Nico13

It appears they don't take time to label there incidents very well.

Just noticed an incident pop up on the Vic Gov Fire and Emergency web site listed as Aircraft, Swift Street Sunbury at 7:52PM. No other info at this stage Incidents and Warnings - VicEmergency

Interesting that the nose wheel could be pushed back so far in an aborted landing and they still had a prop. One would have thought there was a big chance of a ground strike, not to say it hadn't I guess. Good to see they are safely down.

NOAA Hurricane Hunters fly into the eye of Matthew Bit of a rough ride here boys and girls [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNqK2bJlA9g

Yes been having a look at those, top show, well presented.

I remember when this happened and wondering what went wrong. You see as an interested by stander part of my job many many years back was to install Martin Baker seats into the Mirage III for the RAAF after we had finished a major service on the aircraft at Avalon. The other interesting thing that came to mind was back then, about thirty and some years back we installed a modification to the seats to convert them from a "zero/ninety" seat to a "zero/zero seat". This modification was basically the installation of a rocket pack to the bottom of the seat allowing an ejection at standstill that would throw the seat high enough with the pilot firmly fastened in it to parachute height and then automatically falling away leaving the pilot with his main chute again automatically released. Prior to this the aircraft had to be doing at least ninety knots fwd speed to allow the canopy jettison to work, with the rocket pack they just go right through the canopy with no problem, canopy breakers on the top of the seat would look after this. Sad to see a life saving device fail and wind up taking a life.

Having been a traditional RC flyer of gliders, power planes and 3D Helicopters over the years that is good. Did you notice the control surfaces employed in some of the manoeuvres in particular the nose down attitude. Yes I agree that is very impressive hand eye coordination.

Nice one Rich, instructor told me today next nice day out he'll send me out to do some solo departure and re-joining practice, said I shouldn't get lost

Today I continued with my lessons at Lethbridge and while sharing a coffee with my instructor he related to me about some feed back from my original post on side slipping on this site, link below. I was disappointed to hear what was said next as a result of miss information that word had come back via the grape vine saying, "Some instructor at Lethbridge is tell the students that you can't side slip Cessna's" Well this "Some instructor at Lethbridge" is totally incorrect and I refer back to my original post, " I was shown this technique about twenty seven years back during a trial instructional flight after returning to the airfield way too high for a normal approach. The instructor on the day affectionately known as Captain Jack E said to me "don't do this in a Cessna or you'll bend it" Now to some this may seem a little trivial but a trivial error like this can be damaging to a reputation so I am setting the record straight That this did not come from Lethbridge and all I can say is read the original post. Side slipping (video)

Thanks, yes been having a look through those online. I work Arvo Shift so I rely on the wife to record things of interest for me, she's pretty good at catching most things but wouldn't have known about these. I was just wondering if anyone knew much about the expo next month really.

Just a quick question re the "Flying Show Expo" coming up next month in Melbourne. Is this the first one they've held, anyone know much about it? Thinking of going up for a look around.

Yes we'd been out doing forced landing practice around the countryside and that involved a number of side slips. All very good practice for sure.

Spot on Robbo, He was there, there being Lethbridge, for the opening of the new fuelling installation by Sarah Henderson and a few other hanger-on's and of course quite a few locals. Very nice new setup with Mogas, Avtur and Avgas. Self serve twenty four seven, swipe your card and away you go. Bernie has posted a few pictures elsewhere on here re the upgrades at Lethbridge along with his nice red Skybolt.

I was shown this technique about twenty seven years back during a trial instructional flight after returning to the airfield way too high for a normal approach. The instructor on the day affectionately known as Captain Jack E said to me "don't do this in a Cessna or you'll bend it" I don't know if that's true about the Cessna's but it adds to the story Anyway he proceeded to perform a very steep side slip, oh by the way, we were in an Auster at the time. I thought to myself this looks like a bit of fun. Not having continued with the lessons at that time due to cost I find myself many years later performing that very same manoeuvre and enjoying it like I did then. Oh and I'm not in a Cessna And I still don't know if Cessna allow it, some knowledgeable person will be able to fill in the blanks there. Anyway have a look at my bit of fun on how to lose 400 ft in a hurry and a serious learning experience at the same time by the way. Enjoying the flying.

