Jerry_Atrick

This is Cirrus centred (and possibly sponsored??), but I think it vindicates @MattP's thinking. Also interesting is dthe deplpomnt over water.. .I guess if there is a decent horizontal wind component, it can be beneficial...

There is no silver bullet to make flying absolutely risk free. The BRS is another weapon in the arsenal to help survivability in certain - but not all situations. Trained properly, it can save you in circumstances where you may otherwise stand a much lower probability of suvivability. Use it in some of the abovementioned situations and at best it doesn't aid you a bit; at worst it can kill you. There are times in Aus, I have taken the long way around to avoid tiger country.. would I go more direct with a chute? Not sure.. . From my closest airfield, the shortest route to France includes a water crossing over the channel of c. 120nm... If I have a chute, I will still do what I do today when I fly to France - fly along the coast to Kent and take the c. 20nm crossing from near enough to Folkestone.. Adds c. an hour to the trip - but within my risk appetite.. I would not think of deplying a chute over water... At present, as I don't have a BRS a/c, if I fly to Northern Italy (well, outside COVID-19), it is down the western side of the alps/Central Massif in France to the coast, low level (c. 1,000') follow the coast east to Italy and then into the North of the country. If I had a chute, I may be tempted to go over the alps. Pilots think I am nuts.. but I don't care. There are some things that can happen that, if they do.. nothing will save you.

@willedoo - I take your point on the resources of journalism being stretched due to the advent of the wild-west that social media is. And you beat me to the roles of sub-editors and editors. Be that as it may, often stories like these are syndicated from a feed and as I understand, even the likes of Fairfax et al syndicate more content than they did.. Sharing resources should still allow some copy editing or review before publish.. Although, it may be me and others being over-sensitive to the use of home-built implying a negative connotation. Re test flights - In our syndicate, we are lucky in that the LAME is a syndicate member and active flyer, so he is likely to have that bit more tenacity to his approach. However, I make it a point not to be the first to fly after a 100 hourly or annual. It's nota guarantee as that un-locked bolt may take time to work its way off, but at least more fundamental things may come a cropper beforehad.. Having said that, it has been too many hours and months since the last annual and I still haven't flown :-(

Sincere condolences to family and friends. Whenever something like this happens, it always reminds me that it could happen to me (and I could be the subject of this or other forums I frequent). Very few of us ever intend to go up and not come down to see our friends or family again, and worse, leaving a sad loss to them. When the media portray us as a bunch of chaotic hobbyists (slight exaggeration, but you get the drift), it must hurt the loved ones even more. When I drive my car, I will admit to being a little cavalier at times.. And I would not remember the last time I looked at updates to the road laws nor have I ever thought I should get an instructor to check my bad driving habits When I am in the aeroplane, I have a totally different mindset - my son notices it - much more disciplined and attentive. If I am feeling at all rusty (which I am at the moment), it will be a trusted examiner to check me out. But that doesn't mean something won't go wrong nor I will necessarily make the right decision. It's also why I am never likely to build my onw aircraft, even though I like the idea. I just don't have the engineering where-with-all to do it and even though engineers/inspectors check your work as you go, I feel there may be something they don't spot.. As private flyers, on average, we don't fly regularly enough nor have as many incidents to test our decision making as we do in cars. Yet the media would as likely portray us as being somewhat less than diligent than the average car driver who I am sure disengages brain at an exponential rate to that of pressing the accelerator. Maybe AOPA, RAAus and other TLA organisations should liaise more with the main media outlets to try and address this? Or maybe rather than write up any rebuke or clarification in our own publications, where at the end of the day, they will be preaching to the converted, they ensure they get out to the public through various channels clarifications and rebuking this perception of rank amateurism.

The UK government lifted private flying restrictions yesterday - subject to maintaining social distancing, which means no instruction and only people from the same household on the plane. For me in the TB20, it is useless as I feel it has been so long (taking into account the 6 month paintjob finishing just as the lockdown came) that I need instruction.. So I will have to wait a while yet. I can jump into a club PA28 but not sure they will allow me to, either. At least I can get my ipad out of the aircraft now... Can't recall the PIN to log in though...

