Geoff13

Hi all. Having recently moved to Perth does anyone know of any Drifters for hire nearby. I am south west of Perth. If there are no drifters, are there any RAA hire aircraft nearby.

I gave up on my 34th birthday so 28 years and 6 weeks ago.

I had a very good friend in 2008 make that same decision. He decided that life was short and he was not getting any younger. In a totally out of character move he cashed $80,000 worth of shares and bought 2 of his bucket list motorcycles. A HD Ultraglide and a Goldwing. 2 weeks later his shares would have been worth less than $10,000. His opinion is that he just got the best bargain of his life. Now he and I realise that long term his shares may have rebounded but in his words who cares that is 2 off the bucket list.

I am not convinced that lack of instructors are really the problem so much as lack of aircraft. A Drifter can actually become very expensive to fly in a school due to the very short (compared to 4 stroke) engine life. ie 300 hours to rebuild. If there was a school with one for hire within an hours drive of me, I would be there every weekend. Sadly there is not. I do however know of several instructor who are qualified to instruct on them. It does seem the in reality there are not enough people wanting to fly drifters and the like to make them economically viable to a school.

Of course if you mount two of these side by side (as in the Leopard tank TFCS) you can also tell the direction of the wind. However if mounted along the centre line of the vessel with the wind blowing from astern, it would not give a reading. Oh to live in a theoretical world. Sorry OME just playing.

Take your hearing aids out :) But seriously I turn my hearing aids right down and use EQ1 Noise Cancelling Headset. In my case it is a case of having enough noise to hear the engine. I hope to hear a problem before the gauges can tell me that I have one.

Different headsets lol. I bought the rec flying ones first then later on bought some EQ1's. I was cleaning out the shed last week and came across the RF ones so decided to move them on.

After grounding myself over 2 years ago for medical reasons, and only having flown 2.5 hours in the last half of 2018 and 1.6 hours last year accompanied by an instructor and having sold my plane. With no recurrence of my medical condition for over 18 months, and the approval of my Doctor, I decided that it was time to try again. In the last 4 weeks I have flown 5.8 hours in 2 different aircraft and am feeling confident in both my health and my flying. It is wonderful to get back up there a do what I love doing. I do not regret grounding myself or selling my plane, as both were done for the right reasons, but I did not realise how much I missed flying. But I am back now and looking forward to the next chapter of my flying journey.

Fact:- We have lost more Afganistan Vets to suicide since they came home than we lost during the whole conflict.

Freight traveling North is Prime freight. There is no such thing as backload freight, have you ever seen a truck driving backwards up the highway?

Interestingly my first job tomorrow is to collect a container of surgical gloves ex China and deliver to a medical supply company. So stuff is still coming in from China.

OK after further research the Qld Police commissioner has stated the fines will be revoked. Essentially if a business can stay open under the rules then people can use that business so long as the follow social distancing guidelines. ie We had an over zealous copper which as I see it is the biggest risk in all of this, some bullies using this crisis to flex muscle that they have no right to flex.

Not as funny as it sounds, the Willawong Tip in Brisbane is still open to the public, however a man was fined yesterday for going there.

450,000 sq klms against our 7.62 million sq klms. Sorry but not a valid comparison.

That looks like a genuine Cavalry Saddle, could you show a photo of the other side please. Circa early 1900's If it is what I think it is then it is truly a collectors item. I have actually ridden on one, a truly uncomfortable piece of equipment if ever there was one.