SportPilot 83 July 2018

ISSUE 6 ©JULY 2018

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

CONTENTS

34 TABLE OF CONTENTS REGULARS

12

06 08 10 54 67

42

From the President Calendar of Events Letters to the Editor Classifieds Final Approach

COLUMNS 38 40 44 49

Maintenance Flying Training News from the OPS team Dalton on Safety

FEATURES 20 24 26 32 34 50 65

“Pax” Anne McLean The Full Monty RAAus’s Youth Engagement Airventure 2018 Jim’s Nieuport ‘Bebe’ Red Thunder - Watts Bridge First Solos

PROFILES 12 16 42

50 3 / SPORT PILOT

Flight Test - FK-9 Pilot Profile - Kevin Walters Qucksilver MX SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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CONTACTS

AUSTRALIAN SPORT PILOT HEAD OFFICE PO Box 1265 Fyshwick ACT 2609 Australia Unit 3, 1 Pirie Street Fyshwick ACT 2609 International: +61 (2) 6280 4700 National: (02) 6280 4700 Fax: +61 (2) 6280 4775 Email: admin@raa.asn.au www.raa.asn.au

CEO

Michael Linke ceo@raa.asn.au NATIONAL FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATION MANAGER Maxine Milera admin@raa.asn.au NATIONAL OPERATIONS MANAGER Jill Bailey ops@raa.asn.au 0400 280 087 ASSISTANT OPERATIONS MANAGER Neil Schaefer ops@raa.asn.au 0428 282 870 NATIONAL TECHNICAL MANAGER Darren Barnfield techmgr@raa.asn.au 0417 942 977 ASSISTANT TECHNICAL MANAGER Jared Smith jared.smith@raa.asn.au 0418 125 393 NATIONAL SAFETY, RISK AND COMPLIANCE safety@raa.asn.au 0418 445 652 EDITOR Mark Smith editor@sportpilot.net.au.au DEPUTY EDITOR Michelle Smith ART DIRECTOR Melinda Vassallo

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

ENQUIRIES General Enquires: admin@raa.asn.au Aircraft and Maintenance Enquires: tech@raa.asn.au Pilot and Membership Enquires: members@raa.asn.au ACN 070 931 645 DIRECTORS Michael Monck (Chairman) 0419 244 794 Michael.Monck@raa.asn.au

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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.

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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COLUMN

FROM THE CHAIR: MICHAEL MONCK OUR WORK OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS IS BEARING FRUIT. THE TREE IS STRONG. Who will help it grow stronger?

I

f this month is an indication of the health of RAAus then let’s just say it would easily pass the hardest of aviation medicals a pilot may ever face. We have recently had good news regarding our proposed increase in the weight of the aircraft under our administration, the first steps toward controlled airspace access have become a reality and I am getting inquiries from experienced aviation people who would like to stand with us by sitting on our board.

Our weight increase will initially see us go from our current limits to 760kg.

Nothing will change for the existing fleet that operates under 600kg but our new aircraft, to be called category G, will create opportunities for pilots and maintainers alike. We will require the new, heavier aircraft under our management to be maintained by people who hold a LAME qualification and create alternative pathways over the coming years. We will also work with CASA to further increase the weight of aircraft in RAAus at a later date.

Thanks to the work put in by the RAAus team we have our first schools whose students will be allowed to fly in controlled airspace without the need to hold a CASA-issued accreditation. This is also a stepping stone to allowing more RAAus pilots into this airspace in future.

These two major increases in the privileges RAAus pilots will be able to enjoy are a solid reflection of the work that our team has done over the past five years. During this period we have improved our safety record to the point that it matches the equivalent operations of aircraft currently operating under the VH banner. There are periods where we are doing better with our accident rate than the aircraft CASA are responsible for.

Our hard work getting these important safety milestones acknowledged by the various departments involved in the

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

aviation sector has resulted in our healthy relationship with government. They know they can trust what we say.

Our approach in this regard has been one of collaboration and coordination rather than conflict. We have maintained our philosophy of working with the regulators to advance aviation and collectively arrive at solutions that benefit aviators across the country. Some die-hards could argue we haven’t made progress as fast as we would have liked, but those who understand the way the wheels of government work could truthfully argue that we have made progress faster than some would have expected us to.

To do this we have worked with other bodies such as The Australian Aviation Associations Forum (TAAAF) to advance the cause of aviation. This body has existed for a number of years and the current membership comprises more than 20 of the member-based organisations.

On top of this we have made representations to the minister, the department and the regulator through our ongoing participation in other groups such as the General Aviation Advisory Group (GAAG) and the Aviation Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP).

Given we bring a wide knowledge base to the table we have recently been invited to participate in GAAG for a further two years beyond our initial appointment.

All of this has seen us gain a great deal of respect in circles that have a lot of influence over aviation in Australia.

On top of this we are working hard on a number of other activities that might not always be apparent at first glance. Our professional development series is almost complete - I am writing this column as I sit at Serpentine during one of those sessions.

Incidentally, I must thank the local aviators for putting on what I reckon is the best lunch we’ve had during the entire series.

The challenge is out for the other locations next time around!

Just in WA alone we have spoken with more than 60 members which then combines with the hundreds more from other parts of the country when we hold these events.

Not only are these sessions a lot of fun, they are informative for both the members and our team. They are a great opportunity to feel the mood of the membership and just generally stay in touch.

Of course AirVenture is only a few months off as well. It is great to hear a lot of people here in WA saying that they intend to come along and share in this celebration of aviation. On top of that, we have a huge number of members from elsewhere in the country telling us they coming along as well.

This year will of course be a big change from previous events. For the first time the event will be at Cessnock in the beautiful Hunter Valley in NSW. Even if your family isn’t interested in aviation (I can’t understand why they wouldn’t be!) there are plenty of other things for them to do in the region while you immerse yourself in everything flying.

AirVenture will have a range of activities going on throughout the weekend including seminars from different organisations, dinners and of course a small airshow on the Saturday to satisfy all of our urges to see aircraft do fantastic things. This will be a great opportunity to see some of Australia’s best pilots strut their stuff.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly from an RAAus perspective, our elections are coming up. We have had interest from an unprecedented number of people who have expressed a willingness to come and assist RAAus to thrive. Whether or not these people actually put their hand up and follow through with this interest, it is

“Thanks to the work put in by the RAAus team we have our first schools whose students will be allowed to fly in controlled airspace without the need to hold a CASA-issued accreditation. This is also a stepping stone to allowing more RAAus pilots into this airspace in future.”

important that we, as a collective membership, take notice and choose a board that supports our organisation.

In years gone by we have had elections where people got a board position simply by nominating, because there was little

interest in being involved in RAAus at that level.

That has changed in recent years, which is a positive reflection on the direction of RAAus has taken. It is now even more critical that we take a look at who is

able to help lead RAAus and set us up to manage the growth potential this organisation enjoys.

Ask yourself when voting, is this person able to help us overcome the ageing member problems? Are they capable of working with government to promote aviation? Are they able to fulfil their obligations as a director of Australia’s largest membership-based aviation body?

We need forward looking individuals with fresh ideas who are able to understand the challenges that we face as aviators in this country. People who can relate to the next generation of aviators and provide some much-needed enthusiasm to encourage others to consider aviation as a past time or career.

We’re healthy now but we want to be even healthier in future. Help us choose the leadership team to accomplish this.

Michael Monck

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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EVENTS NEW SOUTH WALES ARMIDALE - SUNDAY 22ND JULY. Armidale Aero club monthly morning tea and BBQ lunch. Why not saddle up for a nice excuse to go for a fly? Details: 0428 242 471 LISMORE - SUNDAY 29TH JULY. The Lismore aviation expo has become a significant event for the region with more than 8000 people attending last year. Attendees this year will enjoy static display aircraft, aerobatic displays, trade stands, adventure and joy flights, children’s entertainment and food stalls. www.visitlismore.com.au or 0425292391 WAGGA - SUNDAY 5TH AUGUST Looking for a place to fly on a nice Sunday? Wagga Aero Club is hosting its monthly Fly in lunch. $15 buys you a nice feed. Call John Smith on 0408 692929 for information.

CESSNOCK - THURSDAY 20TH TO SATURDAY 22ND SEPTEMBER. Airventure 2018. The event you must get to. More details in this issue of Sport Pilot. www.airventureaustralia.com.au

QUEENSLAND MARYBOROUGH - SATURDAY 11TH AUGUST. Maryborough Aero Club in conjunction with Ford Motor Club will hold a fly-in and motor show for lovers of machines that travel through the air and along the ground. Details: secretary@mayrboroughaeroclub.com or 0417 730 539.

MACKAY - SATURDAY 11TH AUGUST. Mechanos is a combination of unique mechanical and technical exhibitions and shows to appeal to all ages. Mechanos has evolved from the previous Wings & Wheels Mackay event and has developed in size and offering. Expect multiple planes and air-related activities throughout the day to complement the cars, trains, motorbikes and trucks on display. www.mechanos.com.au BIRDSVILLE. - 30TH AUGUST TO 1ST SEPTEMBER. The famous Birdsville races and fly in are on again. It’s a bucket list item for many aviators, so why not make this year the one? Ballina Aero Club will run the airfield. Gary Faulks is the guy to call on 0418663666.

VICTORIA SHEPPARTON - SUNDAY 5TH AUGUST. The Goulburn Valley Aero Club’s famous pancake breakfast is enticing you to head up and enjoy all you can eat pancakes for $10 and barista coffee for $5. Join the flock and fly on up. Call Lucy on 0435885212 for all the details.

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

COLUMN

FROM THE CEO: MICHAEL LINKE IS AIRVENTURE THE ANSWER? RAAus CEO Michael Linke asks the question.

I

t seems that no time has passed since I stood at Narromine airfield on a cool Sunday morning last October. AirVenture had just concluded and by a number of measures had proved successful, despite the challenges of organising an event of this calibre.

The team at RAAus put our part of AirVenture to bed and got on with the business of running our large and busy organisation.

Since that time we’ve had our AGM, progressed our proposals with CASA for an increased weight limit on aircraft we operate and for more access into controlled airspace. Our recent announcements on these topics to our members really demonstrate the effort invested by our Board and staff to deliver our members greater freedoms and privileges.

RAAus has eight percent more members than we did last October and we recently declared a half year surplus. We’ve recently launched our Aviation Safety Management System at an organisational level and are now rolling it out to schools to help lower their costs of compliance. We have also developed and begun to implement our Maintenance First program, where we are providing our members high-quality practical hangar-based maintenance training. More recently we have concluded our Professional Development Seminar Series where we trained some 350 of our instructors and maintainers.

What does all this have to do with AirVenture you ask? Stick with me.

I have been reading and hearing a lot about the so-called death of aviation in Australia, specifically general aviation (GA) – though no one can really define GA to me. Recently the Australian automotive industry died as the last local manufacturing plant closed. That’s a death.

This isn’t the case with aviation. Sure there have been school closures and some manufacturers have closed or moved overseas, but in reality we still have a vibrant and sustainable sector. RAAus has 10,000 pilots and 3200 aircraft flying using the services of more than 160 schools with more than 400 instructors. We are bigger today than we were yesterday, and, importantly more financially stable today than

we were yesterday.

Is RAAus part of GA? Some say no, but we are training some of the next generation of pilots and maintainers. I see us at the cross roads of all aviation. Before RAAus, people whet their appetite for aviation by buying a drone or experimenting with a simulator. After RAAus they go onto private, commercial or military careers in a range of disciplines.

Maybe GA isn’t dying, it is just changing and RA is the new GA. And maybe, just like AirVenture, it is time we embraced that change. It is worth noting that this experience is not unique to Australia.

In the US, AOPA produces statistics on the state of aviation. Well over half of general aviation there is made up of piston powered aircraft and these numbers peaked in 1984 at 197,442. This number has fallen to 155,180 in their most recent information – a decline of about 21 per cent that would surely raise some eyebrows.

Having said this, when factoring in the same types of aircraft that RAAus administers in Australia the numbers are much different. In the US, these numbers have grown from about 6000 to around 38,000. This almost entirely offsets the decline, suggesting that while there is no growth per se, there is definitely a shift.

