November 2010 - Sport Aircraft Association of Australia

Transcription

THE MAGAZINE OF THE SPORT AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA
NOVEMBER 2010
in this issue:
BACK TO COWRA 2010
SAAA TEAM THUNDERBIRD
KAKADU CRUNCH
chapter chatter
MECHANICAL MUSINGS
BUILDERS’ LOG
partners in Aviation Safety
apply for your SAAA
Carnet Card now!
AIRSPORT • 1
Get on board the
Sport Aircraft Association
of Australia
with QBE.
SAAA members who are insured with QBE and enrolled in the Flight Safety
Assistance Programme will receive an $80 rebate* if they also attend the
SAAA’s Maintenance Procedures Course.
We encourage our policyholders to undertake regular safety and proficiency
training which is why we support you and the SAAA.
So, get on board the SAAA with QBE.
That way, we all win.
*Applies to Full Flight Risks Hull cover only.
For further information
please contact our
Melbourne Office
on (03) 8602 9900.
QBE Insurance (Australia) Limited
ABN: 78 003 191 035, AFS Licence No 239545
Photograph courtesy of Rainer Huefner and Rob Wintulich.
SAAA national councillors
The Sport Aircraft Association
of Australia is a group of
aviation enthusiasts assisting
each other to build, maintain
and operate sport aircraft.
We educate members to
continuously improve
safety outcomes.
contents
President’s Report
From The Editor
Calendar Of Events
Welcome To Our New Members
Tech Talk
Vale - Charles Lambeth
Letter To The Editor
Back To Cowra 2010
Cowra Award Winners
Vale Fred William Hooton
SAAA Team Thunderbird
Kakadu Crunch
Mechanical Musings
Death In The Snow
Tales From The Toolbox
Chapter Chatter
Builders’ Log
SAAA Contacts
Chapter Contacts
SAAA Membership Information
Classifieds
Hon National President
Brian Hunter
Pacific Pines Qld
Tel 07 5502 9940 Mob 0417 555 030
brian.hunter@saaa.com
Hon National Vice President
05
07
08
08
09
12
13
14
20
21
22
24
27
28
30
32
38
40
41
42
43
Bo Hannington
Baldivis WA
Tel 08 9524 2000 Mob 0427 044 156
bo.hannington@saaa.com
Hon National Treasurer
Anthony Baldry
Airlie Beach Qld
Mob 0427 267 237
anthony.baldrey@saaa.com
Hon National Secretary
Geoff Shrimski
Frenchs Forest NSW
Tel 02 9452 2428 Mob 0414 400 304
geoff.shrimski@saaa.com
National Councillor
Martin Ongley
Kings Park NSW
Tel 02 9837 2551
martin.ongley@saaa.com
National Councillor /Training & Administration of TCs
Graeme Humphreys
cover: F1 Rocket of Chapter 34 member
Alex Harney pictured this year at Cowra.
Beerwah Qld
Tel 07 5494 9582 Mob 0417 555 328
graeme.humphreys@saaa.com
National Councillor
John Livsey
AT ISSN 0156-6016
is the journal of the
Sport Aircraft Association of Australia Inc
PO Box 99 Narromine NSW 2821
Inc no. A0046510Z
tel 02 6889 7777
fax 02 6889 7788
email enquiries@saaa.com
www.saaa.com
Hampton East VIC
Tel 03 9532 2442 Mob 0448 020 446
john.livsey@saaa.com
National Councillor
Shirley Harding
Mob 0412 774 740
shirley.harding@saaa.com
SPA 10179
Editor Ryan Keen
Art Director John Keen
email airsport@saaa.com
Produced by
John Keen Design
146 The Panorama, Tallai Qld 4213 Australia
1300 712 554 / design@johnkeen.com.au
www.johnkeen.com.au
AIRSPORT • 3
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president’s report
I know that I speak for all the
National Councillors when I say that
the past 12 months have thrown
up a number of challenges.
In the technical area:
Brian Hunter
“
Completion of
an approved
course will
be necessary
before you
can maintain
or continue
to maintain
your aircraft.
The Maintenance Procedures Course (MPC) has,
as they say, been a great hit with the members. To
date 365 members have attended the course held
at venues in: Brisbane, Caboolture, Cairns (QLD),
Wollongong, Cowra, Coffs Harbour, South Windsor,
Deniliquin (NSW), Clifton Hill, Latrobe Valley,
Braeside (VIC), Hobart (TAS), Serpentine, Albany,
Bunbury, Jandakot, Bull Creek (WA), Darwin (NT),
and Canberra (ACT). We have courses planned
for Murray Bridge (SA), Denmark (WA), Kyneton,
Tyabb (VIC), Wollongong (NSW), and Canberra
(ACT). Challenges have been in the logistics of
delivery to some of these venues but the major
challenge is encouraging 107 members who have
yet to complete the examination paper to do so.
The course has now been totally reviewed and
the reviewed course content (presentation slides,
course notes for both the trainers and attendees)
should be ready for roll out after November this
year. The SAAA capacity to provide this member
training is due entirely to a dedicated group of
fellow members volunteering their time and
energy. I express here the National Council’s
appreciation for their tremendous effort.
I have been contacted by CASA to give them
assurance that our MPC is running and that we
can deliver training to all experimental and ABAA
operators. We believe that this is in preparation
to the issue of the new instrument of approval
governing who can maintain an experimental or
ABAA aircraft after 31/01/2011 ie, completion of
an approved course will be necessary before you
can maintain or continue to maintain your aircraft.
Graeme Humphries has also provided TC
training at Kempsey, Cairns and Cowra
with 40 members in total attending.
Risk profiling:
Risk profiling the aircraft, test pilot and the test
aerodrome for purposes of setting operational
limitations has been developed and now
forms part of the SAAA Manual of Procedures
governing the issue of experimental CofAs. AP
update training is planned for the New Year.
Flight over built up area:
We are currently engaged with CASA on behalf
of all SAAA APs (who are delegates of CASA) to
minimise the impact of the Regulator’s decision to
repatriate the CASA delegates power to determine
flight over a built up area. We firmly believe
that the risk mitigation strategies embedded in
the SAAA processes to issue the CofA addresses
this risk. Given the rigour within our Manual of
Procedures together with the Builders Assistance
and Flight advisors Programs, as well as the
MPC demonstrates the maturity and willingness
of SAAA members to build and operate their
aircraft to higher standard than non SAAA
members. We are not aware of any non SAAA
APs operating to the same standard of operations
manual. CASA have not provided any safety
case to support their actions. CASA’s statement
is that the action is based on their perception
of risk to CASA itself via any rogue AP’s.
Safety management systems:
We have, along with the other eight sports
aviation bodies, engaged with the CASA
contractor ‘Aerosafe Risk Management‘ to
undertake training in developing Safety
Management Systems and Venture Risk
Management Plans & Strategies aimed at
cementing a risk based approach to all
of the SAAA activities. This has involved
multiple telephone conferences as well as 2
three day training sessions in Canberra.
Schedule 8 maintenance training:
We are in the final stages of preparing
a syllabus of Schedule 8 training to be
delivered through the chapter network.
Issue of the RPL:
We have it verbally from CASA that the licence
provisions will be through by the end of this year
and operational thereafter. We can only wait with
bated breath for this to become a reality. This
will be a CASA issued licence long overdue.
On the office side:
In the second half of the year we reviewed the
income and expenditures of the Association.
That process identified a number of costs that
were unacceptable as well as a need to reset the
subscription rates and other fees. The review
resulted in the communication that I sent to all
members. The objective is to ensure that the
association operates within our income and I believe
the measures we have taken will achieve that goal.
During the year Stuart Trist who was the
Airsport Editor and the Hon Secretary
resigned from those roles. This left a huge gap
regarding the production of Airsport. I am
pleased to tell you that we have a new editor
and a new publisher for our iconic magazine.
I apologise to all the membership for the
delay in getting this next edition to you.
We have also experienced staff movements at
HQ with the departure of Alison. Alison had
to relocate out of Melbourne and has taken on
the role of the MPC administrator which does
not require her presence at HQ. Gayle, our
Office Manager left us for different pastures
in August and we wish her well. Mark Rowe
is currently supervising HQ operations.
cont. >>
AIRSPORT • 5
>> president’s report
In May the National Council placed the
Clifton Street property (HQ building) onto
the open market. This decision had been
mooted a number of times over the years.
The reasons were principally economical
in that the asset was under performing
and under utilised with a real potential for
further expenditures for upkeep. The other
reason was the need to ensure the personal
protection of staff members, particularly
female staff working alone in the building.
We had an offer from the gentleman who
owns the adjacent properties at $840 000.
Our valuations indicated we could expect
better from the open market so that was the
action we took. I am now able to report that
we have sold the building for $1million, with
settlement in 12 months. It will be the task
of the incoming National Council within the
next 10 months to acquire a replacement
office more suited to SAAA purposes.
Sports Aviation Forum:
SAAA has been appointed to this new forum
sponsored by CASA. This appointment
recognises that this Association is part of
the sports aviation fraternity. It is now an
‘org’. This is significant because for the first
time we take our rightful place alongside
the other 8 orgs that make up the forum.
All of these other orgs have some degree of
self-administration responsibility (RA-Aus,
Gliding Federation, Balloonists, Hang
Gliders, Parachutists, etc). At the forum we
have equal representation with these orgs
and as a group we can support each other
in matters with CASA. During the year John
Livsey and I attended the annual meeting of
6 • AIRSPORT
the forum and delivered a presentation of
the SAAA safety management direction and
the SAAA venture risk management plan.
Future Directions:
Self-administration seems further away than
it was 12 months ago. We have been told by
CASA CEO that we will not get “exclusivity”.
What does he really mean by that?
I believe that CASA sees the operational
issues and the building/maintenance issues
as quite separate. In the operational world,
being VH registered aircraft, we are caught
up in CASA’s obligation to protect airspace
users and the fare paying public. For us
this means; test flying, pilot qualifications,
aircraft capability, operational restrictions,
etc. We want the same operational privileges
as the certified fleet and accordingly we must
conform to that required by the certified
fleet. We cannot argue that we are in some
way different and, therefore, in some
mysterious way, deserve a different rule set.
Why? Because we are not different in the
operational sense. We are, however, perceived
as sports or recreational aircraft rather than
‘same as the certified fleet’. I believe that
this is driven by the fact that our aircraft
cannot be used for commercial purposes.
This characterisation is encouraged by a
lack of understanding by the regulator and
industry as to the range of types, capabilities
and achievements of SAAA member aircraft.
The building and maintenance issue is
perceived differently. SAAA has, I believe,
done a marvellous job over the past 58
years demonstrating that given appropriate
training and guidance amateur builders can
successfully build and continuously maintain
their aircraft. This perception has been
enhanced by the advent of very good kit built
aircraft, availability of suitable engines and
equipment. I believe that the regulator and
industry is well on the way to recognising
the maturity of what is essentially SAAA core
business. The fact that members will volunteer
to take on board formal training through
the MPC is testament to this maturation.
SAAA needs to focus on builder support
and safe engineering operations without
increased restrictions and it is in this arena
of core business that we should be looking
for any kind of self-administration. This is
the area that we know so well and very few
in the industry understand the issues. We
need to convince the regulator that public
safety in the operation of VH registered
amateur built aircraft is best assured by
builders and operators belonging to SAAA.
I would like to take this opportunity to
express my personal thanks to the team
for the efforts put in by all Councillors.
My appreciation extends not only to the
Councillors but also to their partners and
family who kindly give of their family
life so that SAAA members can benefit.
Thank you.
Brian
Brian Hunter
SAAA – THE HOME OF AUSTRALIAN EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT
from the editor
Welcome to the final edition of Airsport
for 2010 and my first as Editor. I am
delighted to be given this opportunity
and look forward with great anticipation
to 2011. Airsport has a new look, a new
feel and from 2011 becomes a quarterly
magazine. We hope you like what you see!
Ryan Keen
Congratulations to all involved in the
organisation of the Back To Cowra 2010 event.
What a fantastic opportunity for networking
with likeminded enthusiasts. For those
who missed out, check out the feature on
page 14 and start planning for next year!
New in this edition
We welcome Ken Garland on board with
regular column Mechanical Musings and
introduce Techniquiz – each issue Ken will
have a new set of questions designed to test
your knowledge of maintenance tasks.
Date to watch
On Sunday 7 November SAAA Team
Thunderbird take on the Red Bull Flugtag in
Sydney Harbour. Does it get any better than
that? If you are anywhere near, get on down
to the Yurong Precint (adjoining the Royal
Botanical Gardens) and show your support.
My thanks to all content coordinators,
contributors, and council members particularly those who came up with the
goods at short notice during this transition
period. In closing, I would also like to thank
outgoing Editor Stuart Trist for his significant
contribution to Airsport in recent years.
See you in 2011!
Editor, Airsport
news flash
Langley Park FLY IN – 2011
At Cowra 2010 the question was asked – would an
event at the spectacular Langley Park strip on the edge
of the Perth CBD and the banks of the Swan River, and
the home of the Red Bull Air race be supported?
The response was an overwhelming YES!
Members of Chapter 24 met with City of Perth officials and
received a very encouraging response. The City is reviewing
available weekends to allow initial planning to proceed on
insurance and the myriad of other organisational issues.
YOU SHOULD BE PLANNING TOO!
Slots at Langley have in the past been hotly sought after.
Positions will be limited, and limited to Experimental,
Homebuilts and current SAAA members.
Watch this space!
Andy George Chapter 24
office relocation
clifton hill premises sold
The premises in Clifton Hill has been
sold resulting in some changes for
the SAAA as far as office functions
and staff are concerned. An opportunity arose to expedite the
impending office move and in a big change for
SAAA, the office is now located at Narromine
Aerodrome in NSW under the supervision
of Mark Rowe, National Technical Manager.
The team at Narromine have a strong
background in conducting sport aviation
administration and financial management.
NEW CONTACT DETAILS
Building 9, Narromine Aerodrome
Narromine NSW 2821
Postal address:
Tel: 02 6889 7777
Fax: 02 6889 7788
Office Hours: 9am-5pm, Monday - Friday
Emergency contact:
via mobile (0403307363)
Coffee and a chat always welcome,
we have access to hangar space and
accommodation on site. Call ahead
and we can provide current status.
Although the office is open for business
as of 1 October 2010 we are expecting
some delays with certain functions during
this transition period. Your patience
and assistance is greatly appreciated.
Mark Rowe
National Technical Manager
AIRSPORT • 7
2010
calendar of of events
1st & 3rd Sat Nov 2010 >
1
st
&
3 Sat Dec 2010 >
rd
Temora Aviation
Museum
Temora
YTEM
13-14 Nov 2010 >
Snowy River
Aviators Inc
Adaminaby
YADY
27 Nov 2010 >
Bendigo
2011
YBDG
7-10 Jan 2011 >
Evans Head
Memorial
Aerodrome
YEVD
22-24 Apr 2011 >
Omaka Aerodrome
Blenheim, New Zealand
NZOM
Aircraft Showcase Days
The Showcase days aim to provide visitors with a personal, interactive and in-depth experience.
See flying displays, chat with the pilot, take photographs, and inspect the cockpit and engine. The
Engineering Hangar will be open to visitors, and the Engineering Team will demonstrate the projects
they are working on including the unique processes, materials and techniques required to keep this
fleet of vintage aircraft flying. Contact the Museum on 02 6977 1088 or visit www.aviationmuseum.com.au
Fly-In and Hangar Bush Dance
Fly to the Snowy Mountains, stay in picturesque Adaminaby and enjoy a family ‘called’ bush dance
with a fabulous live band from 7pm. Big bonfire (unless fireban). Landing fees by donation, tie down
and some hangarage available. Sumptuous food and drinks can be purchased at low cost for evening
meal. Premium unleaded fuel available in township. Avgas available at Polo Flat or Cooma Snowy
Airport by prior arrangement with owners. Contact Jane Reid on 02 6452 3112 or visit www.sra.asn.au
Zenair Australia Open Hangar Day
This is the first Open Hangar Day for Zenair Australia. All builders and pilots of Zenith Aircraft are invited (any
plane and any pilots are welcome). Full range of Zenith Aircraft will be on display with demo flights available. A
Zenith kit will be on display and a rudder will be built. BBQ and refreshments. Contact Allan Barton on 0417 121 111
The Great Eastern Fly-In
Whatever you fly, join us for four days of all things aviation and more: all types of aircraft
welcome, joy flights, air displays, static displays, markets, trade stands, street theatre and
fun for the kids. Fly-In Cafe, food, all amenities. No landing or rego fees, underwing, caravan,
motorhome and tent camp sites (small fee). Contact Gai Taylor on 02 6621 5592 or 0427 825 202
Classic Fighters 2011 “V for Victory”
Next Easter you’ll witness the Allies on the offensive, with some of the greatest, iconic fighter
aircraft in history going head to head. Victory in Europe is the quest, both during the Great War of
1914-18 and again in the Second World War of 1939-1945. All against the backdrop of beautiful
Marlborough during wine harvest time. Visit www.classicfighters.co.nz for full details and ticket purchase.
welcome to our new members
A warm welcome
to the following
new members >
New South Wales
•Peter Huish Mudgee
•Doug Stickland Westmead
•Damian Walker Murrumbateman
•Gary Weeks Winmalee
•John Waters Dareten
•Stephen Johns East Maitland
•David Wright Lismore
•Rodney Tizzard Kootingal
•Craig Cooke Mudgee
Queensland
•Ian Jensen Gulliver
•David Donaldson Hunchy
•Dieter Sedlbauer Morayfield
•Trevor Mills Bracken Ridge
•Russell Golding Urangan
•Kevin Moore Mackay
8 • AIRSPORT
•David Innes Edge Hill
•Terry Edwards Woombye
South Australia
•Kevin Warren Port Lincoln
•Eric Hancock Willunga
•Philip Jones Brighton
•Christopher Kelly Mitchell Park
•Mark Venning Crystalbrook
Victoria
•Benjamin Stewart Carrum
•Winton Peters Albert park
•Bruce Hartley Mooroolbark
•Stephen VanderVelden
Cranbourne North
•John Huse Nyora
•John Genat Glen Waverley
•Renato Malavisi Eaglemont
•Jonathon Parnaby Avondale Heights
•Rolfe Summerhayes Beaconsfield
•Graeme Serjeant Bendigo
Western Australia
•Ian Reeves Leinster
•Graham Lowe Dardanup
•Jim Mccourt Wilson
•Neil Maxfield Glengarry
•Wayne Bone Sorrento
•Thomas Gould Geraldton
•David Wellington Mount Nasura
•Ian Robertson Cloverdale
•Quintin Baillie Mt. Claremont
•Brian Moore Leeming
•Malcolm Ashworth Bunbury
•Robert Tarrant Morley
tech talk
Hello Punters
Mark Rowe
A hydraulic
fitting failed and
resulted in a gear
up landing. What
happened? Fred,
Chris & Laurie
investigate
With the success of the MPC the SAAA are
extending the education banner to cover
Schedule 8 training. This will be conducted by
your TCs at Chapter events or by arrangement
with TCs. The Schedule 8 training will culminate
with a logbook entry that states completion
of the training and therefore a documented
competence. We are negotiating with CASA
with regard to exactly what endorsement
we are able to make at this time.
future non builders may be able to train
up for some maintenance privilege
on their purchased aircraft.
In the future we are expecting to conduct
Schedule 5 training also with the hope that in
Mark Rowe
National Technical Manager
With all this in mind please keep your ears
peeled and put your hand up to volunteer if
you believe the opportunity is there to help.
Keep dreaming and have fun.
Anatomy of a
Hydraulic Failure
Hydraulic Fittings Need to be Very Carefully Tightened
Fred Moreno, Chris Howden (SAAA Chapter 13)
Laurie Fitzgerald (SAAA Chapter 24)
>
The simple answer is that a ¼ inch
aluminum hydraulic line terminated with
a single flare into a 37 degree aircraft
fluid fitting forced the flared tubing out
of the flare nut in spite of being tight.
A more complete answer, one that might
help prevent further such incidents, is
more complex. The initial investigation
suggested a possible cause.
The owner is particularly careful and thorough
in his assembly procedures. For the hydraulic
fittings, the tube was correctly assembled to the
fitting, tightened and checked, then checked by
another, and finally checked a third time, in effect
a triple check. The fitting in question had been
fitted and refitted five times as it was required to
be removed during maintenance procedures.
Why do we check?
