Re: [Aus-soaring] Lithium batteries

[Justin Couch]

>From what I understand, it was looking at the tech itself - the
onboard circuitry. There was also a bit of grandfathering since they'd
been used unofficially for a while with no incidents.  I see Sean has
popped up here so the GFA airworthiness group would be aware of it,
probably just a case of sending an email to officially ask for
approval to cad or dc...@glidingaustralia.org, then waiting some time
for a bit of investigation. 

- Original Message -
From:
 "Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia."


To:
"Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia."

Cc:

Sent:
Fri, 1 Feb 2019 08:43:27 +1100
Subject:
Re: [Aus-soaring] Lithium batteries

For a rare occasion I agree with Mike. 

What were the evaluating criteria used to approve Fusion?

On 1 Feb 2019, at 8:33 am, Mike Borgelt
 wrote:

 I'm sure that's nice for the Fusion dealer but these seem to be
similarly specified but with higher allowable discharge current and
similar internal protection circuitry.

 The internal circuitry is designed to make the battery "look" like a
standard lead acid or gel cell type and the EarthX brand is used in
Experimental homebuilts connected to the charging system instead of a
lead acid or gel cell. That brand also can be used for engine
starting. They are available in Australia. There was a good article in
Kitplanes a while ago on the manufacture and testing of those.

 As the battery "looks" like a standard lead acid no mods to the
aircraft charging circuit are necessary and any good lead acid battery
charger should work.

 If you try to use an intelligent LiFePO4 charger you may get a
conflict between the battery internal protection and the intelligent
charger. See that.

 It would be nice to know what exactly the approval process for the
Fusion brand involved.

 Mike
 .

 At 06:10 AM 2/1/2019, you wrote:
Same product (and same price) available at Jaycar - although strictly
speaking only fusion brand allowed at this stage?

 https://www.jaycar.com.au/12-8v-7-5ah-lithium-deep-cycle-battery/p/SB2201
[2] 

 Nick.

 On Fri, Feb 1, 2019 at 6:16 AM Mike Borgelt <
mborg...@borgeltinstruments.com [3]> wrote:
This came in yesterday:

 
https://www.techbrands.com/store/category/li-battery-feb19.aspx?utm_source=battery&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=TBNewFeb19
[4] 

These look good for avionics although you can't use them to start an
engine.

Mike

Borgelt Instruments

- design & manufacture of quality soaring instrumentation since 1978

   www.borgeltinstruments.com

 tel:   07 4635 5784     overseas: int+61-7-4635 5784
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[2]
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[3] mailto:mborg...@borgeltinstruments.com
[4]
https://www.techbrands.com/store/category/li-battery-feb19.aspx?utm_source=battery&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=TBNewFeb19
[5] mailto:Aus-soaring@lists.base64.com.au
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Re: [Aus-soaring] [gfaforum] RE: water bags and tanks

[Justin Couch]

My club has a set pulled from an LS4 that we don't need any more.
Check your dimensions and volume and maybe these will be suitable for
you.

- Original Message -
From:
 "Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia."


To:

Cc:
"Noel Roediger" ,
, "Discussion of issues relating to
Soaring in Australia." 
Sent:
Mon, 5 Nov 2018 14:57:47 +1100
Subject:
Re: [Aus-soaring] [gfaforum] RE: water bags and tanks

Jim,

I think that my LS3 had clipper bags. I attempted a welded patch on
one of my bags (the seams are welded) but within a season it was
leaking again.

Let me know if you find a manufacturer as I also need a new pair.

Regards,
Paul

Send my REPLY
 [1]
On Mon, Nov 5, 2018 at 2:46 PM Jim Crowhurst  wrote:

Hi Everyone, 

I want to make a small repair to a pin-hole leak in one of my clipper
plastics ballast bags. Unfortunately they no longer make ballast bags
for gliders, citing problems with insurance. Strangely they weren't
able to help me with the glue and material required to repair their
particular bag (lightweight fluoro orange). Has anyone successfully
repaired a leak from one of these bags, if so what did you use. Also,
are there any Brisbane based firms able make new bags - they need to
be able to weld seams on bladder bags? I'm waiting to hear back from
turtle-pack. Anyone else make ballast bags?

Thanks

Jim

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Re: [Aus-soaring] Parachute

[Justin Couch]

Just went through this one with one of my chutes: PA are 20 years on
the harness. They'll put new harness on and reuse the canopy if it is
in good condition.  Basically halves the cost. 

- Original Message -
From:
 "Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia."


To:
"Jim Staniforth" , "Discussion of issues
relating to Soaring in Australia." 
Cc:

Sent:
Thu, 26 Oct 2017 14:05:17 +1000
Subject:
Re: [Aus-soaring] Parachute

 Jim,

 Some Parachutes Australia chutes do have a time limit. 21 or 22 years
IIRC.

 Mike

 At 01:38 PM 10/26/2017, you wrote:

 Apologies to Ron. You had no idea what you started.
 Â Â But people take these things too lightly.
   Highly recommend doing a couple of jumps so you know what it
feels like, even if the jump isn't started from a damaged aircraft.Â
My personal preference is for a square parachute. They have great
directional and speed control, but owners need to be trained or at
least briefed. I can do a stand-up spot landing, a good feeling to
have while strapping it on tightly prior to flight.
   Learned long ago the pains involved in opening a parachute with
a loose harness...
 Imagine someone kicking you in the groin. The pain goes up to your
eyes.
   Back to the start: There is no time limit on any parachute,
since the certification method used didn't specify one.
 This includes Para-Phernalia, who first mentioned the 20-year
subject.
 Passing inspection is up to your rigger. You can always retire the
chute yourself, just cut the suspension lines and it's done.
 Jim

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tel:   07 4635 5784 overseas: int+61-7-4635 5784
 mob: 042835 5784 :  int+61-42835
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Tactile system for spacial disorientation

[Justin Couch]

There was a similar display in the Emerging Technologies section of
SIGGRAPH this year. The concept is called The Hanger Reflex - very
small amounts of pressure on the body at small points can cause the
person to be controlled They demonstrated a similar belt device that
allowed one person to control another person's walking direction. 

https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3084833&dl=ACM&coll=DL&CFID=994782706&CFTOKEN=23421178

And a video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_LpCgLUu0Y

I had a try of it and it's pretty amazing what subtle effects it can
have. 

- Original Message -
From: "Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia."

To:
Cc:
Sent:Sat, 14 Oct 2017 08:53:46 +1000
Subject:[Aus-soaring] Tactile system for spacial disorientation

Very interesting I wonder how much benefit there would be in a
glider...

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-14/tactile-cueing-system-seeks-to-make-flying-safer-for-pilots/9042466
[1]
 

Links:
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Re: [Aus-soaring] FES fire in the UK

[Justin Couch]

Here's the actual AAIB report:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/59c8f175e5274a49c07f4704/AAIB_S3-2017_G-GSGS.pdf


On 29/09/2017 7:02 AM, Future Aviation Pty. Ltd. wrote:

Good morning all

This was sent to me over night by a German friend of mine.

As you can see, no mention was made of the type of battery used here.
 From my visits to the AERO trade fair I know that some manufacturers use LiPo 
Batteries.
They have the best power to weight ratio but they are known to be extremely 
dangerous.
I will attempt to find out if this type of battery was installed in this glider.

Kind regards to all

Bernard


 From UK, newspaper report:




The Air Accidents Investigation Branch has made a safety recommendation after a 
sailplane burst into flames shortly after landing in Parham Airfield. On August 
10, 2017, the glider sailplane set off from the airfield between Storrington 
and Pulborough at 10.21am for a flight lasting approximately two hours. The 
glider was flown normally to a smooth touchdown, according to the AAIB, until 
the pilot heard an ‘unexpected noise’. The AAIB report said: “As the glider 
slowed during the ground run, the pilot smelled burning and the cockpit filled 
with smoke that was moving forwards from behind the pilot’s head. “He vacated 
the cockpit normally, without injury, and observed that the Front Electric 
Sustainer (FES) battery compartment cover was missing and that smoke, followed 
shortly by flames, was coming from the battery compartment. “The airfield fire 
truck arrived promptly and an initial attempt was made to extinguish the fire 
using a CO2 gaseous extinguisher, but this proved unsuccessful. “Aqueous 
film-forming foam (AFFF) was then sprayed into the FES battery compartment and 
the fire was extinguished.”


The pilot was the only person on board the glider, according to the AAIB.

He did not report observing any warning messages or illuminated LEDs, when 
asked by the AAIB, although his attention was drawn outside the cockpit during 
landing.

The AAIB report found existing FES battery installations ‘do not provide 
sufficient warning’ to a pilot of a fire.

As a result, the AAIB made a safety recommendation that ‘all powered sailplanes 
fitted with an FES system, must be equipped with a warning system to alert the 
pilot to the presence of a fire in the FES battery compartment’.

The AAIB investigation confirmed the ‘origin of the fire’ was the forward FES 
battery.

The report added: “Its battery box was ruptured along the rear left corner and 
the battery assembly was heavily fire damaged.

“The rear FES battery box suffered from external fire damage although the 
internal components were only slightly damaged and the cells remained charged.

