pj8768

Thanks for the map link - added to homepage

I've got some time off in April and hoping to faff around western NSW, Victoria and South Australia for a week or two.

I'm aiming to take a tent and if possible/permissible pitch underwing or an adjacent campsite if one exists, one night at a time. Might occasionally pubstay for the occasional cleanup.

Does anyone know of any airfields, like Temora or adjacent to Moruya for example, where camping is encouraged or allowed?

The alternative - Pitch at dusk and leave at dawn before the local council worker accidently runs the slasher over your tent?

Grateful for anyone able to share experiences.

I should be allowed to fly again at the end of February. I have been given permission by the she who must be obeyed to fly there this year. There are a few from Caboolture who are going to fly down and I am going to tag along for the experience. How easy is it to get from the airfield back into town do they have shuttle buses and what time do they finish. I am quite happy to stay at the airfield and sleep there except I need power as I use a Cpap machine for sleeping so if I can get a powerpoint somewhere for the night I am happy to sleep there if not I may need to get a motel room I am happy either way but would prefer to stay at the airfield of course.

CPAP when travelling - some CPAP distribitors have a portable device made for hikers so light weight and runs of rechargeable batteries (called transcend). Alternatively CPAP australia sell a battery pack for your own machine, but weighs a bit.

A problem- none of the passengers filled in a prelanding customs card

Ahh.....the ability to relax and enjoy the simple things in life - like fly a kite and not worry about the shirt and sunscreen!

I can't imagine navigating through that territory without gps back up with so few waypoints.

Never leave the house without a change of underwear handy

I've flown into a few airfields where calls are made about chute drops and number of canopies (expected!) e.g Maitland, Goulburn.

If approaching circuit inbound, other than watching out for potential prop damage, any advice on chute-drop etiquette?

That should tease the Great Whites

The Harley brigade now flying!

I can see it now- customised "pipes"', ice cream bucket helmets, white T shirt and Levi's with OAT of zero degrees.

There were plenty of vapour trails along SE Australia today.

Anyone know the cause/s and significance?

Great aerial pics "Great Southern Land" on aunty

But where were "Pussy Riot"?

The only real living to be made in Aviation is working for CASA or the ATSB. Failing that there are some CFI positions that pay appropriate wages however they can be pretty borderline.We're working hard with our school to change things around though and pay well above award rates to our GA and RA instructors. If they're committed full-time (5 days per week) they'll get $50-70k a year out of training. We've cut the overheads out of the business - realised the "office" is really the aircraft - not some bricks and mortar and admin staff sucking the cash out. Gives us more to pay the instructors!

 

Problem from a business point of view is that everyone is of the opinion that RA should be much cheaper. We did the sums very thoroughly and a $60k Warrior costs only about $25-30 more per hour to run than an $85k Jabiru when you take the opportunity cost of the funds and pay an L2 properly to do the maintenance. So we make little to no margin out of RA training at the moment basically. But with low overheads at least the instructors can get paid well. I suppose from a purely business point of view the guys doing it for the love of it keep the RA prices low. Some of them are happy working for $20 a flying hour which is less than half the award rate but they're generally not about to take themselves to Fair Work Australia!

 

Only problem for us is there are no instructors around willing to step up to the plate!

Dear Mr Smurf

Have you ever considered becoming an instructor? Might be one way of building up some hours, although with risk of life, limb and gastrointestinal integrity.

Regards

Once (note past tense) had my plane hangared at a private ALA south of Canberra - no name required to those that know the area.

Sunny day, no wind, weekend - "sorry, runway's closed, I'm mowing the grass areas".

You're friggin kiddn me.

Regular occurrence.

Albatross by Peter Green would make a good one, except for the nasty bird strike......

I fly humming the theme to the dam busters

Interesting.

 

Oh, the insiration came from watching "Top Gear" and they were saying how needing to "go potty" affects your ability to drive.

 

Looking at some of the replies; my thoughts:

 

1 - Landing on an old road and "getting the business done".

 

Fair enough, but what happens if you mess up the landing? What legal minefield have you entered?

 

2 - Flying within your limits.

 

Granted. I don't want to seem to be advocating exceeding your limits. That can be very dangerous.

 

3 - Tieing knots....

 

Well, I'll be modest and say mine isn't long enough to do that.

