Mazda

The student pilot age im GA will be 15 years, RPL needs to be 16. RPL holders will need to do a medical - either a Class 2 from a DAME, or a recreational medical (drivers licence medical aviation) from a GP. Those with a recreational medical can only take one pax, those with a Class 2 can take more than one pax. 25 hour minimum, can fly within 25 miles, 1500kg MTOW single piston, day VFR only. The recreational nav endorsement needs 5 hours command xc including a 100nm flight. It can be done OCTA, or add on controlled airspace (transit) or controlled aerodrome (operating in and out). Still 1500kg day vfr single piston only. PPL will require controlled airspace (no OCTA PPLs), a solo nav of 150nm and 2 hours IF. A PPL can go on to night, multi, IFR and aircraft over 1500kg. Integrated PPL will be offered with a 35 hour minimum. Non integrated PPL is the current 40 hour min. 17 year age minimum. CPL will be as it is now, 150 or 200 hours with the usual command requirement, 10 hours IF, 300nm solo nav, 18 years.

Well done Motz!

Joy flights at this stage are in charter category. You would need to hold a CPL and the aircraft would need to be in charter, ie VH and not just in pvt or airwork, it must be in charter. Plus it would need to be conducted under an AOC which covers charter, and the pilot would have to conform to the requirements of the operator's ops manual - which could cover all sorts of things like operation of fire extinguishers, ditchings to dangerous goods certification.

Forget the radio, just fly the aeroplane. Light signals won't help either - red light or not, you are landing.

Same as in the air, keep right, and I've been in plenty of places where you do have to pass other aircraft on a taxiway. If you are on separate taxiways that is like being on another road, it is irrelevant. I wish drivers at airports (in cars) would also keep right instead of thinking it is a road.

I also do nag checks because getting on without checking the girth can be embarrassing.

Yes, I do runups. If the engine is warm it takes less than a minute and after taxi at least you can detect plug fouling and do something about it. Not doing it is just being lazy. With some aircraft you can do run ups on taxi, it is up to the operator as to what they prefer. Some aircraft can't run up on taxi

Wings are desinged to stall root first because there is a short moment arm and less chance of a wing drop. If the wings stall tip first and there is any differential lift, a wing drop will result due to the longer moment arm. It is achieved through washout and inboard stall strips. Buffet is a byproduct as the disturbed inboard airflow buffets the tail, depending on wing and tail design. Use of the aileron in or near the stall is to be avoided.

A taxi call is not mandatory at CTAF Kaz, at plenty of airports you don't even need a radio. Under the circumstances it would have been prudent to give a call, although it doesn't sound as though there was any risk of collision if he had you sighted the whole time. I would say the most likely reason is that either of you had a radio issue - wrong frequency, wrong radio selected, turned down, radio not working. Even if radio calls are 'mandated', remember there will still be aircraft who don't make radio calls due to errors or broken radios. Who hasn't done it? Unless there is a third party confirmation there is no way of knowing if your radio is working (eg you hear a beep back of an AFRU, someone responds to your call etc). You also can't assume no run-ups were done. They may have been done before you saw the aircraft or they may have been done during taxi - you don't necessarily need to stop to do run ups.

If you will excuse the bad pun, this is timely as I have been looking for a new watch. A few points from my experience. I wouldn't recommend digital. If it gets hot enough, they can go blank, which is a bit of a problem. And yes, it has happened to me. I think the nav computers look pretty cool but realistically, you won't use it, especially in flight. You don't even need the real one in flight, let alone one with tiny numbers stuck to your wrist. For VFR flight what do you need? Something easy to see. Big clear numbers, clear hands. I like to have two times, local time and UTC. Some pilot watches (Torgoen ones come to mind) have an extra hand on the dial which points to the UTC hour. That's a nice simple way to do it. If you aim to do NVFR you will want something you can see at night. If you want to fly IFR you should have a stopwatch - although the aircraft is likely to have one. My current watch is a Suunto digital, which does everything except make coffee, but it is way to ugly, digital and I'm only using since my g-shock died (it was an analogue one with a second time zone in digital). I've decided on a Torgoen T5 and have one on order. I find it very difficult to get watches which fit, most are way too big for me, so I was pretty limited in options.

