Neil_S

Hi SnowyDave, Have you spoken to Pete Gillespie, the new Savannah agent? He may well know. He is based at Bendigo. His number is in the Sport Pilot mag, or I can PM it to you. Cheers, Neil

Hi Tom, You are welcome to drop in on Penfield on Sunday Oct 14th at 10am for our pancake breakfast. I have tried unsuccessfully to get to Shepparton for your pancake breakfast for the past 3 months due to bad weather (as Lucy knows!). Check the ERSA - westerly circuits at Penfield (as Riddell's airfield 2 nm to the northeast), and under the 2500ft Tullamarine CTA step. Cheers, Neil

Hi Michael, That is the route I would recommend anyway - it is arguably cheaper, and you can always get an RPL at a later date if you decide you want one, and your RAAus hours and endorsements should be taken into account. You will have plenty of time to research the differences, but the main thing is to just get flying!! All the best, Neil

Hi Michael, Welcome to the site. Do you mean RAAus Recreational Pilot Certificate, or Recreational Pilot Licence (RPL)? There's a big difference. Anyway - I hope you manage to get whichever, and your own plane! Cheers, Neil

Very sad news. Deb was a great contributor on this site, and clearly loved flying, and her Gazelle. Not alone into the sunset but into the company of friends who have gone before.....

Hi Peter, Excellent account of your trip, and lovely photos. And yes, the weather around Mount Macedon is frequently the reason some of our planned flyaways from Penfield have to be postponed/cancelled! Cheers, Neil

Hi Ryan, I believe they have some at Bendigo, and Lethbridge. Cheers, Neil

Weather screwed up my plan to fly on WUFI day last year - here's hoping it's better this year!! Neil

Got my hard copy last week. No election material in it.

Hi Peter, Welcome to the forums, and back to flying! Tell us a bit more about yourself - where do you fly from? What aircraft are you flying? etc etc Cheers, Neil

Hi folks, Avro fans should like this! Cheers, Neil

Hi Perry, Looks very sleek! Well done. Hope she flies as good as she looks! Let's have lots of piccies..... Cheers, Neil

Hi Kaz, Very interesting! My mum & grandparents were in London at the time, and my dad was somewhere along the south coast.... Thanks for posting. Cheers, Neil

Hi Barry, Excellent! I know a few trike pilots in Victoria. If over this way you should check out Yarrawonga - Peter Maclean runs a trike school there. Very friendly, helpful guy. Cheers, Neil

Welcome, Barry! Tell us a bit about yourself! What do you fly? Or are you training? etc etc Cheers, Neil

Hi PD, I am on the right side of 60 (ie 63) and I would endorse Yenn's comments. I have had a Savvanah for the past 3 years, and have done around 220 hours in it so far. It has the long range tanks, holding 140 litres, which gives me at least 7 hours endurance plus 45 minutes reserve. I would thoroughly recommend it if you like low and slow (I flight plan 90kts TAS), plus the ability to land and take off from shortish grass strips. HTH, Neil

So sorry to hear about this! There are some real scumbags about. I hope the police manage to catch the little $hits and you get some of the stuff back. All the best, Neil

Welcome Oophda, Good luck with your flying, and purchase of a Savannah (good choice!). Cheers, Neil

Hi Sam, Correct - no spats. I have the standard 6.00 x 6 tyres, not the Tundra option. I find them fine for the grass strips that I frequently fly into. My hangar mate, who has a Savannah VG, has the Tundra tyres. Cheers, Neil

Welcome Saki, I used to own a Gazelle, which is two place and had folding wings and was able to go on a trailer - have you looked for one of those? Cheers, Neil

Hi Sam, OK - I'll start off with data from my Savvy S (from memory). Empty weight about 310 kg - I have long range tanks, dual brakes, centre stick, adjustable seats, transponder, Garmin Aera 500, manual flaps, electric trim.... I usually fly solo, and I weigh about 60kg. With full tanks, and about 7kg of stuff in the baggage my take-off weight is around 470-480 kg. So my figures when solo are usually closer to the old 450kg ones in the POH rather than the 600kg ones. The stall speed gets hard to measure when I fly straight and just slow up as the angle of the pitot is high and not really reading accurately, but with full flap I see it around 25 kts. When clean it is around 30kts, but same issue with pitot at high AoA. (Book figures for 600kg are 30kts and 35kts respectively). I cruise at around 4800-5000 rpm (100hp ULS), and my speed is around 82-83 IAS. I flight plan on 90 kts TAS, with cruise altitude usually over 4000ft AMSL, and over 3 years I have found that to be largely accurate. I get about 15 litres per hour with 98 octane MOGAS (POH figure is 18.5). This gives me an endurance of 8 hours + reserve, which is well past my bladder endurance... I haven't really measured my take-off roll as it varies with wind, surface, etc - but it would usually be less than 200m, and my rate of climb solo is usually 800-1000fpm as the flap extension speed is 60kts so I have to keep the nose angle high enough to avoid exceeding this. I usually climb out at 55kts, and I am frequently at circuit height before turning crosswind. Landing distance is also usually less than 200m or so - I do not try to land short most of the time as it puts stress on the u/c to do this, and as my home field has 1200m of runway I really don't have to! Much shorter landings are definitely possible. Just search Youtube for videos of Savannahs doing short landings - there are many! BTW - see if you can get Revision 6 or later of the POH as that has figures for both 450kg and 600kg MTOW. I hope this helps. I have certainly been happy with my Savannah since I bought it, and there are many Savannah owners/builders in Australia who I think feel the same way. Let me know if there are any other figures you would like, and I will try to supply them from my experience. Good luck with convincing your family!! Regards, Neil

Hi Chris, I'm originally from the UK, and on a visit back to Blighty to see my brother in Somerset I stopped off at Popham in the hire car en route from Heathrow down the M3/A303. Very friendly mob, and a great collection of aircraft. Welcome to the site - I hope you find it useful. Cheers, Neil

Welcome, Horus! Good luck with your endeavours - keep us posted. Cheers, Neil

Totally agree - the weather gods were kind, and the HULC folks were very hospitable, as always. Good food and wine, great company, and hot showers! What more could you ask for? Thoroughly recommended for next year! Cheers, Neil

Welcome, Alex! Calgary is a lovely part of the world. Hope you manage to get to Australia and do some flying here. Cheers, Neil