Hangar TalkHangar Talk - Caboolture Microlights · the two roads met. ... Another lesson learnt,...
Transcript of Hangar TalkHangar Talk - Caboolture Microlights · the two roads met. ... Another lesson learnt,...
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Hangar TalkHangar Talk Quarterly Newsletter Jul-Sep 2013
The Latest News
Well for most of us around the club, the
last three months have flown by (literally).
With a combination of work and family
commitments its been difficult to keep on
top of all that has been happening around
Caboolture. Despite that, there has been
some notable achievements made in that
time.
Frank Agius: We reported last time that
Frank had bought himself a new XT-582
Cruze and was embarking on his training.
Well Frank followed through with the
training and we’re happy to now report
that Frank has successfully completed his
first solo flight in his own trike. Well done
and we look forward to Frank finishing up
his Pilot’s Certificate.
Gabe De Donatis: Gabe, the latest owner of
the legendary Little Yellow Trike (LYT),
also gets a notable mention. Like Frank,
Gabe successfully completed his first solo
flight which is no small feat.
Steve Bartlett: Steve, who hails from Rock-
hampton, briefly spent some time with
John, brushing up on his trike skills before
he and John embarked on a road trip to
Newcastle. There was of course a purpose
for the road trip, and that was to take de-
livery of Steve’s brand new XT-912 Tun-
dra with an Arrow wing. Both Steve and
the trike have since returned to Hedlow
airport.
CFI Corner - John Cresswell
Although I've been in Australia for 10 years it still feels
slightly odd to be heading towards Christmas whilst the
days are getting longer & hotter. The temptation is for us to
fly the trikes earlier in the mornings to take advantage of
the nicest conditions. There is no problem with this but
please bear in mind that the airfield neighbours probably
won't appreciate the noise. For this reason, the aero club
rules prohibit circuits before 0700 - departures and arrivals
are ok.
I think the number of trikes in the club is now very close to
being the most we have ever had. As more pilots get quali-
fied and endorsed we will hopefully be able to have a few
flights out “en masse”. In the UK, the widely used collective
noun for trikes was a “blight of microlights”. Should we
stick with tradition or do you have a better suggestion ?
Safe flight
- John Cresswell (CFI) -
All out of gift ideas — Then look no further !
Do you have a family member, partner or friend with
a sense of adventure and a thirst for freedom? Not
sure what to get them as a gift? A Trial Instructional
Flight (TIF) maybe the answer to your prayers.
Why not share the experience with your family mem-
ber, partner or friend by flying two TIFs together.
For more details contact John Cresswell 0447073151-
Gift Vouchers are available.
Web: http://www.caboolturemicrolights.info/
The Latest News 1
CFI Corner 1
The Road to Inglewood 2
Foreign Correspondent 6
CFI Ramblings 7
Maintenance Burden 8
Breakfast at Kilcoy 9
Bunnings Airport 11
It’s a Date 12
Inside this issue:
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Chinchilla Get Together (Mark Gentry)
An invite was given to all to attend a fly-in at a local prop-
erty just north of Chinchilla. With nothing to do and about
time the little yellow trike got an outing, I decided to at-
tend.
My boys had not been out that way before so they were
keen to go. So once again the Ute was filled with tents
cookers and all the other required gear. Being a long week-
end we all set of early Saturday. Zibi was to follow by car
leaving some what later. (Zibi is not an early starter).
The flight was about two and a halve hours possibly three
so l decided not to take a passenger (fuel requirements).
Flight planning was basically straight through and sort of
follow the Cooyar road a bit before coming out somewhere
over the Bunya Mountain, then straight through to Chin-
chilla keeping the Warrego Highway on the left of me until
the two roads met. The forecast was good with a tail wind
for the trip to Chinchilla and the prospect of it lightening
for the return flight home - Yes right good to go.
Lift off with full tank and turned left onto the heading,
departure time written down off we go. The course took me
just to the right of Kilcoy air field and l was able to follow
the Blackbutt road with Yarraman to my right. In the dis-
tances Mt Mowbullan and the Stuart Range or properly
known as the Bunya Mountains lay ahead. Cloud was de-
veloping over the range and decision time under or over it;
I could see through and out to the other side and it was all
clear so over head Cooyar l climbed up above the cloud
with glimpses of some petty unhospitable land scrape with
not to many places to land if needed. Above the cloud and
down the other side of the range some twenty minutes later
all that could be found was flat pastoral land and every
paddock good for landing on if need be, and just a bit
warmer l might add.
A good tail wind of ten to fifteen knots was helping me
along nicely. At this stage l decided to phone the wind God
and book a westerly in advance for the return trip, l finally
got through place my order for ten knots westerly please
Sunday but was hang up on, mybe he was busy.
In the distance l could see the white grain silo’s which are
along the Warrego Highway in three different townships,
way in the distance l could see Chincilla and started head-
ing in that direction all was going good, ten minutes later a
check on the chart to check time distance height direction
to find the compass was wrong ????? What. I was twenty
degrees off the planned course. Recheck time and a good
look at the map and re affirm my original heading to find
that what l thought was Chincilla was in fact the smoke
towers of Kogan power station. At that point l would have
sworn Cressie himself was in the back seat and had just
said are you flying the planned course?