“The FES battery compartment was heavily fire damaged.



see also

https://www.gov.uk/aaib-reports/aaib-special-bulletin-s3-2017-on-hph-glasflugel-304-es-g-gsgs
 
<https://www.gov.uk/aaib-reports/aaib-special-bulletin-s3-2017-on-hph-glasflugel-304-es-g-gsgs>
http://www.front-electric-sustainer.com/news.php 
<http://www.front-electric-sustainer.com/news.php>
http://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/20170906EASAAD20170167E.pdf 
<http://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/20170906EASAAD20170167E.pdf>



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[Aus-soaring] Contact details for Conrad Bolton

[Justin Couch]

Trying to find the details for Conrad. Former mayor of Narrabri but I 
can't dig up his contact details anywhere that aren't linked to his 
former local government account. He apparently owns the wreck of 
(ex-)HDC, a DG202 that's currently sitting in an abandoned trailer at 
Camden.


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 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Glider Glass cloth

[Justin Couch]

If that's a renamed version of the crew down there, they shut down a 
couple of years ago. The only guys left that I've had any contact with 
in the last 12 months are Ironbark down in Melbourne:


https://www.ironbarkcomposites.com.au/

They also have the MGS resins that are used by almost everyone doing 
glider repairs now.


On 15/05/2017 10:02 PM, Chris wrote:

Interturbine Advanced Composites are the Australian agents for interclass

21 Waverley drive Unanderra 2526
02 4272 3200



On 15 May 2017, at 9:39 PM, Chris Runeckles  wrote:

Hi All.

Could some one advise a source to purchase  Glider glass cloth please (92125, 
92110 and similar) my source in Western Australia has stopped stocking any.

Many thanks

Chris Runeckles
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G+   WetMorgoth
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Re: [Aus-soaring] rotating beacon non-magnetic

[Justin Couch]

On 12/05/2017 10:37 AM, Roger.D wrote:

The in
between situation of serious scale CASA certified aerodromes I can't
speak to, but these are airports one is not likely to want to launch off
anyway.


Unfortunately I think Camden is one of them :( Towered aerodrome, CASA 
certified but not run by them (Sydney Metro Airports Corp). SMA requires 
us to have big flashy lights, and separate driver licenses, vehicle 
inspections etc


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 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
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 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Flarm mouse troubles

[Justin Couch]

On 18/04/2017 6:25 AM, Simon Rammelt wrote:

Hi all two friends of mine are having problems with flarm mice that will
not detect targets. They have both tested their installations using
another flarm mouse that has been proven to work in flight.


[snip]


Is anyone else experiencing similar problems?


In my club we have 12 FLARMs (9 gliders, 3 tugs) and there's about 
another half a dozen private gliders around our club that I do some or 
all of the maintenance on. We have probably one of every model ever made 
- Oz/MiniFLARMs, RedBox, Mouse, PowerFlarm etc . We have absolutely no 
end of trouble with the them. Some will stop transmitting or receiving 
yet the power on self tests come up, others just don't bother to start 
up etc etc. I swear that pretty much every weekend I'm chasing up yet 
another problem with the @*%&^$ things.


Out of the problems encountered, about 30% are due to aerial/GPS 
connections, 50% are display to FLARM issues (club members mashing on 
the mode button changing baud rates etc) and the rest just random stuff 
like hardware failures or software/config corruption. I would put an 
educated guess that the problem is on your end with the display or 
cables running to it from the FLARM rather than the hardware of the 
device itself.


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---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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[Aus-soaring] To PowerFlarm or not?

[Justin Couch]

With two of my club's old Mini Oz Flarms pushing up daisies, and more 
likely to follow soon, it's time for us to get some new ones. We fly at 
Camden, so lots and lots of random air traffic about - some IFR, lots of 
RAAUS types etc. Thus, PowerFlarm with ADS-B option seems like a 
reasonable thing for us to contemplate.  What's the general thoughts on 
where that is going and adoption rates?  IIRC the yanks just rescinded 
their mandatory requirements for it, and something happened here in Oz 
around it too, but my google-fu is weak.


If we look at a 10 year lifespan for equipment, then the horizon of the 
adoption of ADS-B is the interesting bit to us, rather than equipment cost.


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---
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 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Training booking system and process

[Justin Couch]

On 17/02/2017 11:46 AM, Ben Coleman wrote:

Hi all,

Are there any gliding clubs using a booking system of some sort to organise
training activities?  This may be as simple as who is turning up and who is
instructing or a complete system allocating student, instructor, aircraft
and timeslot.


[snip]


Thanks, Ben Coleman
President, Hunter Valley Gliding Club


SCGC has been using an internally developed one for quite a few years 
now. Works pretty well for us and is a simple list of who is coming for 
the day and the role (tuggie, instructor, trainee, pilot). We use 
Dutyman for long term roster management, but our own for the day to day 
attendance. It's now been hooked into a payment gateway so you can pay 
for your flights in the evening without needing to bring cash or card to 
the field.


Have a chat with Cliff Jefferies as he is an instructor at your club as 
well as ours, and wrote all our system. I image he could easily reskin 
it for your use.


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Re: [Aus-soaring] L2 Independent Ops

[Justin Couch]

On 14/02/2017 7:33 PM, Mark Newton wrote:

The GFA syllabus doesn’t teach that. Instead, right from lesson 1 it stresses 
that the instructor is the superior, and that the duty instructor will be 
running the day, and that everyone else on the field marches to that person’s 
tune. So much so that if the duty instructor doesn’t show up, everyone goes 
home.

Military-style chain of command.

In the PW5 accident, the pilot CLEARLY didn’t feel comfortable with the flight: 
He’d had previous experience from earlier in the day that the new instructor 
wasn’t familiar with; he knew there was a skill he needed to polish before he 
was safe for solo flight; And, being 69 years old, one can assume that he’d 
been around the traps enough to pick up enough life experience to know when 
he’s being sold a pup.


As someone that has spent a lot my career mentoring, if not outright 
teaching, I'm going disagree partially with these statements.


Firstly that "The GFA" teaches this. It doesn't. Individual instructors 
do, because they like to be The Boss and control others. In my club I'd 
say it is a 50/50 split (typically along the lines of those that are 
still active X/C pilots). Some are pushing pilots to think, some push 
them to be conservative.


From the teaching perspective, many students don't have enough self 
confidence and it is the job of the teacher to push them student outside 
of the student's comfort zone in order for them to advance. These 
students, if left to their own devices, will seek comfort only in the 
areas that they know already and won't want to push it. For some, that 
means more than gentle nudges are sometimes needed.


I can't comment specifically about the surroundings of the PW-5 student 
and that situation. But to point to this as a failing of the GFA 
training and structure is, to me, a leap too far.


What I think is wrong is not the hierarchy, but how instructors are 
selected and trained. Only works if you're a buddy of the CFI, and that 
there is no teaching on how to teach. Our instructors are basically 
expert pilots, but they are not expert educators. Fix the training of 
instructors and the rest of the system issues disappear into the 
background.


(FWIW, catching up on other parts - yes I agree that L2 Ind Ops and how 
it is issued is not right and I really don't see why we have L1 and L2 
as L1 is basically useless since you can't actually operate independently)


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Re: [Aus-soaring] GFA Negative Advertising and Censorship?

[Justin Couch]

On 7/02/2017 12:10 AM, Ulrich Stauss wrote:

The saga continues…

Again from the GFA Facebook page: “At the request of the Board no more posts 
will be made to this page. Therefore sadly it is effectively now closed.”

Somebody switching the lights off? Interesting comments too.


No, John spitting the dummy in a huge way after being told to knock off 
all the snarkiness.  More over on the official GFA mail list. He's lost 
the plot completely now.



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---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
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Re: [Aus-soaring] MEMBERSHIP AND A WORLD REVIEW

[Justin Couch]

On 5/02/2017 8:41 PM, Richard Frawley wrote:


i must look up the MOSPs and see what i have "to know/be skilled at" to attain 
L2 or is is at some mystical behest of a CFI.


In a nutshell, there isn't any requirements to be passed. It will be 
issued by the CFI and club, and reviewed/renewed annually.



I have heard of several clubs where the CFI will not issue L2 under any 
circumstance. why would they take that position?


Given the stats cited previously, I think that's the position of almost 
every club.



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Re: [Aus-soaring] MEMBERSHIP AND A WORLD REVIEW

[Justin Couch]

On 2/02/2017 9:43 AM, steph...@internode.on.net wrote:

That is so James. It is why I said the register numbers are somewhat
moot.
 I'll add, I think there are probably more private owners flying than
360, because I don't believe all club aircraft are flying either (Back
in the day when I was CFI of a small club, we had 2 two seaters which
we would alternate for various reasons).
Also for smaller/winch clubs, would be surprised if their gliders did
more than some 10s of hours a year either (our club singles used to do
30-50 and our two seaters around 70, and that was a fairly consistent
one day a week operation).


I think you'll find that the bigger clubs greatly drag up the average up 
for the winch clubs here. SCGC as my example, has 4 twins, and 4 singles 
(we just bought another single, but only in the club for 5 weeks, so 
won't count it yet). Three of the twins are doing 300+ hrs a year. The 
other about 50. The singles average 120hrs each a year. Our highest use 
single is 150hrs last year. I'd imagine that the keepit & narromine 
fleets would be doing similar numbers.



But in any case the "limbo pool" of inactive aircraft (I just had a
look this morning) is large and must contain some comparatively modern
types. That is a big problem.


At Camden, not including the clubs, I know of

- 3 gliders sitting in trailers that haven't had form 2s in a long time.
- One wreck, where the rego was returned
- Two wrecks that are about to be written off, but still registered
- One wreck in the process of being rebuilt
- 4 flying gliders in trailers, 2 that I know are regularly flown
- approx 15 T hangars with gliders in them, mostly active pilots.

