Markdun

What was the wind at ground level like? Just relevant to whether the Cessna was intending to land in the opposite direction or not. I note that at Camden the circuit by the Cessna was landing towards the SW, so why reverse at the Oaks? I’d like to know whether there was any descent to circuit height as well. My guess is that after an intensive test flight the two pilots in the Cessna were mentally exhausted and the turn over the Oakes towards home at Shellharbour had them both relaxing. This is like most mountaineering accidents occurring on the way down after sumitting, ie after you have achieved your goal: as Tigger said ‘going up is easy, it’s the coming down that is difficult’. The other thing about see and avoid is that objects on collision course do not ‘move’ in relation to the background and our primitive eye-brain system is best at picking up movement, so we don’t see (eye & brain) the very thing that will smash into us, yet we do see that tiny wedge tail eagle circling. See and avoid DOESNT work, because you only see what you don’t need to avoid.

Mmm. Power bricks I’ve looked on eBay specifies the various input voltages (12vdc or 240vac), & power out voltages 4.5vdc & various others depending on the brick. But what is the relevant voltage of the internal storage battery?

Same as why ppl selling aircraft claim speed in TAS or mph. But really, mAh or Ah is still irrelevant because what you need to know is energy stored, ie Joules or kWh. They may as well give you the charge capacity in Coulombs. I suppose it’s still better than places like McDonalds that sell stuff with specifications like small, medium and large. The other bigger question is whether you believe the claim.

I do like fresh mussels, roasted on hot coals of a fire on the beach, with red wine and good company. A pity its not allowed anymore. Evidently a campfire on a beach will turn fine white silica sand black according to rangers, but bushfires and defence ordnance doesnt.

I believe at some point nearly all bodies corporate go from an organisation which supports and promotes members’ interests to an organisation where members are merely a factor of production supporting the interests of the organisation and its managers. For Ra-aus my guess is this occurred around the time of the name change from AUF and was ‘cemented’ with the change from an ‘association’ to ‘a corporation’. The current ‘arse’ about approach is clearly demonstrated every time someone from RA-Aus crows about we are all about ‘supporting the industry’ or ‘network’ blah blah. Same writ large is the arse about logic imploring citizens to support the ‘economy’, when it’s actually the economy which should be serving or slave to society. Skip, logical argument or actual evidence is irrelevant; it’s about power. Always is.

And the runway is so bad (bitumen breaking up) that the larger aircraft won’t be able to use it soon to the detriment of the main paying tenant (Corporate Air). So pretty significant expenditure is sort of needed now just to keep current tenants. I’ve heard the current owner is also very much offside with the Council following a property he owned (and wanted to develop) with an historical heritage listing building on it mysteriously burnt down. The word I’ve received from Goulburn users (last week) is it hasn’t sold and they’re not surprised given how much he wants and its marketing. It’sa pity because there is a nice group of aviators there and Teraya is s great instructor. The Goulburn council needs to go speak with Cowra and Temora councils I reckon.

Ahhh! I can beat that. I flew a Kookaburra sailplane on winch launch (fencing wire… break every second launch) in late 1970s there with ANU gliding club & one of my lecturers was the instructor. They also had a ‘high performance’ ‘Blanik’. Previously the club was at Currendooly and after that Werriwa (a couple of nm sth of Currendooly). I don’t understand parachuting. I’ve got one stored in a cupboard somewhere….I took that with me in my Carbon Dragon sailplane as a back up to backup.

Check ADSB data. I’m pretty sure seversl weeks ago enroute from Cowra to Goulburn an aircraft I was checking on landed, or at least did a circuit at one of the two airfield at Crookwell.

