NT5224

In all seriousness. I apologize if Ive opened any old wars here. I simply asked the question as I am new to the world of aviation. And it was a question I thought could be answered here.

 

I'll try and reseach my questions in advance in the future.

 

Cheers

 

Craig

 

No worries, Craig

Lots of us on here just like yammering.

Did you look at the CASA consultation paper on the MTOW increase that was open a few months ago? Still available on the CASA site.

What is that  aircraft in your profile pic? I can't make it out clearly

Alan

HI folks!

First, my deepest sympathies for all effected by the terrible bushfires in the southern states, and gratitude to those courageous men and women of the emergency services who give their time and energy and risk their lives to protect us all.

I have followed this thread for a bit and now wish to contribute since its a topic close to my heart, and a major part of my lived experience..

As some may have noticed, I live in the tropical north which has a totally different fire ecology to the south. Fire prevention and management dominates our thinking and activity for about 9 months of the year. The reality is that I live in the heart of the most fire prone region of Australia. My wife and I actively fight fires at least three times a year, every year.  Because of where we live, there is no rural fire service, no SES and  the government does not offer any support to land holders in event of fire, unless lives are directly at risk. I know this because they sent everybody in our district a letter to this effect. 

Here is the essence of what we we have learnt:

• In the north, fire seasons are getting longer and fires more frequent and intense. As somebody who lives on the land, I have no doubt that weather patterns are changing and fire risks are intensifying on my country,
   
  
• It is extremely hard to  successfully extinguish bushfires (and impossible with the wind behind them).  We put lots of energy into fighting fires, but always even more energy into preventing them through careful pre-fire season preparation.
   
  
• Our bushfires calender is approximately as follows:    four weeks weeds management, six weeks grading and preparing breaks, six weeks fuel reduction and boundary burns,  and then approximately six months of  monitoring and responding to fire threats.
   
  

So I don't fully understand fire ecology or administration down south,  but as a general principle I would say that when the fire is coming across the paddock its too late to start worrying about fire response management. Fire strategies need to be carefully thought through and preparations need to start months before the event to prepare the landscape.

Now Im guessing that  could mean things like fuel reduction burns through key corridors and establishing natural and artificial fire breaks. Where I live, our neighbours and ourselves have specific response plans for if fire comes at us from any direction.

This is all worked out months in advance, and not in the heat of the moment when decision making could be flawed.  And of course we take the pressure off by having our home and assets protected before the fire season (clearing and burning a few acres around the house and other buildings). 

Back to the issue of aerial fire fighting:

 I know the bloke who hires Air Tractors out as fire bombers during the season to the government. The government spend  can spend 40-50,000 bucks in a single day on air operations around Darwin. That can go on for weeks.  It may not sound like much compared to down south, but consider the size of our population and economy.

I used to share an airfield with the Air Tractors. No doubt they're awesome machines, with fast turn-around times and an ability to operate off rough forward strips. In my opinion a handful of Air Tractors would  be much more effective for fire fighting than a large Jet ( like a 737). However, its a sliding scale. I believe the $50000 you spend each day on Air Tractors would be much more efficiently  spent on  pre-season preventative measures on the ground. Air Tractors and maybe even 737s have their place,  but they shouldn't be considered a primary line of defence.

I have a sneaking suspicion that governments like them because they are highly visible and newsworthy and make the government look like its 'doing something', but also (in our case), enables them to defer any expenditure on fire until the last possible moment... even although the total costs will be massively higher at the end of the fire season. But 'emergency' expenses can always be written off more easily than maintenance or preventative expenses ( especially with the Commonwealth picking up the tab).

Just my thoughts... apologies for rambling

Alan

No, 

i can honestly say I've never seen that before!

Ive now found the page where that shows, but I don't normally use the site that way and go through that page. Maybe something to consider? 

I'll subscribe

Alan

I think you are doing a great job Ian!

 

I became a financial member this year  to support all the effort you are putting in.

 

When Sport Pilot magazine folded this year the only place left for information and stimulation was Recreational Flying Forum.

 

My suggestion is to all members if you can afford it become a financial member and get behind Ian and support this site.

