Thalass

Riley: Yes she does! She's only been here for three years, and she doesn't like the heat much. I say a cold xmas is unnatural! I heard that NASA went to Sudbury to practice for the moon landings, it was so dead from the acid rain back then. It's improved now, though you can still tell the difference between Sudbury area and the other bush areas. The trees area all the same age, and the acidic soil means there are a bajillion blueberry plants around the town. Heaps of lakes, too, which is why I want an amphibian! haha

Transit-only through controlled airspace sounds good to me. I don't think I'd like to land at Perth airport (let alone Sydney or Melbourne!) trundling in at 50 knots or less, with a dirty great turbofan passenger jet coming up my behind! I don't know about the viability of the idea, but a club-owned (and club-maintained) transponder and antenna that could be temporarily installed on an aircraft would lower the cost involved. Though it may require CASA permission, which would be a hassle. And I don't know how practical it would be. I think the main objective to that whole chesnut is the word mandatory, which implies you must always carry one, even if you're flying from your paddock in the middle of nowhere. Which would be stupid, I think. Mandatory transponder if you're flying through controlled airspace is better wording and more sensible. That way paddock-flyers and others that want to keep it simple can still do that, and those that want a quasi-GA aircraft can do that, too. The great thing about RA aircraft is that it is a broad spectrum from wright-flyer tech to the latest composite jabiru. You can build your own, or buy one. I think it would be the death of RA-Aus and low-cost flying itself if the members were restricted by blanket mandatory-this and mandatory-that regulations. Back when I was in high school I wanted to get my pilots license, but a GA PPL was obscenely expensive even then, and ultralight aviation didn't really have much presence so I never persued that avenue. Nowdays it does, and it would be a shame to lose those future pilots if the cost skyrockets or the sport is regulated out of existance.

Andys: This is why you need a transponder to fly in controlled airspace, and up around the higher altitudes where more (and larger) aircraft roam. Even if you're only mode-c, they'd be able to see you and avoid you. Of course I understand the cost involved, but thats the price you would have to pay to fly in controlled airspace. Though it occurs to me that perhaps a mode-c transponder (ie: without the mode-s 24bit unique code linked to your airframe) could be club-owned, and borrowed or rented on the odd occasion you want to fly through controlled airspace. That way the purchase and maintenance costs would be split among members of that club. Not sure if that's practical or legal, though. I don't think you can get portable ATC systems, and if you share a rack-mounted jobbie, then you still have to route the wires and such so you might as well have your own at that point. But it would ease that particular issue I think. *edit* Thinking about it more, I seriously doubt there's any such thing as a handheld atc. They put out quite a bit of power and they are almost constantly transmitting. Gives you a headache even when you're six or seven metres away from the antenna - I know this from experience. However it may be possible to do a temporary install with a set length of cable and an atc box that has its own altitude sensor built in - so you'd only have to supply power and route the cable to the antenna, which I suppose could be duct-taped to the side of the fuselage or something like that. Dodgy, I know, but possibly doable. I don't know the ins and outs of modifying an RA aircraft. At work (group 20 commercial aircraft) you do nothing without an EO or SB or some kind of legal XXXX-covering stuff from the manufacturer or design department or something like that. As long as it was a secure temporary installation, it ought to be ok, I imagine. And if it was a self-contained atc box its calibration wouldn't be tied to any one aircraft.

I don't have the books in front of me at the moment, but if I recall correctly (and I could well be wrong here, so use a good helping of salt with this) mode C only gives altitude encoding, so an aircraft with a tcas system will get a position and altitude on their display, but the two aircraft cannot talk to one another, so their system will tell them to avoid you like the plague. Whereas a mode S transponder can chat between each other, and decide who is to go up, and who is to go down. So the pilot (or most likely the autopilot) will be given a command that doesn't conflict with the other aircraft. I believe the tower will also get additional information (rego, flight number, perhaps, and other stuff extracted from the flight plan database, with a mode-s transponder, as each one has a unique number registered to the aircraft it is installed in. But I'm a bit rusty, so I might be wrong. :P

Hi! My wife is from Sudbury, Ontario, so it's nice to see some people from the area on here haha. I'm wondering, do you have a Canadian PPL, or are you still flying on your English one? I've been wondering if I get my Australian RA pilot license if it'll transfer, or if I'd have to go all the way and get a PPL for it to be recognised. Anyway, welcome!