The situation is very similar to Australia and very different to what a lot of people are suggesting.

The success of our sector isn’t buried in the fear that it is dying but quite the opposite. As we look to attracting people to our sector I ask: would you as a teenager be attracted to a sector that is dying, or that continues to say schools and maintenance facilities are closing? The way to attract the next generation of aviators is offer them a vibrant sector, a unified sector, a sector where a career is fun, rewarding, certain and free of unnecessary negativity.

Our product. Our promise. Our future as a collective is assured if everyone continues working together.

AirVenture was conceived as a collaborative event and ran smoothly in 2016. It will again run smoothly in 2018 as more and more people embrace it and collaborate. I know RAAus’ role will be to simply work with the AirVenture team to make the

event the best it can be.

The bigger AirVenture is, the bigger and better our sector is. The bigger RAAus is, or Warbirds, or GFA, or SAAA or AOPA, the bigger and better the overall sector will be. For too long we have stuck within the margins and robbed Peter to pay Paul. It’s time we all stood shoulder to shoulder and grew the sector.

I know I’m looking forward to AirVenture this year and I hope to see RAAus members and aviators alike from a broad spectrum of the sector.

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Michael Linke

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Mike Swan talks about the CTA rule changes.

I have read with interest the declaration from RAAus that there is a four-step process and we have completed the first one.

What are the other three?

It was my understanding that it was originally intended that a pilot could fly through or into controlled airspace with the correct training and having an aircraft transponder equipped. Simple!

It would appear then, according to this statement, that you will have to fly someone else’s aircraft, fly out of an FTS school and that now excludes areas such as the whole of South Australia and the Northern Territory where I noticed there was no school or capability listed! Where is the fairness in that?

If this is the path taken, what other CASA requirements are required to fulfill the other three stages?

If this is the direction RAAus is pursu-

ing then all I can say is that it is the wrong direction.

More regulations will mean more cost and the loss of the original charter to fly without CASA involvement (except to ensure training was of a suitable standard).

We need to go back to the original intention that RAAus pilots could use their own aircraft with suitable training and equipment required to either transit, enter or use controlled airspace without extra hoops to jump through.

Ed: Hi Mike. Jill Bailey, our Operations Manager, has addressed these concerns in the coverage about the new CTA privileges on page 44.

Send your letters to: editor@sportpilot.net.au

Bill Tugnett has his say about the ASIC card.

I enjoyed your article in the April edition of Sport Pilot on ASIC cards. I, and I’m sure many others, was pleased when the Forsyth Committee recommended that ASIC cards only be required for individuals accessing the restricted security areas of security controlled aerodromes.

I know RAA, SAAA and AOPA presented a strong argument against the ASIC .

Obviously the Forsyth Committee was convinced, leading to item 36.

The Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development (DIRD) response was: “The Department has consulted industry and significant implementation issues have been identified. Further progress will be considered as part of a review of the current categorisation of security controlled airports”.

This statement raises the following questions.

1) “DIRD consulted industry.”

Is the RAAus considered part of the industry?

Was RAAus consulted? Who was consulted?

2) “significant implementation issues”.

What are the issues?

3) Further progress will be considered as part of a review of the current categorisation of security controlled airports. I can find no link to any review process

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

on the DIRD website. This implies that airports are or will be categorised? (Presumably Sydney/Mascot will be higher than say Bathurst/Orange/Parkes).

How will this be progressed? Is there a time-line for completion? Will interested parties within the industry be given the opportunity to provide input?

The majority of RAA/GA pilots want to see the end of this unnecessary, wasteful ASIC requirement. The above DIRD response gives the impression the ASIC question has been swept under the carpet and is now off the agenda. Maybe you, as editor of Sport Pilot magazine, can elicit further information?

For the record I didn’t renew my ASIC card eight years ago either.

From the CEO: Bill, we share

your pain. This is one of the reasons RAAus took a decision to no longer be an ASIC card issuer.

The system is overly complex and onerous now. We continue to work within our networks for reform in this area.

Charlie Rohrbach takes issue with Rob Knight on the causes of stalls.

In a recent article about stalls (Sport Pilot, Rob Knight, Feb 2018) we were told that the only cause was the angle of attack being too high. I would like to disagree with that theory. The aircraft can and will stall when there is zero angle of attack, e.g. in a descent at nil angle of attack then speed is the primary factor of a stall. Too slow a speed and the aircraft will stall.

That is why we are talking of a stalling speed. Of course a too high angle of attack will stall the aircraft as well even if the speed is far above the stall speed, but a too high angle of attack is not the only cause of stall. A too low speed is a very important factor as any pilot who has survived a heavy landing knows, the cause being a stall a couple of seconds before touch down.

In my opinion a pilot in this situation has no doubt whatsoever that the aircraft stalled because he or she didn’t maintain a sufficient speed at the last second of touch down, and that the angle of attack did not play a role whatsoever.

Rob Knight Responds: Alas,

Charlie has made a fundamental error; he misses the definition of “angle of attack”. The angle of attack is the angle formed by the chord line and the relative airflow.

Charlie is confusing the angle of attack with nose attitude. Even when the aeroplane is in the float stage of the landing it still has airspeed but, if the hold-off is too high, the rising nose used to hold off causes the critical angle of attack to be exceeded and the aeroplane stalls high enough above the ground for the landing to be heavy. If the hold off was closer to the surface, the impact would not be heavy as Charlie depicts. The heavy impact is caused by poor piloting technique not a stall caused by low airspeed. All aeroplanes use aerofoils to fly and all aerofoils stall at an angle of attack. A lack of airspeed does not cause an aerofoil to stall.

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

11

FLIGHT TEST

THE FK-9: A RARITY IN AUSTRALIA, BUT THAT’S ABOUT TO CHANGE Rob Knight flies a European LSA with style, comfort and a certain panache that turns heads wherever it’s parked

A

hitch-fly to pick up an aircraft fresh out of maintenance led me to a flight in an aircraft I’d long coveted – the FK-9. My route in to the cockpit of the FK-9 began when Nick Hughes at the Lightwing factory in Ballina called to advise that a GA Lightwing I had dropped off for a complete engine replacement was finished and ready to fly.

A plea to the local Airsport Flying School at Boonah for a spare one-way economy class seat to Ballina was answered by Greg Davidson and we set a date.

The Ballina retrieval operation was uneventful and within a short time the Lightwing was home, and in the proceedings I gained a good friend in Greg.

Greg, a lanky 6ft 4 ½ inch retired doctor whose grin is as broad as his height, co-owns an exquisite FK-9, RAAus registered 24-8046, a product of FK Lightplanes in Germany. Its comfort and performance on the trip south was more like Business Class and so impressed me that Greg offered to take it out again so we could put it through its paces sometime in the future. That day came.

Over a quick cuppa before flying, Greg

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

said he decided to buy an aeroplane after completing his training with Airsport Flying School CFI Dave Briffa. He teamed up in partnership with flying friend John Odlum and after looking at the normal offerings of Savannahs, Foxbats, and Eurofoxes it was the FK-9 that John was particularly keen on – and he convinced Greg that this was the aircraft for them.

As Greg’s tall frame fits so easily into it, and with the FK-9 ticking all the other boxes, being factory built, and Rotax 912 powered, a deal was struck and the previous owners delivered it to them from Gympie to Boonah.

Glossy white, sleek and slender, this all-composite light sport aircraft looks like a Cessna 152 with the corners rubbed off. But that’s where the comparison ends. It vastly outperforms a 152 in every respect, from room for two sets of shoulders in the cabin to headroom, seat adjustment, and across the entire range of flight performance.

The walk-around pre-flight inspection shows clearly the care that went into the manufacture of this aeroplane. The skin is dead smooth – there’s not a blemish, mark

or rivet head to be seen and no overlapping aluminium skins or protruding fairings. This is one smooth machine in every sense of the word.

Inside the cockpit there’s a complete glass panel comprising three screens. Two good-sized Dynon screens provide the flight and engine instrumentation and the third screen, a Garmin, displays the GPS. A simple altimeter and ASI, both 2 ¼ inch units, are well placed above the left side Dynon screen as backups. A four-strap harness lay across each comfortable and very adjustable seat. My stature is opposite to Greg and the seats adjusted easily to accommodate both his long-limbed frame in the left seat and my lesser version in the right, leaving us both with comfortable access to the sticks, rudder pedals, and cockpit switches.

The doors latch quietly and firmly. Everything is close to hand and immediately I could see that considerable thought had gone into the ergonomics of the cockpit layout. The switches were each clearly identifiable and comfortably grouped on the left side of the panel; the hand brake

PHOTOS: MARK SMITH

Glass cockpit, common now in light sport aircraft.

was mounted by the pilot’s left knee on the centre console in easy reach without leaning. Two fuel cocks were fitted, one on the leading edge of each door frame a-la the Tecnam P96 Echo.

We each had a push-pull knob throttle with friction nut, mounted on the panel, and a stick mounted on the floor. Elevator trim was electric and, along with the PTT (push to talk) switch, mounted on the top of the stick. The trim has two buttons, the front one, when pressed, provides nosedown trim, the rearmost switch, nose up. A trim indicator on the left side of the panel indicates the current trim position with small bright LEDs operating within a vertical scale. Again, all well thought out and very practical.

Taxiing was pleasant – the rudder pedals were firm but not heavy, and perfectly responsive. The aircraft rolled smoothly across the grass, and the brake was both simple to use and effective. The run-up was standard; both CDs checked out perfectly, the temperatures and pressures were all as they should have been. The pre take-off checks were also standard and suddenly we

Owner Greg Davidson.

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

13

“Glossy white, sleek and slender, this all-composite light sport aircraft looks like a Cessna 152 with the corners rubbed off. But that’s where the comparison ends. It vastly outperforms a 152 in every respect, from room for two sets of shoulders in the cabin to headroom, seat adjustment, and across the entire range of flight performance.”

were ready. Another quick call and we lined up on 22.

The response to full power was just a little less than I was anticipating, but that was probably a little unfair because I had been flying another aeroplane with a fine pitched prop. Even so, the FK-9 accelerates quickly and the ASI soon registered 50 knots and we lifted off. Bringing the nose up to the climb attitude we headed out at around 800 feet per minute at 70 knots.

The controls were nicely harmonized: their pressures were light and all were responsive. There was enough feedback in the rudder pedal pressure against my right foot to easily counter the slipstream generated yaw, and I only had to periodically check the balance ball on the screen in front of Greg. The engine cowl is relatively narrow and allows easy sighting along the sides of the nose but, with the load on board and maintaining Vy, the required attitude lifted the nose above the horizon blotting out the view directly ahead.

At 3000 feet AMSL we levelled off.

The electric trim was quick but not overly

so and there was no difficulty getting her to fly hands-off. It was good that the trim acted fast as the aircraft accelerated very quickly to cruise speed when we set 5000 rpm and held it in the level flight attitude.

The ASI settled on 97 knots; no-one could complain about that.

The glass instrument screens are very clear. With each a good size, their indications are large enough to read easily, and they are sharp with good colour contrast.

The Garmin GPS is a little smaller, but that has no effect on its readability - it too was sharp, clear, and not prone to ambiguity through illegibility. This delightfully equipped aircraft also came with an autopilot but I was there to fly it for myself.

I tried some turns. The aircraft sits wonderfully steady and the controls give a great feeling of command. Their response is quick, and they are light enough for a ham-fisted driver to get into trouble exceeding the manoeuvring speed (Va).

The roll rate is great and the aeroplane has all the controllability for aerobatics should the aeroplane have been certified for such. Hand/feet co-ordination is easy,

the designer has eliminated most of the adverse yaw and little rudder is needed to keep the ball caged, so much so that it would be easy to completely forget about using the rudder in flight.

The ailerons at cruise speed felt decidedly firmer but, as the control is powerful, the slightly higher stick pressure demands were still very easily met. Ditto the elevator – small pressures were quite adequate to control or adjust the attitude of the aircraft when trimmed. When flying straight, provided I kept the nose on the reference point, I could have put my hands in my pockets. There was no need to apply any aileron to correct any roll even in the light turbulence we were experiencing.

