onetrack

Not much by way of news developments. I still don't believe the aircraft hit Phillips Rock. It may have crashed into submerged rocks not far out from Phillip Rock. All the signs point to a stall on takeoff, it was struggling to make adequate airspeed once it left the water, and the port wings vicious drop points to a stalled wing. Whether that was because there was inadequate power being produced by the PT6A, or because of a piloting failure, is yet to be found. There's media fanfare about the aircraft being a "brand new plane", but the records don't show it as brand new, it was manufactured in 2016. It was "brand new" to the current owners, Swan River Seaplanes. The aircraft was built in Aug 2016, initially registered to Wells Fargo Bank as N7129S, then de-registered and purchased by Whitsunday Air Services in late Sept 2016 and re-registered as VH-WTY. Ownership of the aircraft was transferred to Swan River Seaplanes, only a bit over a week ago. There are some interesting points being raised in discussion. The maximum "demonstrated" crosswind speed listed by Cessna for the Amphibian, is 20kts. However, the POH says - "Demonstrated Crosswind Velocity is the velocity of the crosswind component for which adequate control of the airplane during takeoff and landing was actually demonstrated during certification tests. The value shown is not considered to be limiting." Despite the above, the takeoff of the aircraft in the crash was in pretty choppy water (the stated wave height limit is 61cm), and the local indicated wind speed of 25-27kts with gusts to 31-34kts certainly made the takeoff riskier than any smooth water, light wind takeoff. The operators use Thompson Bay because it's partly sheltered from Rottnests winds, which are pretty fierce in the afternoons. Takeoff weight with 7 pax should've posed no overload potential, the Amphibian is capable of carrying 10-14 pax, according to the specs. A second interesting point is the seatbelts. The pilot and co-pilot seats are fitted with 5 point harnesses. The pax only get lap-sash style belts. I would've presumed the uninjured survivor is likely to be the pilot, with his superior belt security - but I may be wrong. A third interesting point is that many aircraft operators over water, insist that crew and pax undergo training to extract themselves from submerged aircraft after ditching and crashes. It's called Underwater Egress Training, and is compulsory as part of OH&S in many corporations where employees work out to sea. It's long ago been proven that may people (pilots and pax) survive crashes into the water, but then drown when they become disoriented under water, and caught inside a sinking fuselage. You generally get a couple of minutes to escape a sinking aircraft, enough time to orient yourself and make it to the surface (if you're able to still move, of course) - provided you have UE training. I don't know if any underwater egress basic advice is given to pax on seaplanes, but I would expect it should be - comprising a more comprehensive level of advice, as compared to the escape advice on land, is given to pax on commercial flights.

.....want to buy the new travelling machines invented and displayed by Orville Turbine. However, there was a serious backlash amongst many people. "You wouldn't get me in one of those things for all the tea in China!!", said one whiskery-bearded old fella. "Those things are going to kill a lot of people!!", he added. Orville was facing a new problem, one he'd never envisaged. One of his friends came out with an astonishing statement. "You have a marketing problem", he said to Orville. "You need to create a marketing department to increase demand for your products and to make them look so highly desirable, people will clamber over each other to acquire one! In addition, you can have major 'SALES!', advertising huge discounts - right after you just ramped up the purchase price by 40%!" "Well, that's just brilliant!", said Orville in excitement. "I don't have to worry about the problematic details in my new travelling machine designs - 'marketing' will cover up all the equipment failures, recalls, deaths caused by my design errors, and stop all the lawsuits in their tracks!" And so, dear NES readers, this is why the Turbine global corporations today have such power and wealth - it's all due to Orvilles highly-developed "marketing" skills, and as a result, Turbo has become just another.......

Actually, today, it's AI talking to us via chatbots, pretending to be humans, asking us to prove we're human!

