long tall texan Posted August 17, 2011 Share Posted August 17, 2011 On the news this morning: Five helicopters will join the search for an ultralight plane carrying two men, which failed to return to a central Queensland airport. An Australian Search and Rescue Coordination Centre (AusSAR) spokeswoman says the plane left Emerald airport at 3pm (AEST) on Wednesday. The alarm was raised around 6.30pm (AEST) and a search conducted using night vision goggles and infrared equipment. "It was a pre-sale familiarisation flight," the spokeswoman told AAP on Thursday. "We are coordinating a search with five helicopters. "We are hoping a more intense daylight search may find something." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
long tall texan Posted August 17, 2011 Author Share Posted August 17, 2011 Spoke to John from the school at Emerald this morning. A Vari-eze flew up from Warwick yesterday to take a prospective buyer for a flight. Haven't heard from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spin Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Dammit no, not another one - here's hoping for a good outcome yet. My senses are a little raw after following the pain of good friends waiting for the outcome of a search for loved ones overseas. 13 in two aircraft killed, wives and sweethearts of some of the top local aerobatic pilots included - appears to have been scud running in formation, wrecks 20m apart about 100m below ridge height. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingVizsla Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 I was told who the "local" was and (if true) I worked with him in Springsure 3 years ago. He lived in Emerald and was recently working at a mine. Was learning to fly two or three years ago. Will only believe it when it is confirmed, so I won't add to speculation and hope the info is wrong. Just hope the men are wandering around a paddock somewhere waiting for a lift back home. Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingVizsla Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 From the Central Qld News THE wreckage of the ultralight aircraft was found by the Mackay-based RACQ CQ Rescue helicopter in bushland off the Capricorn Highway, east of Emerald, at 1.50pm. Police have confirmed the two occupants are deceased. The men, believed to be locals, took off from the airport at 3pm and were reporting missing at 6pm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spin Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Thanks for the update Sue, I'd just gone looking on abc news but they hadn't picked up on the latest yet. RIP fellow aviators. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Maj Millard Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Would this have been the Vari-Eze advertised in the RAA mag a few months back ??.....another tragedy for the folks at Warwick as if they haven't had enough.....................................................Maj... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jake.f Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewen McPhee Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 A tragedy for those involved and their families. May they rest in peace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueshed Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Very Sad ! what the Heck is happening ! are there any common factors with any of these events in recent time's! Really, what is going on? The challenge being we really do not know! Because we were not there! HOW DO WE LEARN FROM THESE EVENT'S ????????????????????? May be Altitude or attitude! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Maj Millard Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Well unfortunatly there will always be accidents in aviation, and there always has been, right from the first day man flew. As always the mind wanders looking for causes...engine failure and a bad touch down ?....some sort of control failure ?.....birdstike ?...structural failure ?....what ?. the vari-ezi doesn't really have a history of falling out of the sky, and they've been around for a while now. (the well publicized John Denver incident involving a long-ezi, had many contributing causes and could easily have been averted) Big problem is we are not getting any feedback on any of these accidents, and are left in the dark like mushrooms. There are accidents that happened well over a year ago now, where I would like to know what actually happened, but have heard nothing as a follow-up. Examples : the Borebee that lost it's tail near Hay, and the double-fatal Drifter wing failure near Casino. There was also a Zenith 601 that went down in North Qld killing both on board that we've heard nothing about either....what failed or what happened. Knowledge dispels fear. Unfortunatly there's a good chance we'll never hear anything about this one either.................................................Maj... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winsor68 Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Oh we'll hear something... We'll hear the same reasons why we don't hear anything "they" gave last time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingVizsla Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 The Warwick man has been identified as Rob Behrend CFI of Warwick Flying School - a highly experienced pilot. News article here http://www.warwickdailynews.com.au/story/2011/08/18/warwick-pilot-rob-behrend-has-been-confirmed-as-on/ I know who the "local" is but won't say until he is officially named. He survived cancer, took up flying and is now gone. Photo at http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-18/deadly-ultralight-crash-wreckage/2845808 Too many highly experienced men have perished recently. We really need to push for disclosure so that we can learn from this and many other events. We need this if safety is to be improved. Sue 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Maj Millard Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 The rescue folks have done well to spot that wreckage so quickly....................................................Maj... