FlyingVizsla

Welcome Joe! Unfortunately you won't get away from CASA by marrying the daughter RAA! However the exemptions do give us some freedoms. We have a RANS S7 Courier (home built from a kit) and love it. I did my conversion from C152 to ultralights in a Lightwing and we are looking at doing an airstrip at home. There's plenty on establishing your own airstrip on this forum. Depends a lot on your local Council. What are you flying now? Sue

Look forward to it! Look for me - Sue, 4'7" with the 6' husband, RANS, Lightwing etc. Russell is gold standard when it comes to instructing. Unfortunately we don't get out there as much we would like, dividing our time between Springsure and Childers. Childers will be doing a Fly-in Breakfast again soon (date TBA) as the Club facilities will be up & running. Extended the shed & included a dunny. Nothing too good for the navvies these days.

Maryborough has a section in the book Queensland Airfields WW2 - 50 Years On, Roger R Marks, self published Brisbane 1994, ISBN 0 646 12769 1 Its a comprehensive 280 page book documenting a life time's study. Roger was a civil engineer who lived and worked over a wide range of Qld towns, including Maryborough and had an interest in aviation from an early age. I met him, at a fly-in somewhere 1994-1995 with the HARS (I bought a flying jacket) and he sold me a signed copy - No.1,407 - so it's not that special. But I have read it many times and it is getting dog eared, as I moved around Western Qld building roads and using airstrips. It's a small world - I believe Roger had a prang with a motorcycle about 1962 in Maryborough - I married the motorcyclist with the broken leg 46 years later. Mr FV's father used to fly a Gypsy Moth out of Maryborough. He was a pupil of Cyril Brett (Brisbane) and a member of the Maryborough Club. He got his licence in 1932 and flew down to Sydney the day after the Harbour Bridge was opened. Unfortunately he is deceased. Marriage and 7 children put an end to his flying in the 1940's, so his children don't remember much. Recommend the book. Will keep an eye out for memorabilia. Unfortunately Mr FV (hoarder extraordinaire) doesn't have a CAC Wackett squirrelled away in his multiple sheds. Good Luck.

Welcome back Moose. If you can, drop in to Childers airstrip. There's a vibrant community of aviators. Wed morning is an informal fly-in & get together for smoko, Sunday morning has a few who fly in, and there is usually activity of a weekend. Meetings are held 1st Saturday of the month about 10am followed by a bring-your-own to BBQ for lunch. Unfortunately our next meeting - 5th May - is a long weekend with a lot on elsewhere, so there'll still be people, just not a formal meeting. What are you gliding / flying now-a-days? Sue

Hi David! Plenty to get sidetracked on - on this site! Sue

Pilot named as Tim Pettitt. BREAKING: Tributes flow for Yeppoon pilot found in wreckage

Unfortunate outcome - Pilot found deceased at Baffle Creek. BREAKING: Missing pilot found dead in wreckage

"IT'S been almost 24-hours since a 78-year-old pilot went missing on a journey that was only meant to take two hours. With no confirmed sightings of the aircraft since it left the Bundaberg airstrip at 1.45pm yesterday rescue crews are working tirelessly. Six rescue helicopters from across the state are still searching for the missing pilot and gyrocopter. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority revealed the pilot took off from Booyan Airstrip, 22 kilometres north of Bundaberg, at 1.45pm yesterday on a trip to Farnborough just north of Yeppoon - a regular route for the 78-year-old. BREAKING: More assets join desperate search for pilot

Welcome Doran Tell me a bit more about your Cygnet .. There are lots of builders on this site and a lot cogitating over what to build, so there'll be plenty of interest. I too, grew up in planes with a flying father. Sue

Welcome Matty! Call in to Childers airfield and say Hello. Working Bee on this Sat, so there should be a few around, particularly from early morning (getting in some aviation before the hard work). Smoko & lunch on. Club meetings 10am first Sat of the month. Wed morning smoko (and Sundays) are an excuse for aircraft to fly in from Bundy and Hervey Bay with bun loaf & biscuits. Usually find someone there. Sue

I'll bet some wag had "finger trouble" and put in 100,000 hours for the year, just to see what would happen .... Hopefully the system has "unbelievable!" alerts for the staff. The 12,000 members (actually 11,079) came about when one of the office staff quoted the number of memberships, but failed to take off the ones who had resigned, and the Executive signed that off in the 2011 Annual Report and didn't bother to ask where the extra 1,500 odd people came from.

I gather ELAAA have over reached themselves trying for non-commercial helicopters and the sub 1,500kg fixed wing GA sector. It is a pity, as there are plenty of single engine recreational GA planes whose owners would like to trade off things like NVR, free rego etc, for owner maintenance, even if it is at an annual cost. Personally I would have started with ultralights, got established within what is accepted and then tried for greater weight and other types and engaged some people who know how to word manuals and administrative instruments. Still hoping they get up for the lower end of GA's sake.

