DonRamsay

Yes, I had a look around but lost track of your group. Had a good day but glad I had the warm jacket with me. Would have been pretty miserable without it. It was all a bit of a duplication of the Gunnedah show but good anyway and the big crowd seemed to appreciate it. The Gozleme for lunch was superb! Seems RAAus will be there on Sunday. Doubt I can get back for Sunday as well.

The Bristell and Sling are close competitors. I've been very impressed with the Bristell since they first came on the market here. The importer/distributer, Brett Anderson, I've personally found to be a good bloke. I went for the Sling mainly due to its sliding canopy rather than a lift up bubble. I also liked the heavier build. I've flown the P200 and found it very pleasant and easy to fly. Was not too keen on the fuel tank being in the fuselage though - much prefer in the wings.

If you like that one, wait till I get my hands on this in a couple of weeks time . . . Just needs the reassembly, a good check over, a test flight, a tick from a LAME and RAAus. Depending on weather I might even call in to YQDI on the way home from YHEC. Will look a lot like this when I take delivery:

Looks more Czech than Italian - Bristell? Very stylish whatever it is.

Interesting experience. I am planning to ignore the Apple slogan about "It just works" and will be very circumspect about upgrades in future. Not planning to throw the baby out with the bathwater but am still very PO with Apple and their arrogance.

Well,it is that time of the year . . . Nominations for the Board Elections closed last Tuesday, 30th June. Candidates will be announced by RAAus in due course and Members will be sent voting papers which will need to be posted to RAAus by the date advised, likely to be mid August 2015. For NSW/ACT there are two separate elections one for a normal, full term and one, a By-Election, for the balance of Andy Saywell's term which is due to end at the AGM in 2016. As you would be aware Andy resigned his Board position recently and it would not be hard to see from my posts that I am closely aligned in my thinking with Andy on most matters. I have accepted a nomination for the NSW/ACT By-Election and would appreciate as many votes as possible by NSW/ACT members so that I may be a part of the big changes coming to RAAus over the next year or so. Constitution Re-write Many of you would be aware of my strong interest in good governance and efficiency. I could claim some expertise in this area having proposed many amendments (approx 25) to the Constitution. I proposed the formation of the original Constitution Review Committee back in 2012 recognising then that we could do much better. There is now a full review/rewrite of our Constitution underway and I would like to be in a position to ensure we get it right and not have to go back with more after-the-fact amendments. Office Systems Upgrade The next year or so will also see major upgrades of the IT systems that serve members - another area where I have considerable experience of both how to do it well (and not very well). Experience and Qualifications My previous Board experience both with RAAus and other corporations and my financial qualifications and experience will allow me to make useful contributions in those areas. Tech & Ops Manuals A completely revised Tech Manual is due out this year and there will be an update of the Ops Manual as well. While I don't claim strong qualifications in either area, I can bring the perspective of your average pilot in review of both documents. Hopefully, that will bring us Manuals that are easy to read and are relevant to the sort of aviation we engage in. So, please vote and consider assisting me to contribute to RAAus at Board level. I believe there will also be a vote required for South Australia to replace Ed Herring who has been a committed and hard-working member of the Board since 2011 - a very difficult time to have been on the Board. Don

It's only been 82 days since Apple stuffed us up. Good to see they didn't break a leg in the rush to fix their stupid mistake. This episode has soured me of Apple. I was rushing down that track because of how impressed I was with OzRunways. After my first iPad I bought two iPhones and an iPad mini. Was planning with my next laptop to go all Apple. No way that will happen now and if the Android version of OzRunways catches up I'll switch to Android and flog off all the Apple stuff. Treat your customers with this level of contempt and intense dislike is what you breed.

I'll be there both days but not all day. Driving in rather than flying though. Give me a ring ring when you get there and we'll catch up. Cheers, Don

Perhaps Bruce Stark can assist. I'll give him a ring.

Still works for me.

Hang on, I resemble that remark! Best, most comfortable car I ever owned was the Volvo C30 T5. Volvo's plan is similar to that used for modern fighter aircraft that have a big brown dog as co-pilot. You know the one where the dog is there to bite the pilot if he touches anything.

Unless there is a continuing, sizeable take-up of the printed magazine, it could become too expensive to print in small volumes. Oddly enough, the longer the print version remains around the longer the digital version will be held back from using the full functionality of the digital medium. That is, of course, as long as there is any attempt to keep the print and digital versions identical. I noticed in the latest edition, just out, that hot links work in the digital version. That is just the thinnest edge of the wedge. Imagine when, e.g. the President/Chair's report is delivered by video and you get the full emphasis of what he/she is saying compared with the easily misconstrued black and white print ? Imagine when technical articles include hot links to the manufacturer's maintenance/operations manuals and the RAAus Tech manual? When you can actually *hear* the sound of a crook motor or gearbox? Possibilities with the digital version are considerable and have barely scratched the surface of what is possible. Possibilities of the print media have already been reached.