There is excellent precedent for this type of
repetitive process in the industrial world. Testing
has shown that when doing simple repetitive
tasks, trained human beings using appropriate
tools in a hospitable work environment
nonetheless make errors at roughly a 1%
rate, that is, one error per 100 tasks. A 1%
failure rate is not a very high quality standard.
However, if the task is accomplished, and the
person then checks their own work, the error
rate in checking is also about 1% so that the
overall error rate drops to 1% of 1%, or one
in 10,000. If a second person then checks the
work of the first, the 1% rule applies again and
the overall error rate is down to roughly one
per million. This level of quality is the goal of
modern manufacturing processes worldwide.
Hypothesis
However, what if the fitting nut had been slightly
over-tightened at any or all of the repetitions?
Imagine the following. The fitting is tightened.
The next guy put a wrench on it and gives it
an extra tug “just to be sure.” The third fellow
does the same. After this level of checking,
there would be about a one in a million chance
that the part would be accidentally left loose.
But what happens if as part of the checking
procedure it ended up tightened too much?
Approved Maintenance Data
The document AC 43-13 outlines recommended
practices for hydraulic lines and fittings on
aircraft. The recommended torque for the nut
is shown in the table below. Note the difference
between aluminium tubing used in aircraft, and
steel tubing used in many applications including
aircraft and automotive brake lines which use
a 45 degree instead of a 37 degree flare angle.
AC 43-13 also specifies that aluminum hydraulic
lines of 3/8 inch diameter and below are to be made
with double flare ends with single flares being
used on larger tubing sizes. See figures below.
Single flare tube end
Double flare tube end
cont. >>
AIRSPORT • 9
>> tech talk: anatomy of a hydraulic failure
AC 43-13 Wrench Torque for tightening Aluminium and Steel Tubing using 37 degree flare ends
Yet single flare fittings are used almost
exclusively on smaller general aviation and
specified by kit manufacturers for amateur
built experimental aircraft for all tubing sizes.
This was the case with the leak described
above. Why are single flares so widely used?
We have three theories, none confirmed.
1.It is much harder to consistently
make a double flare on the tube end.
It is much easier to get consistently
acceptable quality with single flare,
and so this has been adopted as an
“industry standard” by general aviation
manufacturers. This has carried over to
amateur built experimental aircraft.
this particular single flare tube end failed so
another failure can be avoided in the future.
Tube end preparation prior to
flaring is critically important.
The Test
>> First, if you use a rotary type tubing cutter
To test the hypothesis that over tightening
was the culprit, we conducted a multi step
experiment. First we made up a ¼ inch 37
degree single flare aluminum tube end using a
flaring tool set obtained from Aircraft Spruce.
The actual flaring tool is shown below.
2.Because the double flare folds the tube
>> The finished cut must be perpendicular
back on itself with a zero radius bend,
there may a new long term failure
mode introduced, possible cracking
of the flare around the perimeter.
3.Much of the data in AC 43-13 comes
from WWII when aircraft were quickly
and frequently serviced during the
night shift. It was much more likely
that fittings were assembled without
torque wrenches and over tightened
repetitively “just to be sure.” If you start
getting a lot of leaks from abused single
flare fittings, it may have been that the
double flare became the recommended
procedure at wartime airports when
maintenance was done in a hurry and
over-tightening could have been common.
Whatever the reason, single flare fittings are
used on smaller aluminium tubing throughout
aviation today. We wanted to know why
10 • AIRSPORT
(like a plumber uses for cutting copper
tube), the cutting processes introduce
compressive strains in the tube which
must be removed prior to flaring. This
means filing back from the cut surface to
remove all the stressed material, a distance
of up to 3 mm or 1/8 inch. If this damaged
zone is not removed, the flare will split
when formed. For this reason, some
builders use a fine tooth hack saw to cut
the tubing, and then file the end square
and smooth while removing the cut marks.
to the tube centerline. Otherwise
the flare is lopsided and will deform
when the nut is tightened.
>> The cut must be finished by de-burring
37 degree flaring tool
the interior and exterior of the tube to
remove sharp edges. Failure to remove
sharp edges will result in a split periphery
of the flare when the flare is formed.
Before flaring, the tube must be prepared
by cutting and deburring, and is then put
into a clamp shown in close up below.
>> Note in the photo of the tube clamp
Tube clamp that holds tubing during flaring process
the notation on the clamp “3/32.” This
is the amount that the un-flared tube
must project above the clamp (in inches)
before flaring so that the flared section
ends up the proper length. Making the
flare too wide or too narrow can create
problems. Too wide and the flare may
split or may not fit inside the AN-818
nut. Too narrow and the flare will not
be wide enough resulting in excessive
stress on the aluminium tube which will
plastically flow (as we later demonstrated
in our testing) and ultimately fail.
and inspected. One cycle of over-tightening
produced the result shown below.
If you prepare the tube end square, deburred,
and flare the appropriate length of tubing
(3/32 in or about 2.5 mm for our tool), you
should get an assembly that looks like this.
Tube flare after one cycle at 150%
of recommended torque
New tube flare with proper tube flare length
In our first tests, we made up a flared ¼
inch aluminium tube end, added an AN-818
nut and ferrule and then tightened onto a
bulkhead fitting at 100% of recommended
torque (50-65 in lbs or about 5 ft lbs). We
used a new Kinchrome 3/8 drive torque
wrench with a fresh calibration certificate
driving the nut through a crow foot open
end adapter as shown in the figure below.
While difficult to see in the photo, inspection
with a magnifying glass showed that only
one cycle at 150% torque was adequate to
deform the flare, thinning the flare wall,
and extruding metal toward the periphery
which was now much thinner and starting to
approach a knife edge. Clearly one cycle of
torque overload had extruded the aluminium
outward and permanently deformed the flare.
We reassembled the tube end shown above
with nut and ferrule, and conducted four more
cycles at 150% torque to see if the damage
would progress with each abuse. It did. The
result of five overload cycles is shown below.
until the nut just started to move, a tiny
fraction of a turn. Then a second person
did the same. Thus we have a fitting that
was tightened, then “checked” and then
“checked” again by another party. The finish
torque measured was just over 7.0 ft lbs, or
nearly 150% of recommended torque, more
than enough to damage the flare. Repeat
this cycle enough times, and the flare will
become badly extruded with a very thin
wall, and a failure is waiting to happen.
Conclusions & Recommendations
The smaller diameter aluminium tubing
and 37 degree flare fittings we use on our
aircraft for brakes and hydraulic lines is very
sensitive to extrusion by over tightening
of the AN-818 nut. It only takes a onetime
50% overload to damage the tubing flare.
A few cycles of overload at less than 50%
excessive torque can compromise the
strength sufficiently that a flare which may
appear to be in good condition can fail
when hydraulic pressures are applied.
Always use a torque wrench when
tightening your flare fittings, particularly
the ¼ inch size. Buy a set of crow feet so
that you can put your torque wrench on
your AN-818 nuts. Treat these parts gently,
and DO NOT make it “just a little tighter
just to make sure.” Do it too often and
inadvertently you will make sure that you
end up with a hydraulic line failure.
Tube flare after five cycles at 150%
of recommended torque
3/8 drive torque wrench with crow
foot to drive AN-818 nut
We adjusted the torque setting to reflect the
change in leverage arising from the crow foot.
We tightened the assembly to 100% torque
once, removed, and then inspected. After
five tightening and loosening cycles at 100%,
the flared end appeared as shown below.
Proper flare tested with five cycles at
100% of recommended torque
After five cycles, the flared tube end appears
slightly more polished, but the flare is not
deformed or thinned in any way. Repeated
cycling did not damage the flare.
We took the same part and then tightened it
to 150% of recommended torque, removed,
By the end of the fifth overload cycle, the
tube flare wall was substantially thinned
with much material extruded out the top
of the flare where it formed a knife edge
and interfered with the internal threads
of the nut. To get the nut off we had to
pull hard which bent that portion of the
knife edge which is the upper half of the
tube flare in the photo above. Clearly
this flare is well on its way to failure.
We did one last experiment to see what
happens if you tighten without a torque
wrench and then check “just to make
sure.” One of us used a plain wrench to
tighten the AN-818 nut what we thought
felt like “tight enough.” After having pulled
the torque wrench a few times, it is not
surprising that a value of 4.5 ft lbs was
obtained, close to the specification of five
5.0 ft lbs. Another individual tried it, and
checking with the torque wrench showed 4.0
ft lbs, not bad for an un-calibrated hand.
Then we completed the test. Starting at
4.0 ft lbs, one person was asked to “check
the tightness” by pulling the wrench
33 YEARS AGO TODAY
A Window into Yesterday with
Ron Lalor, Membership No 11
24 June, 1977, was the first meeting
of the Federal Council of Sport Aircraft
Association of Australia, at 447 Collins Street,
Melbourne, with Clive Canning in the chair.
The first federal councillors being Clive Rupert
Canning (President), Walter James Watkins (Victorian division), Ronald Keith Lalor (New
South Wales division), John Michael Stacy
(South Australian division), John Playne
Bird (West Australian division), and Allan
James Heaton (Queensland division).
At this meeting, it was determined
that pursuant to article 6 of the
Associations articles of Association,
that the following persons shall be
life members of the Association:
Peter Carr, Cecil Howes, Thomas Keeble,
Ronald Lalor, Henry Millicer, Frank Rodgers,
Ellis Walker, and Walter Watkins.
24 June 2010 marked the 33rd
anniversary of a truly memorable day!
AIRSPORT • 11
vale Charlie Lambeth 1921-2010
The GCV operated out of paddocks in
Laverton, Essendon & Mordialloc using
car tows or winches to launch the gliders.
The Club began hill-soaring at Beveridge
and Charlie would cadge the occasional
lift in a vehicle, if possible, or ride his
push bike from home in Footscray to
Beveridge to participate. The GCV eventually
found a home at Benalla aerodrome.
Aviation was
Charlie’s hobby
and career
Charlie passed away at St Vincents
Hospital, Melbourne bringing an end
to an amazing and happy life filled
with aviation related activities.
Those who have been members of SAAA
since the early days will remember Charlie
attending our regular monthly meetings.
Charlie was an Airworthiness Inspector with
the Department of Civil Aviation and in this role
he visited many members to inspect, provide
advice and ultimately approve their aircraft.
Charlie’s love of flying was inspired by “The
Wonder Book of Aircraft”, a life-changing gift
he received as a boy. In the 1930s, the aviator
heroes Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm also
inspired Charlie’s boyhood desires to learn to fly.
In 1937 Charlie paid one pound for 20 minutes
of dual instruction and the rest is history!
As the cost of powered flying, at the time,
was three pounds per hour, which was
around 4 times the weekly wage, Charlie
soon found the cost prohibitive, so he
pursued flying via gliding. He found a group
of like-minded people gliding in Seddon and
became a member of the Gliding Club of
Victoria (GCV). Back then a glider flight cost
sixpence per flight. Initial solo flights were
made in a primary glider, which were very
crude and inefficient by today’s standards.
Charlie actively participated in gliding for
well over 50 years, befriending many along
the way. He was involved in GCV regular
weekend rosters, committees and became
an instructor. He had eventually gained
his powered license and flew tug planes to
launch gliders. Charlie became Honorary
Chairman of the GCV Instructors Panel and
the Chief Technical Officer - operations, of
the Gliding Federation of Australia. He held
various early gliding records including the
Australian Gliding Duration Record which
was a flight of 9 hours 51 minutes and was
achieved in 1943. Charlie was awarded the
Hoinville medal for services to gliding. He
was instrumental in organizing Australia’s
first World Gliding Championships held
at Waikerie SA in 1974 and organized
the air show at the World Gliding
Championships held at Benalla in 1987.
Charlie was also involved in the pioneering
days pre-WW2 of aeromodelling in
Melbourne and he pursued this interest
throughout his life. He served in the
RAAF during WW2 and subsequently
became a member of the Air Force
Reserve, serving in the Air Training Corps
for some 20 years where he encouraged
cadets, through aeromodelling and
gliding, to pursue careers in aviation.
Charlie was fortunate enough to be able
to turn his passion into a career. Charlie
was trained as a toolmaker and held many
positions generally aviation oriented. After
working at the Commonwealth Aircraft
Corporation, at an aviation company
in England, and for 16 years in RAAF
inspection, he joined the Commonwealth
of Australia’s Department of Civil Aviation
and became an Airworthiness Surveyor for
the Vic/Tas region. His job was to inspect
homebuilt aircraft and occasionally he
had the challenge to test fly a home built
plane. Charlie enjoyed being involved in
many projects being undertaken by SAAA
homebuilders throughout Victoria and
Tasmania. He befriended many enthusiasts
and builders in the sport aviation field &
enjoyed attending many air shows and
events especially in the 1970s & 1980s.
Charlie also relished in the great camaraderie
amongst his work colleagues; he retired from
the Department in 1986 at the age of 65.
His lifelong friend and past member of the
SAAA, Bruce Hearn, says that Charlie always
displayed a practical, helpful approach; he
was a highly respected public servant.
Charlie had an adventurous attitude and
embraced life’s opportunities. Whist aviation
was his main interest, he was also a keen
motor bike racer and in the early 1950s raced
at Ulster in Ireland and at the Isle of Man.
Charlie was always strongly supported
in all his endeavours by his beloved
family – wife Kath, and daughters Kathy
and Heather. During his married life they
lived at Springvale and Endeavour Hills.
In recent years, he lived with his daughter
Kathy and family. The Lambeth family
spent many weekends and holidays on
airfields, at air shows or at the Gliding
Club. Charlie is survived by his daughter
Kathy, son-in-law John, and their boys.
A life, well lived, indeed!
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12 • AIRSPORT
Darren Cloutang-Crompton
SAAA #7125 - Chapter 18
RA-Aus #25866
letter to the editor
Transition Training for
Experimental: We Need to
Get it Right the First Time!
writes Ralph Burnett, SAAA 3988
My concerns with this SAAA push to gain a form
of transition training out of CASA is that the safety
data may not justify it. Do we have Australian
data which support the need? I’d be surprised
if we do. We are always ‘on CASAs’ back’ over
their perceived failure to mount a quantifiable
safety case for changes, and in this case, it could
be that SAAA really needs the evidence. Cost
and inconvenience due to the current system
in Australia are unlikely to be considered as
factors necessitating change. If it ain’t broke…
In the US, as I’m told by approved transition
instructors, it became an issue for the FAA
when reported accidents in ‘EXP’ reached 2x
the average for GA, and the fatality rate for
these was 50% higher than GA. The opinion
within the industry is that many EXP non-injury
causing accidents are non-reported – the
wreckage is quickly recovered and rebuilt
out of sight. It’s a likely parallel in Australia. So,
the real accident ‘rate’ is probably higher?
EAA, AOPA, and other pilot organizations refused
to assume any supervisory or management role
of transition training in EXP aircraft because of
the legal liabilities perceived. But, the insurance
industry were really behind an improvement in
training via lowered premiums and discounts.
So, FAA made some decisions,
because they had to:
>> 14 CFR Section 91.319(h), which
disallows training in a non-owned
experimental, was amended to allow it.
>> Each Flight Standards District Office,
(FSDO), can process a request for
transitional training – a good move as
they probably know the instructor.
>> The paperwork is known as a Waiver or Letter
of Authorisation, or Deviation of Authority.
>> It allows a particular instructor to offer
transition training and BFR checking
in an EXP built aircraft – subject many
equipment and operational requirements.
>> Each applicant must submit a
Transition Training Lesson Plan which
covers the important features of
the type. NB: it is not generic.
>> Student records must be prepared
and held for at least 3 years.
>> The courses are ‘competency’ based,
but I’m told times can range from 2hrs
to 8hrs to achieve satisfactory skills.
>> Each applicant is approved only for those
types where they have proven ability. NB: a
basic t/w endorsement as given in Australia is
unlikely to be adequate to transition instruct…
A sound decision FAA, and please note CASA!
>> Instructors are allowed to receive their usual
fees because this is deemed real instruction. In
some cases they charge more than the going
GA rate because of the additional complexities,
and costs, incurred in obtaining the authority.
Now, where to in Australia?
Firstly, does SAAA intend to accept the US
process, (lock, stock & barrel), or is it going to try
for a uniquely Aussie system which CASA has
always favoured in the past? Please, let’s adopt an
already proven system, or we’ll be condemning
ourselves to a future of endless variations and
dispensations which will ruin the intent of the
approval. Look at where we’ve gone with GAAP
instead of Class D – full circle, and at great cost!
Second, SAAA needs to keep this transitional
training approval out of the mainstream flight
school/AOC system. The US system approves
the instructor – not the flying school, which in
my opinion seems notably sensible. A similar
system should really apply to all specialist,
(post licence), training in Australian GA, thus
simplifying endorsement and BFR activities,
and probably halving their cost to the pilot.
On average in Australia, the instructor holding
the skills receives $50/hr, while the AOC
receives $50/hr on top of this – simply to
pay for the ‘administration’. Not fair – is it?
Third, and this is important to keep standards
high - ‘transition’ instructor approvals should
be on the basis of past experience on type and
instructing experience on type. As an old (and
grumpy) instructor, I really object to the current
system wherein a junior instructor with a bare
minimum endorsement can then become an
instructor of that qualification - as soon as the ink
dries on their CASA delegate logbook sticker.
Fourthly, SAAA members need to accept that you
have to pay instructors for their experience. Do
you want experienced instruction, or don’t you?
This is an opportunity which we need to get right.
President’s Reply
I thank Ralph for his letter on this very
important topic. Ralph is absolutely
correct in his statement that we must
get this right from the outset. There
is no doubt from the information
available publicly that the human factor
accident/ incident occurrence points
to a lack of type familiarisation. This is
raising concerns among regulators and
respective safety bureaus in Australia
as well as the USA. Appropriate training
mitigates the risk and therein lies the
problem of how we can obtain this vital
training in amateur built aircraft from
type experienced trainers. The current
GA training regime fails to address this.
Yes, some flying training schools will
allow their instructors to hop into
your experimental and deliver the
familiarisation training but this is
not generalised nor in some cases
appropriate if the instructor is deficient
or short on experience themselves.
We have to have a better way of
delivering this risk mitigation. Shaping
the capability is the challenge for us.
“Flight training - regulatory approvals
Seek regulatory approval to enable the
organisation to provide flight training to
owners of amateur built and other sport
and recreational aircraft.”
The above is an extract from our Deed of
Agreement with CASA which recognises
this functional capability that we must
strive to achieve. The one clear point that
needs to be made from the outset is this;
whatever the end product it will not,
nor can it be commercial based training.
It must be member to member in the
member’s own aircraft and the trainers
selected on both trainer skills and type
experience. Additionally the need to
