Building the new Bushbaby SAFARI

[Johannvanniekerk]

Los die briek Oupa, laat sy gaan!

Mooi man!

cheers
Jo

[Oupa-G]

Beste Jo

They say the job is only done when the paperwork is done. The Safari is finished the engine is purring I'm getting enough static thrust to lift the tail so fly she will. Instead of working on the plane I'm trimming the paperwork. Stefan at Kitplanes is very helpfull, like building the plane it does not seem to end and then suddenly I was finished the same for the paper work , some of it has got to go to Monty because it all happened when he still owned Kitplanes. When I have the magic Proving flight Authority I will start the flying. Up to that point I will have to only do testing. I must say the controls feel balanced and very responsive. The brakes are excellent, The engine is purring temp are OK. So I'm looking forward to take her round the patch. Up to that point she will have to be runway bound.

Cheers Oupa-G

[KFA]

Well done to Oom Frans and teams involved in this project. The old saying goes, if it looks right it will fly right On this note I just have to clear up some grey areas regarding the Safari type acceptance. We are getting a lot of calls from people asking us why the type acceptance is taking so long. The reasons are simple. If we hand in a data pack at CAA we would like it to be as complete as possible. With Oom Frans and team developing the engine and gear, we had to wait for all their data to be included in the data pack. The data pack from Kitplanes side is complete and we are waiting for all the paperwork from the fairest to complete the application. After we hand CAA the data pack, their engineers will then inform us as to what extra engineering data we have to supply to complete the type acceptance. I hope this clears up some of the confusion surrounding this.

[Oupa-G]

Thanks KFA

The serial # on the Safari is 08-08-142 SAF the 08-08 is Aug 2008 , we are now 08-09 so the project from our side is not even one year. It is with the help of the Loeries Fontein team and working every spare minute that we have managed to do it in actually 11 months most homebuilt projects drag on for years. The final evaluation of the gear could only be done with the wings on and fuel in the tanks. In the end the gear must be strong enough to support the weight , but the geometry must still be such that it is a suspension. On the taxi and hopping trials the gear is very nice and we are sticking to 12mm thickness. What was interesting the theoretical enginering model designed by Jacobus Gertenbach and the final practical testing worked out very well. So paperwork here we come.


Cheers Oupa-G

[KFA]

Hi Oupa-G,
I am not saying you guys were slow , I am just trying to explain as to why we had to wait for the total completion of the project. Some guys think it's just as simple as doing a wing loadtesting. The point I am getting at is that it involves a hell of a lot more than just that. This was a great team effort and it just goes to show that different disciplinces(spelling) of NTCA can work together to make a project work, live and let live

[Dusty Eagle]

Hi oupa-G.

Looks really stunning, been watching and drooling. The amount of photo's and detail you have gone into is inspiring.
The paint scheme is really eye catching.

11 months and a bit, is really great progress, good luck with your pending test flight.
May I ask who will be doing this, yourself??, and when, are you going to video it.

I see from your pics that the tail easily went up over horizontal, I tried that yesterday with LLV and she also lifted quite easily.
Do your brakes hold firmly against full power, I do not see any chocks in the pics. Mine climbs right over the chocks at 4800rpm against full brakes, perhaps the angle of a tail dragger.

Holding thumbs for you.

Regards,
Nico

[Oupa-G]

Dear Nico the brakes are stunning you needs the ponies to lift the tail at the moment I am printing the Builders log from the webpages .Morph was so kind to assemble them in a word document all 160 A4 pages I printed them 4 pages to an A4 so have condensed it to 40 pages . The aircraft must now wait and the paper has priority. I will promise to let you know.

Cheers Oupa-G

[windswept]

No Aircraft shall fly unless the paperwork equals the weight of the Aircraft!
(Old aviation truism)

[KFA]

No truer word spoken

[Trikenut]

No Aircraft shall fly unless the paperwork equals the weight of the Aircraft!
(Old aviation truism)

Fully loaded or empty?

[Boet]

Both Oupa G, and Vliegvark and Hansie in the dogbox!! Good going Oupa, holding thumbs. If there is anything I can add, or help with, gooi me a shout!

[Oupa-G]

Just printed the motivation and the engine installation , the design of the springsteel gear, plus Jacobus Gertenbach's calculation which are pretty accurate compared with the actual deflections. My brain is now empty ,I have this deep down fear in me if I carry on that I will become a beurocratic penpusher luckily that fear only lasted a few nano-seconds and I'm OK .

Sleep well no pictures of the paper work all I can tell you that the builders log is 161 pages with the compliment of Morph.

I do not know who at CAA has the time to go through all the paperwork. Suppose if something goes wrong they can in retrospect check the details. I have done my best, so let it be.

Cheers Oupa-G

[Oupa-G]

Spent my valuable Friday afternoon at ICASA must say the lady was very helpfull, filled in the forms and there I have the receipt for the radio station licence. I have never had such a wonderful feeling of being so legal. Also paid the extra registration fee for ZU-OTT it went up by R515 had to pay the difference and the R100 for the Proving flight autherisation. The paperwork is on its way. So let the energy that speeds up paperwork do it's thing. No photo's of paperwork it is one of the few things in life that are forbidden. Meanwhile Mike and James are on their way to the Seychelles. The Sri Lankn beurocrats had a field day to push our heroes into criminal fatigue limits. We do not like beurocrats,but they are sometimes necessary, we hate dumb beurocrats, and criminal beurocrats should be put in jail. The Sri Lankn beurocrats are criminal to put our heroes at such unnecessary risk.

Sorry for my bit of moaning but we free thinkers must fight this.
Have a lovely weekend


Cheers Oupa-G

[Cloud Warrior]

I thought being a bureaucrat went hand in hand with being a criminal (or at least a potential criminal) and dumb?

[Oupa-G]

Cloud Warrior

You get good friendly beurocrats that help you and make the paperflow easier for you. But when they take their undeserved powers and obstruct you, that is when it becomesd difficult.


Cheers Oupa-G