kaz3g

There were previously a number of factors a Court could take into account...no more. The existing CAR 234 speaks of fuel on board at take off, not landing. AOPA and AAAA are both unhappy. Kaz

This BS needs to be nipped in the bud. https://www.casa.gov.au/file/164211/download?token=HzJ-JYDC While the CAAP doesn't sound all that horrendous, the Regulation will make it a criminal offence of strict liability for pilots of light aircraft to land with less than the mandatory 45 minutes reserve and the penalty will likely be $5000. All the evidence shows that the number of fuel exhaustion incidents has reduced very significantly over decades and there is no statistical justification for the change. The cynics might say it's more about CASA covering it's collective arse after Pellair. Drop Glenn a line now and tell him "NO WAY". Kaz

Funny when you get older how the memory is better about things 35 plus years ago... I read this and recalled a friend in Euroa purchased one of these and parked it on a trailer outside my place because he wasn't too keen to take it home where the co-pilot would see it and make her views known. He told me once he had learned to fly gyros as a kid by flying in circles tethered to a pole. He also taught himself to fly fixed wings but that's a story probably best not told. He was always doing funny things like that and last I heard of him there was something about a DH Vampire...! Kaz

Someone at the ATSB might need to edit this part of the synopsis... General aviation accidents remains too high General aviation experienced 149 accidents in 2014 (the highest in 10 years), 11 of which were fatal (the lowest in 10 years) and another 15 resulted in serious injuries. These accidents led to 17 fatalities and 20 serious injuries. General aviation aircraft were involved in 118 serious incidents in 2014. In 2013 – the last year with available activity data – the general aviation accident rate per departure was almost five times that of commercial air transport. The year 2013 saw a significant decrease in the accident rate compared with the previous 6 years. However, the fatal accident rate was consistent with the 10-year average. Aerial agriculture, followed by private and sport aviation had the highest general aviation accidents rates, while flying training had the lowest.

Aircraft on stations are generally just treated as another vehicle for tax purposes but for smaller properties and other business purposes where the use is a mixture of business and pleasure the hourly rate seems to be the way to go. I do this when I fly for work and I provide my accountant with details in the same log book as I record work vehicle mileage (taken from my pilots log book). I did a conference in Alice Springs a couple of years ago and this year I'm going to one in Perth. I'll take in a few courts and legal centres as I go to compare the ways in which legal services are delivered in remote and regional areas. Today, I flew the short distance from Shepparton to Benalla and back again because there wasn't a spare work vehicle ... It was also my birthday! I'm currently charging the aircraft out to my tax at about $200 per hour and put 0.8 hours on the tachometer which equates to $160 for the journey. By road it's about 150km round trip or $120 vehicle claim at RACV rates and it takes 50 minutes each way so the costs in time and money are comparable. Kaz

I'm very old! Kaz

The dear old lady of the air, the Blanik, was a very forgiving platform but I fear in hindsight I might have put a few cracks in one of them. We all thought they were very strong and capable of accommodating a number of basic aerobatic manoeuvres and mistakes. Turned out they weren't quite that strong, after all. But they would spin nicely and recover according to the book. The Bocian would spin in great style; those extraordinarily long and narrow wings gave an audible sigh as she entered the spin. The instructor's seat is raised so that you can see over the top of the students head which gives an odd perspective when everything is rotating. The first single seat glider I tried aerobatics in was a Pilatus B4 but I didn't like it much...always seemed heavy. I got out of gliding in about 1985 and did most of a basic aero course in 8KCAB VH-BIK before giving flying away for a bit then to educate the kids...Silly me! Kaz

I seem to remember that ATC allow up to a 200' deviation from assigned altitude? Something that can be extremely difficult to do in the Auster in summer thermals. Kaz

It was a wild ride but it must have been a good de stressor from work because I got two greens on the BP machine when I got home Kaz

I took the Auster to Transaero first thing today for its annual maintenance. Good flight over and landed on the gravel side of 17 without any dramas although the cloud base was still low as forecast. All the work was done and I headed off around 16:30 to go back to Shepp. It was hot and windy with twenty -twenty five knots of westerly blowing by that stage so selected 24. This strip has a bit of a hump in it at the eastern end then you come galloping downhill towards 17-35 and the substantial forested area immediately to the west of it. Very rocky climb out with gusts, rotors and the whole catastrophe. Poor old aeroplane didn't know what had happened, especially when we started to go up at 2000fpm in a giant thermal. Very bumpy trip home Nd a 20 knot westerly at Shepp when I arrived. This is only 6 knots less than the stall speed so the landing roll was quite short...about 50 metres or so. It was good to get back in one piece and even better to get the old girl (the Auster) in bed for the night. The AWPA will be. Visiting us at Shepparton on Sunday and lunch is on for anyone flying in. All welcome. Kaz

I must have read his biographical account 20 times; and each time I find something new in it. I love the little prologue at the beginning where he tells how his party trick was a slow roll on takeoff from the aircraft carrier. He says he was half-way thought the roll when all went quiet. He was glad the self-inflating bags in the wings worked and he thanked Prime Minister Churchill for his nice condolence card received in hospital...he had been giving the PM a demonstration of the American type (can't remember which one and can't find the book in the mess that is my study right now). Kaz