operate via an AOC needs to be removed.
I encourage members to use the SAAA
forum to express their thoughts.
Brian Hunter
>> Each waiver can cover several aircraft of
different types to which the instructor
has access, (by specific registration
number). The instructor does not
necessarily need to own each aircraft.
Ralph Burnett
SAAA 3988
AIRSPORT • 13
2010
Back to
Cowra
One member’s perspective: John Kneen
photos: Lisa and Graham Harvey, John Kneen, John Keen
W
hat do you get when
you mix enthusiastic
aviators, crisp
September weather,
dedicated volunteers
and a picturesque
country airfield? You get Back to Cowra
2010. John Kneen covered the event:
of their showers, which eliminated the need
for finding an alternative to the prohibitively
expensive task of hiring portable showers.
On both Thursday and Friday there was a
bitterly cold wind with low cloud around
the country so there were relatively few
aircraft arrivals. Most of the action was
in the RFS/SES building where the very
popular Maintenance Procedures and
Lycoming Engine Courses were run.
Back to Cowra 2010 started for me in
February with a meeting of interested
members from Chapter 21 to set the ball
rolling for the September Convention.
In previous years the convention had
received a significant subsidy from the Cowra
Shire so for 2010 one challenge was to
minimise costs. An additional constraint was
time – the members involved in planning and
running Cowra were also heavily involved
in SAAA activities such as developing the
maintenance courses and safety programs.
Cowra has many advantages. It is centrally
located with a well-maintained aerodrome.
However the airport does not have
convention facilities so marquees, portable
toilets, power systems and so on all have to
be hired. Fortunately the Rural Fire Services
(RFS) who are located on the Aerodrome
made their facilities available for the
various courses run in conjunction with the
convention. They also volunteered the use
14 • AIRSPORT
An advance party was charged with the
mission of evaluating the situation and
if necessary finding suitable alternatives.
Fortunately by the time of the event
the “paddock” was sufficiently dry and
an alternative was not required.
John Livsey unloading the SAAA trailer.
As 2010 was the fourth year of the
Convention at Cowra, a very good working
relationship has been built up with the
local community. In many cases it was
just a matter of touching base with the
appropriate persons and the wheels being
set in motion. Nevertheless the organising
committee were relieved when they
arrived on site to see the marquees being
assembled, the portable toilets in place and
the generator operational. It’s items like
these that can make or break a convention.
Two weeks before the event there had
been very heavy rain in Cowra and the
aircraft parking area became unusable.
“…a very good working
relationship has been built up
with the local community.”
On Friday evening there was the traditional
Trivia night run by Ric Harper. I was
fortunate to be with the winning team.
However my sole contribution to our
success was to provide the wrong answer
to a question. The Convention dinner had
its share of fun with the “hands on head/
hips competition”. Once we got past a “pride
of lions” the description of a collective
of more exotic animals eluded most
participants so winners quickly surfaced.
uia vellore mun Puda derrovidero mo
The Grumman TBM Avenger, dramatically displayed taking off against a backdrop of yellow canola. Piloted by Paul Bennet.
Bilyara Blue Seal Engines ran two forums,
“Six tools for understanding the health of
your engine” and “Managing your engine
using AuRACLE”
In 2009 the SAAA ran a series of
advertisements on local TV to promote the
convention. This was not a success so was
not repeated in 2010. However on Friday
the local TV news covered the event with the
result that on Saturday the (car) parking lot
overflowed with visitors who came to see the
aircraft arrivals and the aerobatic displays.
While the convention is not an air-show the
individual aerobatic pilots completed all
the legal requirements and documentation
to permit them to perform aerobatics.
On Saturday there were a number of
forums including “Flight Testing” by Keith
Engelsman, “So you want to build an
aircraft” with Bruce Towns and “Operation
After recent rains the parking area was unusable but by convention time things were sufficiently dry.
at Non-Towered Airports” by Albert
Fleming from CASA. Albert explained
that due to restricted visibility RPT
aircraft preferred straight in approaches.
To accommodate the RPT aircraft other
operators should extend their downwind
legs and under no circumstances should
they do anything unexpected like
perform orbits whilst on down wind.
Paul Goard of Brumby Aircraft Australia
gave an excellent presentation on laying
up composites with great techniques for
producing a professional and pinhole-free
finish with a minimum of fuss. The people
at Brumby were generous with their time,
welcoming people into their hangar and
offering interesting help and information.
cont. >>
AIRSPORT • 15
>> back to cowra
My job at the convention was to help out where
required. In previous years this has kept me quite
busy. Thanks to members who stepped up to the
plate to volunteer this year I had the opportunity to
attend many of the forums. Thank you everyone.
Trade displays are a valuable source of information. I had
a long discussion with Allan Barton about the Zenith.
This discussion has helped focus my attention on what I
need in an aircraft and the questions I need to answer.
The convention dinner gave members the opportunity
to mingle with old friends and to make new ones. Guest
speaker this year was Keith Engelsman who spoke
of his life as a test pilot. Keith has test flown a wide
diversity of aircraft, especially helicopters, and is well
qualified to act as the SAAA Flight Test advisor.
Conventions are about meeting people. I appreciated putting
a face to those people who assisted me with Chapter Chatter
for Victoria and Tasmania. It was a pleasure to meet Derek
Hardie (Corby Starlet) and Mike Connell (Jodel) who came to
the rescue at short notice with photos and stories for Airsport.
No wind and clear skies on the Saturday attracted many
visitors who witnessed a precision display of aerobatics.
As a member of the organising group, it was a great
pleasure to see John Livsey receive the President’s
Award for his work in organising and running the
convention. Thank you from all members to John
Livsey, Bruce Towns, Brian Ham and Rob Taylor who
were the main drivers behind the 2010 Convention.
John Kneen
By Friday morning Rotary had set up and together with the Country
Women’s Association supplied the meals for the duration of the convention.
16 • AIRSPORT
The SAAA Team Thunderbird set up in one of
the forum tents and over the weekend visitors
had the opportunity to cut foam. Despite
almost every component being cut by someone
different, at the end of the day no parts needed
to be discarded - they were all perfect!
Judy Done takes a turn at hotwiring >
AviaQuip have been a supporter of the SAAA over the years.
Ken Neil demonstrates fabric covering for homebuilders.
Zenith 750 under construction
After Howard Hughes’s forum a visit to the Lightwing Aircraft
exhibit to learn more about his glass cockpit developments.
The quiet day on the Friday provided the opportunity to get up close
and study the wing folding mechanism of the Grumman Avenger.
AIRSPORT • 17
>> back to cowra
Colin Ford’s Piper Super Cub VH-KLI
18 • AIRSPORT
Martin Ongley workshops the RV grin
Members and locals alike found plenty of opportunities to enjoy themselves... or relax!
AIRSPORT • 19
this year’s award winners
2010 President’s Award and Dave Darbyshire Award
Once again it gives me much pleasure
to announce the well-deserved
recipients of the 2010 President’s Award
and the Dave Darbyshire Award.
The Dave Darbyshire Award is a special
award for outstanding contribution to
SAAA. This year it was my pleasure to make
that award to Noel Stoney from Chapter
13 Albany, Western Australia. Noel has
embraced the MPC training role with a
vengeance to the extent that Noel and his
team, in the short life of the MPC training
have almost two thirds of the WA members
trained. It doesn’t end there, as he is also
a main player in the not so easy task of
revising the MPC material. In addition to
this important role Noel has also found
the time to be the President of his chapter.
Congratulations again Noel, well deserved.
The President’s Award this year went to
John Livsey from Chapter 21 Moorabbin,
Victoria. John delights in telling all that
he was in some way conned into stepping
into the shoes of a National Councillor.
Well, being a firm believer that throwing
people into the deep end is a character
building experience- some may describe
it as tuff love- I can just say that John has
taken all that was thrust onto his shoulders
and more. Congratulations again John.
When you meet up with these worthy
members take the time to express your
appreciation.
John Livsey (left) receives the President’s Award
Derek Hardie - Best Wooden Aircraft
Brian Hunter
President SAAA
Cowra Awards
>> Best Wooden Aircraft - Derek
Hardie, Corby Starlet VH-ALY
Brian Degenhardt - Best Metal and Concours d’Elegance
>> Clive Canning Award
for best Metal Aircraft
Brian Degenhardt,
Vans RV7A VH-SDG
>> Best Composite Aircraft
Ian Orrman,
Glassair Sportsman VH-ZIF
>> Concours d’Elegance
Brian Degenhardt,
Vans RV7A VH-SDG
Grand Champion - Peter Hodgens
As is usual at our National Convention,
we actively encourage members to enter
their aircraft for judging. The objective
of our awards is to recognise the efforts
by builders in the construction of their
aircraft. In addition to the aircraft awards
there are awards in other areas such as
technical innovation and most meritorious
flight. Another benefit of the awards is that
they act as an incentive to other builders
to complete their projects and aim for the
standards achieved by the awards winners.
We have several categories members can enter so
there is always a category suitable for all members.
20 • AIRSPORT
>> Grand Champion - Peter
Hodgens, Lancair IV VH-PWH
This year we had a rather low number of entries
and an award was not made in all categories.
Despite the relatively low number of entries, the
standard of the aircraft entered was very high,
and the standard seems to get higher every year.
Special thanks should go to those members
who undertook to judge the aircraft. For several
years, members of Chapter 21 undertook this
task but in 2009 we had additional members
from Chapter 23 at Frogs Hollow NSW. This
year we did even better, having additional
judges from both Frogs Hollow as well as judges
from Chapter 11 in North West Sydney.
Ian Orrman - Best Composite Aircraft
Specifically I would like to thank John Cartledge
from Chapter 21 at Moorabbin, Drew Done,
Stephen Friend and Barry Wrenford from Chapter
23 at Frogs Hollow, and Greg Poole, Michael
Petersen and Darin McLean from Chapter
11 at North West Sydney. These members
willingly give up their time to undertake the
judging which at times can be quite difficult
and they are owed a special thanks.
I am sure you will join with me in
congratulating these worthy winners.
John Livsey
vale Fred William Hooton 1922-2010
With the death
of Fred Hooton
on June 17th
the SAAA
lost one of its
longest serving
members,
and one who
as Federal
treasurer
had given
invaluable
service over
many years to
the Association.
Fred’s interest in all things aeronautical
commenced at an early age when he was given
a ‘joy’ flight in an Avro ten trimotor piloted by
none other than Sir Charles Kingsford Smith.
In 1938 he enrolled in the Engineering course at
the University of Sydney, from where he graduated,
first with a degree in Science, and then with a degree
in Aeronautical Engineering. The man in charge of
the Aeronautical department, Professor Stephens,
was a great believer in practical experience, and
advised his pupils that if they wanted to have
credibility with the flying profession, they would
have to be able to fly themselves; and to this end
Fred was seconded for a term to the Empire Air
Training scheme, flying Tiger Moths at Narromine
where he gained his wings in 1943. After this he
returned to his studies to graduate to 1944.
After graduation, Fred was recruited by the
Aeronautical Research Laboratories (ARL), where
he served for the next 39 years. There he was first
employed in the Structures and Materials section,
and later on in flight research, which often involved
actual flight experience, an example of which
being “Operation Cumulative” which required 12
hour flights at high altitude on oxygen in a Lincoln
bomber. A later more exciting mission concerned
structural testing of F111 fighters which included
computer controlled flying at very low altitudes.
In 1950 Fred married Nell Burbage and embarked on
an enduring partnership which was only terminated
by Nell’s death in 1994.
In 1954 he was seconded by the ARL to Australia
House in the UK as Australian representative in
Physical Sciences where he served for several years
before returning to Australia. Soon after his return, he
joined the Ultra Light Aircraft Association of which his
good friend, the late Tom Keeble was then serving as
President. The first National Council meeting of this
organisation, which has since become our Sport Aircraft
Association was held at his house in Templestowe.
Fred always enjoyed the opportunity to fly with the
SAAA members and in 1987 joined Brian Ham in a trip
to WA to attend the SAAA Langley fly-in. Fred held life
membership number 14, and his presentation of the
prestigious President’s Award. After Fred’s retirement
Nell also became active in Association affairs, and she
too received the same award for her work in establishing
the sales centres which became a well known feature of
the fly-in meetings. A highlight of their joint efforts was
the organising of the Qantas Oshkosh Express tour by
SAAA members in 1989.
Fred is survived by his daughter Patricia, and his son
David, who carries on his father’s aeronautical tradition
as the personal pilot of a private business jet.
Compiled by Patricia Hooton and Jim Fullarton
AIRSPORT • 21
SAAA team
by Dave Zemel
thunderbird
I
THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!
t started somewhat innocuously,
a few weeks after Melbourne’s
Moomba Birdman Rally, when
the President of Chapter 18
asked if there was any interest
in building an aircraft to enter
the 2011 event. Following initial mild
reservation at the suggestion, members
of both Chapters 18 and 21 embraced
the idea as it morphed into a Birdman
on steroids for the Red Bull Flugtag.
John Kneen removing the wing leading edge
The Flugtag (German for ‘flight day’) event
is held around the world. The first Red Bull
Flugtag competition was held in 1991
in Vienna, Austria. It was such a success
that it has been held every year since and
in over 35 cities around the world. This
year’s event in Sydney on 7 November is
Australia’s second Flugtag. Those entering
the event have to spend many hours (or
not) building a machine that, together
with a brave and stupid person (pilot),
have to be launched off a 6m platform into
a body of water...in our case the Sydney
Harbour...and see how far they fly (fall).
As the event of interest for us changed
22 • AIRSPORT
from the Moomba Birdman to the Flugtag,
so too did the aircraft design concept. The
more flexible design rules of the Flugtag
allowed the aircraft to develop from a
single swept wing, much like a B2 without
the sophistication, to a more traditional
design with an all-moving tailplane and
a straightened slab wing design that
RV owners are all too familiar with.
With the design concept out of the way,
finding the right materials and beginning
the construction was the next challenge
(and there have been many). We started by
testing some resin impregnated brown paper
wrapped into various shapes. A tubular piece
about 50 mm in diameter, 300 mm long
and weighing a paltry 62 grams, withstood
the efforts (weight) of two Chapter 18
members without breaking. However, design
and construction is an iterative process, so
while we were encouraged by such a great
result, tubes are difficult to build with.
The current design (now christened the
Thunderbird) features a spar constructed
from extruded foam sandwiched by two
3mm pieces of local hardware plywood. A
test section of spar was manufactured to test
its strength, and again the mighty weight of
Chapter 18 members were no match. Actually
it took around 200kg over a 1.2m span to
break, yet weighed in at 1.05kg per metre.
This was 50% more than needed. The nose of
the wing and tailplane are constructed from
high density foam hotwired into shape. Those
of you at the SAAA National Convention in
Cowra will have seen, and possibly helped
turn, a large square piece of foam into precise
aerospace components. Other elements
include twin booms for the tailplane also
fabricated from foam and plywood, foam
ribs and pallet wrap for the skin. We are also
looking to use resin impregnated newspaper
SAAA President showing us how to hotwire
on the leading edges for stiffness and security.
So why Thunderbird? Well the Flugtag
isn’t just about flying, it’s about raucous
entertainment. And us funny blokes from
Chapters 18 and 21 thought it would
be hilarious if we acted like Thunderbird
puppets in front of a 70 000 plus Sydney
crowd. We’re still working on that.
At time of writing we are completing the
subassemblies, and expect to have a vehicle
resembling a flying machine by late October.
Testing, pilot selection, and of course
costume design, will all be happening over
the next couple of weeks. Then of course we
head to Sydney. If you’re up that way, please
come by to help and/or cheer us on. Stand by
for the next instalment to find out whether
we soar like Virgil...
Original Model
Current thunderbird design mockup
Tailplane discussion
Testing the spar
Direction of
Flight
Building the spar centre section
Spar tested to failure
thunderbird specifications
Flugtag Facts
Sunday 7 November 2010
Yurong Precinct (near Royal Botanical Gardens) Sydney Harbour
More Info, can you help?
Team gets points for
Dave Robbins 0418 342 983
>> entertainment
Dave Zemel 0412 778 120
>> originality
for spectator advice
>> distance flown...
visit www.redbullflugtag.com.au
Current record is 62 metres!
Wing Area: 8m span x 2m chord
Wing Airfoil: NACA 8812
Wing Dihedral: 5 degrees
Wing to Body Incidence: 0 degrees
Tail Area: 3.6m span x 1m chord
Tail Type: All moving tailplane raised
approx 0.5m above wing TE
Tail Airfoil: NACA 0015
Tail Arm (25% wing chord to 25% tail chord):
2.75m to 3.25m (yet to be finalised)
Weight Aircraft: 40-50kg
Weight Take-Off (ie. including pilot): 135-145kg
Launch height: 8-10m
Launch Speed: 3-4 m/s; Top Speed: 10-15 m/s
Pilot position: prone, on top, relative to CG
AIRSPORT • 23
kakadu crunch
by Fred Moreno
Other than being shot at and missed, there is nothing quite so gratifying
as walking away from a forced landing in crocodile country
I
t started as a trip to deliver an
SAAA Maintenance Procedures
Course to SAAA Chapter
35 members in Darwin via
volunteer SAAA instructors.
To justify costs we decided
to make a vacation/sightseeing trip
in my Lancair IV VH-YFM with the
course on the weekend of 17-18 July.
Wednesday 14 July, Fred Moreno (course instructor),
Chris Howden, and Noel Stoney (course coordinator
and SAAA Chapter 13 President) left Denmark,
stopped at Geraldton for fuel, and continued to
Coral Bay to spend the night. Coral Bay was great
except that Noel had this idea about walking in from
the airport which is “just over the sand dunes from
the town.” Right. Note to self: those little suitcase
wheels do not like rocks, pot holes, and sand dunes.
Once in Darwin, accommodation was booked
for Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon with a planned Tuesday
departure. In Darwin we met course instructor
and SAAA National Council Member Shirley
Harding who was staying with hosts Vern and
Jenny Taylor. Vern is SAAA Chapter 35 President
and made the course arrangements.
The course was completed on Sunday. General
chat among the students revealed that they carried
registered firearms in their aircraft noting that one
could make a successful forced landing in the area,
but not survive for long afterwards. Hmmmm…
Crunch!
So Monday morning Fred, Noel, Chris and
Shirley departed Darwin for a stop at Cooinda
24 • AIRSPORT
would remain to complete the aircraft recovery.
to take in the Yellow Waters boat ride and then
a sightseeing flying circuit around Kakadu
National Park while returning to Darwin.
Tuesday 20 July - Recovery begins
Approximately 20 minutes into the flight while
8 NM from Jabiru airport, one cylinder failed
due to the exhaust rocker arm breaking. Engine
monitor records later showed that the blowback
from cylinder no. 1 took down cylinder no. 6 due
to flooding so we were down to four misfiring
cylinders. Cylinder number 6 was brought back
online by adjustment of mixture, throttle and RPM
but roughness continued. On final approach to
Jabiru the mixture and RPM controls were pushed
fully forward. While flaring to land, power was
added and the engine failed completely. This was
probably due to flooding as fuel flowed from the
failed cylinder to other cylinders plus going to full
rich on final. The flare was not completed, nose
wheel struck first, nose landing gear failed, and
the aircraft slid while rolling on the main gear.
Chris saw the nose wheel disappear to the right
into the bush. It was later retrieved. Climbing out,