In 45 degree banked turns there was barely any discernable loss in IAS as the angle of attack is increased to maintain height, another plus for a slippery little aeroplane. There is no need to haul this aeroplane around the sky – it actually wants to be there.

Visibility in turns was, as is always the case in a high-winged aeroplane, determined by the position of the seats in relation to the leading edge of the wing. Not as bad as some and even better, perhaps, than most, the wings were still a big limitation when looking into the direction of the turn while banked. Thus, as is taught, a good lookout must be carried out before the turn is commenced.

Lateral visibility in general is excellent for a high-winged aeroplane. The cockpit windows are all large and the sills quite low so there is little to impede the pilot’s eye. The leading edge obscures the view upwards and ahead but not as much as other popular high-winged light aircraft.

The turtle deck contains two small tinted rear windows so the aircraft is not blind behind either.

Level flight slow deceleration stalls are

Old and new - two LSAs from different centuries.

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completely innocuous. The aircraft is so clean that it takes ages to slow down and, if allowed to begin sinking, it’s hard with such a small elevator to pitch the nose up enough at the low speed to maintain height and get an obvious stall. Instead, without any obvious buffet, the aeroplane sinks away. The electric flaps are quick to function and the position indicator on the panel is easy to read. However, it took ages to get the speed down to the flap extension speed (Vfe) of 61 knots so I could extend them. In the recovery, the aeroplane accelerates quickly and the VFE will quickly be exceeded if the pilot is tardy in their retraction.

The manual states that the symptom of a stall is just a light buffeting. Recovery from the stall is absolutely conventional.

The controls retain effectiveness and this could lead to over-pitching if an enthusiastic pilot applied too much forward stick to unstall. I can best describe the stalling characteristics as benign. While being a great aircraft for a qualified pilot to own and operate, this aspect of its flight characteristics would not, in my opinion, make the best training platform that I have experienced.

With such a clean aircraft, recovery is quick and acceleration to normal airspeeds is not delayed. The flight manual has much detail regarding non-spinning this aeroplane and I did not provoke it into an induced wing-drop situation Power off, the aeroplane is an excellent glider. Its super-smooth composite skin defies drag to do its worst. Leaving power on to keep heat in the engine, we descended on a track back towards the field. Letting the speed rise to around 110 knots hardened up the controls but not to excess. The descent settled at around 400 fpm when I let the speed settle to 100 knots.

Downwind came up quickly and after the checks it was time to get the beast slowed down. Easing the power late downwind I tried to ensure I had room to make base and finals without getting too high and even then I almost missed it. Although the aeroplane is cleared for slipping, I preferred not to, wanting to see how she handled on a normal approach.

The speed settled back to 60 knots and, there being no roos on the strip, I flared and she settled nicely on her mains after a surprisingly short float. I had anticipated a much longer float as she washed off speed but it never happened. I let the nose wheel kiss on to the runway when it felt right and we taxied back to the hangar.

This is a delightful little aeroplane. A little slippery, perhaps, but without any adverse characteristics. She has a good cruise and will cut down many conventional point-to-point flight times for ultralights. As a private aeroplane I think it is ideal. We put her to bed in the hangar and retired to the coffee machine for some more R and R. SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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PILOT PROFILE PILOT PROFILE

LEARNING FROM THE BEST: KEVIN WALTERS LEARNING FROM THE BEST

This RA veteran ag pilot stillpassing passing on aviation to anyone keen tokeen learn to itslearn ways. its ways.

A veteran ag pilot is isstill onthe theartartof of aviation to anyone Mark Smith caught up with him.

Mark Smith caught up with him.

S

pend any time around the airfields in the Lockyer Valley and the name of a local instructor keeps coming up. Ask an owner of an interesting aeroplane how he got into flying and chances are you’ll hear the name Kevin Walters, and how great it was learning to fly in his Drifter.

Moving as far afield as Caboolture, pilots will smile as they recount their time sitting out the front with the wind on their face and Kevin’s reassuring voice over the intercom and they learned basic stick and rudder skills on an aeroplane perfectly suited to the task.

At 74, and with more than 16,000 hours to his name, you’d think he’d be slowing down. However nothing could be further from the truth and the Drifter is still his preferred training aeroplane. Riding in the back as the sun set over his home strip his enthusiasm for flying is evident, as is his love for the old pusher design.

“Mate, how can you not love flying in a Drifter? You have the world spread out in front,” he says.

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“They are a bit of a pilot’s aeroplane so you have to use good skills to fly them well and they cost stuff-all to operate.”

Kevin caught the aviation bug as a child while living on his parent’s farm near Apollo Bay on the Victorian south coast.

“One day two Tiger Moths landed in the paddock next to the school. They were the first ever to come down to Apollo Bay for spray work and the whole school got out of control with kids just running out of classrooms and lining up on the fence to watch those two aeroplanes. You wouldn’t get that these days,” he says.

“The aircraft stayed for three weeks and as long as the aircraft were there, I bloody well stayed with the aircraft. I used to wag school. The deal was they used to give me a ride in the hopper and I’d look after the aircraft because there were cattle in the paddock.

“I used to look after them while the pilots went to the pub, when the weather wasn’t suitable for spraying. For that, I got a ride in the aeroplane. They’d take

the lid off the hopper and tell me to hang on to the centre section struts. They got me a pair of goggles so the superphosphate dust wouldn’t get in my eyes and away we’d go. And that sort of gave me tunnel vision for ag flying.”

Becoming a pilot was beyond the means of young Kevin so he joined the airforce as an apprentice engine fitter.

A lack of ability in technical drawing led him to remuster in air defence radar. That gave him the income he needed to start learning to fly.

“I earned 10 pounds a week as an apprentice, and an hour in the Chipmunk was five pounds. This was in 1962 with Wagga Air Taxis. After I got my licence when I was 17 I’d fly anything I could get my hands on - glider towing in Pawnees or flying Cessna 180s dropping parachutists. I got my first ag job because I already had 300 hours towing on Pawnees.

“Wagga was a recruit training unit and I used to go around canvassing for joy flighters and one of the little ploys I had in-

PHOTOS: MARK SMITH

Kevin Walters with his Drifter.

volved flying the Chipmunk as it can carry one passenger. I’d walk into the hut and ask who wanted a free flight?

“Oh, ‘yeah, yeah,’ they’d say but I had a condition: if they got airsick, they paid and if they didn’t, I paid.

“Well, summer in Wagga was pretty hot and so I used to close up all the vents in this Chipmunk and as the canopy was like a glass house, they would almost be sick by the time we left the ground from the heat. Then I’d throw the bloody thing around like you wouldn’t believe. Worked nearly every time.”

After spending 10 years with the airforce Kevin felt it was time to move on and joined the Department of Civil Aviation in Flight Service, where he worked for

another decade. This was in the days when a flight service officer provided radio communications with pilots operating outside controlled airspace.

“Basically the way you would describe it is that we ran a search and rescue and position and reporting service on aircraft outside control air space.”

By this time Kevin had accumulated more than 1000 hours of private flying.

But the dream of ag flying borne of seeing those two Tiger Moths all those years ago hadn’t left and he finally decided to get his commercial licence.

“I got my commercial pilot licence with Dave Triford in Sydney on the February 7, 1980, and then I went immediately to Melbourne and started my ag training with

Kevin with his wife Lyn, who also flies.

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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Roy Robertson down at Koo Wee Rup and got my agricultural class two rating on March 14 1980.

“Why did I want to be an ag pilot? I remember the Tiger Moth days and from then on, I just had tunnel vision. I didn’t consider anything else even though I worked at the DCA and had been in the air force. I decided I had to get out of DCA because if I didn’t, I’d be stuck there forever and probably have a heart attack at age 60.”

Kevin had started his job search while doing his commercial navigation training, popping his head through the door at every ag business he came across asking about work.

“One day I called in at Bathurst and asked if they had any jobs. They said no, but asked about my experience. I told them I had 300 hours on Pawnees, and when I finished ag training my instructor Roy said I’d better get up to Bathurst because they had a job for me super-spreading in a Pawnee.”

Before Kevin got into ag flying he was a private pilot with a family and not have a lot of spare money to indulge his love of flying. It was at this time that light sport aircraft entered his life.

“I came across Ron Wheeler in the Skycraft Scout and thought it was the bee’s knees. It was affordable and with four kids that was important. This would have been in about 1977. I also flew Drifters, and Chinooks. Then when I got my ag rating I drifted away from ultralights.

‘It wasn’t until 1991, after I’d started my own spray business, that I had some time

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“First and foremost we need proper training.

If you have proper training, there would be a lot less incidents and they wouldn’t have anything to write in the magazines. When I write about safety I talk about things that we took for granted in the old training system. Nowadays, it’s ‘new.’ I’m talking about basic airmanship, taking the correct direction on a runway, stalling, and spinning.”

on weekends. I went over to a place called Bradfield where there was a school instructing on Chinooks and I just fitted right in. I had my grade three instructor rating by then and they let me instruct.”

After 32 years flying low and fast to get the job done Kevin started to lose his enthusiasm for ag flying, though not for aviation.

He recalls his first spray job at Dalby came after a period of charter when he finally told his boss it was spraying that he really wanted to do.

“I remember that first spray job when they put me in a Pawnee again. I was lucky I was with a good, responsible company and they started me off on easy paddocks and I remember thinking here I am going over this paddock, getting paid plus a bonus for every acre I spray and I’m enjoying myself.

“I didn’t lose the enthusiasm for spraying until the late years when I was about 68 and I’d had a few close calls with powerlines. And I thought to myself, ‘what the F#$K am I doing up here?’ So that was 2012 when I started to lose enthusiasm.”

So while he retired from ag flying Kevin never gave up instructing, with the scores of RAA pilots around Gatton a testament to his skills and dedication to teaching students to be safe pilots.

“I still think getting involved in aviation is one of the greatest things a person can do. But the hard part is getting kids to be enthused. As a kid we were amazed to see two Tiger Moths land – now young people couldn’t care less.”

Kevin is firm in his ideas about how to make flying safer, borne out of his many years both flying and instructing.

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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FEATURE

Anne and Peter out for a fly.

HAPPY PAX, HAPPY PILOT! Professional ‘pax’ Anne McLean gives sage advice to pilots about keeping passengers happy.

Y

ou love your husband, (wife, son, brother, friend etc) who has gained their pilot qualifications. You are proud of their achievement, but now they want you to be their passenger and this involves moving through invisible air, above your familiar terra firma! You trust them, but they want you to totally put your life in their newly-capable hands, and in circumstances under which you have absolutely no control.

Yes, you want to fly with your new pilot, but is it wise? What about the other people in your life who depend on you? What about your own life and activities? What if?

As a long term pax (passenger to the uninitiated) of a very capable pilot with more than 30,000 hours and flying more than 100 different types of flying machine, there may be some advice I can offer.

I had only flown three times when I was asked to be a pax in an aircraft with my new partner. My idea of flying was to get from one position on the ground to another

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destination. What was this ‘fun’ component all about?

I took the plunge and together we have created many, many wonderful memories together. But it wasn’t all plain sailing to begin with!

At first I was involved in a lot of aerial film work from helicopters, Skyship 600, Cessnas, a Zling aerobatic aircraft, a C-47, a Bae 125-800 series private jet, a P3C Orion where I was either working alongside my partner or with other pilots in control of the aircraft, but under his direction. I lost any fear I may have had about actually flying during these activities. So, fear of flying, was not an issue. Over the years I have found that fear of flying, and also fear of heights (I still can’t deal with even standing on a chair!) usually aren’t the problem encountered by passengers, but fear of the unknown is.

When we bought our first trike during the 1990s we were flying from a private air-

strip in a valley where a large gumtree grew alongside the landing strip. My chauffeur, my pilot, understood the physics of it all and expected that I would too.

