Teckair

More:http://www.recreationalflying.com/showthread.php/131832-Pilot-crashed-in-flood-aid-effort-Toowoomba-Chronicle

'I joined to learn more about the capabilities of recreational aircraft and whether they may be the answer to commuting around the state of Victoria for business purposes instead of driving.'

In my experience that would not be practicable the main problem being weather conditions. What would be required for that idea to come close to working would be a IFR equipped twin, with a current IFR rated pilot. All expensive non RAAus issues. The 'got to get there' pressures are a major cause of accidents and have killed many people.

I think you have been given incorrect advice, depending on what taildraggers you have been flying. Normally going from tailwheel to nosewheel is dead easy and it is harder to go from nose wheel to tail wheel. I found it is easy to de-tune your feet for the ground handling. Nose wheel planes are so easy with ground handling you may well find them boring as they tend to land themselves.

Regards Richard.

There are always problems in approaching people with your concerns.It is much better to be in the opposite situation where a pilot comes to you asking for advice - of course, many pilots won't do that.

Regardless, I've been promoting peer reviews to try to get aerobatic pilots into the habit of asking others for feedback on the safety of their operations on a regular basis.

And then it goes to the other extreme where one does know what one is doing and talking about, then some peckerhead with a big mouth and overbearing personality insists that it is done their way. Lot of 'bully boy' attitude around these days.

 

Teckair,

 

What you say may well be true but my conscience would be alteast clear,(also to his family) I would rather go through my life without that friend whom which i believe would leave me in any case at a later stage through his own actions than to sit on the fence after it happened saying I wish or/I should have said something to my now deceased mate/s.

 

Me personally I don't care what others think of me, I don't and never have (even as an adolescent and teenager) suffered from peer pressure or show off itis, I have a healthy respect for the air I breath as well as the air i fly in.

 

Don't get me wrong I am not perfect (far from it) and have done some silly things in the past but I have been lucky enough to survive and to learn from it.

 

I am one person who believes that things that happen to others can actually happen to me not like a lot of people who think it can only happen to others.

 

Cheers

 

Alf

While I can understand the sentiments being expressed on this thread, the reality is these issues are not that straight forward or black and white. Every so often you come across somebody who has the ego problem mentioned previously and with the ho-hum attitude I know what I am doing so why don't you get lost. Often it will not be your friend otherwise you most likely would be able to talk to them. It is likely the attitude is the problem and there may not be anything in particular you can report to anybody. I have seen several situations where the majority of a club has a poor attitude and you walk away shaking your head thinking someone is going to die here, and that has actually happened. The gung-ho 'I know what I am doing attitude' is the killer and in my experience there is very little you can do about it. A dangerous situation is the pilot who has done about 300 hours without having a prang.

 

 

Gravity always wins and dirt hurts if you hit it hard enough.

 

If you feel they are flying dangerously and wont listen to you, tell someone who will make them listen.

 

You may lose a frienship but you may just save their life and that they should be grateful of.

 

People always think it will happen to someone else well facts are you might just well happen to end up that someone else.

If you see a problem and are concerned and report it to the operations manager the person involved will simply deny what you say. It will come down to your word against theirs and nothing will be the end result and at the end of the day you will be regarded as backstabbing dobber who cannot be trusted.

 

There's not many people who can hear a word of caution and actually listen. The whole ego thing plays too big a part in the aviation community in my view.

Just a thought, but if the trike was unregistered, then who is investigating the accident?Safe Flying

 

Kev

Good one mate, it would appear you know the best way to land a tail wheel aircraft.

Teckair, I thought you were still around and flying and I`m pleased for you.Top marks to you for coming out and posting,it took guts and it might help someone else.

 

Good on you :thumb_up: and all the best to you,hope to meet up with you some day.

 

Cheers,

 

Frank.

 

Ps, I see you list your AC as Skyfox,I suppose you look down on us Drifter fliers,now.

Regards Richard.

I was the person that pranged on final to Franks strip that day and what he says is fairly correct and would be what someone on the ground would think. I did let the aircraft get too low on final. Because I was flying through a squall there was quite a bit of rain, wind and turbulence the work load in the cockpit increased to the level where it got on top of me. I kept adding power but failed to realise I was still loosing height. At the last moment I turned right to avoid hitting the trees then I was flying left wing high to keep the wing out of the trees. I was still loosing height how ever and I judged the impact point that I was going hit would be one of those drains that Frank talks about earlier on this thread. If the front of the aircraft hit that drain I thought it would be fatal. At that time I reduced the bit of power the engine was developing and landed on the right wing tip. This resulted in cartwheel which dissipated the energy much more slowly than the sudden stop hitting the drain would cause. The engine on that aircraft was a VW home conversion and I think it lost power due to wet ignition wires shorting out in the rain. At that time I was at that 300 hour stage where over confidence is a problem. I did learn some valuable lessons from that effort like, it doesn't matter how close to the strip you are, flying through a squall might not be a good idea in a Chinook or maybe any thing in that situation. Never give up, fly the plane as far into the crash as you can. I have always believed in glide approaches before and after that event and think anybody flying recreational type aircraft who is not up to speed in that area is a splat waiting to happen. I have had a lot of engine failures and none have been the result of glide approaches.

I can also confirm that raising the flaps on certain aircraft will extend the glide if you are going to be short of the strip.

Glide approaches are best for several reasons, unfortunately many pilots don,t want to do them because it takes more skill to judge a power off approach than regulating your height by using the throttle.

Best way is to aim to be slightly high and then slip the spare height off when you are sure you will make the strip.

Doing it this way means you should make the strip if your motor stops on final and you are practicing a emergency landing every flight.

Since I started flying I have had quite a few engine failures and every time I can thank glide approaches for saving my backside.

here[/url].Anybody care to take a stab a what an "aborted stall manoeuvre practice session" is?

Richard.

Good one Jason you are the right age for the job.

Apparently the crash Boorabee came from Caboolture where its original owner had scratch built it and it appeared to be well built.

Don't know will try to find out.

The Hay one was a Boorabee I think.

Gday all,I am relativly new to flying (15hrs) and about to start my navs.

I am looking to buy a plane in the next 6 months but am undecided what to get, the options that keep coming up are the lightwing, aeropup and X-air.

 

Can anyone help me to make my decision with there experience and maybe some specs.

 

The lightwing will probably have a 582.

 

Cheers Nathan

Yeah looks like a loop.

Yeah 10 years and 1 Hour behind the rest of the country.I wish we could at least catch up on the hour:laugh:

 

Peter

What are you doing here if you feel that way?

Richard.

Hi bilby, havn't had this happen in a jab, but the other day i was on a nav with a student in a gazelle. We burnt 28 litres in a 55 min flight at 4900 rpm. Our level 2 (ex qantas engineer) thought it may have been a problem with the advanced spark system not working, so the thing ran on retarded spark the whole time.

Regards Richard.

Hello blueshed,

Sorry can,t make it to your do there, I'm making a Skyfox trailer at the moment, ready for the next road trip. Don't normally use the Skyfox for training, most people have enough trouble with the Lightwing. I do a little bit of training here mostly tailwheel endorsements. Good to hear your Jab is going OK.:thumb_up:

Regards Richard.

With ANO 9510 max TKF weight is 300 kg. I am not sure about the experimental category I think 544 kg but I am not sure if you can have multi engines when experimental, maybe not. I don't want to be negative but I think you will run into problems with power to weight issues. To me you have two main issues to consider power to weight and will it fit into a category.

Good luck with the project.