David Gillieson

Most of the Coachwood was sourced in North Queensland by forester Ian Gillison, who worked for the Commonwealth Foresty Bureau in Mackay. His sons now live in Yungaburra and near Albury. Many wooden propellors used in WW2 planes were made of North Queensland rainforest timbers. The Venables sawmill in Cairns handled a lot of the timber. My father flew Mosquitoes in 85 Squadron and mostly in night fighters. Also late in the war dropped propaganda pamphlets over France and Italy to demoralise German troops. Very high casualty rate, of the 70 guys he started with only six were left at the end of the war.

GoFly at Caboolture have a Tecnam P92 that is nice to fly, very forgiving and similar to a Jabiru - also some very good instructors and great locations to fly to.

Hi Stewy, I've been using RGIB (Rural & General Insurance Brokers) for the last two years, found them good to deal with. Aviation policy underwritten by Swiss Re which is one of the biggest. Cheers, Dave

swatted a passing flying fox with his famous white hat, which then was in dire need of cleansing......

I think that some local training would be ideal, and agree that a test alone (although expedient for RAA) is not the best solution. In my experience the level of maintenance training provided by CFIs is very variable. I have learnt more by watching my L2 doing maintenance and asking questions. Maybe this is something that could be coordinated through the regional Board members.

I found GoFly to be excellent, strong emphasis on developing flying skills, safety and maintenance. Did my conversion to Savannah there last year, Caboolture is a good location and some good nav exercises possible from there.

Thanks everyone for that advice, my latest weight and balance figures are well within limits. I will do the theoretical calculations first as suggested.

Greetings! I'm fairly new to all of this, and have fitted a new 3 blade prop to my Savannah recently. Previously it had a 4 blade Brolga prop. I've noticed that the plane now tends to be a little nose heavy and less sensitive to trim adjustment. My battery is mounted inside the small rear door and I wondered about putting some additional weight there to shift the C of G back a bit. Does anyone have any advice? Many thanks, Dave

Hi, my name is Dave Gillieson and I am new to both flying and this forum. I own a Savannah VG based at Atherton and look forward to many hours flying around the Tablelands and further afield.