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Skippy, did you do any failure analysis on your two failed actuators to determine the exact cause of failure? You seem to blame it on cheap Chinese construction, but it may have been caused by excessive loading, or a design fault in the actuation movement, that can only be discovered by careful examination, and a reconstruction of the failure sequence. Failure analysis is an entire field in itself.

Nope, nothing. He probably got overwhelmed with feedback. I did note the article was edited very soon after I sent my email to him.

By my estimation, the aircraft was taking off in a South Easterly direction, into a SW/SSW strong afternoon wind (typical of Rottnest in the afternoon), running at 25-27kts, and gusting to 31-34 kts around 1600 HRS. The wind was coming across the Island onto the aircrafts starboard bow. Thomson Bay and Phillip Rock are on the East side of the Island.

Yeah, the ABC knows exactly what all you backyarders have been building and flying! - they've seen the videos!! (check out the best part - between 4:40 and 5:30 in the video).

Someone took a grainy video of the takeoff. It's difficult to see good detail, such as control surfaces. Now, I'm no aircrash investigation expert - but - to me, it appears the, "hit a rock" story, is not correct. The aircraft got airborne, then seems to develop a pitch up, that is obviously a major increase in AoA. The aircraft appears to level out a bit as it reaches about 30-40 feet of altitude, then the starboard wing drops a little, correction is applied, then the port wing drops viciously (certainly looks like a stall to me), and the port wingtip hits the water, and it's all over, red rover. I'm wondering if W&B was out (tail heavy) on takeoff? Rottnest seaplane crash video 7NEWS.COM.AU Rottnest seaplane crash video

W.A. Police are now confirming that 3 people from the aircraft are still missing. This is looking really bad.

Yeah, but isn't the one you fly now, made from the same materials? The ABC journos seem to think so!

It's the ABC's term for the toys you drill holes in the sky with! Questions over hobby plane safety | ABC News

The aircraft in the crash event above was written off? They must have acquired a replacement, and kept the rego? EDIT: Aircraft in above crash that was written off, was C/N: 20800552, ex N1027V. Crashed aircraft off Rottnest is C/N: 20800586, ex N7129S. I just realised, two different companies are involved, although both are registered in FNQ.

Hey, at least it's 100mph tape!! 😄

Witnesses are saying it was a failed takeoff, the aircraft just barely got airborne, and then nosedived into the ocean. Police are indicating the aircraft hit Phillip Rock at the entrance to Thompson Bay, on takeoff. Multiple numbers of people injured, four at last count. There's a huge level of confusion over how many were on board, some sources stating 6 or 7 on board. That's not good, the pax numbers should be immediately available to authorities and rescue groups.

Well, 2025 is starting off on a bad footing, aviation-wise. The latest bad news is someone has crashed their seaplane into the Indian Ocean off Rottnest Island, W.A. Not much information to hand at present, the only indication is a VH registration visible, updates to come. EDIT - I suspect it's VH-WTY, a turboprop Cessna Caravan 208 on floats. Major rescue operation underway as plane crashes off Rottnest Island - ABC News WWW.ABC.NET.AU Emergency services are currently attending the scene of a plane crash off Rottnest Island.

That's great for corporate clients, but a bit outside the budget for people flying recreationally. I would think that Soar is going to make access to imagery and mapping a bit more affordable for the average Joe. I was quite surprised to see how just much historical mapping was freely available in Soar, they've done a lot of scanning of old maps and documents. The integration of so many sources of maps and imagery and information, is what intrigued me. Soar | The New Atlas SOAR.EARTH Explore view and share maps and imagery of the Earth.

