RECREATIONAL AVIATION AUSTRALIA / JUNE 2018 VOL 82 [6]
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ON THE COVER
13 END OF AN ERA RAAus chooses new magazine supplier “ M and M Media will commence production of the magazine in July 2018”
Brad Shephard’s beautiful Jabiru at Bathurst airport after arriving from west of Forbes. He does the trip ones a week. Photo: Brad Shephard
REGULARS 7 8 11 66
Chairman’s report Calendar of events Letters to the Editor Happy Landings
40 54
FEATURE STORIES
FLY-INS
A viper with fangs B RI A N B I G G The evolution of aerofoils Part 1 DAV ID H O U STO N Eager for the air A L A N B E T T ERID G E RAAus launches ASMS PHIL IP FOX , N AT I O N A L S A F E T Y M A N AG ER On the ground and running T RE VO R B A N G E Flying the Monlas RO B KNI G H T
46 Information pack for nominees 51 Nomination form
18 22 28 33 33 37
NEWS
READER STORIES
COLUMNISTS
42 Editor’s choice B RI A N B I G G 44 Pilot talk T HE O P S T E A M 45 Professor Avius 52 Home builder DAV E ED M U ND S
BOARD ELECTIONS
12 Improvements across the board MI C H A EL L INKE , C EO 13 New era for Sport Pilot MI C H A EL L INKE , C EO 13 Clifton to Wellcamp on again KE V IN M C G R AT H
Climbing on the roof L EI G H TAY LO R Insidious EDA PE T E RO B ER T S
14 Tickets on sale for AirVenture Australia 2018 15 New product Runwaymap app 15 PDPs going strong
21 25 27
16 Grafton Wings and Wheels KE V IN WIL S O N
EXTRAS 15 34 55 62 65
Digital directions Poster Dawn Patrol G A RY M C A R T H U R Aviation Classifieds Where is CAGIT? RO D WA RD Quiz
Professional isolation R A L PH B U RNE T T A trip into the wrong airspace NEIL D E A RB ERG Being a better communicator G REG O’ S H A NNE S SY
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82 / JUNE 2018 VOL
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All content in this magazine belongs to Stampils Publishing and is protected by Australian and international copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may not do anything which interferes with or breaches those laws or the intellectual property rights in the content. All rights not expressly granted under these terms of use are reserved by Stampils Publishing. Unless expressly stated otherwise, you are not permitted to copy, or republish anything you find in the magazine without the copyright or trademark owners’ permission. The magazine title, as well as the associated logo of Recreational Aviation Australia Ltd, are the property of RAAus. However, Stampils Publishing, Daniella Banco of Spank Design and Karin Middleton, of Cachekat, reserve the right to be acknowledged as the magazine’s designers. While every reasonable effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the content of this magazine, no warrant is given or implied. The content is provided to you on condition that you undertake all responsibility for assessing the accuracy of the content and rely on it at your own risk. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of people named in this magazine. Recreational Aviation Australia Ltd and Stampils Publishing reserve the right to decline any article, letter or comment deemed unacceptable for whatever reason. No endorsement or responsibility is implied or accepted for any product advertised in this magazine. Advertisers and buyers are each responsible for ensuring products advertised and/or purchased via this magazine meet all appropriate Australian certification and registration requirements, especially those pertaining to CASA and RAAus. NOTE: All aircraft featured in the magazine are registered and legally permitted to fly. However, photographs of them may be altered without notice for editorial purposes. The Editor’s Choice column is designed to draw attention to potential safety issues through exaggeration and humour and is not meant to be historically accurate. 4 / SPORT PILOT
CH AIRMAN ’ S REPORT
Waiting for the comet BY MIC HAEL MONC K
I
F I stood in front of a crowd of aviators and declared that aviation was thriving, I would no doubt get shouted down. It’s a ludicrous statement, right? If I instead announced that aviation was dying, I would probably get a much better reception. That’s how Trump got elected. It’s controversial, eye raising and attention-grabbing stuff. We are wired to pay attention to things which might adversely affect us, so we stand and take notice of these types of comments. RAAus grew by eight per cent over the past year. RAAus has been getting safer over the past five years. RAAus has created more than 10,000 aviators in the past 10 years. These are all very impressive numbers if you ask me. Not exactly riveting material and certainly not the sort of thing that creates headlines. It is just the plain and simple truth. But despite this good news, we seem to be obsessed with the falsehood that we are dying. We’re convinced someone is killing us and that someone is CASA. We’re told GA in the US is thriving because of its different regulatory environment. None of that is true. We tend to give it more emphasis due to our natural tendency to try and protect ourselves. Let’s start with the US and get the real picture. In Australia, most general aviation is conducted by piston powered aircraft. Sure, we have turbo props and so forth, but these are fairly small in comparison to the rest of the fleet. Of course, this changes when you consider commercial ops, but the share for GA is fairly small. The number of aircraft in the US which fall into this category peaked in 1984 at 197,442, according to AOPA. Its data, which is freely available on its website, then shows a steady decline from that year on. The latest published figures show the total number of piston aircraft at 155,180. That’s a decline of 21 per cent. In absolute terms, the fall in numbers is more than 42,000 aircraft. To put that into context, at the time of writing this there were 15,518 aircraft on the CASA register and a further 3,500 on the RAAus register. So the US market shrunk by more than twice the size of the entire Australian fleet. If we shrunk by that much we would have minus 23,000 planes in Australia! If we were to base our arguments on this, we would conclude that the US market is struggling not thriving. And it doesn’t end there. In 1984, the same year piston powered aircraft numbers reached their peak, the ‘Experimental’ and ‘Other’ categories totalled only 6,275 aircraft. Now it sits at 37,610 aircraft and I am sure this will continue to grow. So, adding the two categories together, the US has actually seen a small decline of around 5,000 aircraft over the period. That’s hardly thriving, but I don’t want to be a fear monger and suggest it is dying either! What this says to me is that the landscape is changing. ‘Experimental’ and ‘Other’ includes LSA aircraft, home built and so on. ‘Other’, on its own, is a category growing strongly. It has doubled in the period for which AOPA publishes data. While it isn’t as pronounced as the transition from the horse and cart to the motor car, it is certainly a transformation which is impossible to deny. So why do we believe the rumours about the US thriving and Australian aviation dying? Because we are only hearing one side of the story. Why? I honestly don’t know. The important thing though, is that if we all run around telling people that aviation is a dinosaur and that the comet is about to hit, it is a sure-fire way to turn aviation into a dinosaur and cause the sky to fall in. It is not in the interests of avia-
tion at all and nor is the mentality we seem to employ to promote ourselves. I often hear arguments that we need to unite as an industry. Indeed, I made the very same argument some years ago, which is how AirVenture came to be. We do need to unite. The problem I also see is the way we conduct ourselves is very different to what we say and we forget the old adage that our actions speak louder than our words. In my view we should have a fly-in somewhere in Australia every single weekend. An aviation event should be going on and we should participate in it. It doesn’t matter whether it is a large or small gathering, an Avalon or a Wings Over Illawarra style event, as long as it happens. What also matters is that we support each other and not try to win at all costs, to the detriment of others in our industry. It’s the reason I worked with fellow aviators to start AirVenture and the same reason we relinquished control of it. The structure of AirVenture is such that no single entity can control it. It is a legal entity in its own right and has multiple beneficiaries, of which RAAus is only one. In other words, we have a strong interest in seeing it succeed, but we do not control it. It is, by design, an event for aviators by aviators. If it doesn’t succeed then you, as an aviator, lose. All aviators lose. Despite us stepping back from having an RAAus centric event and putting aviation as a whole before our own organisation, some people seem determined to undermine it. This is what is causing aviation grief in Australia. It has nothing to do with people moving on from the proverbial horse and cart and into something new. If it did, we’re all going to be shocked when personal aerial vehicles such as those being developed by Lilium, Kitty Hawk, Volocopter, SureFly, etc. become mainstream. Because there’s going to be another shift. We need to stop pointing fingers and focus on real issues. If we don’t get to the root cause of our problems and start to understand that the industry has to accept a role in its own destiny, then we truly are doomed. Crying foul at the regulator and blaming it for all our problems is like a kid jumping up and down crying ‘it isn’t fair’. The kid is right in that regulation does cost us money and life is not fair, but that is only half the story. GA businesses recently revealed that aviation agencies, of which CASA is just one, account for just four per cent of their operational expenses. There are clearly other things going on and the current approach won’t succeed at fixing them if we ignore them. It’s a not a smart strategy. A steady handed approach, with some rational thinking and argument, is the way to make progress. Understanding the real issues is also key. We have seen many airports closing over the past decade. It’s creating access problems, cost pressures and other difficulties which are, in my mind, more significant than the four per cent cost of regulation. Yet no one is doing much about that issue. There are also other significant challenges ahead and no one is paying attention. Things need to change. Next time you’re in a forum, at the local club or just chatting with other aviators and something controversial is said about our passion, ask that person what their view is based on. What is their background? Why are they qualified to make that statement? Where is the evidence? Is it just a rumour which is distracting us from the real issues or is it really something worth worrying about? If it is the former and it damages things like AirVenture, then question it and push back. After all, if we don’t stand up for an event for aviators, by aviators, then who will? And if you stand by and let someone destroy aviation, then we will all be dinosaurs, waiting for the comet to hit.
7 / SPORT PILOT
CA LEN D AR OF EVEN TS
A . 9-10 JUNE RV FLY-IN
Temora Flyers will host a fly-in for Vans RV type aircraft. This is a not for profit event. For more information, Frank Lovell 0400 365 650 or franklovell.00@gmail.com.
B. 22-24 JUNE
WHITSUNDAY AIRPORT SHUTE HARBOUR FLY-IN Aviation enthusiasts are invited to fly in to Whitsunday Airport Shute Harbour for organised activities. Stunning locations, an amazing dinner, relaxation or action packed few days - you choose. For more information, www.whitsundayairport.com.au.
C. 11 AUGUST
MARYBOROUGH AERO CLUB WINGS AND WHEELS Maryborough Aero Club in conjunction with Ford Motor Club will hold a fly-in and motor show for lovers of machines which travel through the air and along the ground. For more information, secretary@mayrboroughaeroclub.com or 0417 730 539.
D. 19-31 AUGUST OUTBACK AIR RACE
The race, which starts in Archerfield, near Brisbane and finishes in Broome, WA, is a GPS-based navigation time trial throughout the outback. 100 competitors in 42 aircraft, in which pilots nominate an elapsed time between two visual waypoints, receiving points for both time and location accuracy. Since 1996 competitors and spectators have raised over $2.1 million for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. For more information, www.outbackairrace.com.au.
8 / SPORT PILOT
CA LEN D AR OF EVEN TS
E. 29 AUGUST-3 SEPTEMBER
B
BIRDSVILLE RACES
The Airport Services Group Ballina Aero Club will operate the airport during the races weekend. Hundreds of aviators will gather at Birdsville to experience the outback. Funds raised go to aviation charities. For more information, www. ballinaaeroclub.org.au/birdsville.
C D
E A
F. 8 SEPTEMBER 60TH ANNIVERSARY
Hastings District Flying Club, Port Macquarie, is reaching out to all ex members to provide contact details so they can be informed of the many planned activities of the anniversary celebration. The main event will be a reunion dinner on September 8. For more information, president@hdfc.com.au, Rod Davison 0419 632 477 or www.hdfc.com.au.
G. 6-7 OCTOBER TUMUT VALLEY FLY-IN
Moved from the last weekend in August. Feature event planned and Saturday dinner. 24/7 fuel. For more information, Rod Blundell 0419 135 249 or secretary@ tumutaeroclub.org.au.
9 / SPORT PILOT
F G
Aeroprakt A32 Vixxen www.foxbat.com.au
Search for Aeroprakt A32
Cruise 115+ knots Stall 27 knots Carry 210+ kgs after full fuel Average under 20 litres an hour Believe it!
L E T T ERS TO TH E ED ITOR
Left to Right, back row: Scott Crew, Cat Attard (refresher), Mark McLachlan (refresher), Peter Brookman, David Vreugdenburg, Rob Stewa rt, Greg Honeychurch Front row: Kev MacNally, Peter Campbell, Brett Gilmour, Shane Neaves, Ewold de Wilde and our host ….Larry J
ROTAX COURSES ARE POPULAR The 38th WM/Rotax Maintenance course was held at Strathalbyn in South Australia over the weekend of April 14 and 15. A mixture of both local and Interstate, HGFA and RAAus members attended. Thank you to Larry from Adelaide AirSports for opening up his hangar and facilities once again and for the Southern Districts Flying Club for allowing us to use their clubrooms. We had two refreshers this time, with nine first time attendees, and were due to hold another course two weeks later because of an influx of people wishing to attend. We must also give a big thank you to Greg for trailering in his Airborne XT-912 in for the 4-stroke practicals, after the weather turned and he was unable to fly in for the course. CAROLE AND KEV MCNALLY
ON BIRDS AND BATTERIES I thought Dave Tonks’ great article about watching birds fly was excellent (Sport Pilot April 2018). But may I add another aspect about the vertical movement of air with respect to mountain flying - even in relatively flat Australia. The lee side of any hill or valley has trapped many an aviator if there is a wind blowing.
A worst case situation occurred, as I remember, to a low hour student doing a solo flight in a Bell 47 model helicopter north of Maroochydore airport. It seems he was caught in the downdraught from the large, steep nearby hill, crashed and did not survive. But I’m sure many an aviator has experienced the opposite effect as well, and not from a thermal. The classic example being the Morning Glory roll cloud on the eastern coast of Cape York, which enables gliders to fly long distances in an almost a straight line at the same altitude using the coastal clouds’ updraught. I used a similar updraft, many years ago, when ferry flying at 60kts in Bell 47s, from Cairns to Bankstown along uninhabited coastlines, where I gained up to 5kts using the updraft from sand dunes, even with only light winds, when flying at a very low level having a low level endorsement. And I am sure that other aviators, especially when flying at legal max weight, high drag underslung loads in tropical mountain areas, find the only way to achieve the height required to reach a destination is to find rising air. I have even had to abort a flight when a max weight load could not be reduced and an updraft was not found to take me above 12,000ft density altitude to reach my destination in the PNG highlands. In other cases, when flying sling loads from sea level to a much higher altitude, the load 11 / SPORT PILOT
can’t be moved after landing it on the ground, because the air is too thin. Conversely, with a normal drag max weight load under the chopper, I have been blown up at 2,000ft per min with no power going to the main rotor, which is windmilling - which normally results in a 1,500 ft/min rate of descent. This while flying at almost sling load VNE (80kts, max drag), while transiting a deep, steep gorge in VMC with a high overcast! I did not see a bird airborne in such extreme conditions - another reason to avoid tiger country in light fixed wings, when possible. There was another great article by Alan Betteridge in the last edition about batteries. May I just mention one other caution? I would suggest removing any conductor from your fingers or uncovered wrists when working near uninsulated battery terminals. I once almost ruined a good metal watchband by momentarily shorting it to earth from a battery terminal - which also produced a lot of heat. And as for wearing finger rings while working on machinery - I had to hacksaw a finger to the bone to free a worker hanging by his ring from a P&W R985 engine on a Beech 18. This is why I have never worn a ring of any sort and know of people who have lost a finger to snagged rings, whereas having your watch ripped off while loading or unloading freight, usually only damages the band attaching pin. PHIL LATZ
IN TH E N EW S
IMPROVEMENTS ACROSS THE BOARD BY MIC HAEL LINKE, C EO
S
INCE 2014, macro change has resulted in dramatic improvements in the accident rate, the financial stability and the governance of RAAus. We have had improvements in the governance space with RAAus now a company limited by guarantee with seven Directors responsible for strategy and policy. We have implemented an overarching governance framework which is publicly available on our website. In terms of financial stability, the Board of Directors and I have made significant changes to our business model to create sustainability and ensure RAAus has a bright future. We still run a frugal budget, but structural changes to our resources and service models have aided in creating positive cash flows and a surplus budget. With regard to our accident rate, some headline figures are quite demonstrative of real improvements. In 2013, our rate of fatal accidents per 100,000 hours was 5. In 2014 this rate had reduced to 2.65. Today the rate runs at just over one fatality per 100,000 hours. The graph below depicts this data and we have noted the significant increase in hours recorded. Since 2017, RAAus introduced digital reporting of hours (prior to 2017 we relied on paper reports from members) to record hours within our data base. We have greater confidence in this figure than the earlier figures because we have captured more member data than in prior years. A direct comparison between fatal accidents for RAAus and the GA sector in 2017 would reveal RAAus to be safer when directly compared. Calendar Year Normalised Fatality Data Year
Fatalities
Hours
Fatals per 100,000 hours
2017
4
379,646
1.05
2016
6
207,893
2.88
2015
9
211,431
4
2014
6
226,364
2.65
2013
11
243,637
5
The chart below shows the rolling quarterly fatality rate, which has dropped from four per quarter in 2014 to less than one per quarter today.
