farri

Yes! it is terrible and tragic! no winners there!!! The 17 year old had to be placed on suicide watch and what`s worse is that it continues to happen to someone, somewhere, throughout the country. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHhiUv9hX-o Franco.

I`m on my second Victa and it has a fair amount of life left! I`ll certainly look at the Super 600 for the next one. Love your sense of humor, Nev! seriously though, I buy 20 lts (more if needed) at a time, from our local servo and I don`t let the Drifter stay on the ground long enough for any fuel to get stale. G`Day Don, Hope you and Rhonda had a great Christmas and Santa brought you all you wanted. The Bradford Scheme! https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-24/fact-check-bradfield-scheme-barnaby-joyce-drought/11029284 I believe it should have gone ahead many years ago! Franco.

Absolutely! got a good storm on Thursday and yesterday, it was perfect flying conditions for me. W`ve had enough rain in the last week , that our gardens havn`t needed watering and the lawn is back to growing so fast that I`ll need to mow every four days until, or, if we get back to the dry we`d been getting. I`ve got a lot of lawn to mow and a fair amount needs to be mowed with the VICTA push mower! yesterday afternoon I mowed two of my neighbors yards as well as my own! one because he couldn`t start his mower, and the other because they`ve been away and will be back tonight, so I wanted the place to look tidy form them! ah well! it keeps me fit and in good with he neighbors. Getting fairly heavy rain as I type! we don`t really need it, while a large part of the county is either in severe drought or burning up from bush fires.... BLOODY CRUEL!!! Just took this photo... Franco.

This morning I took these guys out to High Island for a bit of snorkeling...The guy sitting in the seat is a local friend of mine and very experienced on and in the water! the guy on the right is his nephew and the other guy is the nephew`s son! both from Germany and never done this sort of thing before... Something to remember when they get back home. MAH00040.MP4 MAH00040.MP4 MAH00040.MP4 MAH00040.MP4 After mowing lawn all afternoon, I went for a fly and yes! it was before last light. Looking East........ Looking West......... Franco.

I went for a great solo fly again this afternoon and once again got back on the ground, put the Drifter away and walked away without a scratch! I`ve never been scratched flying Ultralights in all the years I`ve been flying. A couple of weeks ago a beautiful 16 year old young lady from our local area and her boyfriend were driving home at around 7.30 PM when a 17 year old guy in his vehicle crashed into them head on and killed both of them instantly! the 17 year old survived. I took both the mother and father of this young lady, flying in the Drifter, before she was born! Franco.

Really, Truly?........ ............ .

Over the years I`ve flown quite a few different types of Ultralights, apart from the one I scratch built that got me flying, 4 that quickly come to mind are , early model Light-Wing, the Shadow, the Zenith 701, which was based here on our property for 10 years and the X-Air that is based here now... Would I swap the Drifter for any of those I`ve flown or any of the modern LSA?....... NEVER!!! Of course, it depends on what the individual wants from the aircraft and the amount of $$$ there are to play with! the Drifter does all I want and need it to do, so I`ll keep flying it for as long as I can. Franco,

Couldn`t agree more, even when it looks like this... I took the photo a couple of days ago...This cloud formation was sitting over Bell Peak, which is just north east of home here and I couldn`t resist it! the valley behind me was clear of cloud and I didn`t fly over cloud but I enjoyed every second of it. Thank you Nev! Same to you and everyone else on this Forum. Franco,

Yes Nev and it never ceases to amaze me!!! Not sure if I`ve already posted this one but anyway! the area inside the red line is our property and where I fly from. This is what happened yesterday...….Michael, with his Grand-Son! 4th flight with me, for this young man! If I recall correctly, his first was at 8 years of age, he`s not from our area, but each time he`s up here visiting his Grand-Dad he want`s to go for a fly with me. Franco.

Sunset from the Drifter this afternoon! Franco.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/breaking-news-two-people-dead-as-light-plane-goes-down-in-regional-queensland/ar-AAK77qM?li=AAgfIYZ&fbclid=IwAR3WbOwHvBpdvV2InrZJWmaZH72gyrDVajiyOcGdjskOJFywFl4u-EMBgGo

Yes! and you`ve been a fair contributor to the crap, so don`t both replying!!!

