walrus

You should have an earthing clip on your hose and an earthing point next to the fuel cap. The hose should be fuel hose which is conducting, not plastic. Mr. Funnel makes a conductive plastic funnel. A purpose made electric fuel pump (eg Holley) SHOULD be intrinsically safe. Most dangerous time is a still, cold winter morning. We blew the back wall out of a service station once. The tank vent was just above the roofline. The space in the double brick wall filled with fumes. The owner went to make a coffee for the tanker driver. The wall disappeared when he switched on the electric jug!

Given the behaviour of the ATSB in investigating accidents as evidenced by my knowledge of one fatal helicopter tragedy, given to me by surviving family members, there is little point in leaving evidence behind. They will make it up to suit themselves anyway. As for AsA, if it would make their job easier, tell them. Best bet for rescue is a PLB, spot tracker a sat phone and a worried relative. As for CASA, I. don’t think they can be trusted NOT to use any data you supply to crucify you - based on the evidence of their latest fishing expedition regarding careflight pilots. To my way of thinking - based upon being an observer of a criminal investigation involving someone I know recently, any data you provide, even the most innocuous things, can and will be used against you. Provide nothing except what is required by law.

Car sound deadening - Dynamat from super cheap auto on inside of firewall and forward skin panels. A bit more in the center of any bulkhead that might resonate. Marine polypropylene boat liner mounted with double sided tape for interior upholstery. Floor mats held down with velcro. Treat it all with spray on fire retardant just in case. ‘’You can actually talk in the cockpit with a running rotax 912.

OK, I’m convinced. Four point it is. If you have a $10 body use a $10 seat belt.

It is generally not possible to impose conditions on where someone works after leaving - its called “restraint of trade”. In some cases you can apply a non compete clause, usually not more than two years. Courts don’t like enforcing these clauses. If Mr. Lincke does want to go to CASA, no non compete clause could stop him because he is not going to a competitor but to an arm of government.

The logical end point of this discussion is a requirement for fully engineered five point harnesses and ballistic recovery parachutes. That adds probably another $15,000 to the cost of an aircraft and a weight penalty of 50+ kg. Do we really need to go there? Then we have fire. Shrouded externally drained stainless and teflon lines with steel fittings. An inerting system, fuel cells, break away couplings. Dual batteries, dual everything. ADSB in and out. Strobes, beacons, lifejackets, aviation hard installed EPIRB. ‘’Purpose built aircraft engines and professional maintenance. Everything TSO’d. Not so much as fitting a Go Pro without a fully engineered and approved mount. The list is endless. I would suggest that better and more pilot training is a better return on investment.

Kyle, I saw housing examples, both good and bad, in the Kempsey region last year. I still have my rural fire services cap from that trip. I got a ride home in a C17!

There is no such thing as a quick conversion, even if the airframe, engines, pilots and crews were available.

I am a recent member of RAA and have no comments to make one way or the other. I am a member of Two clubs that epitomise the good and the bad. Club 1 has a very strong sub committee structure. Each sub committee has it’s own operating charter and its own budget. It makes decisions within the limits of its charter and budget and reports to the general committee. If the committee wants to do something extraordinary, they have to make a case to the General committee. Result? Happiness and a thriving club. Club 2 has allegedly the same structure, but the sub committees have no autonomy. The general committee and President think that it’s their job to make all decisions and the sub committee members are just rubber stamps. I once spent a lot of time on a project for this club, when I presented my recommendations I was told:”we’re not doing that”. Decisions are made, unmade, countermanded, ignored because the “leaders” think they are infallible. Strategy changes with each new president. Result? This club, despite being lectured on governance, has no idea what it means. It will be lucky to survive covid19. ‘’Corporations are different again. The job of the Board is not to make operational decisions; its job is to ensure that the decision making process is solid and effective. It has a CEO for operations. The Boards job is to ensure the assets are protected, manage risk and hire and fire the CEO. ‘Managing risk” is critical, as the Directors of Virgin have just found out the hard way. I hope RAA has no need for any more lectures from me.

My ultimate mission is from Arkaroola to dig tree and return. Thats about 5 hours total and 400 nm. Two people and a sandwich lunch plus survival gear. My maximum flight is generally bladder limited to three hours. No more than six hours per day, then a motel.

Good questions Jim, I don‘t have answers.