Probably the reason they do that is most pilots see regional airlines as a stepping stone to the big time with qantas, which means they have a high turnover and have to spend alot of time training new pilots to replace the ones who leave at the slightest whiff of RB211 exhaust. This is why Rex started their pilot training centre in the first place, and probably why they gear the scheme it like that. To get their money's worth out of the new pilots who don't know any better. That doesn't mean it's right, mind you. They bought in a similar thing with engineers after a bunch of guys join Kendalls only to leave a month or two after they picked up the SAAB 340 license. Thousands of dollars wasted! And because of people like that I've had to sign a 3 year bond to my current employer in exchange for a type course. Oh well.

Haha yeah, I once spent a few hours replacing the warmer plates in a 747 galley. The channels for the wiring were chock full of burnt coffee residue. It put me off coffee for weeks, it stank that much.

Thanks Spin and Heon. I'll keep an eye out for them when I get to that stage. The Super Petrel is the biplane, yes? I kinda like that. The sketches I've done are a more 1930s style open cockpit tandem arrangement, with a high parasol style detached wing with the engine in pusher config on stilts above that. Probably not very workable, but it looked like something from that era. But of course if I was to try and fly in Canada I'd freeze to death hah. I have a motor and servos from a dog-eaten foam r/c aircraft, so I might try it out in model form this year if i get time. Maj. Millard: I don't know about that. She tells me that xmas should be -40c, not +40c, and she's sticking to it. Everyone obsesses over a white xmas over here, but I've seen it and it's bonkers! hahaha

Haha that brings back memories. I did the last two years of my apprenticeship with Qantas, mostly in heavy maintenance in Sydney. You wouldn't believe the mountains of grey dust above the ceiling panels - especially up the back. It was disgusting!

Hey folks. I'm a long way from building my own aircraft, and from getting my pilot license, but I would like to do both one day. I've been looking around the tubes for a two place amphibious (wet hull, not floats) kit but they seem to be spread pretty thin. Are there any in Australia flying? Or kits available? The closest I've come to what I want is the LN-3 Seagull, which is still in the testing phase. I kinda like the tandem seating arrangement. I'm almost tempted to design my own, since paragraph 1.5 allows that, but I'd probably be building a flying coffin hah! Anyway, there seem to be very few amphibians in Australia, which is logical with the whole 'lack of water' thing. But my wife is from Canada, where solid water sits on the ground for four months of the year and lakes are everywhere, and every bugsmasher I've seen has floats. So really I'd be building it to fly over there one day. Thanks. :)

haha thanks. I dunno, though. I've read a few mentions of a "LAME lobby" in some posts around the forums! heh. As for flying, I did the aeronautical course at Melville high school, and as a part of that did a few TIFs with the teachers, including doing some of the flying myself, so I've definitely been bitten by the bug! It's just the mortgage and kid that drag the finances down at the moment. haha

Out of curiosity, if the baggage compartment was closed (ie: stuff couldn't float from the baggage hold to the cabin), would that count as a container? Obviously you'd make it comfortable for the dog, and make doubly sure the door couldn't come open in flight, and make sure there was adequate ventilation. But would that comply? You could have a dog compartment and a baggage compartment haha.

Hi Fosie. There's no reason you can't be a commercial pilot! I work for a charter company in Perth, and we have many female FOs, and even a few female Captains. Most of them are on their way up in the world, so I don't doubt they'll be captaining 747s in a few years. It's a long hard slog, though, and expensive. Qantas used to do a cadetship years ago, but I don't know about now. I do know that Rex have just built their own pilot training school, but I don't know if they start from scratch or you have to get your PPL first. Either way, if its what you want to do, do it. It's better to do a job you enjoy than hating the daily commute. I'm looking to get my pilot license one day, I once wanted to be a commercial pilot and did some research before I saw the light and became an engineer haha! Good luck with your studies!

Hi folks. I'm interested in getting a RA-Aus pilot ticket, and in building my own aircraft. I'm an aircraft maintenance engineer, so I have some idea of what is involved. Though I'm avionics, so I probably don't know as much as I'd like to think haha. I haven't started towards any qualifications or anything, yet. I don't have enough money! But it's on my list, so it'll happen eventually. Anyway, hi. :)