Mazda

Dunwich on North Stradbroke Island has caravans and there is a resident caretaker who could probably give you a lift to Dunwich. From there you could go to the Little Ships Club on the water, or catch a bus to the beaches at Point Lookout. There is a regular weekend breakfast fly in. There's a good grass strip at Yamba with a clubhouse and showers.

I would like to encourage all of the girls to join. Members receive advice, support and friendship, with some fun fly-aways, discounts on flight planning software, and scholarships for everything from maps, aerobatics, instrument rating and ATPL theory.

Yes, that is correct. The school is not permitted to operate unless it has a CFI, but the CFI may not be an ATO. It's pretty common to need to book in with an ATO for a test. Some schools have CFIs with testing approval for some things (such as PPL or NVFR), but ATOs for CPL, instrument ratings, instructor ratings etc are a bit more specialised and are often external. CASA may even want to send someone along to do the test.

Tomo, be very careful. If someone hires the aircraft and you offer your flying services for free, that is a commercial operation. That means you need to have passed your CPL theory, have done a minimum of 200 hours (too late for 150 hour syllabus), 10 hours instrument, passed the flight test, hold a class 1 medical etc. It also means the aircraft must be in charter category - i.e. a GA aircraft and in the category above airwork. So some flying school aircraft used for training will not comply. Plus, it must be done under an AOC, and not just any flying school AOC, it must be a Charter AOC. I'm a commercial pilot and if I go flying somewhere, I need to cost share unless the above conditions have been satisfied. Cost sharing means just that - equal shares. You must pay the same amount as your passenger. You may think you are providing your "services" for free but the truth is you are not a commercial pilot so you don't meet the minimum requirements for charter flights - and you are the one gaining freee hours/experience and putting that in your log book. Sorry to be blunt Tomo, but if you are not paying an equal shares of the cost you are conducting illegal charter flights. By the way David, if a flight has a timetable it is more than commercial, it is an RPT flight!

Tomo there is plenty of information about Class D on the CASA website, not just the on track, but an e-learning section. CASA did seminars at Toowoomba and Caboolture Tomo!

From a seminar I was told it was online only because some changes may happen and they wanted the changes to be done before printing. It sounded as though there are plans to print it at some stage.

As stated above, it is a VHF and VOR in one box. The VOR is not obsolete, it is still used regularly by those navigating by instruments.

Check with the school to see which books they recommend for students as they may have a preference. I used the ATC books and found them to be very good. If you want to save some money keep a look out on Ebay because they do turn up. CASA publishes quite a few DVDs and publications which are FREE. All you need to do is place an order and pay for postage. They include things like weather, operations at non-tower aerodromes, aircraft maintenance for pilots, human behaviour and looking out.

You can get FEE-HELP (I think that is what it is called) if you do aviation through university. The majority of people doing those courses have airlines in mind though, not mustering etc. Otherwise just go along to a school and move on from there. Yes, the flying, books, medical, ASIC etc are all expensive!

I might!

The chicken bags are the best, I used them when working at an adventure flight company and many were sick. They work well and are a bit more discreet than sick bags. Just ask your chicken shop. Alternatively, next time you are on a commercial flight, take a couple of their bags.

Welcome Mirage. Are you looking for a GA school or an RA Aus school?

If you use standard phraseologies as per AIP misunderstandings will be reduced.

Damo if you have 3 books you probably have a BAK and a flying training manual. The training manual will have the practical lessons, so read through the effects of controls and straight and level lessons. The newer ATC BAK book has a bit of general stuff in the front which is good information, plus effects of controls & straight and level. That's assuming you are up to straight and level! If your first lesson was a TIF you might be doing effects of controls.

Damo your instructor will absolutely love it if you read ahead a bit so you understand what you are doing in your next lessons. You will be given a briefing anyway, but if you've read the topic the briefing will sink in better, and the briefing will clarify points you may not have understood in the text books. There is quite a lot of theory to learn and you can't learn too much! Do try to absorb it rather than skim it. Where are you up to in your training?

CK, PM me if you like. For now, work really, really hard at school. You will need very good results.

I did a long reply and the internet dropped out, I can't do it all again. There are misconceptions on here. Do read the manual and ask your instructor. A few quick points, I won't launch into the long post I had. Best glide is for range. It varies with weight but this is insignificant over small weight ranges. If your aircraft has one speed published, use that. If it has speeds for different weights, use the speed for the weight you are at. If flying into a headwind you may need to increase glide speed. (If you glide at 65 knots and are gliding into a 65 knot headwind, you won't make your field). Maydays and pax briefs are if you have time only. Aviate first. Your pax will know what is going on. Groundloop rather than hitting anything. Engines DO stop without catastrophic failure, eg doing aeros. You can't use the starter if the prop is windmilling. Set it up and it should start. If that doesn't work and there is time you can stop the prop by hauling the nose up, then try the starter, but if that doesn't work the option is an air start (dive) which requires a lot of height, speed, and pulling out of a dive. Prec searches take a lot of time, probably 20 mins after you've found your field, so don't leave things until the last minute. You might not have time to do all the passes you would like, maybe just one or 2 passes. Doing a pass at 20 feet has dangers as there could be a single wire down there. Better to stay above wire height, and if you see a wire when landing you can duck under it. I won't go into the length I'd written previously!

They key is to watch the dollar like a hawk. If you buy when the Aussie dollar is high and sell in US$ when the Aussie dollar falls, you could do very well.

There are a few ways you can do it. I've never had a proper kneeboard, I've just used clipboards from newsagents, at a size to suit. You could even use contact to stick info on there that you need. Maybe home runway info, VMC info, aircraft info, whatever you think you might need. You can put your plan on the front and maps inside. Either tie the pen/pencil to the board, or put it on a lanyard around your neck. I have 10 mile markers on my pencil too but don't use it too much as 10 mile markers can be estimated on a diversion. You can put the maps along side you too if you run out of room. Much of it is dealt with before departing. Have the maps folded so you don't have to refold in flight. You might have to turn it over, or unfold to the other side etc. They are your maps, you can fold them away from the normal folds, anywhere you like. Thoroughly read the ERSA. You can draw in the direction of approach, look at the forecast wind and you'll have an idea of the most likely circuit join. I don't copy pages but you could. You could write on the circuit height, overfly height. When I first started I would draw the runway layout on the back of the plan with any relevant info. It worked well, but you probably won't need to do that for too long, you'll probably just double check ERSA before approaching the airport. You can write frequencies on your plan. I'd keep it simple, there are enough pieces of paper without photocopying even more bits of paper which can be dropped on the floor.

If someone is doing OCTA circuits, they are the ones who won't make the field if they have a problem, you don't have to be forced wide, just slow down and fly a normal circuit. If you need more spacing you could always land, taxi back to the holding point and take off again. There are 3 circuit heights too for aircraft of different performance. Or if flying somewhere with ATC, you could request an early turn to overtake!

Good news DD!

Hi Chris, I'd suggest going for the Tomahawk initially as it is designed as a trainer, not a tourer, plus you will save some money. Once you have the GFPT jump in the 172 to do your navs.

My Airtourer is on there! :)

It looks like fun!

CFI the problem is charts are not free, just as university education is not free. Someone has to pay. Should we pay for boating charts for recreational boaters? Or should they pay? It's the same for aviation. On compliance, the USA has had recommended calls for many years now and their compliance is higher than ours. They don't need it to be mandated to use common sense, they are trained that way. This change is a cultural one which means we need to change the way we think.