Relfy

We are members of Recreational Aviation Australia and I am proud of that organization. It's what I sought out when I wanted to learn to fly and it's what I went through doing lessons and anxiously awaiting every edition of the magazine. Let's promote the org name!

I'm hearing you Win! Had a second look after rubbing my eyes. WOW!

Every now and then someone comes along and does something that makes you sit up and go "wow". Good work lizzard, I went WOW!

Hi Andrew, You can contact the store on 08 8091 3872 Fax 08 8091 3567or email [email protected] Hope that helps. Regards, Sean

I'll be sure to keep an eye out for her. The take off clip actually shows my little jab in amongst the other vehicles. I was on my way back from getting a service in Charleville when I got the call about the prang. I flew over to talk to the ground crew and find out if i had to attend for the forensic crash examination when I saw the RFDS plane circling attempting to land on a road, which turned out to be unsuitable due clearance issues. The pilot spoke with me and asked me about that strip so I went and checked it out and after a few low passes to shoo a few wild pigs off it, I landed and guided the firies in to get rid of a few shrubs and gave the pilot a rundown of the strip and he landed successfully. The pilots love the mission based flying and the great diversity. Couple that with helping people in need and I think it's a fantastic job with some of the nicest pilots I've ever met. They all love talking shop and are very friendly. My LAME also does the maintenance on the PC12 and was telling me about the extensive inspections and wear on tear on the aircraft, which is substantial due to the type of work they are involved in. Any chance I get I donate to the RFDS!

Taken out here near cunnamulla over the past week and a bit. One from a bad head on and one from a helo crash. All single pilot ops out here.

Here are a couple of short clips of some medivacs over the past week. The RFDS really do a fantastic job in all manner of conditions.

top work Tomo, looking forward to going for a fly with you when i move to Dalby in a month or so! :thumb_up:

Very sad news. Our thoughts are with the families involved.

I saw the modified 170 that is standard now, at the factory the other day. It has an airfoil section for the fin which is bigger and also the 6 cylinder cowls stretching the nose out by about 40mm, which should help both cooling and performance, like it has with the J120. With it's carrying capacity and 135l of fuel, along with the improved cross wind handling performance, the 170 is a great touring machine and with the constant improvements to the engine (new cylinder nuts, heads etc) it can only get better.

Talking to someone at the factory the other day, it appears the 230 is getting the new fin they have tested and are now fitting to the 170. I actually looks quite good and is shaped at the top, giving it a more asthetically pleasing appearance rather than the square slab look.

I was heading west past Tara a few weeks back and made a transiting call at ten miles passing to the south of Tara strip when a RFDS plane called me requesting my exact position as he was taking off towards me. I gave a more precise gps position at around 3 nm at 6500ft and I could see him on the taxiway at Tara when he said to me, "yep I've got you on the tcas now, thanks for that". It was reassuring to know that I was in fact visible to him, but also reinforced the importance of transiting calls, even when you're out in the middle of nowhere.

I recall very early on in my training I was gripping the stick so tightly that i nearly popped the mic botton off the top. My instructor made me hold the stick with my thumb and index finger only, suddenly things smoothed out. I also began 'stirring the porridge' so to speak when i first got stuck into circuits and was told to adopt the two finger grip, which again 'smoothened' (love that word) out. I also recall after completing a few rough circuits, with landings all over the shop, my CFI showing me the importance of trim and being smooth. I think he touched the stick three times from downwind to flare, using only throttle and trim to set the a/c up so it rode down the glidescope pretty much by itself.

Spot on Nev. You have highlighted a very important point in that after a period of time, you may well be involved in searching for someone who is immobilised, deceased or just plain unable to raise your attention from the ground which makes looking for them all the more difficult. I have spoken with the crews of rescue helos and a major task they have to perform when searching, and this is the whole crew not just the pilot, is looking for 'outs', that little bit of terrain to put down in if they have engine/mechanical failure. This is ongoing and requires excellent communication skills between the crew & pilot. Even simple things like being transponder equipped are important to other units in the search area, because once you start throwing 2, 3 and 4 aircraft into a search area, it starts to become quite crowded and keeping track of everyones position is another task put back on the pilot. Comms has always presented a problem and quite often it falls back on the good old 40 channel UHF to coordinate air/ground/command post/ses/other volunteers, with a pilot also monitoring the area freq and other VHF freqs used. Now when you look at it, as PIC you are flying at minimas, monitoring numerous sources of comms, performing ongoing emergency risk assessments in flight, communicating with crew in a multi crew environment, maintaining separation, monitoring a/c systems and on top of all that, focussing attention also on the ground looking for small objects easily obscured in amongst the terrain. I'm not suggesting that there isn't a place for smaller aircraft in the search, just that there are a lot of considerations to be taken into account and the circumstances may allow them to assist.