TV News reports tonight by apparent witnesses saying he wasn't lined up with the runway before the crash.

Thanks guys, all good and a great feeling to be set free.

It'd be a bit of a drive from either place to Lethbridge, possibly an hour or just under.

Here is my video from the big day. I gave a running commentary for my instructors benefit just so he could see what was going through my mind at the time. He liked that and he noted that it was the first Solo flight he'd seen from the cockpit other than his own. Anyway have a look at it and thanks for the congrats.

Well it was my turn on this fine Monday the 22/6/2016. David my Instructor at Lethbridge had been threatening to get out for the last couple of hours but for the weather being a bit on the rough side. Yes I know they normally don't hint at this but he felt it wouldn't bother me to know he was ready to set me free and was just waiting for a nice sunny day. That being said here we were Monday, that nice sunny day with bugger all wind we were waiting for and so I was thinking, well today will be the day. All good lets do a few circuits to warm up and nothing said about solo. Now have you had one of those days when the right foot and the rudder peddle just don't get along, well Monday started off like that, everything else was going perfect and after about 45 minutes of just not getting it down the middle with a little cross breeze on rwy 28 he said to me , what are you doing, I'm trying to get out of here. We had a bit of a chuckle as I knew what he was on about so two more circuits followed that flowed pretty good, so on the second one he said alright how do you feel about one by yourself? I was ready and so out he gets and the rest is history. Surprisingly no nerves and yes those little Tecnams do leap into the air with only half fuel and one on board and probably a tad more flap than I should have had. Half way down the runway I had two hundred feet or better and thinking to myself that's a bit better than expected I looked around to see why and sure enough spot the obvious mistake, I hadn't reset flaps after landing and letting David out. All good, still below flap ext speed in the climb so time to clean up and get on with it. The rest was text book if I don't mind saying so myself, well maybe a little to the left of centre on touch down, but only a little :-) So 0.2 as Pilot in Command and looking forward to a lot more.

Yep, I suffer with a bit of a heavy left foot but mainly on take off. Experimented with removing the left foot from the pedal altogether on one take off and yep straight down the middle.

Nice lot of pictures Bernie. Yes it's great to see the improvements and I'm definitely enjoying my time out there since starting my flying.

Hi Geoff, Although I have some hrs to go yet before solo these sort of stories are what is needed and your candour is appreciated. As can also be appreciated going solo is when these words are more relevant than probably at any other time. I can also be appreciative of this because although my official training is only at just over five and a half hrs other experiences and ten years in aviation has seen me be possibly over confident and when your told you are not having any difficulties and are hrs in front of where others are that confidence is boosted even more. So having no real fear of flying but being very aware of my situation is something I keep a very careful eye on and this story is the sort of thing that brings one back to reality very quickly as it demonstrates just how easy things can go pear shaped. Very glad to hear all is ok in the end and hope all goes well in future.

That image gentlemen oh and ladies of course is definitely a made up one. A quick look around the outline of the plane quickly shows a very irregular line. My cousin now in her mid eighties and her husband both IFR pilots and I think she was the one who could have shown the ones with the biguns a thing or three when it came to Airwomanship. They would often when traveling overseas not hire a car but a plane to get around. She cursed when hubby sold the 210 out from under her.

Last Monday morning saw a lovely day for another lesson and this time it was stalls. At the completion of the stalls that all went very well my instructor, David said ok let's do a few circuits. Only difference was this time it was my turn to do it all so after a demo touch and go it was my turn. Three very successful touch downs later Monday's lesson was over, with a big smile

I started recently at Lethbridge just out of Geelong in a Tecnam Eaglet, $230 dual and $170 hire. I think their Pioneer Kite is the same cost. I get to use that for solo work later on.