Markdun

There aren’t a lot of them in Australia. Try Anne Twomey, or George Williams, or go to some recent online seminars on the topic. Even read some reports by the Parliamentary library for example on the unlawful/unconstitutional expenditure of public funds by the federal government. You are just plain wrong on the military being used in thousands of civil matters, unless you include the S&R actions...which is under the direction of State authorities (declaration...I was once ‘rescued’ by a naval helicopter as a teen bushwalker caught in floods. The oPeration was under the control and direction of NSW police. I have since been a rescuer on military helicopters a few times...also under direction of the police...and the military were, by a large degree, far more competent than their police controllers). The issue isn’t the use of the military per se, nor the competence of the military, but the use of the military against civil law. The police are subject to a range of limitations on their powers (and there are cases where these are breached). But it is a different matter for the military whose chain of command is through their commanding officers and their commander in chief, the Governor-General.

Here is a screen shot of the ‘freedom March’ in Guyra NSW. Seems appropriate. We need to be very cautious about civil unrest, particularly when it is formented, in part, by government ministers’ whistling to neo-fascists. There is growing concern in senior constitutional lawyers that our current federal government are consistently testing the limits of Executive power, and this is particularly in relation of using the military for domestic civil issues. My understanding is that currently the military can only be sent in on the request of a State govt and the military must be under the direction of State officials (ie. not their usual chain of command)....but this is a practice untested in courts. We even had the recent spectacle of Morrison having the Cth side with that Qld nutter Clive Palmer in the High Court to overturn WA emergency border controls. Of-course, there is also the increasing practice of putting uniformed military throughout the federal public service.

Bruce, oxygen can be toxic for newborns. My sister was working in a Sydney public hospital quite a few years ago and was called to their A&E department as she was the only trained midwife on duty at that hospital. A pregnant women from a MVA brought into the emergency department died and tge A&E doctors delivered the infant via Caesarean section. The infant was born alive and spontaneously breathing etc, but was a bit blue...as they usually are, but otherwise totally fine. The A&E doctors decided to give tge infant 100% oxygen...against my sister’s loud protests that it would kill the baby (but what would a nurse/midwife know). The oxygen killed the baby and the A&E staff recorded that it was born dead. Water can also be toxic. Several cyclists have died in an event that involves a long distance ride through Death Valley in the USA. Drinking too much water to avoid dehydration was the cause..,water toxicosis.

Octave, I think we are mostly in agreement. But you did use the word ‘resentful’ of those individuals who choose to defer getting vaccinated at this time. I also think you will find I’m definitely not against vaccination, nor am I am against promoting it. Where I think I differ, is that I think we have to do both....vaccinate AND the maintain the other measures like lockdowns, quarantine etc. sure vaccination may reduce the frequency, extent and length of lockdowns, but I expect we will need these into the future to avoid unecessary deaths and serious illness. The idea of getting back to relaxed international travel just with vaccination, I think, is dangerous and delusional. I also think that promoting vaccination by saying it will eliminate lockdowns and restrictions on mass gatherings, wearing masks can be counterproductive because it supports the view, ‘I’m vaccinated, I don’t need to be careful of spreading the disease to others’. I accept I’m probably in a very small minority who think getting back to normal is not a desirable objective. But with climate change people are not going to really have any say, because our normal is no more.

