Pilot Pete

Thanks David, Yep Tornado I'm flying at Clifton. Next outing will be Friday and then Saturday arvo. Dont worry about it Tommo, you had two good reasons.

Am now cashed up and have finally been able to start flying lessons. Once my stomach caught up to the drifter I had only one wish and that was to stay up all day.

http://www.stewartsystems.co.nz/index.html This is the link to the NZ agent.

Do you know who and where, as i'm a Queenslander

There is an outlet in NZ . Maybe freight would be cheaper from there.

Professional????? I thought we were all amatures.

I'll shout the 45. :yikes:45 Is that loud enough?

I will be keeping tabs on this closely as i will be stripping the fabric off my plane shortly to give it a thorough check over and to make a few weight saving changes.

The Stewart System uses Ceconite with a water based adhesive. Looked them up on the web and looked at some of their you tube clips and it looks pretty good.

Thanks all for the replies so far. I too have given thought tyo the Stewart system and it definately needs further investigation. Surely a water based product would be a safer product to use and washing brushes etc out in water is in my view a much simpler way to go. Next thing is to see if anyone in Australia has the product or do we have to import it ourselves.

Pud, wings are dacron and in really good nick. fuselage is an unknown fabric that is glued and shrunk.I'm looking at replacing that only in the cheapest way .

Right, I now have a plane, but it needs a bit of TLC. I need to re-do the fabric on the bottom and sides on the rear of the fuselage. Who What and Where are the cheapest suppliers of fabric in Australia, or even QLD.

I wasnt too far off when I said where's wally......oh wait ....there he is hiding under that possum fur flying helmut. Good to hear from you Tommo. You don't look any worse from your experience and you will certainly have done something that you can be very proud of yourself for a long time to come. It is one thing to promise to help our fellow man but to put our words into action is another. My hat is off to you and your fellow workers for the work you have done. Much better than handing over money in my opinion as what is really needed is provided instead of going to the wrong places. Be good to catch up with you in the near future.

Has any one heard how Tommo is faring and if he has managed to avoid the PNG Headhunters?

......Jabaru and Sportstar pilots with their unscrupulous behavior towards the local possums.

................and get myself a hooch farm. All those south of the border (qld that is) have farms and fly expensive planes. If I stayed in Qld I'd only have to work for an honest living and build airstrips in Png for my holidays. "Yes" thought Tomo, " I'd love to be able to bludge for the rest of my life".

.....Rudolph does'nt like flying Sportstars. He prefers the wind in your antlers feeling you get from flying Drifters.

Though posting a letter to him this time of year would be like posting a letter to Santa, in that you would like to believe in him and hope for a reply but due to the nature of such characters ..............

Stay safe pal and have a happy Christmas. Will be looking forward to hear all about .

possum skin undies and a tikle me elmo make most people laugh.

'If the enemy is in range, so are you.' - Infantry Journal- 'It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed.' - US.Air Force Manual - 'Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword, obviously never encountered automatic weapons.' - General MacArthur - 'You, you, and you ... Panic. The rest of you, come with me.' - Infantry Sgt.- 'Tracers work both ways.' - Army Ordnance Manual- 'Five second fuses last about three seconds.' - Infantry Journal - The three most useless things in aviation are: Fuel in the bowser; Runway behind you; and Air above you. -Basic Flight Training Manual- 'Any ship can be a minesweeper. Once.' - Naval Ops Manual - 'Never tell the Platoon Sergeant you have nothing to do.' - Unknown Infantry Recruit- 'If you see a bomb technician running, try to keep up with him.' - Infantry Journal- 'Yea, Though I Fly Through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I Shall Fear No Evil. For I am at 50,000 Feet and Climbing.' - Sign over SR71 Wing Ops- 'You've never been lost until you've been lost at Mach 3.' -Paul F. Crickmore (SR71 test pilot)- 'The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.' -Unknown Author- 'If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage it has to be a helicopter -- and therefore, unsafe.' - Fixed Wing Pilot- 'When one engine fails on a twin-engine airplane, you always have enough power left to get you to the scene of the crash..' -Multi-Engine Training Manual- 'Without ammunition, the Air Force is just an expensive flying club.' -Unknown Author- 'If you hear me yell;"Eject, Eject, Eject!", the last two will be echos..' If you stop to ask "Why?", you'll be talking to yourself, because by then you'll be the pilot.' -Pre-flight Briefing from a Canadian F104 Pilot- 'What is the similarity between air traffic controllers and pilots? If a pilot screws up, the pilot dies; but If ATC screws up, .... the pilot dies.' -Sign over Control Tower Door- 'Never trade luck for skill.' -Author Unknown- The three most common expressions (or famous last words) in military aviation are:'Did you feel that?' 'What's that noise?' and'Oh ****!' -Authors Unknown- 'Airspeed, altitude and brains. Two are always needed to successfully complete the flight.' -Basic Flight Training Manual- 'Flying the airplane is more important than radioing your plight to a person on the ground incapable of understanding or doing anything about it.' - Emergency Checklist- 'The Piper Cub is the safest airplane in the world; it can just barely kill you.' - Attributed to Max Stanley (Northrop test pilot) - 'There is no reason to fly through a thunderstorm in peacetime.' -Sign over Squadron Ops Desk at Davis-Montham AFB, AZ- 'You know that your landing gear is up and locked when it takes full power to taxi to the terminal.' - Lead-in Fighter Training Manual - As the test pilot climbs out of the experimental aircraft, Having torn off the wings and tail in the crash landing, the crash truck arrives. The rescuer sees the bloodied pilot and asks,'What happened?' The pilot's reply: 'I don't know, I just got here myself!'

This would be a good senario to work into the n.e.s

It should'nt really matter what type of polish or cleanersd you use. If you do any painting you should give the area a wipe down with Prepsol or other simular wax/grease/silicone remover. I have used this for years on all surfaces including composite that has had grease,oil silicone,bug guts and all manner of polishes rubbed into it and it does a great job of removing it. Even after sanding you should use it as a lot of sandpapers have silicone on them.

but wait!!! Dit dot had been watching too much Mash and corporal Klinger had been prancing about in one of his dresses again."If I go to work in something like that, the old man might tell me to go home, and then I could sneak off and go flying" mused the young deisel mechanic. "I musn't forget the lipstick though, or the eye shadow, or the rouge, or the frilly............

I've noticed my local Mitre 10 store here in Toowoomba has hoop pine in stock and a lot of it doesnt look too bad. Maybe other Mitre 10 stores carry it as well.