NT5224

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

So does anybody know what happens post consultation period? How long will CASA deliberations take and what are the next steps? Presumably these consultation processes are fairly regular and so there must be some precedent for how the process goes forward. The last one I commented on was radio frequencies at uncontrolled airstrips -You'll all recall some desk pilot at CASA proposed we all use Area frequency. "Honey I'm home! Threes miles inbound, so send Mr Dog across to clear the strip..." I just don't remember how long that process took to work through to a sensible outcome. So what happens next with MTOW?

I've recently been thinking about storage and interior design in my aircraft. It got me to thinking about stuff I routinely carry when I fly, some of which is quite odd. We all fly for different purposes, in different regions, and in different aircraft and so the stuff we prioritise to carry will reflect these differences. For example, I always carry a 1m step ladder in the back of my aircraft. I selected it for its light weight. Obviously, I use this for refuelling. Im a tall bloke, but the Rebel's wings are still over my head. I once met an old timer who swore he never flew anywhere without his six shooter. I think his logic was that it was for personal protection if he was forced down in the scrub..... Whats in the back of your aircraft? Alan

I have always thought the system of logging hours on the RAA website was rather hit and miss. I have flown up to 60 hours a year, but my average for the last five years is still given as '0'. Alan