Do you have the same moral indignation towards people injured in small recreational plane crashes taking up scarce hospital resources, or football players, kids injured at pony club, people who smoke cigarettes or women getting pregnant (or the men that ‘seeded’ the pregnancy), all of whom have made choices that impose public health costs and take up scarce hospital resources? I note the quote you put about the safety of mRNA vaccines, but that’s still just someone arguing a case drawing a parallel, not empirical research. I, like FB, was cautious (hesitant) about the Covid vaccine, and would have much preferred to wait and see how things developed, giving time for a more orderly and morally defensible vaccine roll-out to those in most need first (eg. health workers, other countries more afflicted than us) as per NZ, but because of the total failure of our federal government to have effective quarantine (which initiated the Sydney cluster) and the NSW’s belated Claytons lockdown which let it spread, I re-assessed my risk and brought forward having the AZ vaccine. In my view it’s a bit rich to damn someone for having a different assessment of the balance of risks. Australia being an isolated island had the opportunity to have effective quarantine....an opportunity not available to many nations...eg Europe, Africa etc. However our hapless PM seems to think a quarantine system that literally guarantees releasing contagious people out ( ie,98% effective means that for every one hundred people going through quarantine, two emerge infectious!). It’s like having a light switch that is 98% effective in preventing a user getting electrocuted, just 2 in every hundred uses of the switch results in death. I also think FB is correct about the mass pro-vaccine hysteria. It’s as unhinged and irrational as many of the irrational and unhinged anti-vaxxers.

Yes, but FB has a valid point. First, the approvals of the Covid vaccines are ‘emergency approvals’ under the WHO guidelines, and in Australia the TGA has given conditional approvals. Also some of the vaccines are ‘novel’, eg. mRNA ones. Hence the uncertainty over long term efficacy and safety. And there have not been the longitudinal studies of them over time. Second, in the USA for all its hopeless health system (probably the worst in OECD league tables), does have a public compensation scheme for people injured by ‘approved’ vaccines (which is very very rarely required to pay out). Here in Australia, the federal non-government gave indemnity to medical doctors who were concerned about being sued for harm caused by the Covid vaccines (and therein lies the thought that the doctors view the risk is real), but as usual the government left the public citizens out in the cold.....just as they did in tort law reform which effectively makes it almost impossible now to sue a doctor for negligence (but was good as far as flying dangerous small aeroplanes).

FB, even if the first two paragraphs are true...I haven’t checked the data for Gibraltar, it does not support or prove the claim in the third paragraph, putting aside why anyone would believe anything associated with a deluded, imbecilic narcissist like Trump. Lets be clear. The Covid vaccines have been designed to reduce (not eliminate) deaths and to reduce (not eliminate) hospitalisations. And this has been substantiated in basket case countries (ie. ones that have let the virus rip) that then rely only on vaccination (look at the UK). There is very reliable evidence that Covid vaccinations are very effective (in the short term) of massively reducing infection fatalities and hospitalisations. Figures range from a minimum of a five fold to ten fold reduction in deaths and hospitalisations. If that’s not ‘working’ as intended, I don’t know what is. They were not designed, nor were they tested, to eliminate people getting the Covid infection or padding it on. Yet they still reduce transmission of tge infection by around 50% or a bit more. unfortunately with the Delta variants higher transmissibility, a reduction by 50% from vaccination, just delivers us back to where we were with the original Covid strain, not ‘herd immunity’ as was hoped. I know there are many people who simply believe all vaccinations work the same....like polio, diphtheria, tetanus....but unfortunately this is not the case. Some vaccines have marginal effectiveness, others only boost immunity for a short period (eg hepatitis). The main issues with vaccination programs from a public policy point of view is that they can divert resources away from other public health programs that may be more effective (think about potable water, sewerage systems, infant nutrition like breastfeeding, quarantine/isolation/treatment as for TB). Or in the case of Covid, shift collective responsibility to individuals (get vaccinated) instead of government (control the borders, have effective quarantine), or even worse, encourage people to get vaccinated by lying that this will mean other public health measures like distancing, travel, mask wearing etc can be relaxed, and thereby encouraging people to engage, or expect to engage, in risky behaviour once theyre vaccinated.

Total rubbish. The total murder rate for the whole of Australia is around 400 per annum (source ABS), so children in Qld can be nowhere near 10,000. Just consider how much we collectively pay to save a few score deaths a year with road safety works and regulations impinging upon our freedoms to drive fast, unlicensed and drunk. My wife’s view on road congestion (which also costs us a fortune) is to have no speed limits during peak congestion periods....if you want to travel safely, drive off-peak. As to the death rate among dark skinned people, I’d like to see some research. I scanned the research on Covid death rates...and there were quite a few, and they all consistently said the infection fatality rate was not related to race, but to age, and the age death rate relation was logarithmic. Of-course, this is not the same as infection rate by race. Vitamin D deficiency is well known for dark skinned people in high latitudes, particularly among people who cover their skin with clothes...perhaps that’s why the Scandies are frequently naked??? But it is also emerging in Australia as a consequence of being sun safe, particularly children. A couple of my sons mates at primary school were constantly getting into trouble for not wearing hats in the playground and as a consequence were often not allowed to run around outside. They happened to be very dark skinned aboriginal kids....another example where applying rules blindly equally results in inequality!

