onetrack

Yes, for sure, make contact with all the clubs, the aviation fraternity is pretty good as regards support. I believe Serpentine is quite good - message rgmwa on here, I understand he operates out of Serpentine with his RV-12. It's home of the SABC of W.A. and you need their permission to operate into and out of the field. Contact their committee to request permission, and advise your travel plans.

And all done via industrial espionage, patent infringements galore, and simple technical information handover via blackmail, something the Chinese are exceptionally good at. Remember, the Chinese insist you cannot start up any division of your Western business in China, unless you hand over all your companys technical secrets, and make the CCP a 51% JV partner in the business. Something that dismayed many Western companies who decided to set up in China.

Everything West of Port Augusta is expensive - fuel, food and accommodation - and accommodation is normally tight, so you need to book well ahead. I stayed at Eucla Motel last May, accommodation is good, but not cheap, and food offerings and operating hours are limited. Caiguna Roadhouse has good food and a satisfactory airstrip (when it's not soggy), and the Bight scenery is spectacular. Nullarbor roadhouse has an airstrip, but everything at Nullarbor is the priciest of all. I'd follow the coast because the main highway is never far away, and there are many station airstrips and old Eyre Hwy construction airstrips that probably still usable for outlandings. The distances are vast from Western S.A. onwards, and assistance can be a long way away in emergencies. For medical assistance help, the RFDS is superb. Keep friends, associates and authorities notified of your movements. I believe you'll find Myrup at Esperance is welcoming to aviators. Esperance is very scenic, the beaches are spectacular. Nearly all W.A. wheatbelt towns of any size have good airstrips, but you need to arrange transport once on the ground. Pick late Summer/early Autumn as the time to go, you can still camp out comfortably in that weather. Acquire a really good camping mattress, and always carry a few litres of water. Be aware that weather conditions can change dramatically within a short period across the "long paddock", especially if it involves a sharp wind direction change. You can go from 40°C to 20°C in a couple of hours, with a wind that swings rapidly from N to S. You can also get steep temperature drops overnight from fine hot days, even in mid-Summer, if the tip of a cold front moves in. Watch out for major headwinds travelling West, try and pick when a big high pressure system is in the Bight, or forming in the Bight, a typical Summer pattern with light winds. John Langmead has a good blog about doing an East-West-East trip in a Cessna 182RG in 2007. Some things have probably changed a bit in the intervening 18 years, but his information is still largely valid. He had the advantage of pretty good airspeed in the Cessna. Flying Memories – Chapter 10 (the final chapter) – South SOUTHERNOCEANBLOG.COM WA trip in VH-MWL with Liz. As I reach the end of this record of my flying memories I want to record in some detail an account of at least one trip that I remember as being simply a great trip in an aeroplane...

Skippy - Will Owen from the S.W. of W.A. owns one of your favourite ultralights, and has done a West-East-West trip in recent times. He posted some details of his trip on here, but I can't find it now. He should be able to provide useful trip information, and he may even be keen to join you for at least part of your trip, and I'm sure he can get you up to speed on what's what in W.A. Unfortunately, I can't even recall what his username is on here, someone else may know. He's a nice bloke, very helpful - I know him because my best friend worked on his farms, and I visited the main farm, and met Will, several years ago. He's leased out his farms, and I'm not sure what he does on a daily basis now, but I think he still flies regularly, however I'm not sure if he still instructs. https://www.facebook.com/willflyhire.com.au/

Greg Vaughan had mates watching and listening for him, and associates working in a nearby hangar, so its not like any calls he made wouldn't be heard. In a rural region, you'd arrange for a friend or associate with a radio to check your transmissions were coming through. And if you were in such a remote spot that there's no-one within a 100 kms, then all you can hope for is an aircraft nearby at altitude that's listening.

What highly experienced pilot takes off without a comms check, and ensures he has working communication? This whole episode gets stranger by the day. Their aviation friends were so concerned about the lack of a departure call, they were initiating a search within half an hour of departure. Airservices Australia are not looking too good here, too lazy to even look up if there had been a call, when their friends inquired. Early search action might have had success.

One would think, a fully loaded European plastic fantastic, carrying 100-120 litres of fuel, would catch fire, if it crashed on island or mainland terrain, would you not? I STR the last Bristell that went down in a flat spin, at Redesdale in Sept 2024, burnt to a crisp. Plus, over land, there are a lot more eyeballs to view a falling aircraft. Over a 250km wide stretch of open ocean, not enough eyeballs there, to see it come down.

