alf jessup

One if those killed in the gyro was a personal friend and aviation colleague. RIP my friend, you will be missed.

Take care Alf

And another one today with another 2 deceased. Very sad day. RIP...Two men have died after another light aircraft crash in NSW on Wednesday.

Emergency services were called to a property on the Silver City Highway, about 50 kilometres north of Wentworth, near the Murray River, after reports of a light aircraft crash about 3.30pm.

 

SMH Article

Another 2 gone today along with the gyro guys, very sad day for all families and friends of our lost brothers.

Never good to hear anyone leaving us following a passion the obviously love doing

Condolences to all families and friends

On the insurance, yes it is a cost but writing it off is a greater cost if uninsured, yes I will be coming up to my 6th year of 2k insurance but I’ll get back 100k of that if I unfortunately bingle it, so even 30 years at 2 k a pop is 60k if I happen to bin it I will still be 40k infront

Insurance in my opinion is a necessity in something worth 100k plus

Ain't that the truth. Mind you, I always cringe when the insurance invoice arrives, but everything else is lots of smallish costs over the year, and definitely worth it for what I personally get out of it. Take yesterday for example, I flew from Somersby to Caloundra, a short local flight on arrival to scatter a mates ashes after his 'final flight', had lunch with his wife at the surf club then flew back to Somersby. All in less than 11 hours., with around 7.5 hours in the air. Short of hiring a PC-12 from Bankstown, it'd be damn hard to find a better, faster way to do it.Personally, I don't consider the engine replacement costs or anything else other than fuel as a direct/regular operating expense. I might buy a carton of oil every 18 months or so, and some plugs when I'm getting close to the 100-hourly but that's it, really. Tyres will be bought when needed, though I always carry a spare tube in the hangar. My engine is (was) brand-new, and everything else I simply replace when the time comes, but to do a 'proper' comparison, they do need to be included in the total operating cost.

Yep I think the same way, I recently a few months back completed a 9 day trip from West Sale to Uluru and back and marveled at my plane sitting at Uluru after transporting us from home in 14.7 hrs (strong headwinds most of the way), the return trip took us 11.4 hours with an additional 150nm tacked on to it.

Total fuel used was 508 litres and cost me $1216 bucks for the best part of 2500nm.

I often sit and look at the plane after I arrive somewhere and marvel how this thing of steel, aluminium, nuts bolts and rivets has just transported me to these wonderful places in such a short time.

Similar to that, for my RV-9:$57 per hour for fuel at current prices ($2.30) if I run Avgas exclusively, $45 ($1.80) if I run Mogas.

 

$15 per hour for engine replacement

 

$4 per hour for oils & filters

 

$1 per hour for tyres & ancillaries

 

$2000 a year for insurance

 

$3600 a year for hangarage

 

$260 a year for RAA membership

 

$165 a year for Registration

 

$144 a year for a ASIC card

 

$250 to $300 for my 100 hourly’s (oil & filters included above & not much else to change. 8 x automotive plugs are inexpensive)

 

Summing that up, you get $6500/year in fixed costs and $75-ish in opreating costs. I probably fly 70 hours a year at present, so roughly $170 / flying hour total. Still much cheaper than hiring a school plane, but if you did that, you aren't out the $120K to build an RV, nor can you control the fit out and finish.

At the end of the day I don’t worry about the cost, I fly because I love doing it, being what you would call a not drinker persay couple of beers a month if I am lucky and not a gambler other than lotto I could waste that sort of money doing those things and get nowhere near the enjoyment I do out of flying.

Alf

Weren’t most trained to do precautionary S&L in to the wind at about 70kts with a stage of flap at about 150 ft not punting along at cruises speed 80 ft above the water?

I will make sure I see that tonight how this person thinks he can clear their names is hard to imagine after the cowboy outfit they ran.

No a very professional run outfit after seeing the videos before they were pulled.

Cameras don’t lie and it is all good and well to act like cowboys but when you mess up or have an incident it all comes back to bite you on the arxe.

Not one bit of sympathy from me, best thing was CASA pulling the AOC and the licences IMO

Hello,I was wondering if anyone could please help me? I am trying to get a basic calclator up for owning a plane. So once I have all my figures of the maintenance and fixed annual costs and variable costs and fuel per hour and everything on those lines. How do I get an hourly rate of owning and operating an airplane??

 

What variables would I need to include and what math would I have to do to get to that final hourly rate of owning and operating the plane based on number of hours flown per year.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

Just for general info let’s say my Tecnam Sierra which is owned outright cost me about

$28 per hour for fuel at current prices

$15 per hour for engine replacement

$2 per hour for oils & filters

$2 per hour for tyres & ancillaries

$2100 a year for insurance

$1500 a year for hangarage

$260 a year for RAA membership

$165 a year for Registration

$144 a year for a ASIC card

$300 to $500 for my 100 hourly’s.

