KRviator

Ozrunways users can be tracked at TX.ozrunways.com If you lodge a flightplan and use flight following you should be visible using MLAT to and FA/FR24 recievers nearby, with a standard Mode A/C transponder, IIRC.

Deleted. Hence the Google cache link above. And now he's been charged with murder. Wonder if there'll be any questions directed at the DAME who did his last Class 1??

Well he did fly for JetStar...And if you believe the commentary on Pprune, that's after leaving Qantas. For those looking for the "other" thread, Google currently has a cached version available HERE. No idea how long it'll stay live for.

We have the whole "Right to silence" in Oz as well - unless you are dealing with CAsA, then under some circumstances you do not have the right to silence in answering questions from their "investigators". They have powers of entry, search & seizure that Australian police officers could only dream of. Remember, you are innocent of everything until proven guilty. No need to give anyone any ammo to use against you.

So far you're the only person to bring up 103 fliers over LAX. They were two separate - and quite widely separated - points that I'd made about how aviation in Oz is being hamstrung by Government inaction. E is controlled airspace for IFR operations 'only'. For VFR you do not need a clearance. I've lost count of the number of times I've flown in E with an RAAus registered aircraft and only spoken to CTR when they've called me. You're wrong. To fly over the top of LAX Class B, you're in Class E, and so long as you have a transponder (to comply with the Mode C veil over there) you don't have to talk to anybody. To do so in Melbourne you can request clearance and it can - and usually will be denied. Beyond Victor 1 and the Brisbane Stradbroke Is routes there are no routes "through" major Class C's in Australia that don't require clearance - and both of those will require carriage of lifejackets... As an example - have a look at the Oakey Brisbane VTC and consider Oakey & Amberley PRD areas are active and unavailable for transit. Your only option to get past this area in cruising flight is a clearance through the BN Class C, or descending into D630A+B and flying below 4,500 with terrain that comes up to 3,000. Spot on but I wasn't referencing international airports but using LAX/SFO as a size comparison LAX is probably double the size of Sydney and you can fly over it without talking to anybody if you're above 10,000'. Or through the transition corridor at 3,500/4,500. However look at that image you provided. E over D in the US & E = available to RAAus/GA VFR traffic without a clearance. There's only a few places in Oz where there is E or G over D here, Camden being one & Karratha the only other I'm aware of. Every other Tower-controlled airport in Australia has A over C or C over D, requiring a clearance - no matter the traffic volume or physical airspace layout. Even Katoomba requires you to have clearance in the Sydney Class C if you want to be higher than 3,500AGL. The point being, if you're in the cruise (for example, as -DJU was up at Coffs), you shouldn't have to descend to <1000' just to get past a Class D tower because its' overlaid by Class C. You should either be able to get (not just request - there's a flamin' huge difference) clearance, or be able to go up-and-over as you can sensibly do in the US - and that's just one example of how Government in Australia is knobbling GA in this country. There's probably dozens of other examples, but lack of airspace flexibility being but one. You're right, they don't have to promote it, but neither do they have to hamstring it at every available opportunity.

IT's not just a GoPro - that was but one example. The FAA has their NORSEE policy that allows you to install items such as a G5 or Dynon D100 without an STC so long as they weren't, or didn't replace, the primary instruments or equipment. Of course, the G5/D10/G3X/SkyView are all STC'd and you can install them in hundreds of GA aircraft - but previously you could only do that in FAA-Land. In Australia you might be able to fit it after spending thousands of dollars on an EO with a CAR21M Engineer. Things they are allowed to do (still): VFR in E - straight over the top of a major international airport, no clearance required. Try that in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane - you can't. The Class C goes to FL180 then it's Class A. Hell you can't go over the top of a Class D tower at Tamworth or Coffs here as it's overlaid by C... They have MOA's, which for all intents and purposes would replace, most of, our R areas - except you can fly in them without a clearance, though at your own risk. Low Flying - IIRC, so long as its' not over a built up area (ie sparse, unpopulated, etc) they can go as low as they want. Whether that is smart is another story, but AIUI, it is legal. Minor Modifications - Get your A&P to file a Form 337 and you're good to go. In Oz it's an EO, thousands of dollars and you still might not get it through. No NVFR Rating in the US - it's incorporated into your PPL In Canada - They have the Owner Maintenance Certification - if you have a "basic" FW aircraft, you can apply to maintain it yourself. This includes aircraft upto and including the Grumman Tiger & 172A-H models as a size example.