......which was a local dance specialty, devised by "Woomera" Turbine, a legend of the local indigenous community, an Elder, and a qualified pilot as well. "Woomera" Turbine devised the dance as an alternative to the more boring local corroboree dances, after he saw Cappy hand prop his Drifter with the throttle advanced, the brakes off, no chocks or tiedowns - and the machine took off with alacrity with no-one in the seat - with Cappy doing a fine old high-stepping dance, trying to avoid spinning prop blades, wings, wheels, and other various airborne flying parts, as the........

The search is winding down and the Tasmanian Police will soon turn the case into a "missing persons" crime case. The fact that not a single piece of wreckage or flotsam has been sighted seems to indicate the aircraft entered the water in a flat spin, typical of the "unrecoverable" Bristell spin. I believe this would lead to the aircraft tending to stay in one piece, as compared to a more destructive high angle approach to the water. No matter what the approach angle, the crash would disable the occupants, by losing unconsciousness at the very least, and I doubt whether they could recover or escape before they drowned A witness has verified the dog was not being nursed in the passengers lap, so it must have been secured behind the seats - thus making the "dog interference with controls" scenario much less likely. All that remains for crash reasons, is medical incapacitation, or sudden and catastrophic in-flight breakup, possibly at relatively low level, stopping the chance of any Mayday. Search for missing light plane enters sixth day - Tasmania Police WWW.POLICE.TAS.GOV.AU The search for a missing light plane and the two people on board is resuming for a sixth day, with a Tasmania Police helicopter crew today conducting searches off the north coast of Tasmania. Pol Air has been...

The Bleriot 125 of 1930. It's a push-pull twin, with seating for 12 pax, 6 in each fuselage. Sheer luu-x-uurry!! Wicker chairs to sit in, too, I'll wager! 😄

The Soviet Unions crazy "Zveno Project", using a "mothership" bomber to launch smaller fighters, which extended their range. Only five were built, some carrying five aircraft, and some carrying only two aircraft. Zveno project - Wikipedia EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG

The trial of Matt Wright, based on three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice, has started. It appears the prosecution case is hinging on many intercepted phone calls, and also on the basis that Matt Wright falsified the hours the crash chopper had reportedly flown. Live: Crown lays out case against celebrity crocodile wrangler Matt Wright in NT Supreme Court - ABC News WWW.ABC.NET.AU The jury has heard of secret recordings and Matt Wright pressuring an injured pilot to doctor flight logs in the Netflix star's criminal trial, with the defence now taking the stand. Follow live. ATSB report into the crash .... Fuel exhaustion and collision with terrain involving Robinson R44 II, VH-IDW, King River, Northern Territory, on 28 February 2022 | ATSB WWW.ATSB.GOV.AU

I don't know about that, Nev. I think Trump is jealous of, and looking to emulate Xi Jingping. Xi made himself Supreme Leader for all time, and eliminated any possibility of a competitor to him. I think Trump only dreams of being able to do that. China's Xi allowed to remain 'president for life' as term limits removed WWW.BBC.COM China's Xi Jinping could stay in power indefinitely after parliament backs constitutional changes.