Being honest, I'd say that aircraft was probably going to join the circuit downwind for 36 and I'd guess it was a fair bit higher than the vehicles on the road. Possibly C172 ITY. Kaz

It does, Robbo, but it's not mine, thank goodness! I've no idea whose it is to be honest, but Wilmot Road is about the furthest east for my downwind on 18 as I like to stay within gliding distance of the runway just in case. I flew to Bendigo yesterday for a series of work meetings and had to go to Melbourne for another this afternoon. Glad I drove today; the wind was really buffeting me in the car and the turbulence would have been dreadful through the Gap. Kaz

Hi mate I salute you! When I lived in WA, light aircraft were everywhere. We used a C172 for mustering as did many of the stations in the Upper Gascoyne and Pilbara. Now, I'm wondering where they have all gone or, more pertinently, how they got there? It is bloody hard to find airports with avgas over there now; many only have avtur or nothing. I'm planning a trip over there for late July/early August. Have a conference to go to in Fremantle but also want to see the old place in the north-west. I'd really like to go the long way around the top, but it is a long way and I'm older than you :-) So I might just take a more direct route and go across to the Alice, then Meeka to Mt Augustus and Carnarvon before turning south down the coast. Anyway, good to talk. Hope someone sees Robbo's post and contacts you. Kaz

Hi friend and welcome. Please tell us where you fly from, aircraft etc. we don't have very many from WA and it's a big place. Cheers Kaz

Hi Ozbirdy What's the availability of avgas and Premium at places like Warburton, Giles and Carnegie, please? Bulk or drums? Pity they didn't stick with avgas instead of making Opal as a low aromatic replacement for ULP. I'd be really interested in some feedback on Opal in an aero engine, too. I'm terribly unkeen on using it but wondered about a shandy if I became desperate. Many thanks Kaz

I always squeeze the lower cheeks a bit tighter when I fly into or out of CTA around Melbourne. Much of the leg from the Inland Route to south of the Academy for YMMB is all built in now, as is much of the leg between KAO and YMEN. Now I am getting the same reaction when landing at or departing from my home airport of Shepparton to the north...it's all been built in. It's a busy airfield for goodness sake. It has two GA and one RA flying school, and a maintenance hangar; it has a heavy helicopter based here all summer for fire-fighting; the bank plane comes in 5 nights a week; it has an NDB approach (one of the few being retained post ADSB; and I heard the Ambulance Kingair and two HEMS aircraft use it before midnight last night. Greed has replace commonsense in planning decisions. I did much of my early flying in gliders and I always look for the next potential out landing opportunity. Kaz

Nice! I'm guessing you cruise close to 100 mph with that low drag wing and the extra power? I have an Auster J5D with an 0-320 160 HP in it but originally built for the RAF with an 0-290. It's a lot draggier than yours but it probably stalls quite a bit slower at around 30 mph. I plan a TAS of 115 mph. Here it is at an air show at the Point Cook RAAF base which is the oldest in Australia and one of the first in the world. Regards Kaz

G'day Sabrina Welcome to the forum. Love the Taylorcraft. There are very few of them here as most variants imported to Australia are the English Austers. Which model is yours, please, and which engine do you have installed? Cheers Kaz

Sorry Nev...Steel Aeroplane https://www.google.com.au/search?q=auster+steel+aircraft+logo&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#imgrc=Zj4HUhJw3ASuGM%3A How about "metal"? That's got to be better than steal:juggle: Kaz

Fortunately for me it wasn't, Peter. Mine has a steel prop which has a greatly reduced collectable value compared to a wooden one. Rotten thing to happen to Joe, the owner who is a genuine good guy. Kaz

Hi there and welcome I don't know the Eagle but your inquiry got me looking. According to the font of all knowledge, it has a very respectable cruise speed and a stall speed of just 45 knots. It's canard wing at the front has been tried by others and there is even an unusual Cessna sporting one somewhere in Victoria. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Aircraft_Eagle_150 There are a couple of ATSB reports on them, but this one involved 3 of type https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/1999/aair/aair199903333.aspx Hope this assists Kaz

My handbag is already a deadly weapon...this would bring the contents up to about the same weight as a mash hammer. Kaz

Thanks Robbo...but the answer is still relevant to anyone studying their way through a PPL now. The VFG has become the VFRG, Jim Davis had added an extra book to his collection and people are still looking for help. Cheers 2008 is just the other day for me:nerd:

Hi Morgan You can buy a hard copy of the Visual Flight Rules Guide from the CASA shop at http://shop.casa.gov.au/products/sp161-visual-flight-rules-guide And a hard copy of ERSA can be purchased from the Air Services Australia website. You can also purchase hard copies of charts and other necessary stuff for your navigation studies. I also enjoyed this guys work on accident analysis and you might like to invest in his books http://www.jimdavis.co.za/. Jim instructed here for quite a few years before heading back to Africa. Kaz