Its a Pilatus B4, where!! I'm not sure. Was my first single seater

I'll take a guess at Lake Keepit

Lattitude guy has the type.
Sorry denist, wrong state :)


VH-GIF, likewise my first single seater. (probably the same airframe and location)

Picture was taken around 1989 if that helps.

Flying the Cessna 162 Skycatcher
 

Received two C162's this month and flown 35 hours in one of them. They are 24-8093 and 24-8182 registered RA-Aus. I really like them and the Garmin PFD/MFD display's. First 2 weeks have been faultless.

http://www.frednolan.com/images/stor...st_solo_01.jpg

Grim determination

http://www.frednolan.com/images/stor...st_solo_05.jpg

Flapless landing in the C162 at Moree

http://www.frednolan.com/images/stor...st_solo_07.jpg

PFD and MFD is excellent

http://www.frednolan.com/images/stor...st_solo_04.jpg

Sure makes for a neat and tidy dash. :ok:

Boring as batsh!t.. Some might like looking at rocker switches and circuit breakers all thye time, but for myne it seems like waste of prime panel space....

Very neat....whats the powerplant?

Continental 200 with 100 hp. Wide chord prop gives very good rate of climb. On training I'm seeing 16-18lt/hr fuel burn with 91 total.

Great to see the second MFD in those machines as when I was flying one I lost the MFD and it wasn't a fantastic feeling with 3 hours on type wondering if I could land her safely (it was a non-event of course, but would certainly put you off on a first solo!). If it were mine and I had a single MFD I'd like to fit a few of those mini "Winter" brand instruments or similar.

My main complaints with them are accommodation (not fantastic if you are over 5'11" for long periods) and they are a little under-powered at 7,000ft plus at MTOW.

Well you aint gunna be at MTOW at 7000' unless you took off illegally, its gunna take some time and fuel to get to 7000' with 100hp.:eek::eek:

Skywagon, in image # 1 is that the instructor on his knees praying before strapping in with a student ?

On his knee's
 

Ha, ha ... you could see it that way but it is the student trying to show me how he's on the ball with his DI. The plane is very stable, all the Advanced stall's etc have been very benign. It requires only light/moderate rudder input.

There is only the electric trim, so getting a student to grasp that concept starting from scratch has been awkward. I've been leaving the ENG page set up on the #2 MFD so he can see trim indicator. I have set up my own info on this MFD which makes my scan very comfortable at those critical times, for an old fella. The flaps are manual (10/25/40) and remind me of the C185 style and are light to deploy. It's a nice training platform.

http://www.frednolan.com/images/stor...st_solo_02.jpg

Hmm, lovely clean loooking dash, everything looks accessible in a hurry...but ALL glass? I know it is touted as the way of the future, but I think I'd at least like to see some steam gauges--AH and ASI could get you out of a lot of trouble if it all that lovely glass goes dark. I might just be old fashioned...

If that's boring, because it is clearly laid out and equally accessible to both seats, I'll take boring. Everything else is taken care of by the glass (as long as it is lit:E)
Never flown with an MFD-is critical information such as AS, Alt and heading always shown, regardless of which particular screen config is selected, preferably always in the same place on the screen? I just have this mental picture of a panicked low-hours student stabbing blindly trying to get back what he wants, and forgetting to actually fly the machine:rolleyes:

There is always one.... Climbing through 7,000ft on an MTOW departure takes a while if that makes you happy....

Where I got the 162 from they were landing them way too fast, over 60 and were floating for hundreds of metres. Low 50's works well.

Skywagon - make sure you tell them they need flap locks attached when parking as when the wind blows from behing it will over-ride the springs and damage the flaps. They'll need to make something up and strap them on. The ones I fly have them strapped to the rudder pedals.

Flaps
 

Got a picture handy ? Thanks.

Always amazes me the way the local ultralight importer comes up with a new way of laying out his panels for each new customer. The Rate of Climb indicator always seems to get a prime spot however, even at the expense of something really useful in marginal conditions like an AH if it doesn't have the glass display. Flap selector switches, light switches, magneto switches, radio positioning, etc, are never in the same place in two aircraft of the same type. Progress....??!!

The C 17 seems to have departed from over my house after his two practise NDB approaches. They come in the fine weather for training or endorsements. Was talking to one crew one day and they said they don't get to use the ADF much. At least they can still practice over our airfield, the one at Hervey Bay was de-commissioned..

Skywagon, interesting reading your post, what particularly stuck out was the mention of "light/moderate rudder" as that's one of the biggest complaints I have about the two that we have - they have bucketloads of adverse yaw, which is not inherently a bad thing in terms of teaching students to use their feet, but the pedal pressures required seem dramatically out of proportion to anything else I've flown - significantly more force required than even a 182 for example, and coupled with the extremely light pitch and roll control it makes for a pretty un-natural feeling which I'm finding even I'm struggling with a bit, let alone the students! I've found you almost need to lead the turn with rudder slightly as if you're flying an old biplane!

