alf jessup

Well today marks 5 years since some of us lost a great friend. Ross Millard (Maj) left us on this day in an unfortunate aviation accident helping out a friend. I miss him terribly even though I only met him once in person in his home town of Townsville. Many times over the phone we spoke forming a friendship before he left us. Wherever you are Maj, smooth skies and tailwinds buddy.

Agree Yenn, I will wear any flak that family and friends of any pilot cowboy in icu throws my way. They might stare in awe at the magnificent flying feats of their hero right up until they bin it, while I will try to convince any pilot from killing or maiming themselves through foolhardy exploits in aviation. They have to be doing some serious stupid stuff before I will make contact with them about their activities. I always get a laugh when the defence team tries to defend somethings well and truly available on the persons social media page. I mean to tell people the dog flying in the plane with him on the 9news feed was photoshopped?? Yep so are the other 4 photos on his page then?? I mean really!!! Wouldn’t you think to delete incriminating stuff from social media first before shooting your mouth off? Anyways lot more to it than a photoshopped dog lol.

Yep same as banned basically, can’t comment so no difference to me.

Nev, I’m not a politician lol, Meet me one day I am what you will see lol Ok disregard Honest, Brash, mongrel, opinionated, arrogant, deceitful, low life, storyteller, top gun, can’t happen to me? Oh well maybe a couple of those, well maybe 1. Better?

Thing is Thruster if I have a shot at some it is only because I care about their welfare, not about me being a bully or thinking I am better than them. Sh!t I had a crack in person at a trike instructor at one of the flyin’s I once organised, he took off with a pax climbing at a ridiculous angle with all around me going wow look at that, me I’m standing there shaking my head saying don’t do it. He couldn’t wait to get home to call me and ask me what I thought of his takeoff, I bluntly told him in no uncertain terms he was a $@(/ idiot and never to do that again at something I have organised. Mind you this mate is also a copper but did I care? Nope. Also made mention to him he was an instructor and had to lead by example and not let wide eyed new pilots look in awe and think they can do it. Told him bluntly to pull his head in. Spoke to another Trike instructor also once after the student he was flying beside caught a wire and ended up in a storage dam and survived (only by chance that a power boat came to the newly not overly long licensed pilot before he drowned) Told him he should be leading by example also but his words were “once they are licensed I have not control over what they do” My response was lead by example and don’t fly beside you student at low level. Fell on deaf ears as the instructor took himself out and a paying overseas visitor in a Gyro accident a few years later flying low over the hills near where he was based. I am not scared of saying anything to anyone if I think they are putting them and there passengers in harms way by being a dick. i I hope if I do something stupid people will chip me for it, I’ll take it on the chin and think good on him/her for looking out for me. But some are above help because they are guns, well they think they are. Alf

PS, but I am a nice honest person though lol

The bloke is quite a pleasant and nice fellow to be honest, if he hasn’t learnt now well what can one say, I don’t think it is him defending himself I know his brother is to the hilt. Yes I have been banned from the PLA Facebook page as friends obviously administrators don’t like hearing the truth about Tex the flying cowboy. Their loss not mine I tried to guide him out of his risk taking flying. If I get banned from here so be it, I say it as it is and don’t sugarcoat sh!t. Like me or loathe me I won’t lose any sleep over it.

Nev no offence taken I saw the humour in it. I’m not a perfect pilot in any case as are any of us. I try to be as professional as I can for an RAA hack. I fly as disciplined as I can and have a healthy respect for it. I know I can become a statistic in the activity I love, I may well one day go down and you all will be having an opinion, But it means I didn’t have the right stuff at the time and cocked it up somewhere somehow.

Ok Nev got me, Maybe the photoshopped dog was to blame for hitting the wire? Seems to be as his brother is making every excuse to defend him. I was told I didn’t know what I was talking about on PLA on Facehead by him before the post was shutdown. Apparently he had a problem in the air and hit the wire on the way down, funnily enough I do lots of ground work on google earth and there were many places like roads and open paddocks to go too rather than a paddock full of vines. I’m not a rocket scientist and I’m not stupid either, I know his history and I knew this day would come.

No not at all, he skipped that lesson to learn how to photoshop his unrestrained dog in all his photos on Facebook with him flying in the plane.

Looks to be on the mend going by this from Facebooks PLA (Pilots Lounge Australia), May be a long road though.

One was a Sabre and the other a toothed Tiger. Sometimes you just sit and wonder and shake you’re head.

Have been waiting for this day to come, I and others chipped him on his flying antics only to be told we don’t know what we are taking about, tried to tell him his continual risk taking will catch up to him and yesterday it did. He was even reported to the RAA a couple of years ago about his flying but I don’t think they did anything about it. All will say is I am glad he is alive and he didn’t have a passenger, and for the life of me don’t ask me how he is after seeing the wreckage. Hate to say it but who was right mr pilot?, tried telling you, maybe if you ever fly again you might just realise you are not a good as you thought you were and it was only a matter of time. Hope you recover fully and give the flying game away or drastically change your behaviour. Harsh some of you may think, but he was warned by many including me which fell on deaf ears. Let us all learn once again from another accident that should not have happened. Alf

Planes don’t crash humans crash them, humans design, them build them, fly them, work on them and ultimately crash them.

I have run 95 BP Mogas in my Tecnam Sierra for the best part of 750 hours with not one issue, I regularly check it for ethanol and have never found it. Only time my plane used avgas was on a trip last year from my home in Sale, Victoria to Ayers Rock & return as unleaded was harder to source, will give it a shandy of avgas these days only if I need a top up at an out of town airport. Other than that she is strictly on a Pulp diet.

Very sad to lose a fellow aviator. Condolences to his family and friends. Wonder if we will ever find out from the RAA investigation.

Jetr, I would hazard a guess for the radiator from Rotax anywhere between $1500 and 2 grand. And yes many broken down Commodores sitting around for the Jab bits.

Your right Bruce, never seen one grounded by a coolant leak. but let’s see, dropped valves, broken through bolts, hmm, flywheel bolts and a myriad of other minor things.

Yes looking at the last radar track on it, it was doing 165kts at 3200 ft, pretty sad when some of the terrain is 4,000 ft. You would at least think to slow down a little if you were starting to get boxed in.

Looking at the track from point of departure to Taree, looks like he was straight lining it, very sad day for the relatives of the father & son lost in this accident. Condolences to all that knew them.

Don’t think they had time is my guess, the footage inside the plane shows how quick it went from climbing to descending after the power loss, gear up comes pretty quick after positive ROC. Kudos to the aircrew, worst time to lose power is on takeoff for any aircraft, no height or time.

Might be part of the perimeter fence the jet went through as it overrun the strip.

At the end of the day it doesn’t really matter that it was an Angel Flight, the VFR pilot took off in conditions close to IMC and ended up IMC killing himself and 2 innocents that trusted him.

You would almost put money on it Nev im guessing the hopper is the ferry tank. Lucky Boy is all I can say as a couple of hours in it would be in the drink in a very unforgiving Tasman sea.

How lucky is this ferry pilot. Departing YLTV for NZ on a ferry flight and had an engine failure just after departing LTV. Survived the forced landing which probably may not have if he was over water in the Tasman. https://news.cfa.vic.gov.au/-/plane-crash-lands-in-traralgon-paddock