Sometimes when we landed it was really bumpy as we passed the tree, and other times it was very smooth. Was it my pilot causing my uneasiness? No - I just didn’t understand what was happening. One day I asked him why it was bumpy sometimes and not others. The answer was simple and easily explained: it depended on the wind direction, and whether the wind passed through the disruptive tree before it crossed the airstrip as we were landing or whether it crossed the landing strip before it was disrupted by the tree. I remarked a bit of information like that would not only make me feel more comfortable, but would also take some of the mystery and uncertainty out of flight from a passenger’s point of view. I became aware that the protector of my life was dealing with bits of information

and not just rescuing me when unseen things scared me! Just as in a car, holding the steering wheel can be much more confidence-building than sitting in a seat with no control over the outcome.

Another day, the pilot asked: “did you see those kangaroos?” Well of course I didn’t - my eyes were tightly shut because we were heading for the ground in that ‘controlled crash’ that pilots call landing.

My pilot hadn’t given a thought how I might feel about that!

After that we had a lot of ‘please explains’, and I became more and more comfortable as a passenger.

Over time I learned many pearls of wisdom: dark patches such as bitumen roads or burnt paddocks give you free lift, but canola paddocks cause sink; or never land in the paddock with one cow in it if the paddock next door has a herd of cows because the single cow is likely to be a bull and won’t appreciate your noisy arrival!

The pilot asked: “did you see those kangaroos?”

Well of course I didn’t - my eyes were tightly shut because we were heading for the ground in that ‘controlled crash’ that pilots call landing. My pilot hadn’t given a thought how I might feel about that!

Over time more wisdom was forthcoming: Mother Nature doesn’t create dead straight shadows, but man-made structures such as powerlines and masts do; you can tell the direction and strength of wind from all sorts of clues like smoke and wind on the water; hot sunny days with clear blue skies are not the best time to fly if you are flying

for fun; and if you can see an horizon, you have a way out of weather.

Now a word to pilots.

If you want a happy passenger to share your passion and make delightful memories with, you need to make it easy for them to have confidence in your piloting skills by talking about what you are doing, how SPORT PILOT | July 2018

21

Peter and Anne McClean in their military days.

to make correct communications and why radio is so important. Teach your passenger how to scan correctly because an extra pair of eyes never goes astray, and ask for simple assistance with tasks like scanning for traffic.

It is comforting to observe a careful preflight check, to hear a pre-landing check, or a practice run for a radio call and if you have a high work load in the cockpit, don’t be afraid to request “no more conversation at present please, as I am busy”. Your passenger may have no desire to become a pilot

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but planning flights together, if you both have knowledge of your aircraft needs and an idea of what the weather is doing and how not to get lost, is very rewarding.

When you are flying together, think about the comfort of your passenger. It might be fun to hotdog when you are alone, but not if you don’t give the passenger a heads up first. Explaining potential discomforts before they occur ticks your passenger’s boxes. If the discomfort doesn’t eventuate, it proves that at least you had considered the possibility and

were ready to deal with it.

I still have no desire to become a pilot, and never will, but I have taken part in my pilot’s passion. It has been a joy to be a real part of his flying journey. And while my geriatric legs are capable of being helped into a trike seat I will continue to enjoy the earth from above with him - preferably in excellent flying weather.

I have probably flown several thousand (unlogged) hours and I feel extremely privileged. Strangely, I have noticed the different feel of each design advance in our newly-acquired trikes over the years. Lately I love flying in ‘my’ new HypeR tiger. It had a hold-up on Melbourne wharf when it was brought into the country because the test pilot in the UK, who had gone through the UK equivalent of the US Top Gun school, jokingly wrote MG (military grade, or excellent) on the paperwork to describe its flying ability. Border Security got all excited about what might be in our shipping container!

So, pilots, be kind and considerate with your passenger, pick a good time to introduce them to your passion of leaving the ground, and discuss a few flying facts with nervous (or not) potential passengers and give it a go. Passengers, discuss this flying passion and ask questions of your pilot and give it a go. Flying together makes the best memories – you might learn to love it as much as I do!

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.

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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FEATURE

Pat in an RFDS King Air cockpit.

THE FULL MONTY Kids involved in RAAus are different and Patrick Montgomery is an an example why.

M

ost of us remember being 16; the worries about growing up and the annoyance about not being able to (legally) drive by yourself.

Kids involved in RAAus are different and Patrick Montgomery is an example why.

When it was still verboten for him to drive alone he was happily flying solo over the vast fields around his home town of Moree, NSW. He says that it was a great confidence boost to be able to do something few others in his immediate circle of friends could do.

“It was pretty different. Mum would drop me off at the airport and I’d jump in the aeroplane and take off by myself. It felt pretty good because it gave me a feeling of having an extra responsibility.

“Fred Nolan, my instructor, has always taught me to be thinking about what I’m going to do if something goes wrong. But I’m always feeling excited when I’m up there as well. It’s such a great view and I just take it all in.”

Patrick was one of last year’s RAAus scholarship winners and has been putting the money to good use finishing his basic RAAus pilot certificate.

“Before I received the scholarship I’d been doing flying training for about six months, so I was endorsed for my solo. It helped a lot because we’d been in drought so we were a bit low financially.”

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For her efforts as official chauffeur to the airfield, Patrick’s mum, Janelle, got the honour of being his first passenger.

“His dad Mike and I used to think it was funny when he was on his driving learner’s permit, that we would have to supervise him as he drove to the airport but then he would hop in a plane and fly away in his own,” she says.

Janelle gives a more in-depth view of the scholarship’s value to Patrick.

“The scholarship was $1500 and given we’d spent most of our savings on feed because we’d had no rain in 2013 and 14, it made a big difference to keeping Pat flying.

We’d have found a way to keep him going but it really was a massive help. We know it’s what he wants to do,” she says.

Pat’s parents realised he’d been bitten by the aviation bug, when, as a three-yearold, he’d started his own version of ground handling when his dad had to fly on RPT for work.

“He was always interested in planes. His father had a job where he was flying all the time so we were always going out to the airport to put him on a plane. I think he thought Dad owned Qantaslink!

“He used to go out with his ear muffs and ping pong bat, and this was in the days when there weren’t big fences at the airfield and he could see straight out to the

plane with no fence in front of him and he’d pretend to bring the plane in.”

That dedication led to cockpit visits from pilots at the airfield and so the path was set toward a flying future.

The first passenger flight came about just after Pat received his passenger carrying endorsement, though a week went by before the flight occurred.

“I was very busy the week after he got endorsed to carry passengers but the Friday after I met him at the airfield,” Janelle says.

“Given Mum drove me to the airfield, I wanted her to be first to come flying with me,” Patrick says.

“She met me out at the airfield and she was nervous but quite happy to do it.”

Janelle provides the other side to the story.

“I was nervous, but more about getting sick. I hadn’t been in a small plane for about 10 years and I didn’t want to get ill and spoil it for him. I wasn’t worried from a safety perspective because I trusted Fred’s judgement in certifying him in all stages of his flying.

“It was amazing. I was so excited. I kept looking at him thinking what an amazing skill that I don’t think I could ever do. I was just so proud of him. I had a big smile on my face the whole time.”

The trip’s course was governed by

Janelle’s desire to see her local environment from the air for the first time.

“I work in the cotton industry as an extension officer so I was interested to see the various farms from the air. Plus the river system from the air is amazing,” she says.

The next part of the flight involved looking over the family farm, with an added bonus arising while they looked at home from the air.

“The school bus was coming home so I said we’d better wait for your brothers and sister to get off so we can give them a wave.

We did a few circles and then we headed home.” Janelle says excitedly.

Patrick’s flying training has cast a die

that can’t be broken.

“I’ve applied to the Airforce so I’m going to have a crack at their pathway, and I’m also putting in an application to Qantas for their new pilot scheme, as well as Virgin.

“I just like doing it. It feels great when I’m in the air. I really enjoy it, which is why I’d love to do it for a living.

“My friends think it’s pretty cool and it feels pretty good to say ‘I can fly an aeroplane’. But you also feel grateful because not a lot of people can do it.

“It’s a pretty big opportunity. Some of them are pretty keen to go for a fly with me and I’ll be pretty excited to take them up some time soon.”

Proud mum Janelle with her son.

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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FEATURE

Michelle with the Bristel.

MICHELLE O’HARE; RAAUS’ YOUTH ENGAGEMENT GURU The aviation industry has been struggling to get young people involved in flying for years.

Michelle O’Hare has some ideas how to engage with youth. Mark Smith met her.

M

ichelle O’Hare is a young woman who is capable of developing programs which get youth off their iPads and into the cockpit. Her experience in promoting aviation to teens has given her some radical ideas about how to reverse the decline in pilot numbers, literally from the ground up.

“Since you don’t have many young people hanging around airfields or the local aero club you really need to make the effort to invite them in and provide a fun set of activities that first time,” she says.

“It has to be really engaging and hands on. Providing youth with an opportunity to go for a flight in a real aeroplane, in the air and not on a computer screen, can spark that passion for aviation by creating an experience which is unique and exciting.

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“Once this interest has been created it is just as important to continue engaging with those youth so that they can continue to develop their interest and involvement with aviation”.

“A great place to start is with kids as young as 10 because at that age they really haven’t made their minds up about what they want to do, and they still believe that anything is possible. They are one of the groups we need to focus on because really they are only five or six years away from being able to learn to fly, which isn’t that much of a time frame.”

The environmental scientist is RAAus’ youth ambassador, a role she sees as a perfect fit given the activities she’s currently involved in.

“Volunteering with RAAus is a really good opportunity for me because encour-

aging kids into aviation is something I’ve already been interested in for a long time,” she says.

The Sydneysider’s dreams of flying started as an eight-year-old when she had her first flight in a light aircraft at Camden.

Just over 20 years later, her spare time is consumed with finding ways of giving other young people their first experience of being airborne in personal aircraft.

“I’ve mainly been working through Girl Guides and Scouts, which is really good, but they are only a small proportion of kids who are out there. I think there are a lot of kids who would be interested if only they knew more about it. Being involved with RAAus will give me the ability to reach a lot more of those kids and offer them a safe and affordable path into flying.”

That group isn’t the only one on Mi-

Canberra aviation activity day.

“Volunteering with RAAus is a really good opportunity for me because encouraging kids into aviation is something I’ve already been interested in for a long time,” she says.

chelle’s radar in her quest to increase youth participation in aviation.

“We also need to focus on teens, particularly the 15 and 16 year olds and let them know they can learn to fly at that age.

They are shocked when they learn they can actually fly an aeroplane by themselves when they are 15. Since they can’t drive they assume flying a plane must be much harder.”

After Michelle’s introduction to flying at the age of eight her next flight was a TIF, this time at Bankstown when she was 16.

“I did my first TIF and that really cemented my desire to fly, but there was no way my parents were ever going to pay for it. That meant that I had to wait until I finished uni and started working. It was only then I started flying lessons,” she says.

“I started learning when I was 21, at the

same place at Camden where I had my first flight all those years ago. I was only going there every few weeks because that was all I could afford but then I started having more regular lessons in the second year.”

Paying for her lessons proved every bit as challenging for Michelle as it does for most young people who decide they just have to fly. But like those who have gone before, she found ways to earn enough to keep her dream alive.

“The first year I started learning I had a summer job doing environmental work as I was finishing uni, plus I was working in before and after school care. After that I had a full time job so I made finishing my pilot’s licence a priority. At that stage everything I was earning was going into flying.”

Michelle has had her PPL for six years

now, and while she says she may do her commercial licence one day, her goal at the moment is to simply fly for the fun of it while accumulating endorsements.

“I’m doing aerobatics and emergency manoeuver training at the Australian Aerobatic Academy at Bankstown at the moment. That’s a challenge I know will also help make me a safer pilot.”

Interestingly she isn’t the first pilot in her family.

“My mum and dad used to fly before I was born, but when they had kids they stopped flying so I guess that also helped encourage me. My dad learned to fly in Sydney and my mum in Victoria. They are still interested in aviation and come to a lot of my events.

“I’m a member at Bathurst Aero Club where I was awarded Pilot of the Year SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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in 2016 and 2017. I really enjoy being a member as everyone is very welcoming and they run a great program of interesting activities both in the air and on the ground.

My mum also comes along and joins in with the activities.”

Michelle’s involvement at Bathurst led her into RAAus flying.

“I have started training for my RAAus pilot conversion at Bathurst with Central West Flying School on one of their Bristell’s.