we saw a streak of engine oil covering the right
side of the belly. No injuries occurred. Airport
personnel, CASA, ATSB, and QBE were notified.
The aircraft was recovered from the side of the
runway to a gravel area near the terminal.
Jenny Taylor drove for three hours, retrieved the four
of us and returned us to Darwin. Noel, Chris and
Fred stayed in previously booked accommodation.
Shirley missed her Qantas flight and spent the night
with Vern and Jenny. It was agreed that Noel and
Shirley would return home via airlines, the cheapest
fare being a Wednesday departure. Chris and Fred
Because I had transported the Lancair IV partially
built from the US to Australia, I elected to use the
same method of transport via a “high cube” 40 foot
shipping container. I spent most of the morning
contacting shipping companies to find one that
could handle transport back home to Denmark
Airport on a turnkey basis and succeeded with
NQX. A quotation was received and preliminary
arrangements made to have the container taken
to Jabiru Airport and off loaded to the ground via
“ Climbing out, we saw a
streak of engine oil covering
the right side of the belly.“
side loader trailer the following Saturday. I hired
a dual cab pickup truck which would be available
through Saturday evening and had it delivered to
our place of accommodation. I also coordinated our
plans with Chief Pilot Rob at Kakadu Air Services in
Jabiru via phone. The Kakadu Air personnel proved
to be great hosts and were immensely helpful.
We extended our stay at Darwin an additional
day. Shirley spent another night with Vern and
Jenny. That evening, the four of us who were in
the airplane prepared the required ATSB written
report which was submitted via Internet.
Among the class participants was Bill Markey, a
LAME specializing in aircraft remote area repair,
rectification and recovery. Bill travels via an RV4
Ouch! Other than that, Mrs. Harding, how was the flight?
fully loaded with tools and supplies. I called Bill and
arranged for him to meet us at Jabiru Thursday
to help remove the wings and prep the aircraft
for shipment. We also arranged to pick up a 44
gallon drum from Bill’s home which would be
used to hold a portion of the fuel still in YFM.
We had difficulty getting accommodation
in Jabiru during the height of the tourist
season, having to hop from place to place
grabbing cancellations as they appeared.
Chris, Fred, and Noel drove to Vern’s house to
get Shirley and transport Noel and Shirley to the
Darwin Airport. We borrowed tools, water jugs, a
40 litre fuel drum and 20 litre jerry can from Vern
and Jenny to receive fuel to be drained from YFM.
We drove to Bunnings for tools, supplies,
and materials. There was nothing in the way
of supplies or tools at Jabiru – no hardware
store, nothing. Everything would have to be
imported. Based on sketches of the fuselage
and wing supports I prepared, we procured
timber, plywood, nuts, bolts, screws, adhesives
and tools required to disassemble the aircraft
and construct the necessary support stands.
Recovery Challenges
Around the Darwin area, Piper/Cessna etc. are
recovered by removing the horizontal stabilizer and
wings and lifting of these items and fuselage onto
a specially fabricated carrier available for rent. It is
designed to handle up to 200 series Cessna aircraft.
The challenge with the Lancair IV is that the 3420
mm wide horizontal stabilizer is permanently bonded
to the fuselage making a single piece structure.
It is far in excess of legal road width (2440 mm)
requiring special road travel permits which we were
unlikely to obtain given the long distance required
on heavily-trafficked two lane main highways.
The fuselage had to be rotated to an angle of about
48 degrees to permit the horizontal stabilizer to
fit through the door of the container. This required
constructing a fuselage carrier/cart to allow the
fuselage to be rolled into the container, rotated, and
the tail height carefully adjusted to pass through
the container door with about 30 mm of clearance.
The fuselage cart was designed from memory
and reinforced to carry fuselage with engine
attached and fuselage full of systems and interior.
Wednesday July 21
Chris and Fred drove to Bill Markey’s home 50
km south of Darwin and picked up the 44 gallon
fuel drum. We drove on to Jabiru airport arriving
at 2:30 pm and met with Chief Pilot Rob of
Kakadu Scenic Air Tours to make arrangements.
We were offered assistance and allowed to build
the wing saddles and fuselage cart in the hangar.
However due to CASA requirements that prohibit
aircraft maintenance in the hangar (licensed for
storage only), we could not move the aircraft to
the hangar, but would have to do our work in the
dirt area about 100 meters from the terminal.
The hired truck (filled inside and out with timber,
tools, supplies, baggage, water jugs, and food/drinks
collected along the way) was unloaded and prepared
for fabrication of the cart and the four wing saddles.
We set up a sun shade over the cockpit (being
from cool Denmark/Albany area, the tropical
heat was an issue for our elderly bodies) and
removed the interior. Two hundred fifty litres of
fuel were drained into containers. We began wing
removal disassembling wires, linkages, cables,
and hoses. Work stopped due to darkness.
Thursday July 22
We finished the wing stands. Bill Markey arrived
at 9:00am and helped with the final wing
removal and loading into the wing saddles.
The fuselage nose was raised and pallet
stack underneath replaced by a single pallet
on edge under the crankshaft flange making
lower firewall and cowl area accessible.
The aircraft was carefully inspected for an
initial damage assessment. Bill Markey noted
the damaged valve cover on cylinder no. 6,
removed the cover and discovered the broken
exhaust rocker arm. A small hole knocked
into the bottom of the rocker cover was the
source of the oil along the belly. Chris and
Fred began working on the fuselage cart.
Friday July 23
The entire day was spent building the fuselage cart.
Fuselage and cart returning home
It became clear we would not
make our Saturday afternoon container loading
deadline so the container was rescheduled for
Sunday at noon. The fuselage cart was complex
because it had to carry the fuselage fully loaded
with engine, rotate the fuselage, and allow tail height
adjustment to pass through the container door.
Saturday July 24
We arrived at 7:00am for maximum daylight
time. The fuselage cart was completed and
moved to the airplane. Using a fork lift to lift the
nose, the cart was disassembled into forward
and rear sections, slipped under the fuselage,
reassembled, and then the nose dropped into the
forward cradle. The fork lift was moved to the tail
and lifting via two large plywood and foam rubber
fixtures horizontal stabilizer and rear fuselage
were raised sufficiently to gain clearance for the
main landing gear to be retracted. The tail was
then lowered into rear of the fuselage cart.
The truck rental company phoned and said we
had to return the truck that evening as originally
scheduled. It had been rented for two weeks starting
the following day. They agreed to meet Chris and
exchange a smaller replacement truck half way
between Jabiru and Darwin. Chris returned about
three hours later and we finished support blocks
to bolt the fuselage cart to the container floor.
Sunday, July 25
We fabricated pallet and plywood “pavers” upon
which we could elevate the fuselage cart to the
container floor level and roll it into the container.
The container arrived at 12:00pm. Moving the cart
into the container commenced with great difficulty
due to the weight of the fuselage and engine and
tendency of the steel caster wheels to sink into the
plywood and run off the “tracks.” A miscalculation
left the tail at the wrong elevation. Plywood spacer
blocks were fabricated and inserted and wheels
reattached to get the required height for tail entry.
Then the fuselage jammed in the rotator cradles
and would not rotate to the correct angle.
Much cursing, levering, jacking, and other work
succeeded in getting the fuselage rotated and
cart installed in the container. Temperature was
35C outside, estimated at
cont. >>
AIRSPORT • 25
>> kakadu crunch
Fabrication Area
Wings in saddles
55C inside the container, and the west wall baking in tropical
sunlight was probably 70C raising skin burns when touched.
Once fully inserted the cart was bolted down and secured with ropes
tied to rings in the container. Wings and their cradles were loaded and
screwed to the container floor. Other parts, bottom cowl, boxes, and
baggage were secured. The container was locked at 5:30pm and sent on
its way. We returned to the hangar, cleaned up, hauled away waste and
debris, drove back to Bill Markey’s home, returned the 44 gallon drum,
and then drove on to Darwin arriving late that evening to spend the night
with our hosts Vern and Jenny Taylor. Chris and Fred each drank eight
litres of water and juice during the day and while driving back to Darwin.
Monday July 25
We had breakfast with our hosts and returned the tools, supplies, jerry
can, fuel drum, water jugs, and other goods we had borrowed. Chris and
Front and rear of the fuselage cart
Fred flew Qantas to Perth (boring...) and were picked up by Elgar and Bo Hannington
(SAAA Chapter 16, Serpentine and SAAA VP). We spent Monday evening with Bo and
Elgar, and then Tuesday morning Elgar drove us to Arthur River, half way from Perth to
Denmark where we were met by Noel Stoney who drove us the rest of the way home.
Saturday, July 31
The container arrived about noon and with the help of about a dozen
aviation friends YFM was extracted from the container, returned to its
hangar, and put up on jacks and stands. The cart and wing stands were
removed, sawed into manageable pieces, and taken to the tip.
Recovery completed! Parts were ordered. Repairs were soon to be started.The best part
of the story is the aviation people we met. Everyone went far out of their way to help,
provide accommodation, transportation and support. QBE has been outstanding in their
support settling a complex insurance claim quickly and fairly. And particular thanks are
due to Chris Howden who stuck through it all and kept smiling. Thanks Chris.
The 10.4” Odyssey & 8.4” Voyager
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-engine,flight,terrain&airspacealerts).
• Everyconceivablefunction:allflight;HITS;
VOR,ILS,GLS,GVOR;AOA;allengine;‘black
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26 • AIRSPORT
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mechanical musings
In this column we will be looking at a
different maintenance task each issue.
Ken Garland
These tasks can be found in under CAR 1988
Schedule 8 “Pilot Approved Maintenance” so are
relevant to pilots as well as builders. We will also
look at some new and emerging products in the
amateur built/experimental market under the
heading of Reviews. I look forward to sharing my
thoughts and experience as we pursue our passion!
Tyre care
echni
Quiz
Techniquiz is designed to get
you thinking about maintenance
tasks. Not just the “what to do”
but “how to” and “what data
should I use”.
Quiz content reproduced courtesy
of Flight Safety Australia.
1. Relating to a ball bearing, damage
or wear consisting of circular
indentations on the bearing races
due to high forces on installation,
or removal, or high static loads,
is termed;
(a)galling (b) brinelling
(c) skidding (d) peening
2. When an aircraft with a wooden
propeller is parked for some time, the
propeller should be positioned;
(a) vertical to discourage nesting birds
(b)vertical to minimise the risk
of injury
(c) horizontal to discourage
nesting birds
(d) horizontally to avoid imbalance
due to water accumulating
in the lower blade
3. In a properly designed riveted joint
the rivets only support;
(a)tensile loads (b) compression
loads (c) shear loads
(d)compression and shear loads
4. A spark plug gap of 0.026” is closest to;
(a)0.015mm (b) 0.15mm
(c) 6.6mm (d) 0.66mm
5. A potential hazard with certain
composite aircraft is that Styrofoam;
(a)reacts rapidly with mineral
hydraulic fluid (b) dissolves
rapidly in 100LL avgas and mogas
(c) dissolves rapidly in 100/130
avgas (d) Creates a fire hazard
when in contact with synthetic
greases
6. A Clevis bolt AN21 or AN36 is
designed for applications in which
the bolt is in;
(a)shear (b) tension
(c) compression (d) high cycle fatigue
Answers on page 42
When replacing tube type tyres, inflate to the
recommended pressure, deflate, then reinflate to
assure proper fit of the tube inside the tyre. Let
stand for 12-24 hours to compensate for “tyre
growth”. After placing in service, check tyre
pressure before each flight until the tyre stabilizes.
pounds including the fuel pump In addition to
its multi-gasoline fuel capability, it has all the
reliability expected of a Lycoming, with time
between overhaul (TBO) of 2400 hours.
For more information see www.lycoming.textron.com
Cockpit 3.0
caption uia vellore mun Puda derrovidero mo
Thales Aerospace is not a name usually associated
with avionics for amateur built aircraft. They
are currently busy developing the flight decks
for the Sukhoi Superjet 100, ATR 600 series,
Sikorsky S-76D and Airbus A350 at its Toulouse
facility. At the same time, the company is
working to visualize what the cockpit of a nextgeneration might look like 20 years from now.
For tubeless tyres, always check the condition
of the tubeless wheel prior to mounting tyres.
Once the tyres are mounted, check for proper
bead seating by applying a soap solution
along the rim flange. Bubbling in this area
indicates a poor tyre-to-rim seat. The tyre
must be dismantled and the bead seating areas
cleaned prior to re-assembling the tyre.
Once assembled, check wheels for vibration
and balance. Vibration, shimmy and
similar conditions may be caused by:
>> Wheel assembly installed before full
tyre growth has been achieved.
>> Loose wheel bearings
>> Wrinkled or misshaped tube
>> Air trapped between tyre and tube
>> Improper inflation pressure
>> Tubeless tyre improperly mounted
>> Poor gear alignment
>> Damaged wheel
Reviews
Lycoming Lightweight
Tectron Lycoming announced in July 2010
that they were taking orders for their new
233 series engines. Initially available is the
experimental non-certified Light Sport Aircraft
(LSA) engine. The engine is light and offers
continuous power ratings up to 115 horsepower
at 2800 RPM and is capable of running on
unleaded automotive as well as avgas fuel.
First introduced in 2008, the initial standard
version of the engine is carburetted, and
features dual CDI spark ignition, an optimized
oil sump, a streamlined accessory housing,
hydraulically adjusted tappets, a lightweight
starter, and a lightweight alternator with integral
voltage regulator. It has a dry weight of 213
“Cockpit 3.0” is a concept where Thales categorizes
the Concorde, with its electromechanical
instruments and a processor and display for each
sensor, as Cockpit 1.0, and glass cockpits with
information merged into displays as version 2.0.
According to Dennis Bonnet, head of safety
and human engineering in Thales’ cockpit
centre, Cockpit 3.0 is likely to feature intelligent
interfaces that deduce what the pilot wants to
do and help him do it, and would probably
monitor crew safety. “An eye tracker, for
example,” said Bonnet, “would see what the pilot
is looking at and know it’s not the right tool for
the problem, directing him to the right tool or
even removing the wrong one from view.”
“There will be new interactive languages for
touch screens and localized or 3-D sound. And
there will be dematerialization, with several
small screens replaced by one big one plus a
head-up display” says Bonnet. Flat projection,
pico-projectors, flexible screens, wide eye-box
HUDs and ever higher graphic quality will
transform what is possible in the cockpit.
A pipe dream for amateur builders? Maybe,
but that’s what they said about EFIS,
EMS and GPS in amateur built aircraft
at the time the Concord first flew.
For more information see www.thalesgroup.com
AIRSPORT • 27
by Bob Barrow
W
hen Piper
Chieftain VH OAO
slammed into
a steep hillside
on approach to
the Mt Hotham
airstrip in the winter of 2005
the fire that erupted burnt only
briefly in the deep snow. But the
intrigue that the accident ignited
smouldered for much longer.
On board the ill-fated aircraft was pilot
Russell Lee and multi-millionaire property
developer Brian Ray and his wife Kathy. All
three perished instantaneously when Lee
attempted an approach into Mt Hotham in
seemingly impossible weather conditions.
In March this year five members of SAAA
Chapter 21 (Moorabbin) flew to Mt Hotham
in three aircraft and trekked to the crash
site to reflect on the incident that has now
gone down in history as one of Australia’s
most discussed Alpine air accidents.
Late in the afternoon of July 8, 2005, Lee
submitted a VFR flight plan to ATC for a flight
from Essendon to Mt Hotham, Victoria. This
was despite the fact that both the area forecast
and the aerodrome forecast predicted icing
conditions in the Mt Hotham area and the
Chieftain had no de-icing equipment. The pilot
was also advised by ATC prior to departure
that actual reported weather conditions in
the vicinity of the aerodrome included very
low cloud, poor visibility, and snow showers.
While taxiing at Essendon Lee obviously had
second thoughts about his chances of getting
into Mt Hotham and notified ATC that due
to adverse weather on the mountain he now
required an amended airways clearance to
Wangaratta (from where his passengers would
be picked up by car and driven to Mt Hotham).
The Chieftain departed Essendon at 1629
EST and tracked for Wangaratta. However 18
minutes into the flight Lee again contacted
ATC and advised he was changing his flight
plan once again and would be diverting
VFR to Mt Hotham. As it turned out it was
a spur-of-the-moment change of plan that
would have tragic consequences. A minute
later Lee contacted Flightwatch and requested
that the operator telephone the Mt Hotham
28 • AIRSPORT
death
in the
snow
Searchers locate the wreckage of Piper Chieftain VH OAO in the winter of 2005.
Only the vertical stabiliser was showing above the deep snow.
airport manager to confirm an estimated
arrival time of 1719 EST. The airport manager
who was also an accredited meteorological
observer reported that the aircraft would
be unable to land in the adverse weather
conditions. This information was passed
onto Lee by Flightwatch but he pressed on.
In reality two previous IFR flights that
afternoon, a Bombardier Dash 8 and a Cessna
Citation, had both been unable to land at Mt
Hotham when they failed to become visual
at the Minimum Descent Altitude (MDA)
on the sole Runway 29 GPS instrument
approach. In fact the Dash 8 crew had
made two unsuccessful attempts. And in
the meanwhile conditions had deteriorated
even further. When the Chieftain reported
overhead Mt Hotham in failing light ground
staff were observing an unbroken cloud base
at 200 feet above the runway (the published
approach MDA was 741 feet agl). Visibility
was 300 metres in falling snow and the
temperature was zero celsius. None the less
Lee then requested a change of flight category
to IFR in order to conduct the GPS approach.
ATC acknowledged the transmission.
It is now generally accepted that Russell Lee
had been in the habit of ignoring published
IFR approach procedures and adopting his
own procedures to get into Mt Hotham when
adverse weather conditions existed. The pilot
had spoken of flying down a valley to the
south-east of the airport, locating the Great
Alpine Road, and following it to the threshold
Chapter 21 member John Stephenson in front of the
only sizeable remaining remnant of the aircraft- the
rear 4 metres of the fuselage and vertical stabiliser.
Other sections of the wreckage were strewn 100 metres
up the steep slope. Most pieces were no more than
500mm in size indicating the force of the impact.
of Runway 29. And radar records reveal that
this is exactly what he did on the day of the
accident. Thus at 1725 EST when Lee made his
last broadcast on the MBZ frequency requesting
that the runway lights be switched on (they
were already on) he found himself in very poor
light on a long final in snow showers, sleet, and
mist while attempting to remain visual between
the convergence of a very low cloud base and a
steeply rising snow covered terrain. A moment
later the aircraft ploughed into a tree covered
ridge at an altitude 200 feet below runway level.
Weather conditions on the mountain were
From left, the author Bob Barrow
and other Chapter 21 members
John Cartledge, Peter Grieger, and
John Genet stand by the left engine.
Both engines were completely
ripped from their wings as the
aircraft careered through tall trees.
so bad at the time that over 100 police and
SES searchers on foot and horseback spent
two days in blizzards searching for the aircraft
without success despite the fact that the
plane was known to have crashed on final
approach. It wasn’t until the weather cleared
on the third morning that searchers found the
wreckage located within 1000 metres of the
Great Alpine Road. SAAA Chapter 21 member
John Stephenson recalls that he awoke at his
Cobungra retreat (situated a couple of miles
down the mountain from the crash site) on the
morning after the accident and was amazed
at the amount of snow that had dumped
overnight. “It was a very heavy downfall”, he
said. “In fact there was snow coverage all the
way down the mountain to Omeo (1900ft) and
beyond”. All evidence now suggests that in the
appalling visibility and conditions conducive
