David Isaac

I am very sorry to inform you that Steve Robards, the Ozzie we knew on this site passed away following a long debilitating illness. He had a long history in Ultralights working on the very early Thrusters including the 'Glass House'. He was also well known in the Hunter in the parachuting community.

Yeah, sorry for the thread drift ... Yep, We had the same restriction, no flying when he was trotting. I suppose the old bloke has long passed. Is that trotting track still there or did the runway get extended into it? I remember he had a really old vintage car abandoned in one of his sheds on the farm. Sigh ... I digress ... I'll have to get my J1B in the air and come on down to Mittagong one of these days, but then again, I have been saying that for a while too.

Jeez Oscar, how the hell did you know I used to fly out of Mittagong, that was years ago. I used to fly Frank Bailey's Mustang out of there, one of the early 95-10 category before the AUF was born. I do remember that old hangar, pretty sure it was empty in the days I was there. Of course now it s wall to wall of hangars, a far cry from what it was back in '82.

Yeah ... well I have always wanted to fly the Auster to NZ, im sure it could easily do it ... BUT, Shirley said ...not while you are married to me ...

Ha ha why not Kaz ... how are you and that mighty Auster going ? Lots of people fly across that ditch in double banger two strokes. Drifters for example. So this kid made a couple of mistakes, was beaten up by the media, then beaten up by RAA then just for sport was beaten up by CASA. He was 23 FFS. He paid big time for his own mistakes. But that is not good enough, lets hang him out to dry and throw away the key. FFS lets get this in proportion and go after the real criminals shall we.

Thank God you are not a Magistrate Capt ... you would probably hang draw and quarter real criminals ...LOL

Me too. This has been a legal beat up out of all reasonable proportion.

That's rough.

A very expensive feather.

Even if you had access to the calcs and they would be accessible, the average PIC wouldn't know what he is looking at. You fly at your own risk, relying on the certification of the aircraft. If its a home built you would need to figure out how you would establish confidence in the design.

Professional Indemnity Insurance (PI) NOT PL, is a potential can of worms from a liability perspective. The bigger problem as both Geoff and DJP have alluded is that if a claimant or claimant's lawyer gets wind the designer may be at fault and the designer has assets, they will go the designer or the one with money before any liability is even established. It is not the 'at fault' liability that is the immediate problem. The immediate problem is the cost to run a defense. You need a lot of cash to run a defense if you are NOT insured. If you are insured, your costs may be covered, but you have no control over the outcome. Your insurer steps in and will make whatever deal they see fit on financial grounds to settle, sometimes even if the complaint is defensible, so your reputation is at risk and you have no say in the settlement. Once they insure you, they own the whole process; so even if your design is OK, once litigation is commenced it is a potential nightmare. PI insurance covers you on a 'claims made' basis. What that means is the year of the alleged design flaw is not so relevant (obviously you need to have been insured at that time), but you are not covered if your insurance is not current in the year the claim is made. You get in a situation where you have to maintain permanent PI insurance and usually with the same insurer. When approaching retirement you usually do a deal on a diminishing premium basis, but it must be continued past your retirement.

That is NOT learning ... that is someone pushing the envelope past where they should. I would argue demonstrating the aircraft at speeds they should not. You can hang many aircraft on the prop with big wings and flaps (and slats particularly), but if you are on the edge of the envelope and the wind drops just a couple of knots ... bingo.

yes, Give him our regards Kaz.

Irrelevant to the discussion. The discussion is about a fee for late renewal.

Im at a loss to understand a sensible motive for management to do this. Members should voice their concern. If anything it will have the effect of members likely 'not bothering with renewing'; arguably not in the best interests of either the member of RAAus.

Most people don't realise that if you are an ordinary PPL, RPL, RPC or what ever without a low level endorsement and you fly a low pass over a runway without the 'intent' to land, it breaches the regs. The exceptions are a baulked approach, a precautionary and a go around.

They landed on the beach Oscar, if you blinked you would have missed it ...

Beach landings like all 'off field' landings have associated risks that we should all be aware of. Carrying passengers in such endeavours increases the associated risks.

Yes Keith all in the pursuit of the mighty dollar, margins and share value with no foresight for the long term consequences. Not limited to Australia, the same thing is happening in NZ and Canada.

Not if it will result in an increase in my membership fees and I wont be using it.

I agree, If we wont airstrips and club houses then form local clubs and buy one, that way only those that use it pay for it. I certainly don't want to be paying for something I cannot ultimately benefit from.

Ya just got to get rid of that pesky lil wheel up the front and put descent rudder on her ... LOL

Sorry to hear that Ian, very unfortunate. She will look good in her original military colours though. So maybe a good outcome. Still haven't got my old girl flying, been swamped with a few other distracting issues.

If you drive a bitumen thoroughbred and are used to hard long take off surfaces, you may not be used to the slower acceleration on grass and may be tempted to haul her off too soon especially as this grass runway was short compared to the bitumen one. Not in any way implying that was the case here, but a not too uncommon phenomena where pilots are NOT used to the slower acceleration on grass. It has caught out a few GA pilots in the past and these slippery little suckers are not much different.

Yenn, Coroners reports are public information, you just have to know when they are published.