metalman

Having the same thoughts Tomo,,,,haven't got any answer for you though,,,,

I read "Flak " a while back ,amazing stories! Now reading "The killing zone", a bit of a trawl through the statistics, hopefully it gets a bit more flow, going to have another read of "fate is the hunter " soon to.

I wasn't actually comparing the two, you don't have to be in the SAAA to use an exp VH aircraft, you don't even have to join to do the MPC ,it's cheaper if you join ,but you don't have to. If you go RPL then there's no class 1or 2 medical, not sure what a drivers licence medical will cost, and so for me my insurance covers flight and hull risk as well as a public liability component , for $1800 a year( it includes my RV6 for ground risk) so I doubt it would be cheaper if it was RAA reg ,and I can do the maintenance myself. Rego was $135 for ,,,ever,,,, I have a couple of things that need to be done regularly rad 36 and 47 ( I think that's the numbers) but if you want to go into CTR then you need to have them in your RAA reg aircraft too, other than that I'm kinda thankful I got screwed around by RAA and went VH with mine, it's not an option for everyone,,, ,,,,,,,hang on soon it will be !

Welcome mate, I've done a little flying at Camden, nice airfield and plenty of scenic stuff around the area, Matty

I hear ya,,,SAAA is getting better but there is a lot of entrenched ideas( sounds oddly familiar) in the organisation, it will be interesting to see how it pans out over the next few years,,,,

I can see the SAAA numbers increasing as pilots head for some of the faster experimentals that fall into the RPL allowances , RV's , glasairs, even some of the fatter kitfoxes and jabirus , and if you can do your own maintenance GA is cheaper year to year for ownership , and with the current dramas a lot less hassles

Good answer herm,,,,,,except GAAPS are no longer ,I think they all became D class airspace and yes "non radar" hence no TXP required ,

That's the thing DP the guys at the so called info night couldn't answer the very straight forward questions, they reckon to instruct all that was needed was an approved PMI course and away you go ! Same when questioned about payment , just fumbled around and avoided a straight answer,,YES or NO was all that was needed , I can see a lot of changes as they realise its not very workable and clear as mud.

Then when the new part 61 licensing come in, and this is the question I asked at the seminar and got a fumbled non answer, can a PPL train a pilot in his own home built VH regoed plane ( endorsements only ,no abinitio) for a tail wheel or aeros , and how about , as any RAA cert holder can convert to a RPL , will they be able to get endorsements in their own plane by a PPL holder, even if they both have RAA certain but the PPL isn't an RAA FI,,,,,the more they try to simplify this stuf the worse it gets

wouldn't it be interesting to take an ultralighter from the mid /late eighties and time travel them to today and show them this thread ,,,,I'm sure he'd say "why would you want to do that with an ultralight, they're just for fun aren't they! " I would like to see RAA get the stuff we are allowed to do right before we start trying to stretch the rules to do stuff we shouldn't. At what point is it considered enough, "I want to take a lap top with me to earn a quid while I'm tootleling around the country,,hard to get pinged for that,,,next bloke wants to take his tools and materials to a job,,,,someone else wants to earn a bit on the side by taking the locals up to photograph their houses from the air,,,,all very minor but the regs that we have are there for a reason, if you want to make money from your aircraft then the public has the expectation that you will be a professional pilot ,trained to a higher standard and subject to more stringent checks and balances, now each little transgression on it's own isn't that great but a line has to be drawn somewhere ,and it's a lot clearer to simply say no to commercial usage rather than have a huge list of little things that are allowed , having said that CASA doesn't get it right every time but we have to have some sort of regulations or end up with people dying ,and that is the bottom line with our "sport" ,and another thing, if you were to kill or injure the public while giving cheeky little joyflights how long before the regulator says"no more".

