SGM

A 28-registered Bristell? Maybe they meant 23 or 24 registered? Interesting it’s not on the approved Bass Straight crossing routes ie via Flinders or King Islands… and presumably no Scheds?

yes on the 918 form the LAME has written a few things it's subject to including "IAN logbook, schedule 5 and Rotax 912 m/m"

Got some additional info by phone. Part 43 is not active. For RAAus part 103 will (eventually) cover this smae space but who knows when that is coming. For LSA's MOSAIC will change some rules here, but probably not impact existing LSA's. So it seems zero tolerance.

Hey folks, An RAAus registered LSA has an annual due on 7 August. It has done less than 100 hours (so can already make use of the 2 month Rotax tolerance). A LAME does maintenance to CASA Schedule 5 My question relates to the attached Advisory Circular" ADVISORY CIRCULAR AC 43-02 v1.0 whcih states in part.. "The annual inspection will fall due by the end of the 12th month from when the previous inspection was completed. For example, an aircraft that had an annual inspection and was approved for return to service on 10 January 2020, will have the next inspection fall due on or before 31 January 2021. However, CASA has provided for a 10-day planning tolerance that may be utilised by the RO, in which case the previously described aircraft would be required to have the next annual inspection commenced by no later than 10 February 2021. The extra days, if used, do not need to be ’paid back’ from the following calendar period" Anyone have experience in this regard? This would suggest it would be flyable to 10 September. Is that right? Anyone have any insight on why is the downloaded document marked "Draft"? Draft AC 43-02 v1.0.pdf

Ian, will all the old forum content be moved to Aircraft pilots? I have noted with the current site that some embedded images from very old posts have been lost to time.

On the weekend, I noticed "satellite" appearing on my phone two different ways whilst flying and using Avplan (with SkyEcho + ADSB). I thought I would investigate and share the findings here. The first image at 2:57 pm is my Telstra iPhone indicating I can send SMS by Satellite, albeit with a reasonably weak signal. After some investigation, this will show when you can't get a connection to the normal Telstra network, but can connect to Starlink, so SMS will work not apps or voice calls The second image at 3:10pm is my (any-mobile-provider) iPhone indicating I can send Apple emergency 000 messages via their GlobalStar coverage. This means I was most likely in a gap between Starlink satellites, which is generally only a minute or so, but there was a Globalstar satellite visible to my phone. Since I also have a PLB in the aircraft, and a Zoleo (mostly used by my daughter for hiking), I thought I would put all four options in a table. 00AD270A-D18D-498B-8BD4-F65C4730A9F7.SNAG

I'm told it was a "Crane". These seem to be in the 4-8kg range. Looks like it's not the first time a bird has brought down Bell 206L Longranger. https://www.australianflying.com.au/helicopters/bird-strike-suspected-in-long-ranger-crash I was once told landing lights "on" help birds avoid you... seems plausible. Where I fly we have birds and roos. I sometimes wonder if $20 mini signal airhorn (the type used on boats) would be handy - but it would have to be mounted in a way that would be quick to activate perhaps with a pull cable for use on runway incursion or on final etc.

One passenger fatality. A telecommunications technician. Tragic. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-14/nt-police-investigating-fatal-helicopter-incident-in-gapuwiyak/105531216

Australia (per ChatGPT) - but AI can make mistakes

The rate would be 0.43 fatalities per 100k participants, which in the case of my XLS formatting, rounds down to zero.

I don't want to spoil everyone's fun, but here is what ChatGPT came up with. I have checked a few sources, and they all seem ok. I can supply them if people are really keen.

Hi Alan I was motivated to get one after seeing an aircraft cross my path at Carrum (near busy Moorabbin airport in Victoria) quite a bit earlier than Avplan (via internet mobile connection) had indicated. Since then, I use it pretty much all of the time. I have spotted many nearby aircraft cross-country that would have escaped my visual scanning. Even in circuits when I am a bit unclear from others radio calls about where exactly they are, I can have a quick peek at the iPhone or iPad because the location is very accurate. For me it just gives me comfort knowing it's probably going to show me 80% of all other aircraft, to at least 20nm (more like 40nm at altitude). And even if I'm not looking at my phone or iPad, there is a good chance they will notice me on their display.

Personally, I think any flight school passing on a $15,000 excess to a student should be publicly named here (and shamed). It's not defamation just the reality of how they are doing business.

If you bought a ticket in Angel Flight's Lottery and have concerns about the individuals listed above.. "Information regarding the status of the police investigation, can only be sought by contacting Bankstown Police Area Command on (02) 9783 2199 and quoting the related event number E96124930."

Yes charging from radio is what I understand. Once I announced I was taxiing at Murwillumbah (YMUR), but after run ups, I looked aTt rain developing, so taxied back to the clubhouse and waited for an hour before departing. I got charged twice for that. Potentially, this would demotivate people from providing full registration in radio calls? I would be intrigued to know how they record and process CTAF and why CTAF recordings never seem to emerge in accident investigations.

