Mazda

I know someone who has a diesel aircraft but due to the lack of fuel quality (or testing?) he has to use Jet A1. He gets some strange looks from refuellers when he asks for jet fuel in his bug smasher.

My understanding is that the Warnervale flying club is likely to move to Aeropelican when Warnervale closes. Funny really because that commercial restriction with however many hours was in force for years, and the field may become used for ab initio! I do know private pilots who have landed there "due stress of weather".

Yes, hot fuel injected engines can be harder to start! I've seen plenty of hot Pitts Specials grinding away without starting for several attemps. Even with hot start techniques. Agreed about carby ice on the ground. I've had it in a C172 at Bathurst and one of the things I'd do there before take off was to put carby heat on for a short time before lining up, then turn it off again before take off. I'm pleased that I have a gauge because the thing that surprised me was how roughly an engine will run when carby heat is not required and it is used!

Yes, I've flown to both Merimbula and Moruya. Moruya has the strip right on the beach, I kid you not. I haven't been there for a while so don't know if security fences have stopped this, but I used to taxi off the runway, park near the beach, climb through the fence and have a swim. It's fantastic. But I haven't actually ventured off the airport so I'm not much help with advice about getting to town. Merimbula is not right on the beach, but still very close to the coast. It's an easy and pleasant walk into town. (Probably too far to carry a lot of gear though). The flight between them is fantastic coastal flying.

Thanks Bob. 26 March is a Wednesday (after Easter) - is that right? I can't make it if it is during the week.

22-23 March are flying days at Temora. They are great to see and Temora is a nice town. Merimbula/Moruya are both good. If you do the SA trip make sure you keep going past Wilpena and go to Arkaroola. You can go via Broken Hill. It's an awesome place (they have a website) with two or three big observatories, motel type accommodation, restaurant, bar, pool, amazing 4WD trails, waterholes, yellow footed rock wallabies, amazing rock formations, crystals just sitting there on the ground. The guy that runs the place (Doug) is an aviation nut with an Auster and a 207 they operate from their own strip. He'd pick you up from his strip or Balcanoona if you need a longer strip. ;)

I knew about October but didn't know anything about March. Ultralights do you have any information? The website is very out of date!

I think there are bound to be problems with anything "automatic". I don't have a problem with carburetted or fuel injected engines. If anything fuel injected engines can be more of a hassle - especially when hot. What's so hard about using carby heat when it is needed? My aircraft has a carby temp gauge which is very helpful. Remember engines run rough with carby ice, but they also can also run rough when carby heat is used when not required.

I think there could be a backlash about them being made in China. As I've said before, don't lick the paint! I do think the aircraft is a good idea but I'm yet to find out much from Cessna. They sent me the information kit but it had almost nothing in it! There was a DVD which was a vary broad overview of just a few minutes and not showing much detail. I think the concept is great, people need new trainers - but I hope the reality of the design or build doesn't fall short. I am concerned about history repeating itself - like the Victa situation. I have a Victa and it is one of the nicest aircraft you could fly. It has crisp, light controls, great visibility, can train people from ab initio to spinning and aeros, handles crosswinds well and land beautifully. It's terribly sad that they stopped production while the 152s etc continued. The Victa is a much nicer machine to fly and has lots of clever features. I found it amusing that Cessna have made the 162 with fixed seats and adjustable rudder pedals. The seat can't slip and the pilot's view through the window never changes. Wow, how innovative - just like my 1963 Victa! Anyway, let's hope the 162 lives up to expectations.

I'm flying with CN aviation. I have been known to fly a twin from CN (the Party) but no, it wasn't me. A girl was flying a Duchess there recently (with Ray Ekinci perhaps?)

