A22LS Foxbat – advanced short take-off

Posted on July 11, 2014 by Scott

Mike Rudd has made a new video showing how to take-off in your Foxbat in half the normal distance.

Click here for the full 2-minute story: Foxbat – advanced short take-off technique

In summary:

– line up on the runway/take-off area
– do not apply flap, keep the elevator neutral
– apply the brakes and increase throttle to full power
– when full power is reached and stabilised, release the brakes
– be ready to correct the nose swing more than normal due to the full power
– as the airspeed goes through about 25 knots, smoothly pull on full flap and nudge the controls back a little to ‘unstick’ the aircraft
– fly level until the airspeed builds above 50 knots, then climb away as usual

This technique is useful on short strips or take-off areas which are soft.

CAUTION: be careful if the take-off area is covered with gravel or stones, as it is very likely the prop will be damaged if you apply full power when static on the ground. There is a slightly different technique for short field take-offs in these circumstances.

Here’s another link to a YouTube video of a Foxbat doing a short take-off using this technique.

Pilot watches

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Scott

I must confess – I am a bit of a watch nut. And being a pilot adds an extra dimension when it comes to the selection of my ideal watch.

First up, I love mechanical watches, particularly automatic mechanical watches. There’s something about the look and feel of a mechanical watch that quartz watches just don’t do for me. I love the way the second hand sweeps smoothly on a mechanical watch, compared with the tick-tick of a quartz watch second hand. And in my experience, the battery on quartz watches always goes dead when you’re miles from anywhere with a facility to change it.

Next, I want a really clear, easy to read dial – this is probably due to my advancing years and (allegedly) retarding eyesight, the need to see the time quickly at a a glance, even in bumpy air, and a love of the simplicity and elegance of an uncluttered watch face. Too many so-called pilot watches are cluttered up with numbers, extra dials and functions that you may use once in a blue moon, and when you do need to use them you can’t remember how!

Finally, as most of the times for pilots are quoted as UTC – that’s basically the same as GMT and Zulu – and here in Australia we are anything from 8 to 11 hours ahead of GMT (depending on state and season), a dual-time or GMT indication is very useful.

But when I factor in the price, that’s when things get difficult…

Possibly one of my all-time favourites is the Rolex Explorer II with a white face. It meets all my criteria – except the main one: price. At around $7,500 it’s way out of my budget and even secondhand examples (if you can find one) are still very expensive.

Another is the Steinhart Aviation GMT. It’s a lot less expensive at around $550 but seems almost impossible to find. At the lower end of the price scale are Torgoen watches – in the main they have quartz movements but they seem to be reliable and have some nicely designed faces. Their T25 GMT series starts at about $250 – of these, the T25104 with the white face would be my choice but the T25103 with a black face comes a close second, although reading the black-hand GMT pointer can be tricky until you know where to look.

My own watch is a Christopher Ward C11. This is an automatic mechanical watch with a lovely clear face. It doesn’t have a GMT indication, so I’ll have to make do with my OzRunways navigation app on my iPad. Unless my fairy godmother comes up with a Rolex…but who believes in fairies?

High flying in the Himalayas

Posted on July 1, 2014 by Scott

Here’s a great article contributed by Captain Alexander Maximov from Avia Club Nepal. For photos of his experiences, please click here for the Foxbat Pilot Flickr Gallery.

For the last 17 years I have been flying in the Himalayas. I believe it is one place every adventure and high flyer dreams to be. I fly both Foxbat A-22 three axis aircraft and weight shift microlights.

I love flying high and I do fly high. I usually do commercial flights in Pokhara and its periphery. A 26,250 ft peak is just 30 km from the airport where we take off. The highest we can go up to is usually about 12,000 ft above sea level but in some cases I am flying at 16,000 ft altitude. Nothing can beat the experience of soaring with the birds of prey up high in the sky. I do it every single day and get a different experience every time I do.

Its not that I don’t do low flights. But considering the terrain and the conditions we have in this region, high flying is the best. We fly one of the best aircraft for the job – the Aeroprakt A-22, so gliding if the engine stops is not a problem.

I have been with world champion glider pilots who fly even higher. There was recently a Polish gliding expedition team with their sailplanes. The height they fly is amazing – up to 22,000 ft. Flying with the mountains and even sometimes the mighty mountains below you is simply unexplainable.

I have flown many aircraft types and in every terrain worldwide but the love of flying in Nepal with its beauty has kept me here.

