MarcK

It's time for constant 500ft air work by every possible participant. Stay within the law but exercise your rights to the maximum extent. Once this "crisis" reaches breaking point then negotiate back from that point. Having to beg to maintain current activity levels due to a single complaint is appalling. I had a discussion with local council about the length of my grass. It was long but I was not able to rectify it. I received a letter from the council threatening a fine of about 6k plus costs to cut the grass. So I called the guy and had a chat. I explained that I currently didn't have the recorces to pay someone or the time due to my mother being on deaths door step. He basically said he didn't care and I had about 10 days to comply. So I just said to him that I am going to go cover all the grass with round up to kill it and I will burn it all on the morning of day 10 because that's the only option I had to me And hung up the phone. About 2 mins later he calls me back and his approach changed and we negoiated an agreeable outcome for both of us. They have no reason to negotiate at this stage so why try and help.

Tornado kids are too short to be decapitated. Minced by the tail rotor maybe decapitated no.

To me it just sounds like another local government throwing their toys out of the cot. I bet the little council goblin that pursued this one is patting himself on the back right now. I hope the price of concrete just went up $50 a cubic meter for BCC. Stop the planet I want to get off.

O and throw a training package in also as an option.

If you read the prize information on the tickets they sell for cars in shopping centres the prize is usually stated as vehicles up to the value of $xxxxxxx the way forward here wold be approach multipal manufactures for permission to throw there product names behind the event and then let the winner chose an aicraft / kit / accessories to the value of x amount from one of the involved manufacturers. If you can get an engine manufacturer and aircraft supplies place involved you will have a few more carrots in the bunch. Everybody is happy and it promotes the product of more than 1 manufacturer. M

I would leave general discussion alone as a single point of contact and then split off your regions only on specialised content. Such as governing bodies and trips events and spare seats. Student pilot and further learning I would leave as a whole of site thing because the only real diff would be local procedures aircraft still fly the same on the wrong end of the planet. And incidents and accidents I would leave also. Not only is a gossip colum it's educational implications would be relevant anywhere. The numbers points at the bottom of the page make sense to me. As for the new section for now cater to your subscriber base until you have the mass offshore to justify the full split? M

I think this is a big call. Reading Ian's comments on how the traffic dropped when there was discussion on the constitutional reform I assume that he thinks / knows that's driving the O/S traffic away. In my case I can understand not visiting if that topic was driving most of the discussion on the site for me it's not relevant And I honestly can say I have read only a handful of posts about it. I'm just not interested I like the bits about flying not about governance. If the other content drops off during these Heavily discussed topics it will effect visits from people like me. But fencing out /exluding /separating our O/S visitors is a risk. It has the potential to further reduce interesting content on the "Aussie " sites and potentially reducing traffic further. The other thing I think worth considering is will you have the "critical mass " on the O/S sites to generate the content needed to not only generate new traffic but to not bore your existing members and drive them away? I would think that the o/s users that are here already would probably keep using the Australian site to maintain the connections they have with the subscriber base. Also after giving it some thought what's the point of excluding people from the RAA forum if they are not visiting anyway? Hiding the reason people are not visiting won't make them come back. It just excludes people from even more content and may compound the problem a little. I have made a few assumptions on the motivations Ian has on this one sorry if I am too far off base. It's a bloody hard disision to make and I'm glad it's not me making it. Good luck This is much more interesting than constitutional reform.. M

Ian. Just be sure to be clear if the real name and membership number are not considered " personal information" and if so that you have the correct policies and procedures in place to be compliant with legislation. I am no expert but have had to do basic training to Identify potential issues and this feels like one to me. I would not hesitate to provide that information if needed it just an ass covering exercise for yourself . M

Ian I think the natural progression for the name will just be clear prop. Build on the brand in my opinion. If you have to throw classifieds or aviation or whatever on the end but clear prop is a winner. And a little accidental cross over of traffic can't hurt. On a side note to aviation advertiser. Most rec pilots are old guys. And old guys don't like change. Ok I have caused my trouble here today M

Wow I was only down chatting with them about training a couple of weeks ago. I think they invested heavily in developing courses for govt funded CPL training. (vet fee help). They also have a school at Toowoomba. I spoke to a few of the staff and they where friendly professional and very helpful. Sad news for the staff and students. I hope there is enough capacity in the area to pick up the CPL students so their training isn't disrupted too much.

I was lucky enough to do work experience in high school at a charter company in a remote part of the world. I had 2 jobs one was to drive the ute into town to get the pilots whatever they wanted and pick up mail bags the other was to taxi aircraft for whatever reason. I got to play with partenavia cesna 310 and a few others. I only had one close call in one of the girls where it had hydraulic nose wheel steering and I didn't know that just centering the pedals didn't make the thing drive in a straight line. I did have other jobs to do but they where just what I did to play with the aircraft. I doubt things like that happen now doesn't matter how remote you are I already had a love of anything that flys and I think that was seen buy the young pilots that let me play with their toys and that's why they let me. Living there really cemented my love of flying because you spent a lot of time in planes. The best flight I had I was in a C310 we had chartered for the old mans work and I was allowed to take off (assisted a lot ) fly the entire 20 min flight and then fly down to almost short final. Now just waiting for life to get out of my way to get back in the air. M

I think pre sales on clear prop is the way forward I am sure a lot here are happy to stump up a few bucks early to get the ball rolling and make sure no one misses out.

For the slower members of the crowd (This guy mostly ) what is the EAA ? I am thinking Experimental Aircraft Association?

If a man talks in the woods and there are no women around to hear him is he still wrong ?