Mozart, I don't know if it causes a fire hazard in the Jab (I haven't flown one!) but in some aircraft it can do - especially in aircraft with fuel transfer pumps and the tank runs dry. The carby heat question is a really good one. When I first started in C152s I was told not to use it in the circuit. Then when I flew Citabrias I was told to use it in the circuit. Some schools operating Warriors say yes, others say you don't need to. It has a lot do to with the weather at the time and with the type of engine. When I was flying a C172 out of Bathurst, I'd get obvious carby ice (rough running, RPM drop) even when on the ground. Just before taking off I'd re-do the carby heat to make sure it was clear. So for that 172 at Bathurst I always used carby heat in the circuit and listened for an RPM drop enroute. My current aircraft has the same engine as a C152 and it has a carby temp gauge. This takes the guesswork out of it! I generally don't use carby heat on this aircraft in the circuit at CN because the gauge says I don't need to. When I first got the aircraft I did try using carby heat in the circuit and it ran really roughly, then smoothed out as soon when I got rid of the carby heat. So for me in that aircraft, my pre-landing checks include checking the gauge and ascertaining if carby heat is needed (usually not). Not knowing the Jab, all I can suggest is to ask your instructor, or other Jabiru pilots, or even contact the manufacturer and ask for their recommendations?

Personally I find preparation very important. I find I keep on top of things best when I've flight planned thoroughly, know the aircraft numbers and "bold face" checks off by heart, considered any navaids or airspace, thought about the wind/weather and destination runway layout, and given myself a good pre-flight "what if" briefing (both for what happens if things go wrong and for what do to if things go right). Once I've considered all of that I know what to expect and the flight is more inclined to flow smoothly. If I'm fumbling around looking for checklists, reading ERSA for special precautions/frequency/runway layout (instead of just reviewing it) etc that's when I'm more inclined to miss things. Every now and then I try to really make myself think so routine checks are done properly, not glossed over. Did the numbers really increase and decrease when taxiing? Did the compass match? Is my rudder moving on taxi turns? I think the mind has a lot to do with it too. If you make checks of utmost importance rather than a simple thing that doesn't really matter, that may help. Mozart be really careful with things like fuel pumps and carby heat. They might not seem like much, but on some aircraft if you leave the fuel pump on you can start a fire. On low powered aircraft if you leave the carby heat on you might not have enough power for go around. Two people were killed in a C150 at CN some years back because of that. (Well, actually it was Swiss cheese thing - they were heavy, may have had a tailwind, and tried to go around with flap out and carby heat on.)

This might be of interest - 178 seconds to live. From CASA.

Well done Icebob! Could you give me some St John advice? I run a monthly sporting competition and am looking at getting St John people there. How do I go about organising this and how much should I budget for? At one comp last year a competitor shattered her spine. (Fortunately we didn't move her and called the ambulance, even though she said she was OK - and after some operations she's now walking again).

Isn't she fantastic! I've met Nancy many times and was fortunate enough to be at her 90th birthday. At her birthday speech, instead of just saying thank you, she got stuck into the aviation regulator, Minister (who was there, sitting right in front of her) and so on, saying there was a decline in aviation and they needed to be active and make reforms. I whinge about the attitude to women pilots now, but imagine what it was like for Nancy - the first female Aussie commercial pilot. Women back then were supposed to be housewives, not pilots. (Then again, maybe not much has changed after all?)

Adam, see the bl**dy women thread if you want to see prejudice against women pilots! Tony, I'm with Airsick. I don't think I would like the instructor to do that either. Too much can go wrong when you are close to the ground. Personally I would have thought it would have been better to show you how to solve the situation as soon as you recognised a problem. You obviously showed good judgment by wanting to put in power at that point in the first place. Just my thoughts!

Excellent points Ozzie. In regards to checking the work of others, some time ago in the RAF a disgruntled engineer deliberately didn't connect the secondary charge lanyard on the ejector seat. (The seat had two small charges instead of one big one to lessen the bang, and once the first one had gone off and the seat started to rise, the lanyard would tighten and set off the second charge). With the second charge disconnected, this meant that if a pilot had tried to eject, he would have been killed. It is not in sight so the pilot can't check it during preflight. Fortunately this man's work was checked by another engineer and the missing lanyard attachment pin was noticed. Apparently the disgruntled engineer did it deliberately hoping he'd be thrown out of the RAF, but he was thrown in gaol for 2 years instead for deliberately endangering life.

I don't have a problem with the standard PIFR, it could save lots of lives. In Sydney it is common to have VMC here but have a layer of cloud over the mountains, with clear skies on the far side (perhaps past Bathurst). If you are flying to somewhere like Narromine, you can't go VFR (or some people get caught out). A PIFR allows people to fly through that layer of cloud and cruise on top. The cloud would be long gone by the time they got to Narromine. Adding approaches is great too and can be added on when people have the money for extra training. I think it is better to have a PIFR than nothing, and lots of people don't want to do the full instrument rating either due to the IREX or because the training is so expensive.

