Aldo

In my opinion I think you should wait and I believe you should learn to navigate by primary means first (i.e. map, clock and compass) but bear in mind, in my opinion this is not the most accurate, the least stressful or the safest way to navigate around this country, but if you learn correctly this old and tested method it is the one backup that will never fail. Learnt correctly no matter what type of flying you are doing you will forever note your departure time, your outbound track and your speed knowing these three things even without maps you should always be able to find your way home. Enjoy your flying future. Aldo

Harrison Spins were part of the syllabus when I learnt to fly in the 80's and I did mine in a 152 Aerobat and I continue to practice them both solo and dual, the dual practice is good because someone can put you into the spin while you have your hands off the controls, feet off the rudder, head down and eyes closed then you have to recover, first port of call, turn coordinator, airspeed and VSI those three will tell you if it is a spin or spiral dive and recover accordingly. For some reason people are afraid of spinning an aircraft, spinning if you put it there intentionally is no big deal, spinning if you put it there unintentionally to me means you shouldn't be flying, it is a major deal and will probably kill you. Aldo

Really both dead how would you think anyone could determine the position of the stick or if the student froze on the controls.

I can't verify the below but it is what I have heard from a very reliable source. Aircraft is said to have conducted a low level pass of the airstrip and clipped the windsock in the process

Bridgy I wouldn’t say anything but answer the questions with a yes or no no more than that, you are not helping yourself to elaborate if not required. I know airline transport pilots that go to doctors in Singapore and New Zealand to stay away from the prying eyes of CASA. Tread carefully Aldo

Turbo If not the best as close as you can get to being the best I don't know of anyone any better. Aldo

Depends on what you are flying, 200 kts and you could include Melbourne, 100 kts and you could easily get to Mackay/Townsville/Longreach just depends on where you want to go. If it was me I would find the slowest, cheapest thing with wings and fly that you are only looking for hours and they all count. Aldo

Robert Glad to hear that you got back on the ground ok, knew you were short of fuel and was hoping that you were concentrating on flying your aircraft, didn't want to ask too many questions but just enough to let centre know what was happening and get them to start to mobilize things. I hope you are going ok and have some people with you tonight, you did an excellent job this afternoon. Aldo

Cheers appreciate that I've had a good chat to my wife (she's also a pilot) about it. Aldo

So sad, my thoughts tonight are with the tug pilot who saw it happen, I was flying into Toowoomba this afternoon and heard the mayday call made on the 126.7 CTAF frequency there was no response to the call and he made a second call, I responded to the second call as he sounded extremely distressed saying a glider had just gone nose first into the ground, I relayed the call to BNE centre it took several minutes (or it seemed that long) for the pilot to be able to tell me where he was and who he was so I was then able to pass that onto centre who must have then got emergency services notified and underway. I hope someone is looking after him tonight, also condolences to the family of the glider pilot. Aldo

PM me with your phone number Allan

KG Not at all, I'm using it so that my wife can get back up to speed. Aldo

I would have thought $165/hour for a drifter is a bit steep. I'm able to get a 172 (old it may be) with impeccable maintenance for $40/hour dry, not RA I know but you can always go GA at those rates. Aldo

Same shit, same result, different participant When will we learn???

The pilot is OK (I was talking to him yesterday) but the chopper is a little worse for wear. Strong winds were not the cause, according to the pilot as he was approaching his home a line of rain and failing light prevented him from being able to get there so he decided to put down in a paddock about a mile from his home, as he approached the ground (about a foot off the ground) the entire inside of the cabin fogged over making it a total white out from inside the cab. Being so close to the ground and having power lines in the vicinity he elected to put it on the ground, but he had some left drift as he did so and as the skid contacted the ground it dug in and flipped it over. Aldo

HIC You don't have to agree with either answer, but as Orchid Beach is PPR and I have been there many times in various aircraft I always ring to confirm that the strip is open whether there has been any rain lately because if there has not it will be quite soft underfoot and what the length of the grass is, this is my responsibility as PIC (if I arrive overhead and it looks like crap it is also my decision to continue or not). The owner should ask what type and what experience you have. At the end of the day it is the PIC's responsibility as to whether he/she continues or not, but if you have rang, asked the correct questions and received the right answers it is very difficult from afar to determine if the answers were in fact incorrect. I'm in no way saying that this was the case in this situation as I along with everyone else on this thread apart from one wasn't there on that day but as he was on the ground he should have been able to determine the conditions. It may well be the case that with such limited experience it may not have been as close as he thought. If I was an owner/operator of a PPR strip and charging landing fees I would not like to be in court defending a charge if I had told the pilot that all was good when in fact it may not have been. I'm not a lawyer but if I was the complainant I would have a very good barrister and I suspect I might win. As far as I'm aware as soon as you charge for anything you become responsible in some way. Regards Aldo

I don't have any issue with you advertising here, makes perfect sense.

