walrus

You had better hope that your “basic class 2” medical standard does NOT become law or RAA pilot numbers will collapse and with it your association. I think it is well understood that a major source of RAA membership is previously CASA licensed pilots migrating to RAA aircraft when it becomes expensive or difficult to hold a class 1 or 2 medical certificate. RAA can research this number if they like. However while you are told by CASA that their new basic class 2 is the same as the Australian truck driving standard, that’s not quite correct. It’s “based” on that standard but CASA has the same nasty twists as before which makes it far more difficult to obtain than mere self certification. You will not notice this until you read the instructions to certifying doctors and the application paperwork itself - which is not too my knowledge freely available on the web for download. You have o sign up for one of these things to get access to it. Then you get to read the fine print......The doctor has to sign that she has “no reservations and unreservedly certifies” that you meet the standard, but the whole list of conditions that make it hard to keep a class2 - diabetes, heart conditions, stents, blood pressure, etc., etc. have to be disclosed and are by definition reasons to make reservations. Catch 22. To put that another way “joe blow meets the requirements but for (insert condition)” and you don’t get your certificate. Furthermore doctors realise they are carrying the full legal liability for certifying you. Instead of today, where you carry the liability of certifying you. Sure, there are let outs for hearing and visual standards, but that is all. And the truck driving standard is harder to meet then the current car driving standard

What’s the criteria for listing?

Thank you again for your continued abuse of private pilots.

I am sorry for your loss. I stand by what I say. Tragedy is all around us every day but we ignore it. Your tragedy, respectfully, is no different from thousands of others although I understand it’s personal impact. Your reaction is also perfectly normal. However your claim that your personal tragedy is somehow so strikingly different from the norm that, because of it, Angel Flight is somehow to blame and needs to be destroyed or changed beyond recognition is not justified by it. I am not some armchair idiot with no empathy. I have suffered divorce, the slow death of a later partner by cancer, and various vicious attacks in my life. I am a volunteer firefighter and have unfortunately seen tragedies just as bad as yours. My son is a policeman who has seen much worse death and suffering than I have and is now paying the mental price for that. I am now fighting two other personal battles, through no fault of my own, just like you, that have the capacity to destroy what’s left of my life. I wish to suggest to you that the best response, outside religion and suicide, is to try to rise above these tragedies and do good. For example, why are regional health services so rotten that AF is even needed? How can you assist AF in its mission in memory of your family? If you allow it, as it seems you might have, bitterness, rage and anger will consume you, making you another victim of the accident. Walrus.

Families are decimated by road accidents every day of the week. So a few die in air crashes.....who cares? If if we let CASA and it’s ATSB lapdog regulate road transport, we’d all be driving at 30 kph daylight hours only, wearing crash helmets, 4 point harnesses and roll bars. We would also have to stop when it was wet. Everything in life carries risk. Get used to it.

A quick back of the envelope calculation indicates there is nothing wrong with Angel Flight at all. BITRE data from 2015 shows total VH relevant private flying time (not training, parachuting, mustering etc.) is about 289,000 hrs pa. ATSB data quotes “2006-2010 72 vfr into imc incidents - 7 fatal” I’m assuming here that we aren’t talking professional pilots having these accidents. So if we said about 1 fatal private vfr into imc per 150,000 hrs is that far wrong? Now look at Angel Flight - 46,000 flights over ten years, 2 fatal. Assuming 5 hours per AF mission that’s 230,000 hrs - for 2 fatals. That is not significantly different from the general private community in statistical poisson distribution terms.

Definitely no weight increase? If the USA goes ahead, that will mean progressively more and more designs will be useless in Australia.

P&M Quickr. Relatively Undamaged apart from nose and wing. I think Danny will be grateful to receive any sentence a court might decide to impose as it will be nothing compared to the sentence imposed by family and conscience. Pray for the family, all of them.

Albanese hates small aircraft. He will let CASA run free.

Some peopl here have never been exposed to the practical logistics of accessing treatment in a big city from a rural location. Angel Flight is a golden much valued service on a par with the CFA. if you live more than 3-4 hours drive from a city, without Angel Flight, your doctors appointment schedule almost always dooms you to two days lost time for you and your driver as well as a nights accommodation plus meals. I speak as the dutiful driver for my wife who has been through 2 years of breast cancer treatment. We live 3 hours from the city. We made at least 30 trips per year by car, hired an apartment at times and spent upwards of $20,000 per year in the logistics of getting my wife to and from hospital. Then there was the 90 plus days of my lost time in chauffeuring my patient. Angel Flight is like gold. I fail to see how it is possible to arrange a course of treatment if you live 3+ hours from a capital without totally dislocating your existence. Think scans(ultrasound, x-ray, mri), blood tests, biopsies, consultations, surgery and it’s follow up, chemo, oncology, radiation, dietitians and reconstructive surgery - all involving. busy specialists with punishing appointment schedules that simply cannot be rearranged to suit country train and bus schedules let alone RPY air transport. Angel Flight makes this process partially bearable. Without it country folk might as well give up and die.

I wrote and posted this elsewhere. A private flight is a private flight, period.

The Board has basically two functions: to safeguard the assets of the members and to hire and fire the CEO.The CEO runs the business and the Board either approves or disproves his strategic plan. If the board disapproves of the strategic plan then the CEO either resigns or is fired. In my opinion, if what is alleged to have occurred has occurred, The Board should direct the CEO to assign the trademark to AOPA. I am not happy about the state of cooperation between associations and I fear that RAA has embarked on a growth strategy at the expense of everyone else.

Ian McRitchie went on to an illustrious career as a metallurgist and private pilot.