Fairoaks Flyer

Th maximum alcohol allowed by CASA is 0.02%. Suggest some of you guys go to CASA seminars in future and you will get the right answer. It is not 0.0% as some people naturally make alcohol.

Cattle always graze with their tails into wind, so look for the cattle. Look at any water body as there will be a wind shadow where the wind is coming from. Fly at the same height as clouds and observe their wind direction on the DG.

If your Jabiru has had its engine converted to water cooling, this will mean it has been changed to experimental category. Is your Jabiru air cooled or water cooled?

The pilot of VH-FYN was flying over high ground west of the coast. If he had changed course to the east he would have been over the coastline with a better chance of survival. Yes, agreed, it is better to call ATC and get radar vectoring. The cloud base was extremely low and patchy, and often right down on the deck on Friday. He was probably following a direct GPS line from Southport to Ballina. He could have landed at Tyagarah. Reports in GC Bulletin say his wife was driving down to pick him up. This may have been a case of "get there itis"? A very sad outcome.

According to media reports it is a Diamond DA42 from Australian Wings Academy. With an RPT landing every 5 minutes at Gold Coast Airport, this must have been very disruptive.

Did anyone read the ATSB final report into VH-HBB which crashed at Lismore a couple of years ago? It ended up inverted and caught on fire with both pilot and instructor being fatally injured. The Socata Trinidad had a gull wing type opening canopy, not a forward hinged one, so it shows you can be vulnerable in any configuration.

If spraying doesn't work, use a heavier ply tyre. Even going up from 4ply to 6ply makes an enormous difference. Need to check weight & balance if going up to 10 ply as they are heavier rubber. I have been using DicambaM, and it really eliminates the bindis. However the next year the bindis return, so a follow up spray is essential.

We have had a drone flying about, generally late in the day, and at varying altitudes. Following that, houses have been broken into. The local farmers have threatened to shoot the drone down, but look what happened in USA. The person who shot the drone down became the villain and was prosecuted. You can legislate how drones can be flown, but how do you enforce the regulations?

I have never been in flat spin, althoughI have done ordinary spins. I phoned an aerobatic instructor after reading these posts to enquire how to get out of a flat spin. He told me you let go of the stick, pull the throttle completely closed and keep the rudder pedals centred. He said if you have any engine input you can't get out of the flat spin as the engine continues to enhance the spin. I was told that if I followed flat spin instructions, the aeroplane would fly itself out of the spin and the pilot then could resume control. I have certainly learned something from reading these posts.

I heard it was a Lancair

I am a member of AOPA and received the Eureka mail out. It was sent from a "no reply" address so you couldn't comment on it. This was a gross error on the part of AOPA as it effectively only represented the views of the author of the letter, Marc de Stoop. There were a lot of areas where CASA needs to change its views, but were omitted from the Eureka document by AOPA - ie the exorbitant cost of flying training and the licensing system. Mark Skidmore cannot act impartially when he is a member of the organisation criticising CASA and wanting change. He would have to resign from either CASA or AOPA. As CASA pays him his bread & butter salary, and he gets no remuneration from AOPA, he would obviously give AOPA the flick.

The four who lost their lives offshore at Barwon Heads would all be around enjoying a drink in the bar now if they had:- Got a weather forecast Filed a flight plan Only flown VFR in VMC weather Flown within their own limitations and licences It just shows that if you want to get to the King Island music festival, you need to do flight preparation. It has taken me 4 days to find suitable weather to fly 14nm to have annual maintenance done!

I say "good on The Two Micks" for keeping members informed. Although the report says the engine was delivering power at the time of impact, it may have only been partial power and not sufficient to maintain flight. We can read into this many things including that the pilot became incapacitated in some way. We must wait for the coroner's report before speculating.

The police reported the plane was found 200m from the Medlow Bath airstrip where it had been conducting ciruits. What type of plane was it? Was it an engine failure after takeoff?

I use the following products on bindi and they are quick and effective to get rid of them and don't kill the grass - Dicamba, Associate, Metsun. Round-up is dreadful stuff, as it kills the grass and then thousands of farmers friends grow instead. Anything Metsulphuron is the answer for bindis.

The problem with the investigators (ATSB) is they take so long (often two years) to hand down their findings. By then everyone has forgotten about the incident because another one has occurred and is fresher in everyone's minds. All reports need to be analysed more quickly and fully reported ASAP. Also there needs to be better investigation and reporting of RAAus's accidents and incidents by ATSB, as the police don't understand aviation.

Come on, guys! Human factors is not going to stop people flying in bad conditions. Some do it to make themselves look like heroes. Last Oz day a pilot flew from Lismore to South Grafton with an iPhone in his hand tuned into the BOM Radar website. He saw a gap in the rain at Whipporie on his iPhone screen and flew through it. How crazy is that? The cloud base on the coast was down to 200ft AGL, so what would any sane person do? I apply the philosophy of why would I fly in those conditions if I didn't have to? No, I didn't fly. I drove. Human factors is all about common sense.

Back in about 1987 I recall flying in an air race with a leg over a big lake just outside Shepparton. The bad weather came in and I called flight service for confirmation of a topographical feature of the lake. I told them I was in deteriorating weather and looking for Shepparton and they transferred me to another frequency. (No Oz Runways in those days!) The first thing the new Flight service person asked was whether I was alright and was I frightened. I received the utmost help possible and never received any communication or penalty from CASA after the event. I tend to think that this fear of what CASA will do to a person who asks for assistance is a myth.

A sad situation. A similar incident occurred about 25 years ago when a pilot of a 172 lost it in a total whiteout off Coffs Harbour. If you are no good on the clocks and lose the horizon over the ocean, you haven't got a chance. Yes, it is safer to go to the pub for a countery - unless you climb and ask for radar assistance. RIP

"Gor Blimey Mate Sid" used to give spin training in a Tiger Moth. When you asked him to spin it the other way next time, he would say "Gor Blimey Mate, can't do that or the prop will stop". Which way can you spin a Tomahawk?

I can see white caps on the waves out to sea and you wouldn't see them if the wind was blowing off-shore. Maybe it was a combination of wind and cyclic?

'ello, Fairoaks Flyer 'ere. Having watched the video from a tourist's mobile phone, it is quite apparent that the chopper did not land head to wind. The gust got it under the tail boom and upended it. What does wind do when it crosses from water to land? It crosses at 90 degrees and comes from the water. That is exactly what happened to the chopper in Fiji.