Now back on course with Jandowae just to my right l was
twenty miles away from this private strip which when look-
ing on Google would not be real easy to find.
Anyway l had a plan and that was flying past the town and
find the small road that would take me to the house and
airstrip. Without much a do l found the strip and at that
stage about six aircraft were parked against the tree line.
The landing was ok but the surface was as rough as hell
with large clumps of grass. Another lesson learnt, out back
land on the dirt rather than grass.
The boys and Zibi finally arrived; tents and gear were all
erected with sausages and bread for tea by the fire with
some alcohol and to bed. I flew some people in the trike the
following morning and Zibi and myself had a look around
the area then hit town.
The National gliding champs were on so we all had a good
look around. There are some go fast gliders around these
days. Back to the car and filled the fuel cans up in prepara-
tion for departure in the morning.
That evening l got speaking with the owner of the place and
thanked him for his hospitality as we were talking he asked
if l had any problems finding the place and that the GPS
coordinates he had given must have been right. I explained
that the only time I use the GPS is for ground speed. Need-
less to say when l asked him how he navigated, by GPS
came the reply and what happens when that goes K A put l
asked l have two back ups he replied.
Anyway it was suggested that the way back home is to fly
off the end of runway 09 and aim straight for the saddle
and that would have Mt Mowbullan to my right through
the saddle and in front of me would be Kingaroy and when l
could see the power station to my right head that way and
that would take me to the Brisbane Valley, Yep that
sounded safer than the way l had come and it only puts
6nm to the trip, this generally is the route people fly back
to Caboolture.
Morning came with a 10 to 15 knot head wind, great what
about my phone call, can’t have got my message.
Off l went with tank full and 20lts in the back seat, found
the best height was about 1000ft where the head wind was
not to bad. In the distance was the saddle so l climbed to
2500ft all was going well with a ground speed of 40 to 42
knots but just a bit of turbulents and some cloud in the
distance and did l say cool ? Very cool.
I was well above the saddle with farm land in the distance,
it was then l noticed the GPS was flashing, it was telling of
close ground proximity. What l hadn’t noticed was l was
flying over slowly raising ground although l was safe
enough it was just another thing l had learnt and some
thing l will remember in the future. Once through the sad-
dle l was now getting the coast effects and its weather and
another 5 knots of head wind and it was getting rougher
and more and more cloud. Kingaroy was just to my right as
it should have been and the power station was coming in to
view and l was able to lower my height and start the de-
scent down the valley and now just under broken cloud
It's better to break ground and head into the wind than to break wind and head into the ground
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tive areas like the engine, and extra coating of lanolin
based spray. Hopefully the little yellow beastie still knows
how to fly just in case I have forgotten!
These two photos were taken alongside in Milos harbour on
of Milos island in the Cyclades group, where the stern-to
berth and low quay-side allowed me to work on the floats
and change the old and badly perished suspension bushes.
The new bushes were supplied by a local supplier, but made
from a synthetic material in the UK.
When sailing, the trike is about 50cm higher and pulled in
at the top to an angle of about 30 degrees, keeping it safe
from even severe wave action.
While alongside we had access to a good fresh water hose
connection so off came the cover and every square inch got
a good bath and a liberal re-spray with WD-40 and in sensi-
Chinchilla Get Together (cont)
a paddock to land in if things were not look good shore
enough the cloud had broken and the way was clear l turn
to look behind myself and what was happening was the
cloud was layered or stepped up as the ground raised up,
my view in coming down the hill line and valley was from
high looking down to low which made my decision to take
the other valley. I guess you take the right decisions at the
time. Maybe l should have stayed in the first valley where l
was originally, The raising ground lesson learnt and l must
say l had a way out at all times.
Kilcoy soon arrived and a quick radio call giving my posi-
tion and then bashed my way home. Landed put the little
yellow trike away for another day and went home for a
little nap, the old fellow was real tie.
A good weekend was had by all and the learning curve is
never ending.
Safe flying Mark
base. Funny how the cold makes the bladder feel full, I was
getting tried and needed a comfort stop and fuel so lookout
Nanango here l come. Had no choice but to land down the
hill at the airstrip due to the wind direction, found a tree
and put the 20lts in the tank which would now get me back
home easy. It was rough on landing and very rough on take
off, now on a new compass setting that would take me
down to the Brisbane valley way, cloud was building
against the hills and valleys with a general cloud base of
about 1000ft above the hill tops and still broken but start-
ing to fill in.
Found Linville which is a small settlement in the Brisbane
valley so knew where l was, if you follow that valley it
takes you to Moore and the Dag highway, l flew parallel to
the hill tops and to one side but decided to cross them into
another valley which seemed to be slightly clearer, again a
was flying down to lower ground all was safe and there was
still a 1000ft base above the hills, l had a way out if needed
but came to a ridge which joined the two hill lines that l
had been flying parallel to, the cloud was getting lower not
what l wanted to see. l could see sunlight over the ridge and
Don’t forget to keep the blue side up.