As a generalisation, the lower frequencies (700mhz, 850mhz) penetrate structures further and tend to wrap around obstacles better. They tend to dominate in regional and remote areas (4G), whereas 3500mhz is more useful for high-demand city environments (5G). Sometimes when flying I historically got Telstra 3G coverage. This is maybe enough for a text but rarely enough to use webpage to get METAR etc. Those 3G sites are now progressively shifting to 4G so it will be interesting to see if the transition (and the corresponding change in user demand) gives any better coverage. Some other random thoughts 1. All three mobile network providers are trialling SMS via Low Earth Orbit satellite - handy for letting someone know where you are, not so handy for contacting CENSAR or getting weather. 2. It will be interesting to see how TPG's(Vodafone) network sharing deal with Optus changes narrows coverage gap - that's due to go live in 2025. I can think of times when I have had Voda coverage but not Telstra. And getting 4 bars on your display from anyone does not guarantee mean you can make a call or download data - just ask people who went to "Beyond the Valley" music festival. 3. The only Telstra reseller that has access to the full Telstra network is Boost (others like Aldi, Belong etc just get access to parts of the network). To see the difference go the map with the slider about halfway down this page https://www.whistleout.com.au/MobilePhones/Guides/Telstra-mobile-network-coverage. Note Boost has now been fully acquired by Telstra. 4. Phones that Telstra rates as "Blue Tick" or with a "Regional" have been tested in low coverage scenarios... you can find them on the Telstra website.

Unfortunately, that is almost certainly the Sting. It is from the facebook page of the other instructor who is named in the 9news article.

Yep typo. Definitely a Sting.

Aircraft was a Sling. Here is the wing. There are RAAus Slings at both Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie.

Our insurance is currently via Geoff Tonkin at https://insurancehouse.com.au/. It is 50% QBE and 50% Agile and is deliberately designed to "top-up" the RAAus insurance... specifically it has this clause "RECREATIONAL AIRCRAFT AUSTRALIA LIABILITY ENDORSEMENT It is hereby noted and agreed that coverage under Sections 2 and 3 of this Policy shall come into effect only after insurance available to You because of Your membership of Recreational Aviation Australia Inc. has been exhausted." In our case the RAAus sub-limit of $250k for passengers was what we primarily wanted to increase. Our view was that in the event of ongoing rehab required for a passenger, $250k would not last long. There are a few others clarification etc in the top up document, like removing the pro-rata clause (which would mean the replacement of any avionics etc only calculated on estimated remaining service life) and coverage for forced landing transport costs. I'll attach that full document here. Note 1: Previously we had dealt with Sonya at Bill Owen Insurance (now trading as https://www.aviatorrisk.com.au/) - They also offered excellent advice and customer service, but at the last requote was just a bit more expensive. I would speak to both. Note 2: This year our premium did not go up - much to my surprise. RA Aus Additional Benefits endorsement (latest).pdf

UPDATE : On Friday I received a call from NSW Fair Trading which is the lead agency in this prosecution. They can't say too much, but the main "players" should enjoy this Christmas on the "outside"! If you have any evidence, knowledge or tip-offs, PM me and I will give you the details of the lead investigator.

OK update on my initial post. I completed the BFR yesterday (and it is called BFR on my RAAus app at least) with Adam from Kyneton, Victoria (YKTN). Thanks for the tip off @pmccarthy We did all the usual, stalls, Practice Forced Landing, and navigated to an impromptu and unfamiliar airfield (Maryborough YMBU) which was 37 NM away. I keyed it into my panel-mounted Garmin 296, iPad and bugged the heading. As luck would have it I lost GPS signal about 15 NM before Maryborough but with the iPad, heading and trusty paper map meant there was no issue. Eventually, GPS came back 5 minutes later. I got to ask Adam a few questions about flying that I hadn't fully resolved in my own mind (exact ruling on the distance flying before a flightplan is required), got some advice about choosing runways where there is nil wind and cross runways, and a few other comments. The entire process took 1.5 hours and I felt the money was well spent on relevant content. Adam is a super nice guy and an experienced CFI. Highly recommend him for your next BFR in Victoria. He flys Friday - Sunday's. If you need his mobile number PM me.

My Biennial Flight Review (RAAus Pilot) is approaching. When I checked two years ago with RAAus, the cross-country endorsement is not actually a separate BFR retest requirement... however, the flight instructor I chose last time decided to make it so. So I ended up navigating without GPS for a few hours just to demonstrate I could still do it. Whilst it's probably a good relearning exercise, I have 2 separate GPS on the panel and two further (Ipad, Iphone) in the aircraft, so perhaps the E6B/map/watch approach was not the best use of either my time or my money. Two questions to the forum a. Have you been required to do cross-country navs on a BFR? b. Can you recommend a good RAAus CFI in the Melbourne area who is "pragmatic"?

Is it an official position that ATSB doesn't examine accidents of RAAus aircraft? Does anyone have that in writing? With many factory-built aircraft now RAAus registered and many flight schools in RAAus, there seems to be as much to learn going forward from any RAAus aircraft accidents, as there would be from accidents on (rare) experimental class VH-registered aircraft.

Hard to believe that an 800kg aircraft of this size could stall at 27kts... looks like this was questioned 14 years ago too...