Kedainiai precise landing competition

2011 September 26th, in Kedainiai, Lithuania, precise landing competition took place.

Moments from the event - below:

Up to 20 years in prison for laser "games"

Number of laser incidents in USA continues to grow, according to FAA.

Bodies in Lithuania does not publish data about situation, but it might be at similar rates.

In USA fines were increaset up to $11000 by FAA.

If case goes to court - a person might be charged with terrorism, fine up to $250000 and end up to 20 years in prison.

Ourairports.com - good start for trip planning.

 http://www.ourairports.com/ is a internet based airport directory, built by contributors from all over the world. It consists of powerful search engine, google maps - to visualize and comment section to discuss it. Site is working fast, and able to find even smallest airports/airstrips. And, if you miss one - can add it yourself. Works like a charm ! Site has a mobile version as well.

At the moment of writing, number of airfields is approaching 50 000. From that, site has about 5000 airports commented/reviewed by 4000 members.

I would really like to see this site expanded with route planning capabilities, might be some fixed best-routes for ultralight/lsa aircrafts, competition routes/plans/rules.

I tried using several  others - like

• www.aopa.org/members/airports/
• www.airport-directory.com
• map.aeroplanner.com
• quickaid.com
• www.airnav.com/airports
• airportz.info
• others
  

...but none of them was able to find airfield named  "Pociunai" (located in Lithuania). (Ourairports.com was able to find it, and display several nearest airports as well correctly). Seems that mentioned above sites has a very high google rating, but not function set...

RK series aircraft timeline

More information about aircrafts in Lithuania: www.caa.lt

How much an ultralight aircraft cost ?

Let's calculate COMPONENT cost.

Items, listed below, are typically obtained/purchased/made by other people.

Small, single-seater (RK-7 class):

We can save a bit:

...Wings can be old&used - from training glider BRO-11M "Zyle" - price can be reduced to 1000 Eur ?

...Engine can be cheaper/some used one - some 1000 Eur ?

...Painting can be done for less ?

This will still top up to 11000-12000 Lt (3000-3500 Eur) for the very start.

All ot this will require close to thousand hours of work, which, in the table above, are priced at 0 LT/EUR per hour. :)

It does not include other costs - e.g. materials, tools, etc.

Anything else - like closed cabin, light system, etc - would add significant extra costs.

Exhaust pipe on M332 

 Exhaust on M332, it should be built from funel-shaped parts, that fits-in each other, forming whole construction.  Othervise it will start to crack. As it seems quite logical to make exhaust-collector as a single part (this is how it's done on most of car, other engines), it does not work that way on big capacities - like on this one. 4000cc / 4 cilynders has a little bit more room to move due to temperature/load changes - and it cracks exhaust after several hours.

It took a while to find out...

Zip-tie fixing 

Zip tie/ cable-tie can be spaced with a little help of plastic tube. It ensures, that distance is kept, and protects from vibrations quite well.

Oxford Aviation Training Overview

One of the most visible training sets. Information delivered interactively, subject to the necessary level of detail idiskutuojamos content - consistent.

Topics:

Click on image to enlarge

CDs can be purchased Oxford Aviation Traini page here.

Flight time is spent constructing more and more, but accidents - falling

According to the EEA report ( available here in English) during the last 15 years the number of aircraft improvised constantly increased steadily, while the number of accidents has remained constant (proportional to the number of people flying - falling).

In order to maintain similar / downward trends, the EEA provides a number of tools for aircraft designers:

• Sport Aviation magazine ( produced by becoming a member of the EEA )
• Experimenter e naujienlaikratis ( book available here ) - Free
• Video Tips konstruktoriam ( www.eaavideo.org ) - Free
• others are available on the above-mentioned survey