Foreign Correspondent (Col Darling)
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Mid Life Crisis (Perry Johnstone)
stickers from the spats and pod before sending them off for
repair and painting. Of course there is nothing like a Satur-
day morning spent at home with a hairdryer and aircraft
parts. The whole exercise of heating up the stickers whilst
slowly peeling them back was slow and painstaking work,
and often less than successful as a result of the previous
paintwork patch up jobs. In the end I got there, but it still
needed a lot of preparation prior painting. That's where
Mark Gentry stepped in.
It was no small feat stripping the old paintwork away and
patching up a number of holes left after the removal of
some interesting but functional modifications. But I’m glad
to say Mark was up to the task. While Mark was busy with
the preparation I was off to get some paint. After much
deliberation (and input from the co-owner/wife) I settled on
Aspen white (the factory colour). After seeing the brilliant
paint job Mark did, I was tempted to leave it in plain
clothes (no stickers), the wife however had other ideas.
While I had toyed with many sticker designs (I really
wanted something different to the standard Airborne
sticker set) I really couldn’t settle on any particular one. Of
course the co-owner came to the rescue by making a simple
observation that the trike was now the same colour as my
car and that maybe I should consider the same sticker de-
sign, given it worked well on the car. Hmmm now why did-
n’t I think of that? So with my limited graphic artist skills
(Powerpoint & cut and paste) and a little/lot of help from
Brisbane Pinstriping, the design took shape.
The original paint job on my trike was looking a little tired
and in dire need of a makeover. The previous owner had
done multiple patch up jobs (mainly on the spats as a result
of operating from dirt strips), with the windscreen also
showing signs of aging and general wear and tear.
Well while I had the trike down for it’s 100hourly and 5
yearly servicing, I decided to bite the bullet and spent some
coin on a long overdue facelift (for the trike, not me).
I imagined that removal of the spats and pod would be a
relatively quick, easy and painless exercise—how wrong
was I. Removal of the spats were no real issue, but removal
of the pod entailed first removing the windscreen (which
fortunately was going to be replaced anyway), then re-
moval of the front wheel assembly, before finally being able
to remove the entire pod.
Of course now that the front of the trike was as ‘naked’ as
it’s owner at the end of season football trip, I could get un-
interrupted access to the cockpit wiring harness and front
fork carrier (to carry out a detailed inspection for cracking).
However first things first, I needed to remove the Airborne
Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment.
* The Original Silver Paint Job *
* The Plain White Paint Job *
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Mid Life Crisis (Cont)
By now the trike had been on the ground for several weeks
whilst the extreme makeover was being done and I was
desperately wanting to get it back in the air. Unfortu-
nately I had to wait a little longer until the sticker set was
complete otherwise I risked damaging Mark’s exceptional
handiwork. Finally the day arrived and the stickers were
slowly applied. In addition to the stickers I also decided to
have the inside of the spats covered with a thick clear
sticker film to prevent any on-going damage resulting from
rocks or debris being thrown around by the prop when op-
erating from unsealed surfaces.
With the servicing done, the facelift completed it was time
to once again get the old girl back into the air and show off
it’s new livery. At least I can now proudly boast that I own
a unique looking trike.
It is far better to arrive late in this world than early in the next.
* The Finished Job *
* The First Flight sporting the new Livery *
Keeping It In The Family (Perry Johnstone)
Ever since returning from the Anzac long weekend fly-in to
Inglewood I’ve been wanting to get the missus up for a
flight around the local area. Ironically she’d only ever flown
at Inglewood. So with a weekend of fine and calm weather
predicted, I encouraged her to put on the spare flight suit
and join me for a trip out to Somerset dam with a stop over
at Kilcoy. The spare flight suit of course is a large size and
when worn by someone of a small stature, it looks quite
funny (with the crotch hanging down between her knees).
Needless to say I was told not to say anything smart (an
easy task for me). Anyway once I got her all strapped in it
was off to the dam. On the way home we briefly called in to
Kilcoy just to stretch the legs, however when on the ground
we were met by a couple of chaps who invited us to join
them for a cuppa, some biscuits and a chat.
Nearly an hour later we climbed back into the
trike and headed for home. No more than a
minute on the ground and the missus was tell-
ing me to get across to John’s hangar and buy
her a suit that fitted.
So after parting with some hard earned cash,
she now has her own Ozzee flying suit in a
stunning camouflage pattern.
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Schedule of Events
Oct 5: - Archer Falls - Fly-In http://
www.archerfalls.com.au
Oct 19: - Dunwich - Breakfast Fly-In
http://www.stradair.com/member.php
Oct 27/28: - South Grafton—Jacaranda
Fly-In
Nov 16: - Dunwich - Breakfast Fly-In
http://www.stradair.com/member.php
Dec 21: - Dunwich - Breakfast Fly-In
http://www.stradair.com/member.php
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It’s a Date
Nov 2013
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25 26 27 28 29 30
Dec 2013 Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
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Aviation Humor