Ben Longden

Turbo has it pretty well nailed really. Ive been behind a news camera since 1982, and consider myself reasonably experienced as a newso. With media the big issue is SPACE. The second issue is get quotes from people; plods and eyewitnesses. Quote what they said. Even if it is factually wrong. What they said is what THEY said. TV news is easier, as people cant hide from what they said... plods and all.. Ive been to many tragic scenes and the police report bore no resemblance to what actually happened, so you cant trust the plods to write a prang up correctly either, especially when its an aviation one. I shot the aftermath of a fatal glider crash, and the police report had an eyewitness saying he knew "the plane was in trouble as there was no engine sound"... Yes, training is they key to getting a report right. Im many cases, the beatup is written by a freshly graduated journalist who knows that they know everything. You find the best, fairest and most accurate reports are written by those with experience under their belts. With the training issue, its the editor that you have a greater chance of training, and familiarising with aviation terms.... and if you make yourself available to the local paper as an local aviation 'expert', they will then use you as a source for information, and by default, you will be able to help them write a more accurate and fairly balanced story.... And, be nice to us in the news biz.... :)

Spitfire, Mustang, Kittyhawks.... Warbirds over Echuca.

At the risk of having another post modded....(Ok ...removed at the request of the maker of the video - Mod) At the CASA seminar at Shepparton, the speaker wrote on the board the following formula. VFR/IMC= CD (Spoken as VFR Into IMC equals CD) Where VFR is visual flight rule pilot IMC is Instrument Meteorological Conditions CD is Certain Death. He then played 178 seconds to live. My instructor said the vision was too accurate, and he felt sick knowing there was no instruments to look at.

To say the Echuca Air Show was brilliant would be a gross understatement. My congrats to the organisers and volunteers.. Heres a few vids for you. I made a production decision not to use music... as the sound of the engines is enough!! Please start with the Introduction video.. A couple more are coming, once the bill paying customers jobs are out of the way!! Cheers. Ben

Now would'nt that be great!

Col sold his Spitfire to Temora, and they repainted it with the Grey Nurse colours..... Would have been nice of them to keep it original. Their second Spitfire is Sir Tim's and was in New Zealand for many years before coming to Australia. There are only around 13 flying in the UK at the moment. There might be only two airworthy Spits in the country, but there are also four others... one at the War Museum still in its wartime paint, one for the Darwin museum and reportedly two others. Around the world there are 19 flyable, including one Seafire. There are two airworthy Lancasters, one with the Battle of Britain Flight (RAF) and the other in Canada. There is a Lancaster thats not airworthy, but is kosher to do taxi runs and fast taxi, and thats also in the UK. But I know of only 13 of flying Hurricanes (including two Sea Hurricanes) flying at the moment, but there are, thankfully a number unde restoration. After the war, no one wanted the planes (bad memories and stuff) but you could buy a NEW Spitfire in its crate for 50 quid.

Some posts and the link to the captured video have had to be removed. - Moderator.

Glad you spoke to him, Alf. Now can you ask him about the abusive phone call I got late last night? With the vid, the story line was a concious decision to fly VMC into IMC, and then dramatise the issue, and breathe a sigh of relief when he was able to escape the situation. This was further reinforced with the scrolling script at the end. IF he had shot and cut the vid about avoiding an IMC conflict, he would be beseiged with congratulations, instead of the current situation he has himself in. IF he had flown over the top of the cloud layer, and then turned 180 and decided to go UNDER the cloud to continue the trip, we would all hail it as an example of good airmanship. As it was presented it was an example of bad airmanship, captured on film. As Turbo said, the accident investigation delves deeply into the psyche of the pilot, and inevitably finds the guy is a nice guy, but a deliberate and excessive risk taker. In other words, the psyche of an "accident waiting to happen".

Agreed. Early in the film it was obvious of the cloud layer ahead.... so the big question is WHY didnt he decend to avoid an IMC conflict? It certainly was an educational vid... how NOT to do it... and then brag about it to the entire world.

I could not agree more to what both of you have said.

I was taught that a VMC trained pilot flying a VMC equipped aircraft should never fly IMC. heres one local guy who brags about doing just that. I make no other comment, other than adding the CASA taught lesson of 178 Seconds... Link removed - Mod Link already removed by the authour of the vid prior to this thread being moderated. - Ben

Just getting them trained in 'alternative farming" I guess..

