Відео

Where are you based? There are lots of clubs with instructors all over France. FFPLUM would certainly be able to advise you of those near you.

Thank you

It is tight Mike and not many people like coming in because of it. I didn't like it when I first started flying from here but funnily enough, although I still treat it with great respect as you can tell from the video, I now love landing here and it's become one of the best bits of every flight no matter which aircraft I'm in. It's amazing what you get used to isn't it. A bit like those guys who fly the back country in Alaska! Yup, the house is coming along. I've still got lots of videos that I shot but have never made so must get back to doing some more at some time. The interior is 95% done but only furnished for the most part temporarily. I'm loving the heat pump which is incredibly economic to run. I had a wood burner for heating in my old house plus a gas hob and just used electricity for lighting, hot water, fridge, freezer and oven. I use electricity for everything in my new house and am using under 50% of what I was using in the old place. The house-build distracted me from flying and I only did 3 hrs last year. I was feeling that maybe I'd lost my enthusiasm but after doing thorough maintenance of both my Savannah and the X Air, flying the Savannah back to the UK and this flight in the X Air, it's back again so I'll be doing as much more as I can. I've put the X Air, which I rescued and brought over from the UK as you may remember, up for sale today as I can't fly two aircraft and I can't stand the thought of it becoming a hangar queen when a new owner could be using it how it deserves to be used. I sorted out the log books today and hadn't realised, or had forgotten, that it's only done just under 600 hrs since it was built in 2000 and under 50 hrs since its engine was overhauled by Ecclestone Aviation. And my old friend in the UK who owned it had been told that it wasn't worth it economically getting it permitted again after a break of 2 or 3 years . Shocking!

@motocomfort_de Hi, it's self made. When I bought my Savannah it had an Icom 25 kHz portable wired in through an old intercom system and powered by a cable coming out through a hole in the panel. I had to fit a new 8.33 kHz radio when the rules changed and also wanted a transponder as I fly the Savannah back and forwards between the Dordogne and the UK. It made sense to go for panel mounted units so I did a complete panel redesign using the old panel only as a template. The most challenging part was tagging all of the original gauge connections and reconnecting them correctly when the new panel was fitted. By carefully measuring it was possible as you can see to get everything in and very sensibly positioned too. BTW I also had to install 'proper' aircraft headsets with dual connections to match the radio and the sockets for those are under the panel at each side. The added bonus is that I can now connect a GoPro to the radio which you can't do with microlight/ULM single plug headsets.

@@battz99 Well done! 👍I bought a new Savannah SR which will be delivered in three weeks. The look of the panel is poor. The black instrumentpart is very small. The colour of the plane is in sight in the left and right corner of the panel. I.P.C. wanted for a black background more than 2000 Euros. I have to work on it by myself. Very sad for a plane for more than 100000 Euros. In this Video you can see what I mean: ua-cam.com/video/BQctx8SxujI/v-deo.htmlsi=t8TCmcB2r59H60ng

@@motocomfort_de I see it's got a parking brake which is nice. My Savannah doesn't have one. Electric flaps are OK but just added unnecessary complexity and weight I think. I don't like that panel much. They've made it easy to remove the panel face to get to the instruments by putting most (all?) of the switches on the flat bar below it and one throttle lever to one side but then they've left the other throttle right in the middle of the panel! Doesn't make much sense. They could have located the 12V socket there or thereabouts close to the iPad and not had a long cable trailing across and that would also have given better access to the radio and transponder which I personally think are too far away from the pilot. Mine are closer and even so can be tricky to set if things are a bit bumpy. Will be a nightmare with them right over on the other side. But what a lovely aircraft, especially with the VG wing. I was thinking about converting mine but doubt I'll get around to it now. Green not my choice of colour but that's a purely personal thing. Will yours come as a kit or fully built?

@@battz99 Fully built. I don't have the place and time to assamblle one. 😊

Oui, vous avez raison. Cela a été fait en avion mais la piste est vraiment réservée aux ULM.

Oui, piste courte mais toujours pas besoin de freins... si vous savez ce que vous faites!

@@battz99 ah mais je confirme, ça n'etait pas une critique juste un clin d'œil

@@larbracame8686 👍

Thanks for your comment

Hi, yup, should be OK, just a little bit tight. I'm shorter but around 180 lbs to my shame and you can see how much shoulder room there still is.

@@battz99 Thank you. I like the center Y stick and dual throttles. Not many of these here in USA but I hear many overseas.

