lazerin

Hey Bla82, I was wondering if you had a Class 1 or 2 medical? I'm looking to learn RAA at Parafield (which is normally a GA area), and one of their requirements is that pilot's all need a Class 2 medical. Could you explain what was involved in the medical and how much it all ended up costing?

lol I can't tell if that was serious or not :D Anyway: Podcast - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Yea, there are quite a few US ones that are good to listen to. The Pilotcast is one of my favs.

Low wings have that fighter jet feel.........the sweat flowing down your face as you're pulling the aircraft round in a turn...you feel the pressure....of the damn summer sun baking your head.

Nocturnal is what I do best! Haha, truth be told, I should be studying like mad now, I'm in swotvac at the moment, but procrastination makes up 80% of my day. Furthermore, there are now two Steven's on this thread! I got a little confused for a sec there . Thanks for the offer, I'll keep you in mind if I'm ever in your neck of the woods, mate. ;)

Nice ride ahlocks! She does look sweet. I much prefer the red/white colour scheme to the blue/red/white. From someone who hasn't formally learnt to fly yet, the cockpit just doesn't look right without an attitude indicator! Is it just in my head?? Haha. To get the photos bigger, you have to have the url of the photo you want to display. The photo I used above is from my flickr account. So you have to use the following code: [img=insert url of image here] Steven, I'm at Myrtle Bank (near Fullarton), and it would be at least double that time for me to drive I reckon.

Hehe, you guys must have jazzed up sporties down at Aldinga. Here's a panel shot of the one at parafield: I'm still tossing up between Aldinga and Parafield....I'll try and head down to Aldinga and have a chat to them and see how it is compares to Parafield. I do like the fact that Aldinga has more aircraft available (vs. 1 at parafield) and that they're newer and "nicer". Sigh. //back on topic

I'll be starting my training in a sportstar soon, though it'll be the original no frills one. Doesn't even have an attitude indicator (not that it's needed, I know) It's nice to hear good reports about it though. Doesn't seem like there are too many sportstar pilots on these forums. The Jab is definitely more popular here it would seem.

Thanks guys. Mike, I found your review and it was very helpful. :big_grin:

Fake. 1) He didn't have the camera running and focussed on the aircraft until it was a few hundred metres from him. If there's suppose to be an airport behind those buildings, then the aircraft wouldnt have made a turn around. Thus, if he knew there's no airport behind him and a jet was roaring at you and a bunch of buildings, you'd A) move, or B) have the camera running way before then. 2) Time taken to make a 180* turn after flying over the buildings is way too short. They would have had to pull a remarkably steep turn. 3) Why is the tail unmarked. (and why isn't this incident more well known) 4) Prior to touch down, there is no jet wash/spray visible in the water with the aircraft in a pitch up attitude, yet engine noise is still loud on camera. 5) The zoom on this camcorder is remarkably fast... 6) ....and there's a convenient total white transition from wide angle to close up of the rear exit door.... 7) ....and the amount of camera shake for that level of zoom is unrealistic (it would be a lot more jittery if the camera didn't have image stabilisation techonology, and if it did, it would have a more mechanical look to the correction). 8) Who opened the rear exit door....as far as I know, someone has to operate the door and they would be standing behind the door when it so miracolously "popped" open. Finally, the aircraft just doesn't look right. Looks too smooth and there's a quality discrepency between it and the footage surroundings/background.

Nice work, Cloudsuck! Would you be able to share how you attach/mount the camera in the cockpit?

Hey all, it's been a while since the Rec 250 Headsets were available. Just wondering whether anyone had updates on how they've found the headsets? I'm quite interested in them and would like to hear what the long term feedback is on these. Cheers!

BEECHCRAFT B58 for me too!

Haha, I believe it used to be tradition for the instructor to cut the back of the student's shirt upon their solo. From wiki: "In aviation lore, the traditional removal of a new pilot's shirt tail is a sign of the instructor's new confidence in his student. In the days of tandem trainers, the instructor would tug at the students shirt tail whenever he was getting himself into trouble. After the first solo, the new pilot is competent in the air does not need such a safety device." I'm not sure how often this tradition is carried out these days :D

Well done rage!! :thumb_up: Did you get your shirt tail cut?

