FlyingVizsla

@shajen Just wondering about how the shade cloth handles rain. I assume it is 90% - or is it fully water proof. I am thinking about what drips through the roof during rain or condensation. Good solution to the temporary hangar though! Sue

Contact the Maryborough Aero Club www.maryboroughaeroclub.com Crayonbox (on this site) is the club captain. Everything is up in the air, but hoping things are back to "normal" by then.

Our magazine arrived - finally - now to decide which of the three to vote for, if any.... I can't see any great RAA experience, so may have to go on Corporate knowledge and hope they get a handle on the issues in RAA later.

Sport Pilot August 2020 is now on-line at issuu.com - search for Sport Pilot 2020. Still have not received our print copy.

Each candidate has to declare any conflict of interest in their election statement. MM's is --------- Declaration of financial interests related to aviation Majority shareholder of Lockr Life Pty Ltd (LLPL) – provider of products and services to the aviation sector. LLPL writes and sells lockr.aero aviation logbook products for pilots and aircraft maintenance tracking. In addition to this, LLPL also distributes CTLS aircraft and related parts in Australia. LLPL also provides bespoke software and consulting services to aviation businesses on a national and international basis. ---------- The other candidates have listed their Conflict of Interest in their Statements. I would rather have one with "skin in the game" than one without. In our previous elections there were candidates who had very little time with RAA and very little (if any) time around ultralights. Unless they bring strong skills in areas where the Board is deficient, they'll be passengers while they 'catch up'. I fear that RAA, unintendedly, is attracting people wanting to put on their CVs "Director on the Board of Australia's largest Aviation Organisation" and claim any advances as their own. I wrongly assumed members would have had lots of time in lock-down to think about volunteering for the Board to right the wrongs, improve our sport and make the world a better place. Instead there was apathy.

Have not seen Sport Pilot, not in the letter box, not on the RAA site, not on issuu.com and no word on when it is due - has obviously missed the 1st August publication date. Their website is pace.com.au Now this will put RAA into a difficult situation as the ballots must be received or at least post marked 25th Sept. I see the AGM (due in November) has been postponed to Feb 2021. The next "Meet the Candidates" is due 26th August. Lets hope the other three have done some homework on RAA, as they struck me as knowing very little about the issues, apart from Simon wanting RAA instructor hours to count towards a GA Instructor rating. I guess word got around Canberra that there was a Director position going as someone was not re-standing. I regret not putting my hand up. Michael Monk has said several times that this is his last term. He will not be standing again, so one of the other unpaid Directors will be the head of RAA. I just hope they have as much energy and time to travel around. Several existing Directors are employed full time elsewhere. At least MM gets around the country (& on live stream during the virus). The last time I saw so much of our leadership was back in the days of the AUF when Middo and Myles did our flying school inspections, and NATfly, but we were a much smaller organisation then, with mostly volunteer instructors and a lot of the admin done by volunteers, which caused some issues later.

Voting closes on the 25th September, with usually a week or more for postal votes to arrive, then we will have two winners. The ballot papers will be in the August edition of Sport Pilot (which still hasn't arrived at our place) and another "Meet the Candidates" live broadcast 9th Sept. There are two vacancies, obviously Michael Monk is standing again, but it looks like the other Director isn't re-contesting.

You can take out a "Non-Flying" membership - about $100 which includes the magazine, voting rights etc. There's also a "subscription only" membership. It will be on the RAA site. If your health (or whatever improves) you can still return to flying with a BFR and rejoining with a pilot certificate. Hope you do!

Well, just sat through 85 + minutes of the four candidates. Apart from Michael Monk, I wasn't overly impressed with any others. Seems to have attracted Defence Force, Canberra based candidates. I thought about standing, but decided I wasn't well known and wouldn't have a hope, but at least I knew a lot more about recreational flying. Next "Meet the Candidates" will be 9th Sept.

Meet the candidates Election Candidate panel discussion - LIVE Wednesday 12 August 2020 at 7pm AEST As part of our election cycle this year RAAus is working to encourage more members to vote, and engage with candidates online. Whilst this idea was born out of lockdown, it is an ideal way for more members to “meet” potential directors and become more informed about those people elected to lead RAAus. RAAus encourages all members to submit questions prior to the live stream. Please email [email protected] The live stream will be independently moderated and will give all candidates an opportunity to openly engage. If you would like to learn more about the candidates you can view their election statements in the member portal, and in the August edition of Sport Pilot which will be landing in member's mailboxes soon. Also included in Sport Pilot are a ballot paper and return envelope. Voting in the RAAus 2020 Board Election closes on 25 September. There will be more opportunities for members to ask questions and engage with candidates throughout August. To view the live panel discussion this Wednesday 12 August at 7:00pm AEST, please click here for Facebook, or view on YouTube.