Don & I tried Collector (50km from Canberra). There used to be gliding strip (winch) & then parachuting to the west of the town, but we looked at the 1/4 horse race track just to the east of the hwy. Its crown land for the town’s recreation, managed by a trust. The horse track is s beautiful airstrip (a bit short) but fantastic approaches. Its used perhaps 1 or two weekends per year. All looked good….trust ppl keen to get more users as the NSW govt was threatening to sell the land if they didn’t do more with it etc. We both flew in one weekend, had a great day. Word back from the trust ppl…no go. Ppl in Collector opposed. End. I’m not so sure you are correct on Currendooly Ian. Yes to the solar panels, but it’s possible to to do both in that paddock. But there is another problem with Currendooly. The other alternative is the sand mining areas to the south west of Currendooly. I’m not aware of anyone speaking to the sand miners, but the guys with their Madmax dune buggy racers seem to do ok there. There’s also Polo flat & Cooma sth.

It’sa death spiral for public schools. As local public schools close & funding tight, public schools, at least here in Canberra truly become communist era ‘peoples factory school No.53’ with huge numbers of kids crowded into smaller & smaller spaces. And we wonder about why there is an issue with social behaviour….. politicians need to study rat behaviour. So of-course parents vote with their feet (we did), diminishing the numbers in public schools and reducing the public & political support to increase funding to public schools…and so on. And who would want to be a teacher there anymore. I taught secondary science and maths for 15 years before moving to govt & telecommunications. When I retired, I thought I’d go back to do some science and maths relief teaching, but evidently my 4 year Forestay degree with HDs in maths, physics & some engineering subjects & post grad quals in teaching, plus experience wasnt good enough anymore, plus a heap more red tape bullishlt. I think the only solution is the Finnish one: ban private schools… then and only then will there be support for proper funding. Like others have said, I’d much rather we invest in the country’s future by investing in our ppl…mostly education. It’s called human capital formation. And not invest in useless submarines or the stock market (like the incredibly stupid ‘future fund’) What’s this got to do with Goulburn aerodrome I’ve no idea.

It’s the ducking belling decker

Maybe a little topic drift. I forgot to mention a ‘covenant’ on a land title has effect like a contract in law. Only parties to a contract have legal rights to enforce it. In the case of a covenant to an aerodrome that would be the neighbouring land owners, the council, & maybe ppl with aircraft in hangers at Goulburn. At our property (with airstrip) all properties have a covenant that prohibits the keeping of cats, & requires dogs to be locked up at night etc. But only a neighbour can take someone to court to enforce it…. Never gunna happen. Pretty useless, like greenhouse gas emission targets, corporations taking ppls’ privacy seriously and committed to…blH blah, & about as effective as ‘payers and thoughts’.

