NT5224

Hiya Bex and Old Koreelah. Bex, you ask a great question which has given me pause for thought. Will I fit a BRS into my aircraft after this? On reflection, im not sure that I will. Its true that on this occasion I JUST made it over the last trees to the clearing (believe me, it was close!!!) but I did make it. If we had hit the trees and lived to tell of it my thoughts now might be different. I will certainly learn from this experience and will try to improve some aspects of my airmanship but im not sure about the BRS. Cheers Alan

Hi everybody. Thanks so much for the comments of support and encouragement. That's what you get sharing your story with other aviators rather than non-flyers. What frustrated me yesterday was the local media reporting of our spectacular 'crash'. A local radio channel apparently reported that we had miraculously survived (and I didn't hear this myself) when the aircraft had fallen from the sky or flown into the ground inverted, as shown in the picture! Of course the flip had only occurred at low speed when the wheels stuck in mud at the end of the landing roll. Understandably, we had relatives seriously worried for our lives... Also we were reported to have 'injuries' or 'minor' injuries. We were both unharmed by the incident and I just drove us home after the misadventure. Its unfair how our sport is tarnished by this sensationalism. Anyway gripe over. On the issue of STOL raised by nicephotog, I'd consider my own Murphy Rebel a serious STOL bush aircraft, designed and built for the Canadian outback. Funnily enough, I currently have on order some 29 inch Alaskan bush tyres to be fitted to it. If they had arrived and been fitted before Sunday they almost certainly would have prevented my rollover on landing. However, they weigh 15kg each and if they had been fitted its likely the weight and drag would have compromised that lengthy glide to the clearing we pulled off. We might have dropped into the bush. I'd rather take the roll-over than fly my wife into trees. Have been in touch with the insurers and plans are afoot for the recovery. Its going to be a bit of an adventure getting to the landing site at this time of year and getting the aircraft out. Cheers Alan

It was a Rotec 2800 7 cylinder, but between the initial seizure and the roll damage who knows what it is now?

This was me. It happened yesterday. I’ve often seen these type of reports and wondered what lay behind the hype and the sensation. I’ve tried to keep and open mind but now I I think I better understand the forces at play. My incident was all over the media, especially here in The Territory. My wife and I were described as an ‘elderly couple’ who had astonishing luck to survive after undefined engine problems... Yep, we were called ‘survivors’ of a crash, with the image of our inverted plane all over the media. I couldn’t really explain to my non-flying colleagues at work, but I want to run over what happened and how I feel about it here, in the hope that somebody will either learn from it or perhaps relate to how deflated I’m feeling. My wife is just plain cranky at being described as being aged ‘in her fifties’ by the media, a complete fallacy. . Here’s what happened. We were flying back from Crab Claw to Batchelor at about 2000 feet because we had just come out from under the 2500 ft step into G class airspace. That’s much lower than I would normally fly over bush but I had just given a 10 mile inbound and we could see home. The aircraft had been flying for over an hour and had already taken off twice that day. All indications were normal, and the motor was running fine but suddenly it seized. The prop jerked to a stop, and we were whistling through the air in silence, a fat barrel-shaped glider. Aviate, Navigate, Communicate, I trimmed for best glide. Had a glance around and then called ‘Pan’ on the Batchelor frequency, describing my engine failure and location. I tried to prime with the fuel pump and restart but something told me the engine was completely broke. Most concerning, we were over extensive woodlands and hilly terrain, no roads or anywhere to set down. But we always lookout for places to set down as we fly, and we had already discussed a couple of spots earlier during the flight. Together my wife and I spotted a small clearing a couple miles away, to the north but it looked awfully far. I trimmed to stretch the glide as best I could, keeping an eye on the ASI knowing that 50-60 would give me my best chance. I gave a radio call of where we were heading. My wife’s instructor was somewhere around doing training and called back that the message had been relayed to Brisbane Central. We also heard a couple of other voices responding and relaying our message. Oddly enough that was really reassuring to know that our situation was known, not that it was much help for our immediate predicament. Dunno how long that glide lasted, in my perception it went on and on, reluctantly trading height for speed to stay away from stall. We just made it over the edge of the clearing and as I got over the last of the trees I put out extra flap and floated down to make probably my best landing that day, but into shoulder high spear grass. That grass slowed us down pretty quick, but as we decelerated on our landing roll our wheels started sinking into the bog. And we pitched forward, not at high speed, but enough to flip the aircraft onto its back. The roll happened quite suddenly and was quite diseorientating, but my ‘elderly’ wife proved remarkably spritely and called “right, everybody out!” We scrambled out of the aircraft into the bog. We were shaken, but we were otherwise unhurt. An R44 tourist flight was overhead in about ten minutes as we were trying to ascertain our damage and how we might get out of the swamp. The pilot landed and told us help was on the way and he would return after his tourists were unloaded. Top bloke! But within 30 minutes the CareFlight guys arrived from Darwin and extracted us, the pilot being very careful not to set down in the bog. They were fabulous, and really pragmatic about the incident. They ferried us back to Batchelor where they checked us out, I spoke with AMSA and gave a report to the Cops. We drove home that night still rather bemused by the whole experience. But our confusion was nothing to what we experienced this morning seeing our story all over the media this morning with it’s bizarre inaccuraries and sensationalism. So tonight our beautiful aircraft lies inverted in a swamp and we’re waiting to hear from our insurers. Yes we are lucky, but we worked as a team and flew the plane to the ground a long distance without power. My wife who is undergoing flight training herself was calm and reassuring, and her amazing competence was infectious. She made me a better pilot. This sounds crazy, but I’m so glad she was with me through it. Shes gonna make an awesome aviator. In 13 years flying, I’ve had an emergency landing before, but in the circuit, where it’s fairly clear what to do. This was different. So why did the engine seize? Had I preflighted and pulled through the prop on the radial and managed the oil? Yes I had, but unfortunately on these radials it’s possible a bent rod could go undetected for weeks or months before it cuts loose. It’s really hard to tell without opening the engine and I had no reason to suspect that anything was amiss. The aircraft follows a regular maintenance schedule to GA standards. When we get the aircraft back it’ll be interesting to see what happened. This can happen to anybody, quite unexpectedly. You never think it’s gonna happen to you. Walking away from this was testimony to some great instruction and sound advice I’ve received over the years. I hope I never have to apply that knowledge again.