An open invitation to all you adventure flyers…come to Nepal and you will know the difference of FLYING HIGH by FOXBAT!

Many thanks, Alexander!

VHF aircraft radios are not all the same

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Scott

Not all VHF aeroplane radios are made to the same standards….and some can be prone to pack up when you least expect it. Like how? Well, as in many things in life, basically you get what you pay for. A cheap radio can mean cheap performance and reliability.

All plane radios are built to a specification, part of which is the selling price. Cheaper radios often – but not always – use cheap components. Cheaper because their tolerances are lower, there’s a higher fault rate for each batch of components or the circuitry is designed to leave out some potentially more expensive protection systems.

A case in point is voltage ‘spikes’. In the olden days, it was vital to switch off the radio before starting or stopping the aircraft engine. This was to make sure there were no sudden high voltages slamming through the radio. These sudden high voltage ‘spikes’ can wipe out all sorts of bits in the radio.

But modern radios have mostly been designed properly, use good quality components and are not prone to meltdown when you start and stop the engine. Unless….

Here’s an example – the radio works perfectly for a few weeks, even months. Then suddenly it stops transmitting, right in the middle of an approach to land at a busy airfield. You can hear everyone OK but they can’t hear you.

“Oh dear – you’ve had a voltage spike says the manufacturer, it’s damaged our radio. It’s the aircraft wiring/the way you use the radio/the weather’s too hot/too cold/too wet/too dry”. Anything but their fault. But really it is their fault – for using cheap parts and circuits which do not cope with the occasional voltage spike.

We all know who these makers are. But we still want cheap radios, so we risk cheap performance and a maker that isn’t interested in a warranty claim because they say it’s your wiring/weather/engine/airframe maker – anyone but them.

Switch them off I say. Buy a good radio from a well known manufacturer like Garmin, Becker, Icom, Funkwerk, TRIG, Bendix King, Apollo, etc etc. It is a real case of cheap is expensive. One day your life might depend on it.

More bush flying – Zimbabwe

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Scott

Foxbat owner Mike Kellow, based in South Africa and Zimbabwe, has sent me a couple of photos of his Foxbat up in the tea estates in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe.

The dirt strip is a short 250 metres long, with hills – including an 8,500 foot mountain – at each end, so approaches have to be tight and take-offs quick!

Full size versions of the photos are in the Bush Flying album on Foxbat Pilot’s Flickr site (click here to take you there).

Stop press – ABC1 Landline covers goat mustering

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Scott

For Australian subscribers – today’s ABC1 ‘Landline’ programme includes a section on commercial goat activity in Australia. Shots of a Foxbat in action are included!

The programme airs at 12.00 midday Sunday 22 June in the eastern states and repeats on Monday 23 June at 13.00.

And here’s a link to a BBC goat mustering video on the Foxbat Australia website – scroll down until you see it: Wild Goat Muster in Australia

Andrei Bezmylov

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Scott

I first noticed Andrei (or, rather his photos) through his superb pictures of the Foxbat on www.airliners.net This is a fantastic site containing thousands of (thankfully searchable) photos of just about every type of aircraft, from huge airliners down to almost unheard-of special amateur-builts. I did not realise at that time that Andrei in fact lives in South Australia and went to university in the Ukraine – home of the Foxbat. He was born in Siberia and moved to Australia in 1998 with a depth of engineering qualifications and currently works for an ‘Australian icon’.

Although it was the Foxbat pictures which first attracted my attention, Andrei has in fact almost 4,000 photos (yes, that’s 4,000!!) on airliners.net many of which were taken in Australia. He describes his photography as a ‘hobby’ but he is being extremely modest – if you have ever tried to enter a photo on airliners.net (I have) you’ll know just how exacting their standards are! So to have so many photos accepted is quite a feat. Those of you with eagle-eyes will have noticed in the photo above (courtesy of Sport Pilot magazine) that Andrei is not flying a Foxbat but another type of aircraft. Now I don’t hold that against him as he has been very generous with permissions to use his pictures on our website, and who knows, maybe one day he’ll see the light! Meanwhile thank you Andrei for your great photos – of whatever aircraft – and long may your hobby flourish. Thank you.

