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Ed has appointed some bloke he knows, to a non-defined task, at our expense and over the top of a supine board. And.....Guess what, Myles? Ops are doing their job. CFIs are getting on with it. We don't need you to tell us how to suck eggs. Here is a fact. The people we train are a broad cross section of the population. The students who walk in the door are not pre-selected as the brightest, fittest, totally committed and most academic twenty year olds. We work with the students we get. Therefore, we will always have accidents caused by incompetance and lousy decision making, despite our efforts. There is a limit on what can be achieved in training. To be clear. I would have 'scrubbed' about half my students if this was the military. It is not. You can not change our demographic, Myles. Resign now!!!

The Megafaunas were arriving at the Wagga City Aero Club for lunch and overnight stay. There are tonight, thirty plus aircraft at the aero club and the wreckage is lying in the middle of the aerodrome. The aircraft was a trike carrying two people. The passenger was uninjured. The pilot was conscious at the scene. It looks like a spinal injury plus other serious skeletal damage. The only qualified eye-witness I spoke to, indicated a go-around using full power. Climb was established and a steep turn at low level commenced. The turn, it is suggested, would have brought the machine back over the runway for another go. During the turn, the aircraft nosed down and impacted.

A sump that holds more oil? This is not needed. The 2200 is quite happy to operate with only one litre in the sump, I have found. The sump capacity is more than plenty, so the extra weight and operating expense of a larger sump is not justified. The best way to get oil too hot, esp. with the 3300, is to put too much in. Yes, yes. Stick to manufacturers instructions.

Instructors and CFIs as cops? No way, brothers! We are teachers, mentors and sounding boards. If we were cops, members would loose the ability to approach us for friendly advise.

Frankly, I am amazed that anyone would submit to a ramp check. If I was a "private flyer" type of member I would tell them to get out of my face. Why the pathological desire to submit?

www.waggabiketyres.com Randal offers these endorsements using a Thruster. He is located near Junee.

Do yourself a favour and get an Airservices Log. It is only twenty odd dollars but looks a million with it's gold lettering on dark blue background and quality hardbound construction. Inside, there are comprehensive instructions. This log suits all pilots, and can grow with you should you become a multi-qualified commercial pilot. Why buy something by Jeppesen that is designed for the FAA system? The RAAus log is widely acknowledged as near useless although it must be said that even an exercise book would suffice if you remain strictly an RAAus Sunday flier. Fred

You are right. A Skyranger won't fly with one wing. However, an F-15 has.

What is your engineering basis for your claim that "3300rpm is too much"? A mean piston speed of only 488.4 metres per minute at the rarely seen 3300 rpm spells low stressed to me. The Lycoming IO-233 comes in at 551.04 metres per minute at 2,800 rpm and Rotax 912 ULS at a harder working 707.6 metres per minute at 5,800 rpm.

You don't seem to be getting the answer to your quite reasonable question, so here goes. A flat turn with wings level is pretty do-able and aerobatic pilots muck around with unco-ordinated stuff of this ilk quite frequently. Do it up high if you want to play. Considerations.... 1) You or your passenger might be flung overboard if not strapped in. This is a major risk, aircraft doors are too flimsy to be an effective secondary restraint. Passengers sometimes quietly undo their belts. 2) It will likely be perceived as feeling bloody 'orrible, like taking a bend in a car. The load is no longer vertical through your spine. 3) Fuselage and vertical tail structures are not neccessarily up to the job. An Airbus lost its vertical surfaces and crashed disasterously because the pilots used the rudder aggressively at LOW speed. Bloody amazing. So much for certification. What are you flying? 4) If you use the unco turn technique during any turn near the ground you are taking an increased risk because the angle of attack is almost certainly high because of the modest airspeed. You may think that the flat turn enables a lesser angle of attack.....good theory....but there is likely some wing blanketing happening. This reduces total lift and will have to be made up by, you guessed it, increasing the angle of attack! 5) If you stall near the ground with the controls crossed for a flat turn..... you're gone, man. No way will you catch it. It will flick inverted to the inside of the turn so fast it will catch your breath, your last one, in fact.

