Mick

Did someone say Ballistic Rescue Shute???????

Hi Frank, Just to clarify, was your experience at Hervey Bay or Maryborough?

There is a strip at Agnes Waters, privately owned and just at the edge of the township, it can be seen on google earth. It is grass and a bit rough in places. I flew in there about 12 months ago but only as passenger. I don't have any more detail hopefully someone else may be able to help. Cheers Mick

This from the FAQ page of their website................. 5.. SPIN EXIT MANOUVRE Shark is designed for FAST CROSS COUNTRY FLIGHTS. While designing the airplane we considered the possibility of making the fin fully designed for good spin exit manouvre, but couldn´t keep up with it. Shark would loose it´s shapes and other parameters. So we decided to consider the good spin exit manouvre for the fin for about 30% and we leave the last word for the first prototype testing - we´ll see how the airplane does.

Thanks Ian. I was hoping you might chime in with some info. Please keep me posted with any news from Rodds Bay. I really don't want to leave the Skylark out in the weather, rather than leave it out I will leave it in the hangar here in Bundy until something becomes available. Do you know anyone who might be able to tell me if there is anything available in Gladstone? Cheers Mick

We are moving to Gladstone Qld just after Christmas and will be looking for a hangar for the Skylark. Normally I would start with the local aero club but Gladstone does not have one. Any contacts would be appreciated. Cheers Mick

I saw the prototype at Oshkosh a couple of years ago, Very nice but I did the sums and I reckon it would cost close to $200k landed here in Aus, maybe a little less with the current exchange rates.

Bert Hinkler flew from England to Australia using only an atlas for navagation. The atlas is in the Hinkler museum here in Bundaberg. Could you imagine the reaction if you produced an atlas for Mr Casa during a ramp check!!!!!:ah_oh:

Pud, I would be very wary of painting a prop unless you have an appropriate way of re-balancing it when you are done. Cheers Mick

Just got home from my attempt to get there. Left Bundy in sunshine just before 10am, cloud slowly built as we travelled further south. Got as far as Gympie and visibility dropped to zero with a combination of cloud, showers of rain and smoke. Landed at Gympie at 11.00am under a cloud base of about 1700 ft. Rang a mate already at Archerfalls to be told the weather was not much better there. Stayed at Gympie for a couple of hours and had lunch with a mate then headed back North. Got to Maryborough and stopped for a coke at the aero club before starting the final leg home. Arrived at Bundy basking in sunshine. A good day but dissapointed to not get to the intended destination.

Hinkler Flying School here in Bundy has a new Piper Sports for $150 per hour wet.

How is the aircraft currently registered? ie, RAAus or VH.

Hi Disperse, Good to see you back on the flying scene! I have heard from a few people that the Sting is not the most friendly thing at low speed. This could be an issue with approach speeds and getting into tight strips. Have heard nothing but good from those who have flown Gary Morgan's machines. Regarding training in your own aircraft, I am not sure that it is the best way to go. I think it's best to go through the learning to land phase in a school plane and not be mistreating your new pride and joy. Also insuring your aircraft for ab-initio training may be costly. Personally I got my basic pilot certificate in the school's aircraft, then converted to my own aircraft. I then built hours for my passenger endorsement and did my cross county training in my own aircraft. Cheers Mick

There used to be an RAAus school at West Sale, I am not sure if they are still there. I had the need to fly into West Sale a couple of years ago, rang the school and spoke to the CFI to get the local knowledge, he was most helpful.

Spin, RDR has a polished metal prop so probably a hard subject for that effect as it has no color as such, only reflection. Mick

I have stripped Jab engines that have had 25 hourly oil changes and ones that have had the typical 50 hour changes. 25 hour changes definitely leave a motor notably cleaner and with less wear. After what I saw I wiil be changing my Rotax oil every 25 hours from now on. I don't have to leave any for the next generation as I am not having kids.

I have some mates that are working with some pretty large electric scale models. It seems that motor size and battery capacity are fast becoming unlimited if you are prepared to throw enough $$$ at it. One of the limiting factors at this stage for a lot of batteries is recharge capacity, ie how big a current you can put into them which determines how long they take to charge. This is particularly limiting with the Li-Po batteries that have such impressive outputs for their size and weights. For example I have one small model that flies for about 10 minutes on a charge but the Li-Po battery takes over an hour to charge. Translate that to an hours flight in a full size and the charge time would be ????????? Makes that 20 minute fuel stop now on a trip seem pretty convenient........ My mates are experimenting with some new types of battery that are slightly heavier and more bulky than the popular Li-Po's but give an equivalent flight time of around 9 minutes. The real plus though is that these new batteries can be re-charged in under 10 minutes. Another advantage is that unlike Li-Po's they can be left in the model while being charged. I love my IC engines but the development of electrics has alot of appeal too. Cheers Mick

Hi Spin, Looks like you got us leaving:clap: I was in the Stinson VH-RDR which is in your second last pic, next to the Tecnam Twin. You can't actually see me as I was hiding in the back seat. Cheers Mick

Hi Yenn, Unfortunately a lot of these problems are not being reported. I recently spent a lot of time working on Jabs and saw lots of problems at very low hours. For example a camshaft that was wrecked after only 125 hours, engines with even lower hours and no compression etc.

