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sleemanj

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Everything posted by sleemanj

  1. sleemanj
    A number of them flying in NZ. Very nice machines, to fly and look at. Wood and fabric construction surprisingly perhaps for such a "modern" aircraft.
  2. sleemanj
    I think you're stretching there. The wing structure is similar, but also different. You would expect that any aircraft designer looks at other aircraft designs to see what works, perhaps (maybe likely) the Sportcruiser wing design was influenced by (perhaps improved on) the 601 design, which was more than likely influenced by some other design and so on. That's the nature of the evolution of technology, aircraft included. Third post in this thread is interesting, it points out significant differences in the wing on the Sportcruiser... Matronics Email Lists :: View topic - Czech Sport Cruiser Edit to say with a little more Googling: From: http://www.lsaflyers.com/images/sportcruiser_custom_designed_for_americans.pdf So yes, clearly the design draws on the 601 etc, it would be impossible for anybody not to draw on such experience, I don't think you could hold that against the company or aircraft. It's certainly no copy.... "almost the same"? I guess an Elephant is "almost the same" as a Mammoth too, depends on how far you take the weight of inspiration.
  3. sleemanj
    Video from Piper...
  4. sleemanj
    Heres a couple of pictures, I've cropped down the PiperSport and flipped the XL one so they are roughly the same to compare with. Looking at the specs, the SportCruiser/PiperSport has more than a foot more wing span, but slightly less wing area, this implies to me as a layperson that there is little similarity in the wing designs. The body is 4 inches wider than the XL and the fuselage is longer. I just don't see "almost the same" here?
  5. sleemanj
    601? eh? The Sportcruiser has been around for a while, and I don't think it's much like a 601 at all. There were rumors of Piper buying into CSA a couple weeks back, I posted a news item here about it somewhere, sounds like they have entered into a license deal instead. Here's the rumor post.... http://www.recreationalflying.com/forum/aviation-news/70879-piper-looking-sportcruiser-purchase.html
  6. sleemanj
    I found hovering a seriously nerve wracking experience when I tried it on a trial flight a few years ago. Would have liked to have been able to learn to fly helicopters, but way too much money for me.
  7. sleemanj
    Pioneer has covered almost everything. I'm going from memory here, but I think that actually if you have a PPL you are OK to fly a micro (with the limitations of the micro). But you still need a type endorsement. That said, most people wind up at micro because they don't want (to keep) a PPL so they will switch to a micro certificate anyway. If you have a GA Commercial Piliot Licence you can use a microlight for commercial purposes (for "Joy Rides" and "Sight Seeing"). That is the ONLY permitted commercial use of microlights at this stage however. Congested/built up is just that usual hand-wavey defined term for "don't fly over where lots of people are", generally towns and larger. Supposedly this restriction doesn't apply if you are taking off or landing, but I don't think I'd like to test that interpretation against the CAA (although certainly some do use airports like this occasionally and I havn't heard of them being "done").
  8. sleemanj
    Microlights in NZ are aircraft (more or less) like any other, there is no restriction on using controlled airspace or aerodromes provided the aircraft is suitably equipped and the pilot suitably trained. No flight over congested areas and day-vfr-only are basically the only flight restrictions microlights have over normal GA.
  9. sleemanj
    There's qute a number of them flying in New Zealand (no smart remarks about our Air Force please :patch:), they sure are nice looking machines. Ivan (& Sandy) Campbell - Titan T-51 Mustang - are the distributors in this part of the world and they have done some real good work in assembling them. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to talk to you.
  10. sleemanj
    This one... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIhRVAp1Qy4"
  11. sleemanj
    The instructors at Rangiora do trips into Christchurch from time to time as people need to do CTA work. If you wanted an instructor to go with you you'd be sure to find somebody, you can PM me and I'll put you in touch. Indeed. In fact the not-over-built-up-areas restriction is also history in the UK for the majority of microlights, since last year.
  12. sleemanj
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  13. sleemanj
    That's probably about right, in the most general terms you need a valid NZ microlight pilot certificate issued by a Part 149 organisation. Depending on the organisation, hours can be credited, some of the exams may be credited, but you're going to need at least Law. That's about as specific as it gets really because we have several organisations which govern microlight pilots in NZ, each with different rules, requirements, and different pilot certification structures, all separately approved by the NZ CAA. Frankly, it's all a bit silly and confusing in my opinion, but that's a different topic. Hopefully we can see more cooperation and recognition between RAANZ (the main organisation here) and RAAus in future.
  14. sleemanj
