derekliston

As I said the day after this accident occurred and I am still convinced that their procedures were designed for helicopters flown from the right seat and weren’t changed to suit the recently acquired machines which were flown from the left seat. Still the only helicopters that I know of which are flown from the left seat and which had the definite potential to curtail the pilot’s view up and to his right!

I wouldn’t swear to this but I am sure I received a Dynon communication stating now available for certified aircraft! Mine is of course experimental!

I have ADSB out with the Skyview set-up in my Zenith CH701

I am fortunate (thread drift again!) spiders are not a phobia of mine, particularly huntsmen. I used to have one that lived in my Mini-moke and I had it sit on my shoulder and once drop on my head and run down my face! Redbacks I’m not scared of but am wary of!

Old joke but he should wear wellingtons, they say you can fly in them!

A bit late to worry about the law once you are dead!

It can be quite frightening really. If you watch for example Mentour Pilot to see the number of high time professional pilots who make quite basic mistakes! Won’t stop me travelling by air but you just have to walk into that aluminium tube and hope for the best!

That is true to a large extent Nev, however, I find that more and more people are landing non-radio. The only reason I can think of for that is to avoid landing fees. Now I know they are doing nothing illegal if they haven’t heard other traffic, but if you have two or more pilots with the same mindset, there is potential for disaster. I am religious with downwind and base calls because I want people to know I’m there. I’d rather have a $10 landing fee than my wife have a $6,000 funeral fee!

ATR doesn’t have the long undercarriage as per the Dash8/Q400 since the wheels retract into sponsons (is that the word?) but at slow speed and dirty I think they would have to be on the ball feathering the prop to avoid trouble!

My wife doesn’t have a fear of flying per se, but she reslly doesn’t like it. She puts up with airline travel to get to places but doesn’t like it and she doesn’t like flying in my CH701 and since I’m not in the business of twisting arms I usually fly solo! I have no fear of flying, but I have a fear of crashing, so I do my level best to avoid that scenario!

I can’t discern from the video what type this is? News said kit-built but no further definition?

The video of the take-off and crash is on the 9 news site! Worth a look, but until I hear otherwise I’ll keep my opinion. I have personal experience almost identical although not a seaplane.

If you watch the news video, the plane leaves the water, the nose pitches up, the left wing drops and contacts the water, the plane then cartwheels in! Pure surmise but my guess would be the float detaching would be caused by, rather than the cause ofthe crash?

Looked like a wingdrop stall from the video on the news. It said kit-built but didn’t say what?

Used to see those all the time as a kid in Edinburgh. They had a very unique sound.

Just learned that they have only operated these since November which I think maybe reinforces my comment regarding right seat PIC procedures?

Wrong for fixed wing has always been pretty standard for helicopters! Not that I know ALL helicopters, but I can’t think of another one with PIC on left! As I’ve said, we almost always take a helicopter tour when available and pretty much for ever, certainly for over 40yrs, that is how it has been. My first helicopter ride would have been a Hughes 600 back in the ‘70s and since then, Bell 47, Jetranger, Longranger, Squirrel and R44, all right seat PIC, plus one on the Barrier Reef that I can’t identify, Bell of some sort I think.p

I more often than not fly solo, but on those occasions that I have a passenger, I always ask them not to just assume that I’ve seen another aircraft, but to point it out to me! Other than that don’t talk unless I ask them something!

Just looking on 9news at the onboard video of the helicopter collision and I wondered how long they have used these particular machines? I could be wrong but these are literally the only type of helicopter that I know of that are flown from the left seat. If you look at that video you can see that the pilot of the one taking off would have been unable to see the one above and to his right, whereas if he was piloting from what I consider helicopter normal, he would have been able to see it from his side window. No idea why the landing one didn’t see him apart from it being very difficult to discern a black helicopter against ground clutter, particularly if it’s position was apparently stationary as objects appear when on a collision course! Just makes me wonder whether flight procedures were designed for machines flown from the right seat? In any case, so very very sad for the people who perished. We love helicopters and consider them the absolute best way of sightseeing and have flown in them many times although only ever in single machine operations where obviously any danger of collision is very much reduced. Have to wonder also about their radio calls? I wish ATSB all the best trying to sort out what happened. At least they have one pilot and a planeload of eyewitnesses to interview! Sorry about the screed, but as a pilot myself, I am really interested in the safety aspects!

Just ask about a very well known pilot, might even still find some of his old posts on this site, known as Maj Millard. He died flying a Rotax powered machine after an EFATO and I believe an attempted 180° return!

Absolutely! In my 60yrs in aviation both ad a LAME and PPL I can think of quite s few pilots, including high time instructors who have died attempting manoeuvres that they would have been trained to avoid. EFATO 180° turn backs, turn into the dead engine on a twin, unqualified flight into IFR as just a few examples!

I fly a Zenith CH701 with a 2200 Jabiru solid lifter engine. I am always aware the engine can fail, just as I was always aware when flying behind Lycomings, Continentals and Rotaxes. The Jabiru is a beautiful little engine of which they have now sold more than 4,000 I believe. It is lightweight, simple and relatively cheap, as much as anything in aviation can be cheap!

Should be, but I can’t find any info! Doesn’t mean someone else couldn’t!

Anyone know who the occupants were or where it was from? Just hoping it wasn’t one of the Warwick ones!

Oops! Didn’t notice that.