Ultralights

land at 250 kts, ripping off the arrestor hook, got it stopped before the end of the runway, and not 1 burst tyre or brake fire in sight!

im sceptical, wikipedia, claims its true, but foolowing up on the references all point to blogs, and nothing of any serious credibility. even the so called report from the pilot smells a bit, How does a pilot reconnect the electric control surfaces? in flight? all references appeared from 2010, well after the event, and i would assume all documents of authority on this incident would have originated not long after it happened. personally, i will sit on the fence with this one, maybe it did, maybe it didnt.

Gday, i am about half way into a 1000 hrly inspection of my Savannah VG, it was built in 2007. The engine, a 912 ULS had its service according to the manual, a 200hrly. plus a rotax 5 yearly rubber replacement, i decided on the rubber replacement early, as the rubber fuel lines within the airframe were showing signs of cracking, and during the engine inspection, a few small cracks were found on the fuel lines and coolant lines. in addition to the rotax rubbers, i replaced ALL fuel lines within the airframe also. some lines after removing proved to be severely cracked in some places. in removing all fuel lines, i removed the underwing panels below the fuel tanks, ill get to these later. With the engine worl completed its time to get to the airframe, looking over it with a bright light, i have found lots, and i mean lots of minor corrosion spots externally, fortunately, almost all of it is minor, and was removed with a little light blending, then treated with Alodine 1200, and a zinc chromate primer. With the lower wing panels removed to change the fuel lines, i got a boroscope and inspected the wing internally, fortunately, no corrosion internally on the skins, Spar, rear spar and ribs. but what i did find was severe corrosion on the tank support brackets, it could only be seen using a mirror and torch, as the corrosion was on the vertical sides of the brackets. i have since remade these damaged brackets, continuing with the wing inspection, bad corrosion was found on all flaperon brackets, requiring all to be remade, parts im in the process of making now. The last areas with heavy corrosion was the lift struts, a few small areas of surface corrosion, easily treated and removed, but bad corrosion under the Jury strut bracket, and heavy corrosion inside the jury strut itself. i am sure this is caused by dissimilar metals, as the backet around the lift strut is steel resting on aluminium, as are the rivnuts, which lead to corroded fasteners and the damage within the jury strut. it was also noted, the rivnuts around the lift strut/spar join access panel were also corroded. The last are of corrosion concern was the plate joining the spar to the lift strut, these were found to be heavily corroded where they join the lift strut, requiring the spar plates to be remade. On inspection of the undercarriage, i have found corrosion on the undercarriage itself around the mounting brackets, in a thin line near the forward and aft edges, looking like stress induced corrosion, and also, all the rubbers under the undercarriage where it rests in the channel in the aircraft floor were missing. The nose wheel Bungee chord made it to 1000 hrs use, and was a little worse for wear, replaced. All flight control bushing replaced, as they were a little worn, about 1/4 worn through the entire thickness. This is where im up to with the 1000 hrly inspections and maintenance, other works have been Modifications.. Modifications so far include, installing access panels in the lower wing skins below to fuel tanks to allow access to the fuel line joins in the tanks. New panel for 2 Ipads, powered by 2 independent AHARS (Attitude, Heading Altitude reference system)units using both pitot and static air system to derive speed, altitude and vertical speed data. magnetic compass's , Dual band GPS receivers, and ADSB in capability. Engine data provided by MGL Engine monitoring system, with installation of remote fuel pressure sender, 4 new EGT probes. New VG vanes, more flexible, to replace all the VG's as some are damaged or broken off completely. Reshaped engine top cowling to suite the new Bolly Spinner. Other planned mods include removing the landing light from uder the wing and installing it inside the wingtip leading edge behind a clear panel. Adding 1 inch diam holes to lower wing skin between ribs for thurther corrosion and boroscope access into internals of the wing. reinforcing the outer wing ribs with bolt fittings in the lower wing for hard camera mounts. Solid throttle rods, to eliminate vibration associated with vastly differing throttle cable lengths moving throttle through certain RPM ranges. and finally, a Repaint! scheme to be decided! All in all, apart from the corrosion issues, the Savannah has held up to its first 1ooo hours quite well, considering with no major repairs required, apart from the usual wear items like brake pads, bungee chords, rubber replacements etc.

anything Cessna Post SIDS, but a real plane, i would go for the RV9, or even RV14. or RV10

from what i can see, high speed, very steep impact, as for the wing, it could have failed as a result of stresses resulting from spiral dive, which can happen easily when flying into IMC conditions without training. the outer separated wing section appears to be reasonably in shape, something that dosnt look like it was torn off in an impact with a tree/tower/etc. i would expect the leading edge to be severely distorted after hitting something hard enough to remove it. Thats about all i can gather from the published photos, and is in no way indicative of what happened, and yes, i have completed air accident investigation courses at NSW uni.

Where in oz are you? If your considering a tecnam or brumby, they are both larg investments, so the cost of getting to cowra in Nsw isn't much to test fly all models of brumbies and see how they feel in the air. Also, the tecnams are a well proven reliable and surprisingly solid aircraft, with many now well into the thousands of hours in school environments.

If your worried about radio calls, get your instructor to write down the most common calls you need to make, learn them at home, and practice them when in the car, example, every red light you stop at, say the calls out loud. Also at home, if you have a largish table you can walk around, you can simulate the traffic pattern, radio calls and checklists, such as pre landing checks, as you walk the pattern. All learning that's costs you nothing, and will speed up your learning in the aircraft.

i cant believe CASA hasnt acted on this, considering they are willing to ground and destroy the businesses of smaller operators over far smaller and less significant safety issues......

