Cooda

They dug it out and successfully flew it off the beach.

It’s a great feeling, isn’t it Womble. I wish your son all the best and hope he falls into a strong and supportive course group. No one does it by themselves.

Apologies but there’s apparently a bit more “proud father skiting” to be done. Fifteen years ago he started out learning to fly a Drifter. Today, he’s flying the F-22 Raptor, courtesy of a USAF exchange. He describes it as “Impressive!”

And just to close off the proud father skiting bit (yep. Still proud after all these years.)

And after 9 years:

I've stopped at Dunmarra many times over the past 40 years and never realized the strip was there. There's plenty of space around the bowsers to accommodate a taxying Jab. Ditto between the roadhouse and the strip from the look of the aerial photo. From the news photo, it looks like they're on the highway verge. You can see a thin strip of sealed surface beyond the starboard wing root. The highway is the only sealed surface in the vicinity. There's miles of visibility in both directions on the highway, so it's not infeasible to see it as an attractive runway, in a practical sense. Save the 10 minute taxi back to the far end of the strip etc. Not sure what effect the camber would have on a Jab's tendency to swing left. But I note that it is the port wing that's dug in. Winds this time of the year are strong, variable and gusting. I was caught out at Tindal in a Jab a couple of years ago taking off on 14. ATIS had winds at 8kts from 110. Got to 30kts on the take off run and the port wing lifted and kept lifting against full left stick. Son in RHS later said the ASI had briefly swung to 70kts + as the fun started. There couldn't have been much of a gap between the ground and the starboard wing tip before I got the nose into wind and recovered. Tindal 14 is a lot wider than the Stuart Highway at Dunmarra, so I had room to move (just.....those runway lights were looking pretty big at the end.). I'm guessing old mate got caught out in similar fashion but with more limited options.

Hi Denis That 60% is presumably based on those who passed the initial screening and were allowed to commence training at BFTS and averaged over a period (?) In the lad's course, 40 commenced at ADFA and 20 graduated to BFTS. Of those, 14 made it to 2FTS with 9 achieving Wings. Of the 9, 5 went to Hawks, 2 went to KC30, 1 to Wedgetail and 1 to PC3. Of the 5 who went to Hawks, all graduated - with 3 now having graduated from 2OCU and joined their squadrons, one was back coursed due to medical grounds and has now started at 2OCU and the fifth is waiting for his Super Hornet course to start. The following course at 2FTS had 14 gain their wings with 2 going on to Hawks (and a number of pissed off grads going everywhere but Hawks )

Well the wheel has turned full circle. The lad first sat in a Hornet as a 9 year old at a Tindal Open Day. Roll forward 15 years and he's now qualified to fly them. First posting.....75 Squadron at, you guessed it, Tindal. Can't believe how the past seven years have flashed by. Defence Force Recruiting...Flight Screening...ADFA...BFTS...2FTS...79 Squadron...76 Squadron...2 OCU...it's taken some effort. But has it been worth it? 'Ken Oath! (apparently)

Never a many as they'd like. They have to think of it as quality over quantity.

Jabiru - One of the two girls on his graduating Wings course went on to AWACS. The other has won through to F/A 18's - on merit (not affirmative action). I thinkl she may be the first female to get to Hornets. Spooks - If they can get the F35's operational, we should start seeing them here around 2018/19. Of the 40 pilot cadets who started at ADFA with him, 20 graduated, 14 passed BFTS and 9 gained their Wings - with 5 going on to the FJ lead in program on Hawks. All 5 have now passed.

Can't believe five years have passed so quickly. The lad is now a Flying Officer with a degree from UNSW (ADFA). And he starts training on F/A 18's in a few weeks time.

Updated media suggests a Brumby out of Sunbury.

So his not being rated for night or instrument flying can be discounted as an issue?

I still remember being held up north of Elliott on the Stuart Hwy for several hours while they recovered the four bodies from the C172 that had found the only wire crossing the highway for 400 km.

Trouble is, that's the way I land 'em. Stall warning sounding before the mains run on and stick hard back until the nose drops of its own accord. Still feels like skating on a frictionless surface - but it certainly keeps you focused throughout the landing roll.

Nose wheel. Left wing and tail lifted from the way it's been described to me. Thanks for the explanation on the possible cause of the instability Poteroo. I've never felt comfortable with landing the J230's. Thought it was just my unco-ordinated size 12's.

The pilot is the owner and very experienced in the aircraft. From what I've been told, he shifted his focus during the roll out towards a taxi-way entrance. On looking forward again, he found the Jabiru had unexpectedly veered to the left and he was now heading towards the drain. A boot full of right rudder and he ground-looped. The damage is being buffed out as we speak.

Radio news reported it as an EFATO.

Not yet Kaz But committing aviation under CASA rules now appears to be a strict liability offence. And our recent government was proudly proclaiming having passed tens of thousands of regulations as a minority government. I'll be interested to seem how much red tape actually gets repealed by this current mob.

Ergo, if I subsequently fail to fly safely, it's RAA's fault. (Isn't that where Dutchy was coming from?)

It may be apocryphal but I was under the impression Cessna, Piper, Beechcraft et al stopped manufacturing light singles when they were found to have potential liability for accidents, such as in the case of an untrained, unlicensed drunk who stole an aircraft and killed himself in the inevitable crash.(?) Humanity - the first species to legislate and litigate itself to extinction.

It could be argued that his RA-Aus (and GA) training had failed to instil in him a reasonable level of respect for the laws governing flying in this country. And having him identified as holding a Pilot's Certificate in a report that very few people will read is not great PR for RA-Aus. But the registration of ownership of the aircraft is a CASA matter. The illegal operation of that aircraft by an unlicensed person is a CASA matter. And, by no stretch of the imagination, is teaching or carrying out aerobatics (legal or not) a RA-Aus matter. CASA has maintained full responsibility for that activity. Nevertheless, good bloke or not, it might prove useful for our magazine to run an article on the sanctions he might have received, had he survived.

Geez Andy, you make it look so hard. If I'd looked at it that way, I wouldn't have gone down the digital path to start with. I guess I've been lucky in my naivety that we found the development of our system to be quite straightforward. (is there a tongue in cheek smilie - please insert here) (Excluding funding considerations for now) Identify the needs Design a system that addresses the needs Test it and Debug it Train the staff Migrate the existing data to the new system Launch it Debug it (ongoing) Continue to evolve it Back up is a hard copy of the current data in the office, daily tape in house, server in Darwin and server in Sydney. But when you consider some of the major government IT system development debacles in recent years, I see what you mean.

Russ You're on the money. I manage an industry self-regulator in a different industry. All of our administrative systems are web-based and we provide on-line application and (annual) renewal facility through our website. The final step in the process, to be initiated this year, is to allow 24/7 access for participants to lodge changes in circumstances as and when they occur. OK, we only deal with around 1000 members a year but we cover almost 200 activities and we also store their digitized OH&S plans, QA plans, EMP's, Company profiles etc and link this to the government's on-line tendering system. It ain't rocket science and it hasn't been that expensive to achieve.

Surprisingly, three insurance companies thought I was safer flying a Jabiru around the NT than driving.