Jerry_Atrick

This one brought back memories of my first UK flight (as the onoy time a pax in a PA28), and then my own flying. The flight planning/nav software is Skydemon, which is fantastic to use (sorry OzRunways), and submitting the flight plan was a push on a button in Skydemon. Note, in France, French pilots do RT in French.. which is a bummer for situationa awareness.

Grand flying:

6 hours ago, facthunter said:

Since airports are privately owned they can't reasonably be expected to  be allowed to dictate things which the taxpayer's have to pay for. Cost and priorities for other projects matter. We don't elect Airport owners and not everyone fly's or would use a TRAIN to access the airport either. Train schedules can't adapt to changed arrival times either. Nev

I agree they shouldn't be able to dictate to the government anything,, but the headlline about Melbourne Airport "whacking" tie Vic government is out of line with reality - or at least what The Age were reporting, which was airport management expressing a preference and working "in good faith" - which doesn not appear to be "whacking at all"..

However, as a taxpayer to the state (payroll taxes, land taxes, etc) as well as indirectly via federal taxes) as well as being directly impacted by the government decision, should they not be able to express their opnions and even facts, and that they are considered regardless of whether they participate in elections (wich corporations, otherwise known as legal persons, are not allowed to)?

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/fight-or-flight-conflict-with-airport-looms-after-government-reveals-sky-rail-plan-20220920-p5bjmp.html has detail of the spat (open in private mode). It isn't quite a whack, but the Herald Sun is the Herald Sun. No mention by Melbourne Airport management of an existing underground station..

Having said that, I would want to make sure there were multiple completely covered areas to get to an above ground platform.. and I would personally perfer an underground station. The Melbourne Airport management have expressed a preference for an underground station given they are planning additional terminals and see a need to have a second station sometime in the future. That, and the aesthetics seems to make the difference.

Obviosuly, to keep the costs "down", they are looking at integrating into the existing network, and the new loop.. Would it have been better to run it from Spencer St. Station, direct  - there are a couple of new stations planned, so I am thinking there won't be too many epxress trains for the city.. which, when I am in Melbourne, am in the SE 'burbs, so probably will find alternate transport.. Stopping in Sunshine... buggah that!

Not after the taxman got his grubby mits on the profit 

Sincere condolences, Bosi72. 

On 11/07/2022 at 4:47 AM, Noel Davies said:

Hi Jerry

I have the EQ1 system on my trike. The passenger headset has died and I can't find anyone to fix it. have you still got yours and do you want to sell them?

Regards

Noel Davies

Hi Noel,

Just saw this.. I do still have it.. and when flying, still use it.. Not for sale just yet, anyway.

Lance (Jerry's just my pseudonym)

I saw this property come up... sadly the £ has tanked against the Aussie, otherwise I would only be about 9.5m off

Not sure of the regs with respect to non GA but Essendon is within a 10 min walk to the 59 tram into the city (from memory to Elizabeth St end of Flinders Street station).

A previous editor of pilot magazine had one and loved it. They are 1 seater (normally).

That takeoff looked nuts, but sometimes it's hard to get depth perception on that angle of filming

I was flying a leg from the Wye Valley to Haverford West when the GPS signal was lost for about 30nm. Going back to techniques taught in training, I picked a spot on the horizon and aimed at it.. was the straightest flying on that trip

Thanks, Ian... Much appreciated.

Portugal had really bad fires for the first time in living memory - and the heat killed over 238 people: https://metro.co.uk/2022/07/17/europe-on-fire-238-dead-from-heat-in-portugal-in-just-one-week-17013031/

Also, the fires killed quite a few, I understand.

Same, and when I disable javascript (on Firefox 104.0.1 (64 bit), the connection to socialaustralia.com.au times out.

@willedoo - am reading your posts to socialaus; appreviate them but can't respond either way...  so here's a 👍 for them.

I am just wondering what your alternative explanation is, backed by science?