It’s an awesome aeroplane, affordable and proof that RAAus aircraft are every bit as good as traditional GA airframes.”

Michelle’s work as an environmental scientist and her love of powered flight is seen by some of her friends from uni as a bit of contradiction.

“A lot of my friends from uni, who studied environmental science, were surprised that I fly given it’s not the sort of thing you’d normally associate with an environmental person. But they are all very supportive. I’ve taken a few of them flying and they’ve all loved it. Seeing Australia’s unique landscapes from the air has also helped to enhance my understanding of our unique environments.”

Michelle is convinced that getting more young people exposed to aviation is the key to getting them off their screens and into the cockpit.

“I really believe offering kids the chance to be involved in aviation is one of the best things we can do to promote what we love to do. Kids have so many different things they can do today that, given aviation is something completely different, it’s important they get the opportunity to be introduced to it because in their eyes it is an activity that is out of reach and unachievable. We need to give them the knowledge that it’s far from that.

“Even now when people find out that I fly, they are surprised that an everyday person can just learn to fly and then go anywhere they want in an aeroplane just as a hobby. I think if more people knew about flying when they were younger you’d probably get more people involved.”

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POST ER

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.

TRAINING PHOTOS: MARK SMITH

DON’T TOUCH, JUST FLOAT AND GO! RAAus director Luke Bayly passes on some sage advice about preventing runway loss of control incidents.

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t must be the amount of time spent in aircraft or the fact that they are supermen with their undies on the outside that allows your CFI to gently touch down on the runway every time. While the first part may be true, the devil is in the detail where instructors have spent a lot of time in the critical phase of the landing sequence - and that is where the secret to beautiful landings hide.

In my experience, most pilots come in to land by pulling back the power over the fence and letting the aircraft fall on to the runway with about a two to five second window in the transition period between flying straight and level and being on the ground. This is how I was trained; that the landing should be power off once over the fence and hence a foregone conclusion that you would touch down as soon as the aircraft stopped floating down the runway.

This type of sequence leaves very little time for the student to experience handling techniques during the critical phase, allowing a maximum of 50 seconds total during a one

hour (10 circuit) session.

I met James Hubbard from RPA to complete a check-ride in his Jabiru LSA after relocating from Queensland back to home in South Australia. I had already scoped out the flying scene in Murray Bridge and while I had tried to get in touch with another school, the schedules worked for me to take a spur of the moment flight with James and test out the ever-popular Jabiru series of aircraft.

Before the flight we completed the customary checks of licences, currency and the date of my latest BFR and then we got down to the business of talking about the aircraft type and some of its handling characteristics.

Being a long and sleek wing, I had expected some serious efficiency from the Jabiru but was stunned to watch a previous student chew up at least half of the runway trying to get it on the ground. When I questioned James about it, his response was that this is how his students learn the critical phase of the landing sequence and

prevent or reduce the risk of a Runway Loss of Control (RLOC) event.

Most people agree that one of the highest mental loads for a pilot is the couple of seconds just before the aircraft settles on to the ground, and that this is probably one of the more important aspects that should be learned and practiced.

James had thought about how RLOC was occurring and realised that a hangover from GA training in the heavier aircraft had crept into RAAus when we talk about an aircraft settling onto the runway. The GA planes are far heavier and carry much more momentum during the landing sequence and so this is an accurate term for them however due to the lower MTOW of our planes, when the power gets shut off, they do not carry the same degree of momentum and hence are more prone to fall faster onto the runway.

The RLOC scenario can occur for many different reasons, however the key in each is the loss of control. While this may seem obvious, do we practice as pilots what SPORT PILOT | July 2018

29

inputs to provide at this critical point if we have a small gust of cross wind or a thermal off the tarmac creating lift followed by an abrupt sink? The easiest way to learn to control this is simply not to land at all.

The basic idea for the training manoeuvre is to complete the circuit as per your normal sequence but on the final transition from descent to landing, apply a small amount of power and hold the aircraft off the runway for as long as possible. By feeding in the power you will be able to arrest the descent, enter ground effect and maintain that slow flight at approach speed (65-70kts for the Jabiru LSA) and float yourself down the runway.

If you feel yourself starting to rise, then reduce the power. If you feel yourself starting to wander off track of the centreline, then apply some rudder and always keep your wings level. As to the effect of practicing this manoeuvre, I was stunned when my first landing in the Jabiru resulted in an absolutely butter-smooth touch down with almost no bump at all. While the technique had sounded good in theory, applied in

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

practice this had worked instantly!

For those with a keen eye, you will note that in my description of the moment between descent and landing I used the word transition instead of the common vernacular of flare. This is completely intentional as I have found that this minor change in language has improved my landings as I no longer approach the landing as a well-timed yank on the stick to arrest the descent and wash off speed, but instead transition from the descent to straight and level flight.

I cannot claim credit for this idea as it has been discussed in other aviation forums before, but it is certainly something worth going though and re-training ourselves that instead of using the word flare, that we change to the word transition.

The exercise of the long float is best enjoyed with an instructor who can safely keep you maintained on the runway for the extended period of time as well as to help you work through the control inputs to counteract the environmental factors. It would also be advised to select a runway of

suitable length so that you have plenty of time to experience this manoeuvre and then safely apply power to climb out before the fence becomes a visible obstacle.

At the end of the day, this is precision flying at its best as being able to maintain a set speed, set height and track a centreline will test all of your skills as a pilot and put you in a better position to handle the day when a gust of wind blows you on track to becoming another RLOC statistic.

Ops comment: Luke has written about an area that Ops commonly see over-represented in accident statistics, Runway – Loss of Control accidents. Any technique that improves a pilot’s management of slow speed flight and aircraft control is worth practicing and as Luke states above, make sure you try this with an instructor if not confident.

Check the April 2018 article from Ops about practicing management of the aircraft in slow speed flight safely at altitude and remember the stall recovery technique used at altitude is carried into management of a go-around if the landing is not occurring as the pilot wants.

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

31

FEATURE By: MARK SMITH

AIRVENTURE 2018

IT’S TIME TO GET BUSY LIVING, WHICH MEANS GET BUSY FLYING

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ustralia is a big country, with miles of open space that just begs to be flown over. Whether you live in Carnarvon or Cairns, Geelong or Gundagai, if you fly, or have an interest in all things general aviation then this will be the place to be.

So, what’s your excuse for missing AirVenture 2018? Can’t think of one? Good.

Pull your finger out and start planning.

Cessnock is pretty easy to find anyway.

David Young is the event director and says the move to the Hunter Valley was brought about largely by the success of the event at Narromine.

“The reasons for the move were really threefold: we needed access to better accommodation as the event got bigger, we wanted to present the event closer to the aviation community, which is predominantly on the eastern seaboard, and we wanted a spot that would attract not only pilots but their partners to attend.

Cessnock, being a tourist area, means there are plenty of things for non-aviation

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

partners to do.

“The Hunter Valley has lots of wineries, local artists and even an international standard golf course.”

David says the other important factor was having a venue on a main transport corridor making it easy for people to travel via RPT through Newcastle or Sydney with an easy drive to Cessnock.

AirVenture will run over three days with Thursday and Friday being ‘trade days’ with seminars and workshops aimed at pilots of all levels of experience. Renowned Red Bull Air Race pilot Matt Hall will run a major safety seminar and on Saturday, Air Vice Marshal John Blackburn (retd) will hold a seminar on spinning. In a wide-ranging career in the RAAF AVM Blackburn was a test pilot at the Aircraft Research and Development Unit at Edinburgh, as well as holding senior postings with 77sqn as XO and later CO, flying F/A-18s. He is still a keen glider pilot and holds both GA and RAAus instructor ratings.

Organisers are also hoping to hold an

aircraft auction on the Friday, as well as a night market at the Crowne Plaza hotel.

“There will also be a range of entertainment at the venue for partners and kids and there will be a gala dinner on Saturday to top the event off,” David says.

“The main aim is to bring everyone together where they can touch, feel, talk and learn more about aviation and to experience the camaraderie that comes when a group of pilots get together.”

RAAus Chairman Michael Monck echoes David’s sentiment about AirVenture providing an opportunity to unite the various aviation groups at one event.

“We see AirVenture as a way of enjoying all the great aspects of flying that unites us.

“At the end of the day we all love to fly and attending AirVenture is a great chance to see what the various disciplines in recreational aviation are up to.”

Parachute Federation of Australia president Brad Turner is equally enthusiastic about the potential for AirVenture to help

unite recreational aviation.

“We will be there mixing it with like-minded people and associations. It’s about promoting all sectors of aviation. We play a bigger part in aviation than people realise.

It’s not just about jumping out of aeroplanes because we have to use planes and pilots to get high enough to jump,” he says.

Brad is keen to point out that a modern parachute is designed for more than just arresting the jumper’s descent from freefall.

“Time under canopy is great fun; it’s not just a means of saving your life. You can get a lot of pleasure out of flying the canopy and lots of people are now doing relative canopy work where you fly your parachute in formation with someone else. It’s a growing discipline. Then there are others who get a lot of speed up and manoeuvre low to the ground, scooting across lakes or between pylons. They really are aviators.”

The airshow on Saturday will feature military aircraft from the RAAF in addition to warbirds and a showcase of everything that is good about recreational aviation.

David says he’s hoping for a big turnout given the current minister responsible for aviation Mark McCormack has said he’ll attend, as will current CASA head Shane Carmody.

“This is a showcase of everything that is great about aviation and we really need everyone to get behind the event to send the message that flying is safe and fun.”

AirVenture 2018 will be held at Cessnock Airfield on September 20, 21 and 22.

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

33

PHOTOS: MARK SMITH

JIM’S NIEUPORT ‘BEBE’: A SMALL REPLICA THAT HELPS TELL A BIG STORY Mark Smith meets the builder of a replica WWI fighter that honours the knights of the sky.

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ribute bands and performers have become a part of life as singers that have departed this world are brought back to audiences via talented musicians who reinvent the magic of their famous subjects. Fans flock to their concerts to relive an era in music now lost to them in original form.

Tribute aeroplanes are much rarer, which is why Jim Gollagher’s 7/8th scale Nieuport 11 ‘Bebe’ is an important link between the men who flew and fought in the Great War more than 100 years ago, and today when the mists of time blur our understanding of

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

the bravery of these young aviators.

Jim’s interest in early aviation was initially sparked by his involvement with The Australian Vintage Aviation Society, (TAVAS) which he joined not long after Andrew Carter formed the organisation .

“I have always been fascinated by early aviation. They were the bravest men by a mile. It’s often said that the Sopwith Camel killed more pilots in training than the Germans killed in combat!” he says.

When it came to the colour scheme Jim chose one he’d seen in a history book, though he didn’t research the significance

of that individual aircraft at the time.

“I was always going to dedicate my Nieuport to the pilots of WWI but not long ago I made a discovery that brings even more value to the place this type of aircraft holds in Australian military history,” he says.

Major Roderic Dallas was an Australian flying with the British Royal Flying Corps in 1916 when he scored his second victory flying Nieuport 11 no 3982, the same as depicted on Jim’s aeroplane. Major Dallas went on to score 39 kills, making his the second highest tally of an Australian pilot in WWI. Sadly he was killed on June 1, 1918, the

FEATURE

same day he was promoted to Lt Colonel and ordered to cease flying. He’d taken off in the early morning on patrol and never saw the message.

“I had no idea about the history of this aircraft number until I met author Adrian Hellwig at the Caboolture airshow and he was able to fill me about the details. That information will be going on to my information board that I display with the aircraft.”

Jim purchased his Nieuport as a project from Rick Hull in Sydney. The basic fuselage was complete, as were the wings, but Jim’s desire to put his own stamp on the aircraft saw a number of changes occur.

“I did a lot of modifications to make it a very benign tailwheel aircraft. He’d built the wings and the tail but I took it quite a few steps back and rebuilt the main planes, putting stronger spars in. I changed the undercarriage design to make it a bit more scale-like but also make it more user friendly and I rebuilt the engine and the redrive, given that’s what I do for a living. Then as an extra challenge I built the propeller from scratch.