Pretty bad actually. Around 1500 dead per million of population so far. Compared to neighbouring Norway of 150 dead per million. But still less than basket case countries that allowed cross-border movement of people etc, like the USA (1,800), UK (1,900), France (1,700), and, of-course, Brazil (2,700). Keep in mind Sweden did pretty well considering they had a government MIA mainly because their population is well educated and despite not having lockdown rules, the vast majority actually headed advice to avoid contact with other people. Swedish friends tell us that many Swedes took off to their summer houses. Compared to countries that actually did lockdown with high exposure (ie. not remote like NZ and Australia), look to South Korea (42 deaths per million) and Taiwan. Below is a nifty graph of cumulative Covid deaths per million of population. The Doherty people are pretty smart. But keep in mind there are trade-offs. Yes, a vaccination rate of 80% will bring ongoing daily deaths down substantially, but it is a value judgement, not science, as to what level of deaths is acceptable. For example, the UK now has over 70% of tge population fully vaccinated (over 90% if you include ‘natural immunity’ ) and they appear to find 1.34 daily deaths per million (around 100 deaths per day) acceptable. This applied to Australia would be over 30 daily Covid deaths on an ongoing basis. So when people say we would be ‘living with tge disease’ like the flu, you need to keep in mind the flu kills around 3000 Australians per year....my estimate is that Covid would kill 3 or 4 times that number.....so it is not ‘just like the flu’. If you are a follower of eugenics and involuntary euthanasia, then I suppose the over 10,000 expected deaths per annum we would get from ‘let’s all get vaccinated and let Covid rip’, would be good because the greatest number of deaths will be the aged (not in the labour market) and tge vulnerable, and they are just burden to the economy’.

Well Turbo I don’t know where you have been the last few decades. COAG has been around since at least the late 1980s. Partly this was to make funding arrangements from the Commonwealth to the States more transparent, but also under COAG there were (are) various ministerial councils to better co-ordinate State laws across the country. That’s why there are model consumer law, food law, and road code, extradition of criminals from one state to another state etc etc etc They provide a framework to some extent for national consistency with each State/territory diverging when they see that is better for them. The minutes of COAG were public documents. Each member of COAG was an Australian government...all nine of them. Morrison’s ‘national cabinet’ trashed all this. The only saving grace is that the State premiers have stood up against him. And you seem to be confused about how laws are made. National Cabinet is nothing more than a secret discussion group, with ScuMo making an announcement after. It has no formal power....it’s just a discussion group...like COAG, but secret. For laws to be made each State parliament still has to enact them, or a State Governor still has to make the regulations.

Yep, and that’s why people need to be engaged with politics and vote in representatives not party hacks, and why we need the States....to prevent the concentration of power in one government. And also why we should be cautious of Morrison’s rebadged ‘Council of Australian Governments’ in the form of ‘National Cabinet’ which purports to bind the States/Premiers and could undermine the Premiers and State Government’s sovereignty and accountability to the people of the States through their respective State parliaments. It’s the State parliaments that are the bosses of the States, not the Prime Minister. Irrespective of the various ‘emergency acts’, in a real emergency courts are prepared to find that common law over-rides legislation. Hence, a motorist who refused to comply with a police officer’s direction to go down a one-way street the wrong way to not get in the way of firefighters fighting a fire was found guilty despite the fact the police officer’s direction was for the motorist to commit an offence. So I’m not sure whether the emergency acts do or don’t give more unaccountable power to the executive. It is true the High Court in WWII did give the federal government a huge amount of power to deal with the war. The question is, have we already had a coup without really knowing it?

