David Isaac Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 I agree Riley, damn good looking place ... green is a good colour ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle Communications Posted January 24, 2012 Share Posted January 24, 2012 Well I will be using my Savannah there so plenty of room for mine..... here is a link from a month or so ago when 3 savs dropped in the second one Bob Pavey used the main strip and the others Rick and Gundy used the cross strip to the SE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Isaac Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 Nice, very nice, nothing quite like your own strip. I have the choice of at least 8 paddocks on my Brother in laws grain farm at Manila, ranging from 200 metres to 800 metres for the Auster. Can't wait to fly in for the first time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightyknots Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 I have a powerline at the southern end of both strips I got Ergon to install red balls on it..that was expensive but I could not forgive myself if anyone hit it while landing at my strip Mark That's a very good safety initiative. The tragic accident with the hot air balloon a few km from my house 3 weeks ago was caused by a power line which (as the article shows below) are hazardous to all kinds of aviation around the world: Long power lines are hazards for balloons By Hayley Hannan 5:30 AM Sunday Jan 8, 2012 The hot air balloon accident in Carterton. Photo / APN A gust of wind, pilot error or mechanical failure could have been to blame for carrying an ill-fated balloon into power lines yesterday, sparking a catastrophic fire and cutting power to 3800 homes. An expert says long strings of power lines pose significant hazards for many forms of aviation. Police yesterday confirmed that as a hot air balloon was preparing to land in a Carterton paddock, it was caught in wires on a power line, causing sparking in the basket. One couple are believed to have jumped from the basket, just before the heat caused the balloon to leap upwards as it was engulfed in flames. It then plunged into a paddock. All 10 passengers and the pilot died. Balloon Aviation Association president Martyn Stacey said pylons and power lines posed a danger for aviation pilots but there has been no official analysis of the extent of that danger or the frequency of aircraft tangling with the lines. He said in New Zealand, power line strikes were rare. "But in the United States, the rate of hitting power lines in any form of aviation is incredibly high." Mechanical failure, a pilot error or a sudden gust of wind could have lead to the incident yesterday, Stacey said. There were also two possible explanations for the sudden, sharp ascent of the balloon. "With the fire in that balloon it's put heat in, which has made it rise," he said. "Or if someone jumps out of the balloon, you've lost more than a hundred kilograms of weight and the balloon is going to go racing upwards." The Transport Accident and Investigation Commission, police, the Department of Labour and the Coroner's office are investigating. APNZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ozzie Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 it costs a lot of money to run them underground they generate so much heat it is hard to disapate it so the cables have to be heavier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightyknots Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 it costs a lot of money to run them underground they generate so much heat it is hard to disapate it so the cables have to be heavier. But, you don't need helicopters to fix them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naremman Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 One of the joys of having a bit of acreage in the WA Wheatbelt is having your own airstrip/s. Adherance to CASAs CAAP 92.1 would be pretty sound reasoning for legal and insurance issues. Not much sense of paying premiums if the condition of your strip gives the insurance company an out. We won't open up the issue where lawyers are involved. (Sorry Kaz!!) After 37 yars flying from my strips I have became very familiar with them, but I don't agree readily to other pilots having access to them. If I know the pilots and their aircraft capabilities, it is generally not an issue, but given that the strips are not overly long, and slopes are involved, there is quite a potential for a situation to get pear shaped. The strip I use most is 1500' long with a three degree slope, and I have seen some experienced pilots get a bit ragged on that one. My Flying Instructor loved putting Commercial students in there in a C182 RG, and and had few who very firmly declined. Australia is quite fortunate that there are generally not too many impediments to avaition activities. When you hear of the disapearing small airfields in the UK we realize how fortunate we are. Putting SAFETY to the forefront in any issue dealing with airstrips is an imperative. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farri Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 Powerlines really should be kept underground these days... I said the same thing to an Ergon Energy crew, who were repairing the main power lines to our property, after cyclone Yasi.... I was told that they don`t like them under ground because it is too difficult to find and repair any faults. Does make some sense, I suppose! Frank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Isaac Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 Frank, that is somewhat of weak reason these days. Even when I was a beginner in the trade in the 70s we had the technology to locate underground faults to the metre, and given we had to dig at least a two metre hole, that was no problem. The main reason they don't reticulate U/G is cost. It simply costs more. Ever noticed how the expensive subdivisions are always U/G these days. