New Chief Inspector

Starting in late August, we are delighted that our selected candidate, Lucy Wootton, has agreed to become our next Chief Inspector. Ken Craigie has agreed to work with us through the handover period.

Lucy comes to the LAA with a wide experience of engineering and recreational flying. She has a First Class Honours Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Loughborough University and has worked at Rolls-Royce and as an Aircraft Structural

LAA Popham Grass Roots Fly-in update

Together with Mike Pearson and the team at Popham, the final plans are being drawn together for the Grass Root’s Fly-In being held at Popham on 2-4 September.

Popham provides a more informal setting for the weekend enabling members to meet up while enjoying many of the regular attractions of the annual Rally. There has been a positive response from exhibitors who together with speaker presentations, flea market, homebuilders and hands-on skills demonstrations will showcase all aspects of the Association.

Repair Design Engineer for the MoD. She is also a BGA Glider Inspector, a BGA Board Member, a PPL holder flying everything from modern kit-builts to Tiger Moths, and is a key figure in the Edgehill Gliding Centre. Lucy was the stand out candidate and has huge potential to take the Chief Inspector role forward, as well as integrating it within the rest of the Airworthiness and Design aspects of the LAA Engineering Team.

Arrangements are being made for the pre-booking of entrance by road, and air, the latter via ‘windows’ to smooth arrival flows. There will be a range of onsite catering, including the evening together with facilities for overnight camping with tent, caravan or RV. Look out for further announcements as plans are finalised, plus full details, in next month’s magazine.

New Gyro record set at Old Warden

On Saturday May 21, the British Rotorcraft Association recorded 72 arrivals between 0800 and 1600 Saturday, establishing a new world record for most gyros in one location. www.2022-record-breaker.britishrotorcraftassociation.org

Learn to fly tailwheel for free!

Aspiring young taildragger pilots are invited to apply for the 2022 Vintage Aircraft Club Liz Inwood ‘Taildragger' Scholarship. Named in memory of the late Tiger Moth pilot and flying instructor Liz Inwood, the scholarship provides five hours training on a tailwheel aircraft to a licence holder under the age of 35.

The applicant must be the holder of a current PPL, NPPL or LAPL, with 100 hours total flying time, of which at least 50 hours are as a pilot in command completed at the time of application. The winner will also be invited, as a guest of the Vintage Aircraft Club, to the Light Aircraft Association’s Grass Roots Fly-In at Popham Airfield at the beginning of September, where the winner will be formally announced.

For details, and to apply, please check the VAC website where there are profiles of earlier winners. All applications must be made online and former applicants who were not successful in previous years are invited to re-apply and update their applications. The closing date is 30 July 2022. www.vintageaircraftclub.org.uk

RAeS 2022-23 GA Light Aircraft Design Competition

Entries for the sixth Royal Aeronautical Society design competition are now being sought, and the challenge is to design a two-seat electric aerobatic aircraft, capable of being used as an aerobatic training aircraft and also for solo aerobatic display flying.

Designers are invited to undertake the conceptual design of an electric aerobatic aircraft to the standards of CS23 amendment 5, and to demonstrate your design’s capabilities using X-Plane flight simulation tools. Entries are invited for this competition from both undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students, and also from aerospace professionals and amateur aircraft designers. Individual or team entries are allowed.

The submission deadline for entries is 31 August 2023. Winners will be announced at the RAeS Light Aircraft Design Conference in late 2023. www.aerosociety.com

Manchester Low Level Corridor Squawk reminder

Member Dave W writes: I attended a meeting of the North West Local Airspace Infringement Team or NW LAIT, and one of the main agenda items was the amount of infringements that were happening in Manchester’s airspace with a large number involving the LLR. The majority of these infringements occurred not due to lateral or vertical penetration of the

Young engineers at Metal Seagulls

In May, a hands-on engineering day for 23 young people from a local school was run by Patricia Mawuli Porter OBE and Jonathan Porter from Metal Seagulls. Aspiring young engineers were given hands-on opportunities with lathe operations, box-pan folding, guillotine use, snipping, riveting and 3D-printing, alongside introductions to CNC programming and DC electrics, while building a model

Airworthiness engineer

We have a vacancy for an airworthiness engineer to be part of the LAA Engineering team based at Turweston. The successful applicant will be involved with all aspects of continued airworthiness for the LAA-administered fleet of aircraft. Main duties will be assisting with Permit to Fly revalidations, providing technical assistance to LAA members, producing airworthiness instructions and technical articles for Light Aviation magazine.

The ideal applicant will demonstrate experience in all aspects of General Aviation airworthiness, including a thorough knowledge of airframes, engines and aircraft systems. A knowledge of vintage and classic aircraft as well as newer LAA types and modern avionics would be advantageous.

Candidates should be IT competent with Microsoft Office, have a friendly personality and the ability to work within a small team as well as independently.

Excellent communication skills are required and attention to detail is essential.

Training on in-house systems will be given.

This is a full-time post, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. It is principally based at LAA HQ, but some travel will also be required. Salary dependent on experience.

Please send your CV to office@laa.uk.com airspace, but mainly involved use of the ‘wrong transponder code’.