Maybe this one is soloed from the rear?

A non pilot has said "inline seat twins". A pilot would say "tandem seat singles". LOL

I assume you are willing to pay increased RAAus Fees to cover the staff hours involved in providing this service? Possibly you volunteering to do the job? How will you handle those businesses who prefer or choose not to publicise or emphasise their rates in the first instance, this being their preference. After all, many aircraft are advertised for sale without a price because the vendor has chosen to only provide the information upon positive enquiry. Oh yeah. Don't shoot this messenger. My rates are there for all to see at www.waggabiketyres.com

I am familiar with the ISO 9000 scam. It was a fad twenty years ago. It goes like this. You pay heaps to some scam artist who has slipped money to someone higher up the pyramid to become an "approved provider". Then, said scam artist turns up at your office and wastes everyone's time by trying to get busy staff to write a manual about how they do their job, so that they can then read how to do their job, which of course they won't. The scam artist, of course, wouldn't know the faintest about how to do their job and so has nothing constructive to offer. I was on the AUF board at the time. I told them it was a scam but the rest were for it. Fourty thousand dollars later, they gave up. As for Cert IV, this is a popular "trojan horse" used by self serving educationalists. Indeed, it is now a somewhat successful religion, EG. a great money spinner. Those bottom feeding "educators" who feed off fraudulent schemes such as this, are working desperately to establish the myth that "if you don't have a Cert IV, you are dodgy". I am advised that successful completion of Cert IV is a true test of one's tolerance for bullshit.

Go into debt and put yourself through CPL / MECIR. Hint. There is an operator not fifty metres from REX/AAPA at Wagga who may well be willing to employ you if you are genuine. Why not speak to them about your training and possible future employment. A couple of years flying with this mob oughta make you a prime candidate for better paying employment.

The americans, no matter how much we lick their bootstraps, have no modern and competitive fighter airframe to offer. We need to canvas other options. Successive Australian leadership groups have abandoned their prime defence responsibility, which is to organise and equip for continental defence. We had the best fast, long legged bomb truck in the region.......so we lined them up and pushed dirt over them. We had an irreplaceable tactical airlifter that used the wrong fuel. Naturally we re-engined and crack inspected the airframes, right? Wrong....! We built an A-10 Warthog style aircraft to provide air support to ground and coastal operations, didn't we? Oops. We have forgotten the lesson of WW2. The lesson is: BE PREPARED.

Your training was deficient.

f-t. Do you ever look at what you post? This pilot did not do a fantastic job ONCE (meaning AFTER) they hit the wire. After impact he just "rode the octopus".

Well f-t, I think there are all kinds of problems with patriotism and plenty of idiots and freaks who do bad things in the name of their country. Possibly you think that Australia should abandon sovereignty and simply be a client state. If so, you will give no preference to aussie manufacture. Your suggestions regarding place of manufacture are noted. My thought is that we should remain a sovereign nation. Therefore, I will buy locally manufactured aircraft if reasonably possible.