to “flat light phenomenon” Russell Lee simply
did not see the ridge and flew straight into it.
The key for the success of the pilot’s previous
unorthodox but successful approaches into
Mt Hotham in adverse conditions probably
relied on him being able to maintain constant
visual contact with the Great Alpine Road
which virtually leads directly to the threshold.
But on the fatal afternoon it is highly likely
that Lee lost sight of the snow covered road
in the limited visibility. Logic dictates that
he would have normally flown up the right
side of the road where the terrain is lower.
This would have also kept the road on his left
so that he could see it just beneath him out
of the pilot’s side window. The right side of
the road would also have placed him closer
to the runway 29 published approach and
closer to the extended runway centreline.
Radar records clearly show that as Lee began
his run up the Great Alpine Road he was
indeed to the right of it for several miles. But
approximately abeam the Final Approach Fix
(approximately 7 miles out from the threshold)
he drifted across the road to the left. The road
was Lee’s last golden thread home and he, and
his passengers, were probably finally doomed
from the moment he presumably lost sight of
it. At the point of impact (2.6 miles from the
threshold) the aircraft was to the left of the road
and over one mile to the left of the runway
centreline (and continuing to diverge to the left).
Five years on, the only remaining question is
what could have possibly motivated a sane
pilot to attempt a non-complying IFR approach
in failing light and falling snow to Australia’s
highest altitude commercial airstrip in atrocious
Alpine weather conditions well below the IFR
minima for both cloud and visibility (and in
an aircraft with no de-icing equipment). As
it turns out in retrospect that question can
now most likely be answered in one word…
money. On that fateful day in the winter of
2005 the financial ambitions of both the pilot
and the primary passenger combined to push
the pilot to make a series of terrible decisions.
The primary passenger was Brian Ray, a
multi-millionaire and one of Australia’s largest
property developers. He made his money
quickly by taking risks. In the 1980s he
was tried (and acquitted) over allegations
he defrauded the Commonwealth of $16
million in relation to bottom-of-the-harbour
tax schemes. In 1998 he faced further
controversy when police raided his Gold
Coast home in another tax investigation.
Ray’s last property venture was a proposed
$500 million joint development designed
to turn Mt Hotham into Australia’s first
European-style luxury ski destination.
Ray liked to associate with other big money and
he numbered the media mogul Kerry Packer,
the retailer Gerry Harvey and the adman John
Singleton among his friends. His vision for Mt
Hotham was not to accommodate the common
masses but to sell units costing between $2
and $7 million each to the elite (among the
most expensive real estate in Australia at the
time). The Mt Hotham airstrip was a key selling
point in the marketing of the proposed units.
The strip was promoted as “the only alpine
airport in Australia, the only airport within
20 minutes of a ski
resort”. It was implicit in
the marketing that the
rich and famous could
wing into their alpine
penthouses from all
corners of Australia in all seasons. The fact
that the Mt Hotham strip could be highly
problematic at times in the crucial snow season
was largely glossed over. In the end Ray may
have come to believe in his own hype.
Russell Lee was the owner of RL Aviation, a
relatively small charter company based near
Geelong, Victoria, that owned six aircraft,
the largest of which was the Piper Chieftain.
The RL website at the time said: “RL Aviation
offers charter flights to Mount Hotham
airport in all seasons” and “RL Aviation has
flown more charter flights to Hotham than
any other operator”. It claimed to be the first
charter operator to be approved (by CASA)
for night operations into Mt Hotham. On the
site were photos of Mr Lee’s Chieftain on the
snow-surrounded runway of Mt Hotham.
The smell of money associated with being
an ongoing preferred charter company for a
$500 million luxury residential development
at Mt Hotham must have been compelling
for a small time aviation operator like Lee. In
fact Lee had spoken enthusiastically of the Mt
Hotham development and the potential benefit
for his business. He spoke of being asked by
the developer if weather was an operational
problem on the mountain. Lee reportedly
boasted to Ray that in 10 years of operating
into Mt Hotham, weather had never prevented
him from making a landing. He comforted
Ray by telling him that he could get into Mt
Hotham when others could not. It was the
sort of promise that Ray wanted to hear.
However that promise looked like turning
sour on the charter flight that Ray and his
wife took to Mt Hotham with RL Aviation on
July 8, 2005. In a stroke of bad luck for Lee
the weather forecast for the Hotham airstrip
turned out to be truly abysmal. But ultimately
Lee was determined to save face; Ray on the
other hand was just simply in his usual rush
to get to the top of the money pile. When
those ambitions coincided the outcome
was disaster and death in the snow.
AIRSPORT • 29
tales from the toolbox
FROM CLOCKS
TO GLASS
by Peter Bennett
Modernising an RV6
instrument panel
There has to be some payoff
for the grief involved in a
comprehensive upgrade of the
instrument panel. It’s not cheap,
it’s a mammoth amount of work,
the project is full of unforeseen
“gotchas”, and the aircraft is out
of service for an extended period.
There were several factors that pushed me
towards considering a new panel. I wanted
a large screen moving map. I wanted to be
able to download my flight plan directly
from the flight planning software to the GPS
to avoid the hours and errors involved in
manual entries when going on a trip. My
vacuum AH was unreliable and I wanted
an excuse to ditch the vacuum systems in
favour of solid state reliability. Then the
supplier of my engine instrument package,
a RMI uMonitor, announced that he was
phasing out of business. Definitely time for
me to stop dreaming and apply some of St
Kevin’s “programmatic specificity” to XPB.
The engineer and gadget geek in me got very
excited reading about the MGL range of glass
panels. The Enigma was well established, the
Odyssey was just coming out, and the soonto-be-released Voyager seemed to offer the
right size and features. These units are highly
customisable by the user, and so appeal to
people like me. Then the pilot-with-a-yellowstreak in me entered the debate. There were
other offerings with better aircraft grade
hardware, better disciplined software releases,
more bullet proof operating interfaces and
established reputations, albeit with less
flexible configurability. Tough choice. In the
end it came down to selecting the equipment
that best met my original objectives.
I decided on a Garmin 695 for the moving
map GPS. Costly though it is, it has a
solid pedigree and is well supported. My
Champagne Flight Planner loads flight plans
straight in. I had chosen the Dynon D60 EFIS
and EMS D10 engine management system
30 • AIRSPORT
for their adequate
function and low
cost, when Dynon
announced the
Skyview EFIS. It
didn’t take much
to figure out
where Dynon’s
development and
support would go,
so I ordered the
Skyview instead of
the D60. I retained
the D10 because I like the engine instruments
on a separate screen. (I know, I know. Your
mileage may vary...). The Skyview comes
with synthetic vision. As a VFR pilot I need
synthetic vision like a fish needs a bicycle,
but I’ve got it now and I probably won’t turn
it off. I believe however that over the next
several years we will see VFR pilots suckered
into conditions they can’t handle, through
overconfidence in their synthetic vision.
I am using as many of the existing sensors
as possible. Many will be reusable, but some
will have to be replaced. Dynon are coy about
releasing characteristics of their sensors,
so some experimenting will be necessary.
With a change of equipment, certain
functions operate differently. For instance,
my uMonitor has a fuel timer that alerts me
to change tanks after half an hour then every
hour after that. Keeps the tanks balanced.
Both the Dynon D10 and the Garmin 695
offer fuel timers, but nothing as intelligent as
the uMonitor. So I have built a custom fuel
timer that allows me run a tank for 30 or 60
minutes before it alerts me. It allows better
fuel management than even the uMonitor.
The EMS D10 monitors my fuel senders,
enabling me to junk the 1930’s style chrome
gauges that Vans supplied last century. As
before though, the senders only see the
bottom approximately 45 litres of fuel in
the main tanks. The top 25 litres remain
RV6 VH-XPB panel before upgrade
Soft aluminium mockup panel. From left, Dynon Skyview,
EMS D10, MGL V10 radio, Garmin GPSMAP 695
invisible, as does the fuel in the tip tanks.
However MGL has a really neat fuel gauge/
computer, the FF1, that can be set up as
one or two tanks, one or two fuel flows,
and to report sender levels or calculated
levels. I have set it up as two tanks showing
calculated levels. I enter the starting fuel
(including mains and tips) and the flow
meter counts the level down. I have only one
fuel flow sensor, so I direct it to left or right
tank via a panel switch to match the fuel
selector valve position. I can now dispense
with the paper fuel log I always kept.
I made one other opportunistic change. My
second radio was a handheld tacked onto
the panel and plumbed to power, antenna
and audio panel. I have replaced it with an
MGL V10 radio. Technically this radio is
impressive and the price is good. I have yet to
decide if I’ll like its all-pushbutton operation.
One of my criteria for the new panel is that
Tips for Tapered Wing Ribs
with Rodney Duffield
When I started making the ribs for my
scratch built 84% Polikarpov I 185 I started
off by drawing a datum line, dividing it into
segments working out the upper and lower
coordinates and joining the dots. Not bad
but not good enough. Not happy, I tried
a couple of other methods. Still not good
enough until this idea popped into my head.
I made a 1000mm rib of the foil I wanted
[25014] out of a piece of MDF [use what ever
you like ie paper], painted it white and with a
black oil marker ie. Nikko I marked the datum
line and put a fine line around the edge. I took
this down to Copy Print (or you could use
anyone with a plan printer) and they were able
the failure of any single piece of
equipment will still permit me to
aviate, navigate and communicate
to a safe destination without
excessive stress. Thus there is a
fallback or backup for everything
critical. And in the event of a
total electrical failure I can fly
with the pressure instruments,
GPS, fuel gauge, and one radio
using a backup battery.
In the event that I want to ferry
the aircraft back to home base
after such a failure, I can do
so legally with the pressure
ASI and altimeter, the whiskey
compass and a wristwatch.
I have tried to retain the panel
design principles that I used
on the original panel. These I
obtained from an article; “Panel
Perfect” by Ed Wischmeyer,
Kitplanes magazine, October
1999. The article refers to areas
of visual value and tactile value.
If it’s easy to see, it has high
visual value. If it’s easy to touch,
it has high tactile value. The
instruments are placed according
to how often you look at them
and how often you manipulate
Home of Australian Experimental Aircraft
to make all 17 ribs to the
exact length I wanted
[657mm to 1652mm]
as the plan paper is on
a continuous roll and
the measurements are
a percentage of the
original. I did the same for the tail feathers.
I stuck these photocopies onto the MDF,
cut them out with my bandsaw and jigsaw
and finished them off on the facewheel
perfectamundo! Today was a milestone - it
has been 2 years since I started the project
[1/08/2008] mainly fulltime [2980 hours]
and I finished the fuse so now I can start to
assemble the plane. 90% finished, 90% to go… Regards
Rodney Duffield
them, particularly under
emergency conditions. Switches
are placed in small, immediately
recognisable groups. However,
I was constrained by what was
already there, and the equipment
I selected. Still, I am happy at this
stage with the layout, although
the proof will be in the flying.
Apart from the stick and rudder
pedals, the instrument panel
is the main link between man
and machine. Ease of access
to information can make the
difference between relaxed
or stressful operation, and
under emergency conditions,
between life or death.
Changing from clocks to
glass may have unintended
consequences. To avoid this, I
have a comprehensive schedule
of familiarisation with all
new devices which I have
discussed with my AP. Rather
than a set number of hours
test flying, I will have a list of
test functions to complete.
As I write this I am painting
the new panel in preparation
for installation.
NEXUS MUSTANG
2 SEATER!
Nose Wheel – Tail Wheel Options
Specifications & Photos
www.nexusmustang.com
AUSTRALIAN BUILT KIT FROM
PETER CARR (SAAA 002)
123 Aphrasia St, Geelong Vic 3220
Phone/Fax (03) 52 213 505
Email: peter.carr123@gmail.com
www.engineeredequipment.com.au
AIRSPORT • 31
25
chapter chatter
NEW SOUTH WALES
11
Victoria
18
new south wales
Ten Sign up for the Chapter 11
Maintenance Procedures Course > Chris Sinfeld
melbourne
Aircraft Upholstering > Rob Taylor
Faced with a delay on his Zodiac project Rob decided to buy an industrial
sewing machine (with a moving foot) and make his own seats and panelling.
Rob taught himself how to sew and assemble his own foam cushions
with some advice, some reading material and lots of trial and error. Rob
is a fine example of what people can achieve when they “have a go”.
Air Traffic Control > Don Muir
Don spoke of his many years experience with air traffic control
from his days in Queensland directing air operations from a mobile
pie cart, to managing a large group of controllers. After retiring
from air traffic control Don has helped train controllers overseas
and is now working with Thales as an air management expert.
Don owns a Cessna, stabled at Lilydale and is building a RV8.
Ken Garland in full flight
The last weekend of June saw
Chapter 11 host a Maintenance
Procedures Course in the
North West of Sydney.
Ken Garland, the SAAA NSW Maintenance
Training Co-ordinator, was the Instructor
for the two day event. Ken has a vast
experience to bring to this course, as he
was a CASA Approved Chief Engineer in
his previous working life, as well as the
wealth of real time, hands-on maintenance
experience he has amassed over the years.
There were 10 students on the weekend
course held in Windsor, coming from all over
the State. The course students consisted
of 5 SAAA members and 5 dual SAAA/
RA-Aus members, currently constructing a
broad selection of aircraft types, including
one student building a helicopter. Ken also
has dual SAAA/ RA-Aus membership, so
he could describe the rules and regulations
relevant to both organisations.
The first thing we learnt was how much
we didn’t know about the latest rules
and regulations, and also what exactly
our legal requirements were. The cost of
the course is considerably less than the
cost of the fines that could be incurred
if you don’t get the paperwork right.
But by the end of the weekend CASRs,
CARs, inspections, defect reporting and
schedules were all common talk. What
was a real eye opener for many of us was
the RA-Aus aircraft requirements. They do
enjoy some exemptions, but most of the
32 • AIRSPORT
regulations also apply to their aircraft.
Ken took us through our maintenance
paperwork requirements step by
step, including the particular areas of
Australian aviation law, different systems
of maintenance, approved maintenance
data and how to drive the CASA website
efficiently to find data and forms.
20
kyneton
April Builders Visit > Terry Dovey
At least 14 persons attended the bi-monthly Chapter
20 builders visit this time hosted by Mustang
II builder, Lindsay Rae, at Riddells Creek.
After the 2 days of coursework, Ken
handed out our homework, which was a
small open book test that we needed to
complete and hand back. This way Ken
can confirm that we have absorbed the
information and will be competent with
the work once we get home and back to
our projects.
The common theme of the weekend was
that we are all aviators, flying our various
fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft in the
same airspace at the same time. There
was a good comradeship throughout the
weekend discussions, triggering talk on
getting RAAus and SAAA to combine in
some way, as there are lots of apparent
benefits to members of both organisations.
So - was it worth it? - you bet it was.
Who would benefit from this course? anyone who owns an aircraft, is building
an aircraft or contemplating building
an aircraft. When should you undertake
such a course? - When you first buy
your aircraft or you are close to finishing
building your project.
Rod Thynne and Lindsay Rae talk about canopy
Longest distance to travel was recorded by Garry and Brenda
O’Leary down from Horsham who slotted the visit into a trip to
Melbourne. Also present at his first Chapter builders visit was
SAAA TC, Rodney Thynne with his wife, Jenny, from Melton;
members appreciated being able to place faces to names.
Lindsay has a well organised workshop located underneath
the house which is built on sloping ground. Glass paneled
doors well built by Lindsay provide both natural light from
the north and access and ventilation when necessary.
The Mustang appears to be a serious beast of an aircraft well
becoming its name. Plans built, the aircraft uses substantial aluminium
skinning and I saw some very large rivets whilst (unsuccessfully)
searching for any that were badly driven. It has a surprisingly short
wing span. Thanks again, Lindsay, for opening your workshop!
Lindsay provided the following information about the
visit and history of his project: (next page >)
chapter chatter
“
Darcy Newell, Marcus Bootle, Norm Edmonds and Alan Saunders
I was extremely pleased to host
the recent builders visit for those
interested in having a look at my
Mustang II project. Thanks to all
fellow enthusiasts that turned up
on the day, and the day before.
I acquired the project back in 2002
from Bill Cain and was advised
that it was the GAF apprentice’s
project constructed from plans S/N
M-11-644 which were originally
sold to R Williams. It was allocated
registration No. VH-ULS but is
not on the current register.
The aircraft as purchased
appeared to be very well built by
the apprentices and most of the
necessary parts required to complete
it seemed to be available. I expected
that some rework and assembly
would be all that would be needed
to finish the job. In retrospect this
was quite optimistic as I soon
discovered that many hands do
not necessarily make parts that fit
or line up. Time had also taken its
toll with significant damage having
occurred to some of the parts.
Being an engineer I decided that I
could “improve” the design in some
21
areas and have used the Kent Paser
book - Speed with economy as
a guide to various modifications.
In particular I liked the revised
windscreen, canopy and turtledeck
concept. This has proved to be
quite a task to make it all work but
completion is near – reference the
photos. I also decided at an early
stage that I would keep the aircraft
simple and light - suitable for
recreational, rather than touring, or
serious, use. The aim, and challenge,
is to complete the aircraft to flying
standard. I must emphasise that
I do enjoy the building activity.
I would be pleased to obtain any
information from anyone that may
have history on the project. I am sure
that there are some ex apprentices,
and supervisors, who would like to
know what became of their project.
Bruce Northeast, Peter Drew, John
Cartledge and Gary Hill inspect
John’s Quickie
to engines of the B314 Flying Boat used
on the route. In the days of the flying
boats communications was so bad that
morse code was used. Operators were
expected to work at 30 words a minute!
By contrast to the challenges of the
1930’s Mike Timewell demonstrated
how to flight plan from YECH (Echuca)
Dave Robbins, Mike Timewell
question Peter Greiger about
aspects of his Wheeler Express
and YTPL (Tilpa, NSW) using all the
conveniences of modern wireless
internet. The starting point was
the site www.landings.com.
I am happy for anyone to drop in
and have a look at progress any
time I am home. If you can give me
a ring beforehand on 5428 7137
or 0428 287 137 to let me know
when, it would be appreciated.
Happy building and flying.
Lindsay
Moorabbin
Chapter 21 members have been
actively involved in development and
presentation of the MPC courses and
preparations for Cowra so there have not
been a lot of building or flying reports.
April Meeting: Engine
Maintenance
After the completion of normal
business at their April meeting
Chapter 21 members drove/
walked across to Peter Greiger
and John Cartledge’s hanger for a
discussion on engine maintenance.
This visit was a forerunner to further
activities where it is anticipated
more formal work will be required.
May Meeting:
National Councillor Bruce Towns
had recently visited the Flying Boat
Museum in Foynes Ireland and
presented a video to members.
The museum was set up to
commemorate the flying boats that
prior to WWII used to cross the Atlantic
from Newfoundland to Foynes Ireland.
Highlight of the museum was a 100%
model of fuselage, tail and wings out
AIRSPORT • 33
