Yenn

Boeing have said that they are willing to receive handouts from the US government, but not going to allow partial nationalisation. In other words, just keep paying to keep us afloat, but expect nothing in return. Sadly the government will pay as they cannot have Airbus Industries overtaking the USA giant.

A recent flight. In Feb I took my RV4 down to Maryborough and the chap intending to buy it drove up from NSW. The sale was dependent on a demo flight. Looking at him I reckoned I had better check W & b, he reckoned he was 100kg, which would put me slightly over max weight with the fuel I had on board, also I m sure the balance would have been out, so no flight for him. We had a big storm overnight and it was still lingering, low cloud and skuddy rain. A Cessna Caravan came in, dropped off its passengers and departed. Weather still poor, but improving. Later the cloud seemed to have lifted, I reckoned there was 1000' all round close to the strip, but denser cloud to the SE. I decided to do a circuit, just to demonstrate that the plane would fly and away I went. All looked good still good visibility beneath the cloud ahead, but next thing I am in that whispy stuff below the cloud, I have plenty of visibility just slightly downwards, but ahead no horizon. The only thing to do is descend and at this time I am going over houses, the altimeter reads 500' Round I go and I can see the airstrip, Over the river and back to a low base leg, no time to do anything except land the plane, taxi in. The buyer said I disappeared from his view before I turned and he didn't see me again untll I landed. I was well and truly fooled by the sight picture of the clouds, the ceiling looked higher than it was because I couldn't see that there was a great depth of those whispy tendrils hanging below the visible cloud. I hate skud running, because the temptation is to be as high as possible, which puts you in just the situation I found myself in. Luckily Maryborough is fairly flat and doesn't have any high obstacles.

I was flying my Thruster back from Childers to Rodds Bay, not a very long trip and Monduran was on the way. There was low overcast, about 1000'. Afriend had decided to fly part way with me in his C150 and he was gone way ahead of me after take off. I had a GPS which gave me time to destination and ground speed. The GS looked pretty slow to me so I called up the C150 and he was surprised to see what the wind was and he was way above me. I decided to stop at Monduran and fill up from the can I carried as I knew the tank would not get me home. After takeoff at Monduran I had about an hours duration of fuel and the GPS was saying an hour to go. I decided I would keep going and even if I got over half way, I could be back at Monduran before running out. GS was hovering about 25 kts and I kept comparing time to destination to fuel available. Flying as low as I could to keep the headwind down I was watching the GPS which would say 40 mins to go, then 45 mins to go. I have never experienced such a strong Northerly wind, before or since. It was a very funny sensation, watching the time to destination getting longer sometimes. I was within 10 miles, before I reckoned I would not have to return to Monduran. One good thing was that with the strong wind I would be able to land just about anywhere, maybe even be going backwards.

It used to be much easier in the old days to read about others mistakes. I miss the Aviation Safety Digest. The safety occurrences on RAAus website are pretty useless to learn anything from. As for general posting on this site, it is obvious some people have an agenda, some people are rank amateurs and some have something worth saying. You just have to work out which is which.

I lost my previous reply to this forum, so here goes again. I have a 2.2 Jab which runs well. The only problem ever was detonation, caused by my using mogas instead of avgas. At 226 hours I had a misfire when doing a mag check, tried several things to cure it, even swapped over mag coils, but it was the same side misfiring. Engine ran well at low rpm and also at full power I had about 30 miles to fly to my home base, so I took off and climbed as high as airspace allowed, then set off for home, several landing options available on the way. At home I removed No3 cylinder, which was slightly oily and found the piston, ring op lands broken into several segments. Typical detonation problem. New piston, new rings all round, bores honed and it has sine doubled the hours with no real problems.

I run a 2200 jab in a Corby Starlet. Only ever had one problem. I had detonation, caused by using mogas, which was of dubious quality, or at least that is the only conclusion I could come to. It demolished the piston lands on No 4 piston. I had a rough running engine when doing the mag check, couldn't find the problem and swapped coils over, still had the same problem. Engine was smooth at low revs and also smooth at high revs, with little mag drop. I elected to climb as high as I could over the departure airstrip, then head for home. I had a few alternative landing sites and I arrived at the home strip with no problems. The engine was removed and luckily I took off No4 cylinder and found the problem immediately. New piston, new rings all round and honed the bores, Still going strong.