Would be interesting to know whether ours have abnormally stiff pedals, or perhaps I've just grown soft from flying the other aircraft in our fleet!

I haven't had any problems with the electric trim so far, although it does seem to take slightly longer for students to get used to than conventional manual trim.

I've found the flap lever is rather difficult to operate from (particularly) the right seat compared to the lever in a typical Piper (haven't flown a 180 or 185 yet) as it requires twisting your arm through an awkward angle, and then gets in the way of the throttle a bit. It also doesn't have clearly defined detents like in the Pipers so you sort of have to pull the lever to what feels about right and then let it go and hope you haven't released it before the detent! I've also had the flaps partially retract on me during an approach once which I think may have been due to inadvertently placing my elbow on the release button of the flap lever while holding the throttle - pilot error but an easy mistake to make, especially for a student! I've been teaching my guys to lower the flaps when they're taxiing with a tailwind of more than about 15 knots to stop them blowing down.

We make sure all our students have done a circuit or two with the flight display turned off before we send them out solo as we only have one display in ours!

On the plus side, the stalling characteristics are about as good as you could hope for in a trainer, the take off and landing performance rivals some dedicated STOL aircraft and the fuel consumption (or lack of it) is quite remarkable.

55kt or a bit below does seem to work well for short final, from memory the POH does recommend 60 or something like that, but as VH-XXX said they float forever at that speed, the ASI usually seems to be indicating about 40 when the wheels are touching the ground.

part formation lesson, on way to conducting spinning lesson earlier.

not me flying, but partner.

Hey UL,

If my memory serves me correctly......she is WAY better looking than you old mate!

Punching above ones weight there! :ok:

Great video too!

That is some very cool footage thats been nicely put together Ultralights. Keep the videos coming. I see you're very serious about your filming. Whenever I see the 3D gopro set up I think theres something wrong with my screen. :ok:

i didnt put the videos together, i am not that good at editing, the Lovely woman flying put them all together. and yep, its a 3D setup behind, but sadly, the 3d didnt quite work, the pilots heads were to close, the panel was perfect 3d, and the clouds, not so 3D. but we will keep experimenting with the camera setups. The school also provide their own cameras and record every flight for debrief purposes.

Great vids! I've just bought a GoPro for use in W.Papua (leave tomorrow!) -now you've got me wondering how you got the intercom/VHF audio in there so seamlessly? Would appreciate a pointer!

Skycatcher Q.
 

So where DO they put the Made in China sticker?
It has to have one somewhere!

on the Gopro Hero2, which we have, there is a audio In on the side of the camera, you can get a cheap adapter, that you can plug inline with the speaker line and records all you hear through your headset to the camera. its then a simple matter of syncing up the audio with the forward looking camera with some editing software. the headset is pluged into the aft looking camera.
like this one
http://www.downunderpilotshop.com.au...s/P/A/PA80.jpg

you can drill a hole in the side of the housing, or buy a skeleton housing with cutouts for access to ports already made

Its right next to the sticker that says '1 POB permitted with full fuel'.

Brilliant Ultralights, thanks! Yeah, mine is the Hero2 also, I saw the mic port & thought that opened some interesting possibilities! I'll keep an eye open for the adapter!

1 POB? Not quite!

Depending on equipment levels payload approximately 222kgs.

Love the videos Ultralights .. keep them coming!! :ok: .. and your partner has got a better set than yours ... I mean headset off course!! ;)

Who was flying the second ship?

Right here. :ok:

http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...adeinChina.jpg

Ha! Classic!! :D:E:ok:

the second ship, extra 300 was flown by a second instructor.

Top Spot
 

Flew out of there in a beaver amphib, I have not been there for a few years, I heard they were going to seal the RWY and improve the airport. Another bloke I know said a flying school was going in there also!!!

I heard that.... := lol

You 'read' that :E

Welcome :ok:

Boeings
 

Real ones - oh boy, talk about living the dream.

Boeing 314.

Be patient - it has to be downloaded and plays on Power Point - best I could do with it, sorry (30 seconds max). But it is, for mine, worth it..

What 787 test pilots get up to when they have a spare 19 hours of test flying to complete!

http://members.iinet.net.au/~bc_j400/787.jpg

Clever hey............jaba is flight planning ........:ok:

Kharon - very cool! You might enjoy 'Night over Water' by Ken Follet; a mystery / thriller novel set on board a B314 flying from Europe to USA in 1939. Some very good tech info. Also recommend 'Hornet Flight' and 'Mirage' from the same author.