In my view the chant and hysteria about ‘antivaxers’ is about as rational and anti-science as the extremes of many antivaxers. Ditto for attaching ‘rights’ to vaccination, unless there is a significant public benefit, like, for example herd immunity. But, but but....with this Delta variant with a high R0 and the efficacy of the current vaccines....that is not going to happen. So a vaccinated person might be 50% less likely to spread the virus....why would this be sufficient to gain added rights? The better argument is the one about mandatory bicycle helmets....vaccinated people are less likely to require hospitalisation.....(keep in mind that the majority of hospitalisations in the UK are now vaccinated people....that will happen here too when vaccination rates increase, but the principle still holds that there would much more hospitalisations for unvaccinated...about 10 fold). Again, attaching ‘rights’ or privileges to vaccination risks achieving the opposite....you might get a higher vaccination rate, but if those privileges result in more risky behaviour the 50% reduction in transmission might not be achieved. Giving employers the rights to demand medical procedures for employees is frightening. Many already seem to have the right to prohibit employees from engaging in political debate. Will this be extended to demanding female employees be sterilised or have a depo insert so the employer can avoid maternity leave, or that people not be members of particular political parties, or even telling people how to vote. It’s just another progression towards corporate feudalism. Anyway, we are all doomed. Climate change is progressing unabated, recent studies are predicting the Gulf Stream will stop within a decade.....so it’s looks like it’s going to be a slow version of that terrible story, ‘On the Beach’.

Exactly Glen. But it’s worse than that. My 25yo son was up snow skiing a few weeks ago...and working up there. A group of young 20 something women came in to the shop and refused to put on face masks because, ‘we’re vaccinated, we don’t need to’, obviously not realising that vaccination only reduces transmission and reduces susceptibility. My fear is exactly that....the vaccine will encourage risky behaviour and the outcome will be worse, particularly so given the R0 of the Delta strain.. Linking vaccination rates to ‘freedoms’ encourages such behaviour.

I agree with you Turbo....particularly in relation to morons leaving the doors (international borders open) and despite having over 18 months, failing to build an effective mask (quarantine) for those that come through the open door. But my point was, that you can do still do stuff to reduce your risk of getting infected and for some people being slow to vaccinate (hesitancy) is or was rational, not loopy. My plan, given that WHO has only given the vaccines ‘emergency approval’, the virus and vaccines being novel, the moral idea of greater need for vaccines in other countries (remember it’s a global issue) and my trust in the Australian government approval is zero, I wanted to wait and see how it played out for those willing to be guinea pigs...planning to get vaccinated in October. I do have a yacht and bush block to go be a hermit. However, because someone (we control our borders) left the door open (or the sea cock open) and someone else (McGuire’s mate) didn’t do the track, trace, isolate effectively, I re-computed my considerations and brought getting vaccinated forward......still made me exceedingly cranky because had the two someone’s done their job the vaccine that went into my arm could have gone to a doctor or nurse in PNG, Timor or Indonesia, where Covid is doing much more harm than here. Arron....you are on to something. Look at the USA where they have not approved the ‘EU’ vaccine (AZ) but have approved the US vaccines. You would be surprised how commercial interests are able to promote and ‘market’ a research paper without being seen to be doing so when that research benefits that company. Too often scientists are ignorant of this. There is a great book titled ‘Manufacturing Consent’ that deals with this.

