Ben Longden

Hi Doug, Welcome to Shepp - the crew are really fantastic there, and really help with your exam preparations. Feel free to ask any of them about what you may be knowledge deficient in. The biggest tip I can give you about a pre-solo is to have a read of the Tecnam flight manual, (or the aircraft in which you will be doing a solo flight) and be aware of the speed requirements, including the ones not marked on the speedo, such as maximum manouvering speed, turbulence penetration speed. These are not only for the exam, but for everyday flying as well. Matt will really put you under the hammer, but if you think of it as a solo flight with a very energetic five year old who wants to touch every switch on the panel, you will be fine. Just remember what Nathan, Tristo, Sue and Oskar taught you and put that into application, and you will be heading solo without a problem. Ben

October 18, 2007 - 12:48PM Melb Age US aviation authorities advised airlines today to inspect cockpit windows on Boeing Co 737s after two were damaged in flight, causing one plane to lose cabin pressure. The proposed airworthiness directive follows similar action in July on all Boeing 747 jetliners after a cockpit window fell out, causing a rapid loss of cabin pressure and an emergency landing. The FAA recommended repeated inspections of nearly 800 737-series models in the US fleet to detect any cracks in vinyl supports or damage to glass panes. There are another 1800 planes flown by airlines overseas that would qualify for inspections. Boeing alerted airlines to the problem in May and recommended action. The FAA said it received reports of partial window separations on two 737s. One experienced a loss of cabin pressure at 3810 metres when edges of a window came loose. The other was flying at 8800 metres when a similar failure occurred. There are several windows in a 737 cockpit. In addition, the FAA is concerned that cracked vinyl supports would make the window more vulnerable to failing if struck by birds. Reuters

Virgin use two 737 variants. the series 700 has only 144 seats, while the series 800 has 177. Ben

Im confused most of the time, so does THAT make me more understanding of the situation? :;)2: Ben

Article from: </IMG> THREE men had to get off a Virgin Blue flight from Melbourne to Cairns because the plane was too heavy and would run out of fuel before it got to its destination. Virgin Blue gave the three men travel vouchers to compensate them after calling for volunteers to lighten the load on the Friday flight, the etravelblackboard website reported. The flight was delayed as passengers were advised the plane would not take off because it would not have enough fuel for the trip. It left after the the three men and their luggage got off. A Virgin Blue spokeswoman said bad weather in Melbourne the previous evening had caused flights all over Australia to be diverted, leaving a 737 jet for the flight rather than the bigger-capacity one orginally scheduled. The men were compensated with Virgin Blue travel vouchers.

Er.... what about the bomb bay door mechanism with that option.... Ben

Its a good question.... I would have thought the number of bums in a plane must be equal or less than the number of seats available. On the seat removal issue, I was wondering the same thing about a four seat Jabiru.... whip out the back seats so it can be RAA registered (and have some luggage space for flyaway weekends) Anyone? Ben

We had a comp the other day, and my good mate Mike (we wont say his nickname is Pelorus32, okay. Just keep that quiet) was in the spot landing section. The wind was a bi&ch, and gusting to 20kt at times, and as the target was halfway down the Shepp strip, it made things interesting at the best of times. for all of us. Anyway, I was there to record the event for the aero club, and when I got home I decided on a little digital trickery.... :devil: Ben

October 10, 2007 - 2:41PM Melb Age A charter aircraft carrying 10 tourists was forced to make an emergency landing in Tasmania when its engine failed, an investigation has found. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau today released its findings into the incident in February last year involving the Cessna Aircraft Company 208 floatplane. The pilot and passengers left Strahan, on Tasmania's west coast, on a chartered tourist flight headed for the rugged mountain of Frenchmans Cap, in the South West National Park. When the aircraft was over Frenchmans Cap at an altitude of 4,500ft above mean sea level, the pilot observed that a chip detector light on the master caution warning panel had illuminated. The pilot decided to land the plane as soon as possible. During the diversion, five minutes after the chip detector light came on, a loud noise was heard and the engine lost power, the ATSB report stated. "The pilot immediately feathered the propeller and carried out a forced landing on Lake Burbury," it said. "The pilot reported that the aircraft landed heavily and its forward speed could not be controlled. "The aircraft came to a stop on a mud bank on the edge of Lake Burbury with its floats clear of the water. There were no reported injuries." The engine was removed, taken apart and inspected, revealing damaged components with characteristics consistent with electrical discharge damage, the report said. "The source of the electrical discharge damage was a starter-generator that was replaced due to a malfunction 18.7 hours prior to the engine failing. "This was the 43rd reported starter-generator electrical discharge damage event reported to have taken place on PT6A series engines world-wide since 1992." As a result of this investigation several safety recommendations have been issued to the aircraft manufacturer, the engine manufacturer, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, Transport Canada and the US Federal Aviation Administration. AAP

An FA with a sense of humour will always make or break a flight - just like the captains comments.. Ben

The Tecnam P92 SE is certainly gravity fed, as has been pointed out.. my only concern is when its 42 degrees and the engine is hot... what about force feeding the engine when a fuel vapour lock happens. Sorry, but I come from the old school of "just in case"..:;)3: Still, apart from that the new Tecnam at Shepp is a sweet ship... very sweet... no vices... EFIS and leather seats!! Ben