@turboplanner, the thrust of one of your arguments is that Gumby-ments don't (or don't have to) promote things these days, and I would agree in Australia that's somewhat true. However, Aviation in Australia also has the exact opposite of being "promoted" with seemingly endless impediments to the simple act of committing aviation...what with the ASIC, never-ending regulatory "reform", the Australian-ising of things such that you need an EO to put a GoPro on a wing strut, whereas in the US it's a '337 (if that), Canada has 'owner-maintenance' for a range of basic GA certified aircraft right up to 172 variants, the US has Part 103 for unregistered 'ultralights'. Oh, and we have AvData too, bottom-dwelling parasites that they are. Beyond the original "Experimental" category, I struggle to think of a single thing that Government has done to assist - not necessarily promote - aviation in this Country. We still don't have SBAS/WAAS after nearly 2 decades, it took years for CAsA to allow "non-TSO'd" ADS-B GNSS position sources in Experimental/RAAus and but for the grace of god a Jabiru didn't become a hood ornament on an A320 at Ballina because they won't stump up the $$ for Class D, because, well, User Pays you know... And let's not mention the rest of the airspace abomination that is Australia. Consider that you can go straight over the top of LAX, JFK or SFO in Class E in the US yet here you're stuck low level over tiger country or coastal because you can't get a decent clearance though an unoccupied Class D! True, the Government doesn't have to promote aviation - but neither do they have to have introduced so many effin' roadblocks to it.

Having done the RAAF Combat Survival course many years ago, it taught quite a bit about various factors encountered, as well as tips and tweaks most of which I've long since forgotten, but more importantly it teaches you to be a "survivor", not just an "existor" following a prang, and that mindset did influence my wearing of the vest when I fly. Doing circuits? Not needed, but as the PLB lives in one of the pockets, it comes with me for anything outside the vicinity of the airport. And while you could probably survive until rescue - particularly on the east coast - without any of the goodies contained within, if the weather is poor and the rescue helo can't fly for a couple of days, I'll be a damn sight more comfortable if I can make shelter, or a fire, or use my torch at night. Not this one OK? Stuff you carry in your aircraft

Looks kinda like a SPOT device? Probably not a bad thing to think about for when we go 4WDing, I didn't know Big G made them, but now I do, I'll do a bit of digging and might add one to our bag of tricks for going out bush. But...(there's always a but) such a device won't meet the ELT/PLB requirements contained in the CAR's or CASR as it has to be registered with AMSA and a couple other overly officious requirements CAsA have implemented - so don't get sprung with it! 😛

I certainly do. I've had a first aid kit in every car I've owned since I brought my (second) car. Now I have one of those "rescue swags" in the car and another clipped to the baggage bulkhead. As well as the survival vest I wear whenever I am flying the RV, the logic behind the vest being, firstly, I fly in a plane I built in my back shed, and secondly, with the kind of luck I seem to have - I might not have enough time or be able to access the rescue swag, so the vest contains enough to (hopefully) stop anything serious enough for long enough for the PLB to summon help.

Given the choice I will bypass an airport with landing fees and fly another 50NM to get to one that doesn't charge. The other thing to think about is some money-hungry councils charge per landing! No daily rate. So if you're doing circuits in an RV that goes up-and-down like a brides nighty, you can conceivably run up fees in excess of $275/hour (based on Warnervale's charging structure) - they had the gall to insert a fee for "Refuelling on council land" too, flamin' asrehats. It worked out cheaper to fly from Warnervale-Archerfield & fly 1hr of circuits there & refuel-Warnervale than to do an hour of circuits at Warnervale and refuel afterwards, so what does that tell you? Toowoomba is another one that charges itinerant aircraft per landing. If the airport is privately owned by an individual or club I have no problem with chucking $5-10 in a tin. But if it is council owned then they can get stuffed. Until they put toll booths on the roads into town, I'll be damned if I contribute so much as a ruble to the maintenance of the airport anymore than I would the maintenance of the road into town were I to arrive in the other RV...