I never had a problem building, but my wife used to insist that I get away for a break occasionally. I only built two aeroplanes and one boat and a house, 3 years for each one.

We have a system whereby you can post your mistakes and not be held liable. I have used it and heard nothing from the powers that be. Once posted you are supposedly not liable to prosecution, unless of course it was a blatant breaking of the rules.

You may be correct that the risk is not the virus. The media is non stop trying to scare us and they are succeeding. Normally sensible people are making stupid decisions, such as buying massive amounts of toilet paper, or hiding away.

I flew this morning and was just on the point of calling up Brisbane Centre, when I heard an airliner calling in and getting a response. It was eerily quiet.

Anyone who has built and flown their own plane has been a test pilot. Experimentals could be really dangerous to spin, but they could still be legal. A good pilot knows what is happening and if something unusual happens he should be able to work it out. Much better that way than to be like the average car driver, who is usually just sitting there unknowing what is happening.

A long wait, but no doubt it will be a great experience coming back. With 20 hours under your belt, some of it should have stuck. Enjoy it.

Apart from the fear of getting the virus and also the fear of everything collapsing around you, the biggest fear I see is the effect all the continuous gloom and doom is having on our mental health. I already see people making ridiculous decisions, that they would not make if they thought it through. First to come to mind is the Qld premier insisting the local government elections go ahead. No risk to the voters, she says, but she obviously has not considered all those others who are involved, such as those who count the vote.

One thing for sure. No matter how much the pensioners whinge they are in the best position to weather this storm. They have an income and most don't have to worry about a mortgage or even rent, so the pension is all theirs. I don't hear many whingeing now and most are wondering how they can help out those less fortunate.

We will always have a regulatory body as long as we have politicians and voters. As much as we may dislike it there will always be regulators and the reason is that there are always people who when they see something they don't like, they say "there should be a law against it"

Why would you expect fees to be cut. Is it just that you are only interested in what is in it for you? If you want to fly, you join RAAus and pay your fees. There is no need for you to fly. Your livelihood does not depend upon your flying. The ability of RAAus to do all the paperwork that gets you permission to fly still has to go on, so why would you expect RAAus to cut its fees, which of course would ean it could not pay its employees.

If you get a 200l drum and it has a litre of oil left inside it, it you will have a 0.5% or 1:200 fuel oil mix. I don't think that would be a real problem, but it would be better if you put in some petrol to wash more of the oil away. No need for avgas I reckon standard would do and use it in a car or other machine, such as a mower.

What are the green lights the pilot was aiming for. It is a well known effect that in heavy rain yo will get the illusion of being higher on the approach than you really are.

Send me your bank details and I can get the ball rolling.

Well done Stewie, first solo is a one off, never to be repeated. Have a go at the biplanes. I have never flown one.

Chain of responsibility doesn't matter. There will always be cowboys and they will always end up making the wrong calls. In my civil engineering life I had a boss who was a mad keen flyer. He was a very poor boss, had no idea how to do a job or treat others he came into contact with. So bad that in the end I told the big boss I could no linger work with him. No problem. That man went on to get a flying job, mainly freight I think. Last I heard of him was an article in the Aviation Safety Digest, when he talked about his experience of nearly running out of fuel, due to bad weather and his not insisting on taking more fuel, even though he told his bosses that it would be prudent. He made the wrong decisions as a civil engineer and nearly died from the same behaviour as a pilot. With a bit of luck he has learned his lesson. I haven't heard of his demise.

The easiest way for water to get into a 44 gallon drum is for it to be sucked in through the bung as the drum cools and the internal air pressure drops. THey can pick up quite a lot of water that way. Always make sure that the bungs are not covered in water.

What happened to the alternative to RAAus Rick?

If it is you will need to arrive in NZ in plenty of time to go into quarantine.

Many years ago I did a lot of photography and once copied an old photo using silver film of the old type. When I gave the copy to the owner of the original, he commented that he could see people sitting on the verandah. We looked at the original and with great difficulty we could see the people on it, but not easily. You can improve on the original image with copying by camera. At least you can with film, maybe not with digital.