Fires have already come to Europe: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/15/wildfires-europe-burn-area-equivalent-one-fifth-belgium

On 25/08/2022 at 10:14 PM, turboplanner said:

As we know the Coroner has a different job to the ATSB.

The Coroner is trying to find out the cause of death of the deceased.

The ATSB are trying to find out the cause of the crash which happened to injure or kill a person or people.

There are subtle differences.

I couldn't agree more.. however, if the coroner is trying to find the cause of a death caused by an aeroplane accident, then surely finding the cause of the aeroplane accident is going to be a critical factor in finding the cause of death, is it not?

On 26/08/2022 at 2:30 AM, onetrack said:

It's pretty obvious even to Blind Freddy, she left VMC whilst operating under VFR, blundered around in cloud, and ran into a mountain top she couldn't see.

This goes against all her training and instruction, and for someone consistently lauded as a "competent and professional pilot", indicates a major deficiency in her level of piloting judgement.

Could not agree more.. but there is one thing we all miss in this.. and that is human factors - something which wasn't taught even when I did my ATPL theory (well, nothing like it is today), which, admittedly, was a flippin long time ago.

As a young an inexperienced pilot, I could not understand why people flew into terrain, barring some inforeseen emergency or weather event. However, as an older and more experienced pilot, I did find myself afflicted by pressonitis - twice - you would have thought I learned the first time..

Both times were purely self-inflicted, but the second time, there was an external influence. The first time, which has been published in Aussie Flying and Pilot (UK), was where I ended up so frustrated, I pushed on regardless.. and the only thing that saved me from driving a burning hole in the ground was that I may not get the rental back in time for the next renter - not the fact that I would have left my partner and two primary school-aged children behind. Diving home from the airfield was when I realised that.. and writing about it now still sends shivers down my spine.

The second time, I took a look at the weather and even though it was well below my now VFR only minima, I thought it looks good enough.. and I pressed on. I won't go into the reason why, but it blinded rational thought.. and I knew it did, but still pressed on. The reality was, I didn't want to dissapoint some people who were very important to me - my family. Imagine how disappointed they would have been if I drilled a smoking hole in the luscious British countryside (as it was then.. looks a bit brown at the moment).

I am well trained, have had all manner of safety requirements drilled into me, and am normally of fairly strong will. Sometimes, the holes in the Swiss Cheese aliign well before the flight starts.

I have no idea how the airline the pilot flew for operates, nor what commercial pressure the pilot was under. But I do know that sometimes we put ourselves under pressure and mixing that with confirmation bias can lead to a deadly cocktail. The second time I found myself in a pickle over pressonitis, I ended up luckily sandwiched between two layers of strataform cloud, about 200' vertically separated. In the UK, you can normally rely on the military for vectors to a close by airfield, but the closest had been sold off, and was a housing estate.. the nearest was about 100nm away. I made a beeline out to a sparesly shipped part of the English channel, wedged between these two layers until I breached French airspace, were, amazingly, the clouds gave way to clear blue skies. I tracked the Freench side of EGLL (line between French and English airspace), until clouds thinned on the British side of the line. In the drama I forgot to ask ATC to relay to the destination airfield that I was turning back. Not only that, but do you think I had a lifejacket on and the life raft ready to be deployed? My partner waited at the destintion airfield until an hour after I was scheduled to arrive and without a word, raced to my son's departing to Europe on a school holdiay - the event I was prepared to die to miss, apparently. My partner was in tears, in the full knowledge I had perished.. But, if I had, no ATSB, AAIB, NTSB, Coronial Enquiry could have really established anything.. because they don't know what was going through my head at the time. And while you may judge, you don't know, either.

These are two occasions in flying that I do not deserve to have survivied. But, as aligned as the holes in the Swiss Cheese were, they weren't perfectly aligned.

