On 01 December 2015, Alysha went solo (new video link) in Foxbat 24-9100 with Caboolture Recreational Aviation at Caboolture Airfield, south east Queensland. It was her 15th birthday – legally the first day the regulations permit a pilot to fly on their own. Congratulations Alysha! You couldn’t have picked a better aeroplane. Something I hear your Dad believes too, as he bought the aircraft on the same day!
I hope you have many happy flying hours and achieve your Pilot Certificate soon.
It may seem at first that flying without a current RA-Aus membership or a current bi-annual flight review (BFR), or without the correct endorsements or in an unregistered aircraft, are not serious safety issues. However, research into accidents with RA-Aus registered aircraft has shown that non-compliance in one or more of these key areas is a significant causal factor in many serious and fatal accidents.
It is thought that fear of reprisal may be one factor in stopping lapsed RA-Aus pilots/members/aircraft owners from rejoining the organisation. To help overcome this, RA-Aus, supported by CASA and other aviation bodies, has agreed an ‘amnesty’ period for ‘non-compliant’ pilots/members/aircraft owners to rejoin RA-Aus without punitive action being taken. Part of this process will include completion of any missing compliance items like BFRs and aircraft registration.
The amnesty will run for a 3-month period, from 01 December 2015 to 29 February 2016. This is a one-off opportunity for anyone affected to get back onside and at the same improve not only their own safety but everyone else’s too.
You may not be personally affected but I really urge you to talk with anyone you feel who may be and ask them to re-join the organisation.
To help in this, here’s a link to a letter from RA-Aus which gives more information for lapsed members: Dear Lapsed Member Letter
And here is a link to the RA-Aus website member application page, which can be completed and submitted online: Membership Reactivation Application
Here’s a cautionary tale about running out of fuel. It is a summary of an actual accident/incident where, thankfully, only pride was hurt.
The Cessna 150L pilot reported that, before departure, the fuel gauges were checked and that the fuel tanks were estimated to be just under 1/2 full and contained no less than 10 gallons (38 litres) of fuel. The total aircraft fuel capacity was 26 gallons (98 litres), of which 3.5 gallons (13 litres) were listed as unusable. The pilot was unable to measure the fuel exactly because they had dropped the measuring stick into the fuel tank.
The flight departed the airport and about one hour 15 minutes after departure and about 10 miles from the destination airport, the engine lost total power. The pilot unsuccessfully tried to restart the engine and subsequently performed a forced landing safely into a field.
A post-accident examination revealed that the fuel tanks were not breached and that they contained a total of 1/2 gallon (just under 2 litres) of fuel.
The pilot reported that, before departing the airport, the weather was checked, indicating that wind aloft conditions were a left quartering headwind at 6 knots. However, the wind aloft report from a station about 10 nautical miles from the accident indicated that the wind aloft conditions ranged from a quartering headwind of 10 to 35 knots depending on the altitude of flight, which therefore increased the duration of the flight.
The pilot stated that the engine consumed about 4.4 to 5.6 gallons (17-21 litres) of fuel per hour. However, a review of the owner’s manual performance charts revealed that the engine could consume up to 7 gallons (26.5 litres) of fuel per hour.
Because of the headwind, the flight was longer than predicted and came to an end after one hour 15 minutes.This would have required up to 8.75 gallons (33 litres) of fuel. The pilot took off with about 6.5 to 8.5 gallons (25-32 litres) of usable fuel. It is thus likely the plane did not have enough fuel to reach the destination airport, and the engine lost total power as a result of fuel exhaustion.
The investigating authority determined the probable cause of the incident as a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion, which resulted from the pilot’s inadequate preflight inspection and preflight and inflight fuel planning that did not account for increased headwind.
Learning points:
– don’t drop the fuel stick into the tank!
Foxbat fuel dipsticks have been designed to prevent this happening
– don’t rely on the fuel gauges
Apart from their inherent inaccuracy,there can be different readings on the ground and in the air
– if in doubt, put in some more fuel
Personally, I aim for at least an hour’s flying remaining in the tanks when I land
– if you can, use a GPS to check your times and ground speeds during the flight
Sadly, wind forecasts are almost always wrong
– always keep a lookout for suitable paddocks for ‘off airport’ landings
As regular readers will know, I believe there is a yawning gap at the less expensive end of the new light aircraft market, which other countries (USA, UK, Germany and France to name a few) have already moved to fill. Their aviation authorities have done this by either ‘de-regulating’ (UK) or reducing compliance requirements (USA, Germany, France) for single-seat factory-built aircraft.
Unfortunately, Australia has been very slow (in fact has not moved at all) in adopting similar arrangements. I firmly believe that a sub A$30,000 single seat aircraft would sell well in Australia, if only the authorities here (where are you Recreational Aviation Australia??) would move to allow these aircraft to be factory built, rather than insisting they be amateur built. There are at least 5 or 6 aircraft types on the market overseas which would suit us very nicely.
One of my favourites is the Aerolite 120 (European) or Aerolite 103 (USA) which I have covered before. Basically, the aircraft are almost identical, with minor changes to suit the requirements in each country. The Aerolite 120 is factory-manufactured by Vierwerk GmbH in Germany to stringent standards and as a result has now been approved by the authorities in the UK, alongside a bevy of other single seat aircraft including the Belite.
First UK owner is Stephen Oliver, who writes in the UK’s Light Aviation Magazine of an entertaining first circuit and subsequent cross-country flight home in his new Aerolite 120. There’s also a short video of Stephen’s first take off and landing – in a 10 knot crosswind – released by Kairos Aviation the UK distributor for the Aerolite 120.