Here's UK Flyer: FLYER July 2020

That is awesome..

Agree on the UK magazines.. I recently cancelled my subscription to Pilot as there was a lot of drivel and opnon and not much fact. The flight revews were also becoming less informative/ In both the major magazines there is nothing about flight skills, pilot training sections are just advetisements and press-releases and the commentary of incidents and accidents is not particularly insightful anymore (although last month's flyer comments was much improved). The subs were not bad so I had no prob supporting both, however, with going digital and making it free for all, with not much more for the paying subscriber, it is time to change tack..

Not sure how aviation insurance works in Aus, but over here, for an agreed value of £150K we pay £1,500 per year of full flying cover including £10m public liability... That is less than some pay for car insurance (noting that third party for the car is privately insured and not paid through rego). Yep, it does sap a little from the inheritance - nowhere near as much as if we have an accident as the pilot here has the civil equivalent of absolute liability to third party claims.

The Caproni did get airborne.. it was designed as a flying ship to go across the Atlantic.. It got to about 60' and crashed... They didn't build another.

Obviously, if I could work out the aircraft, there's not much left. :-) I was thinking yesterday that we haven't heard from Ian in a little while. Does anyone know where he is? Hope he is OK! Shall we have a rule for now that those that last guess it have post the next aircraft to guess? Here is mine..

I take that back.. Just noticed it has retractable undercarriage - the HR100

Looks remarkably like a Robin Aiglon R1180

Uk Flyer magazine just went digital. Stoopid thing is that it is now free to get the magazine, but your subscription now includes extra content (yet to be distributed online) and free ebook of Jahn Farley's A View from the Hover (Harrier Pilot).. worth about £10... So for about £30/year, I get a magazine anyone can read and a £10 book.. Hmm.. May be subscribing to Australian Flying again.. Prfefer the option of both e and paper.. Not much fun reading a magazine on a 5" phone on the train.

I would be dead!

I did something similar.. though worse! Bit of background - I did my L plates at Laverton with Stay Upright when I was 27. I took a bike for a test ride after that but for some reason that was the last time I rode before I did my UK CBT (learners equivalent) at the age of 41. I did this because I needed to get to work from Richmond to Watford, which has carp public transport and after bringing in the London congestion charge, pushed all the traffic out west and my daily commute went from 45 mins each way to1.5 hours.. That was the logic I used to convince SWMBO.. In the UK, you are restricted to 125CC or 13bhp as a learner. When you first get your licence on probation, you can get a bike as big as you want as long as it is limited to 33bhp and then when you have done three years or thereabouts, you can lift the restriction. Alternatively, if you are something like over 25 and have at least 5 years of a full driving licence, wihtout penalty points you can do a direct access course - min of 5 days training on a bike of at least 46bhp and a higher standard test. Then, on getting your licence this way, you are immediatley allowed any sized bike that is legal. If you think it's nuts, you're right - disproportionately high number of fatalities of 40 odd year olds returning to biking after a long layoff thinking they are kings of the roads hitting the big bike - what could go wrong? Well, along comes Jerry! Anyway, I did the direct access course and passed but kept the little CG125 for a while.. However, when being passed on the motorway by a fully laden tip truck and feeling frustrated, I knew I outgrew the CG. So, I sold it and cleverly bought a VFR750F-G (1986) unseen off ebay for a bargain. It was as I expected - tyres were OK, but virtually all service items needed to be replaced as did the fuel line, which I duct taped up. However, with the direct cam V4 engine, it ran like the clappers and was really a well balanced machine. On my way to Watford - maybe a 10 mile run up the M1, I was crusing at 70 mph and a stonking merc overtook me at speed. The testosterone injectors than come in helmets kicked in and I was having non of it.. so I accelerated up to about 90mph, the bike claning a bit with the loose chain but apart from that performing flawlessly. Raking it up to 100, it lurched forward, which initially took me by surprise, but apparently they were known for doing this as that is where the top-end power apparently really kicks in. I rode past him at about 110mph; and his testosterone atomiser kicked in and off he went. At about 130mph and kept the accelerator on as I could see in the rear view mirror he was catching up (on the M1 outbound in the morning, there is very little peak hour traffic and it was about 7am). It was still accelerating when I looked at the speedo showing a touch under 145mpg... It felt awesome, but then I remembered I have a 3 month old daughter and I am taking this bike for a service after buying it to see what is really wrong with it. Left indicator on, eased off the accelerator and as I watched the merc scream off to the distance, I returned to a sedate 70mph. Dropped the bike off for a service, and picked it up after work. They hadn't done a thing. Their response to me asking why was that the service items to replace was about £400, but it would cost me about £2,000 to fix it prooperly, saying that if I find the mechanic that aligned the wheels to use him instead of them - because for a frame that bent and with an extra weld, it was nigh on impossible to get the wheels travelling straight. A little more of the bucket of luck used up and bucket of expereience filled. I sold the bike on ebay, declaring everything wrong with it, and still got £50 more than I paid.. I could have paid a lot more..