My opinion is that RAA saved itself a great deal of time and money by agreeing to provide AVDATA with ownership details. The alternative would have eventually led to the Courts - RAA aiding and abetting “theft” by its members, etc. and losing. The alternative being airport owners banning RAA aircraft, wheel clamps, etc. This was one the RAA wasn’t going to win.

Privatisation works just fine where there is already a vibrant, efficient market. Elsewhere, not so much - like healthcare. Compounding that problem is the use of contracts for public servants. In the old days, you got “full and frank’’ advice from the PS. Today, not so much because you want your contract renewed or a job with the service provider. Add to that some PC bullshit and you get 26 year old arts graduates (?) organising covid quarantine hotels and security.......with predictable unpleasant results.

This is serious. I’m not sure what foam they used but some can be corrosive. This might take much more than a simple hose down to return the aircraft to service.

Seen somebody taxiing with control locks still in place............for a short distance.

I pulled mine apart. The “dangerous goods” are four sonneschein cr125 lithium batteries in a well engineered plastic carrier. Anyway, it all went int o the bin as it was about 2010 vintage and i’ve ordered a new ACR PLB. I miht have kept the 410, it was well engineered, but I figure the electronics have improved in the last ten years.

Wait till the fun police read this story. To them “10000 pilots” is a threat. They will do what they can to destroy recreational aviation the same way they destroyed GA.

Advice from a serious researcher in the field on Tuesday is that the Melbourne outbreak is driven by a new mutation that makes it the most infectious strain on the planet. The lockdown is thus for national and global reasons.

Flying for recreation is out of bounds in the Melbourne lockdown area. In regional Victoria I can not find anything that prohibits it as a form of recreation even under stage 3. The applicable documents appear to be the Stay Safe Directive number 9 and the restricted activity direction number 16. - Leaving home for recreation is permissible. SS clause 5, provided you comply with RAD 16 - which allows recreation , clause 6B. If no facility is involved there is no record keeping. 6B (3)(e) has a footnote covering recreation where there is no defined facility involved. Eg bushwalking, running around an airstrip. etc. - CASA exemptions specifically state RAA aircraft are for education or recreation. I stand to be corrected, but I cannot see anything that prohibits working on or flying your aircraf.

No blame reporting culture doesn’t exist any more. Two examples from my time as a student in GA not RAA. 1. Do not use a rag or wad of paper to plug ANY orifice during maintenance, use a correct plug or fitting. That one resulted in a fire, $12000 damage and a few dinner party stories. When the smoke started, I did a very neat circuit at 200 ft while my instructor did the radio. My understanding is that one may have been written up as a “random” bit of paper being blown into an unfortunate location so as not to reflect on LAMES. 2. Do not EVER do touch and goes with flaps when learning STOL techniques on short unimproved airstrips without determining your climb capability. . Plan for a full stop or go around from a safe height before you are committed. That one nearly killed me and my instructor. It should have been written up and even perhaps published. No written report was produced because it would have been an admission that the school and its instructors were less than perfect. The instructor is now in jets.

As long as the Icom is approved you should be OK. How did you get approval to fly in class D airspace in a “19” registered aircraft?

KR Aviator, the issue with the virus is not it’s lethality but the dynamics of pandemics. The rate of infection without mitigation (blunting the peak, smoothing the curve) ensures that the healthcare system collapses. When that happens, no one gets medical attention for anything. Supply chains instantly freeze up and our society collapses. Think 100,000 people trying to get medical attention for their wives/grandparents/children at once. Do the statistics. No medical services, therefore no workers, supply chains operate just in time systems. When they go down, no food, no fuel, no energy, no job. No country is more than three meals from revolution. Police are monitoring supply chains very carefully since the start for this reason. The authorities are trying to keep us balanced on a knife. edge - no jobs vs. no societ.

The Rotax engines are used in American military drones.

......and I’m assuming WGS84, not AGD whatever for the datum. From experience, you can overnavigate by fiddling around with this stuff. The surveys for almost all VFR charts predate GPS and you should be prepared for features to be up to a few miles out of position compared to GPS. So please continue to navigate, not just follow the magenta line. ‘Certified ’Airport positions should be accurate but don’t assume anything else is.

Mhalc, rememyer that an engine is a pressure device where hot gas flows to low pressure - the exhaust. The pressure drop from piston to atmospheric produces the power. At altitude there is less exhaust back. pressure.