kgwilson

Just a comment on Electric trucks. There are plenty of these especially massive dump trucks in the mining industry, many of which are autonomous. The main reasons are reduced emissions (none out the non existent tail pipe), lower operating cost, improved safety and most of all improved performance especially on steep grades due to electric motors producing full torque from 0 rpm. https://reneweconomy.com.au/fortescue-strikes-4-billion-deal-for-electric-trucks-and-dozers-to-eliminate-fossil-fuels-at-giant-mines/ Also Janus Electric are converting diesel B-Double tractor units from diesel to electric and have a replaceable battery that can be swapped in 3 minutes and has 600km of range. The cost of conversion is apparently cheaper than a full diesel engine overhaul. They will operate on the main highway between Melbourne & Brisbane. https://www.januselectric.com.au/

Brendan posted a video on this last September. This is one of many under development using drone technology so they are able to fly under full automation or with pilot input. Drones are already pretty big & a few weeks ago when floods threatened in the Northern rivers, NSW a drone was practicing the delivery of hay bales to stranded cattle. That one had a lift capacity of I think 45 kg.

Avalon is an Aviation Industry event more akin to Farnborough or Paris where all the latest civilian and military aircraft are on display & sales teams abound. Oshkosh is the US Experimental Aircraft Associations annual fly-in & everyone is welcome. About 10,000 aircraft fly in for the event. It is aimed at a completely different demographic.

The last Avalon I attended was 2005. Then they had a mock up of a F35 with it's V or STOL capabilities, a B52 made a flypast, the Connie flew, there were lots of other flypasts & aero displays & even hang gliders towed up behind Utes. There were several new plastic fantastics & a Foxcon Terrier Camper. Did they become a thing? The indoor stuff was all commercial & of not much interest. I was never inspired enough to attend another Avalon.

This is an issue that is there due to the rules around RA where RA pilots do not have access to CTR. If they did then Camden CTR could include the Oaks & everyone would be on the same frequency. A similar situation is at Blenheim in NZ where the main RPT (& also a minor military presence) Airport (Woodbourne) & the recreational, gliding & sport pilot aerodrome (Omaka) are only 5km apart & at the same altitude. On arrival you contact the tower & they clear you to enter the circuit & report back when on the ground. You must get a clearance for takeoff & departure from ATC. I've flown in there a number of times & it works well & there is a lot of activity as well. I think it is still the same. The difference is that all RA aircraft are on the same register & RA pilots must have a CTR endorsement & I assume a transponder. If RA finally gets access to CTR (30 years later than the rest of the world) then this problem would go away.

I have no problem with the sites being combined. They almost are anyway. You can just choose the subjects you wish to be involved with and ignore those that you have no interest in. Simples.

I finally got round to reading the article. Every pilot should know what all the airspeed terms are and what they mean as well as their relationship with one another. It is part of the training and qualification process. I think the authors presentation and sequencing could have been a lot better & he failed to mention calibrated airspeed at all which is the AS corrected for position installation errors but maybe that would just serve to confuse some even more.

I assume so. It is spectacular part of the world to fly around. I've flown there in my old Archer 2 & in a club 172 N model but more than 20 years ago. Not so many houses then. Attended Warbirds over Wanaka in 2000. We based ourselves in Queenstown & flew to Wanaka for the show. 600 light aircraft flew in on the Saturday morning even a few twins from Australia. They had temporary ATC set up & when I got to the reporting point was given number 10 or 12 & told to come straight in. No GPS or ADSB in those days. 4 in the 172 & all looking & we saw no-one till we got close & then there was a string of black dots in front. I think we were landing at about 30 second intervals. It was fantastic.

And the opposite runway on a good day.

There is an excellent video of an RPT ILS approach in to Queenstown through low cloud on youtube. See below.

I don't understand your 4th symptom. The US has very poor healthcare, in fact virtually none with a totally inadequate safety net for the poor. It is user pays or have health insurance at exhorbitant cost that only the wealthy can afford.

