phantom1959

Thanks for the reply Derek, Could you send some more picks of the aircraft (Cockpit, Instrument Panel, Seats etc. to [email protected] Cheers, Shane. 0438 118 126

What power plant is installed please?

It is a very sad time for local aviators in Echuca. The pilot is a well known local businessman and unfortunately his brother, one of the pax, is in a serious condition. The back seater is also a well known lady pilot, a skilled FW & RW operator. Our thoughts for a quick recovery go out to the three of them.

Hi Geoff, thanks for your recollection! Some people (like Shotgun) just don't get it at times - I understand when the sector/Tower/approach get busy but, those are the times that it is most important to be precise and, because it is busy, the ATC doesn't have time to say things twice. That is when it is incumbent upon ATC to purposely slow down their delivery so the right message is delivered to the correct pilot! If they don't do that the result is lots of "say agains" or "I missed that" or "was that for me?" all of which takes up valuable time. For some years I worked the sector that encompasses Mangalore (YMNG) and as we have seen this year, it is a very busy and sometimes, a tragically dangerous bit of airspace. When the work-load builds up there the opportunity to repeat transmissions disappears - as well as looking after Mangalore this sector also does arrivals and departures into Albury (so co-ord' with the tower) low level traffic into and out of Canberra (co-ord to Approach) plus all of the traffic into and out of YSWG I have on many occasions instructed Asian students at YMNG to put the instructor on the radio (if there is one) because even though the students have supposedly passed the 'English Language' test, their skills are not really up to speed and I didn't have the time to repeat all of the traffic info etc. If you have more than 2 or 3 aircraft doing air-work overhead the field in addition to other aircraft taxiing at YMNG plus on top of that, any hazard alerts, amended TAFS, SPECIS or new NOTAMS that have to be passed you can just imagine the congestion on the frequency! So the "Shotgun" style of delivery is very self defeating! Fly Safe! Cheers.

Thank you for your service, crap conditions to be working in!

I reckon you're right there Garfly, when 9HU reported "holding short at Hotel" all the ATC had to do was acknowledge with the C/S or if busy - say nothing at all, the aircraft had stopped where he was told to and couldn't go any further without an onwards clearance. If I were to say anything else I would have reiterated "Hold Position" but as soon as the ATC said "Continue.........." the opportunity arose for an error and the pilot ASSUMED he had a clearance to continue taxiing (across the rwy) When I had ATC trainees I always hammered into them the importance of unambiguous phraseology! One of the classics with one student (fortunately in the sim') was an aircraft called up saying " Centre, Speedbird 249 maintaining FL320, request climb to FL 340" the student replies "Speedbird 249 Climb to FL 340........................ (student thinking whilst looking at opposite direction traffic at FL 330 ) Not available" I explained how this was sooooo dangerous! - All the pilot hears is "Climb to FL 340" the "Not available" 5 seconds later is missed!! I drummed in to students to NEVER (ever) mention a level that you weren't going to assign! Over the years have heard mountains of crap phraseology (and have been guilty at times of adding to that mountain!)

Hope you are recovering well in hospital, a frying pan to the noggin can be quite painful!

I took up horse riding to lose some weight; after 2 weeks the horse has lost 20 Kg!

Great little unit the KTI, takes up bugger all space and has a few good little extra features.

I did a (GA) BFR a few years ago and as I was setting myself up in the cockpit I got my ipad out and placed it in the holder on the right hand yoke (P28-140) the instructor admired all of this and said "O.K for the purpose of the exercise your ipad has failed - what are you going to do know?" Well I said - reaching into my nav-bag I guess I will use my spare ipad! He said okay then - fair enough - at least you have an option! Now I only fly RA but I must admit I don't carry a chart with me as I mainly just fly locally (withing 20-30 nm) but if I do intend to do a travel flight I have an old VNC with me, a Garmin GPS that is both battery powered and ship powered, my trusty ipad with OzRwys and finally - just in case IOS lets me down - an Android tablet with Rwys on it! The gear doesn't weigh that much and I ensure it's all updated at home before I leave, I find that a paper map is a P.I.T.A in a small cockpit - particularly when I was sooooo clever and had them all laminated! - now I need my own body-weight in Bulldog Clips to keep the thing in check! But following this thread - I find it amazing that people still manage to become "Geographically Embarrassed" or not know what frequency they need to be on. By all means use the paper maps for ab-initio skills but modern training should include proper use of an EFB - they are not that expensive (compared to getting a licence / certificate) and with ADSB etc on some platforms it is yet another tool to enhance 'situational awareness' - something that seems to be becoming a lost art.............

The GPS receiver I use is called a 'Bad Elf' - it is about the size of an egg and it also has a Bluetooth connection to your ipad. It will service up to 5 devices so you can have it on your aux' EFB or phone. Cheers!

Being an ex-ATC I know quite well the difference between "request xxxx" or "require xxx" One - I would do my best to accommodate, the other it was my mission to make happen! I would always tell pilots at information sessions that we used to hold that they had to let us know what was happening in the cockpit otherwise we couldn't give them the best service they needed. I remember one night when I was in a C177 coming into Cooly' (VFR) the tower controller wanted me to hold east of the coast and orbit due to an IFR jet arrival. Even though it was VMC there was no moon and it was as black as sin - no horizon, I said I REQUIRE to hold over land so I had the lights of the CBD to have as a reference, he got all shirty but when I insisted, he re-issued the clearance. When we landed I phoned the tower and explained to him why I needed to be there - he wasn't a pilot and he didn't appreciate what he was asking me to do - so after a bit of explaining he was all "sorry about that chief" and we all went away happy. Similar words - BIG difference!!

Still piss funny after all of these years!

Back in the "Olden Days" when ATC still had an "Ops" section and the pilots used to come in and submit their FPL in person, the SOC (Senior Operations Controller) used to have to give Flight Plan Approval (FPA) for IFR flights. The fuel required was one of the most intensively scrutinised part of the plan. Apart from the 45 minutes statutory reserve, there was the fuel required for the actual flight Plus 15% IFR reserve plus any weather related holding - Tempo - 60 minutes, Inter 30 Minutes, plus any traffic holding as specified in ERSA or NOTAM plus fuel required for flight to an alternate field if required. Once that was all sorted out FPA would be granted, the FPL signed and away they went. When the airlines decided that they were the best arbiter of what fuel was needed (as they were the operators) and they really didn't like paying for an Op's service that they could do themselves - the briefing offices and ATC op's disappeared. The rules became a little more rubbery - it became "sufficient fuel to safely complete the flight" a very good catch all phrase for CASA because if you ran out of motion lotion you obviously hadn't complied with the rules! Progress, you gotta love it!