Apparently it has a BRS in case you lose more than 1 motor, but what the un-recoverable zone for that BRS would be remains to be seen. As you've (I think?) highlighted @Thruster8830' is more than enough to kill you, and I would guess the BRS won't save you below 500', so how quickly you can get out of that zone is the question. I've been thinking...88Kw power draw, 20 minutes max endurance is near enough to 30kW/H of battery capacity. For a full charge, that's around $7.50 in electricity at 25c/kwh so it's not that economical compared to something like a moped or even a larger sports bike that could do that 30km on a couple litres of fuel and half the price. I bet it sounds like a hornets nest on steroids, too, 8 x small diameter props at high RPM can't be too efficient. The NIMBY's are going to love it!

This popped up on my YT feed today. Looks like it's only been out a few days, but depending on the range, I think I'd prefer one of these to an RV-10...😃 $92,000USD but only 20 minutes flight time at this stage, max speed 100km/hr so only 30km range, and a max 95Kg pilot weight. Still, it looks seriously cool...

They do, yes, however, once you get your RPC, you can no longer fly there. Only in Oz would that make sense...

@RossK, there was no evidence of many of those points, however lack of evidence of having these is not evidence of not having them... For example: familiarity with on-board equipment, were I to prang my RV, there's absolutely zero evidence that I've received any training with any of the equipment on board, nor would the ATSB say I met the General Competency requirements and was, therefore, illegal to fly. But I built my RV, installed everything, read the manuals and have flown it for several years, but there's no evidence I've been trained on it - nor could any instructor teach me themselves as the fitout in the RV, by the very nature of it being experimental, is unique. But I can prove I know how to use it (if I'm alive that is...dead, well...) No flight planning: I use a self-developed Excel spreadsheet customised to my RV. This can be displayed electronically on the EFB, so again, no "evidence" of a navigation log, or fuel log. Not saying that is the case in the -DJU prang, but again, the ATSB would claim there was no evidence of my having a NavLog or Fuel Log. The ATSB Report goes so far as to say he didn't have "appropriate navigation equipment" on board, however, -DJU was fitted with a GTN650, which is certified to TSO-C146 standards, allowing sole-means IFR navigation, with no backup equipment. IF they got that wrong, I wouldn't hold my breath about the rest being accurate. I'd love to have a GTN650 in the RV! And yes, I do, 100% completely and uttterly lay the blame for this accident at the feet of the (trainee) ATCO. He denied a clearance through his sector "Just because". Not for traffic (there was none). Not for procedural compliance (there was no requirement). Not for workload (his OJT felt his assessment of being overwhelmed was misplaced). He denied clearance "Just because", and the result of that was the ping-ponging of a pilot of a high-performance aircraft in marginal VMC between 4 frequencies all the while he's closing on CTA at 2.5 miles a minute with no Plan C But I've made those arguments in the incident thread, no need to rehash them all here. @Garfly - for my $$, I'd pick option one out of the three you've offered, but as an alternative - and the one I would choose myself if I was flying the mid-north coast, coastal and if you have a decent glide ratio, might be to go east over water at A085/095. The CTA step only goes out to 12NM, and in the RV, it has a 12:1 glide ratio, so if you're above 6,000' in no wind, you can make it in to Coffs if you have an engine failure, IIRC, without the requirement to carry life jackets, because you're still within gliding distance of land. I wouldn't try it in a Drifter though...

Don't forget every movie where the cops come racing up to an incident has the tyres chirping as they stop. Every. Single. One. Or a turboprop. San Andreas had a typical IO-540 startup sound when the hero was starting the Caravan. I think it was 2012 that had a C340 shutdown with the props winding down like a turboprop, not the rapid stop of a piston engine. Then there was the scene of them flying through the currently-being-destroyed Los Angeles and they've got full aileron applied and the bank angle isn't increasing. 🤮 The KRviatrix hates watching movies with me. We were watching one of her post-zombie-apocalyptic shows and the survivors are walking down an "abandoned" railway line. I asked her "Hon, how long has it been since everyone died there?" and she said "probably about 6 months...". I pointed to the rails and said "Then why are the tracks still shiny?" and promptly got punched in the ribs...😆

Careful, the same could be said about some members here! 😆

Google says she was re-registered VH-SYS then exported to EnZed 2017, however, there's no Pioneers on their register and Airport-Data shows no further reference after the export. Wiki (and the CAsA register) both show -SYS still here - and when you say pretty please to FB you get -SYS' very own Facebook page, last updated November last year. Doesn't appear to have an ADS-B transponder though, it doesn't show up on FA or FR24.