Glen, I’m the same. The calculation of the risk of AZ...is the low one or two in a million of AZ. But the risk of death from Covid is the risk of catching Covid times the risk of dying once you have it (one in five if you’re over 80, probably less than 1% for someone less than 60...it’s a log relationship to age, or an average of say 2.5%). This suggests that it would only be wise to vaccinate with AZ if your risk of catching Covid is greater than 8 in 100,000. And to some extent this risk depends on one’s circumstance (do you work in a high risk job say at a hospital, school, Bunnings, do you live in higher density dwellings, in a city etc) and ones behaviour (as we see in the UK where older people are hiding themselves away and young people are partying). So the vaccine hesitancy, particularly for people under 70 who are not working, not keen to socialise, can hide out on their yacht or bush block, is (or was) rational. It wasn’t (isn’t?) axiomatic that the ship would sink. But that has changed because of our ‘captains’ determination to put those life jackets to use by secretly opening the sea cocks and leaving the hatches in the water tight bulkheads open, pretending that if everyone wears a life jacket it’s back to normal, and if someone isn’t wearing one it’s their own fault. The guys at Chaser also make an analogy of someone running a nuclear power plant leaking radiation with radiation suits being analogous to vaccines.

If there is one thing you learn from history, it is that human societies do NOT learn from history. Recent history....over 90% of the UK population has Covid antibodies either ‘naturally’ from having Covid or from vaccination. Over 70% are vaccinated, over 50% ‘fully vaccinated’. Yet with the Delta variant they are now tracking at 80 deaths per day (7 day rolling average...source Ourworldindata) with a population of 65million. And this is after their accumulated deaths from Covid is nearly 2,000 per million (130,000). New Covid infections each day recently peaked but it has now been stable for a bit at 400 per million per day (ie. 26,000). That’s the bad news; the good is that with vaccination and natural immunity the death rate per infection has fallen from 3% to 0.3% (source. Ourworldindata) By my reckoning if we follow with the UK example (let it rip, it’s your choice to vaccinate, the young have the right to go out, and bugger the oldies rights...if they want to live they should stay at home) as per ScuMo and Gladys wishes, then we can be looking forward to 30 deaths per day (10,000 pa) and 4,000 new cases per day EVEN WITH 70% Vaccinated. It seems that if we are to achieve the worst case scenario posited by the Doherty Institute modelling (3000 deaths per year...ie the same the flu) this must still involve to some extent (& probably a lot more than anyone wants to admit): quarantine, track, trace, isolate and lockdowns to prevent and contain outbreaks, ie. there is no get out of gaol card from vaccination (just a lot less grief). People should remember that in situations like this we are being managed by government propaganda and spin (oops, I meant ‘information’). They probably honestly believe people need an ‘exit strategy’ for morale....and hence, ‘vaccine will get us out of this’, when in fact nothing will, and our current mess really is ....it’s a $&cking pandemic and we elected a bunch of fools. To those that claim the low death rates in Australia are due to government action (as opposed to our isolation/remoteness and chance), I’d again say look at the history. Morrison delayed stopping direct flights from Whuhan because of the commercial interest of a gambling corporation in Melbourne, he allowed the Covid/Ruby Princess to dock in Sydney, early all the aged care facility deaths in Victoria were in federally regulated institutions, he refused to provide federal quarantine for inward international travellers despite the Cth Constitution (the States instead implemented ineffective self and hotel quarantine), and all the outbreaks resulting in lockdowns for Melbourne and Sydney, ONLY arose because of Morrison’s abject failure to provide quarantine and him maintaining a ‘Claytons’ closed international border for movement of people...and that is the reason we are left with lockdowns and vaccination. Sheet the blame home where there is fault, not the victims of his incompetence. Want a comparison....look to the east...NZ. At least tomorrow I’m installing new brake cables in the Corby Starlet which will need at least one T/O and landing to ‘test’, and maybe I’ll start building the acrylic sheet oven for moulding a canopy.