 

I visit here every morning and most nights and get a lot of enjoyment for only a $1 a day donation. (the paper costs me $1.50 a day) 

 

 

How do I become a financial member?  I've never come across the option!

Alan

Ian, I would like to think of useful suggestions but finding it hard. In our aero club the few RAA members might check this site occasionally but with one exception the GA pilots don't. When I mention things I have learned here they are news to most people. So making it more GA friendly might help, but I don't know how to do that. Perhaps just a small proportion of pilots spend time on screens anyway. We have about 150 members and 60 planes but I know of only three who post here.

 

I don't think the resources section is an attraction. If I need a manual or specific model information I just Google it.

 

I am also on a motorcycle site based in the USA. Members promptly give advice on problems and membership is large. With aircraft there isnt the same need for advice as everything is strictly regulated and people are not improvising and modifying. Having said that, I am also in EAA and find their workshop suggestions very useful for non-aviation work at home.

 

An additional thought.... I live in the country and find that people I mix with share the same conservative views. They would mostly vote Lib and don't accept the global warming nonsense. Same with the pilots who I know and other social groups I am in. But on this site the weight seems to be labor/green which might deter a lot of people. I dont think you can ban political and social bias, in fact I enjoy debating, but perhaps a lot of conservatives like me would not stick around.

 

Hello....

I agree with some of this post  respectfully disagree with other parts.

I would wholeheartedly support  the proposition of drawing in more GA aviators, and at anyrate I feel the old distinctions are becoming increasingly blurred. But there aren't a whole lot of serious recreational GA enthusiasts either.  I am transitioning from RAA to  the GA camp myself  with my aircraft registration.

The part I disagree agree with is that political biases affect participation in the site.  First i don't wholly agree with the assertion that the site is dominated by left of centre politics and outlooks. I think our age is a much more significant determinant than anything else.  Most of us are upward of 50 and so probably have tendency to be more conservative in some aspects of our worldview.  Simultaneously,   being a flyer suggests forum users have an innate  sense of adventure combined  intellectual capacity to manage aircraft flight systems and pass necessary examinations.  They also have the recklessness (stupidity?) and bloody mindedness to throw cash an increasingly expensive hobby. Many would suggest that's  evidence for poor judgement.  ?

I think those attributes of forum users are more likely to skew political outlook than the regions we come from.  However, its worth noting that forums like this can be really useful for people outside of major cities or regional towns. I live remote, own an aircraft that i operate from home and dont have a flying club environment to fall back on for guidance and advice. So  for me,  Recreational Flying is incredibly valuable!

Cheers

Alan 

I recently read the autobiography of  Phil Collins (the drummer bloke with the band Genesis).  He tells an unfortunate anecdote.

He explains how his old man died in  the early seventies  just as the band were beginning to hit the big time.  He returned from a tour of the US to attend the funeral, where his dad's body was cremated. Dad had requested his ashes scattered on a favorite beach in UK. 

As he was writing his autobiography, Phil checked with his brother to confirm the story of how his dads final wishes had been fullfilled.  The brother responded  that  he had thought that Phil had been the one to take the urn and spread the ashes. The two brothers do a bit of investigation and it turns out that poor Dad's ashes had been left in an urn after the funeral service, abandoned at the crematorium and now lost forever. Tragic, but just goes to show the even the rich and famous can be blighted by stuff-ups!

Alan

Unusually morbid topic, but an interesting one

I never understood the appeal of scattering ashes, especially at a location with no particular significance to the deceased.  My Old dad (still going strong bless him!) has picked out and reserved a little resting spot in an orchard to be buried and re-enter the ecosystem that way.  I really respect that...The cycle of life.

Alan

Hi Ian

Ive been on the site for about five-six years now (had a previous avatar -but forgot the login and changed). Ive really enjoyed following the site and learned from the content. I hadn't appreciated you'd been running it 19 years! Thats extraordinary!

