Spin

Latest update on the round the world trip; the two pilots took off from Majuro, Marshall Islands around 8am AEST, expected flight time to Hawaii 22 hours! Fantastic adventure, but rather them than me I'm afraid - huge hops across the ocean, dodging unfriendly weather at 1,000' asl and dealing with perhaps understandably reluctant aviation bureacracy, isn't my idea of fun:no:. All going to plan, they are likely to land before they took off.......... This morning's update on facebook; "The guys have taken off with a massive 620l of fuel for Honolulu, Hawaii. Not too long into their flight from Marshall Island, they will cross the International Date Line, in effect "flying back in time" by losing a day. Updates will be posted as it becomes available"

Interestingly at #55, the same bloke goes on to say; Not forgetting loss of control due to foreign objects fouling cyclic, pedals or collective, which (rarely) has been the cause of aerial filming accidents and even more rare when the cameraman is in the backseat. Even in transit mode and at night, there are many reasons for laptops, PDAs and cameras to be operated and wielded around in this mobile office/TV studio. Another (remote) possibility is compromising the pilot's night vision by the accidental activation of a TV light. Such lights are used in cockpit to illuminate the reporter and modern versions are dimmable and can be very bright to balance the shadowed interior to the high light intensity of daylight. I'm hoping it is a bird strike. Mickjoebill

Spot on Friarpuk, the reported take off time concerned me from the outset and even though the prelim report says take off was about 19:00 local time rather than 19:30 originally reported, that is still about 40 minutes after the end of twilight and well before moonrise. Very experienced pilot and well equipped aircraft notwithstanding, any little distraction in the cockpit could have been enough, especially in a helicopter. Sad; I dug through my hard drive yesterday and watched a previous Lake Eyre doco by these guys - I wonder whether they had captured enough footage and if so whether it survived; a follow on doco would be a good memorial for them.

I going swim against the tide here, I vote we lose the lot. Rather award honorary titles or auction them off if you really must have something; I can think of several candidates for "G.O.B", not to mention "Aeronautical Motormouth" A post count is customary on forums, although hardly a reliable measure of quality. Likes - I guess they have their uses, but a bit social media for my taste and the trophy points are well....pointless (?) Title - follows the postcount for the most part and is equally pointless i.m.o. I found the previous info which included location and airfield(s) interesting and useful.

This gets better n better:crying:, latest forecast received from an unofficial but authorative source; South Brisbane Storms: Another signigicant rainfall event is beginning to get underway for a large part of QLD. The last rainfall system we saw earlier this week largely affected areas close to the coast, but this developing upper trough / surface trough situation should give the inland areas of QLD the best rain they've seen in quite a few months. Currently there is a lot of low cloud spreading throughout, but just some light drizzly showers near the coast. Throughout the day, this cloud should continue to thicken up in response to the approaching upper trough. By tonight, we should start to see more frequent showers beginning to develop north of Brisbane (especially between about Gladstone to the Sunshine Coast), and by tomorrow morning there should be more extensive areas of rain developing with some moderate to locally heavy falls anywhere south from about Townsville down to North Eastern NSW, and also extending west into the Maranoa/Warrego districts and Central Highlands and Coalfields between about Charleville to Emerald. Widespread rainfall totals between 50-100mm look possible for a large area of QLD at this stage. Once the initial upper trough responsible for the rain starts to shift off the coast early Sunday morning, we should still be left with some healthy instability, decent surface heating and very warm temperatres. This could result in extensive thunderstorms developing Sunday afternoon in a line from around Cairns south to SE QLD. Quite an impressive looking system if everything comes together as forecast, and also the first real "Spring" type setup for this year!

Bugger! I'm restricted to Sat only due to prior commitments and this doesn't look promising. I'll make the call in the morning. So what's next DB, you'll have to jump in early n see if you can snaffle WPI for her first Straddie breakfast, next month? For those flying in, link for local procedures on the day; http://www.qvag.com.au/procedure.asp

Geez I must talk to Ian about a squelch control on this forum - couple of posters transmitting carrier wave only around here. Copied from another forum, posted by the jumpmaster on that flight; anyone want to take him up on his offer? (he's 8 hours behind AEST so try not wake him:cheezy grin:) ".........see that the pilots didn't spin the aircraft on purpose - give me a call Sandman and I'll tell you what happened (074) 198 0891 Graham"

Glass half full Scott - I didn't much like the threat of another trough by Sat pm? Unless the monsoon returns, I'll be there Sat stick(s) and all. I know several forumites incl Dave Butler mentioned on another thread that they are planning to be there - for anyone that hasn't been, all I can say is it is one of my favourites and well worth a visit.

http://www.avcom.co.za/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=83041 Seems the video version was correct and the spin not intentional - Velocity on the forum above is aka Graham Field, the tandem jumpmaster identified near the beginning of the video. The aircraft is a turbine conversion of an ex SAAF Atlas Kudu, nee Lockheed / Aermacchi AL-60. They were sold off very cheaply about 20 years ago and most languished in hangars around the country, some bent, being expensive to keep fed n watered as well as being reputed to be a bit of a handful on the ground. They have recently come into their own with the turbine conversion and are popular jump aircraft - bridging the gap between a C206 and C208.

