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Bats

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Everything posted by Bats

  1. Bats
    Given that zero information has surfaced as yet regarding the cause of this accident, I'd suggest that sweeping and unsupported statements regarding power or a lack thereof have little relevance at this point. A stout effort to still be flying at 84, RIP fellow aviator.
  2. Bats
    Given that we're talking about the circuit, I find your turn tightening scenario unlikely in the extreme.
  3. Bats
    I have done both and quite like your method when flying trikes or Drifters (2 strokes) where I am perhaps a little less trusting of the engine and the high drag aircraft don't have a great glide ratio either, so I like to stay within gliding distance of the field if possible. Obviously at the bigger controlled fields you'll upset the natives if you insist on keeping in close and rounding out the ends of the circuit, but the turn from base to final is still a trap particularly in crosswinds, all the more so if you have had it hammered into your skull that "thou shalt not exceed 30 deg bank angle" and yield to temptation, trying to tighten the turn with rudder.
  4. Bats
    This one? Microlight pilot Martin Bromage killed in crash over English Channel on first day of charity flight to Australia | Daily Mail Online
  5. Bats
    Any more info on this one? I've tried a couple of searches on the NZ sites, but could find nothing using the rego and occurrence date.
  6. Bats
    Mmm, I must have slept through the bit where they taught you anything about maintenance. Compliance by the bucket load, the nitty gritty of keeping your aircraft airborne safely, not so much.
  7. Bats
    The MPC is an example of exactly what a maintenance certificate should not be! It is the kind of paperwork / tick box exercise so beloved of management consultants that does precisely zero for actual productivity, but creates a warm n fuzzy feeling that "we're doing something".
  8. Bats
    Unfortunately the fire seems to have been particularly intense and nothing has survived from the EFIS.
  9. Bats
    Actually it was a clear breach of la Bishop's parliamentary entitlements, hence the fact that even her closest supporters turned their backs on her and she quickly agreed to repay the cost plus penalties. I know facts have a way of getting in the way of a nice little conspiracy theory, but the media in Australia is not some homogenous block who decide on the quiet which direction they're going to push things. Some organisations lean right, others have a decided bank to port and about all they have in common is a tendency to sell their mothers into slavery for the chance to be first with a story.
  10. Bats
    Quite possibly not, the footage at the time showed the whole area littered with anchored craft. Getting in there without hitting a mast or hull somewhere along the line would have been a big ask.
  11. Bats
    Interesting observation re the impact of a wind with some northerly in it, Oscar. I'm not very familiar with the area, but have experienced a similar scenario elsewhere and it creates a fair amount of torque on the sphincter until you fly clear. I've always considered time in some form of unpowered aircraft a bonus in these situations. It will be interesting to read the final report and see what other pax and witnesses have to say; was this a regular deviation or a spur of the moment decision.
  12. Bats
    Don't you have a boomerang to register? A better use of your time than displaying your prejudice for all to see, I'd suggest.
  13. Bats
    I see the prelim report is out; little if anything new there and as expected, stall warning devices are on the further investigation list. Sydney Seaplanes bottom line must have taken quite a hit, shutting down operations at peak season and doubling up crew when they did restart. Could easily have been the end of a smaller operator. Investigation: AO-2017-118 - Collision with water involving a de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver aircraft, VH-NOO, at Jerusalem Bay, Hawkesbury River, NSW on 31 December 2017
  14. Bats
    Ha ha, I get the impression that Aunty ABC is a bit of a special child. I did quite a bit of work with them at one stage and whilst there seemed to still be an emphasis on quality, there was also a breathtaking assurance that their world view was the only one worth having and definitely not to be challenged. I did work with the Catholic Church at about the same time and there were distinct parallels in attitude; a somewhat cloistered environment.