Just having a browse through the latest RAA magazine (the one with the bloody stunning cover pic) and noted in the minutes of the AGM there was this stunning revelation. "A short discussion was held on another upcoming agenda item, the proposed recreational Pilots Licence issued through CASA" WTF? At first look, is this a proposal for CASA to issue their equivalent of the RAA certificate? Whats the story? Ben *Apologies if this has been diiscussed before, but Ive been out of the loop for a while due to work committments)

Condolences to his family and friends. Ben

Brilliant! that looks awfully like the Dornier Hull that was converted into a boat. The last I saw of it, it was lying 'in state', well, dumped really in Moama

Facthunter; All historic info from the museum curator, Dick Peel. PM or email me and I can give you his number. There were no records in the museum of your sightings. (as the lawyers say, if its not written down, it never happened..) I just report the story from statements given by others, as you would have seen in the video with Dick's Interview. Eastmeg2; The community managed to buy enough water to refill the lake earlier this year.. and when Dick showed me around, he confirmed what I thought; they just built the hangar around the plane. The plan is to restore the aircraft to showroom display condition... airworthy would be nice but $$$$ or the lack of it is the issue. While the lake was dry, the council placed signs around the lake asking people NOT to walk across the dry lake bed, due to the possibility of unexploded ordnance lying in the mud that had fallen off various AC. If you go to the museum, you will see pyramid shaped concrete blocks around the place. These are the two tonne mooring anchors used during the war. HARS is about to send back the blisters on the rear fuselage, as they had borrowed them to make templates for a set of blisters for the current HARS' Black Cat. Unfortunately the museum does not have a website (anyone here care to donate time, effort and server space?) Its all run by volunteers, and any admission fee barely pays the bills. Nev, your story about the hull on the Murray was also mentioned during the flyin... quite a few people had actually seen the Catalina hull converted to a houseboat. (No one mentioned the Dornier flying boat hull, now lying in state behind a business in Moama) Ben

For the first time in 61 years, a warbird has landed at Lake Boga - home of the wartime Catalina and flying boat repair base. During the second world war, Lake Boga was the one stop repair shop for the allies Flying Boats in the south pacific theatre and asian conflicts. In 1948 the RAAF closed shop, and it seemed a chapter on Australia's aviation history was closed. But the locals rallied together and not only built a museum from the top secret communications bunker, but also managed to keep one of the rare aircraft for display. After years of weathering, the museum was able to get a half million dollar grant to construct a hangar around the Catalina, so it could be restored. On the day it was officially opened, a number of flying boats were invited to fly in, and Albury's James Williams became the first pilot of a warbird to land at the base in 61 years. Thanks to Dick Peel and James Williams for their help in this short clip.

Oh thats a classic!!

Just a thought.... I was wondering if the past participle of the verb 'to twitter' was 'twat'? Ben

I know Orange quite well, and it has its own microclimate... an average of a five degree drop in temp as you come over the hill into town from Parkes. So the fog issue is well known. But, I always thought you had to have still air to form a fog.. Ben

A man goes to his doctor for his physical and gets sent to the Urologist as a precaution. When he gets there, he discovers the Urologist is a very pretty female doctor. The female doctor says, "I'm going to check your prostate today, but this new procedure is a little different from what you are probably used to. I want you to lie on your right side, bend your knees, then while I check your Prostate, take a deep breath and say, '99' ". The guy obeys and says,"99". The doctor says, "Great". Now turn over on your left side and again, while I repeat the check, take a deep breath and say, '99". Again, the guy says, '99'." The doctor said, “Very good. Now then, I want you to lie on your back with your knees raised slightly. I'm going to check your prostate with this hand, and with the other hand I'm going to hold on to your penis to keep it out of the way. Now take a deep breath and say, '99'. The guy begins, "One .. Two ...Three".

After Nigeria was eliminated from the world cup the Nigerian goalkeeper has personally offered to refund all the expenses of fans who travelled to South Africa. He said he just needs their bank details and pin numbers to complete the transaction. Ben

Any chance we can send stories like this to Flight Safety magazine? That way more folks will realise they are not alone in the sky.... or on the ground... and that a radio isnt there for decoration... (I mention the last one because a chipmonk flew into Shepp with a straight in approach on R36, when 18 was the active, and had AC in the holding bay... No radio calls whatsoever, and yes, there was a radio there.) Ben

But will it fit in the Camira? Seriously, though... whats the fuel consumption on that? Ben

Errr... with barbeque sauce please.... I was with a friend and I needed fuel, so she steered me to a local cheap servo... all was well until I noticed each pump had a 10% Ethanol sticker on it. In the manuals for my cars, it clearly says not to use ethanol, as it will damage fuel lines and seals. Then looking between Shepp and Melbourne, they seem to be springing up everywhere. Going back about ten years when the Ethanol fiasco first hit, we filled up with cheap fuel, and all was well for about 20km, then she was as rough as guts. This was a new Mazda 323. So we went into the depot... and yes... its allergic to ethanol. After refilling with standard 91 octane, all was well - but we were one of the lucky ones. Ben