For people of such wisdom you have all missed the golden rule Happy wife = Happy life M

Have you all see the 777 parts on ebay ?

I drove through a massive flock of budgies once in western QLD and trust me they are good but the amount of little coloured feather balls I had to remove from different parts of that hilux we can assume that Their decision making skills are lacking if they had not of taken off from the side of the road and decided to go across my path the death toll would have been 0 not somewhere around 1000000 like it was that day. And again they didn't seem to be able to navigate around my vehicle. M

I thnk it would be great fun there is a heap of information on the net and youtube. Looking at it it would have to almost be the cheapest way to get into a 3 axis aircraft. If I evere loose a few kg I will have a go for sure

I drove down for a couple of hours on the Sunday the gentleman with the goat glider let my son climb all over it and get a couple of pictures which was kind of him and the snow cones and fairy floss were great. A nice day and my boy loved it

Gaffa tape is like the "force" it has a dark and a light side and it bonds the universe together..

As a new member of the rec aviation community I made a decision to train in a rotax powered aircraft based on what I have read and been told about jab engines it's the only way I had to make the decision on what to do in this instant I admit that my research was not exhaustive but it was enough to judge the jab option as to risky . I have flown in a jab for a couple of hours and it was great they are pretty quick and look the part. If the reputation of jab had have been better I would have picked them as a trainer over the other options I had. I am not an expert on the faults or the fixes for different aero engines but I would think of myself as an average minded consumer and I think that buying an aircraft with a reputation of needing and engine at maybe 500 hours puts a sour taste in my mouth. Why would I spend say 50k on an aircraft that has a perceived reputation that it might stop on me or cost me a further 10 plus k on the engine. With my limited knowledge it's not my place to say weather it is deserved or not but I have made my decision based on what I have come across which is to not train in or buy a jab powered aircraft. Now with that reputation available so easily to new starters in rec aviation if they are looking for it can't be good for business. And not only that I would go as far as to make the assumption that a fair percentage of people who buy their own plane would buy what they train in. And this could have something to do with the success of the Jabiru brand I think that Camit are on a great thing here if they can get an equivalent of a jab engine to be proven more reliable than what jab have I think it will force the hand of jabiru to one of either 2 things. The first is tying up Camit in the courts and not allowing them to get the product out there( If that is even an option I'm not a lawyer ). Or the better option is to reinstate Camit as the manufacturer of jab engines and run with a good thing. Perhaps that is what Camit are looking for here I would have to think the market for jab engines internationally would be quite a good market. All this R&D being done by Camit can't be cheap and if not supported by the industry will come to an end. If I was the owner of a Jab and I didn't need the class of registration I would support it for sure . I don't think that there product would be worse than the existing jab option so why not. In the end of it all if it turns out that you get a certified jab engine that is without the apparent concerns faced by the existing product it will only have a positive impact on the existing owners through both piece of mind and resale value. And I might get to buy one and support an Australian business. I think logically the only way forward is to support these guys someone has to pay for the R&D these guys are investing. If Jab themselves are not trying to improve the product themselves there is no reason they wouldn't want to jump on board with a proven product based on their own design to improve / save their reputation in a marketplace that will only become more competitive over time. Just my idealistic view of it all after reading this thread. Marc

Gaffa tape I think is similar to 100mph tape. Cloth reinforced tape and will stick jelly to a wall. A good brand is 357 Gaffa and you can get it at bunnings. Not to sure how it will treat your surface finish and will probably leave a residue.

My old man has said the exact same thing about flying the older aircraft he has a few hours in pa28 and said getting behind the controls of RA aircraft is much different. He put it down to the older Pa28 and c172 birds having so much experience they don't really need a pilot anymore. Marc

I think one of the things we should look into is managing risk. I am In my 30,s and from what I have seen I am in the younger end of the Rec Aviation group. I also class myself as quite risk adverse. At this stage of my life I have to be with a young family and all the things that go with it. I am aware of the risks of flying but having being bitten by the bug I accept the risk so when I took up flying I parked my bike in the garage too limit my exposure to risk. Even during the process of making the decision to fly I spent a lot of time researching what aircraft I wanted to learn in. In that process I decided I wanted a slow rotax powered solid aircraft this decision was made with my limited knowledge on what once again would limit my exposure to risk. Once I have my Cert and I have more experience to base my decisions on if I don't feel I am up to the task or the inherent risks are to high I will give flying away until my family is grown up and if the worse happens they can take care of themselves. Now I think if people where to adopt a similar philosophy during flight things could improve. Accidents will still happen that is the truth of it. But saying that accidents happen and that's that is far from good enough in any undertaking. In a sport where making a mistake or ignoring risks in flight or in maintenance can be fatal it is much more important for us a a group to be educated on what risk is manageable and what is not. Now for me this is quite a while off I still have to learn how to fly the aircraft but for those that are more experienced a little time reflecting on their habits in the air and how they react in situations that present the chance to enter high risk situations. It's not an age thing at all it is fact that older people take longer to learn things but the old dogs thing is just an excuse. And when I think I can get away with it I will use it to. But you do need to take into account limitations of man and machine when making decisions. For me it is experience and one of risk factors I will face for some time to come is not being able to see what is going to kill me all I can hope is my training will be enough to get me out of trouble when it happens. And lastly taking risks is fun and exciting i think it's one of the things that has made us so successful as a species is that we enjoy taking risks. We will continue to do so and have a lot of fun along the way but you have to pick you battles. End of my dribble for the night. Marc

I lusted over that beautiful little plane when it was on eBay. I have never seen it in the flesh but I would love to. Glad to see the pilot unhurt and hope the aircraft makes a full recovery.