Thank you all for your info and opinions! Sorry, Steven, didn't mean to derail your thread :S Just when I thought I had decided on parafield...this has now given me a whole lot to think about. Traffic wise, I don't think it would be that bad going to parafield in the early morning. I haven't driven down to Aldinga in recent times, so perhaps I should try it and compare. Andy, your statement about the extra cost has got me curious. My understanding was that the only extra cost incurred by learning RA-Aus at parafield is the Class II medical cert required. Please fill me in if this is incorrect. If I do train at parafield in the Sportstar, are there any limitations to hiring and flying a sportstar at Aldinga in the future? Furthermore, what about hiring a different aircraft? e.g. Jabiru. I assume there would be some sort of training and checkride required to be certified for another aircraft of the same class?

Congrats on getting started, Steven. May I ask what made you decide to learn at Aldinga? I'm deciding between Parafield (Forsyth Aviation) and Aldinga. At the moment, Parafield is winning due to distance. I live just south of the city and I don't know if I can drive to Aldinga every second day.

Hey Ginger, thanks for the info. I'm pretty healthy really, I don't expect to encounter any problems with my medical (fingers crossed). I do have slight myopia though but my vision is fine with corrective contact lenses or glasses. I'll check out those documents anyway though.

Bass, you're a champ; to the rescue again! Oh, I didn't realise I could start learning without having those forms done. I was under the impression that I needed the RA-Aus membership and student licence to actually learn. That's ok, I've sent them in anyway. No harm getting it done now I guess. I don't think CPL is in my plans any time soon, I'll be stoked to have an ra-aus and cost is a deciding factor as well. Are you planning to work all up to your CPL and beyond? Good the hear it's back!! Haha, I hope it wasn't you who dinged it up in the first place :P I'm happy to leave the weekend sessions to you haha. I think I'll plan on doing 3 sessions a week, e.g. mon, wed, fri and have the weekend off. Hopefully that works out ok, and yes, I'm sure we'll bump into each other soon!

Thanks, sain. Sorry, I forgot to mention that I'm planning to learn at Parafield airport, which is a GA airport with controlled airspace. The flight school that I spoke to there (the only one there that does RAAus), said CASA requires a standard medical to fly raaus at parafield. I assume this is a class 2? Haha, funny you should mention early morning, the flight school said the same thing.

Hey all, I'm planning to start learning to fly in December and figured it's getting close enough to begin organising my paperwork. I rang up the flight school and they told me about the forms, medical and such that I need to fill out. It sounded easy enough at the time but as I go through the RA-Aus website and CASA, I'm getting a bit confused as to exactly which forms and what needs to be filled and sent away. I'd really appreciate it if you guys could double check for me that I have everything I need so that once all these forms are completed, I can just walk into the flight school and start getting lessons. Here's what I have so far: From RA-Aus, I have the the Application for membership and Student Pilot Certificate. From CASA, I have Form 1162 - Aviation Reference Number (ARN) Application. Are these the only two forms that I need? For the medical, my understanding is that I need the ARN? So I will have to wait for CASA to issue me an ARN prior to being able to go for a medical? When I do go, do I need to bring any other forms with me to the medical examiner? Am I missing anything else? Thanks all!

Hey guys, is there any way to check avgas prices online? Or any way to track the general trend?

I've got this book, bought it from Amazon a while ago. I highly recommend it. It takes you through much like how you'd get trained, i.e. you start off with the "Sports Pilot" section (equivalent to RA-Aus), then PPL, all the way up to commercial etc. They point out differences between the flight sim and the real world and illustrate what the sim does well and how you can use it to help enhance your real world flying. The authors' use a nice tone in delivering the information across to the reader; they're not condescending nor over the top. As you progress through, they include little vignettes/stories from their real life experience as instructors, how situations arise, analysis of errors and fun little tales. I feel like going through this book has actually given me a head start when I do get around to training at the end of this year. Hopefully it will take my mind off the more complex underlying issues and theories and let me work on the practical skills of "handling" the aircraft.

I just wanted to say that Beijing 2008 was spectacular! I enjoyed every minute of it, no thanks to Ch7 though (their terrible ad breaks and other issues....). What a magnificent display of organisation and technological prowess. Brilliant. Hope you all enjoyed the games of the twenty ninth Olympiad! Citius, Altius, Fortius

No, still haven't started, can't wait for December to roll around . Ouch, that doesn't good for the little sportstar! Haha, I can imagine the C172 is a bit docile compared to the sportstar. It's a shame that Forsyth only have one recreational aircraft. Do you know if they plan on getting any others? Do they have many sportstar students at the moment?