Evidently interest in purchasing Goulburn aerodrome has been so great they have decided to extend the time for prospective purchasers to obtain an information park and submit that they are interested. Regarding airfields in or around the ACT I offer the following comments being an ACT resident since the mid 1970s, being a principal witness to the Justice Stein Judicial Inquiry into dodgy land and planning in the ACT, an aviator since the late 1980s, & currently own an airstrip within 60km of Canberra. First, all land in the ACT was purchased using taxpayers’ money in the early 1900s. The intention was that the land in public ownership would see the public (ie. govt) receive the value of the increase in value of the land especially the increase in value due its development as the nation’s capital and the public investment in infrastructure…hence the ACT’s leasehold system. Unfortunately over time successive govts (Lab/LNP) have given away the benefits of public land ownership to curry favour with certain ppl. Really it was a way for govts of spending money off the books; eg selling a lease, or additional uses to an existing lease, for less than market value. As I showed the Stein inquiry this extended to public servants (as well as Ministers) selling favours, sometimes unlawfully.I demonstrated this with a few examples of several millions of $$ lost. Today, there is little (but still a little) value left…it’s mostly been given away. The Snow’s fortune was mostly made by purchasing commercial crown leases with short terms (25 years) and converting them to effectively perpetual leases with a 99 year term. Originally the 25 year term of s lease was made because at the time of issue it was thought the nature of the business would change (change in use), & the govt would suction auction a new lease at the end of 25 years (ie. a rational decision). But instead they allowed the lease to be converted to a perpetual lease. with a big discount…. Think as a property owner,, would you give a renter the land title for nothing just because they paid re years? The problem I see in the Williamsdale proposal is that it was put as a commercial one, and we all know that owning airports is not very profitable (unless they are exempt from local planning laws like Sydney & Cbr, or have effective geographic monopoly). In my view it would have been better to approach the issue as a spring/recreational facility like golf clubs or football stadiums (though stadiums are really not so opaque subsidies to gambling and media companies). The ACT govt gave a small fortune to the ACT gliding club to upgrade their facilities at Bunyan (NSW), so it seems to me they could give a similar fortune to ACT aviators in an opaque land grant (concessional lease) like they do for churches, Telstra, various other wealthy lobby groups etc etc. As for suitable land around Cbr, there are various possibilities including land destroyed by mining (cadmium poisoned land on the banks of the Molonglo R towards Captains Flat/Hoskinstown, sthn shores of Lake George ex-sandmining, the Sydney rubbish dump/Woodlawn), Collector, & west of Murrumbateman. Can’t see a huge conflict with other users for a public airstrip at Woodlawn ir Lk George sand mines…but who knows. Just requires some investors to negotiate with the miners. As for private strips. I know that there are 4 other strips within 5 nm of mine; 2 are very large and not used, & 2 are well used. Class G to 6500 so plenty of room, but lots of vfr traffic including heavy military rotorcraft. Methusla has used my strip in the past in his Thruster, & I think most would agree with him that it can be character building despite its 750m length.

Returning to the orthopaedic hospital ward, I’m not to sure I’d place too much on the anecdote about wards being filled by motorcycle crash victims. When I was last in an orthopaedic ward most of the other ‘blokes’ had a sixpence stuck in their throat or polio. And I can vividly recall having 4 burly nurses struggling with difficulty to extricate myself from the bed to be taken to the operating theatre. The surgeon turned up to see what the ruckus was about (it was a pretty hard physical fight, plus screaming etc) and he then noticed, when I broke one leg free and kicked the nurse away, the scabs on my legs from extensive grazing and bruising from a recent bike crash. I was then evicted from the ward precisely because of my bike injuries. It was a great lesson for a 7yr old. I’d suggest the aged mc fatality issue is overbaked. Really how many guys are there under 40 riding compared to over 40? probably 50:50. My wife’s racing bike is 250cc and I have difficulty getting it to exceed 100kph despite her once having to explain to a magistrate why she was doing 110kph in 3rd grear in a suburban street on the then unregistered Ducati. So yes, there probably is something in the extra power of modern bikes. But I also see increasing incidence of drivers incompetence; much much more ppl over the centreline (inc double unbroken lines); ppl driving at 40-60kph at night on 100kph roads etc etc…we’ve all had the whinge. I conclude that as roads have improved, driving skills have delayed more. It might be the same for flying

Interesting. My wife will ride a motorbike with me but only if I’m the pillion rider. She used to race motorbikes but gave up when a close mate died from anaphylactic shock from anaesthesia following a crash on the racetrack. She won’t fly with me: ‘why should I do something i don’t like’. That’s that. Still have the bikes, pair of Ducati single demos (1963 & 68), but she can’t swing her leg over anymore to ride. I’m told the ABC recently reported that old men on motorbike make up 50% of motorbike fatalities ( ‘old men’ being men over 40yo). They will probably have to get a permission note from a GP to keep their licence, or something equally ridiculous.

While I’m on a rant, I’ll add, who is paying for RA-Aus’s costs in providing all these reports to the Coroners? I presume its members paying. We don’t get any meaningful reports on ‘lessons learned’ etc (well only useful to those members that can read). So I’m my view Ra-aus should charge the Coroners for costs. If that can’t be done, then it should be made a contractual provision for a member to reimburse RA-AUS costs for preparing a report to a Coroner if they crash & kill someone (inc themself).

