greybeard

Seems pretty straight forward to me, weigh it and get the wing area fuel capacity. Hardly rocket science. Especially as it weighs exactly the same as last time you had it weighed and the fuel capacity hasn't changed. :)

There's a lot of comment regarding 'self risk' and 'only hurting themselves' but like it or not it's pretty unusual for an injury or death to only impact the victim. Someone else has to inform the next of kin, scrap up the mess, lead a life without a friend and/or relative etc and that's without the $ cost to society involved in caring for those that don't manage to completely wipe themselves out and require medical treatment. Some people can't be told no matter what but I see nothing wrong with pointing out the potential impact on others as a result of their actions.

Something about this thread makes me think 'stubborn', 'set in their way', 'always right', 'driving at 80kph on the highway', 'never had an accident' ... Then I get another set of words/phrases coming to me, 'invincible', 'bullet proof', 'source of all knowledge' ... and to end it off I get 'mature' and 'less mature'. I suppose someone could find some statistics to associate the above with differing ages and someone else could probably associate them in a different way. Like it or not along with the freedoms 'demanded', oops, I mean associated, with less regulation comes greater self critique and a greater reliance on self education. I think that the aging of the RAA fleet, the increase in performance and the increase in skills to safely manage those risks is starting to bite. Being older and wiser in some areas doesn't mean I'm guaranteed a job at Cape Canaveral. There's a few reasons why the average age of recreational pilots is tending towards the older person and subsequently why they are represented in greater numbers in incidents. I'm not convinced that it's just due to an over representation of older pilots. I think that attitude ( or HF whatever the latest TLA is ) has a noticeable impact as well. For the record, I'm 53 and have been granted a license to learn to fly since '96 and am progressing pretty well on the stubborn lessons ;)

what's the problem with not only doing some preflight planning but being able to prove that you've done it? you've either done the good airmanship thing or you haven't.

Or maybe another way of looking at it is that whatever is or isn't being done at the moment isn't working. To many people are falling off the perch. Rules and regulations are only ever needed if the participants attitudes and peer pressure doesn't achieve. Yes ignorance can and does occur. After all if you don't know how to maintain an aircraft then it can bite you in the rear. Whatever you are responsible for, aren't you the one who should be continually seeking more knowledge? It obviously isn't happening that enough people are taking enough responsibility for their own education, hence the changing rules. I can't see the point in bitching and winging about them. They will never be perfect but there is nothing stopping anyone from standing up and suggesting change. Nor is there any problem with anyone seeking knowledge and doing more than is legislated. Bottom line is that people are dying, CASA are the legislated responsible entity and appear to be poking the stick because the future dead aren't poking themselves enough.

Hmmm, I've spent ~100hrs in a 172 and have always trimmed out around 105kts. Not sure what model or conditions you'd only avg 95kts. I'm talking about IAS though.

Well, I wasn't there, I didn't get to make a decision, I have absolutely no idea the exact circumstances, I was miles away, It wasn't me.... ( fill in your own circumstance and relevance here ), so I'm not going to speculate out of ignorance Glad to see that all the parties actually involved are ok.

My mistake, I meant to say the "Maybe select the banner to only appear once rather than just for a set duration. ie only on first view"

Maybe select the what's new to only appear once rather than just for a set duration. ie only on first view.

It's like getting CASA documentation updates but on a nearly weekly basis. After a while it's hard to see the point. I hit the what's new button, click on the threads I'm interested in, click on mark read when I'm finished and that's about it. Now I get to scroll past the site announcement banner, find I'm no longer logged in if I follow a NZ forum link and at the end of it all I'm only trying to read the forum threads I'm interested in. All I can think of is that it's intended to make the site(s) more commercial so they can be sold which will only mean a bucket load of advertising to wade through as well. I'm also have a rabid dislike for java scripts. They slow down the target computer, slow down web browsing, struggle to cope with various web browsers and are a pain to diagnose. That said, I'm getting more out of the forum than I paid for it ;)

I think that there is a lot of special people out there and the regulations should be non-existent to allow them to do whatever, whenever they like. Oh, hang on, hasn't there been some issues with non-compliance recently?

My point is that it's the pilot who can influence the impact speed. The law of physics determines the stall speed ( and the kinetic energy ) but the pilot has the option of a determining what and how the aircraft comes to a halt. ie stall the aircraft at 5000 feet and do nothing, fly the aircraft down to zero feet and aim between the trees/rocks. Stall speed isn't the major factor in the above. If you read the crash comics and other impact analysis it's the pilot who has the major influence on the impact speed. I don't remember any accident report suggesting that VSo was a contributing factor in an incident. Yes, in theory, a lower stall speed give the pilot the potential for a lower starting speed for the incident but I'm talking reality of an aircraft impact. You could hold off to VSo and smack into a rock or you could force the aircraft down earlier and use wings/fuselage/trees to wipe of speed before hitting the rock. What you hit, when you hit, how you hit, regardless of the stall speed is significant when heading towards the same object. All depends on the circumstances and when the fan stops. I agree, basing registration costs on VSo seems a bit daft as there is a max value set by the regs.

The stall speed doesn't determine the speed in which an aircraft impacts with an immovable object. The stall speed may indicate when an aircrafts wing ceases to have sufficient lift to sustain flight but its the highly skilled and non-panicking gifted individual in charge of steering that has the greatest impact ( pun intended ) on the rate of deceleration.

Or you could take it in a similar manner as feedback from a check ride

what's not whats and a question should be followed by a ?

I feel like I am watching SBS and someone has disabled the subtitles :(

I can see the merit in trying to learn from incidents and disseminating the knowledge to hopefully prevent any repeat. This isn't the place to do it though. After you've waded through the extremely high signal to noise ratio on any reported incident due to the armchair experts making post after post with no knowledge and no way of having knowledge of the incident. It's predominately speculation and a waste of electrons.

I've got a PPL and I hold a motorcycle license.

maybe read up a bit more on what detail is available. You never know, they may have already diverted once

Found it! http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/breaking/17640272/farmer-discovers-stolen-plane/

If you only have ASICs and subsequent security at major airfields how do you manage security when someone arrives at airside at a major airfield after flying in from an insecure minor airfield? I'm not saying I like it, nor that it's particularly effective, but I don't think it's a simplistic as the petition implies.

look out to be kept for google be thy friend ;)

Report from WA police. Probably what should have been posted up by RAA. Stolen Aircraft LOTBKF.pdf Stolen Aircraft LOTBKF.pdf Stolen Aircraft LOTBKF.pdf

So does this mean the members only portal information has now been posted on a public forum? ;)

I was ignorant before you were