“All in all I spent three years building it after I bought the project.”

Building an aeroplane is one thing, flying it is quite another.

“My first flight in the Nieuport was interesting. I had my eyes glued to the windscreen and they were as big as saucers.

I wasn’t scared but I was alert. It’s like instructing. You learn to think on your feet and doing a first flight is no different.

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

35

“It was very confronting, even though I’d flown three or four hours in other Nieuports. I chose Watts Bridge for the initial test flights because it has wide open spaces, with lots of paddocks if I had an engine issue, plus there is a low traffic volume.”

Even though a Nieuport is small it doesn’t mean some aspects of tailwheel aircraft don’t spoil the view forward.

“The view out of the front is non-existent so weaving is vital to make sure an obstacle doesn’t become an unwanted part of the airframe,” he said.

Lined up and there were no more excuses.

“I suspected it’d track straight because of the modifications I’d made, though I didn’t take that for granted after my previous experiences with other taildraggers.

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

With no brakes I knew that if it started to get out of track on the ground the usual practice of just cutting the throttle wouldn’t work because I’d lose all airflow over the rudder.

“I kept the tail low until I felt the mains get light, eased the stick forward and it went up like an elevator. I was a bit slow so I pushed the nose down and it just flew sweetly. The landing was the same. I held a bit of power until what I thought was the right height over the runway and slowly eased it back. It was the best landing I’ve done.”

After a few hours in his Nieuport Jim feels a lot more comfortable flying his creation, even handling crosswinds that would challenge more modern aeroplanes.

It’s worth reflecting on Jim’s journey

into recreational aviation because it gives an insight into the varied paths RAAus pilots have followed to their passion.

Like many pilots it all started with model aeroplanes.

“When I was a young fellow my uncle had quite a few unused control model aircraft under his house, which I would go and play with because they fascinated me. Then when I was around 12 my uncle got them going again and I started flying models with him.

“I did some competing in control line aerobatics but that eventually took a back seat to my other interest of motor racing. I always knew when I got through the racing bug that I’d learn how to fly but that took a few more years than I thought it would.”

After Jim left school his racing career took off and he became Queensland national dirt bike champion in his age group.

Then a bad crash in 1987 saw him shift from bikes to speedway cars which he raced for 20 years. Another crash in 2007 saw him decide to finally take the plunge and reignite his interest in aviation.

“I had my last speedway race in January 2007, which ended in a bad crash, so as I was recovering at home I decided I was going to start flying lessons.

“I did my first lesson in December 2007 with Kevin Walters at Kentville, near Gatton. That was in a Drifter. I’ve done all my training and endorsements in the Drifter except for my formation and senior instructors rating.”

While he is extremely keen on the Drifter as a training aeroplane, he admits the unique configuration of the pilot’s seat can be confronting to ab initio students.

“Learning was interesting because flying in the front seat of a Drifter can be confronting. People either love it because of the completely open feel, or they hate it. Thankfully I loved it. It’s such a great stick and rudder aeroplane, with lots of adverse yaw so you have to be good with your feet. I’ve done a lot of instructing in them now and they really teach a student the importance of co-ordination as well as energy control because of their low weight and high drag.”

Jim’s other aeroplane is at the very opposite end of the RAA spectrum and yet it also holds a special place in his aviation affections.

“Someone I knew had a Geoff Eastwood Tyro, which they were going to throw away. I decided to take it on and completely rebuild it. Now it’s a great aeroplane to just cruise around in on a calm evening. It’s an absolute joy to fly.”

Whether it’s helping keep the memory of the brave pilots who fought for the cause of freedom a century ago, instructing the next generation of pilots at Caboolture, or looking for another project to rebuild, Jim Gollagher is an enthusiast who is leading the recreational aviation movement by example. That’s something we can all learn something from.

Jim Gollagher’ with his 7/8th scale Nieuport 11 ‘Bebe’ SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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MAINTENANCE

TWO-STROKE ENGINES EXPLAINED RAAus national technical manager Darren Barnfield gives us the ins and out of two-strokes.

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wo- stroke aviation engines evolved from two-stroke snowmobile and watercraft engines, the difference being that an aircraft engine is optimised for reliability with dual ignition often installed for each cylinder. Two-stroke engines are popular because they have fewer components than four-stroke engines which makes them less expensive to manufacture and lighter, thus increasing the power-to-weight ratio.

Two-stroke engines require that oil be mixed into the fuel to lubricate the engine, instead of being held in a sump and requiring a separate pressurised recirculating system like that of a four-stroke engine.

Details on two-stroke oil mixing are covered

in the lubrication section. The first stroke as the piston moves up is intake and compression, while the second stroke as the piston moves down is power and exhaust.

The two-stroke engine performs the same functions as a four-stroke engine in half the number of strokes.

A wide range of valve systems, which open and close ports in the cylinder to let fuel in and out at the proper time, are found on two-stroke engines. This is similar to the intake and exhaust valves on a fourstroke engine. One-way pressure valves, called spring, reed, or poppet valves, open when the pressure drops within the crankcase, pulling the fuel from the carburettor into the crankcase.

Figure 4-4: Reed valve is open with low pressure and closes when the pressure increases in a two-stroke engine.

Mechanical rotary valves driven off the engine rotate to provide an opening at the precise time, and can be on the intake and exhaust ports.

Two stroke liquid cooled engine.

Figure 4-5. Intake rotary valve for a two-stroke engine.

Four stroke liquid cooled engine.

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

Piston porting does not use any valves.

The piston, as it moves up and down in the cylinder, opens and closes the fuel inlet port.

This is called a “piston ported inlet� and is used in the two-stroke process description that follows.

TWO-STROKE PROCESS The two-stroke process begins with the fuel entering the engine and concludes as it exits as exhaust.

Crankcase Vacuum Intake Stroke—Piston Moving Up The upward stroke of the piston [Figure 4-6A] creates a vacuum in the crankcase and pulls the fuel/air/oil mixture into the crankcase through the intake valve system from the carburettor. [Figure 4-6B] This can be a pressure-actuated reed valve, a rotary valve, or a ported inlet system where the lower piston skirt provides an opening for the fuel/air/oil mixture to flow in when the piston is reaching its highest point of top dead centre (TDC). At this point, the greatest portion of the fuel/oil/air mixture has filled the crankcase.

Crankcase Compression Stroke—Piston Moving Down During the downward stroke, the pressure valve is forcibly closed by the increased crankcase pressure, the mechanical rotary valve closes, or the piston closes off the fuel/air oil mixture intake port as shown.

The fuel/oil/air mixture is then compressed in the crankcase during the downward stroke of the piston.

[Figures 4-6B to 4-6D]

Figure 4-6. Piston-ported inlet cycles for a two-stroke engine.

Crankcase Lowest

Transfer/Exhaust—Piston

at

When the piston is near the bottom of its stroke, the transfer port opening from the crankcase to the combustion chamber is exposed, and the high pressure fuel/air mixture in the crankcase transfers around the piston into the main cylinder. This fresh fuel/oil/air mixture pushes out the exhaust (called scavenging) as the piston is at its lowest point and the exhaust port is open.

Some of the fresh fuel/oil/air mixture can escape through the exhaust port, resulting in the higher fuel use of the two-stroke engine. [Figure 4-6D]

Cylinder Start of Compression Stroke—Piston Initially Moving Up

As the piston starts to move up, covering the transfer port, the tuned exhaust bounces a pressure wave at the precise time across the exhaust port to minimize the fuel/air/oil mixture escaping through the exhaust port. [Figure 4-6E]

Cylinder Compression Stroke—Piston Moving Up

The piston then rises and compresses the fuel mixture in the combustion chamber.

[Figure 4-6E to 4-6F] During this process, the crankcase vacuum intake process is happening simultaneously, as described earlier.

This is why four processes can happen in two strokes. [Figures 4-6B and 4-6C]

Cylinder Power Stroke—Initial Piston Moving Down At the top of the stroke, the spark plug ignites the fuel/oil/air mixture and drives the piston down as the power stroke of the engine. [Figures 4-6F and 4-6G]

Cylinder Power Stroke—Final Piston Moving Down As the piston passes the exhaust port, the exhaust exits the combustion chamber.

As the piston continues down, the transfer port opens and the swirling motion of the fuel/ oil/air mixture pushes the exhaust out of the exhaust port.[Figures 4-6H]

Piston Reverses Direction From Down Stroke to Up STROKE As the piston reverses direction from the down stroke to the up stroke, the process is complete. [Figures 4-6H and 4-6A] SPORT PILOT | July 2018

39

FLYING TRAINING

AEROCHUTES – TWIN BROTHERS LEARN THE GENTLE ART

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Nicholas Gibbons left - Matt Gibbons right.

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

ibling rivalry is a real thing. The closer in age the kids, the more intense it can be. So when twins Matt and Nicholas Gibbons learned to fly Aerochutes a couple of years after their father did, the game was on as to who would solo first.

Under the careful instruction of Aerochute owner Steve Conte, the brothers learned the gentle art of flying these most simple of aircraft.

Matt’s confidence was rewarded when he was sent off on his own a couple of hours before Nick. Of course this granted bragging rights.

“I had told him I’d win. I knew I was better,” Matt says.

“When it happened I let him know. I gave him a bit of a nudge.”

Such are the battles between brothers, though the interesting thing for this aviation family is that the boys’ father, Peter, and their sister Rebeccah actually learned to fly Aerochutes two years before the twins were allowed.

Peter had flown hang gliders and sailplanes years earlier but had given it away when the pressure of a young family ate into his available time and money. A number of years passed until he saw Aero-

STORY AND PHOTOS: MARK SMITH

chutes on TV. Then one flew over his home near Bacchus Marsh in Victoria and he decided he had to look into operating one further. After his trial instructional flight he was hooked.

“I was attracted to the simplicity of them. You transport them on a small trailer, it doesn’t take long to get it ready for flight, it’s certainly not expensive and it’s very safe.”

Rebeccah was 15 when Peter started learning to fly, and she decided she wanted to learn as well. At that point the twins were 13 and too young to join in.

“Becky learned and she got her passenger endorsement so we used to fly together a bit.”

Instructor Stephen Conte takes up the story. “Teaching the twins was an exciting time. Their sister had already learned two years earlier, and they were jealous, as 13-years-olds can be. But they had to wait,” Steve says.

“I had actually forgotten about them, and then I received a phone call from Peter saying the boys had turned 15 and were ready to start learning.”

Steve found the twins were a bit nervous at the start, but once they had spent a bit

of time in the air going through the basics it began to come together for them.

“It was a matter of getting them to focus on the task at hand. But when they weren’t flying they were pretty typical 15-year-old boys, having a go at each other all the time!”

For Nicholas, the decision to take up flying was a simple one.

“Well, Dad flies as does my sister. So I decided I wanted to join the family and do it as well.

“Now that I can fly it’s just so great being up there on a clear morning.”

Matt has pretty much the same take on it.

“Seeing Dad learn a couple of years ago opened up my eyes to flying so I was keen to have a go when I was old enough.”

Neither of the twins are committed to following a career in aviation, rather they are just happy to enjoy the freedom of being airborne in the family’s ‘Hummerchute’.

“I’ll just see where it takes me,” says Nick as the familiar sound of two-stroke Rotax filters across the flying field.

“Right now I’m more than happy to fly around on nice mornings enjoying the view,” says Matt.

Despite being shown pictures, the boys’ friends haven’t expressed much interest in joining them for a flight in the Hummerchute.

“My friends don’t even know what an Aerochute is,” says Nick.

“Their response in normally ‘what is that?’ They haven’t shown much enthusiasm for coming up.”

Getting information out of teenagers can be difficult but Peter offers an insight into the boy’s enthusiasm for learning to fly.

“They’d talk excitedly on the way home from flying about what they’d done as they progressed through their training.

“When they were ready to solo they didn’t blink an eye, but just went off and did it,” Steve adds.

Aerochutes are administered by RAAus and like all sectors of recreational aviation are growing in popularity.

“We’re still getting more and more people interested in it,” Steve says.

“With the Hummerchute that has extra power, we’ve got the ability to take up nearly 250 kilos with the pilot and passenger. It just gives an owner a good way to take up the people and introduce them to this simple form of aviation.”

