TAS – Preparation from an International Perspective

[RustyTumbles]

	Quote: Originally Posted by DesertHucker
	120kmh=75mph 1.6km=1mile No wounder these planes fall out the air put enough fuel for 7500miles when it is 13500km LOL

LOL, my bad I was working in nautical miles. To many beers.... Still thats better than 110kph.

[chrisbchips]

	Quote: Originally Posted by NormJB
	Well it is 5am on Thursday morning - what can I say about this experience so far - awesome and we are not at the business end yet...... Did not gey much sleep on the big flying Kangaroo - take my advise NEVER travel with Howie and Chrisbie - they told me to watch the wingtip disappear once we left terafirma - now I have NEVER cared about watching wing tips in the past and I wish they had not brought my attention to the fact that yes the wing tip did disappear only to appear again when we landed at LA - phew thank goodness - apparently they flex about 7' during flight!!! Mind you when you see what they load into that airbus on the ground it is really no surprise. LAX was something else - as we were taxing in planes were taking off - skimming past the wing tips that had just reappeared in the windows - on bothsides of us!!!!! We were not allowed to leave the plane once it had docked until 7am which is the start time for Customs and Immigration staff on the ground!! In the terminal we knew we were in a foreign country OK but I did not understand any of the annoucements as they were in Spanish ( I think ) and my word the immigration staff - well I said lots of 'yes sir' 'no sir' 'thankyou sir's' =LOL as they took our fingureprints and mug shots. Had a bit of a wait for the models to appear and when they did I was a bit concerned about the 3M fusebox as it appeared to have had some harsh treatment - but as Chrisby indicated all is well. Will continue this post later as laptop battery is about to expire.......

Continuing from where I left off under Chrisby's login.................................

We eventually get to customs about 1 hour after landing and I get to the nice offical first - he looks at me then at the fuse box then back to me - "what you got there'- well to cut a long story short we had a lot of 'yes sir no sir thank you sirs to do because the official wanted to know why we had not brought "paperwork" and threatened to confiscate the boxes and charge import duty etc etc etc - Howie and I were very controlled and eventually after much ado the offical told us we were lucky he was in a good mood and stamped us through - Bogan tells us that when they asked him what he had in the boxes he told them it was his mother in law and they laughed him through LOL

Well we got the hires car and were a little concerned that it was smaller than expected but after much packing unpacking snd repacking got evrything in and we were on our way . HEHA

Howies TOM-TOM worked magically and such a lovely lady purrs directions out from that little black box - Howie took first stint at the wheel - we hit the freeway - 5 lanes in each direction and set the cruise control for 75MPH - and we were the slowest on the road???? Wow what fantastic roads - we stayed on the hiway till Tucson at 75MPH all the way - and yes I had a drive while Chrisby and Howie had a snooze Jenko and I enjoyed the drive - makes you wonder where our road`taxes go in Aus because these roads are sensational.

TOM TOM took us right to the door of DA and we unpacked the boxes to check for damage because as I said the metal boxes looked a litt;e worse for wear. No damage done to the aircraft = Dave gave us a tour of DA while Howie unpacked the truck - Chris and I unpacked both planes and put the 2.6 parts back in the truck so that we could work on it back at the hotel.

We checked into the hotel = went to have dinner - and then Chrisby and I started putting the 2.6 together - Howie logged on to the net and did some work for DA Aus and then came to give us a hand - I think Chris and I rolled into bed about 11.30pm local time some 3- hours after departing Australia and it did not take long to fall asleep.

Thursday we were off to DA to assemble the 3M while Howie did some PR work etc at DA - what a wonderfull bunch of helpfull guys and gals at DA - they went out of their way to assist us with whatever we wanted - we met pilots fro Switzerland and the UK and of course young Bogan and his team which included our very own "Kylie" aka Richo AKA Rucho aka whatever we want to call him.

During the morning there were lots of murmurings about "loss of power" due to the altitude and team Switzerland and England were back at DA doing aircraft mods to try and get more power - team England when we left DA were installed tuned pipes on their Yak.

Of course all these mutterings were of concern to us but we soldiered on and by lunch time we had the two models ready for inspection by the DA Techs who tached both modesl and gave us the thumbs up - woo hoo - we are a goer

Out to TAMPA we go - Bogan has decided not to fly the 3.1M Sukoi as it does noy have enough power to get through the verticals with snaps and rolls - but what a fantastic job he has done on this new "weapon" - he has the new 4 Cylinder DA200 and does it sound awesome.