    Woah boy, hold up there. RAAUS pilots can fly in Australia. Not NZ. There's no specific or even defacto reciprocity to my knowledge. In either direction.
  15. sleemanj
    Conversely, one of the problems when you split everything up into a great many different forums/categories is that it becomes difficult to stimulate discussion because: 1. It makes the site look a bit empty. 2. It's hard to keep track of discussions when they are spread around. I'm of the opinion that one big busy forum is better than lots of small quiet ones and that the search problem is best resolved by a better natural language search algorithm (MySQL full text search indexes work reasonably well on large datasets, or of course just direct people to google site:recreationalflying.com - except that you of course are not permitting google to index more than the 1st post I guess, but that's another topic all togethor).
  16. sleemanj
    Parachute (CAPS) Deployment History - Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association Don't know how up to date that list is, nothing since 2007, could mean no activations since 2007 I suppose.
  17. sleemanj
    I think you need to qualify that - can be fitted to almost any light single engine piston. No way are you equipping a 747 with a ballistic chute, the chute would probably be so big and heavy it'd never get off the ground with it. Big isn't the only problem, if your aircraft has a high stalling speed, you are at best going to tear the chute to bits, at worst, tear the aircraft to bits. You also need to consider that where the chute attaches to the aircraft needs to handle not just the entire weight of the aircraft, but probably a good couple of times that when the chute inflates, slamming on the brakes so to speak, large force, concentrated in a small spot... needs some good engineering to be sure it works, that spot needs to be pretty near the center of gravity, you don't want to be coming down nose or tail first by much.
  18. sleemanj
    I'm treasurer for a club in NZ which currently operates 3 582 powered aircraft. It means: strip the engine down, replace all the small stuff - rings, bearings, pins, seals etc, check everything else including crank, put it back togethor, do it again in another 300. Now, 300hrs is conservative, in a traning environment of course conservatism rules (although we do push it out to about 330), in private hands I think it would be fair to say that most 582s out there are run much much longer than that between overhauls (if they get overhauled!) Cost wise, I budget about $3000 NZD (that's about $2300 AUD today) for the 300hr, some will be cheap, some will be expensive, but it averages out about right. Is the 912 cheaper in the long run than the 582? Yes, it's fair to say it is (by how much I can't say, it's been a long time since we operated a 912 here and I don't have figures for it). Unfortunately with the 912 you have a BIG bill to begin with. Also bears mentioning that the overhaul cost for a 912 is also going to be significantly higher than the 582. All in all, the 582 is a perfectly good aircraft engine, don't let the 300hr rebuild put you off.
  19. sleemanj
    That would be all right, in fact probably preferable to seeing everything. That's all you get from PPRUNE RSS feeds for example, the first post in a thread (and my PPRUNE feeds are "logged in" anyway). It's more about keeping an eye out for "interesting topics" so that you can come and contribute (or flag them in your reader for later).
  20. sleemanj
    In the most simple explanation I can think of, RSS is like a continual newspaper arriving on your desktop :-) You use a "Feed Reader" of which there are many, to collect togethor "RSS Feeds" of news (or in this case, new forum threads) into one place. Google Reader is a good example, and this video is an even better explanation that I can give For a deeper explanation: RSS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  21. sleemanj
    Would be nice if we could get RSS feeds from the forums.
  22. sleemanj
    At this link is a video interview with the pilot. http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/emergency_landing_042109
  23. sleemanj
    Check out this CNN video, keep watching through as I thought the first time they restarted that it must have been a practice, but no..... Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com Shameless link plug for my own club's video gallery to which I've embedded it, there's some good stuff there if you're killing time:Video
  24. sleemanj
    Stemming from the initial investigation into a fatal accident here in NZ a couple of months ago where an Airborne XTS-912 appears to have broken up during cruise the Civil Aviation Authority has issued an alert saying that the aluminium alloy from which the wing leading edge spar was manufactured, may not have met the required material specifications. Here is the letter from the CAA: http://www.caa.govt.nz/Airworthiness_Directives/Emergency_Airworthiness_Directives/Airworthiness_Investigation_Airborne%20XTS.pdf This aircraft was I believe less than a year old, but being used in a commercial sightseeing operation may have done a few hours.
  25. sleemanj

    Silly question

    sleemanj posted a topic in Jabiru

    Given a completed flying Jabiru UL-T, what is the feasibility of converting it (snide comments aside) to a UL - ie tail dragger becomes tricycle? Impossible? Or merely cost prohibitive?
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