access to fuels when touring? It's hard enough getting Avgas and will be even harder to get Jet A1 in the bush.