@@WatchmanForthePeople Yes, it's a very capable aircraft and well supported by the Italian manufacturer. 95 mph cruise using under 3.5 European gallons MOGAS an hour. Very popular in Europe. Mine has 912S 100 HP Rotax and 80 HP Rotax also common plus other engine choices. Mine has the older style slatted wing for STOL but later and current models have a slightly different wing with VG tabs and the Savannah VG also has the bulged doors as standard. Not too expensive to convert my wing to VG but I'm not flying enough and have other priorities right now.

@@battz99 Thanks a bunch and happy life and flying!

Can't tell you exactly. It's just one I found on Aliexpress

Hello, Warpdrive 64" diameter 11.5 degree pitch. Hope that helps.

@@battz99 thankyou so mcuh

Stay tuned Mike, it was but it took quite a while and a lot of time was lost because of it🤨

Ohhhh, it got worse, much worse before it got better Mike! Stay tuned for the next one...

Sometimes I think it is as well, Mike. However, despite some further setbacks, thankfully quite minor, it's moving along quite nicely now. And coincidentally, today (8th March 2023) is the anniversary of the day when work first began by which time contractually it was supposed to be all finished and handed over. I'm hoping that we might still make the end of this month though. The reason that these old videos are coming out is that ultimately I want to make a video of the full build from start to finish so I need to make one at each stage. Unfortunately I've been lazy and there's now a backlog so I'm doing a catchup and having started putting them on UA-cam I reckon I might as well continue. Hope you're well and getting a bit of flying in. I haven't flown for months, since my X-air's engine frightener, and still have to finish doing the brake pads on my Savannah. I've only done one wheel so far after which it got a bit too cold to work outdoors. Need to finish the job now it's warming up a bit and get back up into the air.

Thanks Andrew, nice to hear from you. I love mine too but haven't been flying it too much lately because of other demands - mainly new house build. I must get back up in the air in it.

Sorry, I missed this comment at the time (busy with new house-build). Yup, I have both an electric pump and a primer bulb but I still think it was icing as there have been no further problems since. Aircraft now flying flawlessly 😎

Hi Mike, I'm not sure that's really the case and here's my take on it. I have a fixed price contract and I think that possibly because of the pandemic and the subsequent increases in material costs, the builder is feeling the pinch a bit financially. Consequently, as I suspect that each contract is monitored for profitability and labour is charged out per contract by the hour, every workman is being instructed to spend the absolute minimum amount of time on site. Consequently, this young guy started out with the best of intentions but then realised that at the speed he was working, he'd never get finished in the allocated time and so began to cut corners. To be honest, if it means that they hold the price in my contract, I don't mind doing a bit of tidying up here and there - as you'll see, I did it again the next day (day 12).

Hi Mike, thanks. I was the same in the beginning but it's all down to the nature of the soil. It has a large clay content and they take that very seriously because of the large temperature variation that we experience down here and the danger resulting from the ground expanding when cold and wet and contracting when hot and dry, as we've had this summer. To get round that they insist on the house not being built into the ground as such on conventional foundations the way we usually do it in the UK and instead having it built on supporting columns, like stilts, that are anchored to the underlying rock. That way it can be guaranteed that the house can't move with the ground. They leave the space underneath empty because they say it helps with insulation but in a way I'd still prefer to see it filled in although I suppose when everything's finished you won't know it's there and it won't make any difference.

Thanks for posting. I'm still enjoying mine too although I'm not having much time to fly either my drones or my ultralights as I'm in the middle of a new house-build.

Thanks Rog. Sky Demon is excellent but I don't need all its features over here so couldn't justify the cost. My MemoryMap suits me fine and I update the chart myself usually every year but haven't since 2020 due to Covid. But the CAS doesn't change that much here anyway. I'm looking to get a lot more flying in now that my house-build is underway and there are no too many other demands on my time. Must pop in to see you some time.

Hi Mark, no conventional valves in the 582 engine as it's a 2-stroke. It does have rotary inlet valves though but they wouldn't be affected. The place to look is the plugs and immediately on landing I checked those and they were all clean and perfect in colour which led me to believe that it was a fuel starvation problem that had cleared itself by the time I landed. I'm hoping so anyway but am just about to go to the airfield (Tuesday August 2) to do some more run-up and high power checks after which if they are all good I'll just have to give it another go.