Col, drop the CEO an email and I'm sure you'll get the 18 editions. Perhaps when you coughed up the decision to offer the bonus 6 issues had not been made. You will certainly be entitled to 18 issues. Don

Remember that if you want to get a new one later on you may need to be interviewed by the AFP.

My approach to a BFR is to do it as a 2 x 2 hour revision lesson. In that situation, it can't be threatening or embarrassing and I actually look forward to it. At the end of four hours over a couple of days, I know I am a better, safer pilot. Makes it easier for the CFI to sign me off as well. I probably should do it every 100 hours or yearly.

There is a one company that has a corporate goal that nobody will be killed in one of their cars. This is a Company with the credibility to make the goal realistic. V O L V O For them it is not just a goal, they have a corporate strategy in place to make it happen and routinely measure their progress towards that goal. The only two risks that come to mind of them not achieving their goal are that their new owner will not endorse the goal or that drivers will not but their cars because they are "too safe" and not fun to travel in.

Regulation in aviation is pretty extreme in detail. But fatalities in RA are not a result of inadequate regulation even if every Coroner thinks that they can prevent a similar death to the one they are investigating by introducing more detailed regulation. The simple fact is that if you took out from the fatality stats blatant breaches of regulations like low flying; trying to fly without fuel; flying into IMC without the proper equipment, training an and qualification; or, flying single engine aircraft over tiger country, for example, then the stats would look almost acceptable. The reality for me is that if I fly a reasonably new, well maintained aircraft within the regulations and normal good airmanship that it is actually quite a safe activity. The Courts have labelled it a risky business because there seems to be a propensity for pilots to do unwise things whether it be in poor preparation or dumb stuff in the air. How on Earth do you prevent people from running out of fuel? Flying into the dark or IMC? My new Sling comes with a Garmin G3X Touch with abundant safety features like audible warnings in case you haven't been monitoring your gauges. It monitors fuel flow and advises how much longer you can stay aloft. I tells you Distance to Go in NM and time. It will fly the plane for you while you look out the window. It will monitor traffic and give alerts. Yet even with that extreme level of assistance you would not have to look that far to find a pilot capable of ignoring his/her training, all the instrumentation and find a new way for controlled flight into terrain. You can promote good airmanship until you go blue in the face and you just might persuade a few on the edge but, in the end pilots will find a way to destroy their aircraft and themselves. I am not saying that all crashes are human factors (pilot error) there has been a notable one not that long ago that involved a possibly unpredictable airframe failure. In Europe the ballistic parachute was imposed on light aviation and if we are not careful, that could be imposed on RA. I agree we should, as an Association, be aiming for ZERO fatalities - I know I am on a personal basis. I believe we (RAAus) can do more and are doing more with the coming Safety System. In the end without safe flying we don't/won't have anything.

I loved my first solo and recall every second of it. I think it is still the most accurate circuit and landing to date but I could be polishing it in my recollection. I was ready that day (but probably not before) and remember driving to the airport with the attitude "I'm going to show the CFI I can land this bloody thing". Confidence was up and after a couple of solid circuits the CFI jumped out and said do 1 and bring it back to the hangar. It was a shock but a good one. As I taxied I had a huge buzz and only on climb up wind as the Jab tore into the sky did the penny drop . . . this one is up to me. Oddly, my first area solo gave me the hebejebes. Suddenly, there was no way I could make it back to the airport if all went quiet. A few weeks later that particular Jab's 4th motor let go and I was so very glad I wasn't on board at the time. First pax was my dear wife and that was a special thing for me. Fortunately, she enjoyed the experience but she's not easily scared. I also loved all the Navs because by that time the Jab had a nice new Rotax 912ULS purring away up front. Once I did have to do some improvising when I was heading into a valley that, up ahead, had cloud on the ground. A quickish 180 and all was good except now totally disoriented and not knowing where I was or where I was going or which way to get back to the home airport. After collecting thoughts for a couple of moments all came good, got my bearings and set a course for home. Years later, I asked the CFI how he knew when a student was ready to go solo. Apart from judgement of the technical skills, he said he asked himself this question: "if this were my kid, would I let her go solo now?"

They were at a cafe that was not within the environs of the airport and in a tourist area. Also, the aircraft came down closer to half a kilometre from the cafe than the 10 metres reported by some of the media - fact!