Being a city-based club, I expect our limbo pool is quite small since 
the owners are all nearby. My guess is the the in-limbo aircraft are 
split between sitting in museums, and wrecks that are waiting to be 
rebuilt and the rego was kept in order to make the test flying part much 
easier.


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Re: [Aus-soaring] gliding the sport

[Justin Couch]

On 31/01/2017 1:30 PM, Mark Fisher wrote:

Yep. As sad as it might seem, things will have to change.
Of course club committees will cry foul and suggest that implementing this
will mean the demise of the club.

I think he GFA should look at supporting a flagship club or two to trial
this. By support I mean fund any loss if it doesn't work.

I would think a couple of clubs with different profiles might work as a
trial to learn about the efficacy of the idea.

E.G One club with > 100 members, and another with <30

We might actually learn something.


Or a club could even offer two training schemes.

1. Is the sit around all day and take what you can get (Free)
2. Is the fully commercial model

Explain the reality and timeframe to learn.  See what people opt for


At least the Narromine club is doing this (commercial midweek, club 
weekends), as well as the Sydney motor flight group.  SMFG is a good 
apples to (custard?) apples comparison, because on the same airfield 
there is a club (Southern Cross) and another sorta club (Sydney 
Gliding). SMFG use a Dimona, so really only needs the instructor and 
student, SCGC of course are aerotow and all voluntary. Size of the two 
is very different but most students are still heading to the club-based 
environment rather than a turn-up-and-fly (note they are specifically 
staying away from saying they are a commercial operation). Also of note 
is that SCGC used to have a commercial training arm (that's how I learnt 
to glide) but gave it away as uneconomic, even when based right next to 
Australia's larges population centre.


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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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[Aus-soaring] Any travellers from Sydney to Perth with spare luggage space?

[Justin Couch]

I need to get two Astir CS frames from here in Sydney to Beverley. 
They're a bit bulky (front and top frames), but will fit in a normal 
suitcase. I can send them regular freight, but just checking on the 
off-chance there's a slightly empty suitcase or car heading that 
direction in the next week or two and save BSS some money.


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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] JS3s arr Benalla

[Justin Couch]

New video up from GFA about the JS3.  Uys goes into a very long 
discussion on all the design features, and even the mixed up Rego/Comp 
numbers. 30 minutes, so quite extensive coverage.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8UmGiBrJ7o



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---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Becker 4201 radio repair?

[Justin Couch]

Arnie's looking over my shoulder dictating as I type this: He's doing 
well and almost back into aircraft again.


The 4201 are all surface mount, so difficult to repair unless it is a 
simple problem. He has brand new ones for $700-ish so repairing is 
almost as expensive as a new one if is anything beyond the simple problem.


On 1/01/2017 10:28 AM, Greg Wilson wrote:

I've heard that Arnie Hartley isn't well and not doing any radio repairs at 
present - Get well soon Arnie!

Do you know of any other person or workshop that does repairs on Becker radios? 
Macca only has the circuit diagrams form Becker 3201.

Many thanks,

Greg W.



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Re: [Aus-soaring] JS3s arr Benalla

[Justin Couch]

On 31/12/2016 2:20 PM, Makoto Ichikawa wrote:

The c of a was not issued on at least one of them yet as of yesterday 
lunchtime, they were taking photo of data plate with serial number etc and 
emailing to dennis stacey.


I've heard through the grapevine that there's some messed up paperwork 
out of RSA that Dennis is madly trying to get corrected - probably due 
to what Mike is talking about with serial numbers being swapped.


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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] JS3s arr Benalla

[Justin Couch]

On 30/12/2016 11:27 PM, Mike Borgelt wrote:

I see one of the JS 3s at least  has Australian registration.



Mike


And they got the comp numbers and rego back mixed up. AJ comp numbers, 
but rego is XUJ, then look at the tail of the other behind it, that has 
comp numbers of UJ. No way that could be confusing!


--
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Flarm odd error message help requested

[Justin Couch]

Thanks Richard,

We've done the cable dance so sure it's not that. Swapped the unit to 
another aircraft - same result. They've all just been packed up ready 
for camp, so I won't be able to look at the serial output for a few 
weeks - but I do suspect the units are almost cactus as you suggest :(


On 24/12/2016 4:23 PM, Richard Frawley wrote:

The UART’s on old Flarms tend to die over time. No idea why. But a lot of 
flarms have been subjected to high temps

Check the RJ45 socket and cable as well…they are easily abused over time.

If you have the means to look at the serial output of the Flarm on your PC 
(using USB to serial and terminal software (I use coolterm), its pretty easy to 
see if its corrupt or intermittent

I guess I have seem more than 10 units like that in the last 3 years

Richard
Swift Avionics



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Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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[Aus-soaring] Flarm odd error message help requested

[Justin Couch]

My club's gliders have a collection of OzFlarms in them - a separate box 
from the display with GPS, Aerial and serial connectors. The display is 
the original FlarmLED with the 4 status indicators on the left.  About 4 
months ago one Flarm started becoming inconsistent in its outputs. Some 
days it would work, others nothing at all. Then about a month ago, it 
started working consistently but now has the display blinking an error 
that I cannot find described in the manuals. Then a week ago, a second 
Flarm is now displaying the same output.. All the other identical 
systems work as normal


The display has the power LED constant green. The other three LEDs - 
GPS, Tx, Rx all flash synchronously together at about a 1Hz frequency.


Software is current on all of them, and they are transmitting fine. 
FlarmTrackers/OGN and other aircraft pick up their signal. Nothing is 
showing on the display other than the status LEDs.


Any suggestions on what might be wrong?

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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Junior Life extension to 12,000 hrs

[Justin Couch]

On 20/12/2016 7:50 PM, Jarek Mosiejewski wrote:

Hi,

I guess it does not make much of a difference, but I think you contacted
Allstar, the company in Bielsko Biala, that continues the SZD tradition.



Oops. My bad! Yes, getting all my PZLs mixed up as I'm also chasing the 
other PZL/SZD trying to get stuff for my PW5 and Jantar 2.


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[Aus-soaring] Junior Life extension to 12,000 hrs

[Justin Couch]

Noticed the following news item on the PZL Swindik page about the 
Junior. Quick summary is life is now allowed to 12,000 hours and greatly 
reduced maintenance schedule - no more 50hrlys etc, and instead of 
1000hr surveys, it is now 1500 hrs. This will probably cause a temp 
conflict with AD403, but I expect that to get sorted out pretty quickly.


http://szd.com.pl/en/infos/79

I've sent an email to PZL asking for the paperwork on behalf of my club 
last night. No response yet.


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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Astir CS hatch wanted

[Justin Couch]

On 6/12/2016 4:59 PM, Jarek Mosiejewski wrote:

It happened to me a few years ago.

The hatch was secured with a bungee, but believe me I wished it was
not. The noise of the hatch banging against the fuselage was
terrifying, It took nearly an hour before the bungee finally broke.
There was a lot of damage to the fuselage surface where the hatch was
hitting it (see attached).


In this case, we were lucky - it was on a test flight following an 
Annual Inspection. It departed apparently as the aircraft was 
accelerating on the VNE run section. Flight was terminated shortly 
thereafter.


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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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[Aus-soaring] Astir CS hatch wanted

[Justin Couch]

Unfortunately our club's Astir hatch disappeared mid-flight yesterday 
due to insufficient use of tape. Anyone have a spare that they'd like to 
part with?


--
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Eagle attacks

[Justin Couch]

On 13/10/2016 11:51 AM, Angus Stewart wrote:


Pilot very lucky to get out of that with only minor injuries and a broken
canopy.

Anyone else got some interesting eagle attack stories?


SCGC's Astir wore an eagle through the leading edge of a wing many years 
ago. Took out about a 1m section of it. Aircraft landed safely.


I've had a very narrow escape when flying at Bathurst a long time ago. 
Saw a flash of something that made me look up to see the outstretched 
legs coming straight at me. Buried the stick in the instrument panel as 
it zipped past the nose of the glider by not very much.


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Re: [Aus-soaring] [gfaforum] Airpath compass

[Justin Couch]

On 18/08/2016 12:17 PM, Simon Hackett wrote:

One of those rare times that I pipe up on something here these days.

Here’s evidence of such a double failure in recent times, due to neither of 
your scenarios, in a real aircraft with a lot of internal redundancy:

http://www.bushflyingdiaries.com/2013/10/double-gps-system-failure.html


And deliberate disabling like this:

https://www.faasafety.gov/files/notices/2016/Jun/CHLK_16-08_GPS_Flight_Advisory.pdf

(And as an aside notice the bit at the bottom about the Phenom 300 
flight stability being dependent on a functional GPS system)


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Re: [Aus-soaring] [gfaforum] 2 SEAT NATIONALS NARROMINE 2017

[Justin Couch]

On 17/08/2016 8:29 AM, David Holmes wrote:

February maybe?


LOL!

Ross, make it easy:  "at the same dates as the 20m stuff..." :)

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Re: [Aus-soaring] GFA AGM - simulators are go!

[Justin Couch]

A discussion group is now up on the GFA's google groups.

https://groups.google.com/a/glidingaustralia.org/forum/#!forum/sim

Open for viewing to the world as there's lots of interest in the topics. 
Posting will require membership, but I'm not picky so long as you're not 
a bot :)


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---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Nigel's omission

[Justin Couch]

On 24/07/2016 8:38 PM, Noel Roediger wrote:

The fact Harry learned of his award indirectly indicates the GFA trophy awards 
committee are not aware of this.




It is the obligation of the awards committee to verify any nomination and 
advise the proposed recipient.