Yesterday I got an interesting new perspective on my wife's flying. I flew into our local airfield while she was training in the circuit. I first heard her voice just before I gave my own ten mile inbound call, then could hear her giving her circuit calls. She sounded great! I crossed overhead midfield as she was on finals and dropped into the downwind leg. It was just our two aircraft around and because her instructor wanted her to experience more circuit traffic, I followed her in the circuit for two 'touch-and-goes', before she stopped for a coffee break. Its the first time I've been in the air with my significant other -both of us flying separate planes! As I wrote before, I'm extremely proud of her progress.... She'll make a great aviator! Alan

Gotta admit I love the old Stringbag too! But flying them off pitching carriers over a stormy, icy North Atlantic would have taken extraordinary courage. So agree with others here that its aircrew who made it the legend it has become.

Hi folks! I’m really proud of my wife who’s currently going through her RAA flight training. Each weekend I’m there at the strip on pretence of mowing outside the hangar or tinkering with our aircraft, watching her flying her circuits with her instructor and doing a little dance each time she greases her ‘touch and goes’. I reckon she’s showing really aptitude and I’m really, really proud of her! But also we now spent time discussing aspects of flying and the RAA training syllabus. She has questions for me and I try and explain things as well as I can to help her understanding of flight and airmanship. But funnily enough, the process of thinking things through to construct my responses and offer her advice on her training is almost certainly making me a better aviator too. I’ve already realised a number of errors and shortcuts I take with my own flying and am determined to correct them. My wife isn’t bitten by the aviation bug but just sees flying as a practical skill to have, given that we own an aircraft. Anyway, as I said above, really proud of her progress. Anybody else had a wife, husband or significant other go through flight training? If so, did it help your own flying too? Cheers Alan

Jaba-who said: ↑ Depends what you mean by “north”. To us in North Queensland “north “ equals Townsville or north of it. To southerners “North Queensland” is anything north of Brisbane and south of Mackay. Anything north of that just doesn’t count as civilization. ....... Click to expand... It's funny how people in the north become so parochial about their particular patch of it. When I was in Australia's 'proper' north we used to think of you Cairnsians as 'Southerner Softies' Ha ha! All you northerners just crack me up, comparing the size of your latitudes like that... :) Alan :)

Loop? We’ll be flying all the way down to Brissie to start but luckily finishing at Broome which is not too far from home. No way would we want to turn around and fly down south to Queensland again! I’m pleased we’re doing the extra leg pre-race rather than after. Gives us a chance to settle the bird and get a team routine. But I guess it’s all a matter of perspective. Alan

