Freizeitpilot

https://www.aero-expo.com/conferences/hydrogen-and-battery-summit#1 Aero Friedrichshafen is the largest GA exhibition in Europe. This accompanying conference will provide an insight into the current European thinking for non fossil fuel flight. The presentation on a hydrogen powered 916is engine should be interesting.

The PB team are absolute professionals, and all strength to them. Lets hope the pilot fully recovers and is able to get back on the horse. What interests me is how the ATSB chooses which accidents to investigate. I know this has been dealt with elsewhere on this forum, but why this particular accident in what is clearly recognised as a high risk activity, versus others where the cause is a complete mystery and the consequences were even worse ? I’m not into conspiracy theories but it would be a bad look, if the ATSB said ‘nah, nothing to learn here’ when there were hundreds of witnesses and loads of media around. Ultimately, it would help if there was a publicly available decision matrix from the ATSB that identifies when an investigation is warranted and when one is not, within their limited budget. I respect the individuals within the ATSB and really do hope they perform a thorough investigation so we and the PB team can all learn and enhance safety further.

Extract from AFR……. Labor has quietly walked back a key plank of its plans to decarbonise Australia’s road freight industry, emptying an $80 million fund it set up three years ago to turbocharge the take-up of hydrogen-powered trucks. Tuesday’s budget revealed that the government had removed $75 million of uncommitted funding from the Hydrogen Highways program, which was meant to encourage the use of hydrogen-fuelled trucks and the construction of charging stations along major freight routes.

When exploring a project near Chinchilla a few years ago, there were no rail slots available from there to the Port of Brisbane…..and a vague recollection there was a weight limit on the track as well.

Ummm, western QLD ?? Ord river, etc, etc ?

A non-fossil fuel solution for heavy road haulage still seems a challenge. Maybe this is where hydrogen will find a niche. (Not sure about nitrogen though) There are already good heavy short haul solutions around using quick change battery packs, but the long distance road trains a still a bit of a head scratch.

Yes - grass is such a different animal to bitumen, amongst other things.

It may break even….or even turn a profit from advertising ? - I don’t know .You’d need to dig deep into the financials to figure that out. Member engagement and nurturing a ‘community’ is key. A membership magazine may be a very small part of that, but given the diversity of interests and opinions across recreational aviation, it would be challenging to hit the centreline every time. I’m not too fussed about the magazine for or against. I do note the editor does write a lot of the articles though, which suggests that member contributed articles are practically zero, which is a pity. I read Flying Australia as well, and used to read Australian Pilot when it was a print version in newsagents. Some articles in all these magazines were interesting to me, others I’d skip over. Someone said, if you can please some of the people, some of the time, you’re doing ok. Ultimately, to make the magazine feel more genuine to the membership, more grass roots member articles would help……but who is going to volunteer to write them ? I’m just a passive member that just likes flying and I don’t get too worked up about all the ‘baggage’ that goes with it. Maybe some day I’ll fly somewhere unique and particularly interesting and I’ll be motivated to dip my quill into the ink.

Is that a Lightwing ?

I was a pax in a Bonanza years ago on a flight to Lightning Ridge when the top latch of the door popped open. No big deal - landed at Coona and closed it.

I forgot the screenshot, for those that are interested.

One of the critical risks I see is that a TODR or LDR calculation is simply not performed because of a ‘she’ll be right’ attitude or a couldn’t be bothered thumbing through the POH. There is an unsophisticated, quick and dirty app available that can be used at your own risk. This app utilises your POH figures (rightly or wrongly), is very simple to use once set up for your aircraft, and can spit out a reasonable estimate based on prevailing conditions. The sliding scale function serves to indicate the influence of the individual factors on the TODR or LDR result. Do I rely on an unverified random app I found on the internet ? Nope ! Do I use it as a rough estimate of what I may expect on a particular day at a particular ALA - Yep! Before the keyboard warriors get hot under the collar, I have cross-referenced the app outputs with my POH table. So far my POH figures are a tad optimistic, but I suspect that is most likely due to the PIC (me). The key figure for me is always the distance to 50’ as I’ve got trees to clear, and there have been days when I’ve stayed on the ground. Use the app for entertainment value only, like I do. Available in the App Store : Take-off. (distance calculator) Don’t know if there is an android version. I have no affiliation with the app developer.

It’s an appropriate example of unintended consequences that no one thought of when security measures were increased.

Yes- I can think of two where a pilot hijacked the plane.

Yeah - the pilot was displaying one when he escorted the intruder into the divvy van.