I was at the awards night. Several people were there to accept awards on 
behalf of others - including the family of a deceased recipient. So 
there was definitely contact going well before the awards night. Now why 
Harry only learnt about his late, I have no idea.


As for the details of the specific award and who it was made to - as 
someone else has said - it is by nomination. So, someone in the gliding 
community felt it was worthwhile acknowledging Harry's work, but for 
whatever reason didn't include Nigel. If the nomination was just Harry 
and the awards committee decided on their own to just add in another 
co-recipient, the howls would be even louder! They're in a no-win 
situation either way.


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---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] GFA AGM

[Justin Couch]

A trimmed down video of my presentation at the afternoon seminar has 
been posted too:


https://youtu.be/YIIgTasBLpw

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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Gliding Simulators?

[Justin Couch]

Pretty good summary of the weekend's discussions everywhere.

On 21/07/2016 4:25 PM, DMcD wrote:

Could anyone from that club comment on how useful their simulator has been for 
training etc?


During the simulator seminar, two comments (at least were made…)

There had been no difference in time to solo with students who used the sim and…

A US instructor who used sim training remotely (i.e. he was often in a
different state to the student) had got students solo within 7
flights.

glidercfi.com

Justin Crouch showed a French initiative where they had a national
program to build and operate simulators which was very well thought
out. However, these appear to be only just coming on line and they may
not yet have results.

All that being said, the feeling that came out of the seminar fairly
strongly (at least to my ears) was that simulators were coming for a
host of different reasons and we had to learn to learn with them. The
questions appeared to be, who was doing the learning… instructors,
students or AFIs and what type of sim would it be, VR or screen or
both.

And finally, Keepit and some other clubs are in a different position
to less fortunate clubs from the south and north. Conditions allow
flying almost all year round so the need for a sim may not be so
great.

That being said, it was noted at the seminar that having a sim near
major population centres would allow it to be used in the evenings and
at times when people did not want the drive to a club, however close.

There were many persuasive arguments and considering that the cost of
buying the French model is not far off the cost of a Blanik or two,
it's difficult to say no, at least until some experience is had.

See Justin for the facts on the French version. Simulator training
appears to be to some extent mandatory in French courses…

4 weeks package "objectif solo"

The 4 Weeks Package objective is to fully train the student for
soloing his glider by the end of the 4 weeks.

The 4 Weeks Package includes : club membership, basic FFVV
license/insurance, glider handbook, flight logbook, up to 40 winch
launches, 20 hours of glider flight instruction, 5 hours of glider
ground simulator training, and 3 hours of dual control motor-glider
flight, to totaling up to 21 hours accompanied by an instructor.

D
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Gliding Simulators?

[Justin Couch]

On 21/07/2016 3:17 PM, Greg Wilson wrote:

Some time ago Lake Keepit club built a very impressive VR gliding simulator 
with a very large floor to ceiling semi-circular projector screen. Could anyone 
from that club comment on how useful their simulator has been for training etc?


Keepit's sim is up and running as of two weeks ago. They are just 
starting to play with it and have a couple of instructors that are 
looking at exploring its capabilities in the training - particularly 
with the upcoming instructor refresher courses.



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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] GFA AGM

[Justin Couch]

On 21/07/2016 1:18 PM, Tom Wilksch wrote:

Hi Everyone

I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the meeting new and old faces at
the AGM. I particularly enjoyed the simulator forum and hearing from all
the other people who have put time and effort into the building of one.


I enjoyed it immensely too. Just catching up with everything now after 
some decompression time. Been pretty intense in the couple of weeks 
beforehand with all the prep and emails flying back and forth. A request 
for a group has been made so we shouldn't be far away from having a 
conversation space to develop it further.


The outcome of the board meeting was that the GFA definitely wishes to 
pursue this formally at the national level. A collection of us now have 
the next round of items to work on, which our discussion group will be 
very helpful in resolving.


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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Jantar aileron pin local machinists?

[Justin Couch]

On 19/07/2016 4:34 PM, opsw...@bigpond.net.au wrote:


Jsutin,

what's your phone number. I have a solution for your machining.


I'll send privately.


And thanks everyone - I have about half a dozen options to call on now. 
As always, the gliding community is extremely helpful!



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Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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[Aus-soaring] Jantar aileron pin local machinists?

[Justin Couch]

Last year we had some pins made up for a Jantar 2 aileron drive from AOG 
Specialists up in Coffs Harbour. I would like to get some more made up, 
however emails are now bouncing and their phone number is disconnected.


Looking for some recommendations, preferably around the Sydney area, 
though not mandatory, for someone that could make some more up. I have 
all the paperwork in place, just need someone to do the work.


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Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/
Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] California Ridge run

[Justin Couch]

On 13/07/2016 1:17 PM, steph...@internode.on.net wrote:

Which does beg the question, why would a person fly a ridge while
hand holding a camera



It feels more like it is attached to a shoulder or parachute harness. 
Definitely not on a hat or similar as you don't see any sideways 
glancing. I would expect a lot more movement from a camera held in the 
hand on that sort of run, particularly a few of the higher-G turns he does.



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Re: [Aus-soaring] autopilots, cheating

[Justin Couch]

On 29/06/2016 8:01 PM, Richard Frawley wrote:

I thought Mike was building the cheating device to beat all other cheating 
devices


Michelin/Bridgestone/etc built tyres to beat tyres from all other 
manufacturers. Eventually one design got enforced and one of the 
manufacturers selected to be the sole supplier for that set of 
competition rules. Why not for flight computers?


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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
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Re: [Aus-soaring] autopilots, cheating

[Justin Couch]

On 29/06/2016 7:42 PM, Mike Borgelt wrote:

Peter,

It won't be long before all of gliding is regarded as just a branch of
vintage aviation, if it isn't already.
I wish it wasn't like that but wishing won't make it so.


I don't disagree with this point at all, but do want to point out that 
most activities still have a "sporting" component to it with some rules 
added to enforce competitiveness - even after the mass market has taken 
over and turned it into common place. Car/Motorcycle/Boat/etc racing 
hasn't died out because suddenly everyone can afford to have a car in 
the driveway. Similarly, Otto's hang gliding hasn't died out because we 
can fly to Europe in an A380 in a day.


Once upon a time Formula 1 was pretty much anything goes, now it has a 
rule book thicker than the local state traffic act - all in the name of 
competition. Even just a few years ago, the driver was barely more than 
someone that roughly pointed the car where to go and the computers took 
control of the details. That got boring and too expensive so now many 
items of automation have been removed and "standard" components supplied 
to all competing teams.


I'm sure the same thing will happen with gliding - greater and greater 
automation. At some point a halt is called and all competitors are given 
a "standard flight computer" that is fitted to their cockpit on the grid 
each morning and removed as soon as possible after landing. This will 
bring back driver skill into the equation again.



--
Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/
Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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[Aus-soaring] MOSP 3 v7.2 out

[Justin Couch]

Just saw this post over on the GFA group so passing along here. No idea 
what the changes are yet other than the clarification of the 250hr 
inspection.


http://www.doc.glidingaustralia.org/index.php?option=com_docman&view=list&slug=mosp-part-3-airworthiness&Itemid=101&layout=table

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---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Russian gliders

[Justin Couch]

On 15/05/2016 2:59 PM, Mike Borgelt wrote:

Sorry, here's the link: http://shop.flavionics.eu/


I love the "Add to Cart" button for each glider type. e-commerce at it's 
best!




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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Any towballs heading east from Perth?

[Justin Couch]

On 11/05/2016 7:51 AM, opsw...@bigpond.net.au wrote:

Justin, consider putting it on the train to Parkes then picking up. Very cost 
effective.


Yes, definitely on my radar. I have a couple of sites and referrals for 
that and backloading options. Unlikely to find anyone here at this time 
of year, but figured it wouldn't hurt to ask anyway :)


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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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[Aus-soaring] Any towballs heading east from Perth?

[Justin Couch]

Purchasing a glider in WA and would like to bring it east. I'm in 
Sydney, but happy to meet anywhere over to Adelaide/Melbourne etc. 
Trailer is an old Komet with a single seater in it, and in OK condition. 
Not ready to bring the trailer today, but anywhere (probably) 2-6 weeks 
from now would be ideal. Obviously, will cough up some cash for the fuel 
etc.


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Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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[Aus-soaring] 1000km in a 1-26

[Justin Couch]

For those not watching r.a.s, A 1000km flight has just been completed in 
a Schweizer 1-26 in the USA. Out and back on ridges.


http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0qx3v8UKt3rtQecIVYYZyf39kIpQSWBMk

This was his second attempt. First was about 2 weeks ago, but this time 
he nailed it.


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Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Disability Hoists

[Justin Couch]

On 9/05/2016 7:44 AM, Laurie Hoffman wrote:

Many thanks Justin.
Will contact Soarability. Regards
Laurie Hoffman


Just a followup - got corrected offlist that the sim that was up for 
sale was not SoarAbility's sim. Belonged to another person.



--
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Disability Hoists

[Justin Couch]

On 9/05/2016 7:27 AM, Laurie Hoffman wrote:

Hi All,
Does anyone know of any club using a disability hoist to assist with glider 
access. Regards
Laurie Hoffman


SoarAbility guys in WA were doing this for a long time. I don't know 
what has happened to them recently as I saw their sim up for sale on the 
GFA website about 6 months ago.


http://soarabilitysim.blogspot.com/

http://www.glidingaustralia.org/mag/GlidingAustralia-Issue-21.pdf



--
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Windward Performance

[Justin Couch]

On 4/05/2016 6:03 PM, Mike Borgelt wrote:

Anyone know of any buzz on r.a.s. ?


