FlyingVizsla

G'day Sue, gotta catch up with you two sometime for sure. Would love to spend a week or so and help you get some of those great planes up to scratch! Where is your 152 hangered at the moment, in Springsure or Childers?

The C152 is looking sad, so while I have had interest from flying schools, it isn't in a condition (cosmetic only) that I would be happy to hire it in. The husband wants me to get some enjoyment out of it. As a couple we love seeing other people enjoying flying. That's why he has lent his Lightwing to a flying instructor, but it still only does 10 hours a year and we receive nothing from it. When we are see it there is always work to be done. The only flying he's managed in it was his BFR last year. I was hoping to finish my RAA conversion and tail wheel in this plane (which I started in 2003) but the guy who has it isn't interested.

I agree with you Tomo, invest in the things that grow first, then something that is an indulgence. All our planes were bought for cash out of our excess. There's no money to be made in aircraft (well, most of the time).

Right now we are working on our forklift installing the ram with the seals renewed, remade hoses, machining new rods and doing other minor adjustments (planes had to move down the queue again ...) so I have the sweet smell of Eau-de-grees and finger nails that a goth would be proud of. Everything we own is aging and needing attention (including the better half).

Sue

As you can see from my list, we have a number of planes - too many for one busy couple - but accumulated over years. Someone to take an interest would have saved several from being relegated to the end of the list for maintenance (behind cars, plant, houses etc).

My C152 hasn't done many hours in 12 months and none this year (long story). Fully insured for hire & training. Will refurbish & re-paint soon.

The RANs is at a distant airstrip where we could get a hangar (7hrs drive away) but gets a good run when we visit, which is about 3-4 times a year, although most of our contact time with this aircraft, his latest build, is spent fine tuning - hunting down vibrations, moving oil cooler, replacing tubing etc.

The Lightwing was bought for the sons to learn (they lost interest) and is on loan to a bloke who hardly flies it. Hangared 7 hrs away

The Karasport is in our backyard in a trailer waiting for a thorough inspection of cables.

The Scout needs recovering before being re-registered - He got too heavy, but I could fly it. Stored 8 hours drive away.

The Turbulent is in pieces because all the glue joints need re-doing before re-registering. Also 8 hours away.

Bought a partly completed Sonerai kit for the son (can't fly) who wanted it and who hasn't touched it, who's looking to sell.

The Whisky plans have not progressed much and I doubt he will end up building that - he's working on his own design, on CAD.

Shed full of bits accumulated over time, packed in so solid I didn't realise there was a car under there. Lots of stuff from the early days of ultralights. The family never throw anything out.

We run our engines regularly, but just don't get the time to go flying much. Part of the problem is not being able to get a hangar in the town we live in. The Council wanted double what the hangar and plane was worth in infrastructure upgrades to their airport (taxiways, apron, drainage, services) before they would allow us to build a hangar which would revert to their ownership in 20 years.

When we retire, (when??) the plan is to move closer (or get our own strip) and fly them more. And yes, it does cost us a lot to keep them on the register, insured, maintained etc - dead money. And inactivity does bring its problems. We have both worked all our lives and bikes & planes were his passion.

A Tomo type offer / expression of interest, would have been the catalyst we needed to keep our steeds in the air.

Sue

Don't worry - my RAA husband is over 70yrs and they don't ask him for a medical, but I am a NON-flying member and they ask me for a medical each renewal, and I photocopy my GA medical and post it to them. ???

They must figure if one of us is certified still breathing we are OK to fly. Or perhaps they think I am the responsible one.

Sue

Hi Tim,

Welcome on board! There's a few Tecnam lovers here as well as lots of good, free advice, from people who know. Hope to hear when you have passed the test - let us know how you go. Where are you based?

Sue

Good article on travel sickness here http://www.mydr.com.au/pharmacy-care/travel-sickness-self-care

I found it useful to get the passenger to concentrate on a point far away (keeps them occupied and gets the movement sensors more in tune with the aircraft movement) cool air and maybe some looking for a town, or other feature.

