Ferris

There's an old bloke near Horsham Vic, whose in his 80's and specialises in hand built wooden props. Miller Propellors were going a long time ago in Geelong and then he moved up to the Wimmera to retire. Bill still does a few props to order. As i understand it, there are no plans, you tell Bill what you want, what type of aircraft, engine etc and he designs the prop to suit. It's all done in his head and the knowledge will go with him, when he eventually falls off his perch. He still tinkers with a few planes as well. One of Bill's props is in the Alice Springs transport museum. As a bit of joke he made it with a reverse pitch.

G'day Rod, I agree $25 a head is a bit bloody rich. hmmm, might have an engine failure over the race track. Wonder how many people won't read the AIP and just try to join the circuit or do a straight in approach.

Arrival & Departure Proceedures for Birdsville Races Anybody flying into the Birdsville Races this year should be aware of AIP Supp H56/10. Here's the link Airservices Australia -<% = flying_aip_text %> See you there Ferris

Clear Prop sell several blue tooth adaptors. Here's the link Headsets :: Headset Accessories - Aviation Pilot Supplies Shop | Flight Gear | Aircraft Instruments If your Iphone has a 2.5 mm round jack for remote headset, there is a cheaper adaptor available through ebay which is a direct cable hook up. I have one and it is ok to talk on, but i could never hear the phone ringing. Bluetooth through the Zulu headset is far better. Love to see (hear) how good the new Bose A 20 headsets are. Cheers Ferris

Hello Ian, Great tool you've developed there. I tried to go into the site a couple of times this afternoon and tonight and it appears to be down. Are we still able to access this site? Regards Ferris:question:

Gasdive, I think you are being a little harsh on the crew from that disaster, assuming we are talking about the same documentary. It was at night and they didn't have an horizon at all. The crew were overloaded with alarms going off all over the place and conflicting information from various instruments. IFR training is very big on 'trust your instruments, not your instincts.' Yes in hindsight they should have recognised the danger, but if you've got no way of visually determining where you are, then which instrument do you trust and which do you discard?

Hi Darky. Firstly congratulations for at least trying to do the right thing by giving correct radio calls. There are many who do not, and I for one find that most frustrating. I'm not going to throw stones here, as my calls are far from perfect. As I understand the rules, radio calls are to be completed at the 8 minute mark or 10 miles, whichever is further out. If there is traffic about I also give a call at 5 miles, which I know is non-standard, but I want everybody to be looking out for me, in case I don't see them. I guess there is a problem if you are in the training area which is only a few miles out, so any call you make is going to be non-standard. The other problem is that a visiting pilot may not have any idea where the training area is, so a call with an accurate location is important. It comes back to the old pilot mantra "Aviate, navigate and communicate." Even in the training area it is good practice to accurately know your location, and will hold you in good stead for your X-country navs. As YLIL is in a fairly busy piece of airspace, could I suggest keeping a Melbourne VTC handy with 3, 6 & 9 nm radius' (or any other convenient scale) pencilled onto it. Even without a GPS this will give you a reasonable degree of accuracy and confidence when giving your calls. Other pilots and your instructor will be impressed with your professional radio calls. Good flying Ferris. ps even on a local flight it is good practice to carry a map and ERSA. You just never know when you will need to divert.

The Saints have a new rule. One out, one in. A bit like the night clubs Evett's out......... Mary McKillop's in

Are we talking about Caboolture VFR waypoint, or Caboolture airfield? lol Oh hang it, you won your bet either way.