I read it daily - I don't recall any mention of it in the last couple of 
months.



--
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---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
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Re: [Aus-soaring] IS-28 life extensions starting to happen

[Justin Couch]

On 26/04/2016 9:45 PM, Mark Newton wrote:

There are plenty of Blanik carcasses stuffed in the back of hangars that'd rise 
to that challenge, surely? :)


That's true! The comments I've received is that the -28 is easier to get 
into than a Blanik when stuffed and mounted, so more suitable for this 
task. Lots of smaller kids and err senior gentlemen making use 
of them.


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---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
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Re: [Aus-soaring] IS-28 life extensions starting to happen

[Justin Couch]

On 26/04/2016 11:43 AM, Roger.D wrote:

Dear Justin

The matter has been picked by GFA late 2015 and early 2016.  The process
with IS28B2 life extension is available here and the exact details of
implementing the STC issued by EASA to the Romanian Aero Club are being
worked on.


Thanks! Somehow missed that. Know if anyone has actually finished the 
paperwork here?


The reason I'm asking is that I know of a couple of IS-28 fuselages that 
are about to be sacrificed to the simulator gods. It might not be such a 
good idea to cut up a now perfectly serviceable aircraft!


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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
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[Aus-soaring] IS-28 life extensions starting to happen

[Justin Couch]

Couple of reports popping up in places like r.a.s of the FAA accepting 
the paperwork and getting aircraft into the air. Anyone looked at it 
here yet? Non-survey paperwork costs seem to be reasonable - about $2000 
in translated currency (e1200)


One report indicates there's a mod to the bottom of the fin/fuse 
junction due to stress cracking. I don't recall any IS-28 ADs about that 
here. The online schedule for them doesn't list it either.


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---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Glider Registration

[Justin Couch]

On 25/04/2016 11:02 AM, Redmond Quinn wrote:

I dare say the CASA register will catch up at some point!


I remember reading recently somewhere that CASA is about 12 months 
behind the GFA register. Don't remember where. Maybe AG?



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---
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 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Fwd: Re: Fun with Form 2 Inspections and paperwork

[Justin Couch]

On 24/04/2016 1:06 AM, Ross McLean wrote:

I am pretty sure that it is not actually possible to do that.  You may not
be aware that there is a vent built into the wing to allow air to enter the
tank as the water is dumping. It is not a valve, it is an open vent.  If the
ballast tank is empty and there is a change of pressure in the tank then air
will enter or exit via that same vent should the dump valve be closed.


Yeah, sorry. Brain fade. I keep having to remember where the damn things 
are located each time I do a tank test to tape them up. Mostly I work on 
gliders with either no water at all or bags rather than integral tanks.


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 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Fwd: Re: Fun with Form 2 Inspections and paperwork

[Justin Couch]

On 23/04/2016 2:30 AM, Jim Staniforth wrote:

Can a pilot tape over the dump holes to reduce noise, or is that a
breach of contract?


I'm pretty sure some tape over the holes would be fine - plenty of 
gliders with underwing dump valves have a little mylar or rubber flap 
over them for fairing purposes - our club DG1000 does. I've seen tape 
plenty of times over the Jantar dump outlet too for the same reason.


I can't say for 100% coverage, but the flight manuals of gliders that 
I've read state that the tanks should be left open if flying without 
water. Obvious reason for this is to prevent the pressure change 
splitting the wing open at altitude. A bit of tape won't hold much 
pressure behind it so the manufacturers instructions are still being 
obeyed anyway.


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"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Fun with Form 2 Inspections and paperwork

[Justin Couch]

On 23/04/2016 7:51 AM, Mike Borgelt wrote:


You might also have trouble RIGGING some gliders if the water ballast
actuation system is locked in one position.


Fair enough complaint. I had a bit of a chat with Andrew today and 
expressed this sentiment. I believe the intent was to make sure that 
someone can conveniently ignore the placard, fill it up and fly. For 
private gliders not a problem at all, but club gliders definitely an 
issue. Quite a few DG300s, for example, running around in club fleets. 
My suggestion is to modify the wording to show the intent of preventing 
filling of the tanks - much more generic and can be solved in many 
different ways.



Instead we have to remove seat pans and involve Form 2 inspectors adding
to the possible hazards of the whole operation as it is always possible
to make errors during maintenance.


Insanity prevails.


Bit of an overreaction there. Exactly when is this check performed? 
During the annual inspection of course, so all of this has happened 
anyway. It's not like you'll be doing tank testing every other week as 
part of the DI and then having to add a bit of lockwire or nut and bolt 
to disable.


As Jim said, storm in a teacup.

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"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Victoria glider sim contact details?

[Justin Couch]

Never mind. After Mandy's latest email, a bunch of people contacted her 
directly, including the GCV guys. That's all been sent in my direction, 
so I'm off and running!


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 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
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Re: [Aus-soaring] T&S as a mandated instrument

[Justin Couch]

On 22/04/2016 9:16 PM, Mike Cleaver wrote:

Further clarification (or maybe not) :-)

There is a problem here, however! While Martin's answer is quite
correct, it is not the answer to Justin's original question. It is one
of the operational approvals I mentioned originally, but Justin's
question was about certification.

So while the CAO covers gliders in general, it does not cover the Polish
gliders that had the requirement for a T&S as part of their type
certificate (the document that must exist before a Certificate of
Airworthiness is issued). That is where the solution must be found - to
vary the type certificate so that a Jantar can be airworthy for flight
in Australia (not in cloud) without having blind flying instruments.


Thanks Mike, pretty much covers it. I've been a bit busy today with too 
many irons in the fire, so haven't had a chance to chime back in.


I am (and was) aware of the original CAR/CASR exemptions, and mentioned 
it when it was first brought up in our club's audit. I don't recall the 
exact response at the time by the RTO/A, but it was very similar to 
this. In summary, it was felt that the CAR exemption applied to 
operational aspect of flying, but not the original (and ongoing from an 
airworthiness perspective) certification.


The analogy used was that the CAR could amend/exempt the flight manual, 
but not the type certificate. Since CASA is mandated to accept the NAA 
TC/TCDS verbatim, and is not permitted to issue variations on them. Thus 
we end up in this apparently grey area legally.



Now, I'm definitely no expert on this area, but I've been chasing down 
as much of the paperwork as I can to either prove or disprove this point 
about whether this is a correct assumption or not - and would love as 
much help on it as people can give. Mike C is probably our best bet on 
this due to his long time on the CASA side of the fence and intimate 
knowledge of all that stuff.


Now, before everyone jumps up and down on the RTO/A and our 
Airworthiness department guys, please understand that I feel they 
handled the situation professionally. There was no panic/overreaction 
and immediate grounding of the gliders. The RTO/A himself was surprised 
by this as much as any of the rest of us. Also the discussions were held 
very tightly, only amongst those that know of the initial "eh?" moment - 
CADs, our club's AAO, myself, and it seems like one or two other poeple 
such as the Cobra owner from earlier in the thread. In fact, I wasn't in 
most of those discussions, until the very end when I got an email with 
the PU doc attached and a simple statement of "I think this should cover 
you". We were audited back in November last year, and this issue is only 
hitting the public now - some 6 months later. A far cry from the typical 
CASA response we've had in other situations.


If we really do have a paperwork problem (yet to be proven or disproven 
either way I personally feel), I'm disappointed that people don't see 
the humour in that we've solved it by the application of a bit of sticky 
tape and string - vintage, old school gliding at it's best!


Anyway, I'll shut up on this issue now and let smarter minds than me 
work out what the hell is going on


--
Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/
Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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[Aus-soaring] Victoria glider sim contact details?

[Justin Couch]

Looking for some details of the glider sim that is running around in 
Victoria. I know about the Keepit and Soaring Disability guys, 
specifically looking to chat with the Vic project. I believe it might be 
owned/run by GCV?


--
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
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[Aus-soaring] Fwd: Re: Fun with Form 2 Inspections and paperwork

[Justin Couch]

Ben, got an early answer for you.

 Forwarded Message 
Subject: Re: Re: [Aus-soaring] Fun with Form 2 Inspections and paperwork
Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2016 11:38:37 +1000
From: Andrew Simpson 
To: Justin Couch 

Hi Justin,

Both requirements a) and b) need to be performed in applying PU 3.41.1 
ie the decal needs to be installed and the dump valve loced in an open

position.

This PU will most likely only be envoked on the sailplane during the 
form 2 inspection if the water tanks fails the AD testing. Locking the 
valve open at this time shouldn't cause any issue. Happy for people to 
contact me if the sailplane is outside the form 2 window at present and 
locking the valve open to comply is a difficult process that should 
really be done at the next form 2. In this case I am happy to work with 
the indivdual on a case be case bases to help them get to the next Form 
2 where the valve can be locked open.


Regards
Andrew

On Fri, Apr 22, 2016 at 11:00 AM, Justin Couch  wrote:


Guys,

Request for clarification on the Water Ballast actions in the new PU
document.


Gliding Federation of Australia | C4/1-13 The Gateway | Broadmeadows |
Victoria 3047  p: +61 3 9359 1613 | f: +61 3 9359 9865 | w: www.g
<http://www.gfa.org.au/>lidingaustralia.org
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that is intended only for the individual or entity named in the email
address.  If you are not the intended recipient, please be aware that any
disclosure, copying, distribution or reliance upon the contents of this
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
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Re: [Aus-soaring] T&S as a mandated instrument

[Justin Couch]

On 21/04/2016 8:40 AM, emillis prelgauskas wrote:

There was a very good reason that gliding had ‘exemptions’ globally in the 
Regulations. To avoid this mismatch between commercial aviation and our sport 
specific needs.


