Microlighters

Guys, here's my little question. You all talk about this prop, that gear box, this ratio, that spd, this RPM, climb rate, fuel consuption, take off distance, trimming the wing like so, etc etc. Am I the only one who actually does not care, or know the facts? I get to the plane, pre-flight it, have a smoke, warm her up, have coffee and a smoke, and I fly. If I need fuel, I put it in. As long as the prop is spinning, I acually don't care how many times it turns. My max RPM, is foot flat, my best R.O.C, is also foot flat, and my cruise spd, is bar neutral, and enough power not to decend.

Should I be following all the tech numbers and finer details, or are there others that "just fly"

I'm sure the folks with a lot more hours and experience than me will have an opinion. The drift I'm getting by listening to 'old salts' and reading books and articles is that it is paramount to know all this stuff. Knowing yor aircraft and its capabilities intimately makes you a better pilot. Makes you understand what it can do, which can literally be life-saving under marginal conditions.

Another reason is that if you know the normal specs, you'll notice early when something starts going wrong. For instance if full throttle means 6200rpm, but you're getting less, you might get a hard time climbing over fence at the end of the runway. If you know the margins you can abort safely or take other evasive action.

I recommend reading Robert Mason's Chickenhawk. Has some amazing stories about what this guys did with the Hueys in Vietnam. The best pilots weren't cowboys, though, they were guys who understood their aircraft and milked out the last bit of rpm/power/etc. to cope with the situation. Also, John Daikin (who worked for Air America btw.) has interesting articles in his Pelikan's Perch series. (The guy's got 35000 hours on various aircrafts and when it comes to understand the fuel capacity and management of his Bonanza, he does this: http://web.archive.org/web/200502080012 ... 044-1.html)

So, yeah, I'm definitely trying to learn and understand as much as possible about all the bits and pieces that make up the trikes I'm flying.

KB
Im not a technical guy. I try to, but will never understand all these stuff!
I fly like you. Do the preflights, put in fuel etc. The smoke and coffee as well. I ask lots of questions, gets lots of anwers. Try to get as much info as i can, but trims, rpm's, ohms on the radio's, outputs.......naah, not for me.
Now if that makes me a bad pilot, so be it. But thats debatable. I still want to see that everybody that drives cars are mechanics.

KB I feel the same, I arrive i FLY I have a bit of fun, have a breakfast then go to Kittyhawk and get frot. ( OK it was just a lekka day)
That was Saturday.
Just to get out of the office and not to technical all I want to do is have some fun and enjoy what I do.
Yes all is done according to the book but it's to forget the other shit in life.

kb believe me when I say that as far as all the va-va-voom-thingamajigs are concerned, there is no-one more dof than the Scribe, and yet even I will soon be doing a basic maintenance course to get to grips with what makes a 912S purr like a pussycat or growl like a tiger or know when it's coming down with something... and preferably not literally, with this self-loaded 47kg on board :D

I think you get three types of Microlight Pilots

1. The just fly it guys
2. Those that fly but also love the technical aspect
3. The just build it and work on it guys, with very little flying

In general aviation your aircraft is maintained by an AMO and there is very little requirement for the pilot to know except of course the performance aspects and preflight aspects of the plane.

Microlights are generally maintained by the owner and thus it is imperitive that you know the machine well.

The builder/flyer has to know the aircraft intimately, matching components based on specifications etc.

I suppose it comes down to what drives you. Me I am incredibly interested in not only flying but all aspects of the technology as well. I find it facinating to discuss gear-box ratios, propellers, electronics, etc etc etc. For me it builds this pastime from just a sport to an all consuming hobby.

.. sooo Morph ol bud.. from this i understand your gravitatiing to the 'bottom of the pile' then :....

me... im still trying to figure out why it is the big fan on the back doesnt suck everything through it including the pilot and goodies up front and turn us in thinly sliced Salami

Hoaw!! what apend here baas...tini chiza!!!

Surround yourself with genius I say.

I'd sooner go to the dentist than " Just quickly strip the radio, pypass that thingie, braze there, cut here"

I'm amazed at some people's confidence to just rip the carbs open like a castle, gut the inside, blow some Chesterfield over it, shine the thingie with the T shirt, press all together and say "fixed, try now"

Also Dof like you okes. With the likes of Duckie, Morph, Demon and a few others on the forum I get all my questions answered. Agree though that you must know the basic stuff very well.

Morph wrote:I think you get three types of Microlight Pilots

1. The just fly it guys
2. Those that fly but also love the technical aspect
3. The just build it and work on it guys, with very little flying

Hi Morphman da Boss,

Like Junkman says, you have migrated to the bottom of the pile – Number 3!!

Afskies wrote:with this self-loaded 47kg on board

Scribbletjies, where are you hiding the other 11kg??

kb wrote:Am I dof, or are there others like me?!?

Must we really answer the question??

Kb – look forward to buying you a beer over the holiday season

Regards
John ZU-CIB

Ok, I could only expect that type of reply from John, in fact. I KNEW he would reply like that.
OK, so I have the pic. I am one of the "just fly the damn thing" guy's. That's fine. I may not have ALL the tech know-how, but trust me, I do know when someting is not lekker. Also, to touch wood, I have not had any situations when things were not quite the way it should be - talking about flying that it......

thanks for input

John Young wrote:

Afskies wrote:with this self-loaded 47kg on board

Scribbletjies, where are you hiding the other 11kg??

Don't rightly know, but I see you've edited this little number down from 25kg to 11kg... Well by golly wow, JY, guess you'll just have to get a labrador & a white stick & feel your way around, hehe

kb wrote:Ok, I could only expect that type of reply from John, in fact. I KNEW he would reply like that.

Hehehe

Be sure to pop-in with your whirly on the way to or from Oribi.

Regards
John ZU-CIB

John Young wrote: Like Junkman says, you have migrated to the bottom of the pile – Number 3!!

I know I'm fetching ZU-HIC on the 9th December and then it's time to build. I have taken the whole of December off, let's see how far I can get in a month