Thanks Slarti........i knew you'd have the answer

Hi, I may have to fly into Canberra at short notice later this week, tracking from Albury. Looking at the map there's some fairly high mountains and the cloud forecast is not all that good. Has anybody got any suggestions for a VFR route into Canberra without having to go over 5000+ high hills. Cheers Ferris

Studentbiggles, Just a couple of terms to keep in mind. TORA is the Take Off Run Available, which means the length of runway you need to take off. The other is TODA - Take Off Distance Available. What this means is the lenght of the runwa plus the distance from the end of the runway to any obstacle that you have to clear. You must allow a minimum distance of 20 times the height of any obstacle. In effect this means that if you have to clear a 5 metre high object, the end of your runway must be a minimum of 100 metres from that obstacle. I hope that is as clear as mud! Cheers Ferris

True story about the Mirage shooting itself down, although not quite the way it has been told here. The incident happened around 1979 - 80 at the Dutson bombing range. The Mirage pilot came in sub-sonic in a dive firing his cannons, then went supersonic, continuing the dive before pulling into a steep climb. When he went supersonic, the Mirage overtook his rounds and shot himself down while climbing out. The aircraft crashed into a swamp and is now buried in 20 - 30 feet of mud. The aircraft was never recovered because of the unexploded ordinance. The pilot ejected without serious injury.

The incident report and insurance claim would make for interesting reading. You can bet with a little bit of creative writing, that the description and video would be substantially different.

I've had a couple of close encounters with eagles and they definetly put a lump in the throat. Over the Grampians at about 2000 feet, had an eagle that just didn't see us, and I had just enough time to go "oh shyte", and in the end we missed by a bee's whisker, and the second ocassion over Lake Albacutya (which is a dry lake) had an eagle, dive towards us. I'm pretty certain he was trying to attack, and when I checked my position, I was fairly close to an eagle's nest. Fair chance it was being territorial. I have heard of two other first hand accounts of eagles attacking aircraft, one of them tried to get inside a doors-off chopper. The only thing that stopped the eagle getting in, was it's wing span.

I've been using OziExplorer for about 4 years and love it...especially the export to Google Earth component, great to be able to take your track(s) and load them in Google Earth. Matt, how do you export to Google Earth?

Hi Greg, As you've already said it would pay to check on fuel. You will not be welcome at Moomba except in an emergency. Not sure if you're planning on using mogas or avgas, but I'm pretty sure Maree, Innaminka and Tibooburra only sell avgas by the drum (great if you can use 200 litres). I believe Arkaroola in the Flinders Ranges sell avgas from the bowser. Not to many places sell mogas (premium unleaded), but if you can run on ordinary unleaded, then Cameron Corner and Mungerannie Roadhouse would be good options. At Mungerannie, you will have to land on his driveway as the perfectly good airstrip is closed because of local politics. A tour operator had a heap of avgas delivered there sometime ago, intending to do a heap of flights over Lake Eyre, and business was very slow, so they may still have some avgas available. All of the smaller places do not keep stocks of avgas and it has to be ordered at least 2 weeks in advance. It may pay to pre-order your fuel in Birdsville as well, due to the number of aircraft there for that weekend. Have a great trip Ferris.

I'd suggest the 0.02% rule has been brought in because a pilot with a high blood alcohol reading would just have to argue that he hadn't had anything to drink for 8 hours and CASA would not be able to do anything. This way they still keep the traditional 8 hour rule and have toughened up on the amount of alcohol in the system. The reason for 0.02% and not double 00 is that most juristictions legislate for a 0.02% variation in their breathalyzers and in certain very very rare cases, there may be naturally ocurring alcohol in a person's system.

I was in the market for a PLB, and as there is a fair price difference between the GPS & non GPS versions I rang the rescue coordination centre in Canberra for their opinion of the two beacons. Their advice was that the GPS version will provide a far greater degree of safety when you need it most. The beacons send a signal to a group of satelites which pass over a particular spot every 90 minutes. If you set your beacon off just after a satelite has passed, then you will have to wait another 90 minutes before your beacon is 'seen.' The non-GPS beacons will often need a second pass of the satelite to properly identify and locate you, and even then, they only guarantee accuracy to within a 5 km radius - still a significant search area. The GPS version can be identified on the first pass of the satelite, and located to within 120 metres. The rescue centre stated that with a GPS, the beacon can often be located within 5 minutes of activation. To my way of thinking, the extra $140 for the GPS version is a lot of money if I never need to use the thing (God willing), however it will be cheap insurance if things go pear shaped. A search of the internet will produce a national yacht chandler who does on-line sales, cheaper than any of the aviation suppliers, although I am sure that when Ian's supplies arrive, his price will be very competitive. Cheers Shayne