In terms of non-fatal accidents, the chart (top right) shows the number of accidents recorded since 2013-2014 financial year. The sustained and dramatic improvements in our accident and fatality rates have not come about by accident. Since 2014 RAAus has introduced a combination of strategies and developed a raft of products that have aided in this improvement. In the Safety Portfolio these actions have included: • Developed an SMS implementation plan and schedule, including identifying key personnel and development of an SMS gap analysis. • Developed a purpose-built occurrence management system (OMS) and associated reporting and measurement of occurrences to provide
guidance for decision making. • Since its introduction in October 2015 the OMS has received over 800 reports from members and we continue to see an increasing willingness to report. • Provided improved visibility of accident and incident reports and outcomes to RAAus members via our website https://www.raa.asn.au/ safety/accident-and-defect-summaries/ • Worked strategically with aircraft importers and manufacturers on safety related improvements and defect reporting. • Formally trained key personnel in the accident investigations, audit, and safety management systems through SouthPac and the ATSB. • Developed a range of safety education and promotional campaigns, including Safety Month, the annual Safety Booklet, quarterly safety enews communications and regular presentations at member forums. • Established a formal safety committee which meets each quarter to review progress and develop strategies to continually improve safety within RAAus. • Developed a completely new Complaints Handling and Disciplinary Framework to ensure RAAus and members have a clear and simple process available. • Finalised development of a risk framework, including establishment of a Board level Risk and Audit Committee, development of a Risk Appetite and associated risk policies. • Developed a Safety Policy and Safety Objectives, which embodies our prime directive of an open and fair reporting culture. • Developed an Emergency Response Plan to place RAAus at the forefront of accident investigations. • Since 2015 fatal accidents involving RAAus aircraft have not progressed to an inquest as a result of our detailed, comprehensive and professional coronial reports. During 2018 RAAus is rolling out the final pillar of our SMS and engaging with our schools to put in place the necessary tools and resources to ensure organisational adherence with an SMS. Outside of our safety portfolio we have made significant improvements to our operations and technical areas. This has included: • The delivery of two CFI conferences in 2015 and 2016. • The delivery of professional development seminars across the country in 2018. • The revision and rewriting of our core manuals. • The creation of the first RAAus Flight Instructor Reference Manual with standardised briefings. • A significant increase in the number of new RAAus schools which are existing CASA approved schools. • The roll out of an online L1 training tool, which is being augmented by a practical tool in 2018. • The creation of a technical advisory panel. • The creation of a range of online training tools and videos.
12 / SPORT PILOT
IN TH E N EW S
NEW ERA FOR SPORT PILOT R
BY MIC HAEL LINKE, C EO
AAUS recently took a decision to change the editorial contract attached to the publication of Sport Pilot magazine. For 82 issues, Stampils Ltd, headed by Brian Bigg, has delivered an interesting, engaging and thought provoking magazine. Brian has worked directly with me since 2014 as RAAus changed the fundamental delivery model of the magazine. In 2015, as we did recently, RAAus undertook a due diligence exercise and offered the magazine up for tender. It was a challenging change and Brian did an outstanding job working with us as we made critical changes to ensure both RAAus’ future, but also the magazine’s. As Brian and his team secured the three-year contract in 2015, this year we were required to go through a new tender process. We called for tenders in early 2018 and received six applications. A sub-committee of the Board and staff, comprising five people, then assessed each tender based on a number of criteria, including: a. Cost b. Capability - have tenderers demonstrated they have the necessary understanding of our requirements and the skills to deliver what we need? c. Capacity - have tenderers demonstrated they have the necessary resources to deliver what we need?
d. Experience - have tenderers demonstrated they have the track record to reliably deliver the quality we need? e. Innovation - are tenderers offering anything new we might value? Initial tenders, of which there were six, were measured against these criteria. Four applications were excluded and the two remaining applicants were invited to provide further details. The five member committee met again and addressed the additional details provided. From these two applicants, a contract was offered to M and M Media. The committee formed the view that M and M Media was best placed to meet our requirements for Sport Pilot in the short to medium term. M and M Media will commence production of the magazine shortly with July 2018 its first issue. Members are encouraged to continue to submit stories and letters and we look forward to offering new and interesting content. I would like to express enormous and sincere thanks to Brian and his team for his carriage of Sport Pilot for so many years. They have certainly been wonderful stewards of our key communication tool. Thank you. Going forward, we have some exciting plans in the digital space and we look forward to sharing those with members shortly.
CLIF TON TO WELLCAMP ON AGAIN
BY KE VIN MC GR ATH
THE fourth annual Clifton to Wellcamp fly-in will happen again on July 28. Last year, a record 22 aircraft lined up and departed for 20 to 30-minute flight from Clifton airstrip, over six pretty little towns, to Brisbane West Wellcamp, a regional international airport, now four years old. Pilots took off 500m apart and arrived at Wellcamp in a continuous stream, again 500m apart. The runway is almost three kilometres long and so wide that a STOL aircraft could land across it if it. The taxiways are wider than a lot of strips at other airfields. As usual, pilots must register beforehand at Clifton before setting off on the 23nm trip. The start time will be about 11.30 and return about 2pm to give all comers a chance to fly in and back the same day. You can instead bunk overnight in our club rooms if you’d rather. Wellcamp Airport was built and is owned and operated by the Wagner family. They are a great bunch of people, who bring on extra staff for us, and who no doubt carry a financial loss on the event, so everyone come and show them we appreciate their help. For more information call me 0407 627 751 or Trevor Bange 0429 378 370.
13 / SPORT PILOT
IN TH E N EW S
BOARD NOMINATIONS PU T YOU R HAND U P SE E PAGE 4 6 FOR DE TAIL S
TICKETS ON SALE FOR AIRVENTURE E
ARLY bird tickets have gone on sale for AirVenture Australia, the premier event for light sport, recreational and GA enthusiasts. The fly-in airshow will take place this year at Cessnock Aerodrome, north of Sydney, and will run from September 20 - 22. This year’s event will feature two trade days, designed for members of RAAus and other aviation bodies, such as the Australian Parachute Federation, warbirds, sports and amateur built aircraft. In addition to static displays of aircraft, everything associated with maintaining, designing, building, flying, training and teaching will be on show. More than 50 seminars are planned on the Thursday and Friday. The event will culminate in a fantastic airshow on Saturday afternoon. Exhibitor, sponsorship and display enquiries are also now open. Contact RAAus for more information. Tickets include entry to all three days and when bought online are $35 each and $70 per family. As a major partner RAAus members will be able to pre-purchase tickets for $15. Gate prices will be $50 each and $100 per family. For more information, visit www.airventureaustralia.com.au.
DIGITAL DIRECTIONS
There are many ways to interact with RAAus these days. Website: www.raa.asn.au Member portal: www.members.raa.asn.au/login Lodge an occurrence: www.oms.raa.asn.au/lodge Back issues of Sport Pilot: www.raa.asn.au/sport-pilot-magazine Subscribe to printed Sport Pilot: www.raa.asn.au/sport-pilot-magazine-application RAAus shop: www.shop.raa.asn.au Sport Pilot online: www.raa.asn.au/sport-pilot-magazine ENewsletter: www.raa.asn.au/become-a-member/member-benefits/e-news
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IN TH E N EW S
NEW PRODUCT
RUNWAYMAP APP
A MOBILE app and community for pilots, RunwayMap, has become available in Australia. The app combines information on 20,000 airports worldwide with reports and experiences of the pilot community. Daniel Saxer, founder of RunwayMap, first launched the app in Europe last year. “As a private pilot, I found it was a huge hassle to gather all the information about new flight destinations, so I had the idea to put everything in one app for easy access.” RunwayMap lets pilots view aviation weather, webcams and frequencies at a glance. 3-D and satellite views of the airport and surrounding area give pilots helpful information about the landing
PDPS GOING STRONG THE RAAus Professional Development Program seminars being rolled out across the country continue to draw good numbers but time is running out if you want to attend one. The programs are structured to include important information on flight training practices, school management, maintenance and airworthiness, along with introducing staged integrated Safety Management Systems for flight school operations. Part of each seminar includes a forum.
conditions. Restaurants, public transportation, car rental and hotels near the airport are listed too. Pilots can flag and save airports of interest, as well as add personal notes. The RunwayMap app complements moving maps such as OzRunways and Garmin Pilot. “Tips from other pilots about landing conditions or particularities at the airfield are very helpful — especially when flying to a new destination,” says Daniel. For each airport, the app shows which pilots from the community have already flown or want to fly there. Pilots can share their experiences with videos, reviews and photos from their excursions. RunwayMap is available free for iPhone, iPad and Android users.
Registration is free. Members can access more information as well as the registration form through the Members’ portal. RAAus encourages all CFIs, instructors, maintainers and members to take advantage of these sessions. If you can’t make the seminar, at least turn up for the BBQ and a chat with the RAAus team (register for catering purposes). Full details at https://members.raa.asn. au/e-learning. 15 / SPORT PILOT
PROFESSI AL DEVELOPMENT ON PROGRAM DATES AND LOCATIONS 14-JUN Bindoon PDP
15-JUN Serpentine PDP
16-JUN Serpentine PDP
27-JUN Townsville PDP 28-JUN Townsville PDP 30-JUN Rockhampton PDP
FLY -IN S
o f g n i p o h n Grafto 16 / SPORT PILOT
FLY -IN S
r e th a e w r e or bett G
BY KE VIN WIL SON PRE SIDE N T G R AF TON AE RO C LU B
RAFTON Aero Club will host its 6th annual Wings and Wheels Open day on August 12. Last year, gale force winds along the coast put paid to any aircraft arriving other than one from Coffs Harbour, so we are hoping for better conditions. As with previous events, there will be a variety of clubs and individuals exhibiting their winged or wheeled pride and joy. These range from hot rods, classic, vintage, sports, touring and race cars, plus go-karts, motorcycles, model aircraft, etc.
There will also be exhibitors and demonstrations of stationary engines, blacksmiths and various things from the Men’s Shed. The aerodrome is managed and operated by the hangar owners and has been steadily improved over the past two and a half years with grass runways on either side of the main sealed runway. We now also have gliders operating several times a month. The event is, as always, free for exhibitors and the public. For more information, graftonaeroclub.com/wings-andwheels.
A I RC RAFT FEATU RE
FANGS VIPER SD4 A SLOVAK WITH
BY BRIAN BIGG
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A I RC RAFT FEATU RE
I
T’S a story common to many of the European ultralight manufacturers. Slovakian company, Tomark, began life making parts for other people. It earned its stripes engineering metal and composites for cars, then moved to aviation in the late 1990s. The company started design work on the Viper SD4 in 2004, the first flight took place just two years later and the aircraft was offered for sale in Europe, primarily as a trainer for the French market and tow plane, in 2008. The company went through the exhausting and expensive process of getting approval for the US LSA market two years ago and is now offering the 600kgs max weight Viper to all comers. So far its sold about 30 of them, not surprisingly, most in Slovakia. The company was reported to be considering bolstering US sales by setting up a factory in Texas. The Viper is metal, with aluminium skin. Composite materials are used for the tips of the flying surfaces, the fuselage upper decking, engine cowling and wheel fairings. The wings have constant chord and curved, slightly upswept tips. They are built around one main and one auxiliary spar. The short span ailerons move on piano-type hinges, with slotted flaps on the rest of the trailing edges. The lowmounted horizontal tail is also of constant chord apart from a cut-out for rudder movement; the starboard elevator carries a flight adjustable trim tab. Fin and rudder are straight-edged, but swept. The aircraft can handle either an 80 or 100hp Rotax 912. The undercarriage legs are cantilevered springs. The main wheels and nosewheels are faired. The mains are fitted with hydraulic brakes; the nose has steering as an option. A ballistic parachute is also an option. It has a wide variety of choices for avionics (no point fitting it out with the latest nav stuff if it’s only going to go round and round the local area, is there?) and it does come with electric flaps, electric trim and optional autopilot. Tomark says the Viper SD4 is also one of the few planes in its category to have successfully passed elasticity tests on all its parts, the so-called flutter tests. It has also demonstrated spins as required by the EASA. Like nearly all European ultralights, the fit and finish of the Viper, as with the high winged version called the Skyper GT9, is superb. It’s not going to go across the country as quickly as some (with only 70 litres in the tanks) but it’s a roomy and comfortable machine for training or towing. Tomark is looking for an Australian distributor. For more information, www.tomarkaero.com.
“The fit and finish of the Viper is superb”
SPECIFICATIONS
CRUISE SPEED ....... 108kts STALL SPEED ............ 35kts flaps down RANGE ..................... 405nm RATE OF CLIMB ... 1,181 ft/ min at sea level LENGTH ..................... 6.40m
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WINGSPAN ............... 8.40m EMPTY WEIGHT ...... 292kgs GROSS WEIGHT ... 472.5kgs FUEL CAPACITY ............. 70L PROPELLER .......... 3-bladed Peszke Aero Technologies constant speed
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R EAD ER STORY Brumby 24-8554 making a short-field take-off on grass at Narrikup WA. With half flap, and positive elevator input, the nosewheel lifts quickly.
Professional isolation BY R ALPH BURNE T T
O
NE of the downsides of being an instructor in a remote location, and at a single aircraft school, is professional isolation. Of the 180 or so flying schools under RAAus, my guesstimate is that half of them are remote and single instructor. Back in my past agricultural science life, it was a very real issue for a country-based consultant. The medical profession, being larger and better funded, has worked on this and runs many meetings, seminars and conferences for country GPs. At a larger school, it’s simple to discuss instructing issues and there’s always the CFI, or even a PE, around to bounce queries off. And, if you seem to be making very slow progress with a student, it’s possible to have them fly with another instructor – because it’s very likely you are the learning obstacle. Slow student progress is a recurring issue on flying forums and often the student-instructor interface is blamed. We know there are many other contributing causes but, in today’s society, it seems someone has to be blamed. Let me describe two such events I’ve experienced in the past three years. A middle-aged male student, who held a responsible role in a state government department, had completed his restricted Certificate with me in a J160 over a 10-month period when he had around 30 hours total time. Then, after
being away for a period of about six months, he began his navexs in the J160. He completed three, but did not really meet solo navex standards. Then, a period of 13 months elapsed before he re-appeared. By now, we had acquired our Brumby 610 and so we needed to refresh old skills and learn new procedures. Much to both our frustration, he was unable to adapt to the Brumby. After 8-10 hours, including a short navex, I was still unable to solo him and start his solo exercises. My other instructor, with around 6,000 hours of GA instruction, then took on my failure. Everything went like clockwork. The student was off solo in an hour and completed his navexs within a week. He then went on to an RPL with the same instructor, purchased an RV7A, which I easily endorsed him onto, and he’s been happily flying ever since. Moral: it’s likely that you are the problem, and the student needs a fresh instructor. My most recent case of slow progress was a professional lady, who admitted to having been a very slow learner driver in her younger years. Her theory was excellent and her enthusiasm was contagious. But, unforeseen events were to conspire against her progress. After she had completed around 10-12 hours, the Brumby was taken off-line for some factory rectifications – and it wasn’t back for three months. By now it was mid-winter and the weather here is rather 21 / SPORT PILOT
It’s likely that you are the problem unfriendly from June to September. Progress was slow, and the hours clicked by. Gaps of up to three weeks were a feature of training in that spring as the weather stymied every planned lesson. We get serious crosswinds on both runways because they were built for length, but are 45 degrees off the strongest winds. More hours clicked by and she had by now settled on a learning plateau. Then, a distant CFI booked a BFR with me, so I sought his advice. In fact, I begged him to fly with my frustrated student. He returned after an hour and said ‘she’s really ready for solo, you know’. Within a couple days she had indeed exceeded herself and went solo. Then, within a couple of weeks, we completed her restricted and her passenger carrying in one hit. She never looked back. Lesson: sometimes you can’t resolve student learning issues by yourself, no matter how many thousand hours experience you have. Make use of nearby SIs and CFIs.
F EATU RE STORY
The evolution of aerofoils - PART 1 -
BY DAVID HOUSTON
A
VIATORS have always looked for the best performance from their wings. This depends, among other things, on the wing cross section. This was appreciated even before the Wright brothers started their experiments. The Wright brothers built their own wind tunnel to test their wing designs before they built them. The early wings were fabric covered and favoured single surface sections like kites; then as weights increased, more structure was required, and a lower fabric surface was added. But the section was made as thin as possible, because this was thought to reduce the drag. Before 1914, most aircraft designs were made by private owner builders. They had few resources available for basic aerodynamic research, so wing sections often looked like RAF 15 (Fig 1). These thin wings required some form of wire bracing because they were not thick enough to contain spars with sufficient bending strength. When warplanes needed maximum manoeuvrability with higher ‘g’ loadings, a wire braced biplane layout was favoured. In fact the British authorities refused to consider monoplane designs for the RAF until late in the 1920s.