Back from Watts Bridge already, unfortunately our pilot had other commitments. Weather was perfect and there was a good number and variety of aircraft there and still arriving when we left. Interesting to see the new Tecnam twin for the first time, a shame that it took 3 attempts to land due other traffic infringing on it's approach. First it was a Cessna 172 or 182 that came in on a right base when the strip in use was left circuits. Then on the Tecnam's second approach a Beech Baron ( twin ) cut in on finals causing a second go-around. Some pretty poor airmanship on display there!

Hi Graeme, I made no comparison of model engines to this engine, I merely responded to others who had mentioned model engines of a similar style.

Below is an article written a few years ago now by Rick Reilly of Sports Illustrated... He details his experiences when given the opportunity to fly in a F-14 Tomcat.. If you aren't laughing out loud by the time you get To 'Milk Duds' , your sense of humor is seriously broken. This message is for America 's most famous athletes: Someday you may be invited to fly in the back-seat of one of your country's Most powerful fighter jets. Many of you already have. John Elway, John Stockton, Tiger Woods to name a few. If you get this opportunity, Let me urge you, with the greatest sincerity.... Move to Guam . Change your name. Fake your own death! Whatever you do. Do Not Go!!! I know. The U.S. Navy invited me to try it. I was thrilled. I was pumped. I was toast! I should've known when they told me my pilot would Be Chip (Biff) King of Fighter Squadron 213 at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach .. Whatever you're thinking a Top Gun named Chip (Biff) King looks Like, triple it. He's about six-foot, tan, ice-blue eyes, wavy surfer hair, Finger-crippling handshake the kind of man who wrestles Dyspeptic alligators in his leisure time. If you see this man, run the Other way. Fast. Biff King was born to fly. His father, Jack King, was for years the Voice of NASA missions. ('T-minus 15 seconds and counting'. Remember?) Chip would charge neighborhood kids a quarter each to hear his dad. Jack would wake up from naps surrounded by nine-year-olds waiting For him to say, 'We have liftoff'. Biff was to fly me in an F- 14D Tomcat, a ridiculously powerful $60 million Weapon with nearly as much thrust as weight, not unlike Colin Montgomerie. I was worried about getting airsick, so the night before the flight I asked Biff if there was something I should eat the next morning. 'Bananas,' he said. 'For the potassium?' I asked. 'No,' Biff said, 'because they taste about the same coming up As they do going down.' The next morning, out on the tarmac, I had on my flight suit with my name Sewn over the left breast. (No call sign like Crash or Sticky or Leadfoot. But, still, very cool.) I carried my helmet in the crook of my arm, as Biff had Instructed. If ever in my life I had a chance to nail Nicole Kidman, this was it. A fighter pilot named Psycho gave me a safety briefing and then fastened Me into my ejection seat, which, when employed, would 'egress' me out Of the plane at such a velocity that I would be immediately knocked Unconscious. Just as I was thinking about aborting the flight, the canopy closed over me, And Biff gave the ground crew a thumbs-up In minutes we were firing nose Up at 600 mph. We leveled out and then canopy-rolled over another F-14. Those 20 minutes were the rush of my life. Unfortunately, the ride lasted 80. It was like being on the roller coaster at Six Flags Over Hell. Only without rails. We did barrel rolls, snap rolls, loops, yanks and banks. We dived, rose and Dived again, sometimes with a vertical velocity of 10,000 feet per minute. We chased another F-14, and it chased us. We broke the speed of sound. Sea was sky and sky was sea. Flying at 200 feet we did 90-degree turns at 550 mph, creating a G force of 6.5, Which is to say I felt as if 6.5 times my body weight was smashing Against me, thereby approximating life as Mrs.. Colin Montgomerie. And I egressed the bananas. And I egressed the pizza from the night before. And the lunch before that. I egressed a box of Milk Duds from the sixth grade. I made Linda Blair look polite. Because of the G's, I was egressing Stuff that never thought would be egressed. I went through not one airsick bag, but two. Biff said I passed out. Twice.. I was coated in sweat. At one point, As we were coming in upside down in a banked curve on a mock Bombing target and the G's were flattening me like a tortilla and I Was in and out of consciousness, I realized I was the first person In history to throw down. I used to know 'cool'. Cool was Elway throwing a touchdown pass, Or Norman making a five-iron bite.. But now I really know 'cool'. Cool is guys like Biff, men with cast-iron stomachs and freon nerves. I wouldn't go up there again for Derek Jeter's black book, but I'm glad Biff does every day, and for less a year than a rookie reliever makes in a home stand. A week later, when the spins finally stopped, Biff called. He said he and the fighters had the perfect call sign for me. Said he'd send it on a patch for my flight suit. What is it? I asked. 'Two Bags.'

Ever wonder why the longest established and most successful distributor of Model Engines in Australia dropped their agency for these engines??? Lots of problems and lots of comebacks from unhappy customers. The problems were alot less in the same brand conventional style engines. This info came from an employee of said company.

If I can get over the flu that I am doing battle with I should be arriving Saturday in a 1947 vintage Stinson 108-2 Voyager, VH-RDR. I gave the owner a ride to Dalby last weekend in the Skylark so now he owes me a trip.

Can't help but wonder why Gympie Aero Club appears to be forming a habit of trying to hold events that clash with other events reasonably nearby. Earlier this year they held something on the same weekend as the Childers fly-in which I will admit was a new event but this poker run clashes with the Watts Bridge Festival of Flight which is a long established and popular event??? Just does not seem to be a receipe for success. I was one of the few that did a similar poker run on the way to Monto for the RAAus fly-in in June, had a blast and would not mind doing it again but I have been planning the weekend at Watts Bridge since Watts Bridge last year........