skydog

rain affected airshow Shame about the weather today (Saturday) We dont want anything in aviation to be a failure during these tough times. Need more people to get excited and learn to fly.

Always a bit of a worry The bi-annual, its always a bit of a worry and concern when you are in your fifties and older as the old bod` starts to slow down a little. Funny how I exercise more and eat better about 3 months before my medical. I think good to have a class 2 for controlled airspace and any space for that matter, although you dont hear about many heart failures in flight class anywhere, its a debatable point. Flying on drugs and medication is more the issue I believe. Very dangerous if mixed and mistakes in judgement happen. Oh well if I fail the class 2 someday and cant get it back I am glad to have maintained my RA-Aus license. Some great ultra-lights out there like the Lightening etc to go fly in!.

maintenance Dear Cloudsuck, Good name by the way, you must have done some gliding. No I dont think you have missed anything. CASA will soon allow builder pilots to do maintenance to their aircraft a bit beyond what is already allowed. You will have to attend and pass a course run by your org, like RAA or SAAA. This will then be extended to non-builder owners like me. The SAAA has a good article on it on the front page of their website.SAAA - We are the Builders of AUSTRALIAN EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT This will reduce maintenance costs in general for me. RAA are discussing the same thing right now for ultralight builders and owners.I think there was discussion about it in the last magazine . Rgds.

Dear Cloudsuck MTOW 749 Not sure about changing over to the 760kg class. May do the maintenance course and keep it VH. run costs have been rather low fortunately. Thanks

Thanks GFC, I did not build it as I am not a builders a---hole and have the attention span of a rabbit. I bought it with a partner from a builder in Kingston SA. The plane gets lots of attention for the build and paint quality. It has a standard lycoming 160hp so a TAS of about 145 Kts one up. At height it can go faster and with a strong tailwind can be very exciting. Ground speeds of 180 kts or faster are not uncommon. Standard 6 pack steam gauges, no gizmos, just nice , simple and fast.

Xlnt work Great work jcamp, thanks. What about glide on a RV6A?

Wow WOW WHAT AN AIRCRAFT!!!! Dont know if it will glide very far?

what aircraft is that Shags, its the RV6A photographed into the backlight which washes out the colour giving that polished aluminium look. Good blog, keep up the work.

nice work shags Good picies. Imagine what you could do with a long lens, amazing!

Good one Skykid Nice shots you are obviously into nature Skykid. Where is the strip at Gisborne is it just near Mt Gisborne on the sth side, I may have seen it on the way north from Melton. Always liked the Grumman too.

Sharks skin Sharks skin covering on an airplane! sure puts another meaning to comment "this slippery little plane if you are not careful can easily bite you"

Looks like a "must do" The weekend is sounding like a real must do and the best biggest aviation meet for Victoria, God knows we have a dearth of fly ins etc in Vic. I will be there for sure.

Thought some of you might be intersted in a great old original Disney cartoon about Mickey building a plane and flying it with Minnie as a pasenger. Its in B&W, and the old original Mickey drawing style. Actually quite funny with rather dubious building techniques and equipment including "engines". Click on the URL:clown: Plane Crazy - Video

Great instructors at Aldinga They are a great training organisation down there at ALDINGA BiPlanes , Martin is a fab person and the team Gaylene etc just very hospitable. Had great dealings with them and very experienced understanding instructors.

Seems logical that if the empty weight plus pilots, plus fuel, plus baggage weight is under 600kgs then you should be within the envelope but I am never surprised so looking fwd to whats in the POH.

Any crosswind? The pilot describes the weather conditions as OK but I suspect some XW. I only have 80 hours on Jabs but notice they are extremely light aircraft and susceptible to the slightwest crosswind on landing. I have had 2 rather scary unexpected landings veering off one direction or the other opposite to the wind direction. Fast action on the aileron is required plus rudder to correct it but it happens quickly on the Jab due to its light weight and you have to be aware or have a few hours up your sleeve to counteract it quickly. Contrary to opinion in this thread there has been very many incidents of Jabirus running off the runway into ditches etc just read the airsafety magazine from CASA over the years. The controls such as throttle, brakes and flaps are totally out of standard and although as an experienced pilot you can fly them quite OK as I have but there must be a reason for aircraft makers to use more conventional controls as found on allmost all other aircraft. The Jabs would be great planes in my opinion if they had conventional panel throttles, differential foot brakes ( how much extra would they really cost ) and electric flaps. Some versions such as the J230 etc now have electric flaps and panel throttles, which is great, come on Jabiru , bring on diff foot brakes and make this great little plane even greater.

125th Thats invaluable info Ben re the props blur, 125th is the go then. All my skydiving stuff was at minimum 500th sec , no props in the way there though. This velocity at Oshkosh was mad! A jet engine attached and they are racing these now. Cheers

nice good shots there Bass.

All is forgiven

Hard to beat Nikon for sure. Great shots at Avalon, that old glass is hard to beat too. Have you been to Oshkosh? If not, as a photographer you will surely have a mishap in your pants.

This is one great camera and I am fortunate to own the earlier model ,5D. A few Oshkosh images under my profile were taken with this but the ultralight ones in Australia as in this thread are with my point and shoot mostly and a couple with a 300D.Thats because they are easier and lighter to fly with. Canon are now back on top with digital SLR for sure however the lenses are where the real work is done. I have a 100>400mm L series and a 24> 105 L series plus a 1.8mm 50mm L series. All very good lenses but cost the Earth. One day I will get the time to just concentrate on taking really good photos, what a luxury.

Juxtaposition Tomo, wrong ! dont get so antzy, I meant good juxtaposition as in good positioning in relation to the cars and plane NOT IN PHOTOSHOP. I hate photoshopped images in general and prefer skill right out of the lens. Again, a good shot Tomo.

Nice website Ben and lovely work. Like the range and quality. What still camera gear you using now? Sorry Ian I know this is meant to be an aviation site.;)

Nice juxtaposition there Tomo.

Skykid, There was a comp going where the monthly winner won a subscription to a flying magazine. It fell by the wayside but looks like a lot of interest is still around. Contact admin to put the idea fwd or ask him to take a look at this thread.Ian is his name.