chapter chatter
Northern Territory
35
North Australian
Ron and Ann Lawford’s projects
Hidden beneath the wings
of a B52G bomber at the
Australian Aviation Museum
in Darwin are two projects by
Ron and Annabelle Lawford.
The Skycraft Scout was designed and
built in Sydney in 1975 and is powered
by a lawnmower motor. The Scout
is constructed using yacht spars.
In seven years of flying the Scout
only accumulated 20 hours of
flying. It was found to be unsuitable
for tropical conditions.
According to the placard the Scout
was the “first modern ultralight
in the Northern Territory”.
The Rutan Long-EZ was built by Ron
and Annabelle. Work commenced
in late 1983 and the first flight was
29th December 1986. This aircraft
was the second to be built in the
Northern Territory. The first was
a Heath Parasol by the Reverend
Sheppard at Milingimbi in 1929-30.
Ron and Annabelle flew their
pride and joy for 1450 hours
to all locations in Australia.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
10
We had a look round Pleun’s very
comfortable and well equipped
hanger and thirteen of us sat
down for an excellent lunch hosted
by Pleun and Hennie. Later we
enjoyed a very interesting look
around the Mill; the only authentic
working windmill in Australia.
In the end the support from Chapter
10 was somewhat embarrassing as
only two of us made it and on different
days. However some nine or ten
aeroplanes took to the air. Certainly all
those that did get to The Lily enjoyed
it and had a good fly. Denmark group
have a hangar meeting at 10:00am
on every Tuesday and they tell me
visitors are always welcome.
Richard Schaffner is working hard
on his repainting job and is on the
downhill run now. Terry has headed
off to Europe again, so once more
work on his RV-10 is on the back
burner, but he has made some
good progress recently. Les is still
beavering away on his RV-6 and
Bryan Fleming is making great
strides with his RV-7 and it should
be in the air in a few months time.
Where to next time and when?
It is your Chapter so please let us
have some input and some ideas of
what you would like to see happen.
South Australia
South West WA
The Lily Fly-In 3 & 4 May 2010
and despite a fair bit of
cloud enjoyed a coffee at
Denmark. I then headed
to Albany to pick up
my brother while the
others left Denmark and
headed straight to The Lily. There
was a fair bit of cloud over the Stirling
Range so I went over the top. The
local boys were more confident
and employed local knowledge and
went safely underneath and through
the Chester Pass Road route.
> Bob Main
25
port lincoln
Monthly get-together’s for flying,
food & friendship > Michael Hart
Just a brief report to let
you know what happened;
basically the weather
messed it up a bit.
The previous week eight pilots had
signified their intention to attend, so
all was looking encouraging. Also at
the last minute several from Chapter
13 in Albany let Noel Stoney know
that they would be attending.
cloud and fog made it a little too
uncomfortable for us. However Lindsay
Herrmann with Ray O’Connor made
it quite safely to The Lily. They were
joined by Wayne Bone from Jandakot.
Phil Maley and Bob Tarrant left from
Serpentine but had to turn back.
However come the Monday morning
the weather was not looking
too good and did not promise
suitable flying conditions.
After consulting with Pleun and
Noel Stoney in Albany Terry and I
decided to try the next day, but to
go to Denmark first and join Fred
Moreno and the others there for
morning smoko and then head off
to the Stirling Range for lunch.
Terry Doe and I decided that the
forecast combined with local low
Tuesday morning Terry phoned in
feeling unwell so I went on my own
34 • AIRSPORT
The latest event was held
at Mick and Di Hart’s barn
hangar. There were plenty of
stumps on the fire to warm
the outer body, and a camp
oven stew and plenty of reds
to warm the inner body.
welcomed new member Greg
Bakker who is in the final stages
of building a Veri-Ezy. Member
James Hart is getting along nicely
with his building of a Pitts S1T.
Those present were treated to an
aerobatic display by member Rainer
Huefner in his beautiful DR 107.
The Piper Cubs flew non-stop with
everyone lining up for a ride.
Chapter 25 ticks along nicely and
chapter chatter
TASMANIA
Princess VH-LMH > Mike Connell
would have to redesign the windows.
The problem was solved however by
using the local pizza shop where with
the aid of some friends and my son
we heated the Perspex in the pizza
oven and successfully pulled it over
the moulds. The end result is great.
The problem was solved however
by using the local pizza shop where
with the aid of some friends and
my son we heated the Perspex in
the pizza oven and successfully
pulled it over the moulds.
The wings and control surfaces
have been completed and covered
There has been some
significant progress of
late with my Jodel ‘Sky
Princess’ VH-LMH.
The instrument panel is now
complete and is fitted with a MGL
voyager EFIS (Electronic Fight
Information System) and radio. For
back up there is a conventional ASI,
altimeter and compass. In keeping
with a timber aircraft they are fitted
with Stits Poly Fibre which proved
to be a fun and very rewarding job.
It is nice to see a lot of progress
happen quickly for a change. They
are now ready for the final painting.
One of the nice things about building
an aircraft is the number of great
people who are always so willing to
give advice and lend a hand when it
is required. I have been very fortunate
in this area, in particular having Ern
Bryan, a Jodel D18 builder, acting
as mentor and helper whenever
needed. The camaraderie of builders
and enthusiasts is very rewarding.
to a panel covered with a figured
Tasmanian Oak timber veneer.
The Perspex windows and canopy
have been moulded and fitted. These
caused a bit of a problem as after I
made the male moulds and had the
Perspex experts in Hobart attempt to
mould the Perspex around them their
attempts ended in failure. I was then
informed that it was impossible to do
because of the compound curve and I
AIRSPORT • 35
chapter chatter
QUEENSLAND
19
gold coast
Following on the success of the
evening at Gary Spicer’s hangar
earlier this year when pitot testing
was demonstrated, a similar session
was held again in late July > Peter Vernon
Before these demonstrations
commenced, an interesting
video presentation was
given by Gunter Barthel on
his recent flight, from New
Zealand to the Gold Coast
in his home built Cavalier. It
was a real treat to see Gunter’s
presentation, opening up our
eyes to the extraordinary amount
of preparations involved.
Stay tuned for more from
Gunter on his Trans-Tasman
experiences in future issues.
to try their hand at this process,
with Peter Lewis pointing out
safety issues so that we didn’t
lose our hand or fingers due to
the sharp edges of the opened
filter can. He also said that the
oil if analyzed (by “Caterpillar” or
some other company for about
$25) will show what the trends
are in metal wearing of your
new or reconditioned engine.
Back to the hangar, it was
again Howard Mason
and Peter Lewis, our two
APs, who we owe our
thanks for the following
on-hands demonstrations.
Peter Lewis had some halfdozen used oil filters; the first
of which he opened using a
special tool not unlike your
‘domestic can-opener’ and
‘pipe cutter’ combined. The
filter element was dissected,
placed in a vice to squeeze
out any remaining oil and
then inspected for any metal
residue which would identify
any underlying problems
in your engine. Members
were then given the chance
36 • AIRSPORT
Lock-wiring demonstration,
with ample trial samples of
turnbuckles and propeller
flange mockups for
everyone present to practice
techniques demonstrated
by Howard Mason. Some
points worth repeating were:
>> To move the lock-wiring pliers
around in a circle manoeuvre
helps to tighten up the wire
close to the bolt head.
On conclusion, Chapter
President Gary Spicer made
the following comments:
>> Training sessions such as these
are being organized because
increasingly CASA needs to see
that standards for experimental
amateur-built aircraft
are improving. Either
we EDUCATE ourselves
or CASA will REGULATE
us to achieve the same
end. We presently have a
choice to train ourselves
>> On turnbuckles the
lock wires must move
in both directions so
that the turnbuckle
cannot move in
either direction.
>> Carefully bend back the tail
Peter also brought
along several used
spark plugs as well
as a new one to
compare and note
what to look for when
doing maintenance.
Note the condition
of new(er) plugs
where the electrode is circular,
and worn out plugs when the
centre electrode is elliptical.
The shallower flare angle
gives higher contact forces
for a given applied torque,
aiding reduction in leakage.
on the turnbuckle, especially
on control cables which may
have turnbuckles on cables
in close proximity, moving
in opposite directions, they
have been known to catch
and jam controls, which can
have fatal consequences.
Flaring of aircraft hydraulic pipes:
>> The standard for pipe flaring
on aircraft uses a 37 degree
semi-cone angle. 45 degrees
is the standard for other
plumbing, automotive etc. in our own time at times
that suit us by our own free
will. The alternative is laws
that oblige professional costs
to be paid by us at periods
mandated by the regulator.
>> Don’t believe everything
you read on the internet!
Prompted by reading an
article on insulating tape used
to wrap exhaust headers;
Gary cautioned internet
commentary is fielded
from many people with
greatly varying experience
chapter chatter
and expertise. Note the
comments, but do your own
investigation to see whether
what they say is applicable
in your circumstances.
>> Eric Kneen, one of the very
earliest and still active SAAA
members recently passed
away. There are lessons for us
all. Eric, in his mid-80’s lived
alone and was working alone
when accidentally killed earlier
this year. He was not found for
several days. Please be very
careful and mindful particularly
when working alone.
>> National President Brian Hunter
Flight
Information
advised
that the Screen
SAAA has
(EFIS).
the F111
beenSee
invited
alongcockpit
to a briefing
photo
later
thisatarticle
for an
by the
USinFAA
Oshkosh
example.
During
mid the
1950’s
this year
to hearthe
about
American
arrived
future ofanalysis
low-lead
avgas.at
a set of guidelines for cockpit
>> Chapter
19 members
are
lighting,
ergonomics,
controls
encouraged
to
let
Gary
and instrument layout. Theormost
Rob know
what events
notable
achievement
was you
the
would like organized. We all
standardisation
of the standard
contribute
our personal
T for
flight instruments
thatfree
has
time
in
an
unpaid
voluntary
been internationally adopted.
capacity to get
various efforts
chapter
Unfortunately
American
eventsthe
up and
running. It isin
to adopt
standard
layout
fighters was constantly frustrated
by the need to accommodate
tactical instrumentation such
as gunsights, radar screens and
radar warning receiver dials.
However their military multiengined aircraft were beautifully
standardised.
1960-1980 The age
of colour and electromechanical complexity
most disheartening when
attendances are low.
J430 were all popular
among the exhibits.
34
Far North Queensland
Chapter 34 has been busy over the last
couple of months with a project visit,
a Fly In and an Open Day > John Martin
Our first project visit was
to look at Paul Spicer’s KR2
which is in its early stages.
We crawled all over the fuselage
and gave our opinions and were
treated to a wonderful BBQ lunch.
About a fortnight later we headed
north to Helenvale, a private
strip on a farm (about 30 km
south of Cooktown) for a long
weekend. We had 5 pilots brave
the strong wind warning while
several members drove up from
Cairns. The first night was spent
dining and mixing with the locals
at the famous Lion’s Den Hotel
which is just south of Helenvale.
Sunday was a complete change
of pace from aviation pursuits.
Club members Peter Lennox
and Bob Simpson are both
keen clay target shooters. They
brought all the gear for a day
of potting at bright orange
clay targets. Some of the club
members turned out to be
very good shots. (The author,
however, is not one of them!)
A fortnight or so later the
chapter did its part in the North
Queensland Aero Club Open Day.
A number of members assisted
We had several
people ask about
joining with one
person and his
son spending a
prolonged period
looking over Bob’s
Glasair with lots
of questions and
advice given.
in running the show while three
members had their aircraft on
Next month will see us having
the line to show the general
another project visit to see
public what is available to those
John Moore’s Corby Starlet
This
a picture
of a in
DC3
that was John
modernised in the 1960’s to incorporate the standard
withis an
interest
building.
the and
beginning
our of
T flight instrument layout. Note the increased useand
of colour
the overallofclarity
Atkinson’s Long Ez, Bob Simpson’s
presentation.
educational series with a
Glasair and the author’s Jabiru
basic composite construction
The photo above is of an F111C, designed in the mid 19
tested in 1950 and could withstand aerobatics without
the right is the same technology. The strip format ASI, V
but are the predecessor to the coloured strips in modern
The need to achieve viable allweather capability introduced
tactical radars into the military
cockpit, and that overcrowded
pilot instrument panels. Space
saving devices such as combined
machmeter/ASI
andis strip
lecture.
Our TC course
instruments
forSeptember
ASI, altimeter and
planned
for early
VSI now
followed
byshowed
anotherup.
Fly In and
project visit to Atherton.
In the F111 pictured above we
Thenow
FNQsee
chapter
is now just
the ‘standard
T’ layout
on a year old and the next year
promises to be even busier.
Duri
deve
nava
of th
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Find Out More: www.SonexAircraft.com
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Tel (U.S.): 920.231.8297
AIRSPORT • 37
In th
Davi
revie
cock
builders’ log
How to submit to Builder’s Log
Welcome to the Builders’ Log
Compiled by Rob Stocker
1. Log in to SAAA website (www.saaa.com) &
complete the electronic form with as much
detail as possible OR 2. email the following
details to Rob Stocker at r.stocker@adfa.edu.au
>First and last name
In this edition we find ourselves a bit light on with reports and
particularly photos of works in progress, so please get out the
camera, get writing and submit your reports and your best
two or three photos via the website or direct to me.
>SAAA membership number
The electronic submission process on the SAAA website has been fully
operational for some time and you can continue to upload your project
progress reports electronically. (See box “How to Submit”). It does require
membership access to log in and access the upload form. For those who are
not members you can continue to submit your progress reports by emailing
them (together with your photos) directly to me at r.stocker@adfa.edu.au.
>Details of the aircraft you are working
I look forward to the continuation of the Builders’ Log tradition
of tales of builder’s joys, trials and tribulations in 2011.
>Information about the building process
>Chapter number and location
>Contact details (email, phone if you
want others to be able to contact you)
on (name, model, manufacturer,
registration number, etc)
>Pictures in jpeg format (around 1 Mb in size)
Remember: transform the menial into the meaningful! Rob Stocker
VH OLP
BUILDER:
RICHARD SWAINSBOROUGH #07204
A/C TYPE: HOT AIR BALLOON
LOCATED: CANOWINDRA NSW
NOTES:
Richard purchased the plans and envelope fabric for his hot air balloon from
the US in early 2009. He then imported a Cameron Voyager basket and Single
Shadow burner from the UK for the bottom end. (Is that what’s called the
“business end”?). He commenced the sewing of his project in October 2009 and
over the next five months he logged 391 hours to building his 65 000 cubic ft hot air balloon.
Darren Barnfield issued the CofA in March this year and balloon pilots Nigel Flynn
and Peter Vizzard completed the required SAAA test flying schedule.
Richard is now able to complete his flight training as a student pilot in his own homebuilt
aircraft. He believes that the many hours spent in home building has given him a much better
understanding of the operation and maintenance requirements of hot air balloons.
VH JPD
BUILDER:
Peter Hicks
A/C TYPE: Vans RV7
LOCATED: VIC
NOTES:
This fine example of the marque sports an Aerosport
AEIO-360M1 engine turning a 3 Blade MT propeller.
Instrument-wise the office is populated with an Advanced
Flight Systems EFIS, a Garmin stack, and a Trutrack A/P.
The first flight occurred on 1 June 2010, with thanks to
the CofA from Darren Barnfield, and TC Dan O’Sullivan.
38 • AIRSPORT
builders’ log
VH ZIF
BUILDER:
IAN ORRMAN
A/C TYPE: GLASAIR SPORTSMAN TD
LOCATED: PERTH WA
NOTES:
CofA and First Flight!
The following day Ian signed up for a 1-hour refresher
flight in Sportsman VH PNN with Peter Nelson at
Serpentine and Murrayfield airfields. Eight landings
later, Peter thought Ian did not need any more time
- very generous of him - and gave Ian the currency
to feel really comfortable to proceed with his own
test flight. Returning to Jandakot to complete final ground runs
and taxiing, Ian confirmed the correct operation of relevant
systems and rehearsed a test flight sequence. Then the big day!
photo: Lisa & Graham Har
vey
On Friday 18 June 2010 a successfully completed CofA
inspection that allowed Phase 1 test flying led Ian
to experience to that grin from ear to ear feeling. no distractions.
7:30am - started up and completed a ground run. The
Lycoming IO390 was itching to go, as was Ian. On Sunday 20 June the sequence for a successful first test flight
was established, to be followed by an additional cruise flight.
7:45am - lined up on 06L, almost nil wind, CAVOK, 6 deg C.
6:45am – Jandakot Airport, all alone, no spectators,
Ian takes up his story:
She climbed beautifully to 1500 feet.
Carried out 15 minutes of rectangular
orbits over the airfield until 8:00am.
Checked control responses, let the engine
temps and pressures settle down (or was
that my temperature and pressure?!) 8:00 am the tower opened, and with it the
opportunity to complete some touch and goes
(there is a curfew preventing circuits before 8 am
on Sunday mornings). I had the circuit and the
runway to myself for 40 minutes. All circuits were
completed well within gliding distance of the field
- in close and tight! The flight practice I completed
on Saturday with Peter Nelson in Sportsman
VH - PNN paid off. All the conversion training
completed with Alan Negrin almost 18 months ago
came back fresh and clear to my feet, hands and
mind. The result? Six smooth wheel on landings. I stopped and had a break for a while. Took the
cowl off and looked for anything out of place.
All was looking good. Put her back together,
filled her full of fuel and off I went south. 10:30 am - took off YPJT (Jandakot) 06L, turned
left for Yangebup Lake and climbed to 7500 feet
for Bunbury. The sky was clear and blue, CAVOK
and virtually nil wind. Arrived overhead Bunbury at
11:00 am, 7500 feet looking out over the Indian
Ocean with the white sandy line stretching North to
South below me. Completed a sequence of stalls,
no flaps, power-off, trickle of power-on. First stage
flap, no power, trickle of power. Second stage flap,
no power, trickle of power. All stalls were great. No
dropped wing, just a straight gentle mushing stall. Turned around and headed north back to YPJT,
kept the power at around 70 to 75 % on the
way back. CHTs were all about 180 to 190 C
depending on power and mixture applied. No 3
cylinder runs +10 C hotter than the other 3. 11:25 am - descended to 1500 feet
and reported at BOATSHED for YPJT. On joining base for a visual approach, completed my
checks and switched on the Fuel Boost pump. This
coincided with a terrible chattering noise. Turned
the Fuel Boost off, it did not stop, turned the Boost
Pump back on. I lifted one ear cup to better identify
the direction the noise was coming from. It was a
chattering sound that stopped shortly after. Set myself
up on final, all checks complete and it was looking
good with a 5 knot right cross wind. 11:30 am executed a beautiful 3 point landing (my wife’s words,
not mine, though I did feel that way about it too). Looked her over (my Sportsman!) after letting my
wife and children though the gate. I found that the
fuselage to strut fairing on the right hand side had
popped the rear portion over the forward part of the
fairing. This was the source of the chattering. As
I had descended and turned onto base leg, there
must have been enough turbulent airflow on the right
side to pop the forward and aft part of the fairing.
I have solved this with some tape to firmly pull the
forward and aft parts of the fairing together so that it
cannot happen again. Glad it was so easy to solve. After showing my children over her, I took them all for
a taxi from the southern apron to the northern apron
and back again (as I cannot take any passengers
in the 25 hour flight test phase). This kept my two
very excited children (10 and 7) very happy.
I was planning another 1 hour flight after I had
eaten lunch, however the wind picked up with
cross wind gusts to 15 knots. So I decided
to call it a very, very successful day.
With a bit over 2 hours flying on my first day,
23 hours flying to go and I can take my
family for a fly and really start enjoying
the Sportsman flying experience.
Now that is what passion, excitement and achievement is all about!
AIRSPORT • 39
SAAA contacts

