Sheesh Leigh, what year was that? The #1 flight of all time that I have ever had was in early 1990 when I had a back seat ride in a Macchi as an Officer Cadet in the RAAF. It was shortly after the spate of Macchi crashes due to engine fires. (A faulty gasket was failing in the fuel control unit for the engine. High pressure fuel was spraying down the outside of the tailpipe inside the fuselage. First thing that got burnt was the aluminium pushrod to the elevator!)
The flight was 30 minutes of circuits and bounces (gave me a good appreciation of why they called the RR Viper engine 'constant thrust, variable noise') at Edinburgh at sunset and followed by 30 minutes of night aerobatics north of Adelaide (this was a reasonably regular flight plan). I remember the lights of Adelaide going round and round the canopy. The pilot was the senior test pilot at ARDU at the time. He was most impressed that I hadn't barfed by the end of the aeros. My supervisor at the time scored a ride in a PC-9, brand new at the time. He had the opposite, 30 minutes of aeros and then 30 minutes of circuits. He had barfed 5 minutes into the aeros and then had to nurse the paper bag for the next 25 minutes of the aeros and 30 minutes of circuits and bounces. Anthony -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Leigh Bunting Sent: Thursday, 16 September 2004 9:43 PM To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia. Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] GFA taking legal action against Air Services??? Mike Borgelt wrote: >The rules are that aircraft without generating systems(gliders and some >others) can fly in Class E without transponders except in Class E within >40nm of Class D towers. > > And that is exactly how I have understood the rules to be also. I have used Class E on several ocassions. Does anyone know how a radar system reacts to a thermaling glider that is transponder equipped? A couple of decades ago, I was one of a group touring through Adelaide ATC one evening. Out north of Adelaide an RAAF Macchi was doing loops in the dark and the radar system of the day had the equivalent of the Blue Screen of Death. ATC was a bit embarrassed and hurried us out. Imagine a radar system with forty gliders thermalling if the system can't understand what is happening. -- Leigh Bunting Colonel Light Gardens South Australia <Open Windows and let the bugs in> _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