 

4 -Guernsey

 

Intersting. But again: I won't bite, though I am tempted.

 

If you are flying "high" it also takes time to descend, and as you do, the air pressure increases on the bladder and this makes it worse if it is a number 1 you are wanting to do.

 

Other things which were mentioned:

 

Get your priorities right.

 

I agree. Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. Everything else after that.

 

Facthunter, thanks for the honesty.

 

Biggles, hope you are going good with resolving the problem.

 

I guess what I really mean is how you "deal with" the sensation/fact of actaully having it happen to you, and the resultant smell until you land and clean up.

 

I"ve had a couple of close calls with "number 1's".

 

I think people are "conditioned" that when we sit on the dunny, releaving ourselves isn't a problem. But sitting in a car/plane/any seat other than a toilet it is difficult to feel ok as it happens.

 

Sure it isn't something you want to "simulate" it so you "get used to it". Heaven forbid.

 

I was just wondering what people would get their heads around the scenario.

Aviate, navigate, communicate, urinate, defecate?

Updated maps?

How long does it take for a decommisioned or overgrown ALA to disappear from a map - Boorowa, Greenthorpe on Sydney VNC, Tralee on Canberra VTC? - I'm sure there's more

Unfortunately greed is often a stronger motivator than behaving responsibly and ethically - enough for some to gamble on someone else's life.

Buyer beware - maybe human factors should extend to buying an aircraft - how to spot a lemon and a dodgy used car salesman, how to organise an independent inspection, legal responsibilities of buying and selling.

Beyond bringing aviation into disrepute, what are the possible legal ramifications for some of the cowboys, and also organisations overseeing aviation, from family members etc?

I work in the medical field - anxiety disorder and depression are very prevalent - a significant proportion of patients are well controlled with agents such as SSRI therapy. Soon it'll be mixed to the drinking water just like fluoride.

Medical clearance is a vexed problem. What's safer - a patient who has regular medical checks, notching up a diagnostic list, or one who ignores symptoms and sees a doctor once every decade or two? Which one would you think has to fill in forms for the rta or casa more frequently?

I nearly poisoned myself once after a day welding galvanised pipe. Couldn't get any air into my lungs in the middle of the night so these days I usually lightly grind the dirt, rust and gal in one operation, then sand, or out with the oxy and put in a new beam.

Occupational asthma is well described with welding - you can get sensitised to fumes from flux, aluminium, nickel, chromium etc - reaction can either be immediate or several hours later.

I vaguely recall an Australian pilot mag editorial on this issue.

FAA in USA has something about fostering aviation in its mission statement, in addition to safety, whereas CASA's mission statement is all about safety, and nothing about fostering anything other than safety.

Safest form of aviation involves static displays or taxiing practice.

Perhaps time for an adjustment of legislation?

Happy to be corrected....

Have dabbled in sleep physiology.

Two things that drive sleep-

1. Circadian rhythm, or body clock. This is stuffed for international pilots as they constantly traverse time zones aka constant jetlag. Meant to be awake when timed to be asleep a few time zones back - circadian rhythm dips normally around 3-4am (the "wall" for those that have done night shift) and 3-4pm for those that follow a standard 24h waking day. Italians smartly deal with this with the afternoon siesta.

2. Sleep debt- the longer the time spent awake, the greater the drive to sleep. This is best paid off with a stage of sleep known as slow wave - brain electrical activity greatly slows down.

Concept of the power nap- no longer than 20mins or so. Refreshing, and brain wave activity does not slow down too much, so you can still function afterwards.

If nap for too long, more likely to enter slow wave sleep. Sleep inertia results on waking. Brain waves at 1 Hz take a while to exceed the 14Hzplus of wakefulness; bit like trying to start a cold 1970s engine on a frosty morning. Most will have experienced and witnessed inertia in action - phone call at 2am that you only vaguely recall, or not at all, the kid who can't be soothed after a night terror, feeling groggy after a 1 hour nap on the weekend. Takes up to 15 mins to get back up to speed. We function best if we wake from rapid eye movement sleep, called active sleep is infants, as the electrical activity is similar to wakefulness. First REM period occurs after 90mins sleep, and cycles every 90mins or so.

The mining industry is up to speed with this stuff, as there's money at stake. Much more valuable than safety apparently.