Obviously heard of Smithy's plight enroute to UnZud when Bill Taylor did a mid-flight oil transfer from #3 to #1. Based on a true story and all that.... One I didn't like, though it's not on par with any of the above, Air Force One - the Harrison Ford one as the hijackers are taking over the plane the USAF flightcrew touch down just as the hijackers blow open the flight deck door. In an attempt to ensure AF1 stays on the ground, the Effo yanks the spoiler lever full up, rather than the engine start levers to cutoff. Reset the spoilers, and apply TOGA and the hijackers are now airborne with AF1 and POTUS. 🤮 Almost as bad as some of the train movies out there, Atomic Train, Runaway Train, Unstoppable - though the last one was based on a true story and did actually happen - but nothing like how the movie portrayed it.

And from memory the book had him landing said Jetranger on an empty flat car on a moving train!

They tried this years ago with the GE Unducted Fan concept on an MD-92(?) over multiple test & demo flights. Good speeds & fuel burn from memory but that was about as far as it went.

In the case of the RV, fly 10* pitch & full power until terrain clearance is assured, on the crosswind leg downgrade to Mode A on the transponder, and on the Coey's EFIS Button 7+8, select GPS FIX Status & climb at the CHT limit to fly the relevant GPS altitude to my destination while cursing the fact I didn't take the tape off the static ports after washing the plane - and missed it in pre-flight. If my routing is as usual, cruising at the base of CTA, I'd probably drop down to the next suitable VFR level to avoid an unintentional VCA. I certainly wouldn't entertain the idea of an immediate return - or any return at all, even if going away from home base.

True, but that argument appears to discount using those instruments that remain available in favour of - essentially - guessing your speed. Yes, it can be done, but if you have other sources of valid data, you should use them to confirm your speed/position/actions. Anything else is setting you up to be hung out to dry in the ATSB report..."Although the Pilot had GPS groundspeed data available to him and would have been able to use this to determine airspeed, he chose not to use it in favour of estimating aircraft performance based on power & attitude for which the airframe manufacturer did not provide such data..." or a similar writeup. I went out with an instructor for some additional training a couple weeks ago, and we scrubbed the flight about 15min in after the weather appeared to be worse than forecast, whereupon I promptly entered the departure airport as the DTO waypoint in the GNSS. That seemed to surprise the instructor who asked if I could do it without the GNSS. "Of course" was my reply. "But why would I? Putting the destination in as the waypoint gives exact distance for the 10mile call, lateral guidance and a precise altitude-intercept location." The point being, use the tools you have available to reduce your workload. Just because we're trained to navigate with paper maps and a stopwatch doesn't mean we should use them to the exclusion of everything else in this day and age - particularly when the AIP now allows VFR pilots to use TSO'd GNSS units for Area Navigation and to push the 'positive-fix' time out to 2 hours.

About the only thing they can do to an A380 to make it look almost decent...hideous looking thing it is. Some of the designs coming out on RV's and other Experimental's now that are being covered in vinyl wrap are stunning. Anything you can design on a PC can be printed and your plane wrapped in it - one RV Driver blew up the actual plan drawing for each section and wrapped his RV in them. I still get a giggle out of the Kulula 737 Flying 101 livery from a decade ago. They also did a This Way Up logo that is chuckle-worthy but not as good as Flying 101.

I've taken off with the pitot cover in place once. I did notice it on the takeoff roll, but with only a 600m runway with a 2% downhill gradient and no definitive speed I continued the takeoff rather than try to stop, pegged the VSI at +1000 and flew to the Council airstrip a few minutes away using GPS GS as a guide - bear in mind this was just after sunrise, so before the wind had picked up, and Vy in the RV gives over 1800FPM in the conditions that day. But what if you do have a significant wind to factor in? GPS GS can't be relied on in those conditions, can it? Wellllll... In any wind, a two-way run at a fixed power setting will give you your average TAS by adding the GPS GS & dividing by two. From there, you can work out what the approximate wind component is, and use a bit of mental maths to keep your speed in a safe range on final. Ie, 360*M & 120GS & 180*M & 80GS gives you 100KTAS. IF the runway is in the 160*-200* range, I could fly final as slow as 40GS in the RV, giving me 60KTAS.