Turbs, you are wrong on the US and Australia on separation of powers. The USA has much stricter separation of powers than in Australia. In the USA the ‘Executive’ arm of government is completely seperate to their parliament (Congress). Their Executive is headed by the president who is ‘the boss’ of all public servants, subject to the constraints of laws passed by the seperate Parliament. Their judiciary is seperate as is ours federally...actually we copied the US system on this. However, the big difference is that our governments (the ‘Executive’) are not ‘separated’ from parliament. We have what is called (perhaps incorrectly), ‘responsible government’ in that tge Executive is drawn from parliament and responsible to the people through parliament, whereas the US ‘Executive’ is responsible directly to the people via a popularly elected president. The States in Australia have the British tradition of no formal separation of powers; they only practice separation of powers from choice, not law. The Vic govt may choose to allow their CMOs and other experts to do their own thing without political pressure but this is just an indicator of a wise government....a bit like when Kevin Rudd accepted the advice of Treasury when responding to the GFC. Just because a person holds a statutory position, like a CMO, does not protect them from political pressure. Just look at the sports rorts, where a statutory body with the legal power and duty to allocate public funds was effectively totally bypassed by a Minister acting loose and fast with the rule of law. I have decades of experience in the federal public service and a couple of examples...I was asked to write a robust piece on the empirical evidence of the costs and benefits of privatising a certain type of large government owned business. I did this, and my paper was returned from the Departmental secretary with the instruction, ‘remove all arguments and evidence that don’t support the government’s position and submit to the Senate committee’. Or another time I was directed by a Minister to ‘invite’ the head of a statutory regulatory authority (like CASA) for a face to face meeting with the Minister. That Minister told me to ‘make very sure he knows this is not going to be some cosy chat, but a real dressing down’.....that was one difficult phone call for me. My guess is that that meeting was cosy and short because all the Minister had to do is say, ‘I think Mark explained to you the issue I’m not happy about’...’Yes Minister, I’ll fix it’. This was decades ago in the era of an independent public service....it’s much worse now. Skippy mentioned the comedy, ‘Yes Minister’. But we also have the Australian distopian documentaries of the ‘Hollow men’, ‘Utopia’ and now the reality show on all channels called, ‘the Morrison/Murdoch Government’.

Steve, in answer to your question regarding the Tecnam trim problems...yes. We had thought originally the issue was a dry joint in the cheap audio connector to the trim motor in the tail. I took this apart and cleaned all the red bull dust out at Kal. And then on the flight back, we noted the trim worked better on the right stick compared to the left. That meant the issue was either the ‘left-right’ toggle, or the left stick microswitches. The owner (an electronics guy) first replaced the toggle, then the stick microswitches. However, he eventually found tge problem as being a combination of the stick microswitches and the savage bending and compression of the wires to those microswitches....it was in the top of the control stick. It took a fare bit of effort to resolve, because once you released the compression and bending when you disassembled the head of the stick the trim worked. Put it back together, and then the fault again.

Actually Skip, you are both correct. CMOs generally (it depends on the legislation) make what is called a statutory decision, and the views or opinions of the Minister or government would be an irrelevant, and indeed improper, consideration in making the decision. If the decision is challenged in court by an aggrieved person, and again generally a person affected by the decision could commence proceedings to challenge it, a court would void the decision if such an improper consideration was made. However, CMOs, like police commissioners, prosecutors, magistrates etc only hold office (ie. their job) at the pleasure of the Executive arm of government....they can be fired at the whim of the Premier or the PM. This is why judges are appointed for life, including state judges if they are able to hear federal matters under the cross-vesting arrangements. They cannot be sacked at the whim of the government.....only by both Houses of Parliament. Therefore, Skip, you are also correct as it takes some courage for someone to go against the views of someone who has the power to sack them. I’ll also chime in on kgwilson’s piece which on the whole I strongly agree with. Two issues. First be very wary of ‘pre-publication’ research...this was the reason behind Trump’s chloroquinine, and recently ivermectin claims. My wife is a frequent reviewer of research articles, including the BMJ, and she gets some pretty crappy research papers. The most common is with researchers making conclusions either not backed by their own data, or making strong assertions when statistically the data had insufficient ‘power’ to draw any conclusion other than that someone else should do a larger more controlled trial. Second, the balance of risks is not just the risk of an adverse event from vaccination versus the risk of severe illness or death from Covid; it is the risk of adverse vaccine event vs the risk of illness or death from Covid times the risk of contracting Covid (this is the George Pell defence, although a virus does not have ‘agency’ like Pell..a small probability times a small probability gives an exceedingly small probability). This makes a huge difference, and given recent events as the risk of contracting Covid increases, it makes the case for vaccination stronger...probably a no brainer for someone living in Sydney, but an entirely different matter for a retired guy isolated at his remote rural shack next to his hanger and airstrip. The conspiracy theorist in me can’t help but think that Morrison and Gladys were happier for weak border controls and ineffective quarantine to increase Covid, as doing so would enable them to blame victims....it’s your fault you’re not vaccinated, whereas the only person to blame for sloppy border control and ineffectual quarantine is Morrison (& those in the HoR who still have confidence in him). And in creating a disaster the conservatives think they will do better in the forthcoming elections. But the rational me thinks it’s more likely that they’re just hopelessly out of their depth, incompetent, and criminally negligent. Yep, NZ is the gold standard. I say we should immediately declare war on NZ, and then on the next day capitulate and surrender. Under international law NZ would then be governing Australia.

