Thread: Who has a pilot's licence??

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Or the Gipsy Major. My Auster had as permanent "ballast" two one gallon tins of oil - and on first starting after being in the hangar for a few weeks without use, you had to wait a few minutes for the smoke to disperse. The bottom of the fuselage was permanently oil coated. Normal consumption, one quart per hour.

John

Which model of Auster did you have John? I'm contemplating buying a MKIII but I know little about their maintenence. Was the Gypsy troublesome? What is their TBO? What is the average 100hrly worth?

Originally Posted by HUE166

Which model of Auster did you have John? I'm contemplating buying a MKIII but I know little about their maintenence. Was the Gypsy troublesome? What is their TBO? What is the average 100hrly worth?

I traded the Auster on a Cessna 180 in 1969, so I'm relying on distant memories - and even if I could remember prices, they would be irrelevant today.

My experience with the Gipsy Major was that it was trouble free, but I only owned it for about three years. I think the TBO was 1500hrs, but don't quote me on that. The only issue I can remember, and that was rare, was that sometimes the impulse drive on the magneto (left one I think) sometimes stuck, but was freed by a a whack with a spanner. You could tell there was a problem, because the sound of it is obvious when turning the engine - no loud click meant not enough spark to start.

Being an inverted engine, one pre-start check if it had been standing more than a few hours was to turn the engine through four compressions before trying to start, to make sure you did not have a hydraulic lock with oil that had found its way past the rings.

My Auster was a J5F Aiglet Trainer, VH-ADT, the aerobatic version. Last time I looked a few years ago it was still registered.

John

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

Thats a serious bit of gear---

Er. . . - Any relation to the one that lost it's head earlier this year, up in the Norway.. ?

I wish I had a helo licence
Learned to fly in a PA38 Traumahawk, then flew all sorts of singles- most of the 'modern' types on the GA register.
I flew mostly C310, Duchess and Chieftain piston twins.

Then I moved on to Jetstream 31/32, Dash 8/100/200/300. After that, Emb 170/190 and Boeing 737.
I really miss teaching, the youngest I taught was an 11 year old. She would have soloed at around 7 hours if she could have legally done so.
I'm at stage 3 on the scale

I read somewhere that the "ideal" age to learn to fly - co-ordination I'm guessing - is when the child/youth has mastered roller-skating.
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