Top work Rod, keep us posted of your adventures mate. I've never seen a savvy driver with a frown.

talking to Jamie at Jabiru last week, all indications were that the thread was pulling through the nuts. New nuts will help to fix this issue with greater contact area.

Thanks David, a great read and something I definately got something out of! :thumb_up:

Great topic but I can add a few things here, from personal experience. Search and rescue work is nearly always conducted in remote, rugged and unforgiving terrain and on nearly every occasion I have been involved with, the weather has been terrible. Search and rescue work is not easy. Searching by air is not just flying around looking for people on the ground. Even with a spotter on the ground it is physically very demanding and draining on both the pilot and spotters. Anyone who has searched intensively for someone in even moderately timbered areas will tell you that after about 15 mins your eyes start playing tricks on you and you need to be acutely aware of the spatial disorientation effects. One up in a trike or other smaller craft would be very demanding on the pilot, not even taking into account the terrain, conditions etc at the time. To effectively search by air, you have to be trained and be aware of the numerous issues effecting your body and mind when doing it. The risk management issue is the greatest factor though. It is normal to enquire very early on in the notification, for any available commercial pilots/aircraft to assist with a search. Money, contrary to general belief, is generally not the issue because funding is sourced through AUSSAR, locally and at a state level. Usually there are available a/c and pilots in most parts of Australia. This is now a requirement under Emergency Management planning to have these details on hand to be used in an emergency. Yes, an R22 may be cheaper to run, but in a densely vegetated valley, at low level when the burner stops I'd rather be in a twin engined Bell 412 which is why EM outfits go with twin engined machines. Commercial pilots are generally used due to their training standard being recognised and the a/c used being maintained to a known standard. Most search and rescue a/c will also be fitted with self activating emergency beacons and the necessary radios etc to be in contact with a forward command post and able to take instructions etc from ground controllers. Yes, there is a belief, that I don't agree with, that 'light' a/c fall out of the air 'all the time' and this will always play on the overall coordinator who will weight up having someone something missing, and then possibly a light a/c also involved in the search. Yes, you may be able to just jump into your trike and fly out to the search area and find whoever is missing, and don't get me wrong, you may be of use in a particular situation, but there are a lot of dangers to be aware of and in particular a number of human factors areas that especially effect people involved in searching for another human being. I believe that to take part in SAR activities, there would need to be some formal recognition/training in the following areas- - Search and Rescue Activities Awareness (covering search methods/radio use/grid patterns/briefings etc) - Low level flight endorsement - Maintenance release for a/c used - emergency beacon - Human factors attributable to SAR activities The human factors area is incredibly important. When it comes to helping another human in trouble, we instinctively jump in to assist and quite often disregard other safety considerations. HF is the difference between someone who has an aircraft which may be overdue for a service volunteering instead of declaring that their a/c is u/s. It's the drive that keeps a pilot up beyond daylight conditions when they aren't rated, puts them below LSA, into and behind hills susceptible to wake turb/rotor etc, making inappropriate turns to check something out, using an aircraft that is low on oil, disregarding instructions from coordinators. I know some of these sound silly but I've seen them all. The trouble is, to do it safely there would need to be a recognised 'standard' to ensure that emergency services could call on smaller a/c to assist, but is that just inhibiting the quick availability of an asset that may be available quickly?

I tested GPS MotionX last night on my iphone and it was really quite accurate, to within about 2-3m while I drove all around twn and onto some of the dirt tracks around town also. I was quite impressed. It also has a function to beam your position to facebook, or other users and is really easy to use. I will save a track tonight and post it. I can reccommend this one, at $1.18, money well spent me thinks. Here is a short track I recorded.

stop teasing me bass... glahhgh seamless wac....

Good work Vev, sounds like I'll stick to the Shell Oil. Does anyone here actually wait until 50hrs to change the oil? I change mine every 25 and even by then it looks pretty 'worn'. I'd hate to see it at 50hrs...

surely tomo, there'd be a spot up at the Bunyas to launch yourself into the yonder?

I've taken this from the Natfly News post because I feel it deserves it's own area of the forum. Bubbleboy said: [/url]↑ Shell has advised that the usual oil (sorry cant recall) should not be used anymore as due to the small amount of oil in the Jab engine, it becomes contaminated with lead very quickly when using Avgas. Scotty:coffee: Q to anyone that was there - I had to leave half way through: The 'usual' oil is Shell Huile Aviation 20w-50w. Did Keith mention an alternative? Chris Stott Come and visit us at Central West Flying School www.centralwestflying.com Does anyone have any further information as to what is now recommended in place of the Shell Oil? Regards, Relfy

Good work mate, glad you put it down safely.

That was gold AL. An emoti-plastered delight to the senses.