Sue

I can breath again - looks like a 25 min delay in loading the SPOT signal on the airstrip. Happy to know he's on the ground.

Sue

Guess he has landed and turned off the unit before it reported back, or he hit the power lines and fried it. Hope not. Would have been nice to see a blip on the airstrip

Sue

After reading his blog about Charleville I felt sorry I hadn't whistled up my flying mates, BOM friends, and friends of the RFDS who would have seen to his ailments without hesitation and gotten him accommodation, transport, fuel and hangar and full weather.

Darn....

Look forward to some Forumite pics

Not getting much work done here, either.

Sue

Sorry, Betoota is still closed (I think). Simon was the publican and total town population until his death in his 80's. He seemed to take a decline after being charged with keeping an unsecured rifle (he slept with it). After that there was talk of the pub being revived by the land owners - it sat on a property. The town was surveyed and subdivided eons ago and it surprises me that no one has bought it for a $1 and tried to flog it off to interstate investors. There's an airstrip and race course - races once a year around the same time as Birdsville & Boulia. If the social whirl is your thing then it is worth a fly-in, as lots of locals do. Unfortunately, floods, droughts and the Qld Govt Racing policy has killed off a lot of these outback attractions.

Sue (I'll stop before I get too depressed)

Dingo airstrip & motel & roadhouse - Highly recommended. The motel units and roadhouse (with 24 hr feeds last time I was there) have everything you need - except a beer - but we don't drink - and you need to cross the highway to get there. We stop at the Roadhouse often on our car trips to Rockhampton and have watched it progress from a small servo to the multi-purpose outfit it is today. Good under shade parking, toilets (could be a little better), modern motel rooms built in the last few years, grounds well kept, free tea/coffee with any purchased meal, good spread of tucker (not all hot box stuff - but that's available for on-the-go), convenience store range of groceries. Airstrip is orientated into the prevailing wind.

Sue

A better flow of information would help the cause immensely. The PR side of things appears to be lacking which may be just the way Dave wants it. It's not flying weather through here (which I would presume is his route) today or over the Wollemi National Park to the south. Best wishes to him on this final leg.

There has been coverage by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian, but these won't follow up until he actually reaches his destination and it then becomes real News. The story will then be syndicated and reprinted in a plethora of on-line and hard copy media. It has been a bad news week for aviation (and a slow news week as well) so this Good News story may even things out. To make it more "newsworthy" you need a stunt - like 20 Trikes accompany brave pilot ... Special permission to enter Bankstown. Hero's welcome etc. Just wish I lived closer so I could be there to cheer him on. But I do understand he is doing everything himself (publicity, updating blogs & forum, flight plans, fuel, accommodation, as well as reporting to family) and very weather & stamina dependant on the fly or no fly decision each day. The Media would prefer something they can timetable in and capture the visual grab that sells the story better than words. Viz the ABC's NT reporter asking if Dave could take off and land again as they had missed it. At the end of the day - it's Dave's journey - and if he doesn't want the brass band then so be it. But it would be nice to promote the flying option for the common man. After all, he has proven that a Trike can reliably make it from England to Australia. So I dips me lid to him. Well Done!.

Sue

Mulga is a small tree, with quite a number of variations, sometimes multi stemmed, highly drought tolerant. It tends to grow in the red soil of Western Qld where nothing else survives. It is good fodder for sheep, so graziers used to break the branches so they hung down where animals could reach them. Now-a-days the mulga is pushed over using mechanical means. You can flatten them and they sucker up next season due to their deep root system. As most of the land out there is State owned and leased by graziers, they have to apply for a tree clearing permit (even though they are not really removing the tree) and routinely get granted permission for vast areas, some of which might not be used. Aerial shots of acres of mulga pushed over are what you see on TV when the greenies want to do a Shock - Horror piece, and total permit areas are what they quote when it comes to Shocking Statistics ie One Million Football Fields are Cleared by Farmers! Trees Gone Forever! No mention of them regenerating each year.

Charleville has a Mulga Festival in honour of the plant that has prospered the district. Western Qld is a great tourist destination. Lots of towns with airstrips within walking distance of town, friendly locals who go out of their way to make you welcome, larger than life characters, lots of pilots who understand that aircraft noise is good for you and plenty to see & do that won't cost a fortune.