Having trained in Australia, UK, US, Canada, and Germany, I can say Australia is as good, if not better than those. I am sure the pilot would normally implement her training - from the reports, there is no reason not to suggest otherwise. Also, there is no reason to suggest that had she made it to pick up her passengers, she would have conducted the flight in a way that would have resulted in their demise. We don't know what happened on that flight and we never will. That is the reality of most of pilot error accidents. I will not say it is pilot fault until I can read their minds.

May she rest in peach and all those affected receive my sincerest condolences.

Still haven't seen a smoke warning on the NOTAMS over here yet... One day, no doubt..

Can't see France banning private jets given Dassault still make the Falcon. I didn't read the FT article as it is behind a paywall, and frankly, since it changed hands a few years ago, IMHO, its standards dropped a tad. Anyway, euronews is reporting a ban is unlikely, but a tax is. No problem with that, as the rich don't seem to pay their fair share anyway.

What I didn't like about the Canadian tax was that it was set at aircraft greater than CAD $100K, but boats at CAD $250K. Why the difference? Do boats have to go through the same regulatory controls as aircraft? Doubt it. And, yes, there are a lot of commercial boats, such as fishing trawlers - make them exempt. I can't think of a single new GA plane that would be less than CAD $100K, and probably not too many upper end LSAs either.

Same problem with SociaAustralia... Thought I got myself banned... still trying 😉

20 hours ago, facthunter said:

You originally went there as a political refugee? I can understand  that. IF we hadn't had a change of Government, I was thinking of seeing IF New Zealand would give me refugee status. Nev

More an economic refugee.. no degree in Aus for what I did at the time (software engineering) meant little progress. When the software company installing software at what was then GenVic saw what I could do, they offered me a job and sponsorship, and a decent wad of cash to boot

Times have changed since - but it is still tougher without a relevant degree in Aus than here

@lee-wave, yeah Farnborough are accommodating and even before they got the grab, i was  outside controlled airspace and they asked me to change route I would accommodate providing I kept clear of cloud flying VFR. 

But the implementation is a dogs breakfast and easy to bust so it keeps people concentrating where they shouldn't 

Also apparently the law is here when controlled airspace is granted, it cannot be reclaimed unless the authority (which really is company as atc is privatised) agrees to give it up. I think Norwich Airport still has its class D despite traffic projections never materialising 

Le Touquet is the aviation mecca fo British gen and rec aviation pilots. The airport ops aren't quite as good as they used to be with French only on Tuesdays I think, and they have learned what British airfields charge and charge accordingly. But it is a shortish walk to town and of course the food options are magnifique. 

I don't recall a kart track, but I am not a beach person despite my Aussie heritage (except for fishing, of course). 

The town is still very pretty and I am hoping to get out there for another trip but part of a bigger one to include a Trois, and Cherbourg

@lee-wave - what has been the impact to you with the "new" Farnborough class-D airspace that blankets that part of the woods? I flew out of Fairoaks a couple of weeks ago - for the first time since well before they implemented it, and it is a dogs breakfast..

Our flight was to Le Touquet (LFAT), which took a little under an hour.. Border police always at Fairoaks.. Customs at LFAT was virtually as it was pre-Brexit; Didn't have to show my passport. Ate lunch, strolled on the beach.. bakc at Fairoaks.. was reasonably relaxed but I did have to showe the Passport. Except for the cost of fuel, GA is the way to fly to Europe at the moment.

Can't remember the temp.. didn't seem hot enough to worry me, though.. would guess mid-20s or thereabout.

Well, I consider myself more an expat.. but one of the reasons worth dtaying. Tonight -  a Bellarine Peninsula (no prizes for guessing which one).

It hit 28 where I am today... Had our three days of summer already!

On 21/07/2022 at 2:42 AM, facthunter said:

We export all our good food and wine.. Nev

Thankfully.. I get more moderate weather.. very little threats of wildlife trying to eat or killme, and some bludday good wine - tonight.. from the Yarra Valley!