On the Bottom Half

A dwarf plethora of photos for the weekend.

Thought you might like some photos to round out the week.

First, a rose that I picked from the bushes outside my unit. How about a place that produces rose blooms as the winter begins? It's interesting the convergence of seasonal differences between the southern and northern hemispheres: The months between March to June - autumn and into winter - bring rain and weather cool enough to turn everything green here. The flowers bloom, grass goes green, some trees flower, and everyone breaks out the long pants and insulated jackets. March and June in the northern hemisphere? Rain and weather warm enough to turn everything green. The flowers bloom, grass goes green, the trees bud, and everyone still hasn't packed away the insulated jackets and long pants (do you ever really?) until the last couple of snowfalls in April. Anyway, the roses, yes... wild ones are very fragrant. This is for all the Mums out there I didn't get to see and thank on Mother's Day!

The next photos are unashamedly airplanes from the recent fly-in at Sunbury airport. I did some crosswind take-offs and landings in the (finally) strong winds oriented across the runways. Had to wait many weekends for these and I didn't want to go wasting them. Light airplanes sure do feel the crosswind. The first picture here is a New Zealand creation, the Schnark, in Australia for the first time. There's only two of these in the world and this one needed some test flying before it was certified for continuing use in Aus. One of the instructor pilots took it for some high speed taxi tests, then packed it up for the night. It's powered by a Subaru automobile engine (sigh) and looks kinda neat. The main gear is moveable to permit, get this, a stable parking position. In pusher type aircraft, since so much weight is in the rear of the airplane, they often don't sit very stably without the weight of a pilot or two in the front. Anyone who's seen the Rutan beauties the EZ or Long EZ at airshows will remember how they are always parked with the nose gear retracted and the airplane resting on it's nose and rear main gear legs. Anyway, the main gear legs in the Schnark rotate forward several degrees, which allows for a sufficient rotational moment during takeoff. When you park it and get out, you first have to rotate the gear legs back so that the airplane doesn't fall back and sit on its tail.

Next up it the best registration of any airplane in Australia (;-)...


Heh, just kidding. But if I were ever to own my own airplane here, I guess I couldn't have my initials. Anyway, enjoy the weekend. Oh, two posts ago I was talking about the Sapphire - I was incorrect, it is powered by a Rotax, not a Subaru. Not that it changes anything.

posted by Kyle @ 01:58