Raaus sport pilot magazine

[mnewbery]

Another bad example. If I ride a powered watercraft, I need a boat licence and a registered boat-thingy. If I could ride a 300Hp JetSki thingy towing an inflated tube full of drunk passengers over the top of your house, there would probably be rules around that quite quickly.

 

As a GA pilot, I'm not overly bothered by RA-Aus requirements. I still think the RA-Aus barrier to participation is less than (but very different to) the GA participation barrier.

 

 

[M61A1]

Another bad example. If I ride a powered watercraft, I need a boat licence and a registered boat-thingy. If I could ride a 300Hp JetSki thingy towing an inflated tube full of drunk passengers over the top of your house, there would probably be rules around that quite quickly.As a GA pilot, I'm not overly bothered by RA-Aus requirements. I still think the RA-Aus barrier to participation is less than (but very different to) the GA participation barrier.

No problem with a licence or some form of proof of competency or registration, just having to belong to a particular organisation in order to be legal. I have a registered car and a licence, but I don't have to be a member of RACQ or any other recreational body.

 

 

[turboplanner]

No problem with a licence or some form of proof of competency or registration, just having to belong to a particular organisation in order to be legal. I have a registered car and a licence, but I don't have to be a member of RACQ or any other recreational body.

No that's correct, but if you want to engage in a form of Motor Sport, which is Self Administering, you will have to join an organization, pay fees and be supervised to ensure you don't pose an unacceptable risk to the community.

 

 

[M61A1]

No that's correct, but if you want to engage in a form of Motor Sport, which is Self Administering, you will have to join an organization, pay fees and be supervised to ensure you don't pose an unacceptable risk to the community.

Comparing rec flying to competitive motorsport isn't a good comparison. If that's where we're headed, we're about as doomed as your speedway, which is just a shadow of it's former self.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Comparing rec flying to competitive motorsport isn't a good comparison. If that's where we're headed, we're about as doomed as your speedway, which is just a shadow of it's former self.

I was comparing the requirements when you engage in a self administering sport. In each case you have to belong to an organization to be legal.

 

 

[frank marriott]

I believe there was talk at the General Meeting last Saturday of revisiting the whole magazine issue. I think I heard - via a dodgy internet connection - that the reintroduction of hard-copies being sent to all members is under consideration by management.

Not the "actual words" said.

 

 

[ave8rr]

Not the "actual words" said.

So what were the "actual words"?

 

 

[Garfly]

I didn't quote 'actual words'.

 

 

[rankamateur]

Crickey Rank, don't give it away. Your place is on the agenda for a visit by our club...

I have too many hours invested to give it away, I will just have to suck it up, step back into the fold, be a good boy, do what I am told by my monopoly licencing authority and fly aeroplanes. A visit or just a refuel stop over is always doable, just drop me a message.

 

 

[rankamateur]

There's your problem, it's recreational flying, it's not supposed to be supporting a company.

I joined a member organisation but in the short few years I have been involved it has sadly changed, the procession of staff stepping out of RAA into jobs in CASA seems to have also been a feature of that period too.

 

 

[SDQDI]

I joined a member organisation but in the short few years I have been involved it has sadly changed, the procession of staff stepping out of RAA into jobs in CASA seems to have also been a feature of that period too.

This may hopefully change in the future. Someone at the tamworth do in the morning asked why we couldn't have it stipulated in employees contracts that they couldn't work for casa for a few years after they finished working for RAA in a similar way that some contracts stop people working for their companies competition immediately on the finish of their employment. The CEO was very positive about this and I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't being put into effect soon.

 

 

[djpacro]

I thought that CASA had a policy that they couldn't use former employees of a company to audit that company etc within a couple of years of joining CASA. I recall two CASA staff losing their jobs over something related to this issue - but over 10 years ago.

 

 

[Toady]

I sense an element of bloodymindedness in this conversation. I too enjoyed collecting a backlog of reference material that was taking over my office space. We wouldn't skimp on other safety items, if you feel the magazine kept you in touch then you should buy it. I downloaded the ISSUU app to my ipad and when I want to read the magazine I touch the icon and I'm there (for free). Past issues as well as the latest. It gives me another justification for buying the ipad and my cleaning lady (duck,weave) appreciates the coffee table space as well. None of this is a revelation, I just faced the change and moved on. Yes I'm fairly certain Anroide has an app for Issuu.