We built a RANS S7. It goes together like a big Meccano set, good instructions, parts packaged & labelled. The challenges are fabric covering and painting. Seating is one behind the other. Can be configured to fly by either person (we are both pilots). Will be more expensive as the US & AUD $ drift apart. It took 6 years to build, but that was because he was working away, his first wife had cancer and months of travel for treatment, she died, he started chasing women and it took him 18 months to snare me and add my aircraft to his fleet. With just the two of us, both working, it might have been 2 years. Both of us have building experience and have owned other aircraft and he had a large shed a couple of blocks from the airport. We put it on the back of the truck (wings folded) to get it to the strip. That's another thing to consider - moving from build site to airstrip, if it isn't easily dismantled. Let us know how you go. Sue

Nahh! They all go into hibernation in winter down south, and besides the Southerners have an extra hour of sunshine each day to fly over summer. The numbers might even out, there was a distinct pattern to the number of registrations / memberships in each month (renewals are where these hours are reported). There has been a rise in members since I last logged on and looked.

The ABC story. Ashby investigated for flying Pauline Hanson without proper pilot's licence

Was talking to a hangar owner yesterday. He said she had come to a compromise with the previous caretaker and he had returned. The conversation was a bit vague, but he said he was one of four caretakers and she had finally relented and agreed to let him build a hangar, live there, and build his plane. He sounds like a resourceful guy who knows how to do things on the cheap and was helping out the other hangar owner who was getting his hangar live-able and solar. He said the airstrip (leasehold) is for sale. The conversation was a bit convoluted and long, so it might not all be Gospel.

From Old Man Emu :- AIRFIELD CARETAKER REQUIRED. Airfield Caretaker Required at Dunwich, North Stradbroke Island, QLD Requirements: Need to be on a Pension, small amount paid fortnightly accordingly. Aviation knowledge preferred. General maintenance skills required. Able to use a tractor & ride on mower to maintain airstrip. A couple is preferred with own accommodation, ie: caravan. No power. Run on generator & solar power. Ph: 0410 558 334.

We both fly; I have more hours than him. Guess that's why he wants to do all the flying now. As for driving, again I have more miles on the road, and with less accidents. That's why he keeps telling me how to do it, and insists on doing the driving. As he keeps saying "I taught you all I know .... and you still know nothing .... " Gotta luv him.

Agreed FT - the figures are quite weird. Looking at 2013 95-10s = a landing every 7.5 minutes! Perhaps most of them were overweight old pilots bouncing their Wheeler Scouts down the runway? I suspect there has been many a slip up with data input, by admin, by pilots and others; and there hasn't been the resources to track them down and correct. A quick analysis of outliers should bring up most anomalies, but you have to love figures, not everyone does.

Try this Australian Aircraft Activity They are a little slow getting the reports out - 2015 is here. RAAus provides the information you supply to them. Unfortunately they can't go back and add hours that were missed (for example) in 2009, so those go in when we updated, in 2016. I'm looking forward to reading 2016, 2017. The Dept are terribly slow asking GA for their figures, I got my request for the previous years in September 2015 (for Jan-Dec 2014), June, July and probably won't see 2017's form for another 5-8 months! Then they have to chase up non-returns, collate, analyse and publish.

I suspect part of the explanation for increased hours is that we now have the ability to correct the hours flown on our aircraft through the website. When data was lost in the "great server collapse" and failure to back-up some years ago, two of our aircraft had their hours "estimated". He used to pay by phone and got caught on the hop with the question of "how many hours flown, landings, etc" so under reporting compounded. The total hours got updated, but not much thought went into total landings. The other thing I didn't agree with, was the decision to report only pilots as members. Suddenly RAA appeared to have lost 10% of membership. The total membership is about 10,000 (still), but they talk about 9,000. As for scholarships $77K going back into flying schools, aircraft hire etc from member donations to get more people into recreational flying is a good thing.

From the ABC Friend witnesses fatal plane crash on farm

This from the National President of the AWPA - Australian Women Pilots' Association:- ... National Vice President Sandra Southwell has passed away. The family of Sandra has confirmed the following details; Sandra passed away yesterday, Saturday 20th January, 2018 after being involved in an aircraft accident. Our condolences go to Sandra’s partner of 25 years Barry Bransden. Sad news indeed.

AUF magazine April 1991 lists 10-0780 as a Pioneer Flightstar whose rego had expired 28/7/1990. Presumably it was reinstated to the Register after that. Tim & Leanne run the Emerald Motel Apartments. Tim was well liked. There are many scenarios - perhaps he was doing solo practice or maybe Navs to finish with his Xcountry? Might have been a medical or structural failure - we don't know yet. The fact that his instructor went looking for him after a 6am take-off suggests pre-licence solo under supervision. Meanwhile there is an instructor who is going to be badly shaken. No one wants to lose a student, or fellow flier. Condolences to all.

RIP, Probably know him. There is an airstrip about 15km from Emerald on the Springsure road, a crop duster outfit, also it is a direct route from Emerald Airport to Springsure strip. I built that section of the road a few years ago. There is a side track, railway, 2 lane bitumen road with wide shoulders, pretty straight, flat open paddocks. Not in Springsure at present, but no doubt will hear soon.