What are my preparations? Nothing particularly useful yet... But my wife bless her, has finally been motivated to get her ticket before the race. I spend weekends on the ground watching her go round and round in the circuit.... I’m actually very proud of her, I reckon she’ll solo much earlier than I did. Not in our Rebel, but in a smaller eurobubble training aircraft. Sadly I doubt she’ll get her x country or tail dragged rating before the race so she might be stuck in the right seat ( but at least she’ll be a copilot rather than passenger! ) We’ve also ordered some enormous heavy rubber. We were already the slowest entrant in the race before the tundra tyres, and when we fit them we’ll be even slower! But hey, at least we’ll arrive in style! Alan

My wife and I are signed up. The challenge for us is getting our bird airworthy for the race. I suspect we may be the slowest participating aircraft ( if nobody enters a Drifter!) so am going to have to figure out some tactical advantage over the Cessna and Mooney brigade. I’ve got some big rubber coming from Alaska, and I doubt they’ll give us any extra knots AS. But I’ve flown most of the route before.

Hi SGIAN DUBH You can certainly buy an aircraft in Australia, although a hire for a couple of weeks would also be possible. Aviation Advertiser is one of the primary sites although there is also this one: Australian Aircraft for Sale on Aircraft Online. Good luck!! Alan

The information I have now received is that registrations are open from 30th October. We are definitely intending to register! Would be nice to be in touch with other competitors beforehand. “Know your enemy!”

We'll be entering -if they accept our nomination. The route passes through our neck of the woods perhaps that will give us a home advantage?

Haha! Smart response to the OP. Im with SDQDI on this one. I certainly wouldnt want to be obliged to rent my bird out to anybody who wanted to fly it.

I note that the route for the 2018 Outback Air race has been announced. This event held every three years in support of the Royal Flying Doctors and is more a test of navigation and airmanship than of aircraft speed. The wife and I have always wanted to take part. I note this year the race is being opened to RAA certified flyers. Anybody else interested in this? Cheers Alan

"I'd be quite cautious about your situation as a kit manufacturer cannot assemble on their factory floor and reg 19 unless it was within 95.55 1.2 (e) ... and building as a demonstrator would be hard pressed on challenge to be within "the major portion of which has been fabricated and assembled by a person who undertook the construction project solely for the person’s own education or recreation" Thanks Kasper. You make good points, but I'm fairly confident about my own rego as the aircraft was a used import and so was subject to a high level of scrutiny and inspection to get it into Australia and onto the RAA register. It was not a first of type build, but just a well-finished one the company wanted to tour the airshows in the US and Canada and promote sales with. I was just pointing out (as you have too), that the situation can get a little murky depending on interpretation of how the aircraft was constructed and where, and possibly whether the manufacturer is on record as a supplier of finished or kit aircraft. Alan

Actually I think it might be more complex than that. My own plane is RA registered 19, but was built by the manufacturer as a demonstrator. From this I surmise that if a manufacturer is not a registered supplier of factory build aircraft but only of kits, then even if they build an aircraft on their factory floor it's still a 19.

I think it mentions in the Country Airfields Guide (in each individual airstrip entry) where ASICS are required.

Something we all dread, especially over Tiger Country. Much flight training is directed to preparing us for the possibility that the fan at the front end (or overhead, or behind) goes quiet. But with newer aircraft designs and engines becoming -at least theoretically- more reliable, the likelihood of an engine failure seems to be declining since the days of two stroke... But how often do engine failures and emergency landings actually occur among our aircraft types and how well do we manage them? I've had one in a couple of hundred hundred hours and am obviously here to tell the tale.. Would love to know whether (or how often) folks have experienced complete or partial engine failures and what happened? Did the emergency landing go as planned? Any thoughts or lessons learned for the less experienced would be appreciated. Cheers Alan

Yes, good point. But to take your analogy further, do 'shareholders' in other companies have to pay the company annual fees? Remember, we are members of an organisation that is being run as a business, but the purpose of the business is to run the organisation for its membership. Without the membership there would be no company, surely? Sorry if the above reads naïve, I have very little knowledge in the legal implications of RAA being run as a company, but I'd like to think if there is no valid reason why we members shouldn't have knowledge of the content of the boards submissions, then maybe we should... It would certainly put to rest any of the bickering on here about the performance of the board. If they're doing a good job (as I suspect), they have nothing to lose from a little transparency, and everything to gain. Alan

The way I understand it, our new board has been focusing on getting members access to CTA and securing a MTOW increase for registered aircraft. Personally, I have no real interest in the former but lots in the latter, but I appreciate for many members the opposite will be true. However, while we have been told that this is what our board has been doing, I myself haven't yet seen any of the documentation that has been submitted to CASA get a clear idea of what actually is being proposed. Is there a good business case to be made as to why the board shouldn't be more transparent with the membership and share its submisisons? Would that undermine their negotiating position with the regulator -or something like that? Just curious Alan