Like  earlier respondents Im not on Facebook,  and much prefer the style of written discussion and exchange of information, views and anecdotes  that occurs  on here. Unlike one previous respondent I don't in principle object to the  hammering occasionally given to RAA and CASA. Not that I agree with all of it, but its often amusing and in some cases well justified. People need somewhere to vent and I don't agree that negativity towards a governing body is the source of the slow growth in forum users... indeed it might be attracting them if they feel disenfranchised by their organisations.

But as somebody pointed out above,  i think this forum tends to attract people who are serious aviation enthusiasts (both students and established pilots) rather than just casual users and drop-ins. For one thing our demography works against a site like this.  About half an hour ago i read an article about 'airparks' which cited that a very high proportion of aircraft owners in Australia are over 55.  Im actually a couple of years younger,  but take the point.  So serious flyers  are  maybe of a generation less inclined to use online forums?

Is it possible  that as content  on Facebook pages  is reduced to the lowest  dominator (the aviation equivalent of cat videos),  the pendulum swing the other way, and people genuinely interested in flying will gravitate back here?  

 I really like the classifieds section here, also the resources (including training materials which are great for refreshers). What i would like to see more of is individual aircraft flight reviews (perhaps owner penned?) so i can learn about other aircraft types, also flight destination write ups and event write-ups. But I guess that kind of 'magazine' content depends upon contributors generating material -which is out of your control.  

Two  further ideas, both rather brutal.

Have you 'advertised' the forum?  Could it be better promoted?  If financial support is an issue, have you considered charging a small subscription  fee?  Another special interest forum i use recently did that. It may defeat the objective of drawing in more members  (but if you need members to attract  advertising revenues,  there may be a balance point somewhere between the two revenue streams). Just a wild idea.   

Cheers

 Alan

Hey -what does this tell  us about ‘never turn back below 500 ft’ after EFATO? 

To my eyes  he would have got back in after that steep turn, or was that because he still had partial power? 

Alan.

No

 

Glad I'm not the only one questioning these figures.

They'd mean the average RA Aus member has flown seven hours a month, every month since January. Obviously flight instructors will pull the average up a bit,  but I find it a stretch to accept that rank and file members will achieve anything like that. Given that only a third of pilots own their own aircraft and an aircraft hires for about $200/hour wet (is that right?  just my guess) are they saying that 8000 of our members are able to spend $1400 on aircraft rental every month? If so, I don't just envy all the flying hours the rest of you blokes are doing, I envy your wealth....

That would run to  about $11 million bucks, quite a boost to the recreational aviation industry!

So who is putting out these figures? Are they really helpful to our sector and industry? For example,  if they are using these same figures to calculate  flight safety (accidents per hours flown), wouldn't that be misleading and potentially misrepresent our safety record?

Just asking

Alan

Well,  you boys must have racked up all those flying hours without me...! Im still on 'zero', despite repeated attempts to edit my own hours online... But happily Im still an 'integral part of the community'. Its good to feel loved...

Since 1 January 2019 RAAus pilots have recorded in their portal that they have flown 701530.1 hours, averaging 73.46 hours each.

Your average flying hours per year over the past five years is 0.

You are an integral part of the 13096 strong RAAus community.

There are currently 3294 active aircraft in the RAAus fleet

Could this possibly be true? Just out of interest, how many forum participants think they have flown over 70 hours since January?  I obviously haven't. See above. 