National
Technical Manager

Mark Rowe
Narromine NSW 2821
Mob 0403 307 363
mark.rowe@saaa.com
Training
& Admin of APs

Darren Barnfield
Hastings VIC 3915
Tel 03 5979 1501
Mob 03 5979 1526
darren.barnfield@saaa.com

CASA Authorised Persons

Jim Williams
Albury NSW
(Albury area only)
Tel 02 6021 5818
Barry Wrenford
Bombala NSW
Tel 02 6458 3583
Martin Ongley
Kings Park NSW
Tel 02 9837 2551
David Tennant
Wyongah NSW
Mob 0410 491 866
John Paul
Darwin Area NT
Mob 0425 269 414
Peter Lewis
Elanora QLD
Mob 0439 714 617
Howard Mason
Elanora QLD
Tel 07 5534 8276
Brian Turner
Boolarra South VIC
Mob 0429 172 740
btvair@wideband.net.au
Darren Barnfield
Hastings VIC
Tel 03 5979 1501
Robert Hannigan
Lower King WA
Tel 08 9844 7046
Colin Morrow
Manning WA
Tel 08 9450 2130
Bill Keehner
Mt Pleasant WA
Tel 08 9364 7690

Technical
Councillors

New
South Wales

Karl Ahamer
Bowral
Mob 0411 290 472
kahamer@bigpond.net.au
Chris Byrne
Bowral
Mob 0414 603 644
jack.byrne@bigpond.com
Ken Garland
Camden
Mob 0417 244 059
ken@aerov.com.au
John Davison
Coffs Harbour
Tel 02 6651 4887
da11878@bigpond.net.au
George Louez
Coffs Harbour
Tel 02 6651 8701
Grant Piper
Coolah
Mob 0438 890 242
grant.piper@bigpond.com
40 • AIRSPORT
John Tenhave
Epping
Mob 0417 223 230
johntenhave@yahoo.com
Peter Bowman
Figtree
Mob 0429 130 340
pean.bow@bigpond.net
Rick Harper
Forestville
Mob 0416 041 007
rjwh@optusnet.com.au
Geoff Shrimski
Frenchs Forest
Mob 0414 400 304
scuba@bigpond.net.au
Barrie Bishton
Kempsey
Mob 0439 864 023
Martin Ongley
Kings Park
Tel 02 9837 2551
songley@bigpond.net.au
William Coote
Laurieton
Mob 0428 599 953
billcoote@tsn.cc
Drew Done
Merimbula
Mob 0409 833 646
dj.done@bigpond.net.au
Ian Goldie
Port Macquarie
Mob 0414 259 098
irgoldie@optusnet.com.au
Ubair Rehmanjan
Prestons
Mob 0410 598 285
ubair@buraq.com
Terry Ryan
Taree
Mob 0427 480 093
ryanaviationservice@
bigpond.com
Tony Middleton
Wagga Wagga
Tel 02 6922 4990
a.middo@bigpond.net.au

Queensland

Daryl Grove
Aitkenvale
Tel 07 4775 1604
grovedj@bigpond.net.au
Mike Roselt
Applethorpe
Mob 0417 706 827
fay.roselt@bigpond.com
Graeme Humphreys
Beerwah
Tel 07 5494 9582
humpho8@bigpond.com
Craig Aitken
Boonah
Tel 07 5463 4037
mcaiken1@bigpond.com
John Atkinson
Cairns
Mob 0427 534 806
longez@ozemail.com.au
Lance Sandford
Dundowran Beach
Mob 0425 715 781
sanford@melbpc.org.au
Paul Smith
Ferney Hills
Mob 0419 641 853
pk.smith@bigpond.net.au
Brian Hunter
Helensvale
Mob 0416 069 151
salbh@qld.chariot.net.au
Gary Spicer
Hope Island
Mob 0402 822 907
gary.spicer@saaa.com
Terry Grace
Kenmore
Mob 0423 846 837
terry.grace@bigpond.com
John Gross
Mt Cotton
Tel 07 3206 6151
johnandjude@bigpond.com
Peter Karanges
Sunnybank Hills
Mob 0407 453 933
designt@bigpond.net.au
Ubair Rehmanjan
Prestons
Mob 0410 598 285
ubair@buraq.com

Tasmania

Mick Cuppari
West Hobart
Mob 0400 183 711
cuppari@netspace.net.au

Victoria

Peter Schafer
Balwyn
Mob 0425 837 055
scaferpj@gmail.com
Brian Turner
Boolarra South
Mob 0429 172 740
btvair@wideband.net.au
Bruce Towns
Braeside
Mob 0408 326 260
brucetowns@bigpond.com
John Cartledge
Dingley
Mob 0419 883 123
urecomps@bigpond.net.au
Robert Taylor
Ferny Creek
Mob 0428 324 731
rwtaylor@bigpond.com
Arthur Stubbs
Gembrook
Mob 0419 357 648
vhxsi@tpg.com.au
John Livsey
Hampton East
Mob 0448 020 446
jlivsey@bigpond.com
John Stephenson
Hampton East
Tel 03 9553 5075
JFS2@bigpond.com
Frank Deeth
Heathmont
Mob 0408 559 866
tr.9@westnet.com.au
Ken Wickland
Keilor
Tel 03 9336 7061
glastar@optusnet.com.au
Norm Edmunds
Kyneton
Mob 0407 098 242
idgara.aviation@
bigpond.com
Rodney Thynne
Melton
Mob 0402 227 607
r.thynne@bigpond.net.au
Daniel O’Sullivan
Monegeetta
Mob 0417 409 996
bernice.dan@bigpond.com
Stuart Trist
Mordialloc
Mob 0417 390 211
stuart.trist@esa.edu.au
Len Dyson
Newport
Tel 03 9391 2193
p51mustang@
optushome.com.au
Robert Barrow
Oakleigh South
Mob 0405 129 797
bobbarrow@
optusnet.com.au
Peter Pendergast
Ocean Grove
Mob 0408 375 163
ppen@aapt.net.au
Graeme Coates
Richmond
Mob 0408 326 260
coatbeam@melbpc.org.au
Brian Ham
Templestowe
Mob 0409 014 017
brian.ham@bigpond.com
Rob McAnally
Templestowe
Mob 0418 172 150
rsmcanally@gmail.com