The big bad wolf said to the three little pigs, "I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house down. Three little pigs to the big bad wolf, "P#$% off or I'll sneeze on you.' 100 years ago they said there'd be a black president in the White House when pigs flew. 100 days into Obama's Presidency... Swine Flu.

I've flown quite a few hours in both high and low wing aircraft. The handling characteristics come down to aircraft design in my opinion, and I have no particular preference for either, as each has it's merits and draw backs. I've heard a few of the old timers discussing this point around the aero club. The consensus seems to be that for general pottering around and sight-seeing, high wing is the way to go. If you want to go somewhere in a hurry then low wing is the answer. Low wings are better for people who suffer from motion sickness. The pendulum effect is apparently less pronounced with low wing aircraft.

What's the difference between an EPIRB and a PLB?

I forgot to mention the self testing devices, and those found in pubs. I'm sure the technology will have advanced in the last ten years, but my experience is that they give the owner a false sense of security. Many people have come unstuck relying on them.

Tomo, Unfortunately you have reproduced an urban myth that is not correct, or at least partially incorrect, although your post is well intentioned. While I have been out of that field for a while now, I spent some years full time alcohol testing people in a variety of circumstances. From my experience 2 heavy stubbies will take the average bloke to around 0.05%. Some go a bit higher, some a bit less. Women generally will go higher, particularly on carbonated drinks - champagne's a killer. Most healthy people can break down around 1 standard drink per hour, again, some a bit more, some a bit less. The maximum blood alcohol concentration will ocurr 45 minutes - 2 hours after consumption, and then gradually reduce over time. However the body is a strange being, the reduction is not even, and is best described as 'saw toothed.' I recall one subject who was being tested over many hours, have a 0.06% spike from 15 minutes previous, when put under stess, even though his BAC had been reducing for more than an hour. In some people a meal will delay the onset of the reading, but in others it doesn't, although food generally doesn't keep a reading much lower than somebody who hasn't eaten. Mood does appears to be a significant factor. I have also seen a subject reach a maximum of 0.065% after 27, 7 ounce glasses of Fosters Light, drunk in just one hour. We found in some people, that blood taken from one side of the body, produced a different reading than the other. One subject produced significantly lower results when blood was taken out of his foot, but his other foot produced normal results. Don't ask why, I can't explain it. There are many variables, and these are a couple of extremes. The point of my post, is that there is no correlation between how you feel, and what your BAC will be. Also that just because on one day, you registered a certain reading, the very next day, the same amount of alcohol can produce a very different reading. There is also the argument that the experienced drinker can handle his grog better, than a green person, and to a certain extent this is true. The experienced drinker is practised at masking the effects of the alcohol although reaction time tests for both types of drinker produce similar results, especially for the out of ordinary ocurrence. Subtle signs of intoxication appear quite early, and most people are significanly affected (to the trained eye) at about 0.130%. Some alcoholics can hold it together to around 0.250%, but I've never seen anybody above that level, able to mask their drunkeness. To my mind, the 8 hour rule is a good rule, for the ordinary bloke who has 1 or 2 wines with dinner. For the person who's had a good session, I wouldn't want to be flying with them for at least 24 hours. Cheers Ferris

Earlier this year I heard and saw an RAA registered Jabiru flying into YMEN, obviously using his PPL qualification. I've flown into MEN a few times with VH aircraft, both with a flight plan and without, and would like to fly a Tecnam there in the very near future (yes it has a C mode). So the logical question is, can I lodge a flight plan with ASA and use SARtime? A flight plan will make things a lot simpler, than trying to fly under the 'steps'. Cheers Ferris