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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

Oct 2013 Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

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7 8 9 10 11 12 13

14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30 31

It’s a Date

Nov 2013

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

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4 5 6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30

Dec 2013 Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30 31

Aviation Humor