Always been in beautiful condition whenever I've been there, like landing on a shag pile carpet:big_grin:. I believe though it can get a little soggy after heavy rain - which we are having at the moment. As you say the Aero club would be a good call before going.

I like the sound of that!

Nice one Gundy, that's miles better than the other footage which has gotten a fair amount of coverage.

Certainly feels as though we're having a rash of accidents of late : This morning's news mentioned three more, thankfully not local but no less tragic for that; No. 4 aircraft from the current Red Arrows team broke off from a display at Bournemouth UK and crashed into an open area, the pilot apparently having ridden it down and guided it away from a nearby village and theme park. Not clear if he ejected too late or was thrown from wreck, but found on banks of river with fatal injuries; Chartered 737 crashed in Arctic area of Canada, killing all 15 on board; Aerobatic aircraft crashed during a display in Kansas US, pilot did not survive.

Another tragic loss - I'd particularly enjoyed previous ABC documentaries on Lake Eyre. RIP A niggle in the back of my mind following last night's newscast though - what time would last light have been in that part of the country?

Thanks Sue, missed the second link - certainly sounds plausible from your description of the countryside.

How the hell did we get from a tragic accident to some ratbag interfering with Dex's electric fence? Mods must have gone into hiding after copping a spray earlier in the piece. (Nope, not in hiding, just watching and noting that this thread has become self regulating, the desired result in any thread. The less we have to intervene the better for all concerned. Sprays aren't a problem, after all " a spray a day keeps the complacency away"........Mod) Back on topic, has anyone seen anything which could give us an indication of what went wrong? I haven't been able to find anything more than the basics and no photographs of the crash scene. Uncomfortable feeling, along the lines of "there, but for the grace of God go I" - I've spent many hours picking through the ads and figuring whether I should bite the bullet and buy an aircraft. Not being in the plutocrat class, it would of necessity be something pre-loved.

Yeah, but you're confusing the quoted situation where the only potential harm was to the property owner, with harm to a third party. Even there, other than the employee situation where Workcover need to be notified once a threshold of injury is reached, the police etc. seldomn show interest, it is up to the injured party to make a claim for compensation.

http://www.airforce.gov.au/roulettes/ Looks as though we may miss out - I reckon at least 3 Super Hornets and a few Blackhawks would be adequate compensation though.

Thanks for the update Sue, I'd just gone looking on abc news but they hadn't picked up on the latest yet. RIP fellow aviators.

Dammit no, not another one - here's hoping for a good outcome yet. My senses are a little raw after following the pain of good friends waiting for the outcome of a search for loved ones overseas. 13 in two aircraft killed, wives and sweethearts of some of the top local aerobatic pilots included - appears to have been scud running in formation, wrecks 20m apart about 100m below ridge height.

Not sure I follow exactly where you're going with that cfi, bit cryptic for this time of morning. Just for the record though, no I don't think that well meaning amateurs (read charity) should need to disguise themselves as a quasi airline. I'm afraid Monday morning quarterbacking, as our trans Pacific cousins say, is a pet hate and trying to overlay AOC's and the associated cr@p over the top of what has never pretended to be anything other than a charity to help rural patients, is the surest way of bringing the whole enterprise to a screeching halt. Safer, oh certainly, after all aircraft that stay on the ground don't crash, but not exactly helpful to a patient out bush. To put my comment in context, I was not referring to this specific incident, but the Angel flight concept as a whole, hence my use of "most... patients" in my original post. On the face of it the pilot here appears to have worked himself into a tight corner thanks to decisions made earlier in the day - and to have paid the ultimate price for it. Certainly a human factors lesson in there for all of us.

Honeymoon? Maybe go back n read #26 (in the previous thread), the choice for most of these people is no choice, they either rely on charity or they forgo treatment.

Now that's the life! Lovely photos that Frank put up there, really something to aspire to - aeroplanes and water are a potent mix in my book.

Congrats Mike - takes a while to get that grin under control huh? Look forward to hearing more of your flying adventures as you go along.

Considering what happened to the Romans, the old boy may have had a point! 'Bout time we had some clear and unsentimental thought applied to where this whole runaway train is headed - we cannot keep throwing money at unproductive societies in distant countries, only for them to breed themselves into famine again and again. Arrgh, sorry this is the humour section, I guess I've got too much time on my hands at the moment.