bizwise

Whilst the responses to Airservices proposal are to be directed to them, the AVSEF Aviation State Engagement Forum website (equivalent to the old RAPAC), is provided by CASA to enable the Australian aviation industry, associations, and organisations including independents, to consult on aviation matters, including airspace and procedures of a regional and/or national importance to improve overall outcomes. The Secretariat function is managed by CASA’s Manager Industry Relations or their delegate. The role of the Secretariat is to maintain the website and act as a conduit of the proponent’s information rather than acting as a moderator or censor. The Secretariat and CASA takes no responsibility for the information provided by proponents or respondents. All this should really improve overall outcomes for us!

That fuzzy blue line gives CASA and Airservices and the ADF plenty of scope to haggle over the proposed airspace changes. The government has invested a massive amount of money to upgrade Australia’s military and civil communication, navigation and surveillance systems in these increasingly uncertain times. At the core is the huge OneSKY Civil Military Air Traffic System that will integrate everything under the world’s largest single Flight Information Region. The expanding ADS-B network and Satellite Based Augmentation System will facilitate ADF manned and unmanned ops and civil RPT and all IFR ops no matter what the traffic density is for RNP, communications and surveillance. Just think how many ADF bases sit under E Class airspace. We fly around a lot of Restricted Airspace along that J-curve from Cairns to Melbourne and onward to Adelaide. GA and RA is at the bottom of their list for consideration but represents a risk factor they are uncomfortable with. The apparent concession over electronic conspicuity devices like Sky Echo means nothing because they are not compliant devices in E Class airspace under current rules.

I posted their J-curve map on here last THU. It is of sufficient quality that you can zoom in on it which is what I also attached (centred around the BNE area). You can then compare their blue outline with a VNC of the area in which you are interested and will discover that it encompasses all of the current 8500LL.

The ASA presentation gives a map of the East Coast showing the airspace J Curve from Melbourne to Cairns that is being discussed.

You mean something like on this Stemme motor glider?

It depends upon whether you want to carry the whole aircraft with you on your boat and obviously how big your boat is. A flexwing trike on floats might appear to be the best solution, if you have a big enough boat, but the leading edge booms do not break down nor its long floats. They will certainly not fit in your front boat locker unless you have a really big boat. The Airborne trike shown below is suspended across the stern of a big beamy boat, but you still need lots of room around it to rig its folding wings when it is on the water. Best to tow it ashore and rig it. My 92hp 4-stroke D-motor powered Fly Synthesis Catalina NG 2-seater flying boat ‘Ding’ is heavier (320kg basic empty weight BEW and 545kg maximum takeoff weight MTOW) with folding 9.5m wings and 6.3m total length (see my Avatar). It cannot be rigged on water, so it needs a much bigger boat with sufficient deck space around the flying boat hull (3.6m long with 1.64m beam) and use of a telescopic deck davit to lower it onto the water after rigging. Its hull is based upon the Ramphos folding flexwing amphibious trike, but you have the same on-water rigging problem with the Ramphos. The Polaris Motor 11.2m folding flexwing amphibious trike is based upon an inflatable boat hull and another boat-based solution with a BEW of 216kg and maximum takeoff weight MTOW of 406kg, but still the same on-water rigging problem. A lighter, more compact, though high risk and operationally complex boat-based solution might be a 64hp 2-stroke Rotax 582 powered 2-seater Aerochute fitted with inflatable floats on its 100kg three wheeled frame. It has a 300kg MTOW. You would need sufficient deck room like a catamaran to secure it on the stern of your boat. Climb aboard with your passenger, steer your boat directly into wind, release and inflate the chute above the water like they do to launch towed parasailers. Then start the Aerochute engine when risers and lines are clear, apply power to match boat speed, unlock the Aerochute from the deck and allow the weak link-protected tow line to slowly reel out, then release it from the boat end. Reel in the tow rope to the Aerochute after release. It would be messy to retrieve that 10.7m span 34sqm salt water-soaked chute on a full-stop water landing upon your return to your boat. Lowering the tow rope from the Aerochute over the boat for an aerial hook-up to the boat stern while it is underway again could be achieved after lots of practice. Then you could be slowly winched in without getting your chute or your feet wet and locked down again. Two-way radio communications would be essential. Approval from the manufacturer (and no doubt CASA who certified it in its standard land configuration) for float installation and complex high risk water launch/recovery operations demanding highly competent boat and aircrew would be involved. You would also use up lots of boat fuel. A safer and less complex aircraft and operations in the Experimental Category might be to combine a Polaris-like amphibious hull with its Rotax 582 engine, propeller and seating inside a roll cage that is necessary for chute operations, together with a larger chute than the Aerochute to carry the extra weight. You could use the inflatable hull as an airboat tender without deploying the chute. You could motor ashore for a safer beach takeoff and landing if one is nearby, but more trouble logistics-wise. Otherwise, you could revert to the high risk deck launch and retrieval method for the Aerochute if you have the rear deck room. I could imagine such a configuration would be difficult to control under the chute due to large hull windage, especially in gusty wind conditions. As an avid angling aviator, I far prefer my Catalina NG fun fishing flying boat to quickly get to my favourite fishing spots safely and directly or go long distance touring. With minimalist camping gear, I can sleep aboard in my net-covered hammock suspended between the wing struts under the wing. And I do not have to waste my time dragging a boat long distance behind my car on a trailer to and fro. It all depends upon whether your focus is on family boating with a dash of fun flying or fun flying and touring with a dash of boating and fishing. In the latter case, you can operate independently if you have sufficient competent boat crew, and just meet up later at a suitable anchorage point and take everyone flying anyway. At the end of the day, you can tie up the flying boat to your boat in protected waters, enjoy everyone’s company and sleep aboard your boat in luxury. Cheers Dale