There was a Bird Dog and some type of GA twin operating there at one point, and the former Qantas Chief Pilot flew from there. I'm not sure if he still does. I'm told though that it is not somewhere you'd want to make a mistake!

That's right, a PIFR has no actual recency requirement, and if you do a command instrument rating you can be signed off for a PIFR at the same time. Currently an IFR needs a renewal every 12 months but doesn't need an "initial" until 2 years, so some private pilots just do a renewal every 2 years and use the PIFR for the second year. Yes, there is a move to go to the US requirements which would be great. They have no renewals at all, no specific instruments marked on the rating, 6 approaches every 6 months for recency, and no special multi-engine category. Actually, they don't have a night rating either for PPL. Their PPLs all have some night training to get their PPL (something like 3 hours dual?) and can then fly day or night. Personally I think this is way more sensible as all pilots hae some night experience and won't end up having to land in a paddock if last light is approaching (as someone had to do at Yass not so long ago). Plus we don't all have to fork out all that extra money on night ratings!

It is quite believable that huge towering Cbs would be embedded in other clouds. Even if the estimates were wrong and the clouds "only" went to 30,000 ft, or even "only" 20,000 ft, we'd be in trouble. Plus as said earlier, VFR aircraft are not equipped to handle icing. Airspeed would decay, lift would reduce, weight would increase, pitot would be clogged - not a good combination. The PIFR is now quite flexible because you can add on approaches. You can start off just being able to climb through cloud, and at any time you can add on extra "bits" to it. There's a CAAP on it somewhere. You don't need to do the IREX exam for the PIFR. I've actually done the Command Instrument Rating training. I just need a 4 more night command hours and I'm there. I know the Command Instrument rating does cover you for NVFR, I can't remember if the PIFR (or variations of the PIFR) cover this. Perhaps there is a night add on? I did the NVFR training but never did the test - long story, couldn't find an ATO to test my instructor who was doing his approval test at the same time. Anyway, if you do an instrument rating it isn't necessary. NVFR training I found frustrating. Late nights after work and countless cancellations due weather after driving to the airport after last light. At least the IFR training is more likely to happen when you do night flights. For a command instrument rating you can do a fair bit of the flying in the sim. I did some in the sim but most of it in flight - some under the hood, some in real IMC, some by day, some by night. The dark night IFR flights under the hood and in IMC were the ones where all the sensory illusions were most pronounced. Very tiring!

If only I had a spare $80,000 ...

What a shame. I agree that we must be extra careful after maintenance. It comes back to that old air traffic controller joke. "If the pilot stuffs-up, the pilot dies. If the air traffic controller stuffs-up, the pilot dies." Well, thankfully its not that serious this time, and it applies to maintenance people, but the philosophy that it is not their lives on the line still applies. I'm not going to "blame" the pilot because he'll already want the ground to open up and swallow him. He's bent his aircraft. That's a horrible feeling both in terms of breaking such a lovely machine and wondering how much it will cost. I feel for him. I hope he is OK, that his confidence isn't too shaken and his aircraft can return to the beautiful thing that it was. I don't buy the light elevator theory. I find Arrows heavy so I'm sure the Bonanza would be quite a handful. Let it be a lesson to all of us. We can ALL make mistakes. Bad pilots and good pilots. Checklist or no checklist. It's happened enough to experienced multi-pilot airline crews to think that it can't happen to us. I guess we just need to be as careful as possible, look all around the cockpit at all instruments, fuel, trim, flaps, lights etc (and actually register what they are indicating). An instructor of mine would have a go at me if I ever said an instrument was "good" or similar, I had to say it was "in the green", "set to QNH", etc.

Flyer if the pig pilots couldn't see you they shouldn't be flying them! (They need to look out for much faster moving traffic for war or they'll be shot down first.) Yes, it is true there could be military aircraft, airline aircraft etc - just like there could be military aircraft and airline aircraft anywhere else so it pays to always keep a good lookout. I hope you have a great flight!

Thanks Ben. I hope your friend is OK.