WIND TUNNEL PROBLEMS
Although some wind tunnel testing was done, early wind tunnels had small working sections using small models and low airspeeds. This meant they operated at low Reynolds Numbers (Re).
A Reynolds Number is a non-dimensional number relating the inertial forces to the viscous forces in the airstream, in much the same way as Mach Number is a nondimensional number relating the airspeed with the local speed of sound. Just as testing high speed, transonic or supersonic models at the wrong Mach No. will give misleading results, so testing lower speed models at the wrong Reynolds Number can also give misleading results. To get representative results, it is important to run tests at Re somewhere near full scale, because tests at different Re, especially at very low Re, can give quite different results.
Reynolds Number Re is a function of = (speed x chord length) kinematic viscosity
So a tunnel model Re with air speed at 50ft/sec and chord length 10cms = 100,000. A light aircraft Re with air speed at 80kts and chord
length 1.2m = 3,020,000. An airliner at take-off Re with air speed at 200kts and chord length 6m = 38,000,000. This meant the early wind tunnel results did not scale up at all well. It was also difficult to overcome turbulence and theoretical adjustments were needed to correct the results for the presence of the tunnel walls. Higher Re can be achieved by compressing the air in the tunnel to increase its density, and therefore its viscosity; but Compressed Air Tunnels (CAT) came later and only government research institutions like NACA in the US (the predecessor of NASA) could afford to build and operate them.
Fig. 1: RAF 15
DETAILS (RAF15-IL) RAF 15 AIRFOIL RAF-15 airfoil Max thickness 6.5% at 15% chord Max camber 2.6% at 30% chord
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F EATU RE STORY
0
1,0
Fig. 2
WORLD WAR ONE
Thousands of aircraft were built during the First World War, but basic research was limited. The Germans started to look critically at wing sections and Gottingen University found that thicker sections had better stalling characteristics, without a serious drag penalty. Their work resulted in the Fokker D VII with a thicker wing section, which caused the Allies considerable grief when it came into use in 1918. After the war, there was a great surplus of unwanted aircraft. After a few years, the potential for high speed airmail provided a need for improved designs in US and the possibilities for passenger transport in Europe, although subsidised provided the incentive for governments to fund more research
NACA REPORT 460
It was realised that the wing sections in use up to the end of WW 1 were empirical designs, and nobody really knew whether there were other shapes which might give better results. The only way to check and compare wing sections at that time was by testing in a wind tunnel, so researchers persuaded their governments to build larger and more elaborate tunnels to run at higher speeds and at Reynolds Numbers closer to those experienced in flight. The NACA report No. 460 published in 1933 gave the results of testing a family of 78 different aerofoil sections in a CAT at up to 10 atmospheres pressure and achieving Reynolds Numbers of between 3 and 9 million. The sections all had a related streamline shape, scaled to give the desired maximum thickness. The shape was set out about a curved centreline with varying maximum camber and varying chordwise position of maximum camber, so that NACA 2415 section for instance (Fig 2), had 2% maximum camber located at 40% chord and with a maximum thickness of 15% chord. This very comprehensive study showed that some of the best
Fig. 3
had a higher maximum lift coefficient (CL), they also had higher drag and a very powerful pitching moment, which was an embarassment. Testing in this wind tunnel at various Reynolds Numbers also showed that the drag of bracing wires was out of proportion to their frontal area. So the combination of thicker wing sections, able to contain all necessary structure with the realisation of the significant drag penalty caused by the bracing wires, signalled the end of biplanes, except for aerobatics. In the UK this marked the rise of Miles and Percival light aircraft in preference to the De Havilland Moth series. The speed range of an aircraft reflects the CL range of the wing section and the cruise performance is usually tied to the CL area of high Lift / Drag (L/D) ratio, so comprehensive accurate information on the comparative performance of a wide range of wing sections measured at relevant Reynolds Numbers was a real boon to designers. Some of the more common sections tested by NACA were also tested with a 20% split flap deflected 60o. As aircraft in the 1930’s were flying faster, the designers looked for ways to extend the range of CL values to reduce the size of the wing, without increasing the landing speed, so information on the performance of flaps was timely. The practice before the introduction of flaps was to sideslip to wash off excess speed on the approach, but without the ‘built-in headwind’ of all the bracing wires, the extra drag of flaps was very welcome.
NACA 5 FIGURE AEROFOILS
sections then in use were in fact quite competitive (Fig 3). It also showed there were no odd-ball sections significantly better than the best sections currently in use. NACA had tested sections with the maximum camber as far back as 70% chord. These behaved like a wing with flaps down and, although they
It was noticed aerofoils with maximum camber well forward had higher CL max, so another series of sections was devised with this feature and tested. The results confirmed that the CL max was indeed higher, but the downside was that the stall, when it came, was more violent. This was okay for aircraft like airliners, which were usually operated well away from the stall (with wheelie landings), but was less attractive for training and recreational designs where benign stall characteristics were sought after. The development of these sections continues to the present. NEXT MONTH Laminar flow sections and drag
23 / SPORT PILOT
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R EAD ER STORY
A trip into the wrong airspace BY NEIL DE ARBERG
“A
IRCRAFT approximately three miles north of Fernvale at 3,500ft, this is Brisbane Central”. Moments passed. No one answered. Then a feeling of ‘oh no, is that me?’ squeezed the gastric juices. I knew where I was alright, right where Brisbane Central said I was. I knew that. The gastrics got worse. “Um, I think that’s us Pete”, I told my passenger. Pete looked at me with the blank expression you give someone when they say they just saw Elvis. With an air of bewilderment, I called, “Brisbane Central, this is Sling 8515. Are you calling me?” “Switch to Amberley Approach on 126.2”, came the response. That seemed friendly enough, so I did. Nonetheless, I wondered why they would be calling me. The Flight Lieutenant told me, in a nice way, that I had encroached on RAAF Amberley air space. Really? I was in the process of turning north-east to Dayboro. How could I be in their air space? Then, to my horror, he asked me to switch my transponder to a particular code. I’d done it in the Cessna with four buttons. This one only had one. “How do I do that?” I quietly asked, hoping he would ignore me because I had no idea. He didn’t know either. After a couple of transmissions to adjust the transponder, he gave up trying to help me. He told me to stay at 3,500ft and report when clear of CTA. Then, soon afterwards, he told me I was clear of the CTA. Nice guy, I thought. Then he also asked for my phone number and flying school. Uh oh. Is this going to finish nice? As I flew home, now OCTA, I checked my chart. There was that little corner in the red circle but restrictions didn’t start until 8,500ft and I was 3,500ft – no problem, right? When we arrived back at the flying school, the CFI was on the phone, so I couldn’t fess up right away. It didn’t matter. It was the Amberley man he was talking to. When he hung up, I got the look. “OK, let’s look at the chart Neil. Follow the red circle around and down, see the section further down on the left where it says D612A SFC/1500 and R625A 1500/8500? Those are the bits you ignored in your flight planning.” Oops, I hadn’t seen those, only the R625D 8500/FL210. “What about the transponder thing”, I asked which earned me another look. Yep, I knew the hijacker code and the no radio code. But someone had forgotten to show me how to actually change codes on the device and someone else (me) had not thought to ask. Out to the plane we went and a lot of button pushing later, I knew how to do it. A bit late admittedly. Will there be other consequences, I asked? Not from me, the CFI said. “Just an educational phase for this one”. Cool, good lesson. On the way home Pete and I stopped for a Thai lunch. The phone rang. It was the Amberley man. Uh oh. But he was ever so nice. “Just an education call Neil, no prosecution or jail this time”. Gulp. “We get lots of incursions from pilots who don’t plan correctly, don’t read their charts correctly or who rely on their EFB and stray off course. Too many. Would you like me to email you our quarterly safety report which shows how and why pilots do it, which might help you in the future?” Great idea. Yes please, I’m a new pilot and need to learn. “I can also send you the ADF ‘Visual Navigation Manual’ which has sections on navigation principles, flight planning and visual navigation. They’re designed for the defence force but you’ll find them very helpful.” That would be wonderful, yes, and thanks. Lunch wasn’t so relaxing after that. So, what’s this story really about? New or old pilots must read the charts with care, not complacency. Sometimes they are confusing. Everyone knows this corner of Amberley’s CTA is confusing and was due to be changed in the May update. But as pilot in command it was my job to get it right. No excuses. As PIC it’s also my responsibility to know how every instrument and ‘thing’ in the aeroplane works before I take off. And to ask if I don’t.
“It’s my responsibilit y to know how ever ything in the aeroplane works before I take of f” An EFB is not a replacement for in-flight nav checks or pre-flight planning. It just ain’t. Air traffic controllers seem genuinely caring, helpful and willing. They encourage us to ask, rather than blunder along and screw things up. So if the weather turns against you, you get temporarily misplaced or something unforeseen happens, seek permission first, because forgiveness may or may not happen. Flying schools and instructors have a responsibility and duty of care to students. It is too easy to overlook basic instrument operation or rush elementary matters. Schools turn out PICs, so safety over dollars matters. And when you are told “No further action required”, don’t believe it. CASA wants a report; RAAus Ops wants a report; RAAus Admin wants a report; Santa Claus wants a report, to know if you’ve been good. The only ones who don’t are the people whose airspace you infringed. Then you find you’re up for a flight review with an RAAus assessor – again, nice education, not prosecution. Then, the Ops manager asks you to write an article for Sport Pilot. All this for five inadvertent minutes in CTA. Crickey, I dread to think of the consequences of a major incursion with jets scrambled, mid-air collision, commercial aircraft diversion or forced landing. But you know, the life of a recreational pilot would be a lot safer and more enjoyable if there was a proper program of CTA instruction and certification. Why not teach the stuff, rather than have inexperienced pilots blunder away and ‘hope for the best’? Nothing beats proper instruction, assessment and certification. The skies would be safer. And certainly a controller’s job would be much easier.
25 / SPORT PILOT
SO YOU’VE HAD A CLOSE CALL? Why not share your story so that others can learn from it too? If we publish it, we’ll give you $500. Email us at fsa@casa.gov.au Articles should be between 450 and 1000 words. If preferred, your identity will be kept confidential. If you have video footage, feel free to submit this with your close call.
Please do not submit articles regarding events that are the subject of a current official investigation. Submissions may be edited for clarity, length and reader focus.
R EAD ER STORY
Being a better communicator M
Y wife has never been keen on recreational flying. She has no issue with hopping on a commercial airliner and flying off to another continent. But she can’t see the point in flying at low altitudes to a remote airfield, miles from town, and then have no car once you get there. She has a point. But I don’t get it. After much coercion, I did get her to come flying with me once. It was not the best day for taking up a first timer. In hindsight, I should have made it another day. I had planned to take her on my favourite local flight, from Windang Bridge to the Sea Cliff bridge. Normally this is great from 2,000ft, but on this day, the cloud base was at that height and overcast, so I decided to proceed at 1,000ft instead. There was a little bit of bump, but not too bad. Things were progressing pretty well, along the coast of Wollongong until we reached Thirroul when, out of the blue, another aircraft passed very close to us from the left and only just below. Here’s where I made my first mistake. I should have said nothing, because my wife had not seen the other aircraft. Instead I asked “Did you see that idiot? They nearly hit us!” I asked the other pilot about it later. He told me he had been on a solo nav to the west of Wollongong. He had panicked with the low cloud when he reached the escarpment and dove for the coast, only just getting under us. We continued on for a bit and then turned for home. On the way back, we talked about what had happened while I kept a close ear out for the other aircraft. After I made my inbound call, I heard the other pilot having some trouble with his landing and announcing he was going around. I got my eyes as well as my ears outside but
BY GREG O’SHANNES SY
I muttered something about having had it covered
27 / SPORT PILOT
could not get a visual. This is where I made my second mistake. As I was distracted with looking and listening for the other aircraft, I forgot to let my first-time passenger wife know what I was doing. I did my BEFOR in silence, normally I would let the passenger know what I was doing. I cut the power, again I said nothing. My wife said nothing either. Airspeed now in the white. I put the flaps out and said nothing. My wife said nothing either. There was a bit of a crosswind and I flared a fraction early, which led to a little bit of a bump on landing, but no bounce though. I apologised to my wife for the bump, telling her I normally put it down more gently than that. She said “There was nothing wrong with the landing. I’ve had worse on commercial planes. But what the hell were you doing out there? I knew you would tell me if there was something wrong with the engine, but I didn’t know what was going on. I thought you had to do a full circuit before you land, but we didn’t do that either”. I muttered something about having had it all covered, but she wasn’t convinced. So I learned that even if you know your passenger really well - my wife and I have been together for 35 years - don’t presume that they know ‘you’ve got it covered’. I learned I have to communicate better to my passengers. The right information at the right time will help them relax and maybe even encourage them to travel with me again. Also pick your day and don’t be afraid to call it off it isn’t the best for both you and your passenger. I hope my wife gives me another chance to take her up, but I think the chances are a slim.
W OMEN IN AVIATION
Eager for the air Th e wo me n pil ot s of th e Ai r Tra ns po rt Au xil iar y
ATA pilots often worked together on long ferry flights
An ATA pilot climbs into the cockpit of a Spitfire
Female ATA pilots flew all types of aircraft
Mary Ellis when she joined the ATA in 1941
BY AL AN BE T TERIDGE
T
HERE is nothing quite like a war to help bureaucrats see the error of their ways and remove red tape. This is exactly what happened during the early days of WWII in Britain. At that time, women would never have been even considered for pilot training in the RAF, but the war and increasing need for operational pilots, changed all that. When the Air Transport Auxiliary was established, the initial plan was for it to carry personnel, mail and medical supplies, but as the need to ferry more military aircraft around England and the world grew, so did the need for more pilots. The ATA recruited pilots who were considered to be unsuitable for either the RAF or the Fleet Air Arm by reason of age, fitness or, more notably, gender. A unique feature of the ATA was that physical handicaps
were ignored. All that mattered was that the pilot could do the job. So there were one-armed, one-legged, short-sighted and even oneeyed pilots flying for the ATA, which soon became humorously referred to as Ancient and Tattered Airmen. Initially not everyone was keen on the idea of allowing women into the cockpits of military aircraft. The editor of Aeroplane magazine wrote in 1941; “The menace is the woman who thinks that she ought to be flying in a high-powered bomber when she really has not the intelligence to scrub the floor of a hospital properly.” Can you imagine the outcry if someone said today? Despite the doubter’s misgivings, the female pilots of the ATA (known as the ‘Attagirls’) soon gained an enviable reputation for their abilities. The women were initially restricted to non-combat types of aircraft, like trainers and transports, but were eventually permitted to fly virtually every type flown by the RAF and Fleet Air Arm, including the four-engine
28 / SPORT PILOT
Gathering w eather information was an important ro le of the AT A
Six of the first eight female ATA pilots Women ATA pilots pose with a Spitfire
heavy bombers, but excluding the large flying boats. Hawker Hurricanes were first flown by women on July 19, 1941 and Spitfires in August of the same year. Pilots progressed from light singleengine aircraft to more powerful and complicated aircraft in stages. They first qualified on one class of aircraft, then gained experience on that class by doing ferrying work, with any and all aircraft in that class, before returning to training to qualify on the next class up. As a result, pilots made progress on the basis of their capabilities rather than on a rigid timetable. This ensured not only as many pilots as possible advanced, but that those who could not were still gainfully employed flying the types on which they had qualified. Once cleared to fly one class, pilots could be asked to ferry any plane in that class, even if they had never seen that type of aircraft before. To do so they carried Ferry Pilot Notes, a two-ring book of small cards with the critical statistics and notations necessary to ferry each aircraft. So impressive was the record of the women pilots in the ATA that,
starting in 1943, they received the same pay as the men of equal rank in the ATA. It was the first time the British government had ever given its blessing to equal pay for equal work in any organisation under its control. At the same time American women flying with the Women Airforce Service were receiving as little as 65 per cent of the pay given to their male colleagues. Initially, to comply with the Geneva Convention, and because the pilots were civilian, aircraft were ferried with guns or other armament unloaded. However, after encounters with German aircraft in which the ferried aircraft were unable to fight back, RAF aircraft were ferried with guns fully armed. The objective of the ATA was to deliver aircraft safely and that meant taking no unnecessary risks. To that end, all ATA pilots were not taught aerobatics or blind flying and were specifically prohibited from doing so, even if they could. Overall, the ATA had 166 women pilots, one in eight of all its crew.