It's probably worth some time to chat with you privately to get some 
details on where these can be found. Unfortunately I am now far more 
intimate with both Oz and international airworthiness regulations than I 
really would like to be. If these exemptions do exist written down that 
you are claiming, I cannot find them, nor can anyone else at the GFA - 
perhaps they went up in smoke with the rest of our paperwork a few years 
ago?


The regulatory framework that existed in the utopian past has changed, 
rather dramatically on us, so things that may have been in place before 
just don't work any more - if we can find the documentation of them at 
all. I see a lot of what is happening now as no different to then - 
someone finds yet another stupid rule, everyone mulls it over for a 
time, an exemption gets made according to the paperwork framework of the 
day, everyone shakes hands and moves on.


I'd like to understand how you find this particular issue (T&B on MEL) 
any different to the fire-extinguisher example you cite. Both seem to 
involve a silly rule that doesn't apply to us, someone working out a way 
to get an exemption within the rules of the day, and everyone just moves 
on (and then 30 years down the track someone recounts it as a funny 
story of "Kids these days! Back in my day").



Including that the best results are achieved when GFA told CASA to stick it - 
that we are the experts in our sport, which needs to operate in specific ways 
in order to be safe.
Remember the primacy - SAFETY.


And, they in turn can tell us the same and stop gliding in it's tracks 
completely, or make it so financially uncomfortable for us to have the 
same effect. Neither is a good outcome for us. So, work out when to bend 
with the wind, and when to stand firm against it. Everyone has a 
different interpretation of that point.


We, luckily, have some very good people on the GFA side that know the 
system inside and out as they deal with it professionally every day. So, 
when weird stuff like this happens, they already know what to do and 
slip in that extra one sentence into our paperwork so that the guys on 
the ground like you and I can continue to operate mostly unaffected.



How does making the paper mound higher and in multiple mounds (the compliant, 
the interpreted work around, the reality) contribute positively to this?
The argument that ‘society demands this’ is so hollow - as if the public 
bystander leaning on the aerodrome fence is able to tell the operator how to do 
things because of the unformed opinions - regulation by social media.


The utopia of the good old days no longer exists and we do have to put 
up with this stuff whether we like it or not. I bet 40 years ago the 
elders of the time were decrying "adding more mounds of paperwork" too, 
comparing it to pre-WWII gliding. The more things change, the more they 
stay the same.


Yes the world is getting more litigious (specially insurance 
companies!). On top of that, we now have a bunch of know-it-alls on 
social media condemning everything that can gut something almost 
instantaneously regardless of good intentions or not of the target. We 
can't live in a vacuum and pretend the world doesn't exist around us. If 
genetics have much to say, I have at least another 40 years of enjoying 
this sport - I'd like to still be able to have that option should I, and 
all the younger guys I'm trying to mentor,  be interested.


Anyway, I'll shoot you (emillis) a private email to see what we can dig 
up from historical paperwork and get into electronic form and weave into 
the current reality.


--
Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/
Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
LinkedIn http://au.linkedin.com/in/justincouch/
G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
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Re: [Aus-soaring] T&S as a mandated instrument

[Justin Couch]

On 20/04/2016 10:23 PM, Roger.D wrote:

Dear Justin
What a  nonsense that the CASA inspector(s) foisted on you.


That's an incorrect assumption that CASA were involved in this at any point.


If you read
the TCDS for the Standard Jantar 2 and the TCDS for the Standard Jantar
3 then it is clear at point 8 "Operational Capability" that these
sailplanes are rated for "VFR Day", and below that "Cloud flying" which
is why a T&S (as a minimal capability piece of equipment for blind
flying) has to be included in the standard equipment list.  Since we are
not permitted here to cloud fly and have such a placard in the cockpit,
a T&S is not relevant to being mandatory standard equipment.


We don't get to pick and choose how we interpret "relevant" rules when 
we don't like one that is not in our favour. I looked through at least 
another dozen gliders of varying age. All state cloud flying permitted, 
none, other than PZL require a T&B.  Similarly, where specialised 
equipment for a task is needed (think G-meters and Aerobatics), they are 
listed separately in the TCDS - see the K21 as an example. PZL dropped 
that from the list in their most recent models of the 55 and Perkoz.


I agree that the requirement for T&B for the MEL is silly, that's why I 
felt like it was worth sharing the story. Here's an example of some of 
the crazy paperwork that does exist out there, and we managed to find a 
decent workaround for it. It's also a cautionary tale about making sure 
that inspectors _actually_ read their paperwork that they claim to be 
signing off, rather than just waving their hands and saying "yeah I know 
what's written, I've done this a hundred times" that can be applied in 
many different situations.


--
Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/
Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
LinkedIn http://au.linkedin.com/in/justincouch/
G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Fun with Form 2 Inspections and paperwork

[Justin Couch]

On 20/04/2016 9:31 PM, Ben Coleman wrote:

Justin, it's not clear to me whether the actions are "or" or "and".  For
example if my water ballast gear is unserviceable, do I need to label the
lever and have it locked by a Form 2 inspector, or just choose one action?


The way I read that, it is "and".  If the water ballast is unservicable, 
it needs a placard and must be locked off. The first action can be done 
by anyone, the second action must be by an annual inspector as the act 
of locking it off may involve having to pull seatpans, use 
screws/bolts/lockwire and is typically in close proximity to other 
control circuits.


I'll be chatting with one of the DCADs on the weekend, so will confirm 
that. The gliders where I've come across this situation (eg DG300s etc) 
have had both actions already done to it. Pretty sure this is just 
dotting the I's and crossing T's for the CASA paperwork side as this 
sort of thing has been around for many years.


--
Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/
Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
LinkedIn http://au.linkedin.com/in/justincouch/
G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
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[Aus-soaring] Fun with Form 2 Inspections and paperwork

[Justin Couch]

Hands up how many of you fly PZL aircraft?

Put your hand down if you have a T&B fitted.

Hmmm... no change in raised hands.

OK, how many of you know that your aircraft has been technically 
illegally flying in Australia the whole time?


Ahh. no hands up.

Yeah, so... my club got audited last Christmas, and they were thorough! 
Grabbed the TCDS for our Jantar and low and behold, the T&B is listed as 
part of the minimum equipment list - thus a mandatory instrument for 
that type. We went back through the history of our glider (IZU) and all 
the sister ships that came in that batch for the Benalla worlds - none 
ever arrived in the country with one. Then we looked at other PZL 
gliders that we could find (Juniors, Puchacz etc). All have the T&B 
listed, except for the 55. Uh oh


That put the GFA in a tight spot as technically we cannot alter the 
minimum equipment lists required for type certification when we accept 
them from another country. And we have plenty of 30 year old Jantars 
that have been through a Form 2 every single year and never been pulled 
up on that (not to mention newer and older PZL aircraft all in the same 
boat).  Thankfully we have a couple of guys up there that not only know 
the rules, but found some creative phrasing to put us all back in the 
good books with CASA for a clearly ridiculous situation. A yaw string is 
now an acceptable substitute for a T&B in your glider as part of the MEL :)


Read another way - if your yaw string comes off in mid flight, you're 
now flying an "experimental" aircraft. Wee!


So, a new PU list has come out today that gets us out of the legal 
problem of not meeting the minimum equipment list.


http://doc.glidingaustralia.org/index.php?option=com_docman&view=list&slug=schedule-of-permissible-unserviceabilities&Itemid=101&layout=treetable

Also clarifies that you are allowed to disconnect the CG release and not 
have to perform AD177 on it if you only ever aerotow. There's a few 
other minor tweaks in there.


As the last person to sign off the Form 2 for this aircraft before the 
audit, this whole episode was rather interesting to me for many 
different reasons, particularly watching the internals of the GFA 
airworthiness system have a collective Oh Shit moment as we dug into it. 
Learnt a lot - and thankfully still have my inspector rating!


Anyway, enjoy flying your now legal PZL aircraft! :P

--
Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/
Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
LinkedIn http://au.linkedin.com/in/justincouch/
G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
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Re: [Aus-soaring] flap settings/Dynamis

[Justin Couch]

On 20/04/2016 5:17 PM, james dutschke wrote:

Mike

Pik20b has -8 to +90 in 2 degree increments. So I guess that makes it 49.


Always one in the crowd :)

ASW20 has 5 all up. I've only worked on a B, so not sure of the other 
variants.


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Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
LinkedIn http://au.linkedin.com/in/justincouch/
G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
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Re: [Aus-soaring] BSE Update now published

[Justin Couch]

On 16/04/2016 8:19 AM, Mike Borgelt wrote:


At present GFA is setting up a system that burdens private citizens with
unnecessary work and responsibility and nobody seems to be looking ahead
to see if all this will be sustainable in 10 years. It is a potential
time bomb for the sport..


On this, you and I are on the opposite ends of the spectrum. The whole 
reason I'm getting involved in this is to get the government out of the 
sport as much as possible. The more we can show that we have our ducks 
in a row to show we are responsible people (including paying heed to the 
fact that laws do exist and we must sometimes at least have look like we 
are obeying them), the less likely we'll have a repeat of a few years 
ago where we had our entire airworthiness and training system yanked 
from under us. The subsequent result is having to pay tens of thousands 
of dollars a year just to maintain our existing fleet - which will drive 
almost every club into financial ruin and kill the sport completely in 
this country.