You mean you don't have to do all that just to bonk hosties?

Why not with an instructor? Serious question.. My instructor used to take me up in appaling conditions, but I could do a decent cross-wind landing.. One day, when I went to the club (RVAC) do do some solo consolidation, the x-wind was close to limits, OVC at about 2,500' and it was lumpy, so winds aloft were all over the place. When I rocked up, the CFI said no way solo. I said I had already had a chat with the instrutor and he was fine with it.. So he agreed I woud do a couple of circuits with an instructir and if the insrtuctor was OK with it,I couls solo. The instructor was surprised at how I could handle x-winds with my hours and let me go solo. Under the eyes and in the cockpit with an experienced instructor, as long as the wind ins constant and largely a headwind, isn't it good tgo beshown first hanf rather than find out without experience some time after getting your licence? Back on track, fastest GS was 203kts at about 7,000' in the TB20

All planes have an auto-land. Some just hurt more than others ;-)

I had planned a flight from London to Canakkale to make my way to the Anzac Day memorial at Gallipoli... This was my route, had all permissions and clearances pre-booked... Maybe next year...

I have an open air hangar - does that count?

I am not sure about Aus, but there are legal cooperatives here that will look at a claim refusal or paltry settlement offer and take on the case for a heavily sunsidised rate. Mercamtile and insurance law is based on olde English precedence whcihm when you consider, thelords andjustices were lloyds underwritiers, were unwilling to find in favour of claimants unless as obvious on the noses of their faces. The tides are turning here.. Hopefully in Aus, too..

Re my last post - sppfed = spoofed

The flaw will not necessarily be in the COVID app itself., nor, on the assumption it downloads the infor into a big data store, runs analytics and when it needs to, it pings you with a SMS text message to say you need to get tested. The app itself doesn't know much about you and let's face it, the guvmint, if they wanted to track your whereabouts can already use the technology and as I understand, telcos and ISPs have to provide the guvmint the info already.. Certainly the case here and since Aus is part of the 5-eyes alliance (US, UK, AUS, NZ, CAN), I would be surprised if Aus didn't require it, too. The security flaw is this: I install some malware into your phone that hacks yuor phone's data. Can come from anywhere (admittedly a little harder on a non-jail broken iPhone or iPad, but still doable. Now, as the pesky little rooski/ukrainian/nort korean (while we're stereotyping) or Aussie (not stereotyping) hacker says to him or herself, "Hey.. These guys in Aus (and coming up to the UK) are downloading an app that now connects any phone in its proximilty and I now have a tunnel to another phone to infect and hack. Of course, both iOS and Android have safeguards, but application ids can be sppfed (easier said than done - but even whatsapp encrypted comms have been hacked). Agree. it's remote, but possible. It's a question of your aversion to risk v the reward.

This Man Owns The World's Most Advanced Private Air Force After Buying 46 F/A-18 Hornets