If the Tupolev record is anything to go by, I'll give flying in the Superjet a miss, thanks. I can recall Belarus tractors introduction to Australia. Built by slave labour, by criminal prisoners, and by imprisoned South Vietnamese "recalcitrants" who fought against Communism, sent to Russia by North Vietnam as "appreciation" for Russia's assistance in the Vietnam War. Don't forget, in places such as Russia and China, you go to jail for expressing anti-Govt sentiment - for long periods of time, until you're no longer able or willing, to express anti-Govt sentiment. Belarus was part of the Soviet Union until 1991. You needed two Belarus tractors to get one working, that might provide 50% of the reliability of a Western-built tractor. Don't forget China is a Communist society to its core, and the CCP runs everything. If you thought Trump interfered into too much Govt decision-making at present, try the Chinese Govt. Idealogy drives all important decision-making in China. While the Corporate West has its failings, at least people in the West are free to make decisions, initiate programmes, even oppose Govt mandates. The Western democratic world produces innovation, develops brand names that guarantee a certain quality of product, and installs standards and specification that must be met, and that must continue to be met, under threat of financial penalty. If you buy a Chinese product, it could be produced in a dozen different factories, all with different names and differing attention to detail and standards. "China quality fade" is recognised everywhere, and China can't get away from that. Chinas "quality fade" is driven by bribery, fast-profit chasing, and a failure to insist on total adherence to international standards and specifications, and constant checks to ensure that adherence is being carried out scrupulously. Even China's much-vaunted massive railways development was plagued by crashes caused by fraud, bribery and corruption, and design faults - to the extent that the Ministry of Railways was dissolved, and a sizeable number of officials jailed for fraud and corruption. The Wenzhou high-speed train crash in 2011, which killed 40 people, revealed major design and quality flaws in the Chinese rail network, that ranged from faulty signalling equipment, structural weaknesses in multiple important train components, and failures in railway subgrade construction design and maintenance. The simple problem remains that China exports all its manufacturing and design problems, and then convinces the other countries, there are no problems with it. When you try to get the problems addressed, you run into the brick wall that is CCP officials, and a legal system that is nothing like the Western legal system. Don't even get me started on the Chinese banking system, half of which is even hidden from the Chinese themselves. "Misallocation of investment" is a CCP art form.

The Chinese news media is not exactly the most independent news source about all new Chinese developments. The Chinese may be making strides in their technological prowess, but the Americans and Europeans have 80 years head start on them. The problem is that the language of technology, engineering, construction, mathematics, and even computerisation, is English. And in the translation from English to Chinese and vice versa, things get scrambled. Would you like to see your Chinese jet engine manual produced in Chinglish? Even the Chinese construction equipment still has major flaws in many areas, despite much of it being "borrowed" directly from Western, European and Japanese sources. P&W, Safran, GE, RR, and all the other major engine producers have spent decades honing their products, their skills, their reputation, and their brand names, so they can immediately be recognised for their class-leading products. The Chinese still have a way to go, to produce the same level of integration as Western and European manufacturers, in all these fields, so they can fnally produce a product recognised for its consistent and outstanding quality and backup.

The Bristell was first registered in November 2023. It would essentially be a brand new aircraft, possibly less than 150 hrs flying time. With a pretty expensive factory-built European aircraft, do you really think that a total electrical failure is a possibility at just over 18 mths old? I see that as a very, very low possibility. Whatever happened, happened fast, so if it was a major electrical failure, that would not create the scenario of a rapid crash with the piloting experience this bloke possessed. By all reports, he was a quiet and unassuming legend, as far as aviation knowledge went. He kept such a low profile, I cannot find any photos/information of the aircraft doing any flying, nor any records of when/where it was advertised, or sold to him. Even the clubs produce no records of him, which I find quite amazing for a man in his position, reported to be "highly active" in aero club activity.

I watched that SKY news clip, what a load of drivel. Byron Bailey comes across as a dill, talking about the aircraft "having radar". Totally unprofessional. Talks about the Bristell as "home-built", when they are factory-built only. Winter often provides a good number of flying days, and smoother ones than Summer. The bloke in the link below wrote himself off in a Mooney, in Nov 2024, whilst carrying dogs around the U.S. He had a CFIT in Windham, NY State. While a dog is not directly implicated in the crash, previous photos of his dog-transporting techniques show dogs apparently loose in the cabin, while other shots show some dogs in pet carriers. But regardless, dogs in an aircraft cockpit are a potential major distraction that one doesn't need, when the workload can already be high. This U.S. pilot was obviously battling with poor weather conditions, maybe a dog distracted him even further, and made him lose situational awareness. I can only see two likely scenarios for this Bristell crash, either a severe medical event (heart attack or stroke), or the dog got excited and knocked switches or controls, and produced an upset that he couldn't recover from. NTSB report leaves unanswered questions about deadly Windham plane crash - WNYT.com NewsChannel 13 WNYT.COM The NTSB is out with their report on a deadly plane crash in Windham, Nov. 24.As NewsChannel 13 has been reporting, the plane was carrying three dogs rescued from a high-kill shelter. The pilot and one dog...