Seems to me there is not a huge issue here as the pilot’s own poor decision killed himself and not anybody else. The substantive issue is whether RA-aus, or the instructor, gave the man a misleading belief he could fly in those conditions (including by omission). I’ll repeat, flying small aeroplanes is inherently dangerous; on every successful landing (one you can walk away from) you have once again cheated death. RA-Aus’s continued conduct suggesting flying can be safe recreational activity (if you comply etc etc) could be construed as misleading conduct/false representation etc, IMV. Unfortunately the Coroner will look at the cause of death & will inevitably recommend more training, more stringent rules etc, but not on individual responsibility and assumption of risk..,, that’s what is needed in RA-aus training. The fact there were not 3 px, & the plane didn’t take out 3 dwellings & a shopping centre when it crashed showed he was correct in flying under Ra-aus exemptions & the system is working. BTW the Jabiru PoH includes a section on carb icing; I assume the pilot could read, so even if he wasn’t ‘taught’ about it, it was still his responsibility to read the book. A flight from My Beauty to Wollongong is a pretty long leg for someone with such few hours over challenging terrain. What was he thinking, FFS? And what would a Qantarse trainer know about flying tiny planes…I’d suggest even less than a paraglider pilot.

Kerry is interested, but I think the bolt pattern won’t be compatible with the Hapi prop hub he has on his VW. Let me know if you are interested. The bolt pattern is 6 M8 at 75mm radius with a 25mm centring bore, ie Rotax pattern. And it’s not old; maybe 15 years. Auster it was the other prop that ended up being in a bar for several hours. We broke 2 prop bolts enroute from Temora to Currendooly and had to outland in a rape seed paddock, just harvested. Had to shut down the motor due to vibration. We tied the plane down, removed the prop which needed some minor repair, and the local croppie took us (& prop) to the local pub while we waited for friends to pick us up. The prop was quite a talking point, with animated discussion whether flying light aircraft was more dangerous than participating in rodeos. By the time of our pick up I think there was fierce agreement that the most dangerous sport was lawn bowls & the most dangerous contraption to be on were beds.

I had Bob and Bill launch me in my Carbon Dragon sailplane several times using the Dragonfly as a tow plane…. At Rhylstone & Forbes in the early 1990s. It was flying the Dragonfly after a day soaring that tweaked my interest in aircraft with iron thermals. Bob could definitely put that Dragonfly through its paces. I saw him once takeoff from inside a hanger, airborne in less than 20m, then chuck a 90 degree turn (to avoid crashing into the hanger the other side of the taxiway) to fly along the taxiway.

I may have one. For a 1” spigot (i turn down an aluminium bar to be a press fit into the VW prop hub with 1” lip), Rotax bolt pattern. Would be 57” dia & around 31” pitch. Gives 3000 rpm static on an 1835. Built foot a 50-80kt aircraft. I might also have a smaller diameter and higher pitch one that would be suitable for a Corby Starlet. Probably no good for a Jodel Bebe. Mark

Fantastic flying gliders in NZ. But beware of their clouds many have rocks inside…,, and rotor..,. once into Wellington in a Fokker (this is last century) I saw classic rotor cloud on base and sure enough on final we flew straight into it…huge negative G, everything on the floor hit the ceiling and everyone’s hands were raised in surrender…. Followed immediately by strong positive G and screams. Fuck I had fun flying in that country: it didn’t matter if you were the pilot or a px in a sardine tube. A couple of years ago my teenage son and I hitched a ride in a Cessna that dropped off half a dozen Jap tourists in a remote mountain valley (Siberia) at the end of a 7 day tramp in their hills. The ‘airstrip’ was a 4 wheel drive track next to a creek.

