Ben Longden

great pic!! Ben

And I thought MY crosswind technique was hairy...... Love the style... crab it in all the way till main gear touchdown then boot the guts out of the rudder.... The 777 was the best and smoothest, Ben

Love the P-Plate!! I take it that he is restricted to 100 knots then.... ;) Ben

Hark back to the heady days of James Watt, his bretheren and decendants! Steam Rollers USED to steam... they were powered by coal or wood. ;) Ben

Mike, Thanks for the stuff on Angle of Attack.. It consolidated what I have been reading. Hope to see you at Shep this weekend. Ben

Good idea. Debate the factualities and actualities of legalities elsewhere. This thread is one of mourning. We have lost two fantastic people, and we need to pay our respects to them, their families and friends. Ben

I've placed it at the headset end of the cord, simply because the cord length is the same as 1/4 wavelength of the VHF, and I want to choke all RF going into the headset itself. Ben

I had a good yarn with Ron from Skysupply whom I bought the headset off, and after describing the symptoms, the first question he asked.. "are you flying a Tecnam?" It turns out that the Altronic headsets and Tecnams seem to have a difference of opinion, and that in all his years, the Tecnam is the main aircraft to pose this issue today. The problem is because the headset cord acts as an aerial for the headset, and is literally being swamped with radio frequency from the main antenna only a metre or so away. So, I quickly thought about my Yr 12 Physics, and thought of an RF choke.. or a few loops in the headset cable. I did an experiment today.. I took along my headset, one Altronic from Air Shepp and another spare, very well used set and did a test on the ground. Both Altronics squealed when the PTT was keyed. The bashed up one didnt. Then I used my set, and made a short coil of three turns in the cord.. hit the PTT and no squeal. As its a bit difficult to fly and hold the now shorter cable in a coil, Ive invested $3.98 from DSE in an RF choke, consisting of a pair of magnets to clamp around the cable instead. All in all, a cheap and painless way to solve the problem. Ben

Its been ultra humid and generally bloody awful down here as well.. and when I finish work at six, I get out and look around in awe at the Cb buildup. Mind you, first thing in the morning, the trough has been dead easy to spot. Ben

This just gets 'better'...... Ben From The Sun. February 20, 2007 03:35pm Article from: AAP A CHINESE paraglider found dead after being sucked into a storm cell over northern NSW was struck by lightning. Police say Beijing man Zhongpin He, 42, disappeared last Wednesday while paragliding near Manilla ahead of this week's Paragliding World Championships. After an extensive air and ground search, his body was found the following day about 75km from his launch site. Police revealed today that the preliminary results of a post-mortem examination showed Mr He had been struck by lightning. Mr He was a member of the Chinese national paragliding team, with 10 years' experience. Another competitor sucked into the same storm cell was lucky to survive after being pounded by hail in freezing temperatures. German woman Ewa Wisnierska, 35, lost consciousness for more than 40 minutes after being catapulted by the storm cell to a height of about 9946m, before eventually dropping to a lower altitude.

Somehow, the Darwin Awards comes to mind here..... Ben

Anyone with a clue on how to fix this problem? I use an Altronic headset (six months old and well cared for) and have had little trouble with them until the past couple of weeks. Whenever I hit the transmit button, I get a feedback squeal. This is also transmitted... I worked out the headset cable length is about 1/4 wave of the CTAF frequency, and noted the plug point is at the back of the centre console, and close to the antenna. I did chat with the company I bought them from, and he has noticed a problem with Tecnams in this respect. The headset works fine when plugged into the 172 or any other AC. My initial thought was to toss them out of the cabin, but on reflection, I thought of putting a couple of loops in the cable or attaching a toroidal coil to the cable as an RF choke. Any techies out there with any other suggestions? Ben

The AGE 18.2 India has sent home at least 20 foreign pilots flying for its airlines in the past year as their poor English posed safety concerns, the country's civil aviation regulator said Thursday. English is used by India's hard-pressed air traffic controllers, who are struggling to make sense of crowded skies following a surge in new airlines in the last few years. Rapid growth has led to carriers hiring hundreds of foreign pilots -- including from Central Asia and Eastern Europe. "There have been cases where pilots have been sent back as their English proficiency was not up to the mark," Kanu Gohain, Director General of Civil Aviation, told reporters. "Around 20-25 have been sent back, mainly from CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) nations and eastern Europe." Several near misses have been reported in recent months as planes competed to land at overstretched big city airports. Newspapers and television channels have said poor communication between foreign pilots and air traffic controllers is often to blame. Passenger traffic is expected to grow at 19 percent a year up to 2009 and the country's domestic airlines will need more than 400 new planes in the next five years to meet growth. Reuters