Alan

Flight training has been temporarily suspended at Australia’s largest pilot academy, Soar Aviation, after training partner Box Hill Institute demanded documentation about its fleet.The TAFE college informed students of the three-day hiatus in flight training late Friday, saying Box Hill Institute “maintains safety as its top priority”.It comes as a growing group of current and former students seek a refund of their VET loan money from Box Hill and Soar, based on their claims they did not receive the training they were promised.Their complaints to Victoria’s Department of Education are now the subject of an inquiry by the Special Investigations Unit.The Australian Skills Quality Authority, which is the regulatory body for VET loan-related courses, has also been examining the aviation courses provided by Box Hill and Soar.ASQA delivered its report to the TAFE college last week, and CEO Vivienne King said they were “responding as requested”.That was followed by the email to students, informing them the college had “requested Soar to suspend flying for BHI students for the next few days”.“We will provide further information as soon as we can,” read the email from the college’s aviation department.A further email to students from Soar Aviation, signed by CEO Neel Khokhani, said “Box Hill Institute had requested documentation in relation to our fleet”.“We will be “pausing flight operations until this is provided,” Mr Khokhani said.“We will automatically cancel any flights you have booked for Saturday, Sunday and Monday. “You will not be charged for these flights.”He apologised for any inconvenience and promised to “be in touch soon”.One of the concerns raised by students was that their training was being conducted in Foxbat recreational aircraft rather than the Cessna 172s they were promised.The students also complained they were being made to redo training runs repeatedly despite being proficient, at an added cost.Federal Department of Employment figures show in the first six months of 2019, 289 people were enrolled in the Commercial Pilot’s Licence diploma course at Box Hill at a cost of $7.1m in VET loans.The data showed the unit of study completion rate was 47.6 per cent.Flight Training Adelaide had 32 students enrolled at a cost of just under $900,000 in VET student loans, with a 100 per cent completion rate.Mr Khokhani, 30, was recently named on Australia’s Young Rich List, based on his $66m fortune.Soar partnered with Box Hill in 2016, and according to Department of Employment data has produced fewer than 20 graduates.But Mr Khokhani said 61 people had successfully obtained their CPL with many going on to jobs in the aviation industry, including as flight instructors.

 

Wow!

How interesting... particularly  the comparisons between SOAR and Flight Training Adelaide graduations... Also, training in an RAA reg Foxbat rather than a 172.    It seems pretty hard on the poor students,  but at least old mate Neel seems to be doing well out of it...  

We need to be encouraging young aviators, not systematically milking them for tuition.

I hope the Skills Quality Authority get to the bottom of this.

Alan

Hey Folks

This topic has probably been done to death but Im interested to know what fuel people opt for, and what are their reasons for the selection?

Do you fly with AvGas or unleaded?  I guess the main issues are  engine performance, engine wear, price and availability.

What do YOU use and why? Are there any major considerations I've overlooked?

My new engine is a Lyc 0-320 which is rated for either.  I live out bush.   Looking for other and all perspectives

Alan

Yep,  'In the Clubhouse', or perhaps just 'The Clubhouse' forums. I like it  

Alan   

Poor John!

Its always heartbraking to lose a brother aviator. And sincere condolences to his family.

I'll await any further information and the results of investigations with interest...

Alan

Agreed. It makes sense to bring the general chat forums back... Thanks Ian  

Sorry to read about all the trouble Ian's been having with JetFarce.  They really are a dreadful airline and their reliability is appalling. Until a couple of years ago I was a very regular traveller and departing Darwin often used their service to Singapore. For about three years JetFarce held a monopoly on routes to Southeast Asia from Darwin.

I am not exaggerating to say that more than half of all the flights I took with them were either delayed, cancelled or lost my luggage. It was a shocking  track record. I simply do not understand how the company remain in business...

I missed  connecting flights  several times, and I the end had to always organise a day stopover in Singapore  to accommodate  the vaguaries of JetFarce. These days my wife and I will not fly with them on principle.  

The topic of delayed flights puts me in mind of a funny airport announcement I once heard  (about 30 years ago!) I was at Cairo airport in Egypt,  there to pick up a friend who was arriving from Baghdad. Her flight was delayed. The announcer said '' Iraq Airways Flight  432 will not be arriving on time. We hope they are alright....".   

Alan

Would you say that piloting is a "masculine" activity, and that any women who take it up are the types who are comfortable nudging the boundary?

 

OME,   I'm certainly NOT suggesting piloting is a masculine activity!

We Territorians don't all drag our knuckles in the red soil.... I simply mentioned that my wife has a more impulsive and  spontaneous  approach to her flying than me, just as she drives her car at speeds that terrify me.

This is offset by the fact that she is much better at multi-tasking than me (cockpit management),  has better hand eye coordination and is more adept with computer-based technologies. Whether these differences are gender related, or just temperamental differences between us as individuals (me the slow steady and cautious one, she the quick thinking, impulsive one), I don't know.  Who's the better pilot overall? No idea.

