Tomo

It is sadly, very lucky though!

Being a six seat squirrel it's quite a large chopper... I'm just seriously surprised and very glad at that, that it didn't beat itself to death as most choppers do.

This sucks big time, condolences.

I flew over Saturday and back Sunday. Fantastic turn out - rolled the swag out under the plane and was excellent. My view from bed Sunday Morning

Saturday was a fantastic day, lots of action and beaut weather! Would have been close to 15,000 people there I reckon. Not there today, but I'm sure it'll be great also, although the wind has picked up.

You'll love it, my favourite country to fly over is the outback stuff. Being summer, and if you don't want to be tossed around I'd get going early... as it'll get rough and hot as the day heats up. Once you leave Emerald the Navving to Longreach is a piece of cake! Pretty much just follow the highway. Enjoy the different scenery and cattle stations you'll fly over. There's airstrips at a lot of stations if you run into dramas, or just want to drop in... buzz the strip or homestead first. Don't forget about DA with the hot climates. Check out Barky airstrip, it's huge!! (just east of Longreach). And be aware of the blackness if you do any night flying, but you'll find Navigating quite easy as you just head towards the town lights! If you take off in the dark, look at your instruments and not the black hole out front! (much different to flying from the coastal/built up areas) Longreach is a great place, and you'll see it from miles away, as the 747 sticks out like cowboy in a city. If you run into any trouble let me know as I have a contacts spread all around that area. There is a little restricted area just south of Longreach about 10-12nm from memory, just to be aware of. If you have the time, head home via Windorah or Quilpie, the channel country through there is awesome I reckon! Avgas is available from Windorah but not Quilpie from memory. Enjoy your time and let us know how you go... I miss that country so much now that I'm down near Sydney.... Here's a dodge video I put together a few years ago.

Helps if you know someone there... I used to fly in there a bit, never had to much trouble with anyone but I did have some contacts which may have helped!

I know this bloke quite well... I'm sure he wouldn't mind my saying it was pilot error, so you don't have to worry about the aircraft having issues. He's also decided not to fly anymore.

Thanks for the update, I was, unfortunately not able to get away for the funeral but he will be forever remembered.

Sorry I'm thinking of the S7 too, looks much the same!

If you bounce a tail dragger a little on landing most by standers won't take a whole lot of notice... but if you bounce a tricycle on landing, eyebrows often get raised!

Awesome to fly too, done a bit in one and loved it.

Hang in there guys, It's tough time for those close to Ross. Let's just keep that in mind no matter how relevant something could be. I think sometimes we all get to caught up in the bad stuff with a disguise of 'to be learned from' that we miss all the good things and run the risk of criticising the person, which can be hard for close friends to hear this soon after his passing.

Loosing Maj is pretty tough on everyone, particularly myself and even my wife who has never met him, but spoken to him/interacted with him via internet sources. Like many I have flown with Ross and have known him for several years. Like many also, it put the wind up me big time about flying, and if it happened to him what chance have I got - but I knew that Ross would be upset that I would even think of that. So that very day with the encouragement from my wife I went for a fly in memory of my mate, Ross. Since then I've flown to Qld in my Pacer for its annual - which Ross was hanging out to have a fly in, sadly that will never happen now. Accidents happen, we aim to prevent as many as possible, but sometimes our time is up and it's not our day - do you live life in fear of moving another step? or carry on in a sensible safe manner? What a tragedy for his wife and daughter, I hope they have been getting looked after well. Just my opinion, but I don't think he tried a turned back... think about it for a sec, full power take off would require significant right rudder, best rate of climb to clear the trees... the noise stops, speed drops off instantly, right rudder input would make it roll right, witness's suggest he was at 100,200ft... that's approx 1.5 seconds before you're on the ground. Lightwing's are short fuse aircraft and are very yaw sensitive - someone also mentioned it was a short wing version - that almost makes the whole idea very viable. I will miss your encouragement and friendship Ross. Tom

This is bad, I'm trying to get a hold of someone who has more info. No success yet.