Spin

Dunno Andy, still seems like a reasonable question to me, after all if he were well within the boundary at 9.30am, there is a very good chance that he wasn't clear by 9.35am......or was cutting it unnecessarily fine. Correctly equipped, who knows.

Did anyone go to Watts Bridge? I was very torn between supporting my "local" and going to one of my favourite airfields for a fly in.

Certainly does appear as if there was some incapacitation pre impact (from the photos), although a few witnesses have said that it appeared as if the plane were still pulling fairly significant positive G right up until the end - possibly in an attempt to avoid a direct hit on the spectator area. Re the measures that could be taken to minimise risk, I'm not sure that an analysis of likely trajectory would be of much use where aircraft are involved - perhaps if the thing suffered catastrophic structural failure on a turn, but here where it deviated significantly from its previous path, it would be pure guesswork. More generally on the risk issue; I earn a crust in the field, but having grown up and begun my working life under a more robust approach to incurring personal risk, ask myself whether the pendulum hasn't swung too far in favour of protecting the species?

sfGnome said; "One conundrum though. Do I give my beloved a full ditching rundown as we approach the water and have her never go near an aircraft again, or do I go softly softly" Old actor once said to me, "you gotta know your audience". I'm with you on the softly, softly approach, fact is there is only so much a pax is going to take in and keeping their confidence up is important too.

Last of them from me; Molto sexy! Subaru powered RV-8

A few more; Not sure what this is, similar to a Karyone - noticed a "Swift" tag on it. Anyone? More smiles.

A very pleasant morning out I thought, didn't count the aircraft too carefully, but got to somewhere in the low 40's - from the stunning, newly restored SF-260 to a pair of Winton Sportsman, with a gaggle of Cessna's, Savannah's, Jabiru's and RV's in between. Met up with forumites, David's Butler and Mason as well as a number of Boonah folk, not to mention the locals. A big thanks to aircraft owners who went out of their way to show off their pride and joy, to the extent of hoisting my youngster into the cockpit on several occasions, patiently explaining the controls and instruments. Although my son is fairly familiar with aircraft, he thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the different cockpit layouts. I can only imagine what some of those less familiar with the whole scene would have made of it. Big :thumb_up:, that is how we get people interested and pass on the baton. I spent more time talking than behind the lens, but here are a few pics of some of those present. Club President Jason explaining the cockpit of his beautiful 6cyl Jab powered Sonex. Casually mentioned that it is for sale which had my son devising all manner of schemes to be able to afford it!

Congrats, hope this is the start of better things to come. Carl

Watched ACA last night, I'd say old mate had used up a fair portion of his luck in surviving that! The underwater footage once again illustrated just how badly the aircraft was damaged, certainly backs up the story of it diving and crashing into the water, rather than a controlled ditching. Much as some people might say threads like this are ghoulish - the discussion prompted me to do a whole lot more reading (and thinking) about what I would do in a similar situation and although i probably haven't changed my basic approach (something like Jeff Gordon outlined above), I would certainly be better prepared now. Fly the plane until the last piece stops moving........

Sure thing, DB, going to be nice not to have too far to go for once:clap:, I'm guessing some people will drop in on the way back from Dunwich too - better remember to charge the camera.

....and Bazza accidently cuts a control wire and rejoins it with a twist and a bit of duct tape......

Hey David, do the folk at Southport know you're coming down in "one of those ultralight thingies?" May see you at Jacobs Well later on then.

It seems in this case the photog got it right, eye witnesses to these things are however notoriously unreliable because they tend to interpret what they have seen or half see. Here is a link to accident investigation report - I see they reckon the surface was dry n firm, undulations caused the nose gear to flex and the fork to dig in. Probably the source of much of what you hear about Van's supposedly delicate nose gear? http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources.cfm?file=/Vans%20RV-7A,%20G-CDRM%2010-07.pdf

I did a little more digging around, photo 1 was taken by John Miller and features ZU-RRV. Photo 2 was taken in the UK in 2007 and apparently shows an RV-7A, G-CDRM turning over. I found a photo of the aftermath, according to the caption the aircraft was rolling out after touch down when the nose wheel dug into a soft spot on the runway, the leg failed and over she went.

