davidc95

What a terrifying sequence of events. A timely reminder for our summer flying that aircraft have no place near thunderstorms (although I'm sure that is easier said then done in the NT) . The updrafts of a maturing storm cell would wreak havoc on any light aircraft.

That must be the 3rd this week! I was speaking with a friend about the GA crash in Darwin when this one came on 9 news.

I won't speculate on the cause of the crash but I will say that I went to school with one of the pilots of the ill-fated aircraft and shared a few mutual friends with him. He had a reputation as an enthusiastic and charismatic individual with a good aptitude for flying. The local community has been quite shaken by this accident and its hit quite close to home for me as well. I hope the ATSB can bring us some closure.

Does anyone in Bundaberg know what happened to Hinkler Flying School? While I was spending a few weeks up there in 2014 I did some flight training with Max in his fleet of Jabiru LSAs. Found him to be an extremely professional instructor and a genuinely charismatic person.

Lol, you forgot to turn 0.03% into a decimal. Its 90000 x 0.03/100 = 27. Jabiru would cease to exist with 2700 engine failures.

I think CASA's intervention is reasonable, Jabiru needs to change if it is to survive in the dwindling Australian aviation industry. They have developed a fantastic airframe and have made flying affordable, but now is the time to address their issues, rather then picking a fight against CASA by claiming they are being unfairly treated. I'm bothered that CASA didn't communicate their proposal with RA Aus. In fact, I'm bothered with the administrative mess that Australia's aviation sector finds itself in. RA is in a financial and administrative crisis which they continue to play down, CASA is trying to weed them out with the introduction of their RPL, and now the aircraft of choice for RA flying has been officially shamed by CASA. Maybe its time I switched to GA? If you can't beat em, join em!

Case closed.

I guess that is sort-of good news. Do you have a source?

The pic was outdated. But how did you know I had a picture last night if you only joined today?

Trooper63, you joined Recreational Flying today and this was the first thread you commented on...

Also how did this hoax even work out? Surely a transmitter on the ground wouldn't have a hope in hell of communicating with Brissie Centre. It would have to have been done offshore or in the air.

Reading it now, definitely a hoax. The Wedgetail pilot did sound the same as the presumably-dead pilot, did not appear on the radar, would not respond to Rescue 500s calls and had no idea what he was talking about. How this passes as humor is beyond me, hopefully some jail time comes out of this. Gotta commend ATC for their professionalism.

Haha, so it is either a hoax, a training drill or a massive conspiracy ? I've been listening to liveatc.net for ages and never heard a training drill with this much sophistication.

If it was a training drill, it was a very detailed one

If you guys don't believe me, you can download a snippet of the liveatc.net recordings yourself. I do not have the free time to make up a hoax ATC recording. Download at http://www.liveatc.net/archive.php, choose YBBN Grd/Tow/App/Dep and choose zulu time of around 13:00.