Hi Gilles, although there are a couple of clear areas in the valley straight ahead immediately after take off they are too close to the runway for a fixed wing to get into if you have an engine failure. An 'autogire' did it once but in a fixed wing, if that happens you have to just take your chances and try to aim for the best area you can avoiding the trees. Also, the areas on the left are small and inaccessible because you'd have to turn so sharply there'd be a very good chance that you'd stall in. So as you say, the only viable areas for a forced landing are on the right but they only become viable if you can climb because as the runway has a downslope, the take off point is some 50 feet (17 meters) below the start point. I was able to go for that option as I could still climb despite the engine power faltering and turned slightly right to favour those areas as they would become more viable the higher I could climb. Even so I'd have had to go over trees to get into one of them. In fact even though the engine power was still faltering a bit, I was able to continue climbing to a height at which I could turn back for a potential landing back on the runway but still keeping those areas in sight. After turning back I then kept to the left of a straight in approach so if the engine failed I could still go into one of those landing areas, but I didn't have to as by then the engine was running smoothly enough and developing enough power for what was more or less a normal landing. As our runway is so short (160 meters or 180 meters if you add the rougher run-off area at the top) you always have to hit the cones which are visible in the video at the windsock level at the right speed and we're well-practiced at doing that because it's almost a glide approach with the engine more or less at idle power. There is a belt of trees before the runway threshold but once I got to the point when a 'normal' landing was possible I knew that even with a total engine failure I'd still get in without coming up short. Hopefully that explains my thinking!

Hi Rog, immediately pulled and checked the plugs which were clean with good colour and then re-gapped them and ran the engine to full power for nearly a minute. Sweet as a nut. Although it was 2019 when I did the fuel system overhaul (Mikuni refurb, carbs stripped, new filter, new lines), it hasn't done many hours since then and has run faultlessly until this flight. I think that it was something to do with the very hot weather that we've had during which the aircraft was parked. Maybe fuel evaporated and caused some kind of minor blockage in a carb so only one cylinder was delivering full power or perhaps it was due to vapour lock. Surely not carb icing as the inlets are water heated but humidity was and still is quite high. But in any case, I'm going to carefully check the system but without stripping things and then do some high power runs, static and up the runway and if that works out, have another go.

I think so. We've had some very very hot days here lately and I thought that by running the engine as I had it would have it would have avoided any problems. The other thing is that its engine has got water heated inlet manifolds which are great when it's cold but may not be so great in these sort of conditions. Anyway, I'll give the system a complete check-over which can't do any harm.

Thanks Paul. Hope you're keeping well and getting plenty of air under your wings.

No, all done before but not shown in the vid. I also ran the engine for just under 10 minutes the evening before and ran it until hot as per normal before taxying for take off. I'm pretty careful about things like that. There was plenty of fuel pressure and after landing I pulled, checked and re-gapped the plugs that all had good colour and then ran the engine up to full power for almost a minute with no problem. I'm going to go over the complete fuel system again this week which I fully overhauled in 2019 in the UK while preparing the aircraft to fly to France, including refurbing the Mikuni fuel pump, replacing most of the fuel line and ensuring there were no fuel or air leaks. We've had a string of very, very hot days here, up to 43 degrees C which is unusual for these parts, so a check can't do any harm. In the meantime I've always got my Savannah but I love my old school X-Air.

@@battz99 Hi Roger, I have an X-Air 582 (Bluehead). This sounds like vapor locking to me, but I'm no expert. One other thing to keep an eye on, on the 582 is the ignition cables. I've seen some bad chaffing on some. I'm not saying this has anything to do with your issue, but when you have the carbs off. Do remove the ignition plate and inspect the ignition cables. I did this recently and caught some chaffing early. The Mikuni fuel pumps - I've never heard of one failing, no harm in a refurb like you said. Another thing I would do if you have the tools, measure the play in the big/small end bearing using a micrometer and a syringe. There's a special tool for this that I have checked on mine every 25hrs. Just to be sure your bearings are in good order. Also, remove the exhaust manifold (or stick a boroscope down a plug hole) , take a look at the rings and look at the cylinders, check the cross hatch is there and visible. Rebuild the carbs and ensure no air leaks, ensure the vent lines are connected with vents drill in the tube, as per Rotax recommendations. Don't use the old single line vents, open to atmosphere on each side. I trust my advise is stuff you have already considered anyway. But always like to share what I've done on my 582 and it's runs like a dream. On the carbs, remove the choke plungers, check them - They are known to go bad, check and ensure they are sealing. They somehow manage to get dents in the sides or the sealing face doesn't seal like it should and you will see an indentation of the small hole they are plugging. Flaot height too, there is a marking around the main jet, when you have the carb upside down on a table, the plate should be lined up with this. Also check the spring on the needle valve is seating and feels correct, I've seen these get weak. Again, I'm no expert just I've done lots of work on my engine, carbs, ignition and fuel system and have been advised by some good people. Hope you get it all sorted. If it is a vapor lock, then you'll find nothing wrong with anything.