So me averaging over 100 hours every year my rough cost total to about $90+ per hour fixed costs but probably is closer to $100 per hour as there are variables no doubt.

I use my aircraft for a minimum of 100 hours a year so it is a far cheaper option for me to own as to hire, yes I could recoup some costs hiring it out but the question remains I know how I treat it, bit like hiring your spouse out if you don’t give a damn about her or deciding you like her to much to be abused by someone else.

Too, the Tecnam has more fuselage below the horisontal stabilizer.

For me it would be fuel taps off, full throttle until it runs out, electrical circuitry off and down to the deck as quick as I can side slipping the flames away from me if possible, also fortunate to have a sliding canopy which would also be open.

Hope it never goes in to practice.

Toppee, usually hire by the hour goes on engine time not by the time you pick it up and drop it off so a 260km each way trip in a 100kt aircraft would be 3 to 3 1/2 hire time depending on winds

Sad but true, Alf.My plane flies with two good gauges he sold me. Ross contributed much to our movement and to this forum.

I bet he'd want us all to realise that even the most experienced aviator can make a split second error of judgement.

The thing is you alone are responsible for whatever decision you make while manipulating the controls, you do it right you live you do it wrong you may not. How we as humans react under a pressure situation is an unknown until after the fact.

It appears that on this occasion we have a coroner with not only an excellent grasp of the flying environment, but one with the persistence to tease out a vital factor that many might have overlooked.

Only one person really knows what went wrong or what actions were made but our little mate is no longer here to tell us unfortunately.

Just look up Queensland coroners court and it is in 2018 reports

I found it about 3 weeks ago as since his accident I started checking about 12 months after it, sad that we will never know why the engine failed, sure looks like he tried a turn back for what reason we will never know.

I thought the coroners report was quite good

parachutes will just encourage people to use them!

It is actually there to be used if the need arises.

Umm that’s what you fit them for isn’t it??? Or do people in Queensland just fit them for the sake of it,

It’s ok we southerners can handle the extra hour of sunlight we get now, I can understand now why you lot don’t want it

good stuff Nev. I don't think it applies to Jabirus though. I've never heard of a Jabiru stuck in a spin.My Jabiru has only a very small allowable flight C of G range. If they had a ballistic chute option, they would have ballast required for those who didn't install one.

There is an awful video showing a ballistic chute deploying accidentally in the take-off and killing the pilot. Not in a Jabiru.

Was that the one of the trike where the Buffooon just fitted it and had his activation handle/ cable connected too the control bar and when he pushed forward it activated

That’s called you cannot teach stupidness

Some are born with it

A modern day ballistic chute requires about 15 to 20kg pressure to activate it

We are seeing more of these type of accidents with LSA. Not enough design testing I would say and Instructors not being taught spin recovery. Don't forget about the Piper Sport in Bundy a few years back which was reported as being in a flat spin killing both instructor and student.

Don’t quote me on this but the Piper sport and Bristell are both from the same designer I recall, same wing and other parts.

One must wonder why piper pulled the plug on the sport

Maybe in fear of litigation and getting sued for a design they were not happy about?

Only guessing here and my own opinion

Good aircraft those Bristell’s !!!

That is two now that have flat spun into the ground, something is not right with the design as they should be fully recoverable in all facets of flight.

And before you bag me out for knocking the brand, 4 witnessed it at Stawell airport who all fly and watched it unfold in front of their eyes, I’m good friends with one of them.

And yes I have flown one and didn’t like it, nowhere near as nice as my Tecnam Sierra, nice to look at but that is it for me.

Glad to hear these latest two are still with us and wish them a speedy recovery.

Probably watched flight radar and seen he would put in a holding pattern for an hour or so. Recon he put the Mayday fuel call in to get priorty slot.

Fill out the paperwork later, oops computer. Glitch CASA.

Hey United, can I get my bonus now for all the fuel I saved and engine time I saved.

Love Capt’n

Cheers, your a good m8 as always, and don't forget if you ever want that Sierra looked after for any extended period of time I,m happy to do it m8, would even give it plenty of exercise for you

Ill

Lol Dave's a very reasonable guy but me not having a x-country endorsement may cause him to say no

American Widows, no brainer they were going to sue Max’s estate.

260 odd kilos overweight, pilot error determined, won’t be hard to win it, only real winners are the blood sucking lawyers.

Because some pilots are too professional for that.

What a nanny state airport, run by morons paid for by ratepayers.

Good old West Auckland / Wait Awhile