graham brown

The Supreme Court has made the judgement in this case that the girl was injured psychologically and could not work or realise her potential. She has been awarded her wages for the rest of her life. The pilot was told by the Supreme Court that he may have had psychological issues as a result of the accident but his claim against the council was not upheld. The Supreme Court and the judge have the evidence and make decisions accordingly. Why is the pilot treated different from the girl? The court makes decisions according to law and expectations of society. The law may not have changed but expectations are changing. To change the system you have to react in some way. Paying your insurance and doing no more won’t change anything. Was the girls claim not worthy? We have trust the court. Was the pilots claim turned down because he was older? Heaps of questions for me and how to react.

https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/7038648/ferris-wheel-plane-crash-victim-gets-15m/ This sad story continues and it raises the question of where does it leave us the pilots. Stuff up a go around and you could be ruined.

Whoever was in the backseat of that glider did nothing to prevent or avoid what happened. The student quite rightly said “I have it” as nothing useful was coming from the back seat. The student probably will be too scared to fly a glider again and hopefully the enquiry will limit the person in the back. We hear this is what happens when you fly into cloud but this video shows it dramatically. Learning by other people’s mistakes is the best way and I commend whoever posted it.

I have shares in 3 aircraft and do the annuals on them every year. One is old, one is not as old and one is relatively new. They are all not flown over 100 hours a year. I do all the standard base things, lubes, ad’s, inspection etc on all of them. Then I go to where I know I have not been for a while to make sure nothing is wrong or can be made better. After a few years your aircraft are in good condition and you have confidence in them. Doing minimal annual inspection will lead to degradation of the aircraft and you will have to play catch up which will be expensive or worse.

The move away from mode c transponders is driven by better functionality of mode s, ads b and decommissioning of secondary surveillance radars. ASA has built ads b receiving network across Australia and mandated ads b for IFR flights. Now that cheap vfr ads b is available the way ahead is clear so we can all have compatible system for surveillance. As you say the ads b in on the sky echo is very cheap and it works well for me. The output of sky echo could be improved by an external antenna as mentioned on another thread. It does work well in plastic planes though.

The old wheel had proper bearings which you had to fit and discard the roller bearing that came with the wheel. It looked like a wheelbarrow/ trolly wheel but was better than it looked. The crack that developed was probably a flaw in the weld that propagated around. They not available anymore so the upgrade to the alloy wheel is the way to go. Ray says he can design a completely new fork and wheel which would also be a good option but it would need testing.

Aircraft Spruce / Sky Shop. NW 40 B Matco. Cost a fortune ($480) with a aircraft tyre and tube but no modifications other than the axel. The exchange rate has improved since then though. Ray T says he will have them turned up at that price but you just have to get over there it.

I will post pictures later but the old one was pressed steel and cracked around the weld to the hub. The new one is aluminium and in 2 halves bolted together and I’m a lot more confident with this type of wheel.

After 150 hours on my Sierra the nose wheel decided to split at the hub. Luckily the fork kept it contained and no damage. I decided to put a Matco 4 inch nose wheel on and all that was needed was a new axle as the bearings are .675 in rather than 15 mm. All went well until the test fight where nose wheel shimmy occurred. So violent it tore 2 in slots in the spat attachment holes. Took the spat off and decided to overhaul the leg. Mine has the small diameter leg where any wear will show up as sideways movement. I redrilled the attachment holes and reamed them to new bolts. No movement. Next time I will go to the bigger diameter leg. All back together. Tightened the damper so plenty of friction. All ok but still not real sure on landing. Next move was to lower the tyre pressure from 30 psi to 20 psi. This made the treads all touch where before only the centre tread touched the tarmac. It now feels great. The old tyre was flat profile where the new one is more rounded. Spat will go back on next week. Hope this helps all who need to replace their nose wheel. I will post photos next week.

ELT and PLB’s are fine and mandatory for xc for us. However better technology like ads-b, spot, Inreach etc do not qualify. You have to crash or activate ELT/PLB to alert whereas the others show your track on a web page so your base can find where you are. AMSA and CASA won’t budge. DADogS!

TCAS will not interact with it so they will not automatically avoid you. Most TCAS have ads-b IN so they can see you and the pilot can avoid you. The commuters will be happy to see you.

Having the position of other aircraft reported to me via a double hop mobile phone network that wasn’t designed for aircraft elevations is dodgy for me. Add to this it’s only for your particular EFB and not shared. I think it’s doomed. Sky echo has ads-b receiver and shows all in range with ads-b out. Supplementing it with EFB specific info is fine but I think in time it will not be necessary.

I have the sky echo 2 and have tried it out. It appeared on flight radar 24 just after take off. It interfaces to my Oz runways, after I upgraded to premium, and I see traffic received directly. Uavionix have been swamped with orders and have limited the numbers you can buy. My local airports where I fly, Taree and Bathurst, have commuters so I will be seen and I like to see them.

The military airspace to the west of Forster is usually deactivated so a west approach is usually available with no clearance. Not sure where south is but as long as you stay away from Sydney and Newcastle and come into Forster from the west there is no airspace issue.

Competency in English is just another basic competency that has to be mastered otherwise you should not have a licence. Even a student licence. I have found foreign students have issues as do visiting pilots. I have seen issues with 2 operators that did not prevent completely rote radio calls that did not correspond to what they were doing and where they were. I once heard a conversation with REX and a Chinese sounding student that resulted in REX going around twice. The REX pilot lost it....... The result was the guy said “ I go away”.

Bocian, Janus and ask21 I think.

Put any transmitter near the gps antenna and it will screw up the gps. Mobile phones will do the same.

My broker got me a policy from QBE for 30m. It’s only liability but includes the council which they required for the lease. Under a grand.

Aireon is coming. It’s satellite based receiving system. But your right the Airservices and private receivers are not comprehensive in remote and low level.

I have used spot for years and it’s great. The tracking and alerting via mobile is very useful. Gliders have been using them for years and have proven great for outlandings. PLB’s do not have tracking which makes them limited to only emergencies. AMSA are now talking of tracking on the new gen satellites but they have been in the Stone Age for a long time and won’t budge re other technology. ADS-B will allow you to be tracked and seen on flight radar 24 and the like. VFR ads-b when comes will be cheap and the way to go. AMSA already have access to many sources of tracking data but stick to the plb/Elt as the official device. Most alerts come into amsa from concerned persons if someone goes missing. A tracking device like spot for my money is the safest way to go.

They need to grade the regional airports and have affordable standards accordingly. Councils should buck up too. Av data going around selling their skimming equipment to the councils doesn’t help councils or us. The whole regional airport regs is killing them and making them unavailable to us.

Many thanks. I will probably go the Bolly too. I will retrieve my plane from Bathurst this weekend with an old prop I have restored. Same issue, many stone chips! My prop strike was minimal and I did not know it was damaged until I shut down. I did notice going down the ditch though. Motor was at idle and did not make any noise. I will check the flange and the run in/out. I will come up and check yours out before I do it. Also need to check out your undercarriage fairing again.