29 / SPORT PILOT
W OMEN IN AVIATION
Mary Ellis during her
100th birthday flig
ht
Maureen Dunlop became the pin-up girl for the ATA after appearing on the cover of a magazine
A pair of ATA pilots helping each other check their equipment
A pilots pose A group of AT
Sadly 15 of those women lost their lives on operations, including British aviation pioneer, Amy Johnson, who was killed after bailing out of her aircraft over the English Channel in bad weather. During the war, the ATA flew 415,000 hours and delivered more than 309,000 aircraft of 147 types. They delivered more than 883 tons of freight and transported 3,430 people without any casualties. So important to the war effort was the ATA and its pilots, that at a function held to mark the disbanding of the ATA on November 30, 1945 newspaper baron and one-time Minister for Aircraft Lord Beaverbrook gave this tribute. “Without the ATA, the days and nights of the Battle of Britain would have been conducted under conditions quite different from the actual events. They carried out the delivery of aircraft from the factories to the RAF, thus relieving countless numbers of RAF pilots for duty in the bat-
ber ncaster bom beside a La
tle. Just as the Battle of Britain is the accomplishment and achievement of the RAF, likewise it can be declared that the ATA sustained and supported them in the battle. They were soldiers fighting in the struggle just as completely as if they had been engaged on the battlefront”. On February 2 last year one of the remaining female ATA pilots, Mary Ellis, celebrated her 100th birthday by taking to the skies over England in one of the Spitfires she had actually flown all those years ago. Mary had her first flying lesson in 1938 and flew for pleasure until 1941, when she heard a BBC radio appeal for women pilots to join the auxiliary service and so male pilots could be released for combat duty. After hearing that broadcast, Mary the next day volunteered for the ATA. She said the war was a challenge and someone had to do something about it. “I went on and on until I flew everything,” she said. “I love the Spitfire. It’s my favourite aircraft just as it’s everyone’s favourite aircraft. It’s the
30 / S P O R T P I L O T
American and British women pilots of the ATA
Final cockpit checks before a ferry flight
Mary Ellis and Spitfire pilot Matt Jones toast Mary’s birthday flight
“They were soldiers fighting in the struggle”
symbol of freedom.” During her time in the ATA, Mary flew over 76 types of aircraft, 400 Spitfires and logged 1,100 hours of flight time, much to the astonishment of some colleagues. The largest aircraft she flew solo was the Wellington bomber. After landing at an East Anglian airfield Mary was greeted by the ground crew who asked where the pilot was. “I’m the pilot,” she said. They insisted on searching the aircraft before they believed her. It was dangerous work. Mary was sometimes ordered to move combat-damaged planes which were not officially fit to fly, but had to be taken for repairs. She crash landed twice and was shot at once. After the ATA was disbanded, Mary was seconded to the RAF for a short period and even flew the new Meteor jet.
Flight Leutenant Mareen Dunlop at the controls of a Spitfire
But it wasn’t long before the pre-war restrictions on women pilots in the RAF were put back in place, so Mary left the service and worked as a personal pilot to a wealthy businessman until 1950 when she became the boss of Sandown Airport on the Isle of Wight, where she remained until her retirement in 1970. The bureaucratic restrictions on women pilots in the RAF put an end to the aspirations of any who wanted to join the RAF as operational pilots. That was to remain the case until 1990 when Flt. Lt. Julie Gibson was awarded operational pilot status within the ranks of the service. The RAAF’s first women pilots were awarded their wings in 1988 and have been able to apply for selection to fly fast jets since 1995. The first Australian female fighter pilots completed their conversion course on the F/A 18 Hornet in February, 2017.
31 / S P O R T P I L O T
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S AFE TY MA TTER S
ASMS ready to go PHILIP FOX N AT I ON AL SAFE T Y M AN AG E R
R
AAUS is excited to announce it has successfully completed development of its Aviation Safety Management System (ASMS). Flight Training Schools throughout the country are now progressively plugging into the system ahead of the formal announcement of its introduction into the recreational space later this year. Schools are encouraged to use the business management tools contained within the Safety Toolbox to effectively integrate their operations within this new construct. This is an exciting milestone for the organisation and sets out the pathway from which recreational flyers can begin to realise greater flying privileges. During 2018 recreational schools will arm themselves with an Aviation Safety Manual to guide their operations, develop and test an emergency response plan, form a Safety Committee (or equivalent), put in place risk profiles to enhance risk awareness and begin to participate in Local Runway Safety Teams at each of their local and satellite aerodromes. The ASMS positions the recreational aviation industry as a risk aware, forward thinking voice empowered to drive aviation into the next era of flying pursuits, some known, and some not yet fully realised.
On the ground and running BY TRE VOR BANGE C FI
L
ONE Eagle Flying School, based at Clifton in Queensland, was chosen as one of the schools to trial the new ASMS system and to see how easily it could be integrated. RAAus needed an existing training facility, particularly one staffed by one person and operated by volunteers. The brief was simple “Have a look at this new ASMS and see if you can use it to be safer.” All pilots are aware of safety but often miss the link between a safety system and how to actually use it to improve the safety culture of their club. Most will agree safety is paramount, but many of us don’t have the experience or training to see how it fits. So, after reviewing the downloaded ASMS
templates as provided by RAAus, we went with them in hand to a club meeting. The members have a wide range of experience in both life and aviation, from miners to selfemployed and initially we thought implementing such a broad change as the ASMS might be hard. But we found the opposite. Members exposed to safety systems in other walks of life gave it the thumbs up because it is what they are used to operating with and they fully understand the benefits. Newcomers also reported they were able to see the value in it. The RAAus documents were simple, easy to read and clearly outlined the concept and how to do it. Sure, we will have to change some of the forms we normally use, but now we have a more formalised system, it will became relatively easier over time and there are no real or direct costs outlays required by the school. 33 / S P O R T P I L O T
The real test was a second meeting we held, where we explored more fully the concepts of how we could collectively identify, understand and manage our unique aviation hazards and associated risks. All of the team was engaged, the feedback was strong and robust. Overall, everyone agreed that a system which would be the same all over the country was logical. The fact it could be tailored to an individual school’s needs was a great benefit. With the enthusiastic acceptance from the members, we are now in the process of finalising our document changes to bring them into line with the national format. We will then begin education sessions with the members so it becomes the standard. Tool Box and Hangar Talks are also being planned so we can move our ASMS from a new concept to a mature approach to managing our safety.
POSTER
DAWN PATROL BY G ARY MC ARTHUR
This is a photograph taken by Alan Carter, of my aircraft, Foxbat 24-7770, leading the Battle of Britain Dawn Patrol in north west Tasmania. The Dawn Patrol is an annual tradition for the Wynyard Aero Club.
36 / S P O R T P I L O T
A I RC RAFT FEATU RE
FLYING THE MONLAS MK-1
Monlas on Climbout
BY ROB KNIGHT
37 / S P O R T P I L O T
A I RC RAFT FEATU RE
FLYING THE M Super staggered wings
Taxi
I
T all started a couple of years ago when Doug McIlwraith, living in the quiet of south-east Queensland’s Biddaddaba, succumbed to a long-time urge to build himself a two-seat side by side biplane. He had already played with the structural foundations for a monocoupe, but success was not apparent in the models he was working with. He needed to change the fuselage nose profile to accommodate a six cylinder Jabiru engine, replacing the old cowling shape designed to house a radial. The notion languished for a bit, but then he bit the bullet and went for his concept of a home designed biplane. A born-again diplomat, Doug included the name of his supportive wife, Monica, into the project; he blended their names into the aircraft’s designated title – the Monlas Mk-1, so bestowing a name as unique as the aircraft upon which it was bestowed. The finished aircraft sits very easily on the eye. Painted a smart burgundy and white, it is a neat, all-metal, riveted, stressed skin construction tail-dragger, powered with the six cylinder Jabiru engine developing 120 horsepower (89.4 Kw). The cylinders are fitted with water cooled heads and Doug has developed his own special
intake cowl to direct raw airflow across the cylinder barrels on each side, to keep the engine temps as stable as the Harbour Bridge. Doug has designed the wing arrangement to have a super-stagger; the leading edge of the top mainplane sits ahead of the pilot while the leading edge of the lower wing is located near the aft of the seat. The wings have an unusual strut arrangement. They are vertically strutted at around 2/3 span with faired metal struts, and diagonally from the lower wing root to the top of the strut. This makes for an extremely lifting frame, with all the safety benefit that brings. Unlike almost all other ultralight aircraft, ingress and egress of the Monlas is easy. The front-hinged doors, wider and deeper than most aircraft of this nature, are located aft of the undercarriage leg and spat, and forward of the lower wing leading edge. The generous door, hinged on the front, is large and swings comfortably forward to let the person enter, butt-first, then swing their legs in. There is plenty of room to lift a leg over the wooden handled control stick. The floor is a tastefully painted grey, very practical and lightening the cockpit. On the ground, visibility forward is quite good. The nose is low and scarcely obscures the run38 / S P O R T P I L O T
way ahead. The cockpit is well laid out. Painted red, it has mahogany overlays into which the instruments are fixed. The flight instruments are basic and mounted into the left panel with engine on the right. It has an ignition switch for CD ignition control and a mag switch for the magneto. A conventional push/pull throttle controls engine power. The panel also sports both a choke and a carburettor heat on/off control. Brakes on, mags and ignition on, fuel pump to fill the lines. It’s a warm day so we don’t need choke. A “Clear-Prop” call, a last check and the prop flicks across the screen. With a surprisingly quiet rumble the six cylinder 20 horsepower (89.5 Kw) Jabiru engine takes life and the oil pressure rises. A quick release of the brakes and, with a little more power, the aircraft trundles away. Run-up and pre-take-off checks are simple and, with everything in the cockpit so readyto hand, quickly completed. We lined up and taxied forward to straighten the tail wheel. The
A I RC RAFT FEATU RE
MONLAS MK-1 Doug and his Monlas
Roomy cabin
Instrument panel
An unusual strut arrangement
engine rumble increased to a quiet roar as we added full throttle. The empennage is not the largest I have seen, and the tail is not as quick to rise as some other aircraft, but directional control is powerful in the slipstream and soon we were passing through 40kts, tail up, with the wheels astride the centreline. Then came the wonderful cessation of vibration as the wheels cut their earthly ties; the aeroplane came into its element and the Monlas was airborne. Climb out at 65kts gave us 800fpm on the VSI. With the nose sitting comfortably on the horizon, attitude control was easy. A miniscule amount of left rudder pressure held the ball in the middle and the aircraft just sat there. I levelled off and set 2,800rpm for cruise. The ASI settled on 90kts, perhaps a little bit less than a monoplane, but this machine has twice as many wings as other aircraft so the cruise speed wasn’t bad at all. Then I began to play with it. This aeroplane has to be one of the most
beautiful aeroplanes to handle I have flown in my 57 years behind the controls. Each control was light yet had enough resistance to my hand or feet to give “feel” so I could register feedback from the aircraft. All controls were powerful, but not overly so, and each control felt oh-so crisp. Every control input brought an instant response with it, and it seemed effortless to bank, pitch, and roll. I was also impressed at the minimal out-of-turn aileron required to hold a constant bank, a pleasant consequence of the relatively short wing span. At bank angles above 45°, the back pressure to hold height was positive but still light and the rudder to balance the aileron drag was as easy to judge as it was to check the slip/skid ball. Stalls, like everything else in this aeroplane, are simple, positive, and easy to feel. Although the stick pressures are light, quite sufficient pressure remains to feel the controls dying along with the airspeed as the stalling angle approaches. The nose sag/sink as the stall occurs and develops is as obvious to the discerning pilot as the VSI indicating down at 500fpm. Unfortunately, due to cloud cover, we were unable to get sufficient height to look closely at developing the stall further, or provoking the aircraft in this condition of flight. 39 / S P O R T P I L O T
Monlas struts
Not only was the aeroplane extremely pleasant to handle, the visibility from my right seat was superb, except, of course, where obscured by the top wing. The large Lexan panelled door gave me a completely unobstructed view to starboard and forward past the undercarriage. The wheel seemed so close that I might be able to reach out and bleed the brakes if needed. We turned for Biddaddaba and home, easing the power and setting up a descent. Trim was simple and no issue and, with no flap to apply, the procedures were minimal. 60kts crossing the fence, reducing to 50-55kts over the threshold, resulted in a smooth flare with little float (too many wings and too much drag for that) and a gentle settling onto the runway in a perfect three point attitude. Applying enough rudder to keep straight seemed effortless, and we turned off the runway and slowly trundled to the parking area. Considering it is a one-off aeroplane, built in a hangar on his farm, Doug has produced a magnificent little machine. It’s great fun to fly, its simplicity will make it easy to maintain, and its handling is as viceless as any other aeroplane I have flown. Hopefully, I’ll get to fly it again sometime soon.
Climbing on the roof BY LEIGH TAY LOR
A
S a kid I would always climb on roof of our house and look over the other houses to get a better view. I knew from the age of 15, I wanted to make flying my profession, so when I left school, I drove to Moorabbin airport to investigate flight schools. I learned that I would need at least 1,000 hours flying time before any commercial airline would accept me into their programme. Flying for Qantas would have been the dream job. My dreams were crushed, though, when I learned that to obtain a commercial pilots licence would cost me more than $20,000 on top of the 1,000 hours flight time. Trying to find a job in the aviation industry as a rookie is not easy. I was told the best way to clock hours quickly was to move to a remote area where flying is the main source of transport. Not only was $20,000 a daunting amount, so was the idea of leaving home so soon after leaving school. My studies then led me into engineering as a metal fabricator. The money was good and this is where I have stayed until today. My love of flying did not go away though. I found myself taking joy flights whenever I could. I did an aerobatics flight in a Pitts Special over Queenstown in New Zealand. I also went heli-skiing there. I got to fly in a Bell 206 helicopter to the first ever Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park. I was also lucky enough to get many helicopter flights because my father-in-law worked at Jayrow Helicopters as the chief engineer. I also did a flight in a DC3 over to King Island, just to go there for lunch.
Then in September 2016, a good friend of mine, Rick, and I were talking about our mutual love of flying. Rick was taking flying lessons to obtain his Private Pilot’s Licence, but was looking into powered parachutes. Rick owns a large property out the back of Tarneit, west of Melbourne, a perfect spot for aviation. We thoroughly investigated the safety of powered parachutes and decided this is what we would try. A phone call was made to Stephen Conte, founder and CFI of Aerochute industries. An Introductory flight was booked for November that year. The trial flight was nothing short of amazing and exhilarating. We did some low level flying and many turns at Stephen’s training ground. As we were flying, Stephen said over the intercom “take the controls and turn left and then right. “Are you sure?” I was thinking. Because there were two sets of toggles, Stephen could control the Aerochute with me. I pulled down on the left toggle and the Aerochute banked left. Then a pull on the right toggle and off to the right we went. It was so easy and the view we had all the way to the City of Melbourne left me wanting more. Then Stephen told me “let’s do some touch and goes”. Landings were one aspect of flying I was concerned about. Four years previously, I had broken my back in three places. I have two titanium pins supporting my L1 vertebrae. I needn’t have worried. He made the landings feel so smooth, you could hardly tell you were back on the ground. After a few touch and goes, I thought we were nearing the end of my
40 / SPORT PILOT
R EAD ER STORY Leigh’s first solo
Leigh happy to be a pilot
Leigh and Rick and their Aerochute trailer
I was actually flying the thing and it felt amazing 41 / SPORT PILOT
ride when Stephen said “you do a touch and go now”. The feeling of nervousness and excitement, with some adrenaline thrown in as well, was overwhelming. I was actually flying the thing and it felt amazing. Under his expert tuition, I circled the runway and lined up. With Stephen coaching me through every step, the ground rushed up at me. I ran through all the checks, then the instruction came over the radio “flare the parachute”. The Hummerchute we were flying gently touched down. The next command was “full power” and we were off flying again. “Did I really just do that?” I asked over the intercom. “You sure did” said Stephen. It’s so hard to put into words the feeling of flying an Aerochute, you just have to experience it yourself to understand. With no cockpit in your way, the air blowing in your face, un-obstructed views and knowing you are flying in one of the safest aircraft in the world. I was hooked. The smile on Rick’s face and mine said it all. It was all we could talk about for weeks afterwards. Then we decided to do it. We went to the Aerochute factory in Coburg and saw how Aerochutes are designed and built. We booked in for the training course and, at 6:30am one Saturday morning soon afterwards, Rick and I were being introduced to James, who was to be one of our instructors. We were shown how to do our safety checks and received a brief on wind direction, runways, flight circuits, safety and how the day was going to run. We then warmed up the engines and I moved out onto the runway to set up the chutes. Then it was time to climb aboard. A check of the comms, the wind direction, that the runway was clear and that my harness was secure. “Clear Prop” was the next command and the Aerochute roared into life. A small amount of acceleration and the canopy began to fill with air. We slowly crept forward and the canopy centred directly overhead. Then it was full power and up into the air we went. Without boring you with all the details, both Rick and I spent the next several weekends flying beside an instructor, learning all the technical aspects and emergency procedures. We had each completed just over five hours flight time when Stephen announced that the following day we would do a dual flight check for solo. We both demonstrated the necessary skills, so the following weekend it was time to do our first solo flights. It was totally exhilarating. Stephen maintained constant radio contact with us from the ground and observed us closely. Flying over the training ground, I could see a herd of kangaroos hopping graciously along and, on the horizon, the coastline around the bay and the city skyline. Wow… what a view! I was flying! Rick and I both now have an Aerochute on a trailer and our pilot licences in our hands. I just want to thank Stephen and James from Aerochute for their professional tuition and for enabling me to finally fulfil my teenager’s dream. Let the adventure begin!
