Bats

85 visible on the link off the RA-Aus website. Having them in the magazine has always been good material for dreaming over, but virtually anyone seriously interested in buying is going to rather follow the internet version. Even the online magazine's ads are static aren't they?

Not disagreeing with the general thrust of your post FF, but I don't believe filing a flight plan would have achieved anything in this instance. I'm probably a little sensitised to the phrase, given the media's propensity to seize on the lack of a flight plan and imply it contributed to whatever accident they are reporting on.

Ol' Mal Turnstile make a decision? That'd be a first. I'm not sure that the F-35 will prove quite the useless lump popular opinion would have us believe, but there comes a point when Aus just plain would not be able to afford to buy and maintain sufficient numbers of them to form an effective force. Given that they are not likely to be a huge technical advantage over any potential enemy by the time they're fully operational, it all seems hardly worth it and a mix of Growlers and Super Hornets sufficient for the medium term.

Cirrus probably have the most experience in the use of these things - here's a link to their summary of the known activations; https://www.cirruspilots.org/copa/safety_programs/w/safety_pages/723.cirrus-caps-history.aspx A quick read reveals that quite a few were anything but straight and level activations.