Here’s a link to Andrei’s photos on Airliners.net: Andrei Bezmylov’s Aircraft Photos

Flaps podcast

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Scott

Flaps Podcast

I must confess – I am a bit of a podcast addict. I subscribe to all sorts of podcasts including comedy, short & long audio-stories, plays & drama, science fiction, and news. Unfortunately, good aviation audio podcasts seem to be few and far between, but one of my favourites is Flaps Podcast.

I like it because each issue is reasonably short – about 30 minutes long – and always leaves you wanting to hear more at the end. The downside is that some episodes lately seem to be very UK-centric, although earlier issues (for which they won Sony and New York Radio podcast awards) are much more general in their coverage and so overall more interesting. Every episode includes the ‘Pablo Mason Minute’ in fact usually about 3-4 times that long – where Pablo, an ex-RAF jet pilot and Squadron Leader recounts some specific flying experience, often quite hilariously.

One episode in September 2011, and its companion ‘Flaps Extended‘, was particularly interesting – they covered an interview (in both short and extended form) with Manuel Queiroz, who flew an RV-6 round the world. He was quite a low time pilot until he did the flight – an inspiration to us all. Click here for Manuel’s website ‘Chasing the Morning Sun‘, which has all the details of his flight.

There is an Australian aviation podcast called Plane Crazy Down Under but most episodes are well over an hour – sometimes over two hours – and are just too long for me. I’m usually ready to switch off after 40 minutes. If they broke up the episodes into shorter lengths and published them more often, I think that would suit people better. And maybe if they included an interview with Foxbat Australia along with all their other aircraft manufacturer/importer segments, it would be nice…….

Plane Crazy Down Under recently completed the DVD of the recent Tyabb Airshow (see my earlier blog post here) which is now available from Peninsula Aero Club by calling 03 5977 4406 with your credit card number.

Do you know any good aviation podcasts – or blogs?

The myth of the downwind turn – again

Posted on June 17, 2014 by Scott

Here’s one which will always stir up some discussion – “there’s no such thing as a stall caused by turning downwind”.

It is common among pilots, even experienced pilots (and even the UK’s CAA and USA’s NTSB believe it or not) to refer to accidents caused by a downwind turn and the ‘increasing tailwind component’ in such turns.

It goes like this: the aircraft takes off into 15 knot head wind and makes a 180-degree turn downwind. If it turns quickly, the 15 knot headwind has ‘suddenly’ turned into a 15 knot tailwind, a difference of 30 knots, so the aircraft has to be accelerated to maintain flying speed or it will stall as it turns.

In reality this is complete rubbish and totally ignores the fundamental fact that the aircraft flying speed is a function of its speed through the air, not of its ground speed.

Better aviation minds than mine have written about this subject and explained the physics in depth, so I’m not aiming to repeat it all here. Enough to say that the aircraft is moving in its medium, like a boat on a river or even a passenger on a train. If you walk up and down inside a train, you don’t notice any acceleration or deceleration – because there isn’t any. It’s the same with an aircraft in the air.

If there are any demons in turning downwind, they are the same as for any other turn: reduced lift due to bank angle, reduced airspeed due to the pilot inadvertently pulling back on the stick, etc.

Here’s a link to a short amusing article by Peter Garrison in an old ‘Flying’ magazine – ‘The last word on downwind turns – really’

Here’s an article in Australian Flying magazine which explains it all very clearly: ‘Dragons of the downwind turn’

To prove it for yourself, next time you go flying, look for a bit of wind – maybe 20 knots or so aloft. To re-assure yourself – just in case anything goes wrong – climb up to about 3,000 feet and point yourself into the wind, flying straight & level. Then execute a reasonably rapid – maybe 30 degree bank angle – 180 degree turn down wind. Do it level with the slip ball in the middle and watch the Airspeed Indicator. Stays steady OK? Now repeat and watch the ground speed on the GPS – increases OK? Feel any acceleration?

World Cup celebration – Foxbat Brazilian style

Posted on June 13, 2014 by Scott

Brazil A22LS Amphibian

To celebrate the start of the world cup in Brazil, I thought you’d like to see some examples of the A22 Foxbat, Brazilian style.

There are some very attractive and eye-catching paint jobs and some interesting instrument panels. And one photo I would definitely advise not trying at home…

Have a look in the photo gallery at the bottom right side of this blog for further pictures.

Many thanks to my colleague Wander Azevedo of FLY Ultraleves, Aeroprakt distributor for Brazil, based in Goiania, south west of Brasilia.

Here’s a link to his website, if you’re interested in a Foxbat in Brazil: Ultraleves Brazil

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