EDI T O R’ S CHO I CE
Succession planning BY BRIAN BIGG
MY EVIL REIGN AS EDITOR OF SPORT PILOT HAS COME TO AN END.
W
a run, even those critical of the organisation, the board or (dammit) me. The magazine has provided a valuable safety valve and allowed the members to feel they have a strong voice in the organisation. They know they will be heard. • That the costs of the magazine would be both predictable and reducible. In its very first contract, I committed to reducing the price paid by RAAus by 5% per year. Every year since, I have worked with the RAAus CEO on ways to keep bringing down the costs towards that magical point where it begins to pay for itself. It’s still heading that way.
HEN I proposed a new magazine to the RAAus in 2011, the organisation was a much different beast than it is today. The board members themselves still ran communications with members day to day, trying vainly to keep up with the explosion in membership, the flood of new types of aircraft and rapidly changing regulatory environment. Gone were the friendly days of mates, who knew a thing or two about building cheap aircraft, doing things below the CASA radar. Every single member believed they had the answers. Everyone argued and pointed fingers at each other. We all remember the struggles of those days. At the time, I didn’t have any answers about fixing the organisation, but I knew I could fix the magazine, which was the front window of RAAus to the world. Since then, Sport Pilot has been a consistent and stable rock around which the changing fortunes of RAAus have swirled. Please allow me a final toot of a trumpet.
AN EDITORIAL DUTY
PROMISES FULFILLED
When then President Eugene Reid made the decision to launch Sport Pilot (the board chose the name by the way – it created some arguments, I can tell you), he asked me to commit to a number of things. • That the magazine would arrive on time. The previous magazine’s schedule had been notoriously unreliable and inconsistent up to then. The members were unhappy not knowing when it would turn up. In the 82 editions I’ve done, the magazine has been late getting to the members only three times - and each of those was because the board needed to hold the magazine back for its own purposes. • That the magazine would be a voice for the members, not just a megaphone for the board. Every edition since the very first one has featured stories about the members themselves, as well as the aircraft they build and fly. It remains their magazine, although I appreciate the current board now wants more emphasis put on the terrific things being done by the organisation. Regular readers know that giving a voice to the members extends to Letters to the Editor columns. I’ve given every opinion
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Eugene’s board, as did those which followed it, tasked me with ensuring the content of Sport Pilot achieved three important goals. It had to Inform, Educate and Entertain. Right from the first edition, Sport Pilot has been an effective communication tool for RAAus because it has a readership which pays attention. Having compelling content which educates and entertains a critical audience, means the members also get informed – they take in the safety messages and the education campaigns while enjoying the good stories. That consistency and quality has been recognised by the members. Rarely a month goes by where one of them doesn’t email or phone me to say that they believed the magazine they had just read was the best one ever. They are right every time, of course. I based my editorial style on the world’s most successful aviation publication, Flying magazine of the US, which gets its well-deserved reputation by featuring strong stories, well told, by a stable of writers with strong opinions. A lot of aviation magazines just show pretty pictures and re-run company press releases. That’s never satisfying. I’ve introduced new sections on average every three months, so you have been getting the things you love with a regular diet of new things. RAAus has a membership ranging from 15-85 years old and literally hundreds of different sorts of aeroplanes. Trying to satisfy such a broad range of tastes and interests each month, and across each year, was probably the most difficult task I faced. All the while maintaining a decent sense of humour.
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SUPPORT FOR THE BASE
Most RAAus businesses and schools are one or two-person bands. They have little behind them and often struggle to stay afloat. But they make up the backbone of the organisation. I promised Eugene to support the RAAus network, both in editorial and advertising pricing and that support has never wavered. One of the unsaid advantages of having a stable and predictable magazine is that the current CEO, Michael Linke, who took over a rambunctious and combustible organisation, has been able to get on with his own job without the need to be distracted by magazine problems each month. Likewise, Chairman Michael Monck has been able to shape RAAus on a solid path to the future. The two Michaels now have RAAus firmly in control. A return to the bad old days would be a bad thing. I would like to pay my respects to the many people who contributed to making Sport Pilot great for me over the years. Kreisha Ballantyne, who was Deputy Editor for a while. Alan Betteridge who worked tirelessly around Queensland for me for years. Nick Sigley, who helped in many ways and, most importantly, two of the most creative graphic designers in Australia, Dani Banco and Karin Middleton, who turned all my words into beautiful layouts. Thanks also to the department heads in RAAus who came up with columns each month, to my own office support staff and to the regular contributors Dave Daniels, Dave
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HANDY TIP
Edmunds, David P Eyre, the three Professor Avius’, Rob Knight and everyone who I haven’t listed who sent in such wonderful stories for me. Cheers. Brian Bigg.
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PI LOT TA L K
Unexpected hazards BY THE OP S TE AM
RECENT ACCIDENTS AND REPORTS RECEIVED FROM MEMBERS VIA THE RAAUS OCCURRENCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND AUSTRALIAN TRANSPORT SAFETY BUREAU HAVE REVEALED A COMMON THREAD.
U
NEXPECTED hazards such as water bottles, eskies, fuel cans and other loose items in the engine compartment, cockpit (or for tandem aircraft on the seat behind the pilot), can and will move in flight. When they do, the outcomes can range from an “Oh hell” moment for the pilot, to Loss of Control, or a serious or fatal accident. Recent reports have included: • Keen eyed pilot spotted a water bottle lodged under the rudder pedals in the passenger foot well, just before applying power to take off. No accident, but a report was provided for information purposes. • Pilot attempted to land and was not able to flare and hold off due to a small esky on the passenger’s lap preventing the control column moving sufficiently. This resulted in significant damage to the aircraft, which flipped but no serious injuries for the pilot or passenger. • Pilot flew a pusher tandem aircraft with a fuel container strapped into the passenger seat behind them. The fuel container subsequently fell out of the aircraft, passing through the propeller, damaging the engine, which stopped. The resulting emergency landing was not able to be safely carried out, resulting in significant damage to the aircraft and serious injury to the pilot. • The pilot who tried to apply rudder on landing only to find a water bottle jammed under the rudder, resulting in Loss of Control and significant damage to the aircraft. No serious injuries for the pilot and passenger. • A flight which proceeded without incident until power was reduced for landing, resulting in rough running of the Rotax engine. Once on the ground, the oil cap was discovered lodged in one of the carburettors throttle linkages, preventing coordinated movement of the throttles. No injuries to pilot or instructor or damage to the aircraft. • A number of reports of overdue aircraft with no notification to anyone of the direction or duration of the flight, how much fuel was aboard or how to contact the pilot. This often results in significant delays, days or before finding missing aircraft and pilots, often with fatal results. This final unexpected hazard, which can cause significant heartache and worry for family and friends of pilots, is simply due to lack of
Photo for illustration purposes only
thinking by the pilot. By failing to advise a responsible person when they depart, pilots place themselves and any rescue crews at considerable risk. No matter if the flight is simply intended as a local and regular flight around favourite scenic locations, to a friends’ private strip or a $100 hamburger run, if something happens a delay can be significant if an accident occurs. Time spent waiting for the pilot to return can be compounded by searching in the wrong direction which can and has made the difference between a cold night shivering in an aircraft cockpit, the pilot having to walk a considerable distance for help, or life and death. The flight does not have to be over desert, forest or other forbidding terrain to present a challenge. Just consider how big a search area it will be if all that is known is that the pilot departed. For an aircraft flying at 60kts, the search area will be thousands of square miles after just one hour. If the rescue authorities don’t know how much fuel is aboard, or a basic direction of flight, the search area will be immense. A flight note does not have to be a formal NAIPS flight notification, although this is, of course, an option. Likewise, it shouldn’t just be a note pinned up in the hangar. Flight notes must be provided to a responsible person who understands what to do if the flight is not completed by the nominated time. They must know to contact the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre 44 / SPORT PILOT
(JRCC). By the way the JRCC number is 1800 815 257, put this into your phone right now. The dedicated personnel in JRCC have dedicated aircraft and can call in civil, military and other resources to find missing aircraft.
RAAP SHEET
RAAus recently revised Recreational Aviation Advisory Publication (RAAP) 2.1 about reporting of accidents or missing aircraft. Read it in the Knowledge Base on the RAAus website https:// facts.raa.asn.au/ While reading the Knowledge Base RAAPs, check out the information about carrying a personal beacon. This is another method for pilots to alert JRCC that assistance is required. While reading this information, also make sure the beacon aboard your aircraft is registered with AMSA at this link http://beacons.amsa.gov.au/ or simply search ‘Register my beacon’. Carrying a registered beacon and activating it if you get into trouble will also reduce delays in contacting pilots and greatly assist JRCC. There is also information on this site about properly disposing of old beacons. If members have an unexpected hazard or hear about a pilot who has experienced this, encourage them to report it using the RAAus Occurrence Management System. As we all know, we won’t live long enough to make all the mistakes, better to learn from the mistakes of others.
FLI G HT IN S TRU CT OR ’ S F OR U M
The SERIOUS side of flying BY PROFES SOR AVIU S AV I AT I ON GU RU
I
WAS having a general discussion with a bloke who is an assembly supervisor recently and we came to the topic of risk management. After a very short discussion, his statement “This risk management stuff is way over the top and, frankly, it bores me” took me aback. I am very aware of the fact that, first and foremost, I am responsible for my own safety and secondly, I am responsible for the safety of my colleagues and this applies to everything I do. So I asked the bloke if there had never been any incidents or accidents on his assembly line. He responded that, of course, there had been a few. But in every case, it had been the person’s own stupid fault. They had just done something stupid. So I asked him a second question. “What is the most important thing to you about running the assembly?” His response? “My reputation!” “So, you don’t see that risk management is a means to protect your reputation?” He got up and walked off. I was annoyed by his attitude to the point of being extremely disappointed. How many incidents could have been avoided even with a simple and basic risk management plan? Probably most of them. Later in the day, I did a little reflecting about what things are important to me. I produced a list which had on it reputation, integrity, me/you, safety and responsibility. A little later I wrote down what I considered were the influences on these things important to me- standards, environment and people.
INTEGRITY - The quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. When completing a BFR, the standards are the minimum standards. What you sign-off reflects your integrity and reputation. OTHER – There are plenty of things which fill this category. Remember normalisation of deviance? Slips and errors? Mistakes are human, identifying/recognising, correcting then eliminating them is what sets pilots apart. Then there are other influences like weather and don’t forget IMSAFE. US – Ultimately the safety outcome is up to you and me. When issued with a Pilot Certificate, the pilot is effectively being released for two years, until their BFR is due. They have come through the training syllabus, completed the theory examinations and met the standards – many will continue their development – passenger rating and crosscountry endorsements. At the BFR, the candidate needs to demonstrate continued competencies and the sign-off is for two more years. If the competencies have declined in the previous two years, they need to be immediately addressed. Beware of person who is BFR shopping. Don’t become a soft target. Risk Management, along with all other aspects of flying, is SERIOUS and integral to our aviating freedom.
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I work mostly in alone, except when at my flying school, so first and foremost I am responsible for my own safety. At the flying school, my responsibilities are considerably increased. As CFI, I’m responsible for me, the instructors, the students and the RAAus pilots operating at the field. A few days later I was thinking, how could I take my ‘unrelated to aviation’ experience and use it to benefit all flying schools. I came up with a serious mnemonic – actually a SERIOUS mnemonic about risk management. SAFETY/STANDARDS - Standards/Safety go hand in hand. The standards typically result from and accident or incident and there are many references. ENVIRONMENT – As aviators we sometimes don’t accept aviating is dangerous, it’s more about familiarity with the surroundings. Not inherently dangerous, just terribly unforgiving. Don’t rely on the radio and/or hearing radio transmissions. VFR – see and be seen. You won’t see if you don’t look. RESPONSIBILITY/REPUTATION – Your reputation is earned, it takes years to establish. One act of irresponsibility can destroy it in seconds.
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WE’RE ON YOUR SIDE
NOMINATION PACK
46 / SPORT PILOT
INFORMATION FOR NOMINEES FOR THE 2018 BOARD DIRECTOR NOMINATIONS - SAFE AC C ES SIBLE FUN EDUC ATIONAL -
GENERAL INFORMATION FOR NOMINEES
Thank you for taking the time to consider joining the Board of Recreational Aviation Australia Ltd (RAAus). RAAus is a dynamic forward-thinking professional membership-based organisation. With almost ten thousand members, we are the fastest growing group of aviators in Australia. Our members range from 10-year-olds learning to spread their wings to 94-year-old retirees enjoying the beauty of our country from above and having a great social life thanks to the shared interest by so many of their peers. RAAus is a company limited by guarantee with a professional staff that primarily registers aircraft, accredits flying schools and certifies pilots. RAAus is what is known as a self-administering aviation body that is given credence through a Deed of Agreement with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA).
THE ROLE OF THE BOARD
Section 198A of the Corporations Act 2001 provides that ‘the business of a company is to be managed or under the direction of the directors’. Every company must have at least one director and public companies must have at least three directors. Collectively, the directors are known as the board of directors. At RAAus we require a minimum of three directors and a maximum of seven. RAAus is aiming to fill all seven board positons as part of this election process. The board of directors acts on behalf of members in overseeing and governing a company. Generally, it is the board’s responsibility to identify an organisation’s direction and goals and management’s responsibility to decide how to implement these plans. In practice, the role of the Board is to supervise a company’s business in two broad areas: • Overall business performance — ensuring the company develops and implements strategies and supporting policies to enable it to fulfil the objectives set out in the company’s constitution. The Board delegates the day to day management of the company but remains accountable to the members for the company’s performance. The Board monitors and supports management in an ongoing way. • Overall compliance performance — ensuring the company develops and implements systems to enable it to comply with its legal and policy obligations (complying with statutes such as the Corporations Act 2001, adhering to accounting standards) and ensures the company’s assets are protected through appropriate risk management. The differing emphasis of these two areas of business performance and conformance/compliance responsibilities can result in conflicting pressures on directors. Directors must balance these roles and give enough attention to both.
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WHAT ARE SOME OF THE SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE BOARD? Within the broad framework outlined above, some of the Board’s specific responsibilities are to: • appoint a CEO and evaluate his or her performance • set and review the medium and long term goals of the organisation in consultation with management • approve budgets • monitor business performance • approve large investments and any major financial decisions • monitor the controls framework to ensure major risks are identified and managed • challenge the assumptions of management • ensure there are systems in place to enable accurate financial reporting and so the organisation complies with all aspects of the law • ensure the continuing development of the executive management team • determine appropriate remuneration for the CEO • make provision for succession planning • be accountable to members Further reading is available as part of the RAAus Governance Policies, which can be accessed here: https:// www.raa.asn.au/storage/20160810-governance-policies-june.pdf Potential nominees should also be familiar with the RAAus Constitution and other governing documents, which can be accessed here: https://www.raa.asn.au/storage/constitution-raaus-ltd.pdf Specific skills of a Director should include: 1. Strategic expertise – the ability to set and review strategy through constructive questioning and suggestion; 2. Financial literacy – the ability to read and comprehend the company’s accounts and the financial material presented to the board, in addition to understanding financial reporting requirements the Centro case (ASIC v Healey (2011)) has emphasised this need for basic financial literacy for all directors; 3. Legal skill – the boards’ responsibility involves overseeing compliance with numerous laws; 4. Managing risk – include on the board a director with experience in managing areas of major risk to the organisation; 5. Managing people and achieving change; 6. Industry knowledge – experience in similar organisations or industries; 7. Understanding stakeholder expectations; 8. Information technology – there is a growing need for directors with an understanding of information technology It is not imperative that you possess all of these skills, but for completeness and to allow our members a fully transparent process it is required that each of the above points are addressed in your nomination.