Log on to the RAA members' portal - go to Governance - 2020 Elections. There you will find the statements from all 4 candidates. They are: Michael Monk (standing for re-election) Andrew Scheiffers Simon Ozanne Danni Maynard

Just about anything that thrives in the sub-tropics - Mango (3 varieties), Lychee, bananas (3 varieties), Guava (6 varieties), plum (4), peach, grumachama, Brazilian cherry, jackfruit (2), jaboticaba, 5 star fruit (carambola), Lonergan, Ceylon cherry, Citrus - Lemons (4), lemonade, mandarin (3), oranges (3 - Cara Cara, navels, Valencias), Lime, Kafia Lime, figs, Sugar plum, Black Sapote, persimmon, pomegranate, loquat (3), apple (3), medlar, bunya nut, macadamia nut, Saba nut/ Malabar chestnut, pecan nut, dragon fruit (3), lily-pilly, Burdekin plum, Quandong, passionfruit, Giant Granadilla, Cape Gooseberry, strawberry, mulberry, grapes etc. I grow a lot of vegetables. We have 86 acres with 30 & 2.5 acre cropping areas and 2.5 acres of orchard & lots of sheds. We need lots of sheds because Mr FV thinks he is living another 400 years and has lined the jobs up accordingly. He is currently restoring a 1951 Oliver Clertac dozer, a Cat 112F grader, David Brown 885 Tractor, trying to rebuild the motorcycle he got smashed up on in 1991 (he breaks nearly every bone, every 30 years and is now half metal - but not worth $6million!). Plenty of planes to finish building, repairing, hangars needing repair, equipment, etc. He just loves junk and the house, sheds etc are chokkers with things that don't work, will never work (analogue mobiles & TVs), are surplus, have been dumped on us by his sons (car bodies, dead HWS, rusted guttering....) can't part with anything! My father would periodically take stock, and decide that "this stuff is costing too much", whereas Mr FV will gladly build another $20,000 shed to house $100 worth of rust and spent about $30k moving all the junk (about 60 trips truck & trailer over 5 years) to the new farm. Bless him!

Old K - I tried to PM a copy to you, but at 4MB the system says it is too large - it is a pdf. can't get any smaller. Sorry.

Not on-line. It is our local group's newsletter which goes out to members before a meeting with lots of great information, but most importantly, the whereabouts of the next meeting and competition (fruit cooking) - we meet at members' properties. With no meetings due to the lock-down and the age of most members, I have filled the spare pages with more info. Normally half of it would be reports of the last meeting, the winning recipes, the raffle, fruit tastings, etc. It is picked up by the National body and I sometimes see my articles re-printed in other clubs' newsletters. Now, if you could convince Ian to create a "Gardening for Sub-Tropical Pilots" on the forum, I could populate it with Bunya Nuts, Bananas, Cape Gooseberries, Dragon fruit, Saba Nut, soil testing etc. Sue

Mr FV is interested in engines - in planes, graders, dozers, trucks, chainsaws, motorcycles. Aircraft design, particularly early ultralights and his "Golden Age" of flight, between WWI & WWII I'm interested in planes and flying. I also do a lot of gardening / farming. I put out a bi-monthly "Rare Fruit Club" newsletter of 20 pages with articles on unusual native & exotic fruits (growing and eating) and associated gardening information. We have both been quiet as there has been no flying due to the lock-down. In fact we have been busier than "normal" due to the Pandemic with about 400 years work ahead of us.

Been years since I was there as a local. They were a bit cheesed off with people thinking it was a public strip for Carnarvon Gorge National Park and slapped a big landing fee on them. Fair enough, they maintained it for the Flying Doctor (retrieving injured tourists ...) and their own use. They have to insure it for these uses. Google has errors in road names - It is Carnarvon Gorge road, not O'Briens or Wyseby (don't know how they came about). There is an airstrip closer at Bandana Station, down Bandana Road, off Carnarvon Gorge Rd, but looking at the satellite image on Google Maps, it is looking a little overgrown. They operate a tourist attraction there and may welcome fly-in visitors. Let us know how it turns out, as I have not been there in years and may be way out of date. I worked on the roads there for the local Council (there's a camp at Ingalala) and did some flood damage work.

Three decades ago, young pilots would cry on my shoulder about how either they couldn't find a girlfriend who liked their flying or their present squeeze was demanding they give it up. Amused me that they never saw me as an option, maybe they saw me as 'one of the lads'. The only "offer" I got was from the LAME who saw the advantage in a partner who flew and owned a plane (ie could position aircraft for free and he could pinch the occasional instrument). This probably explains why I never married until my mid 50's - to a widowed aircraft builder & pilot who had a lot less hours than I had. Trouble is, he insists on doing all the flying and his hours are steadily creeping up..... Sue

Mr FV swears by oil sampling, but the way we do it is a waste of time. He was used to heavy machinery testing where the oil sample was analysed, compared with baselines, alerts were issued and advice on engine was routine. He didn't have to understand any of the chemical elements. We buy oil sampling kits through Caltex - about $43.50 which includes a replay paid satchel - and have about 4 floating around unused. He has done tests through Komatsu and Caltex. They all give readings for particles etc, but none give him any analysis. They are littered with "Unknown" "Diagnosis Not Applicable" "Interpretation not available" "refer results to an aircraft engineer" "results may not .. be acceptable" with blank graphs. He works on "tell 'em nothing, take 'en nowhere" and as a consequence they can't tell him anything. He relies on someone ringing him to alert him to a problem (as they did with heavy plant) but they won't, so he assumes everything is OK. Here's an example of an oil test. On the back are 6 blank graphs. 01081402.PDF