 

 

[kgwilson]

I have to agree that the printed paper era has passed its critical mass and is in major decline. Just look at the massive decline in newspaper sales, redundancies in editorial & other "hard copy" staff and the share prices of media companies who are not diversifying into web based alternatives. How many of us were conversing in on line forums 10 years ago? I spend a lot of time reading things via the web but still like and prefer to read a paper copy of the magazine so I took up the 18 months for the price of 12 offer right at the beginning.

 

I fear that the cost for this production will become too high to sustain the printed copy let alone the cost of delivery with the massive decline in posted paper letters. The only thing keeping Australia Post going is parcel delivery of "ON LINE" ordered goods. That and their diversification into web based systems like their "Digital Mailbox". Many companies are now charging for paper invoices as it costs a couple of dollars to produce and post the invoice. This is the reality of it all.

 

I spent my career in the Information Technology industry and when we first began using Emails in the early 1980s there were articles suggesting the "Paperless Office" in the technology press (yes printed magazines) but it never happened. Now this critical mass has reached the tipping point and the "Paperless Society" is well on its way to fruition. Cheap tablets & phones big enough to read stuff on are there now and WiFi is everywhere and mostly free (though more often than not, insecure). And I haven't even touched on Ebooks etc.

 

Like it or not paper based press, magazines and books are in massive decline and will end up a very expensive alternative to the point where their production will cease altogether in many situations. We can lament the changes but it won't stop them happening.

 

The standing joke among home builders was always "When the weight of the paperwork equals the weight of the aircraft, you have completed the certification process". Maybe that will now change to "When the number of gigabytes of data equals the number of kilograms of MTOW then you have completed the certification process".

 

 

[NT5224]

Interesting discussion.

 

Like many members here, I very much prefer a paper magazine, just for the feel of the feel of the thing and to get me away from a screen when we seem to spend all day looking at them. So I paid my subscription and took the hit, although I might defect to a rival publication that i consider of superior quality before signing up again.

 

But here's an observation. Many of us on here wail about the transition from paper magazine to online, but how many of us have happily transited from paper maps to OzRunways and Avplan or the equivalent as a primary navigation aid? (Of course with paper backups). So we've made the choice to squint at iPad screens anyway....

 

 

[SDQDI]

But here's an observation. Many of us on here wail about the transition from paper magazine to online, but how many of us have happily transited from paper maps to OzRunways and Avplan or the equivalent as a primary navigation aid? (Of course with paper backups). So we've made the choice to squint at iPad screens anyway....

Just reading this I would have to disagree as I think most people have transitioned from a 3 or 4 inch GPS to an iPad rather than paper maps to iPad. Yes yes everyone should be DRing but I would happilly gamble the family farm to a fiver that at least half of rec pilots are relying 90% on a GPS or iPad device.

 

On that point I do think it is silly that we are taught navigation exclusively with compass and clock. I am NOT saying we shouldn't be taught C and C but I do think a portion of our navs should be done with an iPad or GPS.

 

 

[frank marriott]

but I do think a portion of our navs should be done with an iPad or GPS.

Yes and to use the information they provide like BRG TRMG DRIFT etc and not just follow the line.

 

 

[rankamateur]

I am NOT saying we shouldn't be taught C and C but I do think a portion of our navs should be done with an iPad or GPS.

But when the weather report was way off, and the wind was 120 degrees out, didn't your instructor turn on the GPS to confirm that the signs on the ground were what you said they were, on your cross country training? Mine did.

 

 

[turboplanner]

On that point I do think it is silly that we are taught navigation exclusively with compass and clock. I am NOT saying we shouldn't be taught C and C but I do think a portion of our navs should be done with an iPad or GPS.

I agree, since so many are just pressing the button.

For many parts of Australia you would have to go blind to get lost - in the Latrobe Valley you have the mountains on one side and the sea on the other, and you'd get from Adelaide to Port Augusta for the same reasons, but my Nav 2 has stuck with me; I was hitting the turn points almost to the minute. One of them was around a 90 degree turn and there dead ahead were the three key items, a road, a lake and a railway line, who needs a map. Within about five minutes the Churches had moved, the big hill wasn't anywhere on the horizon, and the Instructor just said "You're lost, now get back on track" eventually I did by dropping down to 500 feet and reading the sign under a railway station verandah.