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ABOUT RAAUS HISTORY RAAus was established in 1983 as the Australian Ultralight Federation. Since then Australian light recreational and sport aviation has experienced pronounced growth. There has been considerable growth in the RAAus membership and the number of aircraft with RAAus registration during this time. We have also seen the capabilities of the aircraft types available and the number of training facilities and clubs increase. However, far more importantly, has been real growth in knowledge, efficiency, effectiveness and safety. Light recreational aviation is no longer purely the realm of dedicated recreational and sport aficionados; our growth has also established and supported a light recreational aircraft and engine manufacturing industry. In the last two years RAAus has converted from an incorporated association to a company limited by guarantee. This change was brought about to assist with improved governance levels and to bring the company up to date following thirty years of growth. The change made macro changes to our system of governance and ensured Directors took a lead policy role for the organisation as a whole rather than the regionally based Board structure, which had served us well, but was no longer applicable. LEGAL STATUS Legally RAAus is a not-for-profit, member-based company limited by guarantee constituted with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) consisting of individual members with voting rights. ASIC’s interest in RAAus is to ensure proper governance, and as a potential Board member, your role is one of governing the organisation with a focus on fiduciary financial management, setting policy, developing the strategic landscape and overseeing the CEO. The Board comprises seven elected Directors, who appoint a Chairman from their number. The Chairman is the link between the Board and management through the CEO. The CEO manages the staff, of which there are 15. 12 staff are based in Canberra and three staff work remotely, one each from Victoria, NSW and Queensland. STATISTICS Currently RAAus comprises 9,500 ordinary members, most of whom hold, or have held, an RAAus Pilot Certificate received after flight training at an RAAus approved Flight Training School (FTS), of which there are 165. The establishment and growth of the 165 flight training schools was nurtured, post 1985, by RAAus after contracting to do so and receiving delegation from the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority’s predecessor. RAAus and CASA have together put in place one of the best, if not the best, system of very light aircraft pilot training in the world. RAAus also administers the registration of some 3,300 aircraft and works with over 1,000 maintainers to ensure these aircraft continue to operate safely. THE AIRCRAFT WE FLY Our pilots fly various types of microlight and ultralight (“Light Sport”) aircraft. These are limited to two seats and a maximum take-off weight of 600kg. You can fly simple “rag and tube” open cockpit designs at 70km/h to very sleek, comfortable and modern, composite aircraft that cruise at over 250km/h and everything in between. You can hire aircraft from clubs, buy them brand new or second hand and even build your own from a kit, plans or your own design! WHERE WE FLY There are many airfields with recreational schools and clubs just outside the major cities and around the country. The only place off-limits to our pilots is the controlled airspace around the larger cities and military bases. The rest of Australia is wide open country to us: no need to file plans or ask permissions, no need to talk to air traffic control – just get in your aircraft and go explore! With thousands of airstrips near towns, on stations and resorts, your imagination is the only limit on where you can go. The majority of country towns with airline services (places like Broken Hill) also have no control tower and we can use these strips. And if you have a rural property with enough space, there is nothing stopping you from having your own airstrip. If you have ever wanted to explore Australia from above in your own aircraft, Recreational Aviation Australia is the organisation that can help you achieve this dream.
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HOW TO NOMINATE NOMINATION INSTRUCTIONS Completed nominations must be received by the Company no later than 5:00pm Eastern Standard Time on Friday 6 July 2018 at 5:00pm Eastern Standard Time. RAAus prefers to receive material electronically. Nomination forms, photographs, resumes and election statements can be emailed to Maarit.Maher@raa.asn. au or mailed to PO BOX 1265 FYSHWICK ACT 2609. Nominations sent by post must be postmarked no later than 5:00pm 6 July 2018. Faxed nominations will not be accepted. Candidates for positions as Directors of the Company are required to submit a resume, an election statement and a declaration of all income, remuneration or honoraria derived from aviation related interests for publication both on the Company’s website, and in Sport Pilot magazine. In keeping with the Board’s governance role and our Constitution (Clause 34), statements should primarily and specifically address the nominee’s expertise and experience regarding the four pillars of governance: policy setting, strategy development, financial oversight and review. Nominees are also asked to provide a recent digital portrait image suitable for online publication and contact details to facilitate member contact during the election cycle. Potential nominees are strongly encouraged to contact the Chairman Michael Monck to discuss the strategic direction and governance role the Board of RAAus plays. After close of nominations, all statements received will be printed in the Sport Pilot magazine and on the Company’s website, in alphabetical order (by surname). Details regarding an election, if required, will be notified to members in due course.
KEY DATES Nominations Open: Thursday 1 June 2018 Nominations Close: Friday 6 July 2018 at 5.00pm Eastern Standard Time. Election: If required an election will run during August/September 2018. Opening on 1 August 2018 with voting closing on 14 September 2018. Announcement: Candidates elected as Directors will be notified in late September 2018. AGM: All candidates must ensure they are available to attend Canberra on the weekend of 3rd and 4th of November for a Board meeting and the AGM.
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BOARD DIRECTOR NOMINATION FORM NOMINATIONS CLOSE - Friday 6 July 2018 at 5.00pm Eastern Standard Time Under the RAAus Constitution (Clause 36) two Directors are required to stand down and nomination are called from the membership to fill these vacancies. Current Directors are eligible to re nominate. PROPOSER I nominate………………………………………………………………………........…….RAAus Membership No……........…………… for election as a Director of RAAus Ltd Proposer………………………………………………………………………........……....RAAus Membership No………........………… (name & signature) Seconder…………………………………………………………………………........…....RAAus Membership No……........…………… (name & signature) CANDIDATE I consent to this nomination for the position of Director of Recreational Aviation Australia Ltd.
Candidate’s Signature……………………………………..................……………
Date:
/
/ 2018
Candidate’s Electoral Statement: Please read the statement conditions in Clause 34.5 Notes: 1. In accordance with Board Governance Policies a member standing for office must state their interests (commercial or otherwise) and involvement in the aviation industry for the information of voters. 2. I acknowledge that it is a condition of my being a candidate that there are no criminal, civil or other proceedings current or reasonably anticipated against me, the nature or outcome of which would or might adversely affect Recreational Aviation Australia or my duties if elected to the Board . Clause 34.4 and 34.5: Election Statements by Candidates Candidates for positions as Board Members of RAAus Ltd are required to submit an election statement of 500 words, resume, photograph and financial interest statement. The election statement, resume and photograph will be publicly available to members both on the RAAus website and inside Sport Pilot Magazine (August 2018), which will be mailed to all members. The financial statement must include a statement of all positions of income, remuneration or honorarium in an organisation with aviation related interests. Such organisations shall include those of sole trader, partnership, unincorporated association, incorporated association or Limited Liability Company.
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HOM E B UIL D ER
Electric pitfalls T H E B E S T B I T S ABOU T BU ILDIN G YOU R OWN BY DAVE EDMUND S
18650 cells shot like bullets throug h the solar array and the sides of the car
I
MEANT to submit this article some time ago, following one on rollyour-own electric aircraft, patterned after electric car experience using old Diahatsus. There are pitfalls. The 18650 is the standard used for lithium technology batteries. It is so named because it is 18mm in diameter and 65mm in length. That is, it is around 1.5 times the size of a standard AA battery. They are used in everything from Tesla cars to torches. Because of their widespread use, they appear on the second-hand market from time to time in good nick and very reasonably priced. If you were to experiment with an electric aircraft, as discussed last month, these cells are a starting point. So, I thought it might be useful to offer this cautionary tale. Around 2001, I turned up at the Suzuka raceway in Japan. I was in my role as a teacher, with a team of students and a solar car, to compete in an annual race held there. On arrival, various officials and others were intensely interested in how we had set up our Li-ion battery pack, naturally made up of hundreds of 18650 cells.
The reason for their concern was an incident which had occurred in the previous year. Suzuka raceway is not particularly safe. It has a long downhill straight, with a tight U-turn at the bottom, with limited runoff. An American competitor in a very high-spec solar car, went out for a practice session on a bright sunny day. Naturally, they started with a fullycharged battery pack. They used little energy climbing the uphill section of the course and were taking in solar energy. The driver gunned it down the main straight, probably to around 130kph, then relied on regenerative
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An old Diahatsu and (insert) a typical 18650 battery
braking to slow the car before the sharp turn at the bottom of the straight. Regenerative braking is a process whereby the kinetic energy of the vehicle is converted back into electrical energy and dumped into the battery. A electric aircraft would use the potential energy of the aircraft lost on descent to drive the propeller and hence reclaim some of the energy lost in climb. Because the battery was very nearly fully charged and was still absorbing solar radiation, when the driver tried to engage the regenerative braking system, the circuit breaker tripped. The driver was going too fast to slow the vehicle by friction brakes alone, so he over-rode the protection circuitry and dumped the kinetic energy into the already overcharged battery. The video of the incident shows a slowing vehicle with a frantic driver trying to extricate himself, while 18650 cells shoot like bullets through the solar array and the sides of the car. To create the battery, strings of 18650 cells are connected in parallel, thereby increasing the current capability of the battery. These strings are
then connected in series, to lift the voltage of the battery pack to around 120 volts, typically the voltage used in solar cars in those days. A single li-ion cell delivers around 3.7 volts, 4.2V when fully charged. What happened in the Suzuka incident was that the cells were not able to absorb the large amounts of energy being delivered, and so the weakest cell in the parallel strings simply exploded, punching holes in the solar array and the sides of the car. In a runaway effect, this meant the remaining cells were then required to absorb even more energy each, increasing the stress on the next weakest cell, and so on. They then exploded, leaving the car in a puff of smoke, as they punched holes on the way out. It gets worse. Even when the vehicle was stopped and the charging circuits disabled, the overcharged battery pack continued to deliver large amounts of energy to the next weakest cell, so the runaway continued. The car was destroyed. The potential danger of such an incident in an aircraft is obvious. The message here is that you really need to understand the operation of li-ion batteries in detail, before attempting to put together an aircraft battery pack. Cells may come with individual protection but, in my experience, that protection will not work when the cells are put together in higher voltage packs. I took the protection off the cells in our solar car battery pack for this reason, and monitored the battery pack carefully, both when the car was in the pits and via telemetry when the car was on the track. Even so, we had one incident of a string collapsing and going into runaway. We had to bury the string at the back of the pits until it calmed down. No doubt readers will have heard of battery issues in laptops, phones and the Boeing 787. Even the world’s best engineers can have problems. An aircraft battery system could be configured in any numbers of ways. Probably the most likely is to centralise the battery firewall forward, compensating for the low engine weight, as Pipistrel has done. It would also make sense from an experimenter’s point of view to split the pack, so some of the weight is also in the wings, that is, using three separate battery modules. The Tesla Model S car battery has around 7,000 cells, configured as 16 modules. Each module is monitored and the coolant system is on maximum if the temperature exceeds 45°C. This obviously requires pretty sophisticated control software. The system also estimates the remaining battery life. I have tried to do this and it is far from trivial, although it may be easier in an aircraft than a car. You will not find any off-the-shelf system to do the monitoring of your custom battery. However, you will find plenty of subsystems which can be adapted to do it, but there is a lot of work and a steep learning curve in putting such a system together. Sensors for almost any purpose are cheap. At the bare minimum, you will have to monitor the voltages from each of around 30 strings of cells, the temperatures of the cells and the current drawn. This information will then have to be aggregated and displayed in such a way that it makes sense to the pilot and indicates any preferred action. At least this part is not expensive, say around $300 for the hardware and heaps of hours. The issue of just how and what information should be presented to the pilot, and when, came into focus following the engine explosion on the Airbus 380 leaving Singapore, where the pilots were flooded with thousands of bits of information. Anyone who has read my columns over the years will know that I am an enthusiast about electric aircraft and look forward to seeing them operate in our domain, and to seeing some experimentation. This is yet another of the many examples where some coordination between interested parties would smooth the way.
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R EAD ER STORY
INSIDIOUS EDA
T
HE day was perfect. I wanted to celebrate my 100th flying hour on a short local flight with my wife. She is an enthusiastic flyer and was looking forward to another hour in the air. I normally source my aircraft fuel from the same service station in town, but this day for some reason I am yet to understand, I purchased 40 litres from a servo nearer to the airfield. I fueled the aircraft, carried out my preflight checks and off we went. After 20 minutes in the air, the engine began vibrating violently and had no throttle response. The RPM was minimal, so I applied carby heat and changed course for a nearby private strip. Two minutes later, the engine regained power and ran normally, so I thought carby ice had been the issue. I climbed several thousand feet above the private strip and decided to return to my base airfield which was only five miles away. I kept up a shallow climb, so I had landing options if the problem returned. While turning onto final, the engine again lost power and stopped shortly after we touched down. I later concluded the severe vibration felt was due to the engine windmilling. My wife, though very concerned, maintained her composure and started an instrument check on her side of the panel. She will soon begin her pilot training at the ripe old
BY PE TE ROBERT S
The engine lost power and stopped shortly after we touched down
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age of (I’m not allowed to say). Inspection of the spark plugs found them all black and sooty. I then carried out a fuel system check by turning on the electric fuel pump. Fuel leaked from the left-hand side carby vent at a rapid rate. I removed both carburetors and found no visual evidence of float chamber contamination or damage to the needle and seat valve. However, I left both float bowls containing fuel on the workbench for several days, while I sourced carby overhaul kits. Once the fuel in the float bowls had evaporated, a treacle like substance remained which, upon further investigation, looked suspiciously like Ethylene Diamine. 20 years ago, EDA created enormous problems for Avgas users and the aviation industry in general. I know aviation users of unleaded fuels constantly run the risk of contamination, but we have no alternative. I have now implemented measures to reduce that risk, but EDA will get through filters and coalesce in the most insidious of places. I reported my findings to the service station, but they have yet to reply to my concerns. No doubt I made plenty of decision making errors in my first flying moment, but I will only be purchasing my aircraft fuel from my original supplier in future.