After sitting through one of the CASA travelling road show seminars last week I can see some food things and bad coming our of the changes. I'm not sure about PPL doing training, it sounds nice but I can see problems a rising from it,and the fact the CASA guys really couldn't answer much of the questions, and having a clear path from an RAA cert to the RPL will certainly swell the ranks of GA .the biggest issue will be getting clear answers ,every time they got stumped( most of the time) they just kinda fobbed it off as a work in progress but also went to great lengths to make it known that it will be law on 4 December this year,

Also there's a yahoo group of RV builders RVs in aus, some of them may be bringing kits in, I had some parts bought in with another guys stuff, worked out great

My montessa had a habit of the bars kicking left or right if you jumped a log on a downhill , spent a lot of time laying on my back wondering how the f#ck I got there! A mate had a bultaco Sherpa t ,worse brakes I've ever seen on a bike, watched him leave plenty of steep sections with a bit of orange tape wrapped around him as he seemed to accelerate into the bottom of a gully. He then got even more game by fitting a sidecar to it,,,,at least he had company as he ploughed through the scrub out of control

I was riding trials around the late 80's, Craig gillies and Shane Mitchell were the top dogs at the time, rode at Canungra quite a few times. A Gas Gas is a make of trials bike.

Welcome mate, I see your in Vic , which field do you hang around? And don't stress about some comments, aviation has been around for over a hundred years and it'll survive the latest dramas

The most fun I ever had on bikes was on the track, nothing to worry about except my lack of ability! Also noticed someone had a gas gas ,I spent a few years doing the observed trials rounds in SE QLD ,great fun and taught control and finesse like nothing else ,I had a KT 250 ,a 348 montessa and then a TY350 yammy.

I wouldn't worry mate, dying isn't the worst thing to happen to you,,,,looking back on a nice "safe" wasted life and wishing you'd done more would be far worse!

Would that be the J3 of the bike world,,,,,it can only just kill you ;-)

I always tried to steer clear of the bikie dollar, but we did have a gang( can't remember what brand ) in the factory complex I was renting in up home, nothing NOTHING went missing, no graffiti, no vandalism, I could have left my wallet in the drive way and it would've been there Monday morning,,,,fear is a great way to control norty people it seems!

Oh to be young and bullet proof again,,,,I reckon old mate would be a bit tender nowadays after a couple of rotor cuff rebuilds, maybe a knee reconstruction or two, I hobble into the docs now and he says ,you must must have an underlying problem to be so sore all the time,,,,,,,yeh I reckon the problem was bouncing off solid objects in cars and bikes as a young fella,,,,,

I've been talking of putting mine on floats, a good mate reckons if you want to wreck a good plane put it on the water, I think I'd be a fresh water only type, and still have to do a lot of corrosion proofing. Looked into getting a float rating in Alaska, worked out I could fly there ,have a good holiday ,do the training all for about what I was quoted here! Something to think about I reckon. Matty

Zenith also make floats to fit a wide range of aircraft, did you do your endorsement in Oz?

I think the pilots as named in a recent news bulletin need to look at perhaps taking on some more western names https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNiD-XhWx7Q Please no disrespect to the poor girls killed, but the media makes a living out of screwing us over with non factual reporting ,I'm not unhappy to see them cop it back!

Dorothy and Edna, two "senior" widows, are talking: Dorothy: "That nice George Johnson ( the retired pilot) asked me out for a date. I know you went out with him last week, and I wanted to talk with you about him before I give him my answer." Edna: "Well, I'll tell you. He shows up at my apartment punctually at 7 pm, dressed like such a gentleman in a fine suit, and he brings me such beautiful flowers! Then he takes me downstairs and what's there; a limousine, uniformed chauffeur and all. Then he takes me out for dinner; a marvelous dinner, lobster, champagne, dessert, and after-dinner drinks. Then we go see a show. Let me tell you Dorothy, I enjoyed it so much I could have just died from pleasure! So then we are coming back to my apartment and he turns into an ANIMAL. Completely crazy, he tears off my expensive new dress and has his way with me three times!" Dorothy: "Goodness gracious!... so you are telling me I shouldn't go?" Edna: "No, no, no... I'm just saying, wear an old dress."

I was heading home for work and had a spray paint gun in my carry on, the young guy at Tulla picked on it but an older guy says don't worry it's a paint gun, thing is it looks like a hand gun with the pot removed, the young fella should've checked for himself, on the way home I wasn't even challenged about it, maybe they were busy checking old ladies for drugs and explosives.