There’s an interesting and candid conclusion to the article, which is a reminder to all of us that getting out of a relatively high-powered Rotax 100hp engine LSA and into a 28hp very low inertia ultralight certainly requires care. In the old days, I think it used to be called ‘difference training’ – maybe still is. Aircraft are not all the same and speed management in high-drag, low-inertia aircraft is a skill to be ignored at your peril.
Nevertheless, I think the Aerolite would make a great weekend (or summer evenings/mornings) aircraft. For someone on a limited budget (aren’t we all?) or who wants to feel the thrill of open cockpit flying (which is very addictive), the ability to take off and land on unmade strips and even to thermal a little is an attractive proposition.
Own a couple of aircraft? Don’t want to live in the hangar but want your planes close? Have a read of this article about Tom Green of Michigan, USA, who has built his home to hangar two quite sizeable aircraft, some cars, two boats and some snowmobiles.
Loosely shaped like a star, it’s a really clever design and looks from the outside just like an admittedly a rather unusual house. The main hangar doors have been designed to look like normal house fronts, with the front door ‘porches’ concealing the noses of the aircraft. The aircraft run into the hangar on raised tracks, giving extra storage space underneath them and room to walk around without the need to duck every time you walk under a wing. The two main hangar doors are a work of art and precision engineered from Schweiss, who made specially beefed up mechanisms to lift the extra weight of these very big doors.
Tom’s home is at Lakes of the North airport, which is a ‘recreational community’ near Mancelona Township in Michigan. As can be guessed from the name, one of Tom’s aircraft is a Lake 250 Renegade six-seat amphibious flying boat. Some people have a great life don’t they?
Go Flying Australia Blog is a great collection of information for GA and Light Sport/Recreational pilots/owners with, as its name suggests, a focus on Australian aircraft and flying.
I was really chuffed (there’s an old pommie expression for you) to be called by Adam Knight, host of the blog, and asked if I’d be willing to do an audio podcast interview with him about the A22 Foxbat and A32 Vixxen. Do bears seek comfort and relief in the woods?? Previous podcasts he’s released have included interviews with Matt Hall, Australian Red Bull air ace and aerobatic champ and Joel Haski, owner of Red Baron (Aerobatics) Flight Training, so I’m privileged to be in some lofty company. As well as these podcasts, there are many others covering a wide range of topics, from learning to fly, to warbirds, to airline flying and all points around and in between.
To listen to my attempt – Adam is very helpful and easy to talk with – either click the picture above or here: Podcast 024 – New VSTOL A32 Vixxen LSA from Aeroprakt
As promised in an earlier post, here’s a short video of our helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon with Papillon Helicopters.
Click on the photo to take you to the YouTube video – best watched full-screen with the sound up!
SkyFlyte Tasmania‘s flying school CFI, Peter Reed, and his partner Gill Quinn recently visited Tyabb to take their maiden flight in my demonstrator A32 Vixxen.
They made this video of their experience – click the photo to view on YouTube.
There are a couple of minor inaccuracies – cruise speed of the A32 is definitely confirmed at 115+ knots and usable fuel capacity is 95 litres. Nevertheless, this is a great little video with a pilot’s eye view and candid comments from Peter and Gill
Australian Flying Magazine has published a review of the Aeroprakt A32 Vixxen in their November/December 2015 issue.
Editor Steve Hitchen flew the aircraft a few weeks back, on an ‘interesting’ weather day at Tyabb. I won’t spoil his article for you but he definitely seemed to like the aircraft!
Click on the photo to download a copy of the article – file size is about 2.5Mb. If you want a higher resolution copy, you’ll have to buy a copy of the magazine yourself – it’s on the news stands now. Happy reading!
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Today I trotted along to Santa Monica Airport close to where we are staying, to have a look at the aeroplanes and check out an airport which must in many ways be similar to Essendon Airport near Melbourne – a mixture of biz-jets, warbirds, GA and light sport aircraft. It’s also right in the heart of a built-up area, with big ‘fly quietly’ signs everywhere – something that’s a bit difficult for a Citation jet!
On the day I went, take off was towards the west, straight out over the beach. I watched quite a few aircraft coming and going, including a couple of Sport Cruisers (still branded Piper Sports) doing training circuits, and the inevitable Cessna 172s and a nice V-tail Bonanza.
After an hour or so on the sky deck viewing area I was ready to leave when a small aircraft caught my attention, taxiing out for take-off: an Icon A5. As most aviators will know, this is about the most hyped aircraft to appear in recent years and in spite of a US$200,000+ price tag, the manufacturer claims to have several hundred confirmed orders and a 3-year waiting list.
Icon went through a very long development period, including obtaining a special FAA exemption to allow them to exceed the amphibious LSA 650 kgs weight limit by about 40 kgs ‘for safety reasons’. In purely aesthetic terms, the aircraft looks beautiful – at least with the wheels up – and the cabin and instrument panel resemble an expensive sports car. Nevertheless, its weight carrying capacity is not great and the cruise is surprisingly slow for such a sleek looking aircraft – flat out, 95 knots and typically 80-85 knot cruise. But hey, look at the style! Who wants to rush when you have such an aviation icon?
The video above shows the Icon A5 departing Santa Monica. The main thing I noticed was the noise, which is typical of pusher configurations – quite loud, due to the relatively turbulent air coming round the fuselage into the prop.
If I was a millionaire, I might buy one….might.