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazza 38 Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 On the Gold Coast just about all the power is underground.Apart from the older suburbs.The suburb I live in was established around 1986/1987 it has all the power underground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pudestcon Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 The main reason they don't reticulate U/G is cost. It simply costs more. Ever noticed how the expensive subdivisions are always U/G these days. I wonder about that if the ongoing maintenance costs and power outages caused by storms was taken into account - not to mention fires such as the devastating bushfire at Toodyay recently, caused by power lines overhead. Certainly the initial cost would be more expensive. For most of my working life I lived in a country area where the power was delivered overhead. We had regular power outages, especially during the storm seasons. Now I live in the city with underground power reticulation, and only rarely see power out events. I have a brother who works for the WA state run electrical supplier, and he is always out at storm time - he lives in Port Hedland so a busy time at this time of the year being cyclone season. He'll be gearing up right now for when Iggy hits. Pud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ozzie Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 Was it Auckland that had an underground power line short out and exploded some time back? Took ages to repair it and they had the CBD getting there power from ships in the habour for around a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ave8rr Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 Was it Auckland that had an underground power line short out and exploded some time back? Took ages to repair it and they had the CBD getting there power from ships in the habour for around a year. Yes Ozzie, it was Auckland. The cable was not able to supply the "current" demand. I think there was some power supplied from a ships gen but not for very long. A new cable was run into the city alongside a rail line in super quick time. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 And dont forget the high-voltage spikes from lightning. Shocking Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle Communications Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Power supply to rural areas is done as cheap as possible due to the large distances used on each feeder. The power in my area and for literally hundreds of kilometres is SWER (single wire earth return) this is the most cost effective. It is a single copper conductor running on a single pole without any cross arms just a single pin insulator and at each farm house you have your own transformer. The system actually works very well the only real issue is during a storm or bad wind if one of these lines comes down it can take a while to get the power back this is purely due to having to patrol the line to find the fault. My place is fed from the Wallerville feeder some 60 km or so away so it can take a while especially as most of the power does not follow roads it just goes straight through the bush to most places. To put the power underground would be cost prohibitive and the higher the voltage the further you can transmit the power. I am overall happy with the SWER as being a sparky and having done my apprenticeship with the local power authority in south east Qld I understand the situation. What I did spit about was the cost Ergon charged me to put the 3 red balls onto the SWER line...I thought it was outrageous...not so much the labour which was about $1800 it was the $600 they charged me for 3 of round red plastic balls...200 bucks for each ball was just a blatant rippof Mark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gundy Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 It's good value I reckon!!! Cheaper than running into it. They'd charge you more if you hit it and they came out to repair the line, not counting the cost of damage to your bird. Gundy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle Communications Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Well thats why I spent the money I couldn't forgive myself if someone hit the swer line...I didn't have any option in my belief about having to put it up there. What I objected to was the price of the plastic balls. I know what things cost and how the electricity industry works....I did more than 10 years in SEQEB now ENERGEX and went through all sections and I finished my time there at the apprentice training school teaching electrical apprentices the in-house high voltage stuff I then left and started this current radio/electronics business some 24 years ago. But I did do a lot of work in the control centre for a couple of years as a DSO "distribution system operator" we dealt with all the high and low voltage switching from the 240 right up to 110kv also have done a lot of line patrolling during and after storms getting supply back to customers 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eightyknots Posted February 7, 2012 Share Posted February 7, 2012 Power supply to rural areas is done as cheap as possible due to the large distances used on each feeder. The power in my area and for literally hundreds of kilometres is SWER (single wire earth return) this is the most cost effective. It is a single copper conductor running on a single pole without any cross arms just a single pin insulator and at each farm house you have your own transformer. The system actually works very well the only real issue is during a storm or bad wind if one of these lines comes down it can take a while to get the power back this is purely due to having to patrol the line to find the fault. My place is fed from the Wallerville feeder some 60 km or so away so it can take a while especially as most of the power does not follow roads it just goes straight through the bush to most places. To put the power underground would be cost prohibitive and the higher the voltage the further you can transmit the power. I am overall happy with the SWER as being a sparky and having done my apprenticeship