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

41

FEATURE

QUICKSILVER MX – THE DAWN OF THE AGE OF LSA We’ve come a long way in light sport aviation. Mark Smith begins an occasional series detailing the aircraft that were the birth of our industry.

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hose of us over 50 who have been involved in aviation from their teens will remember them; the so-called ‘minimum aircraft’ that were built in garages from aluminium tube, sailcloth and braided cable, largely as one-offs with the goal of flying for minimal cost. The engines were usually stolen from a discarded Victa mower.

In the late 1970s things began to change and industries sprang up creating much safer versions of the homebuilt designs. In the US the powered Quicksilver was a derivative of a weight-shift hang glider that was aimed at people living in the flatlands of America who needed

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

a self-launching glider. By 1982 it had evolved into a genuine powered aircraft, the MX, first having two axis controls with roll being achieved via rudder control via the stick combined with a large amount of dihedral, and then evolving to have spoilers on the upper wing surface controlled from what would normally be rudder pedals. A later model, the MX Sprint and Sport, had 2/3 span ailerons.

Nigel Brown owns a 1982 MX that he bought as a replacement for his Swifter, a fully enclosed Drifter, around five years ago. The engine in the Swifter needed a rebuild so his Quicksilver was supposed to be a way of getting his flying fix while the

Swifter’s engine was in the shop. But his priorities changed.

“It’s an original MX 2 powered by a 503 Rotax. I haven’t managed to get around to fixing the Swifter because I’m having too much fun with this,” he says after flying in to Gatton Airpark.

“You can virtually get in and out of anywhere.”

Watching Nigel arrive at Gatton is a display of just what basic flying is all about. The sight of his aircraft on finals causes many conversations to pause as the insect-like aircraft bounces around in the light chop. It’s obvious Nigel has a lot of experience in the aircraft as he touches

PHOTOS: MARK SMITH

Nigel Brown with his Quicksilver MX

down smoothly despite a slight crosswind.

Nigel’s decision to learn to fly was unusual.

“I was riding horses and the last few times I came off I decided to get into something safer and I ended up training with Kevin Walters in 1993 or 1994.

“This is my third aeroplane. My first was a double skin Quicksilver, then I bought the Swifter and when the engine died on that one I bought this.”

Looking at the design it’s easy to see the flying characteristics would be different to more modern LSA’s, but Nigel says it’s a pleasure to fly.

“This was the first successful ultralight sold in kit form. I think they sold something like 14,000 worldwide. It’s a really great plane,” he says.

“It’s very hands on, very basic but very safe because you are flying so slowly. I used to have an airspeed indicator but I didn’t trust it so now I just fly by the feeling of the

wind. I’ve been flying it for so long now I can feel what speed I’m doing.”

“It is absolutely the type of aircraft every pilot should have a fly of at least once. It’s flying at its most basic, yet can teach a lot of skills that people don’t have these days.”

Despite the sales success of the various designs, the company has been through a few owners. For the past 14 years Bert Moonen has been the local dealer for Quicksilver and despite a problem with the last company that was manufacturing the aircraft going broke, he says a new owner has picked up the mantle and the aircraft will be around for some time to come.

“One of the biggest Quicksilver dealers in the US (who has already been selling aftermarket QS bits) has bought nearly all of the company parts and assets at auction and so he’s going to become ‘Mr Quicksilver’,” Bert says.

“He’s still dealing with the intellectual property issues but in the meantime he can sell kits and parts. That means if someone orders a Quicksilver Sport 2S or MXL I can get it for them.”

Bert says despite the problems with the parent company, about 90 per cent of parts for the Quicksilver GT400 and GT500 are available, and the new Mr Quicksilver has obtained the remaining machinery and dies and drawings from storage sheds in LA to be able to make the final parts required.

“For myself and the other serious dealers around the world, being a Quicksilver dealer is more than just selling aircraft. It is embracing the history and the Quicksilver legend, and fulfilling the needs, enquiries and questions from the very large Quicksilver family in all parts of the globe,” he says.

“In Australia there are hundreds of MX and MXL’s in the back of sheds on farms, and I get the occasional call from their owners asking for bits to get them back in the air. At one stage, back in the 1970s, the dealer at the time was selling 10 to 15 kits a month. I would estimate there would have to be 400 or more of the MX series, and the GT400s and 500s another 200 or more.

“The typical buyer and flyer of Quicksilver aircraft are GA pilots who just want to get back to just basic grass roots fun flying, or new flyers who want to get into entry level low cost flying”.

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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NEWS FROM THE OPS TEAM

CONTROLLED AIRSPACE ACCESS – THE FIRST MILESTONE IS COMPLETE

R

AAus is proud to announce to members the completion of the first milestone of the planned four stage process to allow RAAus pilots to access controlled airspace.

This step recognised the issue related to RAAus members who were trained at RAAus Flight Training Schools (FTS) in Class D or C airspace under a CASA Instrument. Previously once this training was complete, they were no longer permitted to operate in that airspace.

Working collaboratively with CASA Sport, we are pleased to announce progressive changes to these Instruments which will permit RAAus pilots to privately hire a FTS aircraft and operate into and out of the specific airspace related in to the RAAus FTS. There are a number of specific requirements, which are outlined in detail below, which in general terms include the RAAus pilot being trained and assessed at the nominated RAAus FTS, requiring the CFI to make a notation in the pilot’s logbook to confirm their competence in the airspace

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and only that specific airspace.

This change has been possible due to the diligence and thoroughness of the CFIs operating at the 13 RAAus FTS under CASA issued Instruments at locations across the country, and the open reporting culture and professional responses received from RAAus pilots and instructors operating in the airspace who have reported incidents and undertaken retraining if required.

Specific requirements are:

Aircraft

The exemptions will apply in relation to a “FTS aeroplane”, which is defined to be an aircraft of the kind mentioned in subsection 1 of CAO 95.55, that is available for use for flying training by the FTS at a controlled aerodrome, and that is maintained by a person authorised by the FTS. The intention of the definition is to limit the exemption to operations in aircraft that are under the control of the FTS and to prevent, for example, the use of any aircraft that might be used from time to time by the FTS for its flying training activities.

Instructor

Appropriate CASA licence, medical standard and airspace endorsement must be held by each instructor.

Student

The student must hold the appropriate CASA medical standard and before being approved for solo, must have a logbook entry certifying their competence for solo flights in controlled airspace in addition to local aerodrome and radio procedures.

Pilots

Once certified, the RAAus Pilot Certificate holder must still meet all requirements noted to enable them to privately hire an FTS aircraft.

Medical standard

Students, pilots and instructors operating at the FTS must hold the appropriate respective CASA issued Class 1, Class 2 or RAMP-C Medical Certificate.

Aircraft

The aircraft must be a factory built LSA or Type Certified aircraft fitted with a transponder if required for the airspace, with instruments calibrated appropriately and

all manufacturer’s maintenance conducted by a RAAus approved maintainer (L2), authorised by the FTS.

Training

The instrument imposes a condition on the FTS to ensure that, before any particular pilot first operates an FTS aircraft in controlled airspace, its CFI provides practical flight training and assessment to the pilot regarding the local procedures at the aerodrome for the use of controlled airspace. The subsection also requires the FTS to ensure that the CFI makes specified notations in the pilot’s logbook before the pilot’s first flight in the airspace, covering the training on local procedures, the CFI’s authorisation for the flight, and the attainment of the particular competencies under the Part 61 MOS.

Accident reporting requirements

In the event of an accident or incident and in addition to the established ATSB and RAAus reporting requirements, the FTS is responsible for reporting any accidents or incidents to CASA via SPORT@ casa.gov.au

S

Documentary requirements

The FTS must maintain and retain records of operations conducted under the Instrument, and allow CASA to audit the records upon request.

A letter of support from RAAus along with a letter of support from the Unit Tower Supervisor of the aerodrome must be provided to CASA as part of the initial application and any reissue.

Limitations

Students and pilots operating at a nominated RAAus FTS under a CASA issued Instrument of exemption may only operate at that specific location. In other words, the ability to operate in controlled airspace is limited to the location noted in the Instrument and all flights must be under the oversight and with the approval of the CFI of the RAAus FTS, using the FTS aircraft only.

Pilots may depart and return to the specified airspace, but cannot operate in any other controlled airspace.

To summarise

This initial access is a major step for RAAus members, allowing access to flight

ince writing this article, our e-news has been sent to members advising of this important first step which has been, in the main, positively received. We have had a few additional questions and our responses to those along with some FAQs are summarised below.

meant to represent the structure of controlled airspace access as an end game.

The outcome RAAus is committed to is obviously to provide access to controlled airspace for all RAAus pilots in their own aircraft, provided the aircraft comply with controlled airspace requirements.

Q. What are the four phases?

Phase 1. Access to airspace. Pilots who were already trained in controlled airspace (under CASA issued Instrument).

(Completed) Phase 2. Additional schools in controlled airspace to provide training and private hire of FTS aircraft (under CASA issued Instrument) Phase 3. Gap analysis and assurance to CASA of all RAAus instructors controlled airspace training processes at any RAAus location, if the school chooses to train for controlled airspace.

Phase 4. Training of all RAAus pilots at any RAAus approved location for access to all controlled airspace The intention of the first phase was to address a major disparity for those RAAus pilots who were trained at RAAus schools in Class D and C. Currently, those schools approved in controlled airspace represent combined CASA and RAAus schools. This resulted in 700 RAAus students having been issued with a RAAus Pilot Certificate (RPC) and these members were then prevented from any further flights in that airspace due to the wording of CASA issued Instruments of the time. The first phase addresses this absurdity and is not

Q. Does this mean I can access CTA in my aircraft?

This first step only permits controlled airspace access to RPC holders relative to the specific Class D or C aerodrome the pilot was trained and approved at, which is not therefore open access to any and all airspace. This is a measure intended to provide assurance to CASA of the professionalism, quality of training, and rigorous procedures of our pilots.

At the moment, unless the pilot also holds current CASA qualifications, RAAus members can only access controlled airspace using these CASA issued Instruments at approved RAAus Flight Training Schools.

Having said that, we must remember controlled airspace is where the “big boys” play and CASA requires assurance our pilots are correctly and safely trained to share this increasingly congested airspace. Transiting controlled airspace was never an outcome RAAus sought. Just like you can’t get half wet in a rainstorm, you can’t be approved to transit controlled airspace; you are either trained to enter and utilise all the airspace including landing at the aerodrome, or you are not trained.

operations closer to major metropolitan airports and cities, along with having RAAus members provide evidence to CASA and industry of the maturity and professionalism of RAAus members.

While this permits controlled airspace operations only in RAAus FTS aircraft, members can be assured RAAus continues to work with CASA Sport to further access to controlled airspace. Additionally, RAAus is working closely with the Department of Defence to further expand access to active military restricted airspace as part of our planned controlled airspace access. Finally, RAAus is also committed to progressing the proposed increase in Maximum TakeOff Weight for members’ aircraft to an eventual 1500kg.

Don’t forget however, that this extended privilege will not affect those RAAus members who choose to operate simple, lightweight RAAus aircraft away from controlled airspace. RAAus remains committed to ensuring these additional operations will not place any additional demands on those members.

The second phase will allow any new RAAus school in controlled airspace (in addition to the 13 currently providing training) to begin training RAAus pilots in controlled airspace and at the time of writing this response on June 8, two CFIs have already contacted RAAus Operations to begin the application process, further broadening the access to controlled airspace for RAAus members.

The third phase and fourth phases are the end game of broadening access to all RAAus schools (including those who don’t operate in controlled airspace routinely now) across Australia, to address exactly the issue you raise - that not all pilots operate in controlled airspace all the time. This requires a CASA-approved RAAus program of assessing the controlled airspace procedures and training of the instructors. These approved instructors then provide controlled airspace training to any RAAus pilot, even though the school may not operate routinely in controlled airspace. This is where the open access for all RAAus pilots will be implemented and it is based on the preceding steps providing assurance to CASA and the aviation industry that we (RAAus) can safely operate in controlled airspace.