The premise of this thread is beyond me. I would have thought the last thing a workshop operator would want is an airframe/powerplant that gave no trouble......?! f-t, I observe from your posts that you might be a trolling, defeatist. Trolling is fun! Defeatism is ugly. Are we so weak as to not support our own side, merely because the home product is a flawed gem? Best as I can tell, Jabiru's flaws aren't translating into fatalities and they seem to have built up a favorable long term safety record. Yes, the failures are frustrating and, in my case, sometimes costly. However, these losses must be offset against the considerable initial and ongoing economies achieved. Prospective students are invariably delighted and amazed when first setting their eyes on the J160. Compact and modern. Whilst I acknowledge the 912 is a fine powerplant, it is, to me, a hopeless marketing proposition because of the rattly, muffled, "European" sound. The other day I was working with a TV crew and their response to the one sixty was, "she sounds real throaty". The fellas at Brumby have a traditional GA orientation and, like Jabiru, have a sustainable business structure. Their preference for a traditional GA powerplant looks like a good bet on both reliability and exchange rate grounds. I reckon that Brumby will be quick to address any in service flaws that might arise. Brumby charge out rates will likely be higher, but I think they have a good claim to be offering a quality product suitable for intensive use. Recently, I was doing a little training in a Steve Cohen designed, Sky Dart 2S. This Australian product had every appearance of being suitably rugged but all our landings were OK, so I don't really know! Elevator authority was "just right". There was enough elevator to get the job done, but no excess at the forward C of G limit. The machine was not "twitchy" in pitch. Good development work there, Steve! The tandem seating is a nice change and really teaches students to take C of G position seriously. The front seat ride is sailplane like, out in the nose, and the instructor is buried in a maze of steel tube, in the wing root area. The instructor is provided with an altimeter, air speed indicator and a tacho. The machine is easy to fly for the student. For the instructor, the feeling is of great security because of all the surrounding steel, visibility is good for each occupant and it is generally an easy machine to instruct in. Sadly, it is 19 reg. I don't know how far Steve got with this project or weather it may be ongoing. A strong technical/manufacturing base is just so important to any nation. Each and every one of our manufacturers is a treasure, methinks.

My students don't graduate and they don't fly airplanes either ! I charge $170 per hour, all up, for instruction in J160 at Wagga.

OK....so you have EGT needles to fixate on. Is that somehow good? Two-stroke motorcycles don't have them because the rider needs to concentrate on where he is going. Two-stroke aeroplanes also need a pilot who concentrates on where he is going.

Reading your posts, Bigfella, your fixation on the altimeter is inexplicable and should have been jumped on by your instructor. There is no place for the altimeter in this exercise!! Successful forced landings are carried out by the application of practised judgement. Head out of the cockpit. Staring at dials is dangerous! During 2012, I had the pleasure of adding two forced landings to my tally, one from a starting height of 400 feet AGL. On both occasions I admit to simply using the time-honoured method that I teach, key point, then long base/short final. As others advise, have your alighting strip selected before trouble strikes. You can use this method during your training. It takes a major stress and time waste out of the exercise. Your instructor should be impressed! One thing not yet touched on is CRM.....Cockpit Resource Management. On the occasion of the 400' AGL starting point incident, it was, frankly, a pretty hectic exercise, requiring all the concentration I had available. We were shooting for a paddock too short to land on. I told my passenger (who was familiar with the location and function of the cockpit controls) to operate the flaps and wheel brakes to my command. The lesson here is : Use what ya got. Oh. In case you are wondering. The landing roll described an arc of about 110 degrees, thus avoiding the need to punch through a fence. Happy landings!

I must warn you, Bigfella. Landing on B-Doubles is fun.................until they go under a wire.

Well Rolf, what can I say. There's certainly no shortage of 'chicken little' advice on this thread. Frankly, this type of aircraft can be flown safely with no gauges at all. We called it ultralighting. The wing tanks are a non-issue. Why not ask to examine the aircraft's Maintenance Log Book....you have a legitimate right. No Log....No Fly! I would expect any instructor to be excited and impressed by a student making such a request. In the log, you should see is a steady listing of things being fixed, adjusted and replaced, as well as servicing at regular intervals. You will see where and when the aircraft was manufactured and how much flying time it has done. What about setting some time aside to really look at the aircraft. Trust yourself. Look for corrosion. Look for dings in any of the round tube structural elements. Look at every bolt and fitting. Is the air filter grungy and falling apart? Are the carby rubber adapters cracked? Are the wing and tail skins faded and threadbare? Trust yourself. If the first two digits of the rego are 25 or 55, it's a factory built aircraft and OK for training/hire. Cheers