What a stunning location to base a seaplane! Your choice of Just Sublime is so very appropriate. I have watched many friends build their RVs and have flown in them... great aircraft. Dick Van Grunsven regularly visits QLD to fly in a glider owned by a friend. But I was looking for something simple, easy to maintain and wanted a good stable platform for fishing and camping, as well as range. I was not interested in speed because I have spent too many years flying in circles as a glider pilot, just for the joy of competing against gravity. Now I want to spend time taking in the view on long trips, safe in the knowledge I can alight anywhere on the world's largest airstrip!

In October 2014, I visited D-motor owners, Alain Dejager (quality/marketing manager), Peter Desmet (rally car driver/mechanical engineer/Optimex EFI developer with his brother) and Freddy Deschrevel (original Maaschi Motor team member/machinist extraordinaire) at their Deerlijk D-motor factory... I wonder why they called it D-motor? Alain kindly drove me 430km to visit innovative engineer Jurgen Ostermeier at his BOT SpeedCruiser factory at the world-renown Oerlinghausen Airfield, 100km SW of Hanover, Germany. Jurgen has helped D-motor with their engine development and testing from the outset. He has spent some time working in Australia as well and loves our beer! I flew the D-motor powered SpeedCruiser and verified its spectacular performance and quality of design and build. In flight shutdown and restart is something the EFI D-motor handles really well because its Optimex system was developed in house (see the D-motor website video), in contrast to the Rotax system. That capability, its extremely flat torque characteristics and the simple robust side valve design and reliability makes it the perfect engine (first the 4-cylinder LF-26, and now the 6-cylinder LF-39 model) for EDM Helitech ultralight helicopters. Jurgen helped me with various initial Helix test propellers sent to Fly Synthesis, until Helix's GM Marcus Angstmann was able to provide my final selection. Prior to the first flight of my Fly Synthesis Catalina NG D-motor (what a mouthful but the FS choice... I should call it FS Catalina NG NEO like Boeing and Airbus... or just MAX... even better, "Ding"!) from their WW1 airstrip, 15km S of Udine in northern Italy, Peter Desmet came down to provide invaluable assistance to Fly Synthesis engineers. As a management systems specialist (ISO 9001 Quality et al), I was very impressed with their commitment to customer support as was Fly Synthesis owner, Sonia Felice, which bodes well for their future. Dale

I have the little worker's cottage last on the ridge in the bushland overlooking the billabong, cricket ground and my favourite watering hole, the Dugandan pub. I sit right under the downwind leg for 04 Boonah ALA so have probably been watching you from my back verandah.

What do you love to fly? Are there some scenic spots suitable for water landings where you live?

Always good to give a bit of background to your story. I spotted a boat ramp on the Mulgrave River at Deeral. Looks like nice countryside where you live near Bellenden Ker. I have flown from Atherton years ago. At least I have the range to make the trip... just got to find the time!

Thanks for the welcome, Tony. I noticed you are in Fernvale. Where do you fly?

I have been cruising around this website for years, learning lots about various sports aircraft, but just finally decided to land! My late father, Capt Ken Armstrong, was a RAAF WW2 pilot then airline pilot with ANA then Ansett until retirement in 1975. I have been flying gliders since 16, owned and maintained my own gliders - a Kookaburra (sold in 1981) and a Libelle 201B (since 1976). As a child, I was always fascinated with seaplanes (the original Pereira Osprey kit plane), but was intimidated by the cost unless I could find the time to build my own. Being too busy with work in aviation safety management, I started a re-configuration project with Fly Synthesis Italy to create my FS Catalina NG D-motor - my avatar shows flight testing in the northern Adriatic Sea. With the help of well-known Italian aeronautical engineer, Walter Mauri (Keitek Silent sailplane, Rhampos weight-shift amphibian, Streamer weight-shift trike and various Fly Synthesis and Pipistrel designs to name just a few), we created a suitable engine mount for the tube fuselage, added auxiliary tanks, marine-grade all-electric undercarriage and many other improvements to the original FS Catalina NG R582 amphibian design. The result was a resounding success with safer higher STOL performance off-water at MTOW using the 92hp lightweight EFI 4-stroke side-valve fully water-cooled D-motor and nearly treble the range at a higher cruise speed! FlySynthesis was so impressed with the D-motor, I organised another engine for them to test on their new FS Storch model for their French distributor. With its roomy open cockpit, I now have a fun fishing flying boat for this avid angling aviator! Dale