old man emu

OH Shit! I new Ray. He was a great bloke. Gone too soon!

Anyone know which organisation operated the aircraft?

While that statement is likely to be statistically correct, there will always be outriders in the data used to determine the statistical distribution. Those outriders range from "not bloody likely" to be videoing, to "never do anything without videoing" I don't know who the person was, but, based on the person's reported previous aeronautical experience, I think they'll find his phone back in the briefing room.

Let's give the poor kid a bit of credit. He's supposed to have had 40 hours experience, and it's pretty sure that he had soloed in another type long before this. While I could see a teenager of today on a very first solo being likely to want to Tik Tok the flight, this young person would probably be a bit blase about a flight that could possibly have been a simple type endorsement sort of flight. Afterall, how many of us have gained experience in a more simple plane like a basic C-172, then later trained for an CSU/Retractable endorsement? You do the training with the instructor who confirms that you know how to push and pull the levers correctly, then the instructor sends you off for a couple of hours of circuits and bumps to get more practice. My money is on something simple going amiss, like the seat coming loose. There's plenty of places for forced landings around that airport if there was a need for one due to power loss.

In another thread here, someone suggested that it may have been something so simple as the seat becoming unlocked and sliding back. If the pilot had accrued the 40 hours in RAA types before going over to the C-172, one could surmise that those hours were in a Jabiru. That aircraft doesn't have the adjustable seat positioning that the C-172 has. Could the cause have been the simple failure to ensure that the seat was locked to the support rails?

They look like this:

There is a big difference in culpability between the operator of any machine who loses control of it due to an unprecedented medical incident (heart attack, stroke, sneezing attack, or even an insect bite on the face) and a loss of control due to a failure to follow a the medical advice to manage a chronic condition. In the Daylesford incident, the driver had a chronic condition; had a means to obtain real-time information, and the means to deal with any adverse information. His failure to act on that information goes to prove an element of the charge against him - driving in a manner dangerous to the public. As to the comment that it took some time to lay charges against him, that's not unreasonable. Police are dealing with a complex investigation that not only includes a complete recording of the evidence and the obtaining of witness statements, but, as they say, the job's not over until the paperwork is done. The man faces the loss of his liberty for very many years. That fact must be held in the highest regard, as does the fact that a judicial Inquiry must find that the allegations made by the Crown have been found to be undoubtedly correct. Another delay will be caused by waiting for the completion of the Coronial Inquests into the deaths. Those Inquests will produce the evidence to prove that the beings named in the indictment were humans; that their deaths occurred as a result of the collision "in, near, or upon" the vehicle, and the date of death. Also remember that if a person was seriously injured in a collision, and died within a year and one day of the incident, all other causes of the death being eliminated, then the death is attributed to the collision, which would change the allegation from one of causing Grievous Bodily Harm to causing death.

I'm not being critical of the above posts, however, I am astounded that a country that is supposedly fighting for its very existence can continue to produce items that really are "luxury" goods. By "luxury goods" I mean things that are not immediately essential for anyone's survival. Another example of luxury goods are plastic scale model kits that are being produced in the Ukraine and exported worldwide. It seems that many of us have no idea of the size of the Ukraine, or how advanced its industry is. It makes one cry in despair that a Nation that has enjoyed peace and stability since its creation (Australia) and has a well educated population cannot establish an industrial base, despite the abundance of resources, both physical and mental, it possesses. Congratulations on developing the process to make these trim pieces. There is a very big market for them. I know I was looking for replacement trim items for a Grumman Traveler.

The words "rebuild" and "restore" have the implication of "big, bigger, biggest". A rebuild is a bigger task than a restoration. Renovate: restore (something old) to a good state of repair. Restore: repair or renovate so as to return it to its original condition. Rebuild: build (something) again after it has been damaged or destroyed.

Did the prop strike the ground during the incident? I think that there is a mod to make the nose wheel assembly less prone to folding. Keep us posted with progress.

Isn't the technique when taking off or landing a taildragger to look roughly 45 degrees ahead and to the side to keep the path of the aircraft parallel to the side of the runway to so you know the aircraft is going straight? With lack of forward vision, you could use the same technique to line up with the runway when on Finals.

The asbestos is there alright. The leaseholder knows all about it. The work I do on Bankstown and Camden is required so that the tenants meet the conditions of their leases. It is very simple stuff that is required to comply with the AIRPORTS (ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION) REGULATIONS. I've been doing it for ten years now and over that time have often tried to contact the Airport Environment Officer for clarification of matters. I await a response. The leaseholder has failed in its requirement to promote aviation at those airports. I am pretty sure that the same applies to the behaviour of the leaseholders of the major GA airports in the other Capitols.

So, for registration and licensing purposes, is it a watercraft or an aircraft?