I think no.1 was taken in South Africa, bloke in RHS is John Miller, the photographer who caught the extremely low B707 pass in Harare that has featured here before. Photo taken from a doorless C182 for one of the aviation mags, I think it did quite well on A.net as well. The same team have a similar photo of the first RV12 completed over there as well, may have a copy somewhere in my photofiles. No.2 is quite a well known action shot; nose dragging RV suffered nose leg failure at a fly in, somewhere in the UK from memory. I saw somewhere that the aircraft had been repaired and was flying again.

Slight zig zag away from Scotty's very pretty mistress - anyone else notice the current advert on Aviation Advertiser for what sounds like a pretty complete bird, but for engine. $37K or thereabouts from memory? If all is as appears, not a bad deal I would have thought. Damn, really must stop looking at aircraft that don't fit into my current plans - I'd easily end up with a fleet of the things if I could afford it.

After a bit of a drought, suddenly we are spoilt for choice of fly in events in SEQ. In addition to the Jacobs Well Open Day, mentioned elsewhere, there is this one, styled as a "Gathering of Eagles"

V1 North refers to the northern part of the route, not the direction of travel. South Head being the dividing line between the two sectors.

Wodin, - funny old infection that flying bug, it never completely leaves you. Where are you based and what are you looking to fly?

Welcome aboard courtenay, I don't know the answer to your question, but I imagine someone here could point you in the right direction, even if it isn't something that has been done before. I am not very familiar with the Minimax, is the fuselage welded tubing? I have vague recollections of a ply skin, perhaps that is around the cockpit?

I'd be up for it again, got two, one in the office and one in the study at home - both have attracted a reasonable amount of interest, even from non-aviation people.

That's brilliant Pud, congrats - look forward to seeing the videos. Rgds Carl

http://www.stradair.com/ Here you go Ryan, tel numbers etc on the link. Barrie Sigley lives onsite and is very helpful, call and get the up to date gen, plus find out what their current requirements are. Enjoy, it's a great place.

Now you're talking!

I don't know all the ins n outs of the dispute, haven't been there for quite a while since my stint in hospital, but understand second hand that the club and landowner are still arguing, however the club have found that they are in a much better legal position than they ever imagined. Owner tried to stop them flying but that effectively backfired and I imagine the open day is part of them asserting their rights to operate as an airfield. For that reason alone the open day is worth supporting I reckon, airfields are just too precious to be allowed to die without a fight. (Personal opinion) - I suspect that long term the whole mess may actually be good for the future of flying in the area, the club will either win a good compromise settlement and gain security of tenure or they will move to one of several other sites in the immediate area, with a bundle of compensation in their pockets. For most of their existence they have had to tip toe around the owner's ideas of what should be done there, having to restrict access, numbers of members, hangar numbers, types of aircraft etc. This has stifled development and led to a not undeserved reputation for being a closed shop and not particularly welcoming. Tex re the LP endorsement, I did one training flight on a Drifter before it was removed from the school and loved it. That is probably about the mark I would aim for, I know there is a lot of nostalgic attachment to the older types eg Scout etc but I did a lot of (unofficial and elsewhere) flying in trikes at one stage and clearly remember that the trike outperformed the single surface minimum aircraft by a fair margin and more importantly didn't have to run for cover at the first breath of wind, meaning that we could go elsewhere for breakfast and not worry too much. 2 strokes don't hold any terrors for me, esp the more recent 503's and 582's. For the moment, access to a GA 4 seater for flyins, weekends away etc, coupled with my own Drifter or similar for the "pure hell of it" flying, would probably cover all the bases.