SSCBD And if you accepted the sign off on your BFR as described above you are just perpetuating and accepting the low standard, what you should have done (and maybe you did) was report this pitifully low standard which is bringing RAA into disrepute. Not to mention you have more than likely alerted CASA to this low standard by posting it on an Internet forum, not a bad thing really. Two distinct answers also. The operator/owner is charging landing fees and as such assumes responsibility for the condition of the landing area The PIC has the final call as to whether the landing/take off area is suitable for their operations In this case with a low hour low experience pilot 20/20 hindsight will be his best learning and he probably won't make the same mistake again Did the pilot make the wrong decision - yes, will he do it again probably not, the best learning is a good scare, was the situation as bad as it was made out to be (I wasn't there so I'm not able to say), is he the one most at fault, probably yes and maybe not, the operator should provide a surface suitable for operations. Aldo

Kiwi I didn't direct this comment at you (i'm sorry if you took it this way) it was directed at the training you are receiving and what that level is (personally I don't think it is sufficient, but then again I may not know shit from clay I've only been flying for thirty years, but as I do over 300 hrs a year in and out of all areas G, C, D, E & military restricted I think I have a reasonable idea, do I know it all not at all). You are correct most RA only operate in class G but so do lots of others (probably more than most people think) most airstrips outside the capital cities are in class G and there are lots of commercial and RPT operating into and out of those strips. Yes I do think you should have a very good grasp of it all before you are signed off (we certainly had to but then again that was from another era so may not be applicable these days). Flying is not just about getting from point A to point B it is about knowing everything that is going on around you and using every tool available to you to know what is going on around you, the training you received should have covered all of this, if it didn't the training wasn't good enough (my opinion). You are also correct a good pilot keeps learning from each flight but you shouldn't have to learn the basics from each flight. The throw away comment about the best seller at the end say's it all you don't know what you don't know. Aldo

Wht concerns me in this discussion is the number of people who don't appear to understand the basics of flight planning and navigation, most have presumably got their cross country endorsements yet don't understand the flight plan system and from lots of other posts the number of people who are not able to read the weather is appalling. And let's not start on the radio work and position reporting. Who is conducting and signing off on the training and testing.

Bull I don't think you are looking at this from the correct perspective, I fly drifters and Jabiru's as part of recreational aviation, I fly Cessna's, Pipers and beech aircraft as part of GA, any time I flown into an event I have never been worried about what aircraft anyone was flying or what it looked like just happy to see them there I don't care what type of aircraft you fly just as long as you are flying. The event and whether it is good or not is not dependent on what you arrived in but who you are as a person. The other thing it is easier to get more of the family (for family feel) in a 6 or 8 seater than it is in a single or 2 seater but not sure what you consider family.

Rick In my reading of this forum for a time one of the biggest complaints is about increased safety and compliance and they are some of the people wanting a change of organisations. Rick Interesting to note the "at this time" for the $55 fee Rick Interesting considering the above 2 year fee structure, lets assume for a moment that half (1/2) of the quoted ten thousand (10,000) members of RAAus are not happy with the organisation (I don't think that's the case) but lets play the game and approximately 30,000 GA pilots in Australia, if you got half of each group that would give you 20,000 clients at $27.50 per year or $550,000 per year income (unless there is a pay per item fee on top of the $55) that's not much to pay people with considering you have 4 or 5 directors (I think this is what I have previously read) most directors (and I am one) expect $200+ per year, CEO's think they are worth more than this in most cases. This doesn't leave much in the kitty for safety management systems, QA, all the relevant manuals, the day to day running of the organisation and employees haven't been paid yet. I have always applauded people for having a go and I hope it works for you and if it does it will also work for a lot of other people. I have no issue with RAAus at this stage (them in combination with GA let's me do everything I want), they have a few minor issues to clean up but that will happen in time. I believe the fee structure for RAAus is too low and this is what is causing a few problems with cash flow, try joining a golf club that allows you access across Australia and see how much change you get out of $1000 (that's if you can find one that allows access across the country). Best of Luck Aldo

SDQI Thanks, I suspect in this case (as prop appeared to be developing full power) they may not have achieved positive rate of climb and been descending it is very difficult when not climbing and close to the ground to point the nose back at the ground to get the airspeed required, but this is what you must do or you will be back there anyway. Aldo

SDQDI I don't disagree with your push for LL training but what we are talking about here is a take off, upwind, downwind or crosswind the same principals apply. Accelerate down the runway maintain the centre line, achieve rotate speed, lift off, checks - speed increasing, positive rate of climb (stay in ground effect if need be until speed increases sufficiently to achieve positive rate of climb), flaps away as required, MP, RPM as required, climb to 500 AGL before any turning. Ground references slipping or skidding by shouldn't come into it. Aldo

OME I'm not advocating downwind take off's or landings are what you should be doing to save a couple of minutes but sometimes you may need to and if you do providing it's not outside the performance of the aircraft they should present no problem. Not sure why you were worse off if the wind dropped on a downwind takeoff that should have made it better. Aldo