Nightmare

Yep, You are right Geoff, I may have made that call on 126.7 a bit closer to Tangalooma, I also remember making a position call over Woorim on the Area. It was a busy day. But I wasn't expecting to be seeing an aircraft flying the wrong way along the VFR route. I thought I did everything reasonable to make myself be heard and seen and be in the best position for a safe flight, that is, I was right on the route, going the right way.

I am not kidding, he/she passed right underneath us about midway between Woorim and Tangalooma, a blue low wing, with nose wheel undercarriage, similar to a Sportstar or Sling, heading for Woorim. Not sure whether it was RAA or GA, as you can understand it all happened rather quickly. I was sitting on 3400ft as the C class starts at 3500ft, so he/she was doing some pretty dangerous stuff by heading that way. I may be wrong, and I know that under 5000ft he/she didn't have to, but I don't even think he was keeping to a hemispheric level, that is, I think he/she was a bit higher than 2500ft. I remember that I had just made my 10nm call to Tangalooma traffic when it happened and I was monitoring that frequency. There was a bit of traffic in the area that I could hear, but not him/her.There's always one in every industry, isn't there?

There were some there, but the greater numbers we saw was near Point Lookout near the tip of North Straddie.

We saw quite a few whales too

Hey, such awesome conditions today, I just had to get into the air as well. I was another one of the flyers over Morton and Stradbroke Islands with my sister as PAX. One of the best days flying I've ever had. Not many pics here, my sister was the designated photographer. 3.6 hours flying time for today. Had an interesting moment today when a pilot decided to fly the wrong way along the VFR route. Lucky he was at least 500ft below us.

Hi and welcome Trev All the best in your great adventure!

Hi Mark and welcome I have to admit, I was tempted with a Streak Shadow that was for sale within the last year. The Jab 2200 is a great engine when it's operated correctly. I see you are local so I can recommend a couple of flight schools in your area. I highly recommend Coominya Flight Training, both very affordable and John is one of the most knowledgeable fight instructors around. Flying the Lightwings will well prepare you for the Streak Shadow. I completed my RPC with Coominya Flight Training and attained my PAX and XC endorsements through them. I have to admit I am biased towards them. CFT also offers flight training in your own aircraft if it is a dual control 2 seater. Not sure about the 19 registered, but something to talk to them about. If you can, it will save you heaps of money, $70/hr vs $199/hr, I think. There is also a flight school, Aerosport at Boonah, flying Tecnams. I put in a couple of hours there flying the Tecnam P2008, I was looking at hiring, but decided to go down the road of aircraft ownership instead. They are not as easy on the wallet as CFT, but they are still within the average price for flight training. PM me if you need any more info, happy to help All the best and keep us up to date how you progress

Also for the record, I never touched drugs either, nor am I a big drinker, and have never smoked. The docs really don't know what causes them. They told me that maybe I was born with it.

Hey Alf, it is nice to hear about a fellow Brain Aneurysm survivor. I actually suffered one of them about 10 years ago. Thanks to the fantastic medical professionals and technology, I suffered no ill effects of that very deadly condition. Before the event, I hadn't even heard of the condition. I was lucky enough to have symptoms, and a switched on doctor put me on the right path to find and fix it. Lucky they picked it up before it burst, and I under went a procedure new to Australia. After I recovered I started hearing about a lot of people who were just dropping dead of them. Your daughter and myself are very lucky to still be here.

Darren Chester MP: Aviators against ASIC Here is a link to a petition to attempt to change the ASIC system.

RIP and condolences to the friends families of the victim. Such very sad news.

Totally agree. But the state government has little or nothing to do with this issue. The federal government is the one over-seeing the ASIC card system and Australian aviation. The only other government body that would have anything to do with aviation, would be local councils, maintaining local airports in their districts, dealing with zoning and building issues etc. But they have nothing to do with this.

I just joined it. There's over 150 members so far.....

Flying at The Oaks - DavesFlyingSchool.com

Just look out for the dead wombat, I'm guessing? But seriously, good work!

My point exactly!

There is! Here is the site: Petitions – Parliament of AustraliaIf someone more knowledgeable than me can draft one up, I'm sure we can have a few supporting it...

But there are lots, and I mean lots, of security controlled airports not in C or D class. That is an issue that annoys me, is there any need for it? Take a casual look at ERSA and it will not take long for you to find one. Examples of such airports include Emerald, Moree, Hervey Bay. No C or D, but security controlled so requiring ASIC card. Do you need an ASIC card to transit through CTA? I thought a Controlled Airspace endorsement only would allow you to do this? I don't have one, so I am speculating. My understanding is a ASIC is only required on the ground at security controlled airports, nothing more, as I said in a previous post.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the ASIC card only required if you want to be air side at a security controlled airport? I didn't think it had anything to do with CTA, or anything else operationally in the air.

Why stop at Barnaby? That's the beauty of copy & paste, email them all. Maybe one of them could get a little concerned with thousands of emails flooding in that may inspire him/her to do something...

If I remember correctly, it took the minister about 2 weeks to respond to me. I addressed it to the federal transport minister.I was quite disgusted with the reply, so I deleted this correspondence unfortunately, but the general theme of my email was the unwarranted and excessive expense when compared with similar systems, like the Blue and White cards, and the very weak and dubious reasons for the need for them.

I would encourage everyone to email the Federal Minister about the ASIC Card situation and demand that the system be scrapped, for all the reasons above. If enough pilots do it, maybe change will happen.... maybe.... I emailed him a few months ago and the impression I got with the response was that not many other people are expressing their concerns to them so they don't care.

I hear you, and agree! That's why I said the words, "probably" and "could"....

Nice one, it was probably the last opportunity for a fly for a while in our region. BOM is saying they think the weather could be around till the end of the week.

Thanks, for the record, that medical condition is no more, we have fantastic medical technology and expertise in our midst. I hope you find a way back into the air, and live the dream. All the best.