Our old approach was extremely poor, and others called us on it. Really 
- we keep all our airworthiness records in some guy's personal garage 
that then burnt down?! That's beyond amateurish and CASA should take us 
to task on that because internally nobody bothered. Yearning for "the 
good ole days" won't make our lives better or give us more freedom.


Besides, once again, you think "court of law" means The Government 
coming after us. Very narrow minded there. There's many other ways we 
can end up in that situation that doesn't involve the government - even 
if we gave away all our delegations and made CASA look after us completely.


On the aging community, I do agree there. We have a problem. My club, at 
least, is doing a lot to address that. Currently I believe about 20% of 
our membership is under 25. Maybe half of those guys are coming along 
with me on the airworthiness trek, and I have another half a dozen 
"older" members (most under 45 too) as well that will be looking to 
complete their Form 2 training within the next year or so. SXGC has 
historically been a feeder club to the rest of NSW - most of our members 
eventually leave and join more cross country-oriented clubs. Considering 
ours is a club where historically the entire fleet has been maintained 
by a commercial shop and I've got it to this stage in 3 years, I think 
we're doing darn well at addressing that concern about the aging 
community and airworthiness.


We have a choice: we can either sit back in our rocking chairs on the 
porch and complain about it, or get off our arses and make sure the 
rules get bent in a way that works for our benefit rather than having 
rules imposed on us that we don't like. I'm in the second camp.


--
Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/
Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
LinkedIn http://au.linkedin.com/in/justincouch/
G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
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[Aus-soaring] BSE Update now published

[Justin Couch]

I see a post from Pete Cesco over on the official GFA Google Group that 
the BSE revamp has finally been published to the GFA website. Passing on 
the news here.


http://www.doc.glidingaustralia.org/index.php?option=com_docman&view=list&slug=basic-sailplane-engineering&Itemid=101

This is a huge revamp of the old BSE and I have been heavily involved in 
the work (6 of the 20-odd chapters). The old paper BSE was scanned and 
then all the chapters revisited. In many cases we rewrote from scratch 
and did a lot of research work to update and amend items that were 
previously written. Some were thrown out completely and new ones added in.


With it in electronic form, updates should be much, much easier too. 
Each chapter is an individual document, so we don't need to issue a 
whole new one each time we find a problem or GFA/CASA/FAA etc change the 
rules on us. From Pete's notice, it looks like November each year will 
be the update cycle.


There's an official feedback form so that we can collate and prioritise 
changes. I'm happy to take public or private critiques as well, 
particularly related to the chapters that I worked on. As always, there 
will be some controversial changes and expect to cop some heat, but we 
have a very fine line to tread between practicality and lawyers. 
Sometimes the lawyers won as this is now considered an official 
airworthiness engineering manual that needs to stand up in a court of law.


Finally, many thanks to the various people that I have chatted with 
privately to get feedback, ask questions of etc. It was very helpful to 
get from-the-field experience and input into the writing.


Next steps will be building up the sets of training materials for Form 2 
coursework, based on this manual. Pete wrote about this in the last GA 
magazine.


--
Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/
Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
LinkedIn http://au.linkedin.com/in/justincouch/
G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
---
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Re: [Aus-soaring] SkySight.io - next generation soaring weather forecast

[Justin Couch]

On 11/04/2016 12:46 PM, DMcD wrote:

Absolutely atrocious company to deal with


Are they any worse than Ebay? Or Google? or Telstra.


Yes. (well Paypal used to be owned by eBay)

Two friends had their entire set of bank accounts and credit cards 
frozen by paypal and given no reason why. I also had my own sacrificial 
credit card locked by them as well. They were not able to get anyone to 
answer, nor get them unlocked for quite a few months causing severe 
financial distress (house loan defaults etc etc). They were eventually 
unlocked without any hint of wording or why, nor any apology or 
restitution for the financial problems caused.


If you don't mind having your entire financial life screwed over, by all 
means make use of them. They are completely unregulated because "we are 
not a bank". At least ebay/google/telstra etc are not capable of causing 
that much damage to your life. My and my friend's experience is very far 
from isolated case.



--
Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/
Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
LinkedIn http://au.linkedin.com/in/justincouch/
G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
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Re: [Aus-soaring] SkySight.io - next generation soaring weather forecast

[Justin Couch]

On 10/04/2016 6:18 PM, Peter Champness wrote:

Can you do Paypal?


Stay away from paypal unless you love having all of your bank accounts 
and credit cards arbitrarily frozen, with no recourse to get them 
unfrozen. Absolutely atrocious company to deal with.


--
Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/
Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
LinkedIn http://au.linkedin.com/in/justincouch/
G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
---
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Help, please

[Justin Couch]

On 6/04/2016 7:40 AM, Future Aviation Pty. Ltd. wrote:

If anyone can send me copyright-free shots I would gladly include them and, of 
course,
properly credit the photographer.


Working on it! There's a small wedgetail that I've thermalled with 
several times over the last month out around Camden. Difficult to get a 
good shot with the camera phone while also trying to thermal yourself! I 
have lots of great photos of blue sky, fingers, cockpit sides etc etc. 
Sadly, none of the eagle. I should go up with someone in a 2 seater and 
play photographer.


--
Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/
Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
LinkedIn http://au.linkedin.com/in/justincouch/
G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
---
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Update from Flarm on Unsolicited Email Circulation

[Justin Couch]

On 7/03/2016 9:09 PM, Mark Newton wrote:


We haven’t been talking about mandating of open specifications, except to the 
extent necessary to comply with existing consumer law.


Theme and variations: can an entity have a specification with restricted 
licensing practices, possibly include cryptography to protect it.  Very 
clearly, yes.



Anticompetitive conduct is illegal in Australia. I think FLARM has as case to 
answer:


And what device did you write this email on? There's at least half a 
dozen identical cases there. USB, HDMI, Thunderbolt, Firewire, Intel 
Chip Socket layout etc - all semi open or closed data communications 
specifications that require licensing fees to implement, sometimes 
protected by cryptography. Did you use an Android device or iPhone/iPad 
today? Did you print something today? All use exactly the same mecahnism 
of cryptographically protected intellectual property (Signed graphics 
drivers, USB cable mods, Ink Cartridges in the previous three examples). 
All perfectly OK here in Oz. FLARM are completely within their rights to 
do what they've done.


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Re: [Aus-soaring] Update from Flarm on Unsolicited Email Circulation

[Justin Couch]

On 7/03/2016 2:49 PM, Mark Newton wrote:


Then you’d know that RAND licensing is an area of active controversy, which 
some standards bodies have taken an active role in, particularly in the data 
communications space.


RAND: Reasonable And Non Discriminatory. Commonly misconstrued by those 
outside the standards world to mean Royalty Free. Not the same, by a 
longshot. Just means trying to keep out predatory companies from making 
and open standard that then prices all competitors (Reasonable) or 
selectively (Non-Discriminatory) out of the market.


And RAND was a subject for a while, but not much any more. In fact, most 
standards bodies that seem to have any weight haven't bothered - IEEE, 
ECMA (best standards money can buy!) and ISO. The only two really going 
hard on Royalty Free that I am aware of are IETF and Khronos. Our own 
government made a heck of a lot of money off another widely used data 
communications open standard with a bunch of patents - 802.11 - commonly 
known as Wifi.



… and yet here I am, sitting in front of a workstation loaded with free 
software, including a rich set of AV tools which support decode and encode in 
mp2, mp3 and mp4, for which no royalties have been paid to anyone.


Pure commercial reality, some legal victories by Google, and some 
reading of the MPEG-LA licensing agreement would answer that question 
for you.


BTW, MPEG2 (MP3 is just part of MPEG2 standard group) have all the 
patents expired now in the USA (last MP3 codec patent expired about 18 
months ago), so completely royalty free to implement. There's still a 
handful non-expired but in oddball places like China etc.


So, dragging this back towards the topic again: Can the government 
mandate open specifications that require royalty payments to implement - 
yes, despite moralistic wailing otherwise (again, see Digital TV). It is 
very common. If they wanted to mandate FLARM protocol, then all FLARM 
has to do is drop into the local ECMA office with a spec, get it rubber 
stamped and hand it to the government. Simple process that takes no more 
than about a month and a few grand to do. They could even boot it up to 
ISO status due to ECMA's preferred vendor status with ISO (See Microsoft 
Office format) Just add about 2 years to the process if you can buy off 
enough member countries fast enough.



--
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Update from Flarm on Unsolicited Email Circulation

[Justin Couch]

On 7/03/2016 6:20 PM, Optusnet wrote:

Matt what would be your guess to setup and design a standalone reconfigurable 
FLARM type of system., I was thinking about future ADSB,ACARS,AUTO MET, 
Outlanding advice , soaring spot tracker type of stuff?

If we had one box that broadcast FLARM type stuff that could utilise cheap 
Comms it might be worth investing in.


Hardware and software? Do we need aviation spec compliance? Software is 
relatively easy, even some of the hardware these days. My workmate doing 
the UAV glider as put together the something with all this output except 
FLARM for about A$400. Granted he's an electrician and knows his way 
around system config, so ahead of the game compared to your average 
glider pilot, but in bulk, pretty simple with already commonly available 
parts and software.


For the FLARM component, a reasonable dev with basic physics knowledge 
should be able to code up a robust solution in about 6 weeks.


The rest is all just packaging, bulk production and managing the 
QA/release and upgrade lifecycle.