.......handing out apples to all and sundry, saying, "Try one of these! - they taste SO good!!" Dyno took one, and bit into it, and within seconds, he knew he shouldn't have touched it. His mind went into a kaleidoscopic explosion, like he'd taken LSD (that's if they had LSD back then - although, if the bloke was singing Janis Joplin, then LSD was surely around there, too), and his eyeballs popped and he saw the surrounding world in a new light. The worst part was, it was a world full of people trying to kill him and eat him!! - so he started running through this............

Tasmanian Police have identified the couple and their aircraft - a Bristell Classic, formerly called the Bristell NG5, RA registration 23-2180. The couple are Greg Vaughan, 72 and his partner, Kim Worner, 66. Couple aboard missing flight from Tasmania named as Gregory Vaughan, Kim Worner - ABC News WWW.ABC.NET.AU The couple missing since Saturday on a flight from Tasmania to New South Wales with their dog have been named by Tasmania Police. AMSA have pulled out of the search and handed it over to the Tasmanian Police. It's become too rough in the Strait for search boats to go out, and the solitary search aircraft now is the PolAir helicopter. PolAir have been searching the coastline East of Georgetown, it's obviously been calculated that they went down within 20 mins of leaving George Town, as zero communication was made by the pilot. Tasmanian Police say they will continue the search for today and tomorrow, and will then re-assess the need to continue searching. It's obvious they'll only be looking for wreckage now, there will be no survivors.

......."I've had enough of this stomping around in primeval steaming jungles, snacking on Neanderthals and pterodactyls, and watching volcanoes blow their tops! - there must be more to life than this!" So Dyno set off early one morning, to try and find a Garden of Eden for Dinosaurs, a place where.........

Failure of components as they fail to meet specifications or are used outside their specifications, is also a high possibility. Remember the U.S. Challenger Space Shuttle disaster in 1986? It was due to o-ring failure because of a record low frost at the launch platform, which was never anticipated, and a temperature that the o-ring design was not ever expected to encounter.

Dogs are the equivalent of toddlers. They need near-constant restraint and control, otherwise they will get into everything. Dogs are easily excited - especially when they sight what they view as prey, or something that's fun to chase. A bird flying past the aircraft would more than likely make any dog excited, and jump for it. A dog in the lap of a passenger of an ultralight, that has a compact cabin at best, is asking for trouble. I cannot see where a "mid-sized dog" would fit in the rear compartment of a Bristell. The rear compartment is limited to 15kg capacity, and also divided into two sections - A and B section, and the POH advises B section is limited to 1kg. From the POH: "The rear baggage compartment is located behind the seats. It may accommodate up to 15 kg (33 lb). This space is divided into two sections – baggage compartment A and B. Do not use baggage compartment B for heavy objects (max. 1 kg)." I see aviators showing their dogs in the rear seat of 4 seaters, restrained by a suitable harness, which I would consider is sensible and practical. But a front seat position for a dog would be a big no-no, IMO.

Yes, that was the famous/infamous Frederick Valentich case. The disappearance of Valentich has never been satisfactorily resolved, but spatial disorientation has been suggested as the most likely cause. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Frederick_Valentich

Rubber products do indeed degrade fairly rapidly, and it's important to know when the rubber item was manufactured. Having said that, I've got Japanese vehicles with coolant hoses that are over 20 years old, and they show little sign of degradation, despite their extended use. This is not to say I recommend you leave rubber hoses in place on your aircraft, for 20 years! The 5 year Rotax replacement recommendation is pretty reasonable.

The Tasmanian Police held a media conference at 6:00PM EST today - but, typical of Police Media conferences .... 1. They were tight-lipped, just went over all the known details, and revealed nothing more than we already know - even to the extent of refusing to ID the aircraft make, when it's already public knowledge, and on the ASN database..... 2. They have had some information come in from the public, but refused to reveal what it was. It certainly wasn't along the lines of, "Yes, I saw this aircraft screaming earthwards"..... 3. They had to field the normal dozens of dumb media journalists questions..... 4. They've found precisely nothing worth reporting. The link to the Tassie Police page is below, and on the page is a link to a media sound file, that is an audio record of todays conference. I fear that any news that comes in from now on, will only confirm our worst expectations. Extensive search in Bass Strait for missing plane - Tasmania Police WWW.POLICE.TAS.GOV.AU Tasmania Police Northern Division Commander Marco Ghedini and Tasmania Police Inspector Nick Clark have today provided an update into the search for a light plane, and its two occupants, which was...