There’s a great Airspace safety document – select the tab for Manchester LLC https://airspacesafety.com/ hot-spot-narratives/. If the aircraft is transponder and radio equipped, squawk 7366 and monitor Manchester Radar 118.580 MHz.

So ensure that before you enter, until you’ve clearly exited the Low Level Route, ensure you are squawking 7366 and not 7000. If you squawk the wrong code it is an infringement.

6061T6 aluminium aircraft – handforming the ribs, and turning the wheels out of HDPE as part of the programme. Patricia said, “Metal Seagulls believes in investing in young people. They are the future, and we must all work to ensure that they receive opportunities to understand aviation, aviation engineering and that the industry is far more than just being a pilot.”

Rufforth East new restaurant

There's a new Italian restaurant at Rufforth East airfield – the Al Volo, located in the main club building. Rufforth East, which although primarily a microlight/gyro airfield, can accommodate a wide variety of GA types, with a 600m tarmac runway, 05/32. Airfield details in SkyDemon, but ops@rufforthairfieldeast.co.uk and 07802 435158 www.alvolorufforth.co.uk

Rufforth East will be the venue for a Meet the LAA event on 6-7 August.

We are always pleased to receive your letters, photos of your flying, and your feedback. Please email the editor at ed.hicks@laa.uk.com

Scottish Tour

Ed,

Just a quick note to express how much we enjoyed the recent LAA Scottish tour, which despite poor weather (with strong winds and frequent showers) was an enjoyable experience. We found it to be a wellorganised tour.

We met a great bunch of people, and made new friends, all ably guided by Neil Wilson.

We hope to be able to join in with any future such events,

John and Dee Cheesman

Custom Rotax oil tank

Ed,

I feel I must reply to the article regarding the Rotax oil tank (see picture, right). Some time ago Andy Best wrote a letter questioning why Rotax made such a heavy oil tank which would not fit into his aircraft project so he constructed his own in aluminium.

When I read his first article with regards to this, I researched the oil tank for the Rotax engines and the result is interesting. The oil system on the Rotax is unusual for a number of reasons. Firstly, it is a dry sump, one where the oil is pumped into a separate oil tank. Usually there is a scavenger pump which picks up the oil in the sump and pumps it to the oil tank.

Rotax, however, relies on the pressure which passes the piston rings into the crankcase to force the oil back. It is important that the crankcase is air tight so the pressure is above atmospheric for this to work correctly. When you burp the Rotax engines from cold you are pushing the oil into the tank so a correct oil level reading can be done.

The oil tank on the Rotax is cylinder shaped and the return oil is fed in at the top at an angle being directed down and round the inside of the tank. Just inside the outside wall is a gauze, not intended to collect debris but to assist in the break up of air bubbles from the oil. As the oil moves around the inside of the tank it also cools down and that is also the purpose of the round tank. The air bubbles rise to the top of the tank and escape into the atmosphere via a tube.

However, there is a restriction in the tank which prevents free access to the atmosphere thereby causing the pressure in the tank to be above the surrounding atmosphere. This is intentional and this assists the oil pump by pushing the oil through the oil cooler and not fully relying on the suction of the oil pump. It is of benefit at higher altitudes where due to a lowering of air pressure the oil pump would need to suck harder. I am aware of a pilot who did not fit the oil tank cap on correctly and found the oil pressure was slightly lower than normal.

When the cap was fitted correctly the oil pressure returned to normal, so the system appears to work.

There is no doubt the oil tank made by Andy Best will work, but I doubt that it will be as efficient as the Rotax one. I am not sure if Rotax would warranty an engine not fitted with the correct oil tank.

Thank you Andy for your article and I hope this gives you insight as to why the Rotax tank is what it is.

Simon Kettleboro.

Women’s World Gliding Championship 2022

Hi Ed,

While reading the June issue of Light Aviation I was delighted to see gliding mentioned in Coaching Corner, as both a glider and GA pilot myself it was great to see safety issues of winch cables and lookout for thermalling glider gaggles being discussed.

The Women’s World Gliding Championship 2022 (WWGC2022) is taking place at The Gliding Centre, Husbands Bosworth 13-27 August this year. Part of our recent campaign for WWGC2022 has been to boost awareness to GA pilots on how the competition may affect their flying and give pilots more of an idea how gliding works overall.

You can find out more about WWGC2022 by visiting our website wwgc2022.co.uk or on our social media channels (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter).

Regards, Steph Smith, WWGC2022 Social Media Team

Rolling Your Own

Dear Ed,

What have you done with the follow-up to Mike Roberts’ excellent Rolling Your Own series? At the end of his article in the April 2022 edition of Light Aviation, he wrote, ‘Next time, we will populate our detailed specification and determine some basic stability parameters’.

I rather expected the continued analysis to appear in the May issue, and when it did not, then I was convinced it would be in June. And I was wrong!

Ian Park.

Ed – Ian, thanks for checking up on Mike’s whereabouts! As we originally mentioned in part one, Mike’s articles were going to form an occasional series, so not every month. Mike has been really busy since he left LAA Engineering and moved back to Wales, which slowed down time available for writing, but the good news is he has just sent me the next two parts of his series, so you’ll see the series back in a future issue of Light Aviation before too long! ■