Your turbo is not likely to be creating pools of oil in the intake hose, I'd suggest it's coming from your engine blowby, and also a possible faulty PCV valve. A faulty PCV valve (clogged or stuck shut) will vent excessive blowby into the intake, and in well-worn engines, that blowby is carrying oil as well. A faulty PCV valve will also prevent proper oil return to the sump (or crankcase) from the turbo. Your enclosed engine oil system should contain negative (vacuum) or zero pressure, thanks to a properly-working PCV system. Small 4 cylinder engines don't develop a lot of negative sump pressure, but it should be zero pressure at least. Bigger engines (V8's, V6's and L6's) have strong negative sump pressure, you can measure this quickly by removing the dipstick and holding a small piece of paper flat against the dipstick tube. If there's good vacuum in the sump, the paper will be sucked flat against the dipstick tube. If blowby pressure is immediately very obvious, or if the paper is blown away from the dipstick tube, your engine is very well worn, or your PCV valve is faulty or plugged, and needs replacing. New PCV valves are not expensive. Below is a good Danish website, with a more extensive explanation of the PCV/turbo problem. https://support.nissens.com/en/material/engine-crankcase-ventilation

News is slow in the holiday season, aircraft crashes make for great news headlines. Especially when you add "horror", "terror", "shocking", "screaming in fear", to the article headings.

If toxic fumes are entering your cabin, then they will coming from the other (open and in use) ducts as well, so your reasoning that a single plug of non-aviation PVC failing, is going to poison the cabin, doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Besides, you should have a working CO monitor in any aircraft cabin to ensure you don't get accidentally poisoned by toxic fumes.

Does this mean then, that tricycle undercarriage aircraft are "unconventional"? 😄

Shipping small items from the U.S. has never been costlier. USPS has raised its postal rates to astronomical levels over the last 10-15 years, which makes it prohibitive to ship small items from the U.S., individually. Air freight companies are still rorting us, to make up for pandemic losses. The best you can do is to keep looking for companies doing free shipping within the continental U.S., and arrange to agglomerate your purchases into one shipment using a trans-shipping agency such as Planet Express. Trans-shippers will combine your packages into one lot for international shipping, and thus lower your shipping costs overall. If you can find the item you seek here in Australia, you will often find it's just as economic to buy it here. There are occasional examples of local price-gouging, though, you just have to avoid them.

You're drawing a long bow there, Skippy. When you find Home Depot hardware items being recommended for use as critical flight components, let us know! 🙂 There's a world of difference between the terms, critical, and non-critical, in aircraft parts/components.

The announcement by Australian drone mapping company Aerologix that they are integrating with the SOAR digital mapping platform, is going to mean our mapping is going to rapidly become so comprehensive, it will blow your mind. The integration of mapping by thousands of drone operators, with aerial imaging, satellite imagery, and current maps is going to be revolutionary, and on a par with the invention of the mobile phone. Maps and imagery will all become integrated and easily searchable, and will provide all the information you need on an integrated platform, that will likely also include up to date weather and pilot information at your fingertips. Drones truly are the 21st century device that will feature much more in our information search requirements, from now on. I just trust the system stays affordable for low-end users. Aerologix partners with Soar for drone mapping - Asian Aviation ASIANAVIATION.COM Australian drone technology pioneer Aerologix announced a strategic partnership with digital mapping platform Soar for drone mapping Soar - Home ABOUT.SOAR.EARTH Soar is a digital atlas of all the world's maps and imagery. Examples of content include — satellite imagery, aerial imagery, remote sensing data, drone images, orthomosaics, community content, and more.‍...

......the huge Turbine Inc conglomerate being formed, with its primary source of endless income being selling the rights to make blueprints for rag and tube aircraft. Yes, dear NES readers, it's a little-known fact, that no matter what type of rag and tube aircraft you purchase, design or build - the giant global corporation, Turbine Inc, with its tentacles reaching into every corner of the globe - gets a kickback, artfully hidden in the build costs of your terrific rag and tube flying machine. This unending source of income is what has propelled Turbo to reach the same level of obscene wealth as the mining robber barons of W.A. Disturbingly, in amongst the Turbine Inc future plans are schemes designed to ensure Turbine Inc gets a share of flying school fees, airstrip car parking charges, a hidden surcharge on ASIC cards, royalties on coffee purchases at airports, and even a.................