  15. Bats
    Horses for courses comes to mind and I quite agree with your last line, Frank. I've had instructors push various methods at different times, but left to myself, I find the easiest approach in LSA type aircraft is to keep the nose up and as the asi winds down to best glide, gradually lower the nose and trim for the desired speed. That pretty much caters for the inevitable what the hell delay and minimises control input. Short of something like an RV at naughty feet over the beach, I cannot see any advantage to zooming for height and if anything the changes in attitude will erode the margin of potential energy more than a gentler, smoother transition. The "shove the stick forward" method is to my mind only appropriate when faced with an EFATO situation, ie nose up and close to the ground. In Drifters and similar, it is crucial to prevent too much speed being lost and compensates for trim changes, but even in something like a Tecnam, climb and best glide speeds are similar and delaying lowering the nose is only going to result in you falling behind the desired speed and descent profile.
  16. Bats
    It really is a race to the bottom with our media. Must be rather soul destroying for those individuals within the organisations that actually care about ethics and accuracy.
  17. Bats
    It seems that the aircraft was fitted with an MGL EFIS, the bloke behind MGL says that there is a reasonable chance that the flash memory chip will be readable, despite impact and fire damage. "This device contains a single chip "crash log". This contains the last hour of flight operations on a per second bases (i.e. primary flight data, attitude, GPS track, etc). Even with a severely damaged EFIS we can most likely recover the data from that chip." I've got to say that Occam's Razor is beckoning in the background - an aircraft going in more or less vertically on the extended centreline of the approach end of a runway...., stall/spin off the base to final turn has got to be a serious possibility. I'd suggest that the pilot may not have been the one manipulating the controls either, easy to understand the impulse to allow a keen employee (and frequent passenger) who is training for his own licence to "have a go". Let's hope that the EFIS reveals its secrets, it may not bring anyone back but it may give those of us who fly Savannahs, some peace of mind .
  18. Bats
    [GALLERY=media, 4055]El Sav by Bats posted Jan 29, 2018 at 4:07 PM[/GALLERY] The story says more or less that the aircraft had been found in dense bush near Morgan Bay, burnt out and with both occupants deceased, after earlier going missing.
  19. Bats
    There are some in a newspaper article, I'll see if I can copy across.
  20. Bats
    I don't believe so. For the moment you're not missing much; all that is known is that the factory owner / agent and an employee who is himself busy training toward a licence, took off to conduct some upper air work as part of testing the newly built aircraft. They were last heard to say they were descending to low level in the vicinity of the wreck. The aircraft appears to have gone in very steeply and at some speed, just off the extended centreline of a strip in the area. It subsequently caught fire and there is very little left that resembles an aircraft. To date, the postings are largely tributes a well liked and respected pilot and guesses, some wilder than others as to what may have happened. Edit: Sorry dual transmission with RichTee
  21. Bats
    The photos of the aircraft remains are pretty sobering. I hope that the investigation uncovers a clear cause, but given the circumstances, this may not be possible.
  22. Bats
    A Maverick at War - Sharkey Ward (Harrier in the Falklands) Sock it to em Baby - Garry Cooper (Aussie in the USAF in Vietnam) Sagittarius Rising - Cecil Lewis (WW1) Fighter Pilot - Mac Tucker (Modern RAAF) Luck is no Accident - Col King (RAAF etc 40's to 80's) for starters. I'll go look on my bookshelves later for more suggestions, especially civilian and bush flying stuff. Not recommended - I'll probably be ex-communicated for this but I found Stick and Rudder just about indigestible - Langewiesche was never one to use one word where he could find ten to say the same thing. Also, I dug out my grandfather's old copy of The High and the Mighty by Gann and re-read it on Friday. Really sorry I did, the flying descriptions weren't bad, although even I picked out a few minor errors, but the characters were little better than cardboard cutouts and that got in the way of my appreciating it.
  23. Bats
    "I saw on the news....", fertile ground for highly suspect speculation right there, right up with "his ex-wife said!" Unfortunately, despite what you see on Aircrash Investigations, it isn't always possible to reduce an accident to a neat cause and preventative action.
  24. Bats
    Sigh, perhaps I should just make wild statements about exponential decreases in noise levels. And I have better than a passing understanding of what goes on behind the scenes in an ICE vehicle, but thank you for your condescension.
  25. Bats
    I seem to recall they had some issues during testing (unrelated to the UL engine) and sold the plane for a bargain price, so the next owner would probably be the one to ask.
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