"No one has found a new way of crashing an aircraft!" I don`t remember who made that statement, but it was made on this forum, a while back, and as I recall, it was Ross and Me, who said more than once on here, " you will never stop the accidents." A lot has been said on here about training, so! just a bit of history in an attempt to make my point... When I started flying Ultralights there were no twin seat Ultralight aircraft approved for training, if you wanted to fly, you taught yourself or you went looking for an instructor but the instructor couldn`t legally be in the aircraft so it was no better than teaching yourself! accidents were occurring and it was found that the majority of the accidents involved GA pilots who had been trained to fly but not trained to fly Ultralights! then came the certification of the Drifter and the Thruster and those of us who were capable, went on to start, twin seat instruction! if a GA pilot wanted to fly an Ultralight, they had to be instructed by an Ultralight instructor! but the accidents continued to occur. Back then, once a student achieved their A.U.F. pilot certificate, they could fly any Ultralight, within the A.U.F. system! accidents, fatal and non fatal, continued to occur, so! the endorsement system began, but! the accidents continued, so! the Low performance and High performance endorsements were brought in and the accidents continued to occur. Time went on and the A.U.F. became the R.A.A ,or if you prefer, R.A-Aus, and the time of the L.S.A. had arrived! a lot of instructors, like myself, retired from instructing and as a result a substantial amount of A.U.F/R.A.A flight training schools closed ( and are still closing) so now those second rate instructors, as some thought, were out of the system, but guess what? the instruction was deemed to have been improved but accidents continued to occur and as we all know, are still occurring, regardless! of the training or the thoroughness and findings of the investigation of the previous accident. Of those I instructed, only one crashed his plane and was fatally injured! Why? because he chose to come down to powerline height and as a result he hit it! several others had engine failure in their own aircraft but all managed to landed safely. Ross may have started off like me but he became a very experienced pilot who knew what he was doing and regardless of anything that is said, here, or elsewhere, by whoever, there will never, ever, be any proof, that had he, or anyone else, in a similar accident, landed straight ahead or 30 degrees either side, would still be here with us. Human Factors are the biggest cause of accidents and didn`t all of us R.A.A pilots have to do and pass a Human Factors exam? Franco, Ps, I prefer to remember Ross as the A.U.F/R.A.A pilot, who did what he thought was the right to do on the day.

How far back do you want to go? If you havn`t already done so try contacting SSCBD on this forum, he goes further back with the A.U.F than I do... Except for the bottom one, here`s a couple of photos I took, way back! you can use them if you want. Perry Harvey with his Scout at Mission Beach, North Queensland...Not sure, but I think it was, 1986. Steve Ridley, with his Sky-Dart and me on the beach at Russell Heads, North Queensland,1986. Kevin Wall and me, when I was instructing...Deeral, North Queensland. Franco,

Hi Yen! Pat McGrath started off instructing with a Thruster! The Drifter wasn`t yet on the scene up here so Pat and SSCBD came up here, from Townsville, to our property, with the Thruster and they took quite a few of the Far North Queensland Ultralight Association members for a T.I.F and their first flight in an Ultralight. My lips are sealed to the identity of SSCBD... By left us, do mean, passed-away? Well done! you get the Cigar! ....….... Yep! the push mower is in fact a VICTA , the ride on is a Toro zero-turn and the tractor and slasher does the heavier stuff. Franco.

Yeah! You`re right! We had our youngest daughters 50th birthday party this last Saturday, so I ran around mowing all over the place and completely forgot that piece but it`s mostly grass seed and I like to leave it as long as possible for the Finches! anyway! that`s my excuse and I`m sticking to it. Franco.

Is this young lady enjoying the flight or what?... This afternoon I had the pleasure of taking this beautiful young lady for her third flight in the Drifter, with me! Indyana, had her first flight with me at 14 years of age and that was 4 years ago! she`s not from our area so can only fly when she is up here... That`s Michael her Grand-Father! So far, I`ve taken up Michael`s wife, their daughter and several other family members... I must be doing something right, they keep coming back when ever they are in our area. Franco,

In my previous post, #8, I said, "Pretty much what Ross`s brother, who was there and witnessed it, told me, when I spoke to him about it!" I was going from memory and that`s how I recalled it! I`ve since found out that in fact, Ross`s brother who I was referring to, wasn`t there, when the accident happened. Franco.

Pretty much what Ross`s brother, who was there and witnessed it, told me when I spoke to him about it... Knowing Ross, I would say he did what he thought was best at the time! No offence meant Alf but I believe it`s wrong to say "killed himself in it" to any fatal accident! that implies the intention of the pilot was to commit suicide. Is it acceptable to say Ross killed himself in it? Franco.

This has got to make you laugh! This is the totally deaf guy just up the road, I take flying...So what`s so funny? Franco.

Yep! it flies! but not for me. Doesn`t appear to have the control-ability I want from an Ultralight aircraft. Franco.

I wonder how I knew someone would pick this up??? ..........

By the way! Just a side note to my post above, SSCBD, was C.F.I. for the four of us until we all got to A.U.F. C.F.I. level ourselves, then we all went on to established our own A.U.F. flight training facilities. Back then, the A.U.F. hadn`t yet been given authority to approve C.F.I.`s and flight training facilities so the four of us had to be approved by The C.A.S.A. of the time and from memory, I think it was the C.A.A.! and as they say, "The rest is history!" Franco.