Incorrect, he got 77.3 million votes which was just over 49% of the vote but just under 64% of people eligible to vote actually voted so in fact 67% of eligible voters in the US did not vote for Trump. Trump called this a landslide but he failed to gain 50% though the electoral college system saw him with 312 votes to Harris' 226. Trump won by 230,000 votes in Michigan, Pennsylvania & Wisconsin rust belt states where there was intense campaigning. If just over 115,000 voters in that group had instead picked Harris, she would have won those Rust Belt swing states, giving her enough votes in the electoral college to win the presidency. That is how screwed the US system is.

This system is a great option for short runways that have limited over run and dire consequences if that happens. I've flown in to Queenstown a number of times and at the Western end of the runway below runway height are houses in the town of Frankton & then Lake Wakitipu. At the Eastern end is the confluence of the Shotover and Kawarau rivers well below the runway height. The distance between the 2 EMAS pads is about 1760 metres. Check it out on google earth. There is no over run capability at either end.

I've read nothing of the new Mag I received today but a glance through indicates very little of interest. The Dolly girl had 2 articles in last quarters Mag both with very staged pics & articles that appeared well beyond her age & the same in this one & I agree with Headwind. There is little of interest to real aviators. The mag has become a travelogue. What happened to builder logs and technical info. What would be of interest would be an article on the scandal regarding RAA being referred to the Vic DPP over the lies & cover up that saw the demise of Jill Bailey & Matt Boutell.

My all alloy amateur build was supposed to be 313kg but after adding electric flaps, Matco wheels & disk brakes, wing tanks extra instruments & comfort stuff it ended up at 335kg. This still left 265kg which is still 45kgs under for me with full 170 litres of fuel, me & 20kg of baggage. With Pilot & medium weight passenger I am on the limit with 2/3 wing tanks full but everything else. Carbon fibre jockeys should do somewhat better with weight.

Don't call out "Hi" to the pilot if his name is Jack. You may never know what hits you.

I have been flying since the 1970s and have flown in to many private strips. I would never fly over any ones house at such low level to land unless I had spoken to the home owner and requested permission, not just assume I had the right. You have a valid right to be concerned but a discussion about the issue with your neighbour is the best first step in my opinion.

If you are going to do these things that contrary to all of the rules, regulations and laws of the land you sure as hell don't tell anyone especially on a public forum site.

Getting back to the original subject, it would appear he was a reasonably good student based on the conversion CFIs remarks but his gung ho bullet proof attitude did not make an appearance then. It certainly did from his Paragliding Instructors comments. See the transcript below. He was described as a "disaster waiting to happen" and that those in Tasmania who had instructed him and observed his flying and attitude offered the final statement "Sadly Jill, those of us down here with an awareness of these factors are unsurprised by what has transpired." Thanks for the call yesterday. This email concerns the fatal aircraft accident involving Mathew Farrell, and the concerns I raised in our phone call. Mat joined our community in Tasmania in late 2019. I first spent time with him whilst driving to Bright in March 2020, to attend a cross country clinic I had organised for THPA (Tas. Hang gliding and Paragliding Association) members. Mat told me his background coming from adventure sports, more specifically rock- climbing. He described his appetite for risk and his belief that he was able to manage the involved risks to a high degree and aviation was no different. This raised my eyebrows, and I mentioned that gravity does not take prisoners, which he dismissed. He replied that he was aware of the risks but he felt he knew enough to handle them. The impression that I was left with was that this was someone who had yet to honestly face the consequences of their actions and were denying their vulnerability (or mortality). Over the course of the next few days, I was able to observe Mat’s flying. Whilst competent in all phases of flight in terms of controlling his aircraft, I was concerned about his decision-making processes. He appeared to only think one step ahead, and not look further ahead to possible consequences. This manifested itself particularly in his approach to landings. … Over the next year, Mat progressed through the pilot qualifications, but not without incident. I have attached three reports raised within SAFA’s Accident and Incident Reporting System (AIRS) concerning Mat, and email correspondence from our AIRS Manager (in effect, accident investigator), Luke Denniss, regarding one of these. Luke complained to me personally about Mat’s approach to reporting events (why should I?), and the events themselves (I knew what I was doing). Luke expressed his concern that Mat was ‘… a disaster waiting to happen’ or words to that effect. He was not alone in that view, I’m sorry to say. Whilst in Tasmania, Mat approached local Flight Instructor Ramon Brasnja to be issued a PG5 pilot certificate, SAFA’s highest flight qualification. Ramon refused to sign him off as he believed that his attitude was not consistent with that of a PG5 pilot. I have attached the correspondence from Mat to Ramon in response to this. Overall, for me, Mat was particularly arrogant when it came to being honest about his decisions, denying there was a problem and refusing to recognise that he had made errors in judgement. His belief in his invincibility was a great worry. Sadly Jill, those of us down here with an awareness of these factors are unsurprised by what has transpired. …177 (the Iain Clarke email)