Red Baron at Bankstown have 3 of them, 1 Rob, and 2 are the Alpha 160 version, Sydney aerobatic academy has 1 as well, and there is 1 at Wollongong also.

i would consider a wear strip under the flap sensor switches.. just a very thin strip of stainless steel maybe. or adhesive strip of mylar or teflon, and make it part of an 100hrly inspection. i can see the steel switches wearing through the aluminium pretty quickly.

obviously the more you fly, the faster you will pick it up, its not like a bicycle, as in, you do forget what you have learned the longer time between flights, not in knowledge, but more a muscle memory fashion. if doing more than one lesson a day, keep it at 2 at most, about 1 hour each, any longer will get exhausting and your learning will slow for that day. as for what i would purchase, i have my own headset, they will be more comfortable as they will have shaped themselves to your head shape only, and a good quality pair will last almost a lifetime... i have an old set of DC's lasted me 16 years (now spare) and still going strong, and i have a lightspeed Zulu, going on 6 years old now.. as for tips, when landing, keep looking at the far end of the runway at all times after you begin the flare. !! if you look just in front of the aircraft as you land, and you will at first, you will flare high. and once you have your licence, you now have a licence to learn, it never stops.... always aim to be the best pilot you can!

i found these bad boys relatively cheap, designed for light sport AC.. 1600Lb rating at 120Mph. total weight with tube, 12 Lbs. i already have 6.00-6 all round, and have the wide nose wheel yoke for the wide tundra types used on trikes.. the 6.00-6 is big enough for a nosewheel... http://www.desser.com/store/products/850%2d6-4-PLY-AERO-CLASSIC-SMOOTH-TUNDRA-.html

im not the best when it comes to understanding tyre sizes, at the moment, my Savannah has aerotrainer 6.00-6 tyres, will a 8.50-6 tyres fit on the same rim?

experience and hours dont necessarily go together, as is this confession from a 32,000 hour B747 pilot......

yep, i was there that day, pilot did a good job to get it down, and no, it wasnt an EFATO, he ran out of fuel on downwind, but thats a different matter altogether, he did keep the nose a bit high and stalled it on, but he did a good job in that he didnt try to turn onto the runway, and landed across the grass.. there is another student here at the school at bankstown who wanted thurther training in planning after he landed at fairfield after running out of fuel on a trip from ballina... the training levels at some GA schools can be atrocious as for the EFATO... its part of the advanced aircraft control training at some schools, its not about making it back to the field, but how not to loose control of the aircraft in a steep turn on the limit of the stall... as Merv has pointed out, the issue isnt making it back, its the loss of control trying to perform manoeuvres at the edge of the envelope in a high stress and high pressure situation... most, including myself at first, found themselves pushing hard rudder to quicken the turn back, while flying close to the stall, thats what kills most who attempt the tunrback.

not many trailers around Bankstown airport!

not a good idea to fly hemispherically unless you add 500ft. , if VFR, its Hemispherical levels +500 ft. eg, 1500, 3500, 5500, 7500,9500 or 2500 4500 6500 8500 If flying headings from 000 to 180 degMag then is Odds +500, and evens +500 for 181 deg to 359 deg Mag. Not mandatory below 5000ft, (but avisable) and mandatory above 5000ft. IFR levels are Odds and evens 1000's CASA used to hand out little stickers displaying hemispherical levels for both VFR and IFR, and were small enough to not look out of place on your panel.

im not scared of a ramp check, as i try to be as safe as i can be, and have everything legally needed for flight, but the fact the fear of a ramp check turns a lot of pilots away from an event shows there is something wrong, is it the fear of being fined? losing a licence? if so, why are they fearing this? if they are knowingly doing something illegal, flying with no radio and knowing you need one? or simply miscalculating fuel due to their lack of training? a ramp check should be used to highlight deficiencies in the pilots training, so the pilot can then get the training, and improve their flying and safety, not fine the pilot into flying unsafely by avoiding authorities at all costs..

the ONLY purpose of a ramp check should be to educate.. not revenue raise through fines...

another airport gone to the dogs, sad how a once public asset end up in the hands of one person, and is mismanaged into the ground.

have you read todays notams about YGLB? no more use of the sealed areas for aircraft under 650Kg MTOW on weekends... :(

wholly shite! he needs an instructor, not to teach him to fly, but to get rid of that attitude! its the attitude that will kill him.. he says its all under control, well obviously it isnt... i guess we will see a sonerai appear in the incidents and accidents pages soon.. sadly it seams to be an attitude carried by a lot of pilots, its ok i know what im doing, i dont need any more training.. i just forgot to do, whatever, whatever whatever.. well, if they were properly trained, they wouldn't forget to do whatever it is that gets them into trouble or an incident. just reading the pilot notes pages on the Raaus website proves that!

every flight now, at the end of completing runups, and before entering the runway, i will say out loud, a pre take off briefing, at bankstown, its a little interesting, "engine failure on runway land straight ahead, failure up to 100ft, land straight ahead in the golf course or the horse racing track, if after, turn 20 deg right and land on Canterbury road. if above 700ft, turn left and return to field land anywhere" get in the habit of saying it every time you fly, and for Instructors, the best way to get a student to remember to do a pre take off brief, get the student to say it out loud, remind them to say if if they forget a few times, from then on, if they forget, cancel the flight right there. most students will not forget after their flight gets canned without even making it onto the runway.. worked for me.

what frame of mind, will a proper, and detailed pre take off briefing about EFATO, put you in before you firewall the throttle.??

i guarantee Jabiru will say otherwise.. On a more positive note, good to hear you made it down safely, and fingers crossed, the TIF student will understand the situation and not be afraid of light aircraft for the rest of their lives..