Sierra Del Barón Rojo

I was planning to take Liz to Jindabyne but she needs be back at 13:00, and since a cold-front is comming from the south about the time we would be there, I decided not to go.

Well Thunder's harness worked well, she sat in the cargo hold and looked out the window in the cargo door.

After we got to 7,500' she lay down and slept. She didn't wake until I slowed down for the circuit at Moruya 32 minutes later, then she looked out the window again.

I wonder what was going through her mind? She seemed to enjoy watching the trees and then the clouds go by as we climbed through scattered cloud. She didn't display one hint of motion sickness as evidenced by the fact she fell asleep, nor did she seem uneasy when we came in to land. No fear of heights.

The noise in the back of the aircraft isn't bad, I have had passengers remove their headset in row 2 and say it isn't too loud, so the cargo hold ought to be quieter again. It was noisy enough though because I had to speak loudly to draw her attention, so on a longer trip she might have required ear plugs.

Thunder occasionally looked forward between the gap in the 2nd row seats, but preferred to look out the side-window most of the time, just like she does when she travels in our cars, except the window doesnt open in the plane.

I gave her a big feed as reward after we landed, and we walked the beach, and she played in the surf. It took her a while to get into the surf though, I had to walk up to my knees and call her in. It was cold and she wasn't that impressed with the waves and preferred to walk the beach instead.

She obviously enjoyed the trip as I had no difficulty getting her to jump back into the aeroplane. Well, when I say jump, I mean put her front paws in the cargo hold and wait for me to lift her in, because the cargo hold door is about 1 meter (3ft) above the ground, and is of sufficient size to take an adult and certainly children or a dog.

The cargo door is full sized

Thunder stayed awake the whole way home (which took 38 minutes) and was seen to be a happy looking dog looking out the window as we taxiied past the Regular Public Transport terminal, and because she didn't get sick, I suppose she might be invited to travel with me again some other time.

I am still trying to remove the dog hairs from my plane and from my car.

It's a dog's life flying to the beach - what a beach!

VH-UMS flew to YRID for maintenance.

I flew out in the previous afternoon instead of the morning of the 12 May because I predicted fog, and just as well, because Friday morning was fog bound.

The trip down was VFR on top until the holes in the cloud layer changed from Few to Scattered. I decended through a big hole and remained clear of cloud at 3000' AMSL from South of Albury right through to Melbourne. Having to fly clear of cloud has happened to me recently on 3 occassions either going to, or leaving Melbourne. Before then I have never had any long flights clear of cloud.

The maintenance went well, I identified several items I wanted repaired and we repaired those as well as perform the regular maintenance and the mandatory Aviation Directive (AD) inspections. I assisted with the compression testing, and magneto re-timing, cleaned the spark-plugs, removed the excess lead build up, lubricated the landing gear and all the bushes and control circuit hinges. We removed the 2nd row seats and removed the floor boards and the flap-motor access plate to identify and rectify the chattering that occurs in the flap while deploying it when the propeller is not spinning and loading it. The chattering was caused by the left-hand flap torque tube binding in the bush which is in a rib near the wing root, suitable lubrication saw this rectified.

I also noticed a squeak when you pull the elevator right back, which we identified as a cable pulley not turning, and we lubricated that pulley's bushing to rectifiy that noise as well.

All up there are many lubrication points that needed to be lubricated and after the control circuits were done the machine feels better to fly and the ailerons feel much lighter to the touch.

We also checked the gear-retraction and verified that there was 1/2 an inch clearance between the tyre and the wheel-well housing. The ASI indication and the gear interlocks when the aircraft is below takeoff speed.

I found that the throttle cable was loose because it was missing a nut on the screw which holds the cable clamp to a bracket on the bottom of the engine casing, infact the casing bracket was loose too, there were meant to be two screws in the bracket but only one remained so even the bracket was loose. Those IO360s sure vibrate. The missing screw was replaced and a Nylock nut was used to fasten the cable clamp.

During this process we identified that the articulating sleeve that the throttle passes through was bent, and the bent section was catching a bracket. This sleeve protects and guides the inner part of throttle cable which is connected to a lever on the throttle butterfly valve. The sleeve can also rotate around its long axis - must have a ball and socket joint on the end - and during this rotation the bend would catch on the bracket and cause the throttle to stick. The clearance of this sleeve is very minimal between the engine casing and the landing gear steering ring support bracket depending on how much throttle is engaged.



The bent sleeve can be seen in the photo, along with the cable clamp that needs to be set at a slight upwards incline, and the steering ring, and the bracket, as well as the throttle leaver in the idle position.

This sleeve has been straighted and the cable clamp is now set on an angle so it is inclined with the sleve when full throttle is selected. The interior of the throttle cable and sleeve has been lubricated with Slick 50 One Lube, which is wonderful stuff; we used it to lubricate all the difficult-to-get-to bushes.

I was so impressed with this lubricant that I have purchased my own can which I can use for lubrication between my regular maintenance intervals. I have extrapolated that I am flying UMS about 180 hours a year, which is a fair bit of flying, and I land on grass and dirt strips, so keeping parts clean and then lubricating them is probably a good idea.

The MSL pressure system that causes wave


This is enough to stop you going to work

It didn't stop me however, I have to be at work during core hours, and I have already been granted permission to fly VH-UMS to Melbourne this Friday for its annual inspection - sorry, it would have been fun.




Well excitement, the kind of weather that turns a glider pilot on has occured before we even wake.

Spectacular wave fronts stretch all across Canberra's skies.


Mountain Wave is caused by a steady wind stream being uplifted with standing wave patterns formed by mountain ranges. In the Canberra Cooma region this mode of excitation is formed under some conditions when we have strong westerly winds caused by the displacement of high-pressure systems at this time of the year.

I took vh-ums and one PAX down to Bunyan for the day.

I was duty pilot and believe it or not we had 9 trial instructional glider flights. I was very busy collecting names and indemnity forms. All launches were 5000' AMSL for $80 a flight varying between 12 minutes and 25 minutes each.

For the trip home we got into the plane at 16:30 and warmed the engine up and then taxiied back-tracking R27 for a downhill takeoff into wind - the best combination.

The flight to Bunyan took 34 minutes and the flight home took 30 minutes wheels up to wheels down. Canberra Approach vectored us South West due to traffic and it was sometime before I was allowed to intercept the desired outbound radial 174 Magnetic.

Sunday was a washout, with extreme westerlies blowing in low continuous cloud cover. There was probably wave at Bunyan, but I was happy to be inside where it was certainly warmer.

I was hoping to fly to Moruya with the dog as a trial. I bought a harness for our dog Thunder, and the intention is to take her to the beach in the plane. I looked up the regulations in CASR Part 91 and I can accomodate our dog in the cargo-hold. My cargo hold has a large comparment which accepts two foldup push-bikes and has a bench seat. We will place appropriate absorbent material and plastic over the soft furnishings in the hold in case the dog has an accident. VH-UMS is actually a 4 + 2 seat Aeroplane, it is licenced to carry 6 people, but the last two must not weigh over 90 kg combined weight so thunder is well suited at around only 38 kg and could actually be accompanied by my daughter - but she has gone back to Uni.

Thunder loves water and has never been to the beach and Moruya beach allows dogs, so we can't miss this opportunity. Of course if she barks - I won't hear her, and if she is sick - she won't go again. She loves travelling in our cars so we will see how she goes in the plane.

This is thunder having a snack As you can see Thunder is big and appropriately named. I think I better bring something like a milk-crate to help her into the plane.