No matter what, given the demeanour of the pilot in this case a major issue was almost certain in a reasonably short time. The crash and fatality happened and it was the fault of the pilot. The learnings that come out of this have been made glaringly obvious by the Coroner. How anyone in RA-Aus thought that flying hours in a foot launched, non rigid, unpowered, flexible paraglider could possibly be counted as flight experience towards a RA-Aus pilot certificate displays either arrogance or a totally inadequate understanding of what prior knowledge and experience is. Then to defend the actions and cover everything up from the Operations Manager to top management and Board of Directors shows these factors in an even worse light along with a complete misunderstanding of the thorough nature of a Coronial inquest. The fact that Neil Schaefer was the only one who railed against this and that he was shut up is even more disturbing. Those involved should be prosecuted and relieved of their roles in a very public way. I hope this happens.

China is the worlds factory. My MG EV was made there. The quality is better than my last Japanese car. The manual and all service documentation is in perfect English and it has a 10 year warranty. Most Japanese branded electronics are made in China. Almost all mobile phones in the world are made there including Apple & Samsung. BYD make the best busses in the world. CATL is by far the largest battery manufacturer in the world and leads the world in technology and innovation. The list is endless Zonsen may be new here but is well known in other markets. In Australia we have a huge bias against Chinese made anything fueled by our politicians who are always going on about about the threat of some Chinese takeover, influence in the Pacific or their aircraft flying too close to ours when we are flying surveillance missions on the edge of THEIR airspace. The prejudices run deep. Early stuff was a bit suspect but it was cheap. The old adage of "You get what you pay for" is as true today as it ever was. Quality has never been cheap. So that is reflected in the price so the 4k saving of the Zonsen engine may not be much but hey a lot of Chinese made stuff now is better than Western equivalents so watch this space.

I presume you mean installing the pistons back to front. They wouldn't work too well upside down. Gen 1 pistons did not have valve relief cups.

The training under the hood consists of a continuous scan of the instruments to determine how to correct any change in speed, attitude etc. The instructor will deliberately throw the aircraft in different directions and attitudes trying to confuse you and then say "Your aircraft". You then have to get it flying S&L as quickly as possible without stalling. I remember once he said "That was good when I handed over we were going straight up". I had no idea other than I knew I had to get back to S&L. It should be part of the RA syllabus even if angles and unusual attitudes are not as severe. That training served me well about 30 years ago.

Most Cessnas i've flown have enough instruments to keep you S&L. The 5 hours under the hood for PPL is the best training you can get to prepare for an inadvertent VMC to IMC situation. The compass will keep you pointed in one direction, The VSI will allow you to stay at the same altitude, The turn co-ordinator/ balance ball will allow you to keep S&L in balanced flight. These are the minimums. An AH is better for everything except direction. The problem is without this training which includes recovery from unusual attitudes plus retention of the skills, encountering it for the first time can cause panic and all the knowledge goes out the window & you have the classic 178 seconds to live.

A friend did his RPC to RPL conversion at Caboolture & they wouldn't issue it till he got the ASIC. AFAIK Caboolture is not security controlled.