A VI A TION CLASSIFIED S
5039 RANS COYOTE II S6ES
5208 ROTEC RALLY
270 Airframe Hours, 270 Engine Hours, S-6ES Coyote II. Registered till June 2017. Rotax 582 UL engine 260hrs. New BRS recovery chute installed December 2015. Large roomy cockpit with sliding seats. Folding wings for easy storage/trailering. All VFR instruments. Search Youtube for “Tuflux RANS Coyote”. PRICE $22000 CONTACT GORDON JAMES BAILEY 0409 348 293
1191 Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, Rally. Rotec Rally/Pather, slight damage to one wing strut via transport. A strong built, easy to fly aircraft, cruises at 75 kts, 50Ltr long range tank. PRICE $2700 CONTACT CHARLES DARMANIN (02) 6496 7254
5057 RV-3
286 Airframe Hours, 626 Engine Hours, RV-3A. RV performance with Lycoming reliability. Lycoming O-320-A2B 150HP,150-160kt TAS cruise @32lph. New prop, instruments & paint. A/C can be registered VH if aerobatics required, and can be delivered anywhere in Australia for cost. $55000. ph 0428719639 PRICE $55000 CONTACT PETER GILBERT 0428 719 639
5223 X-AIR 3194
450 Airframe Hours, 450 Engine Hours, X-Air. X-Air 3194 Excellent Condition 450 Hours TT.E/AF Always Hangered Rego October 2018 Rotax 503 Engine Performs well 3 Blade Brolga Prop. Reluctant sale due to health reasons. PRICE $8000 CONTACT RON (03) 5382 4766
5139 DAKOTA HAWK
0 Airframe Hours, N/A Engine Hours, Dakota Hawk. Dakota Hawk $18,500. All controls complete. A/C is fitted with Matco wheels and brakes. A/C is fully covered and painted. Will take a Rotax or Jab 100hp. Fully folding wings. PRICE $18500 CONTACT BRIAN HOWARD 0401 060 613
5140 PARADISE P-1
286 Airframe Hours, 286 Engine Hours, P-1. PARADISE P-1 PRICE $85000 CONTACT JOHN DARBY 0402 210 913
5326 JABIRU J230C (24-5013)
575.6 Airframe Hours, 575.6 Engine Hours, J230C. Factory built 2007. Excellent condition. All AD’s up-to-date. Glass cockpit: Dynon D100 EFIS, AvMap EKP IV, GPS, Sentient AirNav GPS touch screen. Lots of extras. Hangered at Warwick (Qld). Phone (after-hours) 0438 66 3371. PRICE $70000 ONO CONTACT GWENITH TYBURCZY 0421 322 618
5334 JABIRU J200 19-5073
5224 BRUMBY LOW WING
5088 FLIGHT DESIGN CTLS
732 Airframe Hours, 732 Engine Hours, CTLS. 732 airframe and engine hours. 130L fuel giving over 6 hours endurance at 110-115 TAS. Empty weight of 329kg giving useful load of 271kg.Always hangared and L2 maintained.No accident history. Immaculate condition inside and out. PRICE $115000 CONTACT WILLIAM DAVISON 0419 632 477
A share is available in The Davewood Syndicate Vixxen based at Caboolture. Long running syndicate dedicated to providing a low hour high (currently 150) standard machine at reasonable rates of $85 per hour wet and $100 per month fixed. PRICE $10000 CONTACT IAN MCDONELL (07) 3886 5828
650 Airframe Hours, 650 Engine Hours, 600 low wing. Brumby 600 low wing. Rotax 912ULS with Sensinich 3-blade composite prop. 2-seat leather interior. Dynon EFIS and Garmin avionics with Autopilot. Low time and great condition. Price excludes GST. PRICE $85000 CONTACT SHELDON JONES 0427 102 540
664 Airframe Hours, 260 Engine Hours, J200. Build 2003, Owner purchased 2010, Airframe TTIS 644 Hrs, nil accidents, repainted at Factory 2013, GA analogue instruments, vacuum pump, A/H, D/G, Electric T&B, voltmeter, keyed ignition, Microair radio, dual headsets and 2 x GPS’s, 140 lit fuel PRICE $50000 CONTACT JEFF NOTT 0418 843 954
5335 TYRO MK 2
5231 ACROLITE 1B
94hrs Airframe Hours, 94hrs Engine Hours, 1B. Price reduced! 80HP Jabiru solid lifter. Toe opp disk brakes, steerable tail-wheel, new tyres battery. Hangared, covers, extras. 85kt cruise, 50l @14lph. Short field OK. Experience joy of open cockpit flying. Offers considered. PRICE $19950 CONTACT DENNIS WALKER 0427 555 727
5309 SHARE IN AEROPRAKT A32 VIXXEN AT CABOOLTURE QLD
300 Airframe Hours, 300 Engine Hours, A32 Vixxen. 55 / SPORT PILOT
60 Airframe Hours, 40 Engine Hours, Tyro MK 2. Tyro MK 2 fully refurbished 4 years ago with stits polyfibre. VW 1600 twin port aero engine (40 hours) with new Ark Tech propeller. Holds 50L of fuel, with a burn of 7-10L/hour in cruise. Call Les 0438 017 256. Located in South East Tasmania. PRICE $7500 CONTACT LES SKINNER 0438 017 256
5397 BUCCANEER2 ULTRALIGHT FOR SALE
342 Airframe Hours, 342 Engine Hours, 1996. Updated electric actuators and Tundra wheels and tyres. Brand new icon A210. Needs some work on the tail-wheel for water landings. Condition report included. Registered until September 2018 PRICE $29000 CONTACT IVAN LIZARRALDE 0409 660 716 EMAIL BLUEPEACE24@YAHOO.COM.AU
A VI A TION CLASSIFIED S
5415 HANGAR FOR SALE - HUNTER VALLEY
PRICE $1234567 CONTACT GLENN STALLARD 0434 558 038
5458 HANGARS HOLBROOK AIRFIELD
entertainment area with huge workshop. Offers over $495000 considered. PRICE $495000 CONTACT WAYNE DILLON 0438 551 198
5477 FAETA 321 GLIDER TOW, NOSE WHEEL. 24-8279 nil Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, nil. Near New, fully-enclosed steel hangar at Scone Airport. 12m x 12m concrete floor. Full width 3.6m high doors on rollers. Bitumen-sealed apron and taxiway to 1400m bitumen runway. FREEHOLD (Torrens) Land Title - no annual lease payments. PRICE $0 CONTACT GEOFFREY PINFOLD 0429 810 008
5428 CESSNA SKYCATCHER 162
nil Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, nil. Hangars at Holbrook Airpark. Freehold Title blocks (18m X 18m) or new Hangar and blocks available. Serviced by sealed taxiways. Blocks only available from $25,000. PRICE $25000 CONTACT JOHN FERGUSON 0413 990 400
5460 2014 3K NOSE WHEEL GLIDER TOW EUROFOX 24-8415
380 Airframe Hours, 380 Engine Hours, Faeta 321. Fabulous factory built LSA glider tow up to 750kg, panel is a Six pack plus EFIS, transponder. Economical tourer at 115 knots. L2 maintained. PRICE $85000 KENNETH IAN FLOWER 0457 811 627 EMAIL KEN.FLOWER747@GMAIL.COM
5478 QUICKSILVER GT500 SOLD
98 Airframe Hours, 98 Engine Hours, 162. CESSNA SKYCATCHER 162 2011 TT 98 hrs. Australian delivery. One owner. Dual screens PFD and EGT, all options. Currently registered GA but can be registered RA. 10/10 $87,000 plus GST ONO Contact Alan 0439 805 540, alank454@hotmail.com PRICE $95700 CONTACT ALAN KIRWAN 0439 805 540
5442 SEAPLANE SUMMER FUN - LOW HOURS CATALINA LSA 24-8662
35 Airframe Hours, 35 Engine Hours, Catalina NG. The Fly Synthesis Catalina NG seaplane is an economic & safe entry to the wonderful world of seaplane flying. It’s probably the easiest seaplane to fly and store, with its folding wings. With 5 hr. water training and balance of factory warranty. PRICE $78800 CONTACT GREG DOYLE 0400 114 747
5451 JABIRU LSA 55/3J
2149 Airframe Hours, 445 Engine Hours, LSA 55/3j. Jabiru LSA 55/3j Easy and fun to fly. Good condition L2 maintained, solid, factory built aircraft. Cruises at 95-100kts, 12-13L/hr fuel burn, 65L tank. MTOW 430kg, EW 248.3kg. Always Hangered (YBCM), full aircraft covers provided. PRICE $26000 CONTACT ANTHONY ELMS 0403 777 852
5454 WANTED - WIZARD 3 HANG GLIDER WING FOR TRIKE, ANY CONDITION
nil Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, nil. Wanted - Wizard 3 hang glider wing for trike, any condition.
78.4 Airframe Hours, 78.4 Engine Hours, Eurofox 3K. 78.4 A/F Hrs. 100Hp Rotax ULS Engine & new DUC Prop. Dynon SkyView 10” EFIS with full Engine Monitoring and Synthetic Vision, second GPS (Garmin Aera 500) in panel and Garmin VHF COM. Always hangared and presents like new. PRICE $110000 CONTACT TONY BRAND (03) 5381 1727
5461 JABIRU 430
400 Airframe Hours, 400 Engine Hours, GT 500. This fun and cheap to run aircraft is only 400 hrs TTIS, full instruments, radio, runs great with spare new exhaust. Priced for quick sale Contact ken.flower747@ gmail.com. SOLD PRICE $14450 CONTACT KENNETH IAN FLOWER 0457 811 627
5479 KITFOX PROJECT
823 Airframe Hours, 10 Engine Hours, J430. 4 seat Jabiru J430, 823 hours airframe, 10 hrs on new engine, Jabiru 6 Cylinder Gen 4, excellent condition, always hangared. Glass cockpit, 2 x MGL Voyager EFIS, back up batteries, fuel flow monitor. Full engine monitoring, spare prop, covers. PRICE $100000 CONTACT ANDREW STRAUME 0457 857 578
5462 AIRBORNE
Microlight 20 Airframe Hours, 20 Engine Hours, Classic. Microlight for sale. New engine, just run in 20 hours old. Upgraded wing from original wizard wing to Streak 1. Many extras. Includes travel fuel panieres, helmets, radio. Log books available. Excellent condition. PRICE $15000 CONTACT MARTIN BRAATZ 0417 896 342
5468 TECNAM BRAVO AND FAMILY HOME FOR SALE
1199.8 Airframe Hours, 1199 Engine Hours, Bravo. TREE change that includes an awesome aircraft as well! Tecnam Bravo with low hours and five bedroom family home, three bathrooms. Large undercover
56 / SPORT PILOT
for sale 553 Airframe Hours, 553 Engine Hours, Supersport. Taildragger Kitfox for sale. Aircraft was blown over in a wind storm damaging wings. Wings have had aileron mod fitted and have not been covered. All covering materials supplied. PRICE $15000 CONTACT GRAHAM HORTON 0407 267 647
5482 SKYFOX GAZELLE
1404 Airframe Hours, 1404 Engine Hours, Gazelle. SKYFOX GAZELLE for sale , Great aircraft with nothing to spend New tyres, perspex roof replaced, New 2 blade Bolly Prop, G/box Overhauled 2017. All books included.. Folding Wings for easy storage. Hangared in Finniss SA. PRICE $30000 CONTACT BRIAN STOTT 0410 401 139
5486 PIONEER 300 KITE
890 Airframe Hours, 890 Engine Hours, 300 Kite. A Pioneer 300 Kite available for sale. The aircraft is in excellent condition with only 890 hours since new. It
A VI A TION CLASSIFIED S
has dual Eclipse IFIS system; 110L fuel capacity (3 tanks); Garmin Transponder & Radio; AV MAP EXP V 7” GPS. New DUC prop; factory built. PRICE $95000 CONTACT DAVID MACKAY
5488 RANS S-6ES
air frame, Subaru EA81 engine. Always hangered. Not currently registered. Must be sold - Dad’s no longer able to fly it. All reasonable offers considered, located at Forbes NSW. PRICE $23000 CONTACT DAVID DENT 0413 243 243
5495 ZENITH CH601XLB AIRCRAFT
27 Airframe Hours, 68 Engine Hours, RANS S-6ES. New - just finished/test-flown. Airframe 27 hours, Rotax 912/80hp 68 h. New Warp-Drive 3-bla. Pull-on skins, big tyre option, brakes both sides. Icom A200 rad./ Sig. intercom. ASI/Alt/Vsi etc. 85/90 kt cruise. PRICE $52500 CONTACT JOHN LINDNER 0448 497 989
5491 AIRCRAFT FOR SALE
410 Airframe Hours, 410 Engine Hours, CH601XLB. Zenith CH601XLB aircraft. Honda Viking HF110 engine with Warp Drive 3 blade ground adjustable prop. Dynon Skyview avionics including mode S transponder. Garmin GT200 radio and backup flight instruments. Great for touring. Easy and cheap to maintain. PRICE $49000 CONTACT RAYMOND HAROLD WHITE 0408 690 523
5497 HANGAR ON FREEHOLD, APRON, BUILDING AND LAND
62 Airframe Hours, 62hrs Engine Hours, Cougar. This aircraft is one of very few kit built aircraft of it’s class antwhere in Australia. It is equipped with everything that you could imagine: Honda Viking Engine 110Hp (Uses between 18-20LPH of 98 Fuel). 110L Fuel Capacity with 8 hrs Endurance PRICE $100000 CONTACT FRANKIE BAILEY 0468 713 545
Stacked_CMYK 5506 SAPHIRE
755 Airframe Hours, 30 Engine Hours, Saphire. Number 5 Build.First Reg 1985.KFM powered.Still full flying order and condition.Low hours air frame and current engine.Delight to Fly.Sale is age related.Three spare KFM motors and components included.Along with a complete Engine tool dismantle and rebuild Manufacturers kit. PRICE $7000 CONTACT H MACAULAY
5510 JABIRU LSA 55 3J FOR SALE
140 Airframe Hours, 140 Engine Hours, Vm1. Esqual Vm1 PRICE $65000 CONTACT WALTER HUDSON 0428 469 416
5493 XT 912 MICROLIGHT TRIKE
474 Airframe Hours, 474 Engine Hours, XT912 Tundra. For sale 2009 Airborne XT912 Tundra with Arrow K wing with only 71 hrs on wing. Excellent condition. Includes 2 Flycom Helmets, Training bars, bar mits, wing & trike covers & trike trolley. PRICE $27950 CONTACT PAUL CESNIK 0418 114 443
nil Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, nil. Freehold title. land area15.625m2. apron 3600m2. hangar 1694m2. clubhouse with kitchen, enclosed BBQ area, offices, store rooms, bar. caravan park with 3 phase power. PRICE $-1. CONTACT GRIETJE BRUINSMA-WANSINK 0408 244 035
962 Airframe Hours, 962 Engine Hours, LSA 55 3J. $25000 negotiable, currently at YWOL. 55-3709, first reg 2002, 962hrs airframe and engine, recent top end overhaul, annual, 100hrly, Xcom radio, Garmin 196, spare prop. PRICE $25000 CONTACT IAN WILSON 0419 612 305 EMAIL IAN@PPMC.COM.AU
5501 AIRCRAFT 23-8806
5511 HEADSET
5494 J6C KARATOO
nil Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, nil. Varo in-ear headset purchased Feb. 2017. Still under warranty. Didn’t suit me. Might suit you. PRICE $350 CONTACT MICHAEL BAKER 0435 021 261
Stacked_804C 5516 FOXBAT A22LS
350 Airframe Hours, 350 Engine Hours, J230D. For Sale Jabiru J-230D PRICE $97000 CONTACT BILL HAYNES 0429 054 205 149 Airframe Hours, 149 Engine Hours, J6C. Home built Karatoo, side-by-side 2 seater, 149 hours total
5502 2014 WEDGETAIL AIRCRAFT COUGAR (FORMALLY MORGAN AEROWORKS)
HorsHam aviation services ABN: 65 007 339 451
Now Importing the eurofox AircrAft: • • • •
Quality Factory Built Quick folding wing design Glider Tow certified to 750Kg Short take-off & landing
And Dynon Avionics Products:
• Now with Autopilot capability • Solid state sensors • Checklists • Audible alarm capability PH: 03 5381 1727 Email: info@horshamaviation.com.au
57 / SPORT PILOT
3,543 Airframe Hours, 1792 Engine Hours, Foxbat
MTOW 600Kg Empty Weight 300-305Kg Cruise 90 Kts Stall 26Kts Take Off/Land 45m Photo shows some options
Australian Agent: Peter Mob 0408 376 540
When you are up here you need to know what is happening at a glance.
Glance EFIS
Proudly brought to you by Ph: 0412 702 680 E: info@sapphireavionics.com.au W: www.sapphireavionics.com.au
A VI A TION CLASSIFIED S A22LS. Foxbat A22LS 2010 build. Airframe 3,523 hrs. Engine 1,772 hrs. Very good condition. Analogue instruments with Avmap Ultra EFIS. Yoke controls. Microair transponder and radio. Always hangared. $57,000 negotiable. Contact Rod 0419632477 PRICE $49000 CONTACT WILLIAM DAVISON 0419 632 477
Very well presented. Pocket Rocket! 2004 build to meticulous standards. 770 total time on airframe and engine. Solid lifter 3300 with fine finned heads. Factory extractors. No CASA restrictions on engine. PRICE $40000 CONTACT RORY HICKS 0411 769 244
5519 ROTAX ENGINES
nil Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, nil. Rotax engines (3) for sale to realistic offers: (1). Rotax 447 - 100 hrs TSOH. “B” gearbox, single carb. Requires service, exhaust, spark plugs & few minor parts. Sold “as is”. Note: engines (2) and (3) are now on hold pending sale. Brand new exhausts (straight or 180 degrees) and carbies available at additional cost. Purchaser to pay ... PRICE $0 CONTACT MUSTAFA BOZKURT 0408 516 816
5521 FLIGHTSTAR II-SC
0 Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, II-SC. Brand new Flightstar IISC. Fully enclosed cabin, dual controls, custom carpet interior, Falcon instruments, in-flight trim, brakes, mylar coverings. excellent attention to detail. Plane not fitted with an engine, sold as is. PRICE $16000 CONTACT ADAM PASQUALOTTO 0412 506 242
5523 RAND X-AIR
XT-912, ARROW S WING LSA 550 Airframe Hours, 550 Engine Hours, XT-912. AIRBORNE XT-912 ARROW S WING LSA PRICE $33000 CONTACT BOB THIEMANN (07) 5481 2025/0418776116
5530 FOR SALE
224 Airframe Hours, 224 Engine Hours, Zenith ch601. Zenair Zodiac ch601hd Aircraft, 19-4128, completed 2004. Aeropower 80 hp motor. Tricycle undercarriage. TTIS, low at 224 hours. Safe, reliable, easy to fly. Suit low hours pilot. White with grey and cherry trim. Hydraulic brakes. Always hangared. PRICE $29990 CONTACT BRIAN 0439 702 649
0 Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, Cobia. Amphibian project PRICE $30000 CONTACT MICK HORVAT 0414 404 012
5545 FOXBAT 22LS
5536 FOR SALE - JABIRU J230. PRICE NEGOTIABLE. PRICE REDUCED BY $10000
350 Airframe Hours, 350 Engine Hours, J230. Kit built, approx 350 trouble-free hrs. 3 stage electric flaps, Xcom radio, Narco transponder, Garmin 295 GPS, vertical card compass, Whelan beacon and wingtip strobes, Trutrak ADI, alternate flashing landing lights, cabin heater, carby preheater for cold starts, CHT monitored on all cylinders. Also comes with a 12 volt refueling pump on trolley. PRICE $50000 CONTACT GRAHAM BARRINGTON 0400 144 282
642.0 Airframe Hours, 30 Engine Hours, Edge X Classic. New engine and prop. always kept in hangar PRICE $10000 CONTACT ANDREW RICHARD FOSTER
216 Airframe Hours, 216 Engine Hours, X-air Australian. Rand X-Air Rotax 618 216hrs Good condition full instrumentation ballistic parachute 3blade brolga prop. PRICE $13000 CONTACT DAVID MURRAY KILLE 0402 401 566