Andy, Let me add my thanks to those above. It was a shock to hear of your resignation but I understand and readily accept your reasons. The efforts you have put in for the years leading up to the pivotal extraordinary general meeting at Queanbeyan and since both on and off the Board have been big and very effective. You have been a credit to yourself and demonstrated on this Forum and on the Board what a clear thinker you are and the capability and experience you brought to the task have been extremely valuable. Best of all, over these few years I have gained a great mate.

The Board by declaring several deficits has shown that they needed to cut RAAus costs and/or raise revenue. Why costs had risen is another matter but I think it is reasonably well known that if they had spent some money on decent IT infrastructure and top quality management staff, we would not have had to go through the pain of the registrations debacle. RAAus has also had a CASA imposed Safety Management requirement. Can't say I was all that keen on hiring a safety manager to get that done but, to be fair, we needed to get a bit more methodical about improving the safety of our flyers, their passengers and the people we fly over and I can't say it would have happened without engaging a specialist safety manager. So, the new CEO first set out to trim costs. The big costs for RAAus are in just a few areas: Labour, Insurance and the magazine. Labour costs were being addressed with rapidly improving manual systems and the commitment to a very significant capital expenditure on vastly improving IT systems. Achieving significant savings in insurance premiums is at the mercy of the world market. The aim then for RAAus was to get more for what it cost and that has been achieved. That left one big target . . . the glossy magazine that we all like so much. Long before my time it looked more like a newsletter and that was largely its purpose. The magazine improved in quality and size over time to the very creditable organ we have now. Over the same period, communications methods were revolutionised. Telex machines went the way of the dinosaurs, the fax machine approached the end of its product life cycle, a group of Universities came up with the interwebs. Email started hammering the nails into the coffin of snail mail and all sorts of weird and wonderful things began to emerge from eZines to facebook. The hardware went from room sized to pocket sized. We now have email newsletters that are so much more up to the minute than the magazine could ever be with its two month lag time. ADs/ANs are communicated to us by email and pretty well everybody gets their weather from the internet. In this brave new world, you then sit down and look again at the Magazine. It is simply not what it was when it started - the only means of communicating with members other than a huge mailout. To be fair, we could survive without the magazine even if it would be a shame to lose it. Labour, Insurance and Safety Management we can not do without. So the options facing the Board were: Raise fees for everyone and keep the magazine as is; OR, Retire the magazine and save the costs and not raise fees; OP, Reduce printing and distribution costs by sending out exactly the same magazine electronically. The Board argued long and hard on what to do and eventually it was seen that with a substantial saving available if the magazine did not attract paper, printing, packaging and postage costs, members who were happy (or just careful with their money) could continue to receive the magazine in electronic form while saving RAAus costs. Members who were prepared to pay for those costs by a fee increase could continue to receive the magazine in print form. So, we have a situation where you can avoid the fee increase by giving RAAus a cost saving or you can pay higher fees and RAAus will continue to supply the more expensive paper magazine. It is tough on those that do not have access to high speed broadband but that is outside the control of RAAus. At slower internet speeds, I guess you might have to allow it to download overnight. And, if we believe the politicians, high speed NBN is coming to us all and may even reach us in this lifetime. True.

Clearly, we will have to wait for the facts. If you expect to find them here then you are bound to be disappointed because as far as I know nobody here was or has spoken to an eyewitness, seen the wreck or spoken with people who talked with the pilot just before he ventured onto Runway 17. Still, on the basis of discussions I've had and pictures I've seen and familiarity with the area, it seems likely that the pilot was flying a light aircraft of his own design and build, not terribly dissimilar to a Morgan, was powered by a UL Power engine, had an IVP prop, a ballistic parachute and elaborate "glass" instrumentation. It had RAAus 19 registration numbers painted on it but may or may not have been registered. There is no way anyone can know now what caused the aircraft to not complete the circuit it appeared to be engaged in, lose altitude and hit the ground where it did. Investigations by the Police, with assistance from RAAus and possibly the ATSB may in time reveal the immediate cause of this flight into terrain or this may forever remain a mystery.

I really like the J230 and can't think of a more suitable aircraft for your application. The engine is fixable with the right engineering but, there are as many old wives tales about Jab engines as there are Jab engines so don't rely on one source for jab engine advice and scrutinise it all with deep thought. I'm not an engineer (those that know me stop laughing!) but there are some people who have done great work with Jab engines. Sadly, it seems to me, Jabiru are the only ones who don't seem to want to really take advice and fix the issues. Obviously, CAMit have done a fair bit of research and development with their aero engine and has been supported by some very capable people. Good luck with the Jab and just make sure you do all the smart things like fuel management, PLB/EPIRB, engine instrument monitoring pre take-off and in-flight and letting people know when you should be at your destination and then ringing them to let them know you have arrived (flight plan/SARTIME). 550 NM is a long way even in a J230 at 120kts good if you can take a rest stop along the way.