What do people think of the US PPL? There is no night rating in the USA, because it is included (and required) in the PPL, and they do it in the same number of hours as ours - some day circuits, some night, some day navs, some night. It means all of their PPLs know about LSALT, illusions, how to turn the lights on etc. Obviously this is for NVFR equipped aircraft only.

Dog I'm not quite sure what you are getting at. The responsibility of your flight always rests with you. Not ATC, not your pax, not based on the words of others. The bottom line is it is always your responsibility to check wx and make a decision based on factors affecting you, which could be completely different from another pilot next to you. Are you flying an IFR aircraft from a radar Class C aerodrome with SIDs to depart and ILS to return? Is your rating current? Is the take off minima met for your aircraft, whether fixed wing single, multi or heli? If your instrument rating is out of date, are you and your pax happy for a private flight to be done on a PIFR? If at night, are you night current and is the aircraft NVFR? Are you flying a day VFR only aircraft, without suitable instruments? How much instrument training have you had? Is there high terrain on or near the route? Have you calculated an LSALT, and do you have a plan if you don't believe you can maintain this? How much general experience do you have? Do you have personal minimums, and if so, why should you break them? Do you really need to go or is it better to stay in a motel? It is quite possible that one pilot can depart legally and safely, but the pilot standing next to them could not.

Adam it is called a learning plateau and it happens to everyone. Keep plugging away and it will all fall into place and your learning will start to increase again. Don't be too spooked if you don't forge ahead in the next lesson either, you might feel stuck for a little while but don't panic, it won't last forever. Where are you up to in your training?

We contribute to it. In some countries, the training is based on airmanship and decision making skills and there are not as many 'mandated' regulations, however the pilots do comply, and they use airmanship to deal with other matters. Let's take CTAFs for example. Just about everywhere else there are no mandatory joins, no mandatory calls, no mandatory minimum final. Just be aware of what is going on around you, join safely and in you go. But if Australia doesn't MANDATE things, the culture seems to dictate that if it isn't written in a reg somewhere, anything goes. The rules don't say I need to make any calls, so I won't. That is not the intention, it is to use airmanship to make appropriate calls, which might be none, or could be several. Motz is right. The culture needs to change. Rules or no rules, is it good airmanship to check the weather, to depart with enough light, to not depart if the aircraft is not airworthy, to carry an ELT for a short flight over tiger country etc? Of course it is. We need to get over the attitude that if it isn't mandated in specific terms in the regulations, it isn't required.

RedOz get your flying school to show you how to lodge a plan through NAIPS, it isn't hard. You can do it over the phone, or as a last resort by radio but it does clog the frequency. You can put the NAIPS plan in online, but yes do remember to cancel your SAR. However there is no need to lodge a plan when flying VFR, and that includes flying in Class D or C airspace, just call up with 'details' on approach. The controllers will tell you they want a plan because it is easier for them, but it is not required. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using a Flight Note, it is legal and as long as it really is left with a 'responsible person' there is no problem with it. Just make sure the responsible person does act on it and knows what to do. Flight following is a good thing but it isn't just a SAR service, they will give you known traffc, can assist with navigation and so on. It is on a workload permitting basis only, so it is free. If you are worried there are systems like Spider Tracks which show where you are, or you could even send an SMS to your responsible person with an update of your position (remember to fly the aeroplane first though, and keep looking out). Do take water. If you do have to put down, you won't last long without water, or if all goes well flying can be thirsty work, airports can be hot, and taxis can take forever. Always take a jacket, no matter what the weather, even for a day trip. The wx might close in, you might get stuck waiting in a terminal, aero club or charming country motel, and it can get cold at night. Good grief Frank, SARTIME or no SAR flights are not new, the full SAR reporting for VFR was pre-AMATS in 1991! RedOz you would not like that system, you had to nominate locations plus or minus 2 minutes like you need to do for IFR, and the only reason it existed in the first place is that way back then we had quadrantal levels not hemispherical levels, which meant VFR and IFR were cruising at the same altitude. That is why VFR needed the same reporting as IFR.