derekliston

So we had one brilliant event last year and now it turns to absolute shambles! Latest message by email from SAAA, is Airventure on? don't ask us, we don't know. What chance has Sport Aviation/Recreational Flying of surviving or expanding if we cannot get a spirit of cooperation. We complain about CASA but to a large extent we are our own worst enemy. Given the current situation, will you be planning on attending?

Wrong number, TU95 apparently!

Off track again! I used to go to the Battle of Britain air show at Leuchars every year. One year caught a special train from Edinburgh Waverley pulled by the streamlined steam locomotive ' Commonwealth of Australia' also remember watching from home in Edinburgh as two Lightnings would intercept the Soviet 'Bear' Tu22?? Reconnaissance bombers. Used to have photos on front page of Scottish Daily Express of Russian pilots or tail gunners waving to the Lightning pilots.

Getting way off track for the moment but I was a mechanical apprentice back then but with the training regime they had back then I worked in what was known as Lab 18 on the radar for the TSR2 and one which, if my memory serves me right, was called Blue Parrot. Mainly though I was building gyros for the gyroscopic gunsights (probably all solid state nowadays) Sorry for getting off the subject!

As an apprentice at Ferranti at Edinburgh Turnhouse airport many years ago I had the opportunity to look through a RAF Argosy and an early C130 and two things stick in my memory, the first was that every hydraulic union in the Argosy was lockwired whilst none were in the C130 and the second thing was how much roomier and better equipped the C130 was with a larger cockpit, galley and even a bed, the Argosy was cramped by comparison.

Back when I did my PPL test in the UK spin recovery was part of the syllabus but I believe, (British residents please confirm) that it is no longer required. I believe the reasoning was that more people had died in spin training than stall spin accidents. I have spun 152 aerobat, decathlon and airtourer T6 and can confirm they all spin differently. I seem to remember that quite a few pilots died in the early days of the PA38 Tomahawk because it had an unconventional spin recovery. I think that was solved with 'spin strakes'

Flaperons and rudder different from Zenith ie one piece flaperon, Zenith has two piece set at different angles. I like the idea of the pod under the fuselage. Baggage??

Two seaters (l hate auto correct!!!)

I like Zenith CH701 setup, similar to Airtourer, side by side with stick between the seats and left hand throttle. Awkward for writing anything down though unless you are left handed (I'm not!) Always seemed odd to me that the majority of people are right handed but most side by side two sweaters are flown left handed!

Who knows? Leaking now apparently and no definite availability date!

Can you believe the fuel bowser was eventually fixed and serviceable on Saturday and now, Monday morning, it is out of order again!!! Enough to make anyone swear!

I am told that it will be sorted tomorrow, so I should be able to fill up on Thursday. Bit of a concern really if it can't be NOTAMed, could leave people stuck!

Wanted to check before I replied to this one. Definitely owned and operated by SRDC, their number is 'writ large' across the bowser. I rang them this morning and they said they are waiting for a part from England ( Makes a change from Melbourne) I said they should put out a NOTAM for the benefit of visiting pilots and she said ( I kid you not!) "I should put it on a noticeboard?" Wouldn't you think they would have someone who knows at least a little about aviation?

There's probably a 99.98% chance of no one from the Council rabidly reading your rant, so why not do what most of us do; find out the name of the person in the Council responsible for the airfield, make an appointment, and explain the needs of local and visiting pilots frequency of use, potential amounts of fuel, and potential spend of people visiting the town by air. That may well prompt surprise and a promise to take a closer interest in customer service. If you get to that reaction, from then on it's a matter of you alerting the council if you find the pump not working; many councils now have a specific email to report an issue such as rubbish dumped, cracked footpaths, potholes, traffic lights not working etc., and the 30 second report immediately generates instructions to the department, and forms part of the Council's KPIs, with utomatic follow-ups and time to fix logged. Have tried that in the past. Out of order notices are placed by the council, internally on the window of the bowser hut so they are obviously aware. I have also pointed out the importance of NOTAM but to no avail. I would say that whomsoever is responsible knows little and cares less about aviation!

I don't know if anyone from SDRC is likely to read this but I just need to vent a little. I used to run my Jabiru engine on Mogas when it was based at Coominya, when I moved it to Warwick I changed over to Avgas because a) that is what Jabiru advise and b) there is a credit card bowser on the airfield. However it seems that may be a mistake because the bowser is out of order as often as it is working it seems, well, three times for a week at a time in the last few months. Now for me it is a nuisance but I am based there, for anyone flying in and expecting to fuel up it could be a major hassle because the Council don't NOTAM the fact that it is out of order!

Yes but my reply was to neil_

Can't argue with any of that!

Don't know if they still do, but back in the last century (truly!!!) when I learned to fly in the UK they used two different altimeter settings. QFE if you were flying circuits or until you departed the airfield at which time you changed over to area QNH and then back to QFE on return to circuit. QFE was in fact field elevation which meant that ground level read zero on the altimeter. Took me a while to adjust to landing at, for example 1500ft here in Warwick! Just an addition to the dialogue, not for any other reason but aviation trivia.

Coominya Qld is under the Amberley 1500ft airspace so circuit height is 700ft AGL which is 1000ftAMSL unless any Coominya flyers can tell me otherwise!

Interesting how easy it is to open a can of worms on this forum. I don't and didn't have a problem with any of it. It was quite clear that 'not above 500' was AGL. I was merely curious about the reasoning and I confess that as a fixed wing pilot I am really not familiar with rules applying to helicopters. Since we should all apparently know the rules I might point out that circuit height for fixed wing can be 500, 1000 or 1500 AGL depending on speed and I know of one airstrip with a circuit height of 700 ft AGL.

Just those words 'Tracking to Oakey not above 500'

Yes, but why? If you are flying and someone on the radio asks your height don't you give it AMSL?

Somebody please explain this one to me. I fly from Warwick which has an elevation of 1536ft or thereabouts, therefore if I am flying 1000ft circuits I am at 2500ft. So why then do helicopters, army included make radio calls like "Departing Warwick tracking to Oakey, not above 500" Do they have different rules? because technically, at Warwick they would be 1,000ft below ground! I don't have a problem with it, I just want to understand why.

Excellent turnout and postcard perfect weather for Warwick fly-in this morning. Probably around 30 aeroplanes. RVs definitely in the majority but a nice cross section of other types. Have to wonder though, why when everyone is using runway 27, would one bloke decide to use 09? No legal reason that I know of why he shouldn't, but surely in the interests of etiquette and safety you would conform with the majority. Three other aircraft were in various stages of approach to 27!!

If I told you about our Air India experience you would swear I was making it up! 32rs Bne, Syd, Bombay, Calcutta, New Delhi (don't remember the order) Rome, Frankfurt, Paris and London and that was the least of it! Long time ago, 29yrs!