That's convenient for the bloke who lives in the Sydney Metropolitan Area and has organised his finances to pay for a lesson per week. And where are these businesses going to erect premises at Camden? Any space between the present hangars and the river is flood-prone. The glider hangars are just dirt-floor sheds. You can't build on the slope above the hangar area because the ground is full of asbestos. There's not a lot of room beside Rwy 24 past Phoenix Aero Club. And those premises won't be simple steel-framed sheds sheeted with Colorbond. The building standards required by the leaseholder, Aeria, require adherence to today's commercial building codes.

I think that the place in the training program for EVs at present is in that first 10 - 15 hours where a student is taught to take off, climb, fly level, descend and land. After that period the student can progress to different operating systems and different power sources. Which of us ever had their first lesson in a King Air?

But is it the EV one?

Wel. it can't be a helicopter because the ground is holding on to it. Everyone knows that the ground rejects helicopters.

Twelve years on and the Pipistrel Velis Electro is operational. Amongst other things, the following video identifies the way one flying school has integrated the EV aeroplane into its pilot training system to utilise the benefits of an EV-powered aircraft while taking into account the big problem of endurance. The first thing to get out of the way is the difference between the flight characteristics of this EV and the same airframe behind an ICE. It seems that there are none. Next we need to look at load capacity. According to the conversation in the video, the weight of the battery reduces the payload to about 175 kg. That means that your instructor would have to Stan Laurel to fly with an Oliver Hardy. However, my experience is that this problem is universal in aircraft of this size, no matter what the power plant is. Then there is endurance. The Instructor says that a fully charged battery provides for about 40 minutes' operation with about 15 minutes' reserve. According to the Instructor, this small reserve is permitted when flying operations are conducted in the circuit. When leaving the circuit for upper air work, I imagine that the time for that would be reduced to about 30 minutes to allow time to get back to the circuit. The instructor was honest enough to say that using a fully fuelled ICE-powered aircraft is best for that sort of work, and the school does transition the student to that type of aircraft in subsequent training modules. Finally we come to operating costs. The instructor says that the cost of a recharge on that airfield is one Euro. However, the airport owner has installed a massive electricity substation for charging batteries. Recharging takes about 40 minutes. Cheap electricity makes each flight cheaper than for an ICE version, but then you have to look at the lifetime costs. Sure, there are no oil and filter changes required, but brake pads still wear, and wheel bearings need greasing. Also the structural inspections would be the same for the Pipistrel airframe no matter what the power-plant. At some time the battery pack will need to be replaced, or for the other type, the engine will need an overhaul. It seems that the cost for both at the moment is similar, but battery technology is improving all the time and in the future, a new battery pack might cost peanuts compared to today's cost. Also, with an ICE, things like magnetos need adjusting; exhaust pipes and heat shrouds burn out, etc., etc, and so on. I suppose there are parts that wear in an electric motor that have to be replaced. My opinion from watching how this flying school utilises an EV plane is that they fill a niche in a modular pilot training system, taking the ab initio student from first flight to first solo and through those first few hours of circuits and bumps. After learning the several stages of flight used to fly a circuit, without some of the distractions related to engine operation, the student can move to an ICE-powered aircraft to undergo those modules that require more air time. The only drawback I see for the student is that those early hours take longer to accumulate because each lesson has only two thirds the time available in an ICE-powered aircraft. However, the other side of the coin is that shorted lesson times are less mentally fatiguing, so fatigue will not cause the student to forget what was learned at the beginning of the lesson. For the school, greater efficiency in the use of the EV aircraft would come if there was a means of quickly swapping a discharged battery for a charged one. However, that would necessitate the employment of a qualified person to do so, and add to the maintenance paperwork. But then, who has ever seen a queue of students lining up for the next use of a flying school plane, even on a weekend?

Won't you printer take ABS, or nylon? It's just a matter of setting the temperature of at the printer nozzle. However, if you are prepared to have them as sacrificial, then the PLA would be easy to print out in bulk.

A C-172.

Look at the photo of the wreckage in this report : Four people believed dead from fatal light aircraft crash outside Gundaroo, north of Canberra - ABC News WWW.ABC.NET.AU Emergency services are investigating a fatal light aircraft crash at Gundaroo yesterday, after it took off from Canberra Airport. Police say they believe a man and three children were on board. The indicated to me that the aircraft hit the ground with only vertical motion, no forward motion. Isn't it likely that such a vertical impact would rupture the fuel tanks, causing fuel to leak under the inner wings and fuselage. What the source of ignition was is hard to determine, but my opinion is that it was the hot exhaust pipe, because the battery is likely to have also been ruptured by the vertical impact force. My opinion depends on the location of the wing tanks, exhaust pipe and battery. I don't know where these things are located in that aircraft.

Given that the post-impact fire was intense, the results of the post mortem on the pilot might not indicate a medical cause. If all the bits of the plane can be found within the wreckage, then pilot incapacitation seems to be a logical conclusion.

My two favorite Aussie planes - the Boomerang and the Airtruk.

You forgot the Arado E555