The ABC report https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-17/man-dies-light-plane-crash-near-nsw-aero-club/12257052 A man has died in a light plane crash near an aero club near Maitland in the NSW Hunter Region. Police were called to a property in Windella, about 50 kilometres from Newcastle, after 10:15am following reports a plane had crashed in a backyard. The man, who is yet to be identified, was the single occupant of the aircraft. Officers have established a crime scene. It's unclear whether the plane crashed taking off or landing but the wreckage is believed to be close to the Royal Newcastle Aero Club.

Opps! It is "AirNews" Forgot CASA's Flight Safety. The Winter edition is due out any day. They do love black ink and dark backgrounds.

AOPA went digital and is no longer a magazine format. You have to be a member and log in to the website, then trawl through a few unconnected articles. Ben Morgan does AOPA Sport monthly (last one was Feb 2020) and quarterly Student Pilot (last one was July-Sept 2019) & AOPA Pilot (last one Feb 2020). The monthly is a bit hit or miss and arrives when it does .... Nothing like the old print magazine. Kitplanes is good. I get the print magazine delivered, but also have access to the digital, and they send me Kitplanes Weekly (usually a collection of new and old articles). EAA from the USA is good. I get the print magazine, and for $10 extra I signed up Mr FV to a digital edition (we swapped) I read it on-line, then the magazine turns up. I get the Australian Women Pilots Association "Airwaves" quarterly - a members' magazine. These are the best of the print magazines.

Older people staying at home would have a good idea of who (if any) visited them. The app is more use with mobile younger people who may be quite vague about who and where they have been over the past week.

Here's the announcement from EAA We Don’t Gamble, We Need A Sure Thing AirVenture 2020 is officially canceled My fellow EAA’rs. It is May here in Wisconsin, and unfortunately like many of you across the country, we are still under a stay at home order through May 26. Normally, this is the month when we start our preflight planning for EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. By this time, we should have begun ramping up our entire site in preparation for our July convention. Volunteers from across the country and world would have descended on Oshkosh. Together they would have formed work parties, our suppliers would begin start setting up tents and infrastructure. Our EAA staff would be printing wrist bands, campers guides, programs and an assortment of EAA collateral as full-on AirVenture execution begins. But because of circumstances beyond our control, none of this can happen now. We cannot even get to the hangar so our preflight is left to watching the prog charts. While this certainly makes the ability to prepare for the event a scheduling problem, it does not preclude the bigger issue of predicting what will be the health guidelines in July. Right now, there are three phases that have been defined in Wisconsin as the recommended procedures. As I write this, we are not in Phase 1 yet. Phase 2 restricts gatherings to 50 people. Phase 3 allows for mass gathering with restrictions. Our convention attracts EAA members not only from the U.S. but around the world. Today we cannot predict when we will be at a point that our event meets the all clear Phase 3 milestone for mass gathering with restrictions. As your leader, I see no clear path to meet our own requirements to insure the health and safety expectations our organization demands for our employees, members, volunteers, exhibitors and attendees. That includes sanitization, separation and personal protection requirements. My conclusion is, like in any good flight planning, don’t take the risk. Therefore, I have no choice but to cancel AirVenture 2020. Together, we can come back stronger, safer and ready for AirVenture 2021 and create a memorable world class aviation event. Because of our dedicated and enthusiastic EAA members, our Association is strong. We know that at some point this storm will pass. And over the next 12 months we will continue to support all of you as we again, together, grow EAA in the Spirit of Aviation. Respectfully, alt=Jack J. Peltonhttp://pages.eaa.org/rs/910-SEU-073/images/signature-jack.jpg[/img] Jack J. Pelton Experimental Aircraft Association CEO and Chairman of the Board

Look under "Experimental" for the NON-certified version. Under $3k AUD including optional battery. My next adventure is to convince him to finally sign up for OzRunways. He is getting better at driving his iPad and 10 years ago would have flatly refused to have anything to do with tech that wasn't steam powered. He spent the weekend reading the User & installation Manuals and watching everything on YouTube, and decided today, that it was all he wanted and more. It arrives Friday.

The D1 was $1,475 AUD, which was $200 more than advertised; another thing that left a sour taste. The Supplier's advert on the RAA magazine didn't change for months after we rang and were told the price had gone up / advert was a misprint etc. Later found out this was an oft used ploy by this mob. So a charge of $450 USD (presently $750 AUD) plus freight and no assurances, even though they had seen this problem before. We were throwing good money away on outdated tech. The price of the G5, with optional battery back-up is on the Garmin, Pacific Aviation site. They have stock in Australia.