Class-action lawsuit against CASA and ATSB........

[Teckair]

If the accident is caused by the pilot it is still a safety issue, even if the pilot has taken their own life, knowing that is what happened may save someone else from a similar fate. I have long felt not enough importance is put on practising glide approaches, if it became known that this is a cause of accidents (which I am sure it is) then steps could be taken to rectify the situation. I do not feel it is appropriate for people to try to dictate what we think about these things.

 

 

[nomadpete]

John McK,

 

I applaud your 'pet project' and hope it progresses soon. Sorry if I have made any silly statements. I don't think Maj was serious about the 'class action'. I wished to raise the importance of providing a useful learning that should be shared after a incident. My post purely intended to improve our flying safety through allowing us to understand the sequence of a pilot's decisions have led to an incident (combined with the causal events).

 

 

[saccani]

Maj,Some time ago, I wrote to the Tech Manager and asked if it would be possible for RAAus to recommend a lab that could do fuel analysis. I received no answer...

.... My particular worry was about finding out if my mogas was contaminated by ethanol, but simply knowing that there was nothing wrong with a sample of fuel would greatly assist establishing cause. If the fuel was OK, then that only leaves ice.

Ethanol is something you can test just about every time you take a fuel sample. It is really easy. Take your usual sample, then place it in a test tube with a few ml of water at the bottom to a mark on the tube. Shake it up and see if the meniscus moves down. If it does, you have Ethanol or Methanol. A commonly sold fuel tester for GA is even calibrated so you can see the percentage of Ethanol with this test.

 

 

[turboplanner]

If the accident is caused by the pilot it is still a safety issue, even if the pilot has taken their own life, knowing that is what happened may save someone else from a similar fate. I have long felt not enough importance is put on practising glide approaches, if it became known that this is a cause of accidents (which I am sure it is) then steps could be taken to rectify the situation. I do not feel it is appropriate for people to try to dictate what we think about these things.

Rather unbelievably, if pilots were only just kept up to date with, and adopted actions for, how to quickly set up glide speed after an incident/shock, and the risk factors of low flying, the majority of people who have died in RA crashes in the last two years would be alive today.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Additionally Turbs, I feel that if many pilots got their engines set up and operating correctly per the manufacturers direction, and then flew, instead of fiddling unneccessarily with those engine constantly, then a good percentage of the others would be around also !....

 

In my experience as a Level 2 I see a lot of bad cases of "tinkeritis" out there and that'll kill you quick as a shot also.......I'm not of course referring to normal schedualed maintenance which must be done..................................................Maj...

 

 

[Flyingphot]

I am not too sure that full disclosure of the cause of an accident, especially if it is "pilot error", would result in less occurrences. Just look at the 'turn back after EFATO' accident rate - we do not learn from the mistakes of others.

 

Also there has been lots of talk about "coronal inquiries". I remember reading a report from the coroner of a fatality of a well known aerobatic pilot a few years back (I believe reported on this forum) in which the coroner based her findings on the expert opinion of a LAME and found that Rotax engines had a habit of stopping without obvious reason.

 

This was referring to the 912 engine which is recognized world wide for exactly the opposite. Coroners are only legal people with great powers to investigate. This does not mean that the result of their investigations, or mainly the opinion they form from those results, are accurate. This is just my observation.

 

Bill

 

 

[Guest sunfish]

If you want ATSB to investigate and CASA to develop and communicate safety related information, then get a PPL and a certified aircraft; otherwise do it yourself. You can't have it both ways.