Chris flew the 3M and is very happy with it's performance - the 2.6M with 26 x 10 Miejlik and stock muffler is the go for freestyle - noisy and powerfull - just what he wanted for TAS LOL

We flew till dark and then travelled back to Phoenix so that we can do some practice at "The Moon" - Frasers practice facilty. Again TOM TOM deleivered us to the front door of our hotel with min fuss - what a woman she is and doesn't even get cracky when we occasionally chose to ignore her instructions!!!!!

The 3M is on charge in our room as we speak - Chrisby and Howie are catching up on some well earned shut eye - Mick and tTroy arrive in LA in about an hours time and will meet up withus later at "The Moon" - we have Troys engine and pasts for his Extra with us.

So fas so good - I have not forgotten to pack anything and we have been able to function - once Troy has his model together - TEAM AUS IS READY TO DO BATTLE

We have all been invited to watch a college football game on Staurday night so are really looking forward to that - Millers beer here in the USA is the beer to drink - yes even I indulged in two beers last night - couldn't get any VB for some reason!!!!

Guys and Gals - what an experience - it has been awesome and am really looking forward to each new day - speak to you all again soon - NormJB

[Doc]

	Quote: Originally Posted by vincentp
	LOL... nice bit of photoshopping on the speed limit sign Doc Vince.

Ah yes, it;'s the little things that you think no one will notice, that really matter!

[Doc]

Normchips - thanks for the great descriptions of your activities, it's great that you you take the time to tell us all this stuff.

Rusty - the speedlimit in the Northern Territory was recently reduced to 130km/hr (?80mph Lozza?). Before that it was open slather. Bit tricky on a dirt track, though...

[DesertHucker]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Doc
	Normchips - thanks for the great descriptions of your activities, it's great that you you take the time to tell us all this stuff. Rusty - the speedlimit in the Northern Territory was recently reduced to 130km/hr (?80mph Lozza?). Before that it was open slather. Bit tricky on a dirt track, though...

80.77825mph

[feral63]

just got off the blower to norm. they are out at the moon doing some flying.
mick has arrived and after sitting on a plane for that many hours it hasn't stopped his big trap from working.

[TROYS PIT-BITCH]

Well troy and mick arrived in LA without a drama. Troy hasn't stopped since he left, upon getting to LA him and dad got into a truck, i think, and have been driving to Pheonix. When i was talking to him this morning he was nearly there.

Good luck to all

[Howie]

Hi Guys

Just a couple of shots from today's practice at the moon. So far everything still going well.

Steve and Troy have made it to the Hotel. Troy probably has the 3.1m all together by now ready for some practice tomorrow.

Driving on these interstate highways is great. As you can see from the photos we have the large vans and they sit on 85MPH with ease. (And still most of the cars zip past you!)

[hj290993]

Nice pics Ian.

Aaron

[vincentp]

Hey Guys, did anyone remind Bogan to leave the elevator trim alone this time...just in case eh!

Vince.

[Kiwi]

I see Frazer with his regulation sized Jandals on again.

Feral looks like your right mate. I see Mick in there lecturing like there's no tomorrow, jet lag has no effect on the gas bag.

Tell Bogan that 260 will do better snaps if he puts a rudder on it.

Have fun ya mongrels,!!!

[BIG STEVE]

Mick and Troy got here all in good shape i met them at airport and Mick flew out to Phenixz and Troy and i drove down .Got here at 4.00 went and got some goodies went back to the room and stated un packing . We got finished putting the aircraft together by 12.00 not bad we had a big steak and a few rums at intervill She is all charged and ready to go just got to get the pilot out of the sack all is good .

[RustyTumbles]

Hey guys, Why the move back to the pitts muffler on the 2.6m?? Are you searching for more power at altitude or just a case of easier install while away base??

Glad to here all is well.

[NormJB]

Great day at the practice field on Saturday - Troy had his Super Extra ready to go and after geting some supplies we all headed off to the field.

Mick had Chrisbie flyimg unknowns and unlimited sequences one after the other - in all about seven flights before we packed up at 2pm to head back to Tucson for an evenings entertainment - more about that later. Troy took his Extra up to get a feel for the different conditions and after a couple of flights felt ready to do some sequence work.

In the afternoon Howie Chrisbie and I headed back to Tucson as we had been invited to watch an American Football League College game - well what an education and what a carnival atmosphere and what an experience - we now have a basic understanding of how the run of play works and we enjoyed the experience - we drove back to Apache Junction after the game - rolling into bed about 1:30am.

Mick had opted to catch up on some sleep and offered to do the laundry - yip that is not a typo - Mick stayed behind to do the TEAM laundry......

[BIG STEVE]

Well Guys its 10.30pm on sunday nite here.. just about to go to bed after 2 days of flying.. out to practise some more in the morning and then off to Tucson.. Can't upload photos for some reason but sill sort that out soon.. hopefully..