DarkSarcasm

I thought the BAK was a pre-requisite for the test?

I'm glad to hear you're all pleased I'm still around So, the story... It was my 5th nav. We were onto the second leg, near the western edge of Melbourne, flying along doing our thing. I was in control. I saw the eagle a second before the impact. I saw it to the left side of the nose, wings outstretched, I could see it's talons and everything. A second later there was an almighty bang as the bird hit and I let out several words that I probably shouldn't be saying . We took a second to process what had happened, then the FI took control as we assessed the damage and we turned to head home. We thought it had hit the LH wing, so were mainly looking at that. There was a slight dent in the leading edge and some bloodstains but overall it seemed fine. It was flying quite well so I took control again as we headed back. As we got over the initial adrenaline rush, we started to look more closely at it. It was flying quite well, but there was a slight vibration - but I wasn't sure if that was caused by the strike or if I was overanalysing normal things because of the strike. It was also flying fairly out of balance - needed a bootful of right rudder and if you released the pressure on the pedal it'd swing right out of balance again. Then I heard my FI say quietly 'Look at the elevator'. I turned to look at the elevator and just softly went 'Holy ' You've seen the photos in my initial post - it was, well, kinda squashed. I think we both had a moment of 'Oh. My. God.' My FI immediately took control and since we were closest to Moorabbin, we got a priority approach into YMMB and landed. We taxiied over to the maintenance hangar, shut down, then got out to finally see the full extent of the damage. The bird had clearly hit the LH wing as we thought - there was a dent and bloodstains and a single feather hanging off it. Then it seemed to have gone over the top of the wing and hit the stabilator. There was also a dent in the fuselage on the RH side (see tomo's post with my photo). We called the school and they sent someone over to pick us up and we headed home (in a different plane to the one we left in!). It didn't really hit me until I was driving home from the field, I think I was running on adrenaline until then. I think I spent the rest of the weekend thinking about it. I have to say, I was very very glad it happened in the Warrior rather than something like the Jab. Warrior's are built like tanks and it still suffered that much damage. I'm guessing the eagle is dead or if not, it'll definitely have a serious headache Actually, probably not as interesting as you'd imagine. A big bang, a loud expletive/exclamation after the bang, a quiet 'holy ****' after seeing the elevator and, other than that, calm discussion. Never fear, Bazza is still flying :) This was a different one. Considering the damage, it was actually flying pretty well! Just a slight vibration and out of balance, but definitely better than you'd expect with that damage. haha, they were just fine

dual (thankfully)

haha, ok, fine This is what I did on my weekend: [ATTACH]12359.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]12361.vB[/ATTACH] Can't say it was that much fun...

When the ERSA gets updated every few months, is there anywhere where it's listed which pages have been updated? Like a list of which airfield pages have been updated so you can print those pages and stick them in the old ERSA? Or do you have to buy a new one each time and just hope that they've made a bigger change than just correcting spelling mistakes?

Same here to be honest. I view it with happy nostalgia but it wasn't quite the BIGGEST FLYING MOMENT EVER that I kinda expected it to be.

On upwind/crosswind I got through a rousing first verse of 'Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines'. On downwind I chatted to the plane - "We're a bit too high here, let's go down a bit ok?" On base and final I talked to myself, talked to the plane, swore and cracked up laughing (nervous laughter I'm guessing) when I touched down on what I felt was a less than spectacular landing (I'm fairly certain I landed on one wheel) It was a blast :big_grin:

Hi Dick, Does the 5 hours of solo consolidation include RA solo time, or is it solo consolidation in the GA aircraft?

I'm converting to GA at the moment as well, although I haven't got the XC endo so I'll be doing all my navs in GA. Have you considered perhaps flying from your field to wherever you learn? I know hire fees might push the cost up, but it might be about the same as 3.5 hours each way of petrol! My school, Lilydale Flying School, are a dual GA/RA school so they've got lots of experience with the conversion, plus if you did decide to fly to the lessons you could probably easily pop round the north of Melbourne from ballarat to lilydale. They do have a 172 (and maybe a 152, I'm not sure) but do most of the GA training in Warriors. If you want more info, feel free to PM me :) The question that comes to my mind is, how on earth do they have any customers with prices like that?! Wouldn't the instructor fee be part of the dual hire fee for the aircraft?

My condolences BigPete. I know everyone's thoughts are with you

Why? Because parliament makes crappy laws? Because they conduct legal actions on behalf of their clients who employ them to do so? I tend to stay away from arguments about 'lawyers are evil' but they do often seem to get a bad rep for things that aren't their fault.

phew!! I was getting worried there for a minute...

In my defence, I'm only quoting lyrics...

...bring your knees in tiiiight...

It's just a pull to the left.... and then a step to the riiiiiiiight

Yeah for some reason I thought giving a few months notice might be a good plan, leave time to get used to the idea.

I've been told I have to take out accident cover if I'm going to do aeros - so if I have a prang, I have insurance to pay medical bills etc. In the interests of keeping the peace, I've agreed to look into it Noooo way, don't worry about that :)

Anyone know anything about accident insurance? (I've been informed I need accident insurance, not life insurance). Apparantly there is little faith in my not having a prang with this aeros shindig :ne_nau:

Just FYI :) Told my mum last night I'm gonna be doing aeros next year...let's just say, that was a bad idea! (and no, that isn't the point of this post) Anyway, apparantly I've been informed that if I'm going to do that, I need to take out life insurance. A couple of guys on the chat mentioned that most life insurers go bananas when they find out you're a pilot, so I figured I'd share this website I found that specialises in life insurance for pilots, just in case anyone was interested - Pilots Insurance - Pilots Insurance

What about for those of us who weren't in the chat last night and are curious? I'm interested, why would you fly it in 40kt winds?

Why/how could that be illegal?

[ATTACH]12139.vB[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]12140.vB[/ATTACH] Photos of Cirrus SR22 Gen 3 taken at YLIL when they were there for demo flights

Well, apparantly he's not making the display models anymore. Anyone have any other suggestions about where I could get one?

I didn't look there, nicely done

Our next question is 'what is a commercial operation'? In the time honoured style of legislation, the definition is vague (and therefore probably next to useless). Then we ask 'well what's a private operation'? and of course there's no definition and we're left up to our own devices.I'd argue that a commercial operation is one where you're aiming for a profit, or at least payment beyond simple hiring costs. I'd argue that cost sharing isn't a commercial operation - an opinion which isn't just me it seems, when I got my PAX endo I had an FI cheerfully tell me that now I could build up hours for half price due to cost sharing and squeezing friends for money (although my friends seem to have other ideas at the moment). I think the main thing here would be profit making intent - so you go into it intending to make a profit. Then it was be possible to easily argue that it is a commercial operation. Avoid the problem entirely by you paying for the aircraft hire then 'selling' him a tictac for whatever the hire price was? He didn't hire the aircraft, you did, he was just strange enough to want to pay that much for a tictac... What I would do is put a note on fb asking if anyone wants to come for a fly, then if they say yes send them a private message that some contribution to the cost would be appreciated since hiring costs aren't cheap. Nobody can say you're advertising publicly then (I assume).