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turboplanner Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 (edited - spray at moderators - mod) Insurance is just going to keep going up unless we get on top of these crashes. There is a common theme of accidents/frame failures occurring during "demonstration for sale" flights going back several years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingVizsla Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 The rescue folks have done well to spot that wreckage so quickly....................................................Maj... There's not that much bush around Emerald, so it's odd that they ended up there. The area is better known for irrigated cropping land - cotton, canola, grains, sunflower. South of Emerald is known as the Golden Triangle, recently designated Strategic Cropping Land with mining restricted (although the State Govt seems to be granting exceptions to any one who asks). Plenty of emergency landing options. So whatever happened is probably structural or control mechanism failure, and we need to know. The other pilot has been identified as Ian Baldwin, whom I knew and worked with. http://www.cqnews.com.au/story/2011/08/19/cancer-survivor-dies-in-crash-ian-baldwin-plane/ Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rick-p Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Unfortunately it is the "unkown" that plants the seed of fear in the subconscious and from there it is the denial of logical information that grows the fear in us to a point of itself being an impediment to one's informed actions as opposed to a state of mind which says "will I be the next statistic" or "no I won't be the next statistic" because I have learnt through the actions of some other less fortunate who didn't have access to the information that may have saved his life. Human factors, having unhealthy or less than good thoughts on point will more than likely lead to a degradation of one's ability to control the situation which will in turn lead to bad a bad decision being made through a corruption of one's judgement in respect of a given action. Basically, what this means is that if the powers to be don't 'suck it up' and start giving us all some answers then we will continue down the present path. Just consider the road toll, the media is very quick to give us all the gory details but we never get the investigation results from the experts as to cause etc. An example of how the 'powers to be' keep us in the dark about many things is to be found in the road traffic legislation. How many of you are aware that you can be charged for drink driving if driving a "motor vehicle" (could be a ride on lawn mower and the vehicle doesn't have to be registered) on private property. Let's say you live on a grazing property in central queensland and your worker comes back to the house and tells you that you have a horse down the paddock stuck in a fence and he needs you to bring the tractor down to assist. You've consumed 1/2 dozen stubbies, of you go and in the process roll the tractor. Ambulance and police attend. Off to hospital, blood is taken and your reading is .08, you WILL BE CHARGED and lose your licence. If your reading is over .15 then there is no chance of a work licence even if it means losing your job. When are "the powers to be" in this country going to stop worrying about themselves and start giving some consideration to the people who are the very reason for what they are in power or there for. My heart bleeds for the victims families as the families and friends of the victims themselves also become victims possibly, but not always, as each incident always turns on it's own perculiar set of facts and circumstances, as a result of not having information that may have been available but not available to the victims as at the time it all went wrong for them. Rick-p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly_tornado Posted August 18, 2011 Share Posted August 18, 2011 Rick, that's an odd sort of a rant @ common sense laws. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightyknots Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 There is a common theme of accidents/frame failures occurring during "demonstration for sale" flights going back several years. Is this subjective, turbo, or is there information to support this? The rescue folks have done well to spot that wreckage so quickly....................................................Maj... Yes, that was impressive. Again, my condolences to the families who have just lost two loved ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly_tornado Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Operating any machinery drunk is a bad idea. In this case QLD is leading the rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turboplanner Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Eighty, I suppose it's subjective just with the three I know of, starting with a frame breakup which killed a prominent South Australian horse trainer some years ago. I think it needs a category for investigation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
turboplanner Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Qld must have stupid laws. You cannot be charged for drink driving on private property if you are an owner operator - end of story. The only legislation that can bite you on private property is in regard OH&S & even then only in relation to employees &/or visitors. When I had my Gazelle crash on my own property I was surprised that the Police didn't want to breathalyze me given Air Legislation etc. Public Liability legislation will bite you, it's a lot newer and designed to get a fairer outcome for the victim. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spin Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Public Liability legislation will bite you, it's a lot newer and designed to get a fairer outcome for the victim. Yeah, but you're confusing the quoted situation where the only potential harm was to the property owner, with harm to a third party. Even there, other than the employee situation where Workcover need to be notified once a threshold of injury is reached, the police etc. seldomn show interest, it is up to the injured party to make a claim for compensation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnm Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 I knew Ian ....................... we both worked at Emerald Council back say 7 years ago ..................... we would often try & solve the troubles of the world - but, to no avail - we prbably caused more .............. than we solved. I have not seen Ian since then - I did not know his family We would talk all things flying and and to me he was a thoughtful and careful peron .................. RIP Ian My condolences to both families, friends, associates, rescue, council and airport staff, etc JM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rick-p Posted August 19, 2011 Share Posted August 19, 2011 Rick, that's an odd sort of a rant @ common sense laws. To you it may have been a rant but is was acctually in support of Maj's post. And as for saying it's a common sense law well you obviously have had no legal training or understand the law. There are good laws and bad laws, this one is a bad law. Rick-p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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