Ultralights

this is correct. Headwind and Tailwind are only with reference with the ground, the aircraft has no knowledge of these things, to it, its all wind passing over it at CAS.

I was at Caiguna roadhouse and spoke to the pilot before they departed. He decided to cancel the ferry flight and return to Perth with the aircraft as he was not comfortable flying the aircraft in poor state. The previous day both blades had fibreglass delaminated along about 50% of each blade. Sadly his last words to us will haunt me and my wife for a very long time.

An interesting issue for those who know Rotax's for the last few hours of flying, the 912ULS has developed a niggling vibration, this vibration shows up when moving from full power to max power in the take off roll, usually at about 3/4 throttle, once at full power, its ok. in cruise at 5100 rpm it is very slight, 5200 RPM is smooth as should be, just noticeable vibration. at 4700 rpm, its as smooth as a rotax should be, between 4700 and 5100 rpm, the vibration is very noticeable.. to try to fix this, i have done the following.. Balanced carbies, balanced the prop, checked prop track and pitch, all good. Leads have been tested anre are within limits, but not new. carbies have been recently overhauled by rotax. engine still starts fine, very quickly, even when cold. so, 2nd last flight, i performed a high power mag check at 5100 rpm results were. Mag 1 off, EGT's all changed the same amount.. back on. Mag 2 off, EGT on cylinder #2 steadily fell from 700 deg C to about 300 deg c, back on, all back to normal. (#3 EGT failed completely and reads 0, and still read 0 for the next testing) so, 1 spark plug change later. (all plugs looked fine), back at cruise power, again, same test, same result. hmmm , back on both mags, i started experimenting with RPM settings to see at what RPM the vibration was the most noticeable, and the results were interesting. 4700 rpm, no vibration, 4800 rpm, small vibration.. 4900 rpm, largest vibration, but also, the same EGT drop on #2 Cylinder!! from about 700 to 500 deg C. 5000 rpm, same, still lower EGT on #2. 5100 rpm, #2 EGT comes back up to normal temps around 700 Deg. in line with other readings. Any rotax engine guru, have an idea on what might be happening? Thanks.

Youtube channels i watch regularly, are Flightchops, Stevo1Kenevo, Backcountrypilots, FlyDigital (based in Melb), Captain Joe, BAA Training, Balleka, Dnhug, Greg Swingle (ohio bush planes), The Cardinal Pilot, and my own just started channel, The City Bush Pilots. and the usual Avweb, EAA, NASA, CASA, that sort of stuff, many hours of great regular aviation viewing.

this is my spinner and cowling clearance.

sadly i cant edit my post anymore, ill try again here, but uploading the pics instead of linking to them.

My colour scheme Some other ideas i was playing with finished Product

Its been a very long time since i flew a Sapphire, but very light on the controls, and also extremely light in pitch, but can get used to it, also very slippery, pull back the power and you wont be slowing down in a hurry. so you have to plan your approaches.

we used bathroom scales, but calibrated them with known weights before use. so were only out by 2 kg, which was then factored into calculations.

most recent reweigh, a few months ago, after removing steam gauges, to replace them with Ipads and AHRS units, removing firesleeve fuel lines for braided steel fireproof lines, replacing a lot of fuel line fittings with aluminium alloy, and repainting. we only have 3 tanks, not the usual 4. and including the weight of the slick bushwheels. final weight empty = 285Kg.

i have seen wide body airliners that have flown for unknown hours with damage as bad as cracked spars, and critical primary structural components corroded to a point they no longer exist.. you get badly maintained aircraft at all levels, just as you get exquisitely maintained as well

its sad, but i cant help but laugh at the stupidity of taking photos from an aircraft and selling them, being controlled by CASA.... what has CASA got to do with what happens to a photo and who took it? its not an aviation activity, its casa meddling in external business outside of aviation, as a passenger on an airliner, i can take a photo, sell it no problem.. if im the pilot, oh, big NO, unless CASA says so.

bringing up an ld thread, just changed my tyres to some tundra type, it appears the tyre diameter has a significant impact on the brakes, now with larger tyres, more rotational force, harder work for the brakes.. so, now time to upgrade the stock brakes.

if there is very little temp difference across the cooler, it sounds like there is little to no airflow to cool it, a rotax installation, which i have, has the oil cooler mounted behind the water cooler, or just in front of the lower cowling exit, the lip of the exit creates a low pressure area, and with aiflow coming in through the inlets and radiator, being higher pressure, then the low pressure are draws air through the oil cooler, mounted here its very efficient, in Australian summer, on days approaching or 40 deg C, the temps might rise above normal on a long climb. almost all year round i need to cover a percentage of the cooler to keep it warm. could you mount it on the lower cowling inner side just in front of the cowl exit area?

if it doesnt involve dirt, the government of Australia simply doesnt give a shit.