@@skyrangerswift2ireland All great stuff and when I do my planned check-over I'll go through it all again. Thanks very much for it.

ha ha, it was shot in February but it wasn't too cold and they'd only driven down from the top of the hill that you can see. The reason was that it was another friend's wedding anniversary which is why there's a weird flag thing attached to the rear and when they got out they unfurled a banner between them saying (in Dutch) 'congratulations on your 25th and here's looking forward to the 50th'. It might have been a bit optimistic as the car maker/driver and his wife were both in their 80s at the time (he just) and the husband involved is in his mid-70s. But you never know!!🙃

Mike, it's painfully slow with painful being the operative word. I think my builder is just swinging men onto my project when there are lulls on other projects just to keep them working, knowing that they've still got lots of time to finish my house within the contractual 12 months. But there's nothing I can do about it and I just have to bite the bullet. It has moved on a bit since this video but not much.

Yes, I did in common with very many others. The answer is to get Gifi batteries. See my video ua-cam.com/video/7DrspXUkRVA/v-deo.html

Hi there, I've got another couple of videos in the pipeline but have been in no hurry to publish them because progress has been so slow. The fact is that all of the materials to run the services and utilities have been on site (and paid for by me) for several weeks but the builder has been dragging their feet to actually do the work to the point that it's now almost approaching becoming a dispute between us. As I say in this video, my problem is that my contract doesn't specify a completion date beyond the 12 month term and so long as the house is ready by March next year, despite our having verbally discussed target completion dates previously, there's little or nothing that I can do to force the builder to provide continuity of work. If the house isn't ready by then the builder will start to pay me daily penalties but I suspect that they will be clever enough to avoid that and just deliver in time, much as I said that I wanted the house ready before then and they verbally agreed it would me. See the problem? That's why it's so frustrating.

Yes, it was a fantastic morning for flying. Here in the Dordogne sunny can mean hot and turbulent because of thermals which aren't fun at all but I took off just before 9.00 am before things began to warm up. The air was super smooth and calm and in fact this was one of the best flying days that I can remember for a very long time. It was the kind of day we live for 😃

@@battz99 Yep, sunny days and blue skies look great from the ground, not so great bouncing around in the turbulent air!

Yes, one small step for man... Getting builders going is a general problem her in France. Everyone you speak to complains about it and there's little I can do for the time being at least. The reason is that the contract contains an agreed completion period, usually as in my case 12 months, after which the builder incurs daily penalties. So mine is 8th March 2023 and I can't influence how the builder decides to program the project in the meantime. On the occasions we've spoken about it, which we have on several occasions, he has assured me that the build will be completed well before time and that the keys will be handed over early to me. In all other respects I'm delighted with the quality of the work that has been done so far so all I can do for now is try to control my frustration.

No, still photographs cannot be programmed. The only way you could do it would be to shoot a video and then lift screen shots from it every 'y' seconds or manually take still shots

@@battz99 I wonder what the count(Frames per second), might be? Maybe 1 Frame per second? ... Time lapsed, Photos, or distance derived Photos, are each a very simple programs ... basically X-X* and Y-Y* and pythagorean Theorem ... I'm thinking these capabilities are in some drones, but a person has to dig deep into and beyond the given specifications ... I bet, through some work-around, some of these drones have this capability. I don't even know if there's a name for overlapping photos(in drones), other than "Mosaics" , which is what they were called years ago ... I wonder if Python programming is easy or hard to learn?

All done. These boys deserve respect - they know what they're doing. Watch this space!

Thanks for your comment. I'm going to try and video the whole building project and also go through all of the previous bureaucratic and planning stuff along the way in case others might be thinking about doing something similar and would like to know what's involved. Most people hire specialists or professionals to do that stuff for them but I've done everything, and I mean everything bar the build itself, myself so it'll be a warts and all account including all of the problems and pitfalls.

I don't know for sure but as the system is SO good and easy to use I can't see why Hubsan would have changed it. I'd say give it a go.