Powerline incident with 'Ultralight' at Milang, So

[River]

Powerline incident with 'Ultralight' at Milang, So

 

Newswire from ABC indicatingincident with 'ultralight'... Anyone have further knowledge of this reporting?

 

"ABC New Online - Last Update: Saturday, May 13, 2006. 4:08pm (AEST)

 

Lucky escape for ultralight crew

 

A pilot and his female passenger escaped serious injury when an ultra-light aircraft clipped powerlines and made an emergency landing in a paddock near Milang on the Fleurieu Peninsula south of Adelaide.

 

The incident happened on the Milang to Finiss Road just after 11:00am ACST.

 

The female passenger suffered an injury to her shoulder."

 

 

[TechMan]

Have not heard anything. Will check with Lee or Middo for more info.

 

Chris

 

 

[greggf]

I have to submit the following article to the national press:

 

"Uneventful ultralight flight ends successfully."

 

Port Macquarie, Sunday 14 May. Two Port Macquarie men escaped injury when their ultralight aircraft miraculously landed safely after a 90 minute flight around the region today. Witnesses reported the aircraft sounded fine as it approached the airport and, minutes later it flared and touched down gently on runway 21.

 

Residents of Port Macquarie had earlier noticed the aircraft cruising overhead, apparently under full control, but had been unaware of the potential disaster. Interviewed immediately after leaving the aircraft, pilot Gregg amazed onlookers with his statement that "The flight was very smooth and enjoyable".

 

Despite the media interest aroused by their miraculous escape, the two intrepid aviators have stated their intention to repeat the death-defying activity next weekend. Of course, outside broadcast vans and satellite uplinks will be positioned to capture live next week's uneventful flight.

 

Eddie Maguire is believed to have offered a very large but undisclosed sum for the exclusive rights to the story of "The flight that landed safely".

 

Gregg

 

 

[Ultralights]

 

[River]

I have to submit the following article to the national press:"Uneventful ultralight flight ends successfully."

 

Port Macquarie, Sunday 14 May. Two Port Macquarie men escaped injury when their ultralight aircraft miraculously landed safely after a 90 minute flight around the region today. Witnesses reported the aircraft sounded fine as it approached the airport and, minutes later it flared and touched down gently on runway 21.

 

Residents of Port Macquarie had earlier noticed the aircraft cruising overhead, apparently under full control, but had been unaware of the potential disaster. Interviewed immediately after leaving the aircraft, pilot Gregg amazed onlookers with his statement that "The flight was very smooth and enjoyable".

 

Despite the media interest aroused by their miraculous escape, the two intrepid aviators have stated their intention to repeat the death-defying activity next weekend. Of course, outside broadcast vans and satellite uplinks will be positioned to capture live next week's uneventful flight.

 

Eddie Maguire is believed to have offered a very large but undisclosed sum for the exclusive rights to the story of "The flight that landed safely".

 

Gregg

Ace! Greg, Well done...You make a very good point really... It's disappointingly rare to see any good-news or positive news being reported in our media those days...

Reminds me of a small 2/3 minute video clip, though it could have actually been movie film of a light hearted spoof with Howard Hughes (of Australian Lightwing) and his band of merry men designing and test flying a flying aluminium tinnie boat. Damm it was funny. It was shown on the digital ABC

 

free-to-air late one night possibly as a fill-in… We need more of these lighter an genuine moments of our aviation pursuits. But at the same we should not forget the real world too about flying safely too.

 

Cheers,

 

Rodger

 

 

[Guest joe]

You can still see the flying tinnie at Howies wedsite. it is a classic!

 

 

[Ed Herring]

Yesterdays local Sunday Mail reported that the Pilot was practicing landing. The TV news last night reported that the injurys may be more serious than they first reported. It was also reported that apparently the Pilot did not see the single wire due to the power poles being hidden. It is allways a sad story when ever an incident could havbe been avoided. Low flying has inherent dangers and while hindsight is great, the rest of us can and should learn from this and any incident we hear about. It should be a wake up call to us all so lets hope it is!

 

Regards and Safe Flying

 

Ed

 

 

[greggf]

Hope noone slings wires over the beaches around here. Not that I would ever fly below 500 feet... ever... no, not ever......

 

 

[Guest micgrace]

Hi guys,

 

I am of the opinion that power lines are virtually impossible to see from the air.

 

Unfortunate optics "trick" leads to this called critical angle. i.e. angle between wire and lexan. The image will reflect straight off it.(some does come through). Ever seen the sun reflect off plain glass? This is what causes it The image being so small anyway, this may account for it (this is just my pet theory ) Some simple calcs can prove it. It naturally doesn't affect ground/trees since it's near impossible to get near the critical angle. ie. sin (angle to ground) = refractive index air/refractive index lexan. gives about some 38 -40 degrees from the screen almost exactly matching where you would be looking when landing.

 

The only real suggestion I can come up is make a note of all posts in an area. If they are in a line you can almost bet there is something hanging between them.

 

Also power companies always have a cleared area around and along them.

 

If anybody has any suggestions on how to spot them feel free to comment.

 

Micgrace

 

 

[Guest Fred Bear]

There's an easy way to spot powerlines.

 

Spot them from the ground when you do a visual re-con of your proposed landing area.

 

Anyone who fails to perform a re-con prior to flying into an unknown area is in my opinion, crazy. Or, if you have someone that you trust from an aviation perspective to do the re-con for you, it's better than nothing.

 

If you are unsure of the conditions of the strip / paddock or whatever, don't land there.

 

One of the problems caused by the freedom to fly anywhere and land practically anywhere because you can is a tendency to not have a good look around first. eg. I've got my shiny new Foxbat that can land in 95 metres, so I'll just put her down on the side of that hill over there; that looks good.

 

I was once at a crash when a Bell JetRanger ploughed into power lines filming a Mazda commercial. The pilot assured us that he had taken all necessary measures... he hadn't. There was a story about it in CASA's Flight Safety magazine, titled "Bird on a wire." I was there when it happened and it wasn't pretty.

 

Steer cleer of power lines!

 

 

[TechMan]

If you are unsure of the conditions of the strip / paddock or whatever, don't land there. Steer cleer of power lines!

Bit difficult to achieve for gliders.

Great idea for 'operational' powered aircraft. Usually though the only time when you are looking for a place to land in a paddock is when the fan stops.

 

I comes down to looking for signs of where power lines may be, ie clumps of grass in an open paddock, running along the edge of tree lines, edges of roads, etc and planning your approach when you are high enough. All well and good if they are the older style powerlines with two or more wires.

 

The SWER line addes a whole new issue.

 

But, I agree with your comment, stay away from them.

 

Chris

 

 

[Guest micgrace]

Hi

 

Actually not that hard to achieve a correct landing when gliding. However you must at all times be very aware of altitude in relation to landing area (strip) and not let height decay before being placed into an impossible situation. "lift" free zone. Not a bad practice to follow with powered aircraft.

 

Micgrace