But I'm interested to hear from instructors if they notice differences between male and female student pilots       

I think its a good idea but...

Why not focus on aviation incident reports rather than media reports?  We all know general (non-aviation) media  reports can be very wide of the mark, speculative and even misleading.

Not saying don't do it, just putting the question out there for more experienced minds than mine.   

 Cheers

Alan

I actually really enjoyed the first film ("Don't tell my wife!") . So much so that I had to show it to my wife, who also enjoyed it.  I thought it very progressive (for the 50s), not only because wifey got to learn to fly but, from the narration of the instructor, is described as good a student  (or even better than) her husband.

I watched my own wife learn to fly over the course of a year. It is true that there are some areas of airpersonship (just kiddin!) where women seem to enjoy natural advantages over us blokes, and other areas where we men show greater aptitude. But its probably as much down to the individual attributes as the gender. For example, my wife is more of a risk taker than I, and more impulsive in her flying.. These might usually be considered male attributes...

Id be interested to know from some of the instructors on here whether they've observed any differences between  the aptitudes of male and female student pilots?

Alan   

if your hours don't work out, get online and fix it

 

Can even edit historical data if you like

 

Yes me too.

Tried to edit my own hours online several times. Always comes back as 'zero' average for five years.

Folks,  

 So what’s this suggestion that that non members should be made  voting directors? Aren’t there enough members who want to serve on the board? 

Are the membership really so poorly skilled that they cannot make decisions about their own organisation...?

More information please

Alan 

My 296 screen faded out and I was unable to source a replacement screen or repair service.  So I replaced it with a Aera 660.  Visually it is brilliant, has all the whistles and knobs you could wish for as a package and it was easy to mod the 296 mount to take the 660.

 

However, because I used Ozrunways a lot during the fade out, it has become my secondary device and sits most of the time just showing the synthetic 3D vision window.  

 

So far I have not found out how to upload plans from a PC to the 660, nor can I download recorded tracks like I used to with the 296.  So still a lot to learn.  (Any hints here would be gratefully accepted to save me ploughing through the manual again.)

 

Ironically, just after I had committed to the 660 (not cheap), I found a replacement screen for the 296.  It was an easy repair and now functions perfectly with a bright screen.  I am tempted to put it back into service as I know its functions so well.

 

Next to be fixed is my Dynon 10A.  The display screen is bright enough but the clear window (antiglare plastic) has developed a rough surface.  It does not effect functionality but looks poor.

 

Alan

 

Hi Alan 

thanks for this feedback. It’s exactly what I wanted to hear, somebody else transitioning from 296 to 660. Like somebody else responded,  I never really used Garmin once I had OzRunways, but liked having it in the panel as a secondary device.

Also, while the pilot has Ozrunways on the pad, the passenger (usually my wife, who is also a pilot) has the Garmin on her side of the cockpit which means both crew can track the flight. My wife is actually much better at programming the Garmin than I, and if she is not flying , it gives her (or me, if she is flying) something to ‘do’.

For me living out bush, the best feature of the Garmin is the ‘go to emergency landing site function’.  You’re never more than a click from a direct line to the closest landing site.

cheers

Alan 

Put ozrunways on your wifes phone. It will cost you nothing to put it on an extra device.

 

Who knows, she may enjoy looking at the airports and destinations.

 

Hi Downunder

my wifey read your comment and laughed. She agreed that having ozrunways on her phone may make her enjoy looking at the airports and destinations. As a qualified pilot herself that will come in useful when she is flying.

?

Like many of us now I fly with OzRunways on my IPad. My wife often has a secondary backup device with us when we fly together, (ususally just google maps or something on her phone), and I usually have some paper charts stuffed in my flightback somewhere too.

But Im looking really hard of upgrading from an old 296 GPS to a Garmin Aera 660 mounted in my cockpit. What do people think? Anybody got one, and what are the advantages of of a small single purpose device in an era of IPAD EFBs? Id really like to get one, but think I need a little more feedback from guys  who  own and use it, rather than just the advertising pitch.

Cheers

Alan