with the local power authority in south east Qld I understand the situation. What I did spit about was the cost Ergon charged me to put the 3 red balls onto the SWER line...I thought it was outrageous...not so much the labour which was about $1800 it was the $600 they charged me for 3 of round red plastic balls...200 bucks for each ball was just a blatant rippofMark I think it's high time that R-Aus starts manufacturing these red balls (or contract someone in China to do it for them at $7 each) and then make them available at cost price to the SEQEBs/County Councils/Reticulation providers so that people who need them only have to pay for the installation cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAVID SEE Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 I think it's high time that R-Aus starts manufacturing these red balls (or contract someone in China to do it for them at $7 each) and then make them available at cost price to the SEQEBs/County Councils/Reticulation providers so that people who need them only have to pay for the installation cost. I fly out of a private strip here at home, (Theodore) SEQEB put new mains in along the property boundary, directly across the end of our cross strip. I asked them about putting balls on the lines, they said "we think we might have one in the truck, if we do we'll pop it on for you" about three days later, my wife gets a phone call from one of their offices to say something along the lines that if they put them up, it would be admitting liability if someone ran into them. We've since closed the cross strip... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingVizsla Posted February 11, 2012 Author Share Posted February 11, 2012 I fly out of a private strip here at home, (Theodore) SEQEB put new mains in along the property boundary, directly across the end of our cross strip. I asked them about putting balls on the lines, they said "we think we might have one in the truck, if we do we'll pop it on for you" about three days later, my wife gets a phone call from one of their offices to say something along the lines that if they put them up, it would be admitting liability if someone ran into them. We've since closed the cross strip... I had a similar experience with Ergon and the Rolleston airstrip (Council owned & operated). By placing the balls Ergon is admitting that there is a problem (risk) and so want to transfer that risk to someone else (the landholder). In this case the Ergon power line ran through private property (the main line serving the town) and one property owner signed, the other didn't. So balls went on one half of the line only. Cost just over $5,000. Trying to get power to the new sewerage plant (heavily subsidised by State Govt), Ergon (a State Govt owned corporation) shifted the onus to Council to get easement agreement from affected landholders (all State Govt owned). The State Govt refused to sign, so Council had to turn to private landholders to re-route the line at greater expense. I had another experience with the State Govt where the law said I had to inform one Dept of a change of details within 14 days, yet the other Dept could not issue the required certificate in less than 6 weeks. One could not talk to the other and one would not accept the other's "preliminary" advice. There were times I tore my hair out, but others would face this frustration on a daily basis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnarly Gnu Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 Drop pairs of shoes with the laced tied as you fly past the powerlines, eventually some will connect! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastmeg2 Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Drop pairs of shoes with the laced tied as you fly past the powerlines, eventually some will connect! The shoes that accidently got painted flouro orange . . . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank marriott Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Don't forget the Greenies [Department of Environment and Conservation] They have a habbit of not letting you cut down a tree even if is it stunted rubbish Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazza 38 Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Don't forget the Greenies [Department of Environment and Conservation] They have a habbit of not letting you cut down a tree even if is it stunted rubbishFrank Good Point Frank.Although I have never had problems with them.Probably because I never told the wankers when I have cut down trees on my own land ( I dropped two 50 footers which where next to the house a few years ago as I was worried that they might fall on the house in a storm)or my parents farm when they had it.(own a couple over the years, now retired) .They can go and get F@#$&^ I will do what I want my land. PS- I used to sell Fire wood when I was in the RAAF , as a side line. I used to drop alot of dead trees, I also have wedges.I dont recommend people dropping big trees next to houses unless they are experienced and competent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pudestcon Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Good Point Frank.Although I have never had problems with them.Probably because I never told the wankers when I have cut down trees on my own land ( I dropped two 50 footers which where next to the house a few years ago as I was worried that they might fall on the house in a storm)or my parents farm when they had it.(own a couple over the years, now retired) .They can go and get F@#$&^ I will do what I want my land.PS- I used to sell Fire wood when I was in the RAAF , as a side line. I used to drop alot of dead trees, I also have wedges.I dont recommend people dropping big trees next to houses unless they are experienced and competent. It' funny how sometimes those pesky trees just seem to die, like the one on the neighbours property but close to our boundary - I put it down to borers:augie: Pud 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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