Nearly 13 million dead from cardio vascular disease? THIS year so far!!! Ben

From this weeks ATSB summary.... Ben

Just as I was hopping into Shepp Aero Clubs third tecnam, 5159, I was given the heads up on my checklists... Forget about the fuel pump switch. Cos there aint one. Anyone else have the same? For a pilot with only bloody limited stick experience, but shiploads of right seat time, I would have thought a switchable fuel pump was almost standard, especially on a 42 degree day when vapour locks on rotate come to mind. Ben

Got that right, Neil... a year ago I actually had to beg Nathan and Tristo to teach me to cope with crap winds on landing, and 'ballistic turbulence' (up at 1500 a minute then, then down at 1500 on finals.. and then windshear on the Piano Keys..) My rationale was that I would be faced with such conditions at some stage - solo - and I would be the only bugger able to land the thing. They did a good job, I can tell you. Their training became instinct. Ben

An interesting landing this afternoon at Shepparton... Wind was light, and variable, with both windsocks vertical I was coming in on Runway 18. A fair amount of thermal midway down finals, and with steady controls and a rock solid speed It was a nice approach, then as I was about to touchdown, I got caned by a solid gust from the west, and the starboard wing started to lift. In an instant it was about 30 degrees off the horozontal, and I just firewalled the throttle to get out of there, along with stick and rudder to counteract the shove in the side. Thanks to my "Sh*t*y wind training" from Nathan and Tristo, I did not need a change of undies.. and was able to land the ship on the next approach.. Ben

When I got 'lased', it was with one of those $50 ones from tandy about seven years ago. The distance was less than 30 metres, and I can tell you it was not a nice experience. We had a spate of cars being lased, and the local paper did a story on it - and an even nicer one when the plods caught the b'stards. The only thing was as the paper does not do court reports, we never found out what happened to them.... lethal injection, hanging or firing squad...? Ben

In the NINE news helo, the camera operator sits BEHIND the pilot. Thats about one metre. How do I know? because I work in the media, and sell news vision to NINE news as well as WIN Television. If you object to the news, then switch off the TV, shut the 'net at home, don't buy any papers, switch off the radio and dont gossip over the fence or at work. I have been dazzled by a laser pointer, when driving a car, about seven years ago I might point out, and I was seeing stars for hours. The immediate effect was a squiggly red line over my eyes, and it was bloody hard to see where I was going for about 30 seconds. When studying physics, we did lasers, and I did a special piece on them. The key to the laser is the fact the light is coherent, in other words, photons travel in a parallel path to each other, which explains why laser light does not spread out over distance - the inverse square law. This fact is used to advantage by laser distance measuring devices, including those used to measure the distance from earth to the moon. Ben (Obviously a bastard who works in the bloody media)

By Fiona Connolly October 02, 2007 01:00am Article from: </IMG> A CHANNEL Nine helicopter crew filming the NRL grand final narrowly avoided disaster after a laser beam was shone from the ground, temporarily blinding a cameraman. The potentially fatal "idiotic" attack is the latest in a disturbing number of laser beam assaults on aircraft, with an ambulance helicopter transporting a critically-ill patient forced to delay landing after being attacked while flying near Sydney on Saturday. Cameraman Darren McDonald was stunned by a green glare when it hit the lens of his camera just before the players ran on to the field around 7pm (AEST) during Sunday night's game. "It shot into the camera lens and he was momentarily dazzled - if it had hit the pilot in the eyes and he's supposed to be controlling the aircraft, that's the danger," Nine's new director of news, Ian Cook said. The crew immediately notified air traffic controllers. Police said the far-reaching laser beam came from a park nearby the stadium. A police spokesman said the beam appeared to come from a building or house in Carnarvon St, Silverwater, however a search and door-knock of the area failed to find the source. "People think it's fun but they don't understand just how dangerous it is and unless something isn't done to stop it, sooner or later there will be tragedy," pilot Brian Gettens said yesterday. The weekend attack on the emergency medical helicopter en route from Nepean Hospital to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital was the second time pilot Darryl Humphries has been hit in the past three weeks. "This is happening more and more now and apparently it's a fun thing to do - it's idiotic, crazy," Mr Cook said. Qantas aircraft have also been targets, with one hit by a green light as it approached Brisbane airport earlier this month and another hit while landing at Darwin airport in August. More than 170 reports of laser attacks on aircraft have been reported to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority in the past year, with 49 reported between April and June this year.

Sundays usually has the magnificent sight and sound of two Yak 52's and a Winjeel practicing formation work over the area. I've been at the Port are when they have done their stuff, and the appreciative comments from visitors is amazing... let alone the sound of three bloody fantastic radials..:big_grin: Echuca has hosted a large number of Aviation events over the past few years, and really is well set up to cater for the fly-in. Not only that, its a friendly club as well. Ben

Loads of folks love EFIS, and so do I... so long as it has a set of analogue instruments as backup. When flying the Tecnam, which has both, I prefer to use the analogue instruments, and reset the EFIS to show the DGI as well as AH. I use this as a backup to the compass. The big issue with the current EFIS, and I guess screen manufacturers are aware of this, is that its bloody hard to read when the suns shining.. Ben

I don't have to bother... Robyn actually encourages me to go for a fly... So that makes me Pilot No5..:) Ben

And sent the weight/drag calculations into a tailspin? :confused: Ben

THAT is insane... :;)2: Prefer this sort of cropdusting..... Ben

Photoshop, mate...... Solves that problem.... :big_grin: Yarawonga; I called in there one day and the owner of the plane painting company and his team were tops... very welcoming for a flyer on his first solo navex. Ben