The Amateur radio organisation opposed abolishing the tests (inc Morse) so my recommendation that you just have to comply with the ‘rules’ was rejected. Two reasons: they like having an exclusive club; & some make money from training ppl for the test…. a bit like why BFRs aren’t every 5 years for RAA. Marine VHF operators licence was abolished for VHF, but several years ago volunteer marine rescue orgs were pushing to re-establish licensing…again so they could make money by training ppl to pass the exam, not that there was a problem with radio use (yeh, yeh we’ve all heard the ‘mayday, mayday, mayday, the boat’s full of water and we’re sinking’ and the response, ‘mayday boat , can you advise location and number of ppl oboard’ ). These are the same ppl who are unable to use the digital select calling on marine VHF (nearly all of them have this now, & it’s great because you can call a ship, including have their radio make an alarm on their bridge…you always get a response!) through lack of skill, who don’t turn their HF sets on to monitor emergency freqs despite publishing that they do, & get in a real tiz if you don’t report in within 15 minutes of your ETA on a 100nm plus sailing leg (and refuse to have an equiv of sartime) so I now dont ‘log’ my sailing with them. I’ve never heard of an operators test for aircraft vhf except as part of a PPL or RAA certificate. The Radcoms licence reqt for aircraft vhf was abolished. There is one weird thing though, when I installed a VHF AIS transponder on my boat (marine equiv of ADSB) the Radcoms ppl required me to have an HF radio operators licence (I have one but they lost their records!), but this is not required for ADSB. To install the AIS you connect power and a standard VHF antenna. The hexadecimal code is pre-programmed, like a PLB/EPIRB. Go figure.

I think you will find the Chinese invented bureaucracy centuries before Britain existed. Spacey, I don’t understand your question. If you use a radio that meets the standards (C ticked??) on the correct frequency bands you are not charged for each frequency. As far as I know you still pay zero to use an aircraft VHF. You are meant to pay a fee for aircraft or marine HF but I don’t know why other than there is potentially a bigger risk of causing intference. However if you want exclusive use of a particular frequency you need to pay a rental fee for the use of the public asset (radio frequency)….a bit like mining companies are meant to pay for the publicly owned minerals they remove from the ground. And just like mining some big corporates pay effectively zero despite their exclusive use of valuable frequencies (broadcasters) as do Defence. Mark

Cars & trucks too. No need for a RSIC ie. Road. Also keep in mind that requiring a licence like the ASIC is a fancy way to allow gov authorities to impose a penalty on you without a court order…something required by the Cth Constitution.

Ian, your suggestions are based on there being a security problem that the ASIC card addresses; there isn’t. As you say it pointless ‘theatre’. If the problem is that it is just theatre and the burden ($ & valuable time) placed on those required to have them, then the solution is much easier; abolish them. Some decades ago I headed a team that reviewed the Radiocommunications Act. One of the things we looked at was licensing compliance for VHF & HF radios in aircraft and boats which at the time required each aircraft to have an apparatus licence & the radio operators to have an appropriate operators licence. An annual fee was charged for the apparatus licence. Compliance for aircraft was less than 2%; and for boaties it was around 60%; so of-course the fees didn’t cover the cost of the clerks employed by the regulator. We could have recommended massive hikes in fees & employed a team of compliance ppl and prosecutors to address the non-compliance (as is standard practice nowadays). Instead we introduced a scheme (agreed by the gov & parl) that meant no licence was required as long as the radio equipment met the regulator’s standard and that operators complied with the regulator’s rules for use, ie. no swearing etc….. a bit like the USA’s FAA part 103. My message is don’t be afraid to push for abolishing useless laws and rules. On the topic of security I note in recent weeks it has been outed in the federal parliament that the AFP has seen a massive increase in police numbers but are only managing to bring a very few charges against alleged wrong doers (despite daily reports of public servants and Ministers breaking federal laws). And it seems that violent terrorist crimes are so scarce that the AFP have to generate bad guys to justify their existence by grooming and encouraging autistic children to become terrorists.