 

We've had the first triple failure reported by one person already - his phone battery was flat around the time he started; his GPS went down, so he pulled out his spare and it had a flat battery. And I'm sure he wasn't the only person to experience this. The trip ended without event because he was in easy country to identify, but what you have to guard against is a case like mine, which was quite close to Melbourne, but with multiple and duplicated messages.

 

One of the problems is the training is so minimised that it's boring and tends to be learnt parrot fashion; the raging battle over the 1 in 60 rule on here was an example that the message didn't get through to almost 50%.

 

If you want to get fired up by the power of Navigation techniques, the book "We the Navigators" by David Lewis (Amazon $11.95) is a great book, which also gets you into the early stages of being able to navigate quite reasonably just by looking up at the stars.

 

Here's another little unrelated story which will be of interest to keen navigators:

 

"The passenger steamer SS Warrimoo was quietly knifing its way through the waters of the mid-Pacific on its way from Vancouver to Australia.

 

The navigator had just finished working out a star fix and brought the master, Captain John Phillips, the result. The Warrimoo’s position was latitude 0 degrees x 31 minutes north and longitude 179 degrees x 30 minutes west.

 

The date was 31 December 1899. “Know what this means?” First Mate Payton broke in, “we’re only a few miles from the intersection of the Equator and the International Date Line”.

 

Captain Phillips was prankish enough to take full advantage of the opportunity for achieving the navigational freak of a lifetime. He called his navigators to the bridge to check and double check the ships position. He changed course slightly so as to bear directly on his mark. Then he adjusted the engine speed.

 

The calm weather and clear night worked in his favour.

 

At midnight the “Warrimoo” lay on the Equator at exactly the point where it crossed the International Date Line!

 

The consequences of this bizarre position were many. The forward part of the ship was in the Southern Hemisphere and the middle of summer. The stern was in the Northern Hemisphere and in the middle of winter. The date in the aft part of the ship was 31 December 1899. Forward it was 1 January 1900.

 

This ship was therefore not only in two different days, two different months, two different seasons and two different years but in two different centuries, all at the same time.

 

 

[NT5224]

Guys

 

It wasn't my intention to hijack this thread about Sport Pilot magazine and steer it over the contentious terrain of electronic navigation. It was just an observation of how people have moved from paper paps to GPS and tablets (I read in sport pilot somewhere that upward of 80% of rec pilots now use them -I certainly do), and yet we are on the whole reluctant to swap our paper magazines for e-readers.

 

But on the issue of electronic navigation aids, I always carry paper maps as back up, rather than additional electronic devices. So cross country I fly with Tablet (OzRunways), my cockpit mounted GPS and paper maps. Flight planning I plot my routes onto the maps prior to departure -and I'm pretty good at reading the terrain or flying to a bearing if I had failure of systems one and two. So I reckon map and whirly wheel training still relevant and essential, but agree with SDQDI that perhaps some elements of electronic navigation could be introduced into the syllabus ( if they aren't already there).

 

Alan

 

 

[poteroo]

On that point I do think it is silly that we are taught navigation exclusively with compass and clock. I am NOT saying we shouldn't be taught C and C but I do think a portion of our navs should be done with an iPad or GPS.

Agree...and I train using everything that's available. Flight plan by paper map/track/fcst/whizwheel, then do it on iPad, then insert the basic plan into the fixed GPS in the aircraft. Have student connect iPad to aircraft power plug, also carry standby charge-up battery for iPad and phone. The iPad and the aircraft GPS are used to demonstrate 1:60 error, also to check GS and ETA calcs done by whizwheel. Better to be multi-skilled than one dimensional!

 

happy days,

 

 

[robinsm]

To bring this thread back to the topic, I very rarely read the thing online now as I am to busy to sit down at a computer for any legth of time. The paper edition (when it was actually part of your fees) was handy as I could carry it and open it when I had a spare moment. Backward step if you ask me. I also have an issue with RAA not reducing the membership fee when the free magazine went west. Increase by stealth in membership fees.

 

 

[Admin]

I also have an issue with RAA not reducing the membership fee when the free magazine went west. Increase by stealth in membership fees.

And fees have now gone up again

 

 

[SDQDI]

Well as far as magazines go, I got a nice little "close call" magazine in the mail yesterday.

 

It would be nice if that became a regular thing.

 

 

[ave8rr]

And fees have now gone up again

Yes...noticed that appeared in the last "E" news.