Sue (spent my career West of the Divide)

Any Western Qld town will have a Pub & fuel or they don't have an economy and reason to exist. Some have a pub and no town - like Betoota, Toompine, Cooladdi-Fox Trap, Middleton. Have not landed at Bollon strip, as I went to a cotton farming strip nearby. From recollection the Bollon strip is mostly gravel with bitumen ends and is out of town - about 2 to 3km. Doubt there is a taxi, but accommodation usually offer a pick up service. Bollon got flooded so I don't know what is still there. Abundant native birds. The edge of the desert? Well, the mulga scrub perhaps, vast areas of cotton farming and grazing properties measured in square kilometres. The natives are friendly.

Sue

David is heading to Nyngan - ETA 1:30pm EST Sat. Hope there's someone to greet him.

Sue

Back on topic, has anyone seen anything which could give us an indication of what went wrong? I haven't been able to find anything more than the basics and no photographs of the crash scene.

I posted a link to the RACQ CQ helicopter photo earlier in this thread. From 3rd hand information - Ian was buying the aircraft and Rob was giving him familiarisation training. They had spent the previous day training and this one hour flight at 3pm was the final session. How they ended up in the trees (given the vast fields of crops all around) suggests catastrophic failure rather than planned manoeuvres. They were both found in the aircraft. I have not personally seen the site and am only going on gossip circulating locally.

Sue

 

 

Col

Best to follow him in real time. Go to his site www.soloflightglobal.com and "Track my Journey" which gives you 10 minute updates, from which you can deduce where he is headed and roughly his speed and ETA.

I was half expecting him to continue on from Charleville today, but he got there about 11am and stayed put. I guess he will do Nyngan or Dubbo tomorrow. I don't know what he has arranged for his arrival.

Sue

Dave landed in Barcaldine, met by the Mayor & other aviators, yesterday.

Landed at Blackall (I suspect to shake the hand of the Mayor of Blackall/Tambo)

Is about to land at Charleville (ETA 11am today Friday) - he might push on over the NSW border today (maybe?) or at least Cunnamulla

So I am guessing Saturday Nygan / Dubbo (its only 600km from Charleville)

Possibly Sunday for Bankstown?

Track his flight through http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=06mEvoaRQpSkLGcIAKnq9WsAs8oR5030m

Sue

The rescue folks have done well to spot that wreckage so quickly....................................................Maj...

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

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

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.

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

He's slowly updating his blog... He landed at Dawin getting tossed around, taxied in and was met by a TV reporter who asked if he could go back and land again as they had missed it ... He said NO. He has done some radio interviews by phone. I guess he is still having computer problems and enjoying our beer so he hasn't been on his usual forums and blogs updating his progress. So at this stage I am not sure what day, or if he will be landing at Barcaldine.

Wishing him tail winds and gentle breezes straight down the runway.

Sue

Peter,

There are quite a few Savannah owners and builders on this forum. A friend of ours has bought a factory built and an acquaintance is building. There's someone building one near to the Sunshine Coast.

Where did you find the corrugations?

Flying has bumps of a different kind.

Sue

Dave has made it to Barkley Homestead - he did about 600km today. Looks like next stop will be Cloncurry Qld. So he could be in Barcaldine by Wednesday!

Sue

Dave left Darwin and I can only guess he had engine/aircraft worries as he diverted west to a strip near Batchelor. Today he hugged the Stuart Highway going South and has now landed at Elsey Station Homestead (made famous by the books by Jeannie Gunn - We of the Never Never, The Little Black Princess) near Mataranka Northern Territory. His next stop is probably Renner Springs Homestead about 100km north of The Three Ways, north of Tenant Creek. His itinerary then takes him to Barkley Homestead NT and on to Cloncurry Qld.

On another forum a friend of Dave's mentioned the long over water legs and remarked that "Takes more guts then lots realize, you see Dave can't swim." At least he's over land now, although airstrips and civilisation are sparce.

Sue