--
Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/
Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Update from Flarm on Unsolicited Email Circulation

[Justin Couch]

On 7/03/2016 1:42 PM, Mark Newton wrote:

Protecting the text of a standard under copyright and making it purchasable, is 
not the same thing as making the standard unimplementable without paying 
license fees, and you know it.

Reputable standards bodies insist on open royalty free patent licensing these 
days. The ones that don’t are slowly marginalizing themselves.


Incorrect. I've been involved in the ISO standards writing process for 
just over 20 years now - including part of the MPEG 4 and 7 standards, 
so I know it inside out. Reputable standards bodies like ISO have 
individual IP policy for every specification or group. It is not blanket 
across the organisation. In the case of MPEG, there is a large patent 
body pool called MPEG-LA. You cannot implement an open standard without 
paying license fees for the patents behind. MPEG is very far from being 
an isolated incident at ISO. There are other completely open standards 
such as SEDRIS or X3D that require contributors to license any 
contributed patents for zero cost to all implementors. There's, of 
course, others in between.




I can write an MPEG implementation which interoperates with everyone else’s 
MPEG streams and distribute it in competition with other MPEG implementations, 
by following the text of the standard.


No you can't. You can try, but they will come after you, particularly if 
you write an encoder. That's why alternates like Ogg guys started out - 
to completely avoid the patents.



--
Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/
Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
---
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Update from Flarm on Unsolicited Email Circulation

[Justin Couch]

On 7/03/2016 12:09 PM, Mark Newton wrote:


It is not possible for a consumer to vote with their wallet, because no matter 
where they send their money, FLARM skims the cream.

It isn’t a competitive market, it’s a restraint of trade.


Not a good argument to make. This exact same scenario plays out all over 
the world - even with ISO standards. If you want have a look at a good 
example, see the various MPEG standards and licensing those (and thus 
free to air digital TV). Even government-mandated broadcast specs 
require something that must be licensed from 3rd parties.



--
Justin Couch http://www.vlc.com.au/
Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
LinkedIn http://au.linkedin.com/in/justincouch/
G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Pete Cesco on TV

[Justin Couch]

On 29/02/2016 1:53 PM, Mark Newton wrote:

On Feb 29, 2016, at 1:50 PM, Anthony Smith  
wrote:


Which show was it on?


https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/30949880/adelaide-doctor-recovering-in-hospital-after-glider-crash/#page1
 



Any idea if there is a copy on youtube? Flash banned here so can't view 
it. Very quick googling didn't find it.


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Re: [Aus-soaring] MID-AIR BREAK-UP (John Roake)

[Justin Couch]

On 8/02/2016 8:42 AM, Future Aviation Pty. Ltd. wrote:

Good morning John

One would think that an editor worthy of that description would know the 
difference between the EB 28
and an ASH 25 and correct such basic mistakes even if they have appeared in a 
report. The integration
in the name of the EB28 is just an acknowledgement of the “father status' of 
the ASH 25 plus a bit of
clever marketing.


Bernard, you are incorrect. The original type certificate for the EB28 
quite clearly states ASH25 EB, as can be seen here:


https://easa.europa.eu/system/files/dfu/EASA-TCDS-A.076_Binder_ASH_25_EB-02-10082006.pdf

and the original noise certification:

https://easa.europa.eu/system/files/dfu/noise-EASA-TCDS-A.076_Binder_ASH_25_EB-01-08012007.pdf

Both refer to model names of "ASH 25 EB" and "ASH 25 EB 28"

Issue 3 of the TCDS drops the ASH 25 portion - in 2012:

https://easa.europa.eu/system/files/dfu/noise-EASA-TCDS-A.512_EB28-03-20072012.pdf


So it really depends on when this particular aircraft was manufactured. 
There's at least 5 years where ASH25 EB28 is the officially correct name 
of the aircraft.


--
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Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
LinkedIn http://au.linkedin.com/in/justincouch/
G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
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[Aus-soaring] Blanik EASA AD updated

[Justin Couch]

Just issued yesterday - basically seems to now allow the Leweylln mod to 
be performed to bring an aircraft back in to service again if I 
understand the wording correctly.


http://ad.easa.europa.eu/ad/2011-0135R1

--
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Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
LinkedIn http://au.linkedin.com/in/justincouch/
G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
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Re: [Aus-soaring] For the technophiliacs.

[Justin Couch]

On 18/12/2015 6:22 PM, Mike Borgelt wrote:

Also a group at Sydney University I briefly communicated with 3 or 4
years ago.so we put these algorithms in to a
microcomputer, hook it to an autopilot and enjoy the ride?

This is all doable right now. It will be interesting to see if/when the
AI   beats a human pilot.


One of my workmates is very active in this area. He's working on 
breaking the distance to goal record, which is currently about 300km. 
Pretty sophisticated stuff - 4m wingspan glider is the base, mostly 
arduino for compute power etc. I've been helping him a lot with various 
aspects of the soaring side - even loaned him copies of the original 
Riechmann book and Bernard's latest edition. Been talking a lot about 
soaring theory and what glider pilots look at in the sky and the ground. 
His biggest issue is compute power on the image processing. Lots of 
experimentation with thermal processing etc to see if he can detect 
temperature gradients in the sky to "see" thermals etc. Quite a 
fascinating project all up, and something that will eventually feed into 
instrumentation that human pilots can make use of.


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Re: [Aus-soaring] Artists required

[Justin Couch]

On 8/12/2015 10:42 AM, Grietje Wansink wrote:
>stuff

I wouldn't want to sit in a black glider. A black car on a summer's day 
is bad enough!



--
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Java 3D Graphics Informationhttp://www.j3d.org/
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G+   WetMorgoth
---
"Look through the lens, and the light breaks down into many lights.
 Turn it or move it, and a new set of arrangements appears... is it
 a single light or many lights, lights that one must know how to
 distinguish, recognise and appreciate? Is it one light with many
 frames or one frame for many lights?"  -Subcomandante Marcos
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Re: [Aus-soaring] Wing frequency Procedure

[Justin Couch]

On 2/12/2015 12:46 PM, Justin Couch wrote:


I don't have exact details other than some extensive conversations with
the guys that found it (it was on a Form 2 inspector's course, of all
things...). It seems fairly significant amount of delamination, but in a
series of patches, rather than one big area. I believe the glider is
down with Scott Lennon currently and he or Tom could give more details.


Got a call from Tom about this just now (yay internet!). Glider is fixed 
up and problems not as bad as originally thought. Series of smaller 
delaminations of the outer skin from the foam where that goes over the 
spar (The 300's design is different to most in that it has foam sandwich 
the entire wing chord).


The biggest suspect area was due to the construction, and not a defect. 
Hard to pass on a second-hand description from over the phone. I 
understand what Tom was talking about but having troubles putting that 
description into text. Thus, wing frequency check would not have picked 
up anything, as it wasn't something that would have changed the check - 
so scratch that anecdote of the test not working!


Apparently on it's way back to Bathurst in the next day or two to have 
the annual finished up. Yay!


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Re: [Aus-soaring] Wing frequency Procedure

[Justin Couch]

On 2/12/2015 10:25 AM, Mike Borgelt wrote:

How much of the DG skin over the spar cap was delaminated? Sounds like
it doesn't do anything to the stiffness of the wing anyway.


I don't have exact details other than some extensive conversations with 
the guys that found it (it was on a Form 2 inspector's course, of all 
things...). It seems fairly significant amount of delamination, but in a 
series of patches, rather than one big area. I believe the glider is 
down with Scott Lennon currently and he or Tom could give more details.



If there is a 30% change between annuals and you can't find any damage
I'd suspect the test wasn't done properly at the previous annual.
Interesting to know how you propose to return the aircraft to service.


Again, story from another inspector at Camden that found the problem in 
his own glider that talked about it over beers at the end of the day. 
I'll let him chime in with the details if he wishes. I know more of the 
story but prefer not to pass on any more as I may not have all the 
information correct.



Alan, heavens you'll be wanting all rules and regulations to have a
sound, quantifiable, rational basis next.:-)


Sounds reasonable :)

My goal in posting hand-wavy examples is to present some amount of 
anecdotal evidence as to what may be useful. Hoping a few other 
inspectors can chime in with their own experience or what they have 
heard through the grapevine.


I'm intrigued by the original email that the procedure itself has 
disappeared from our formal documentation. Seems it was in MOSP 5, but 
disappeared in MOSP 6 (just checked now). Naturally nothing in BSE 
unless it has been added into a new chapter somewhere that I haven't 
seen. Seems like the natural place to keep something like this. I'll see 
what I can find out about it.


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Re: [Aus-soaring] Wing frequency Procedure

[Justin Couch]

On 1/12/2015 8:16 PM, Alan wrote:


My question would be has the wing frequency test ever proved anything?


I'm aware of two cases where it has picked up significant structural 
problems in a wing that were then found with more detailed inspection. I 
know of another where the change was quite drastic (30% change between 
annuals), but has been unable to identify the cause to date and the 
aircraft is still grounded. There is also one case where it didn't 
(Bathurst's DG300 that delaminated the spar caps from the wing didn't 
pick up a freq change, but the tap test did).



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Re: [Aus-soaring] Wing frequency Procedure

[Justin Couch]

On 1/12/2015 2:51 PM, Dave Boulter wrote:

Hi Guys,

Where would I find a document on wing frequency test procedure. I have
looked in the Air Worthiness section of GFA but obviously no joy. I
understand how to do it but need a document on how the GFA would like it
performed.


I'm not aware of it being documented anywhere. I certainly haven't come 
across it in my recent work on BSE or trawling the MOSP. Always just 
been part of the Form 2 training course.



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