773.1 Hours Airframe Hours, 773.1 Hours Engine Hours, SP-T 3300. Unique SP-T 3300 Tail wheel Jabiru.
3580.4 Airframe Hours, 3580 Engine Hours, Pa 22-135. 1952 Piper Tripacer PA 22 135 hp, 3580 hours TT.E/AF. Always Hangered, Recent Annual completed, Complete logbooks history since new. Aircraft flown most weekends, Great flyer, easy to fly. Aircraft maintained by Level 2. Honest 100k cruise, PRICE $39000 CONTACT ALEXANDER WALKER 0424 958 173
5544 AMPHIBIOUS PROJECT
5539 AIRBORNE EDGE X
5524 JABIRU SP-T 3300
5542 TRIPACER PA22 - 135 24-5344
5528 AIRBORNE
5517 2011 KOLB MARK III XTRA WITH ROTAX 912
100 Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, Mark III Xtra. 2011 KOLB Mark III Xtra. 2 place side-by-side, tailwheel with 100 hrs on airframe, 450 hrs on Rotax 912A 80 HP engine. 3 blade Kool prop, ground adjustable. Stall 25 Knotts (half flap)/30 Knotts (no flap), Va 78 Knotts, Vne 87 Knotts, Load Factor +4/-2 G. Climb 1200 f/m solo, 800 f/m dual. 65L fuel tank. MTOW 508 kg, basic ... PRICE $28000 CONTACT CAMERON OBST 0427 616 945
new buyer - configured for a flying school. Too many options to list, auto pilot, Garmin G5, transponder, Dual brakes, autopilot control panel. PRICE $185000 CONTACT J WHITE 0447 540 268
700.0 Airframe Hours, 700.0 Engine Hours, A22LS. Foxbat 22LS . 2012 model. 700 hours . All Ads. and S/B. complied with. 5 year hose & rubber completed. Comes with fresh annual inspection. Based at South Grafton. PRICE $72000 CONTACT ANDREW SIECZKOWSKI (02) 6644 8110 EMAIL ANDYSKI@ANTMAIL.COM.AU
5546 JODEL D-18 ( 2-SEATER)
136 Airframe Hours, 136 Engine Hours, D-18 . GENUINELY SELLING FOR HEALTH REASON. Built 2005. TT 136hrs. SUBARU EA-81 ENGINE. Gearbox (not belt-drive). Warpdrive 3-blade prop. As new instruments, Microair Radio, GPS, Emergency Beacon. Aircraft will be trailerable. PRICE $19500 CONTACT MORRIS BEATTIE 0409 540 180
5540 BRM BRISTELL
5547 GT PROPELLER ( ITALIAN BUILT- WOOD/ COMPOSITE).
17 Airframe Hours, 17 Engine Hours, Bristell. 2017 Bristell - 17 hours only as new - under warranty suit
nil Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, nil. TT 24 hrs. Cruise prop, fits 3300 Jabaru engine. As new Have
59 / SPORT PILOT
Don’t just wing it!
• Aircraft – Fixed & Rotary Wing
• Hangar & Airport Buildings • Hangarkeeper’s Liability • Aviation Business Insurance • UAV’s & Drones
www.billowen.com.au | broker@billowen.com.au
07 4052 1000
SAFETY Robust construction and four point safety harness STRENGTH Built like a light G.A. aircraft, slid & all metal Large cockpit width with adjustable seating SIZE
BRUMBY AIRCRAFT AUSTRALIA 112 AIRPORT ROAD, COWRA AIRPORT NSW 2794 TEL: +61 2 6341 1635 | FAX: +61 2 6341 1636 EMAIL: info@brumbyaircraft.com.au WEB: www.brumbyaircraft.com.au
A VI A TION CLASSIFIED S receipt for $1500. PRICE $850 CONTACT MORRIS BEATTIE 0409 540 180 EMAIL MORRISBEATTIE@BIGPOND.COM
5554 JABIRU 230 D
Foxbat. Foxbat A22LS 2015-model with 1050hrs total time. Yoke control and center throttle, with optional Hand-control rudder. Certified for Premium unleaded fuel or AVGAS. Dynon 10” Skyview touch with ADSB transponder and backup Airspeed and Altimeter. PRICE $93500 CONTACT SHELDON JONES 0427 102 540
465 Airframe Hours, 465 Engine Hours, 230 D. Jabiru 230 D 2009 24 7202. All engine up dates done 70 000 ono. reason for sale no longer flying 465hrs PRICE $70000 CONTACT ROWAN MURPHY 0428 388 244
5564 DRIFTER WB 503 19-3763
5551 AIRCRAFT FOR SALE
70 Airframe Hours, 70 Engine Hours, Mark 25. Spitfire 75% scale replica with fuselage mods to replicate a real Mark Vlll. Painted as per Bobby Gibbes WWll Spitfire that he flew defending Darwin & then in New Guinea PRICE $125000 CONTACT PETER YATES 0414 945 129
5552 THRUSTERT300
1428.4 Airframe Hours, 770 Engine Hours, T300. 1988 ThrusterT300 1450hrs. Rotax 582 Grey Head. ASI, Altimeter, Tacho, Cht, EGT. Flies well, cheap flying, always hangared at Lethbridge Airpark. Current owner for last 25 years. PRICE $4950 CONTACT PAUL BERNARD FALLON (MOB) 042 3966756 PH.98733701
5553 AVID FLYER MK4
5559 TECNAM 24-4651
1896.9 Airframe Hours, 258.4 Engine Hours, P2002 Sierra. Tecnam Sierra P2002 PRICE $115000 CONTACT DOUGLAS MERVYN MCCULLOUGH 0403 255 575
469 Airframe Hours, 344 SMOH Engine Hours, Mk 1. “Lightweight Drifter”, good performer, dual control, Rotax 503 DCDI with B reduction box, ground adjustable Ivo “quick adjust” prop, Microair radio, headsets, fresh annual, always hangered, well maintained and regularly flown, spares, freezer suits.. PRICE $14000 CONTACT MICHAEL BRUCE HOLLOWAY 0402 935 017
5567 EUROPA 19-7903
5561 JABIRU 160 D
424 Airframe Hours, 183 Engine Hours, J160D. J160D For Sale. Jabiru Scimitar Comosite Prop. Mgl Tc3 EGT/CHT Monitor All Cylinders. Cold Start Kit. Leather Seats. New Gamin 660 gps. In Excellent Condition And Flys Beautifully. PRICE $50000 CONTACT CAL 0408 229 211
246.6 Airframe Hours, 5 Engine Hours, XS. Europa xs-914. Great Cruiser. Selling due to new aircraft 110 knots cruise. PRICE $50000 CONTACT JONATHAN SCOTT CLARK
5568 WANTED
5563 2015 FOXBAT A22LS 110 Airframe Hours, 110 Engine Hours, Avid Flyer Mk iv. Avid Flyer for sale. 110 hours engine, airframe and Warp drive (3 blade). Excellent entry into Recreational Flying PRICE $25000 CONTACT TONY SAGNELLI 0437 002 416
1066.6 Airframe Hours, 1050 Engine Hours, A22LS
123 Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, Amphibious. Wanted Amphibious Aircraft, 2 or 4 Stroke engine. Minimum 2 seater. Consider any make. Up to $60,000 PRICE $60000 CONTACT MARGARET 0401 365 989
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61 / SPORT PILOT
TRIP
BY RO D W AR D
I
N January, my mate Duncan announced his coming of age (60) and revealed there would be associated celebrations at his winery in the Swan Valley, just north of Perth. The seed of a journey was planted and by February germinated into a flight plan. Toward the end of February, I also realised that the Come and Get It Trophy was waiting for collection at Pingelly, a short flight south of my ultimate destination of Northam. I now had two good reasons for spending Easter in WA. I departed Tyabb in the Jabiru on March 22 with the intention to get to Port Pirie. Made Nhill for a scheduled fuel stop and remained there for the night because of local storm activity. But I did get to have a good look at the Nhill aero museum and their Avro Anson restoration project. The following day I headed for Ceduna, via Port Pirie. Met Steve, the airfield contractor. Very welcoming. The air was a bit turbulent from there and not cured by altitude. Made it to Ceduna Foreshore Hotel for the night which provided free airport transfers. The next day set off for Forrest. Lots of coastal cloud and a headwind which made for a particularly slow trip - just over 60kts ground speed at worst and, at times, around a 35kts headwind. Five hours rather than the nil wind estimate of just 3.6. Quickly relaxed to ‘Forrest Time’ though and enjoyed splendid hospitality from the managers, Leigh and Elsa. Avgas $3.17. Then to Kalgoorlie, an uneventful IFRail trip. Stayed for two nights because I now had some spare time. Walked around town, found the museum, and generally wound down. For the next day’s leg to Northam, the met people had cloud at 2,000ft above ground at YKPG and clear skies to the west. This was not quite the reality. Once I had cleared YKPG and, after a period of cloud base dodging to the north of the intended track at around 1,000ft AGL, a clear path was found back to my planned route to Northam. On my arrival I had a chat with Roger from Northam Air Services who offered a bit of
shade in his hangar for my scheduled 25 hourly the next day. Can recommend the Duke’s Inn in Northam for inexpensive accommodation ($65) and pretty good food. On March 28, while the aircraft was being serviced, I picked up a hire car and proceeded to the Easter birthday celebrations which prompted the trip. Duncan’s party was at his winery, Harris Organic Wines (shameless plug). I rented a splendid cottage for the weekend and spent four days travelling around the Swan Valley and Perth. Then it was back to Northam and the Duke’s Inn to facilitate an early start the next day to Pingelly and the CAGIT. It was only a short flight to Tony and Leonie’s airfield (wheat field). Quite surprised myself when, having lined up on final with every intention of performing a precautionary go around, I was able to land close to the threshold and stop well before the end of the ‘undulating’ 500m strip. Cups of tea, and aeronautical chat led inevitably to the CAGIT handover and my departure to Esperance. April 4 was a big day! Esperance to Forrest (Avgas $3.20). Refuelled and then off to Ceduna. Eight hours in a Jabiru for a day is probably a little more than normal. However, the coastal cliffs from Eucla to Head of Bight were pretty special. There was no room at the inn at Ceduna, so I ended up at the Big4, a bit of an expensive cabin for just one person for the night, however the manager was aviation friendly and gave me a lift out to the airfield in the morning. A short trip was on the cards for the following day, to make up for the previous long one. I followed Geoff Danes into Port Pirie. He was taking his VariEze to the Wangaratta Canard Muster. Overnighted at the ‘International Hotel’, whose name probably stretches credibility a little. But at $90, including breakfast, who is going to complain? The only impediment to getting home the following day could have been Victorian weather. 62 / SPORT PILOT
Time to go now
But I had a pretty relaxed trip to Horsham, then a cloudy and turbulent trip to Port Phillip Heads. A thin band of low cloud had me at 1,000ft at Ocean Grove prior to the Rip crossing, however the Mornington Peninsula was clear, with a cloud base at around 4,000ft, giving me a comfortable final 20 minute run back to Tyabb. If you want to find where Rod has secreted the trophy, email him at rodward@optusnet. com.au. If you, or your crew, are contemplating a high-speed heist of recreational aviation’s most coveted prize, it’s best to keep up-to-date with its latest location by checking the CAGIT hunter’s Facebook page, administered by Dexter Burkill, Peter Zweck and David Carroll. Facebook.com/cagithunters.
SPECIFICATIONS
TOTAL DISTANCE FLOWN 3,363nm TOTAL HOURS (HOBBS TIME) 43.8 TOTAL FUEL (AVGAS) 680.1 litres OVERALL LITRES/ HOUR 15.5 AVERAGE FUEL COST $2.46/litre AIRCRAFT Jabiru 170D 19-8559 Pingelly handover
Gympie Queensland 07 5483 5112 recreationalflyingco.com
QU IZ
A QUESTION OR TWO pilot notices during the 1 Apre-flight inspection that the static vent is located on the left side of the fuselage only and the dynamic vent is on the right side wing strut. Considering the ASI during a steep left sideslip, which option below is most likely to depict the ASI performance? a. The ASI will read correctly. b. The airspeed is likely to be LOWER than the instrument reading. c. The airspeed is likely to be HIGHER than the instrument reading. d. Option B or option C could be correct. During a climb, the elevator trim tab electric motor suffers a runaway condition and jams the trim tab so it is raised up above the elevator trailing edge. This is likely to: a. Cause the nose to pitch up. b. Cause the nose to pitch down. c. Not cause a pitch change. d. Affect the trim in level flight at cruise power and on approach at reduced speed.
2
c. An impulse coupling provides a hot, fat, advanced spark to aid starting. d. With an aft Centre of Gravity, at a high angle of attack the thrust/drag couple can become more powerful than the Lift Weight couple and the aeroplane will stall without possible recovery. The atmosphere in a locality conforms with ISA. The sea level temperature is 25° C and the METAR lists the temperature and dew point at an adjacent airfield as 22/01. What is the approximate height of the airfield above sea level and the height AMSL of the cloud base? a. 1,000ft elevation and cloud base 8,200ft AMSL. b. 1,500ft elevation and cloud base 12,500ft AMSL. c. 1,200ft elevation and cloud base 7,400ft AMSL. d. 1,450ft elevation and cloud base 8,800ft AMSL.
4
Statement: “Some say that, in steady level flight, an aeroplane is in equilibrium and its thrust applied = drag created”. If this is the case and then what maintains the aeroplane’s airspeed? a. The above is incorrect and thrust
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In flight, a pilot reduces the angle of attack from 9° to 4°. What effect will this have on the Centre of Pressure? It will: a. Move rearward along the chord line. b. Move forward along the chord line. c. Rise above the active chord line. d. Descend below the active chord line.
6
When carburetor ice forms in an aeroplane engine’s carburetor, by what process does it accumulate? a. Frosting. b. Melting. c. Deposition. d. Accumulation.
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1. (b) 2. (a) 3. (d) 4. (a) 5. (d) 6. (a) 7. (c)
ANSWERS
From the following select the most correct statement. a. The further effect of roll is yaw about the longitudinal axis. b. Washout increases the angle of attack outboard along the wing.
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must exceed drag for airspeed to be maintained. b. The above is correct and airspeed is maintained as a function of the aeroplane’s momentum. c. The above is incorrect because thrust and drag are not interrelated in level flight. d. The above is correct and air speed is maintained as a function of the aeroplane’s inertia.
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HA P P Y L A ND IN G S
Truly lucky BY C AMERON MAC LE AN
O
N Sunday March 4, I flew solo, a dream I thought was unachievable at such a young age. Thanks to the brilliant Snowy Mountains Grammar School aviation program and my flight instructor at Alpine Aviation in Jindabyne Martin Hughes, I was able to achieve this feat at only 15. I entered Year 7 with a passion for aviation so I enrolled in the SMGS School of Aviation, where I started developing my love and knowledge of the industry. Here with my highly devoted aviation teacher Mr. Ryrie, I started my first steps on a journey that I know will truly change my life. 10 months ago, I started my practical flying training with Martin and was hooked from the very first flight. Now having just completed my first solo I can safely say I am truly captivated, with it being an eye-opening experience for me I will remember as a milestone in my life. I have now around 13 hours flying time under my belt and still much to learn on my way to obtaining my Pilot’s Certificate and eventually pursuing a career in aviation. Finally, I would just like to say thank you to everyone who has contributed time and effort into my flying. We truly are so lucky to have such great opportunities in such a small town and I really appreciate having this opportunity. Cameron receives his AAA lapel badge from Martin Hughes, AAA CFI
David takes off 21
year old David Burey from ‘Brownleigh’ Moree, achieved his Pilot Certificate in February. David completed his flight test in the Moree Aero Club Jabiru J170C
aircraft. Chief Flying Instructor Fred Nolan, said “Dave follows in the footsteps of his grandfather, John, and his dad, Geoff, both of whom are also pilots.” David will now complete his navigation course and transition later this year to the family Cessna 182.
66 / SPORT PILOT
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