Mmmm....reminds me of a ‘fuel leak’ from the port wing root in a Tecnam noted in a condition report. A friend had just purchased the plane and had a LAME at Northam airfield fixing the list of faults (there were a few). I was there to do the delivery from WA to the east. Check out the plane, including insisting a W&B after the two blade wood prop was replaced with. a heavier 3 blade carbon & alloy job...LAME said ‘they’re about the same’. Anyway took it for a test fly...very nice, except the electric trim was not working...or only intermittently..another fault noted on the condition report and signed off as fixed by the LAME. Took the plane to fill her right up for the flight to Kalgoorlie, hopped in the left seat to be given an Avgas shower from the port wing root...but that was fixed by the LAME, right? ‘ We couldn’t find the leak so we just cleaned up the stains down the fuselage caused by the leak’....back to the shed. OK the cause. A plastic vent line of the port wing had cracked. The tube runs from the outboard top front of the tank to the wing tip. It had cracked at a low point where the vent line was resting on the bottom skin of the wing. If the tanks are full and the plane was inclined to port by a small amount, the vent would siphon fuel out into the wing, and this would then flow inside down to the wing root, until the fuel level dropped below the vent height. I reckon you could lose 10l; more if you left the two fuel cocks on. So just be careful with those vent lines. oh, I won’t mention the wrong diameter oil lines, the loose jubilee clips, the coolant hose touching the exhaust, or the radiator rubbing on the cowl from the rubber replacement done at the same time.

Spacey, a friend of mine’s wife is legally blind (in her early 60s) and, as you would expect no drivers licence (they are not in the NT). She manages to ride her electric boosted bicycle the 3km to the shops and back (on the road mind you). Exercise...sort of...and shopping, but probably more risk than covid.

Oh dear. You use ALL the tools available in your kit, you just don’t ditch some, because they’re not 100% perfect. Laws against murder don’t work...people still murder ...but we don’t ditch those laws! Listen to the wise people at the WHO. They have been exceedingly critical of the UK’s single policy of vaccination and let it rip. They were blunt, calling it ‘stupid’ and dangerous. It is increasingly likely that even with an unachievable 100% vaccination rate, covid will still be active in the community, including killing people....vaccinated people, albeit at a very much lower level than if people weren’t vaccinated. The Grattan Institute came out today with an 80% vaccination target to ‘open up’ the economy, and they admitted that covid would still be running rampant at that level of vaccination and implicit in this is that a small percentage of people will die each year as a consequence.....10,000, 25,000 pa what, they didn’t say? it might be deliberate policy to “let it rip’ a bit to scare a lot of people to get vaccinated....it worked for me. But how many people died as a consequence? In my view pretty immoral. We’ve got a great advantage over most other countries, let’s not trash it more by ditching proven effective public health measures, like quarantine, track, trace and isolate, face masks, avoiding other people, and vaccination.

Alan, no it won’t, unless you have gravity feed, ie. no mech pump.

Yep, and some yank could do that in a twin at a thousand foot or so, dead stick, do a wing over or two, land and roll to his gate. Some guys have energy management down to a fine art.

If I recall correctly didn’t you run out of fuel after landing and while taxiing to the fuel bowser after a flight from Porepunka?