Was'nt there a report on the TV news about two paragliders who decided to take on a Cb, with one dead and the other with frostbite after cruising to Fl30?? We were talking about it at lunch today at the Aero Club (memo to all; Shepp Aero Club saturday lunches from 12.30..) and couldnt find the bit in the flight manuals that suggests Cb and aviation go well together.. Ben

It blew a gale at Shepp. Aero Club legend KT alerted the crew to the incoming storm cell, and it was all hands on deck to move the squadron into the hangar. At Echuca, it blew up a great dust storm, and according to a good mate, it was a breezy 50 knots at Tyabb.. across the strip...:;)2: Ben

If you wish to depart on 09, then your intention is to "enter and backtrack runway zero nine". Anyone? Ben

Perhaps "Awake turbulence".... BTW, Zulu1... your pics are bloody awesome... mind blowing even. My fav is the trikes all lined up. 10 outa 10 for that one. Ben

As a booster seat for kids...... Ben

Er, would you like to bring the Vampire down here for a couple of days... I'm sure we could arrange a working bee to wax her for you... :) Ben

If you read the ATSB reports on incidents, you will find they are really well written, clear, concise, factual and in no way apportion blame. Non sensationalist, you could say. Using their formula, it would be possible to write a report of an incident without distressing family and friends.... especially when they are the very ones who want to know WHAT HAPPENED. These folks provide a three stage coverage. There is the initial report, followed by an interim and at the end of the investigation a final report. This keeps the family in the communication loop, as many investigations can take a couple of years to finalise. Ben

Okay, its not really an ICAO term, but one that pretty accurately describes the thermals encountered at Shepparton in the stinking hot weather the last few days. The sky has typically been crystal clear, blue sky and not a cloud in sight. My question is... is there any way to figure out the locations of the rising thermals bearing in mind there are no clouds, and lots of open, clear land. Ben

A decent one is around the $1500 mark.... Ben

http://www.kitbag.com.au/category380_1.htm These guys have them pretty cheap, around the $149 mark... and are the ones used by the USAF. I priced the Sisely ones... about $400.. Ben

Sadly this "fixit" is NOT REAL. I saw this one a month or so ago, and asked a Clinical Nurse Specialist about it. She runs the A&E at Royal Melb and she could not stop laughing, saying it was the best bit of bull dust she has seen in ages. As most folks know, a heart attack is essentially caused by blood vessels on the heart being clogged (THIS is the five minute version, okay..) and resulting in heart muscle death. Such events cause a change in the electrical activity of the heart, and when it gets out of synch - a process called fibrillation, where the heart is essentially behaving like a writhing bag of worms, no blood is effectively being pumped around the body. CPR simply keeps the blood pumping around, until the electrical rhythm can be jump started using a defibrillator. If the patient has a cardiac arrest, and is non breathing (and is assumed therefore to have no pulse) the patient will need to have their breathing AND heart artificially carried out for them until defibrillation takes place. Now the figures (from St John Ambulance).. if defibrillation takes place within ONE minute of the arrest, there is a 90% survival rate. This survivability drops at the rate of 10% per minute, so making a 10 minute arrest with CPR being applied almost non survivable. For those who attended the CASA talk at Shepp last year, they may remember the good doctor who stated that for "30% of heart attack patients, the first symptom is sudden death." For those a bit stunned, may I suggest having a chat with your GP (and having a checkup as well) and for those interested in learning more about it, contact your state branch of St John Ambulance, who are perhaps the leaders in teaching first aid, and advanced resus skills including how to use defib machines. BTW, St Johns in Victoria provide a volunteer first aid service to many community and sporting events, and are a common sight at the MCG and other major venues. St Johns is also behind moves to establish defib machines that are simple to use at places such as the G, where they have already saved a number of lives. For further info; http://www.sjaa.com.au/courses/index.cfm and a couple of success stories; http://www.stjohnvic.com.au/news/releases.cfm?release=20070102 http://www.stjohnvic.com.au/news/releases.cfm?release=20070108 Ben

Last week at Shepp with the high humidity and stinking temps was perfect Carby Ice conditions... Ben