ev17ifly2

So, are HGFA pilots inferior to RAAus pilots?

Well I for one am wishing the new RA-Aus Training Co-ordinator the best and hope he can come up with something workable for everyone. I do not benchmark. Both organisations are trying their best and as it has been said on previous posts, "we all fly .... regardless of what we fly".

 

I will get back to reading my SkySailor magazine (that's the magazine from the Hang Gliding Federation of Australia) and my Sport Pilot magazine and will try very hard not to compare them .... [/quote

 

Fair enough. Sounds like you do more reading the actual flying anyhow

 

Cheers

Geoff, thank you very much for sharing this with us, thankfully a good outcome.

You obviously failed comprehension at school. By the way HGFA stands for Hangliding Federation of Australia, so LSA and other 3 axis don't come into it where they are concerned. Please don't benchmark RAA against the HGFA as that implies a lack of knowledge

If there are any of you out there that is a RA pilot, holds a Cert 4, aircraft or aerospace engineering background, great inter personel skills and can put up a spiffy PowerPoint presentation then apply for the job. If not, forever hold you peace.

Are you saying the RA-Aus would not be able to match what the HGFA are doing? because I think they should be able to, certainly if they have a full-time person to plan it all out.

Only because you don,t know enough about the HGFA and their weight shift operations, training and instructors

They increase fees, cut the magazine, complain about no money and now want to employ someone to oversee what has been running fine for years. Please tell me there is a really, really, good reason for this. If someone is empire building, get rid of them quick smart.

I will say it again. The world has moved on since Ungrounded's mate invented television and the hay days of rag and tube flying. This is our organisation and they keep us flying so get behind them. If you believe things are going off track and you have the expertise and will to fix it then put up your hand and nominate for a position

V

That may be, but it shouldn't be without them either. Nev

I suspect it may be almost impossible to keep the 1970's rag and tube devotees happy and engaged when RA has also to keep big brother aka CASA on side and convinced our organisation is worthy of its support.

Apart from trikes, rag and tube aircraft and their pilots are on the decline so RAA future survival lies not with them

Tha

I don't and haven't done it myself, but I've seen bags of washing, sleeping bags and those self inflating mattresses (unrolled) stuffed up into the wing through the lower surface zip. The folks doing so were all experienced and in some cases instructors...they're all still alive and kicking today, so presumably the danger you talk of isn't the instant death type unless you are clueless....The more dangerous killer with regards to trike wings is frost and even dew itself.....If you get dew on a wing and it freezes over night and the runway you want to take off on is not rated lengthwise for 737's or above then frost/dew will get you more than a rogue sleeping bag..... 2nd most dangerous is in my opinion wet grass.....rotax 912's probably less impacted than the older less powerful 2 stroke 503's and 582's, but aircraft acceleration is very negatively impacted in longer wet grass and the 3 strand wire fence at the end will still stop you if your not over the top in time.......Owning a J230 means weight and balance is a significant issue, not just because its 3 axis but because it was designed as a 4 seat aircraft and with the 2 rear seats removed there is bucket loads of space in the back, use it without consideration and life might well be challenging!

 

Andy

What really concerns me is that most of the posters on this thread actually get airborne from time to time. ( Bull, that includes you and I )

It is a shame that you want to retain your headset at Flycom make an excellent integrated helmet. Super comfortable, various tint visors and good audio

Bull, who do you spend most of your time flying with, Wilbur or OrvIlle ?

I'm not a trike pilot but I have noticed that when they are flying they are a well balanced lot. Alan.

One word says it all major ONLINE

Just make sure the next pursuit or sport you take up has an association which offers free membership, free paper magazine and caters for technical Luddites

Hey bull, don't be in such a hurry in selling you beaut little AUF plane and giving up flying before you consult with someone who can surgically remove that chip(s) off your shoulder.

Don't go we will miss you

Having ridden, raced and sold motorcycles for over 40 years I can tell you that you are both partly right however maybe we should move the discussion off this thread.

Kasper, My AUF/RA-Aus membership is 000993, that`s how long I`ve been a member... At one point, way back when, I wanted to form our own organisation, here, in Queensland.Is it really practical to attempt to form "a new ULTRALIGHT organisation?"....I don`t really know! What I do know! Those of us who were so passionate about Ultralights and helped to get things going in the early days, are no longer young, with fire in the belly, so count me out!... Too hard a road to hoe...I just want to enjoy my flying...Won`t try and stop anyone who would like to form a new organisation,though.

 

Frank.

How did we get to W&B and overloading issues with regard to this tragedy ? Initial report mentions wind gusts and how the trike was effected.

Asmol - I suggest you avail yourself of a good tech book on weight shift flight before post again as your ignorance on the subject is glaring.

On our annual flyaway in May we departed Echuca with 20 knots of crosswind and a trike experienced what appears to be a very similar situation not far above tree level. In our pilots case apart from a severe tightening of the sphincter his training kicked in and he made the correct control inputs.

Asmol, rather than posting ill informed comments such as above you should sit back and try and learn from experienced pilots such as Alf when it comes to both 2 and 3 axis flying.

My condolences also to his family and friends.

And check out the new REQUIRMENTS to get your XC endorsment 20 hours of dual xc @ 200 dollars an hour ,,well last time i looked most of the board have not been getting themselves lost and as some of them will say :most learn,t in rag and tube and most solo,ed after 10 hours, and they are still here ,but its alright to charge some young new pilot 2000 dollars to get thier xc ,,wake up ,,,,,,,,,,

Once again, maybe flying for you is no longer affordable. Shame you will miss it

And instill an endorsement system for training and costs that reflect the aircraft used,,as in USER PAYS

A big factor in many ( not all) accidents is stupidity. The ones I know of ( taking off into low cloud and taking off downwind to wow the crowd with a stall just after the take-off) demonstrate this clearly.One way of reducing the number of stupid people in our ranks would be to introduce a real flight theory exam into the training. One that required being able to understand theory and do calculations.

It has been suggested that if this were done with driving licenses then the road toll would fall by 75%. The stupidest people on the road do most of the carnage. Way too politically incorrect for it to happen with drivers licenses I bet. "Nasty elitist" I can hear them accuse me for suggesting it.

 

Probably too incorrect for RAAus too AND it would reduce the number of new members coming in.

 

So there are worse things than a bit of carnage huh.

I tend to agree with K Man however. I now understand the theory and concepts required for safe flight and navigation and employ today's technology to achieve that. I too have misplaced my log tables and slide rule

I have pretty good eyesight but must admit I struggle to read a windsock at a destination airfield. Flying down the dead side at circuit height or over the top 500 feet higher, the wind direction and strength are often ambiguous. Also It is not unusual to see two socks at 90 degrees to each other. I have been doing this for many years so it isn't lack of practice or experience and as I said my long eyesight is good. Do others have this problem?

The TAF just gives me a heads up as to what I may encounter at that location, I don,t make runway selection based on it. If there has been no traffic landing ahead me so I know which runway is active then I overfly looking for the sock.