Western
Australia

Brian Holman
Albany
Mob 0429 844 419
bmholman@
australiaonline.net.au
Bo Hannington
Baldivis
Tel 08 9524 2000
Bo@elbo.com.au
Gordon Johanson
Baldivis
Mob 0419 043 161
johanson@aapt.net.au
Peter Nelson
Baldivis
Mob 0418 949 943
peter.nelson6@
bigpond.com
Mike Fletcher
Bunbury
Mob 0408 090 438
mikefletcher@dodo.com.au
Colin Morrow
Como
Mob 0412 069 490
colinm@space.net.au
Fred Moreno
Denmark
Tel 08 9848 1431
frederickmoreno@
bigpond.com
Terry Doe
Eaton
Mob 0437 256 229
terrdoe@gmail.com
William Keehner
Mount Pleasant
Mob 0417 972 090
wkeehner@bigpond.net.au
David Peck
Noranda
Mob 0402 177 886
dpeck@ozemail.com.au
Noel Stoney
Redmond
Mob 0429 847 101
Peter Cash
Riverton
Mob 0447 560 928
bee@bee-engineering.com
Lindsay Danes
Success
Tel 08 9414 1122
lindsayd@primus.com.au
David Bryant
Waterford
Tel 08 9313 3624
david.bryant@
central.wa.edu.au
Flight Advisor & Test
Pilot Coordinator
Keith Engelsman
Grenfell NSW
Tel 02 6343 3292
Mob 0409 076 277
xtp@activ8.net.au
SAAA Pilot Advisors
(current from 14 Aug 2009)
Robert (Bob) Redman
Floraville NSW
Tel 02 4947 0768
Mob 018 570 768
rlredman@bigpond.com
Andy Ski (Andrew
Sieczkowski)
Grafton Area NSW
Tel 02 6642 1104
Mob 0408 573 130
andyski@tpg.com.au
Gary Spicer
Hope Island QLD
Tel 07 5514 2196
Mob 0402 822 907
gary.spicer@saaa.com
Jon Johanson
Goolwa SA
Tel 08 8555 4251
Mob 0419 554 656
jonj@flymore.com
Keith Hartley
Tennyson SA
Tel 08 8356 5198
Mob 0416 084 069
tarnish7@iprimus.com.au
Peter McDougall
Ardmona VIC
Tel 03 5829 0260
Mob 0408 345 507
qiepl@bigond.com
Aub Coote
Grovedale VIC
Tel 03 5241 1605
Peter James
Torquay VIC
Tel 03 5261 6196
Mob 0408 616 196
fod@bigpond.net.au
rvseven@bigpond.net.au
Ralph Burnett
Albany WA
Tel 08 9842 8963
Mob 0427 200 673
burnett@comsweat.net.au
David Bryant
Jandakot WA
Tel 08 9313 3624
Mob 0428 582 844
david.bryant@
central.wa.edu.au
John Chesborough
South Perth WA
Tel 08 9474 4440
Mob 0407 446 869
Laurie Baxter
Wilson WA
Tel 08 9451 1106
ebaxter@iinet.net.au
flight review
(Continued)
Chapter contacts
Aveko VL3
NSW
Chapter 1 Sydney North
President: Philip Sharp
Willowby North
Mob 0411 387 434
crashsite7@gmail.com
Meetings: Third Wednesday of
each month at 7:30pm - rotates
amongst members’ projects.
Chapter 2 Camden
President: John McCorkell
Picton
Tel 02 4677 1733
chapter02@saaa.com
Meetings: Second Wednesday
of each month, rotates
Chapter 4 South Coast
President: Peter Bowman
Figtree
Tel 02 4229 5350
Secretary: Philip Ayrton
www.captainchaos.com/chapter4/
chapter04@saaa.com
Meetings: Last Monday
night of each month
Chapter 5 Central Coast
President: Phil Hale
Mob 0407 494 930
delight
to fly. Too soon we lined
phil@manna.net.au
up on long final onto runway
Chapter
Coffs
Harbour
30,
brought6the
speed
back to
President: Dr Paul Foster
210km/hr
and
put
the
gear down,
Nambucca Heads
accompanied
once(ah)
again with a
Tel 02 6569 9894
chapter06@saaa.com
brief
vibration. Down to 200 and
one
notch of
At around
500’
Chapter
7 flap.
Mid-North
Coast
we
used the Bill
second
flap setting
President:
Coote
Tel left
02 6559
and
it at 9953
that, easing down to
anbillcoote@tsn.cc
impressively smooth landing.
Meetings: First Friday of
each
month,
Hasting’s from this
The
overall
impression
District Flying Club
machine is professionalism. It
Chapter
11 North-West
Sydney
has
been designed
by skilled
and
President: Darin
experienced
aircraftMcLean
designers,
Richmond
which
its handling, its
Mob shows
02 8213in6223
darin@dm_electronics.com.au
Meetings: Second Tuesday
of each month, rotates
amongst members.
Meetings: Fourth Thursday of
each month at 7:30pm, RVA
Clubrooms, Moorabbin Airport
Chapter 23 Frogs Hollow NSW
Chapter 27 Tyabb Victoria
President: Drew Done
Merimbula
Tel 02 6495 9894
chapter23@saaa.com
Chapter 37 Southern NSW
President: Jarrod Clowes
Mob 0428 811 884
chapter37@saaa.com
Australian Capital
Territory
Chapter 26 Monaro ACT
President: John Morrisey
Gilmore
Mob 02 6239 6146
chapter26@saaa.com
Meetings: Third Sunday
afternoon each month, rotates
VICTORIA
Chapter 14 Latrobe Valley
President: Terry Fisher
Newborough
Mob
03 5127 5765
performance
and, frankly, its
chapter14@saaa.com
looks. Just as an aside, I was
Tel 0427
267 237 speed is always
our distances,
chapter36@saaa.com
a benefit, and they don’t come
faster on 100HP than the VL3.
It is also authorised to use
Mogas17(unleaded 95) and uses
Chapter
Pallamana
around Murray
15lt/hr, Bridge
depending on
President:
Don
how fast
youFraser
want to fly. Its
Norwood
simple,
virtually
Tel 08
8363 3920
(ah)1-piece design
also simplifies maintenance, so
Chapter
25 Port
operating
costsLincoln
are low.SA
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
President: Brian Jones
Mornington
Contact: Mike Dalton
Mob 0408 322 358
Tel 03 5976 1994
chapter27@saaa.com
Meetings: Third Sunday each
month at 12pm BBQ get
together at Tyabb Airfield
President: Michael Hart
Port Lincoln
So8682
what1977
does it cost? In Europe,
Tel 08
its basic price is €85,150 which,
chapter25@saa.com
QUEENSLAND
at current exchange rates is about
Chapter 15 Queensland
President: Peter Karanges
Sunnybank Hills
Tel 07 3345 3933
chapter15@saaa.com
Meetings: First Thursday of each
month at 8:00pm, Clubhouse,
Beattie Road Archerfield
Chapter 19 Gold Coast
WESTERN
AUSTRALIA
$A190,000.
It’s not the cheapest
President: Gary Spicer
Hope Island
Tel 07 5514 2196
Mob 0402 822 907
garyspicer@saaa.com
Contact:
Robert
Potential
forFraser
Australia
Mob 0429 200 098
The first obvious question is “can
chapter19@saaa.com
aircraft in its class, but it has
to be one
of the
best. It will be
President:
Peter
Bairstow
interesting
to start seeing them in
Contact:
Bob Main
MobAustralian
0419 806 624
skies.
Chapter 10 South West WA
chapter10@saaa.com
Chapter 13 Albany District WA
Statistics
President:
Noel Stoney
Baldivis
wing
span
Tel 08 9845 3242
chapter13@saaa.com
Sea level climb
8.44m
1,200’/min
Chapter 16 Serpentine WA
lengthBo Hannington
6.24m
President:
Baldivis
engine
power
100hp
Tel 08
9524 2000
Chapter
18 Melbourne
always taught
that you can expect
Mob 0427 044 156
it legally fly here?” Aveko is
President:
Chapter 22 Sunshine Coast
height
2.05m
an aircraft’sDave
top Robbins
cruise speed
certainly exploring this possibility chapter16@saaa.com
Secretary/Treasurer:
Templestowe
to be about three times its stall
andPretorius
interest has been expressed Chapter
24 Jandakot WA 8-12lt/hr
Peter
Mob 0418 342 983
fuel consumption
speed. In the VL3, it is around
Mob
484 963
chapter18@saaa.com
by 0413
a number
of Australian aircraft Secretary/Treasurer:
four times. This professionalism
Peter
Mulhern
fly@propcons.com.au
stall
speed
35kt
sales groups. However, for upChapter
20evident
Kyneton
District
Orange Grove
Meetings: Third Sunday of ‘odd’
is also very
in its
to-date
information
it
would
be
President: Donald Ashton
Tel 08
9452
7552
numbered months at 10am,
tank
volume
90 lt
construction. It is beautifully
Newham
best to
Aveko
directly.
Hangar
52contact
Caboolture
Airfield
made in factories
which truly
Secretary:
Denis Mexted
The marketing manager is Jiri NORTHERN
vne TERRITORY
163kt
34 Far North QLD
Mob
03 5427composite
0499
understand
structures, Chapter
Kuncicky,
email
kuncicky@aveko.
Chapter
35
North
Australian
John Martin
chapter20@saaa.com
and its construction has been able President:
MtowVern Taylor 450/472.5 kg
com.
President:
Cairns
Meetings: Varies - contact
to
fulfil
the
requirements
of
its
Casuarina
Tel 07 4033 5448
Secretary for details
normal
cruise
135kt
great aerodynamics.
Tel 08
8945 2244
It would seem ideally suited to
j-martin@bigpond.net.au
Chapter 21 Moorabbin Vic
chapter35@saaa.com
Australian conditions. Given
President: John Livsey
Chapter 36 Central QLD
President: Anthony Baldry
Mob 03 9532 2442
For any changes to Chapter details,
contacts or to notify of errors,
Airlie Beach
jlivsey@bigpond.com
please email airsport@saaa.com
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Airsport Magazine
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AIRSPORT • 41
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The SAAA has something to offer everyone with an interest
in sport aviation, whether you’re a builder, a pilot or just
enjoy being around aircraft and fellow aviation enthusiasts.
Q1 (b) brinelling Q2 (d) horizontally to avoid imbalance Q3 (c) shear loads Q4 (d) 0.66mm Q5 (b) dissolves rapidly in 100LL avgas and mogas Q6 (a) shear
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42 • AIRSPORT
Classifieds
FOR SALE
WA
Zenith CH300 Tri-Z ABAA built
1983. 800 Hrs TT. Lyc O360.A3A
800 hrs SMOH. MR annual to Oct
2010. 115 kts cruise. Long range
tanks (280 ltrs), ADF, GPS55. Based
Albany WA. $39,000. Contact Bob
08 9844 7046 or 0409 090 493.
RV6A 0-320-E2A-150HP. Sensensich
Metal Prop. TTAF 280hrs, Engine
SMOH 280hrs. New Annual Feb
2010, Full Panel, Icom A200 Radio,
Garmin Txpdr, King Encoder, Navaid
Autopilot Coupled To a Garmin AVD
55 GPS. Heated Pitot, Elec Elv Trim,
Manual Aileron Trim, Nav Lights, 2x
Landing Lights, Located YMUL, WA.
LAME maintained, Always Hangared
$97,500. Ph Mark 0416 081049
or Colin 0431 691 419. Pos part ex
J160 or other easy entry plane.
Sensinich propeller brand
new 70 cm6s9-0-79 suit rv-6a7a-8a-9a 160 hp $3,300. Also
Sensinich propeller 72fm8s9-1-84
to suit 180hp rv6a-7a-8a-9a as
new condition but done 300hrs
$2,800. Ph Ivan 0418 932 816.
almost complete that I want to sell.
The airframe is build and painted
externally, the cockpit is not. Includes
a professionally rebuilt Cont. O200
fitted with High compression pistons
and electronic ignition, new Prince
‘P’ tip propeller and instruments.
The bulk of work remaining is to
complete the wiring loom, install &
baffle the engine. The only significant
outlay left is prop extension and seat
belt. Asking $25K. Ph Don Railton
(08) 9447 9842 or 0413 296 611,
email crailton@optusnet.com.au
NSW/ACT
THORP T18C PROJECT Sunderland
Folding Wing, Airframe 95%
complete, all controls installed
and functioning, all fairings and
engine cowls, dynafocal engine
mount, undercarriage, wheels,
tires, brakes, windscreen and
sliding canopy, some instruments.
SAAA inspection report, full set all
drawings, material receipts and
construction history including photos.
$29,000. Ph Mike 0408164946
or email: kermik@ozemail.com.au
incl. new matched cylinder heads,
new & reseated valves, new ASI/ALT/
VSI/EGT/CHT/g-meter, digital fuel
computer integrated with GARMIN
296 GPS input, elevator trim. This
aircraft flies beautifully, trims hands
off, cruises 100 KIAS @ 12-15 L/hr,
stalls 32 KIAS. Genuine sale - must
sell. $23K. Ph Geoff 0418 685 158
or email winter.geoff@gmail.com
RV-4 Project Kit #3535 circa
1994.Complete Kit incl finishing kit.
With I.O. 360 (150hp) H2AD (400
hrs to run) with carby. Empennage,
ailerons, flaps and stbd wing done.
(Photos avail on line). Builder has tech
background. Build log available. Some
tools, lots of Clecos etc incl. $25000
ono. Ph Allan 0412 217 557
HORNET STOL Airframe TT230
hrs. 100HP 912s 143 hrs. This is
possibly one of the best examples
around. Aircraft is fitted with rear
cargo door and low stall wing tips.
VHF – UHF radios; iPod system
connected through intercoms. The
aircraft is beautifully finished and a
pleasure to fly. The aircraft is the ideal
work horse for large properties or
prospecting and is perfect for rough
strip applications. The aircraft is
in excellent condition and ready to
go. Located in Western Australia.
$90,000 ono. Ph Rod 0427 266 036
Vari Eze project 98% complete
I have a Vari Eze project that is
19-4528, previously CASA.
Professionally rebuilt & maintained.
CAO 101.28 compliant, choice
of registration / maintenance.
AeroVee 1835, 60HP, single Zenith
carburettor, alternator, hand start,
Bishton propeller. 105 KTAS @ 3100
RPM, 16 ltr/hr. Tinted canopy, dual
controls, disk brakes, Garmin GPS,
ICOM VHF. X-Country, sport aerobatics.
Low time AF&E, full documentation,
immaculate condition, located Camden
YSCN. Making way for new aircraft.
$40,000 ono. Ph Mark AUS: 0437
930 730 or HKG: +852 9120 7487
or email dragonflyhkg@netvigator.com
CORBY STARLET 1835 VW,
completed 1984 (was VH- now RAA),
672 AFHR, recent LAME workover
Helicopter Mini 500 Helicopter
Rotax 582 fitted, assembled
and flown by LAME. Would suit
repowering for property use. Demo
DVD available. Can deliver $29,500
Phone Lawrie (07) 5429 8148
ENGINE PARTS Four Cylinder
assemblies inc pistons and valves
removed from Lycoming 0320D3G engine at 2000hrs. $800.
Lycoming 0320 D3G Camshaft
serviceable $250. Sky-Tec Hi
Torque Starter 149NL serviceable
$250. Ph Mike 0408 164 946 or
email kermik@ozemail.com.au
Sensenich Fixed Pitch Propeller
Monnett Sonerai IIL RAAus
on the rear of the engine case.
Includes new gasket, engine frame
mounting plate, Airwolf dual hose
housing ready to fit on the engine
case, all AN flare fittings, Airwolf filter
housing to go at a location of your
choice. You need to supply two new
hoses to suit your set-up. Uses
Champion CH48108 filters long
or short, or other brand. Check
Airwolf website for further info. Just
removed from Glasair IO-360 B1E,
due to engine bay reshuffle. VGC,
no problems, excellent performance.
Located Gold Coast. $A270 ono.
Phone 0410 605 907/ 07 5536
6624 or email bb001@aapt.net.au
Model 70CM6S16-0-77, S/N 33971K,
457.9 hours TTIS, removed off
160 hp Glasair, includes 3/8 inch
bolt kit, Glasair composite spinner
assy, Lycoming 3/8 inch prop
flange bushes, very good condition,
not needed after constant speed
conversion, best offer over $2000.
Ph Dennis Stacey 0407 006 292 or
email hastingsair@bigpond.com
Vans RV8, IO360 Lycoming,
Constant speed Hartzell, AFS Glass
panel, IFR category, Full featured
AP, All new equipment, Only 100
hours, Oshkosh Silver Lindy winner,
Every conceivable extra and no bugs,
$230k, call Kevin or email for photos
and full spec sheet. Ph 0408694713
email: haydonk@bigpond.net.au
EUROPA XS MONOWHEEL VH-XSS
First flight was in 2002, since flown
170 hours. Fitted with 6 cylinder
Jabiru engine with approved oil cooler
mod. All required airframe mods have
been carried out. Sale inc. a trailer,
removable auxiliary fuel tank, cockpit
cover and a Lowrance Airmap GPS.
This aircraft is a delight to fly and
cruises at 130 TAS at about 20 l per
hour. Hangared at Caboolture but can
be kept at home on the trailer. Two
practised adults can have it off the
trailer and ready to fly in 15 minutes.
Asking $75,000 neg. Ph Dave on
mob 0420 923 561, 07 3822 5036
or e-mail
djam.aviation@optusnet.com.au
for photos and further details.
VIC
RV7 Kit advanced project. Wings
and empenage fitted to aircraft.
Kit includes finish kit dynon d100
efis and parts to convert to 7A
very well built currently working on
canopy. call Adrian 0439 801 667
QLD
Airwolf Remote Oil Filter kit.
Suitable for all Lycomings with the
four bolt Vernatherm/oil temp bulb
WANTED
GARMIN GPS 150 – Ph 08 9259
0676; Mob: 0447 560 928
AIRSPORT • 43