This will require amendment to legislation such as Civil Aviation Orders 95.55, 95.32 and 95.10, which are major projects which require CASA to allocate legal, administrative, flight standards and airworthiness staff. Hence the four phases,

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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which allow some milestones along the way.

It was also RAAus and CASA assessment that the increase in MTOW proposal actually contained common areas of benefit to the controlled airspace process, which has resulted in some adjustment of timeframes for controlled airspace.

In terms of requirements, aircraft have to be maintained appropriately, including instrument calibrations, have approved engines (no automotive conversions), the instructors have to attain a required standard and finally the pilot has to be trained for all airspace requirements.

RAAus has no intention of requiring extra hoops to jump through or requiring additional regulations, however the minimum controlled airspace requirements required by any pilot will obviously have to be met

by RAAus pilots.

Q. Can I now fly in controlled airspace in a RAAus aircraft?

Only if you are in a RAAus school aircraft and operating under the direct supervision of a RAAus school approved to operate in controlled airspace.

Q. I hold a CASA-issued licence, can I fly in to and out of controlled airspace in a RAAus aircraft?

Yes, if you hold a current CASA-issued licence (including medical, CTR/CTA and BFR), you can operate an approved

RAAus aircraft in to and out of controlled airspace. Check CAO 95.55 paragraph 7.3 for the specific requirements or follow this link in the RAAus member-only section of the website. https://members.raa.asn.au/ storage/cao-9555-exp-jan-2021.pdf Q. Which schools are allowed to do this?

There are 13 schools with this CASA approval. Coffs Harbour Aero Club (Coffs Harbour NSW), Cloud Dancer Pilot Training (Jandakot WA), Gostner Aviation (Camden NSW), Learn to Fly Melbourne (Moorabbin VIC), Midcoast Microlights (Coffs Harbour NSW), Oasis Flight Training (Moorabbin VIC), Pathfinder Aviation (Archerfield QLD), Peace Aviation (Rockhampton QLD), Soar Aviation (Bankstown NSW), Soar Aviation Melbourne (Moorabbin VIC), Sunshine Coast Aero Club (Sunshine Coast QLD), Tasmanian Aero Club (Launceston TAS), and Townsville Sport Aviation (Townsville QLD). Check the RAAus website under flight training for contact information for these RAAus schools.

Q. My RAAus school operates in controlled airspace, why don’t they offer private hire? Who should they talk to?

Any RAAus School can apply to CASA Sport to request an Instrument. There is a cost involved and letters of support from the Unit Tower supervisor and RAAus are required. Contact CASA Sport on SPORT@casa.gov.au

Q. Do I need any extra training as a RAAus member without current CASA qualifications?

Yes. You will need to be trained and have an entry in your logbook to confirm your competence in the requirements for controlled airspace by the CFI of the RAAus school you intend to private hire an aircraft from.

Q. Once I have this logbook entry, can I fly my own RAAus aircraft into controlled airspace?

No, the Instruments only apply to nominated RAAus schools, using their school aircraft only.

Q. Can I fly into any controlled airspace using a RAAus school aircraft?

No, you can only operate in to and out of the specific location of controlled airspace the school is approved for.

Q. Can I fly a RAAus school aircraft at a school I was trained at?

Yes, but only after the CFI has confirmed you are competent and makes an entry into your logbook.

We are looking forward to working collaboratively with CASA toward these outcomes and will keep members advised of our progress.

Moorabin Airport.

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SPORT PILOT | July 2018

PUTTING ON WEIGHT NEVER FELT SO GOOD

What has been proposed?

The RAAus weight increase proposal outlines a clear delineaton between the operaton of higher weight aircraft and the operational requirements for our current fleet. The current Group A (fixed-wing, three axis, single engine) will remain defined as aircraft with a MTOW up to 600kg (650kg for water-based aircraft) and a stall speed of no more than 45kts.

The weight increase proposal introduces a Group G for fixed-wing, three axis, single engine aircraft up to 760kg, regardless of stall speed and at a later stage up to 1500kg.

Will the weight increase affect my current operation?

No. The introducton of Group G aircraft will in no way affect the current operations of RAAus members, flying schools and maintainers. However, anyone who may want to operate a Group G aircraft in the RAAus system will have to comply with the Group G requirements which are currently under negotiation with CASA. Some criteria have been finalised already and RAAus continues to work collaboratively with CASA to define the Group G operational requirements.

and CASA are continuing to work on the final arrangements to be implemented and we expect to make further announcements shortly.

Will I be able to operate my manufactured Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) above 600kg when the weight increase is implemented?

No. LSA is a global standard with a MTOW of 600kg. Type-certified aircraft and amateur-built aircraft capable of operating above 600kg may be registered in the Group G category and operated and maintained in accordance with Group G requirements as will be defined in the RAAus manuals which will be communicated as details are finalised.

Will I have to undertake training to operate a Group G aircraft?

Yes. A Group G training syllabus will be finalised and any Group A pilot certificate holders wishing to operate a Group G aircraft will be required to undergo further training. Recognition of prior qualifications and/or experience for the issue of a Group G Aircraft Grouping on their pilot certificate will be announced as details are finalised.

RAAUS

What are some benefits of a weight increase?

A weight increase for RAAus will have positive impacts on the aviation industry such as improved aircraft utilisation, an increase in qualified maintainers and overall growth in aviation participation throughout Australia.

Is there increased risk operating a Group G aircraft in the RAAus system?

RAAus supplied CASA with a detailed risk assessment demonstrating that increasing the MTOW limits imposed by CAO 95.55 for aircraft administered by RAAus will not increase risk to participants, other airspace users or the general public and will deliver modest improvements in aviation safety.

When will the weight increase be implemented?

The Civil Aviation Order 95.55 that governs what RAAus can register and operate will require amendments. CASA will be required to seek industry comment on the changes that are proposed. RAAus will keep members updated on this progress through the E-News.

What are the proposed maintenance requirements for Group G aircraft?

RAAus and CASA have agreed that any Group G aircraft used for hire or reward as part of a flight training operation will be maintained by a level four maintainer.

This has always been RAAus’ position. In essence a level four maintainer is LAME qualifed. This process will ensure existing LAME’s livelihoods are maintained and even strengthened as more aircraft enter flight training under the RAAus banner.

For privately-owned aircraft, RAAus

The Cessna 150 and the Super Cub will be able to be registered with RAAus

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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THE JOY OF TEACHING

JEREMY MILLER TALKS DIRECTLY TO INSTRUCTORS ABOUT THEIR PROFESSION IN THIS THOUGHT-PROVOKING ARTICLE.

I

love instructing. Teaching someone to fly an aircraft is one of the greatest things that I can do. I give someone a skill for life.

I change their life. They will literally never be the same again, and I did that to them.

How amazing is that? Yes I’ve stepped away from full time instructing for the next few years while I build other experience with one of this country’s best aviation organisations, but I will be back.

I hold tremendous passion, thoughts and ideas for this sector of the industry.

I don’t want this to turn into a “how to” article, but I’m hoping everyone can get something from this.

So where is the industry at? I often hear the instructing industry referred to as “kids teaching kids”, and unfortunately I believe this is true to a certain extent. I have a problem with the fact that instructing is seen as a means of building hours for junior pilots, and that it is relatively easy to get an instructors rating after just having finished a commercial licence.

Now for me this is a bit of a case of the pot calling the kettle black, as I came through this system myself. I finished my commercial pilots licence in early 2001 and my instructor rating about mid-2001. With a grand total of 217.4 hours, I started teaching students on Air Training Corps camps before getting my first full-time instructing job in early 2002.

Looking back now, I had no idea what I was doing. In the first five years and 2500 hours of instructing I was learning as much about teaching as the students were learning about flying. I made all the mistakes.

I had students refuse to fly with me, had a few minor incidents where aircraft were damaged because I didn’t take over in time, pushed into bad weather because I wanted to get home without thinking about what the student would learn from it, and the list goes on. I look back on it now and shake my head. And I apologise to any former students reading this.

I was lucky though. My first full time job was with the Darling Downs Aero Club, a fantastic organisation west of Brisbane.

Chief Flying Instructor Graham Geraghty was a fantastic CFI to work for and the

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other two senior instructors on staff were fantastic mentors.

Every morning we had smoko (a Queensland expression for morning tea) at 9.30am, which would often turn into an unofficial staff meeting.

If there were no students present we would discuss problem students and challenges we were facing.

I learned more about teaching from those smoko meetings than during my whole instructor rating, and that’s not saying anything against the senior instructor who did my rating.

The basic instructor rating, I’m sorry to say, does not teach you how to teach.

I believe it’s a combination of learning to fly from the right hand seat, and learning a script to say while you’re flying. Teaching is a skill that takes many years, and countless hours of working with people to really master. If I can offer junior instructors a few points though: • Be humble. Remember what it was like being a student. You don’t have to prove anything to your students, so you don’t have to try and show them how good you are • Remember the basics. The basic skills in the cockpit form the foundation of a well-skilled pilot. Attitude flying is one of the most important things a student can learn. If they can’t grasp the basic concepts, they’ll have trouble later in their flying, especially when it comes to instrument flight.

• Patience is a virtue. Remember the rate of learning is high when a student first starts. Lots of things are going on in the cockpit, some of which they might not be aware of. Don’t jump on a student straight away for being 200ft low on downwind unless there is a major safety issue. Let the student discover it for themselves and make a timely correction. If you continually jump on small things like this, you’ll develop a student that is what I call a “clock watcher” who will rarely take their eyes out of the cockpit.

• Look for teachable moments. Teachable moments are occurrences where things may not be proceeding as

planned, or something new occurs. It could be as simple as letting a student fly 5kts fast on finals, resulting in floating down the runway further. Once again, safety first – take over if you’re feeling nervous as the instructor, but let them learn the outcome of being fast on final. The lesson will have a much greater effect than just telling them not to fly too fast on finals.

• Look for consistency. This is both good and bad consistency. The good consistency is what we want, however bad consistency will help you more as an instructor. One simple mistake is not cause for concern. If you see the same mistake repeatedly, that’s the time to do something about it. Students will often learn from their mistakes, and so don’t need you to point out every little thing they do wrong.

As a student reading this article, if any of these points hit a nerve, don’t be afraid to talk about them with your instructor. If your instructor is not open to your feedback and comments, it’s probably time to find another instructor. You deserve to fly with someone you can work with as you’re paying good money to learn to fly.

As a senior instructor or CFI reading this, can I encourage you to have those smokos with your junior instructors and pass on your experience. Junior instructors love hearing stories of what students have done to you over the years. I know I certainly did. Try to give them the support they need to continue to improve as a professional. If it’s your business, it will certainly help your bottom line.

As a junior instructor, the most important thing to remember is to have fun with your students.

Low passes down the runway, or aerobatics when a student is uncomfortable is not what I’m talking about. We all learn to fly because we love the experience being airborne. Although you probably fly most days, your students may have two or three between lessons and I can guarantee that hour they have you booked for is the highlight of their week. You should enjoy the flight as much as they are. It’s why we fly isn’t it?

COLUMN

DALTON ON SAFETY FLIGHT PLANNING Mike Dalton looks at how conservative flight planning can save your life.

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consider myself a fortunate pilot in as much as I’ve had the opportunity to fly a bunch of different aircraft around our great Australian landscape and had a handful of mentors that have helped me along the way. My view has always been that I can learn from others – either from their good example or from their mistakes – and so have valued the input of my core group of mentors over my 30-odd year career to date.

Additionally my career as an aviation insurance underwriter has given me the opportunity to critically review the actual results of people’s mistakes and consider if I might have done the same thing under similar circumstances and make mental notes to avoid such situations wherever possible.

One of these aforementioned mentors was well-known aircraft salesman Brian Jones and from time to time he would shoot me off across the country to deliver or collect aircraft that had been sold, traded or purchased. This taught me a bunch about flying different types, where to go, how to get fuel, overnighting with an aircraft and all those practical things they don’t teach you at PPL school.

One of the trips I did was to take a Decathlon from Moorabbin to its owner in Kalgoorlie and so I dutifully drew a few very straight lines on the WAC chart (remember those) from Moorabbin out through the Kilmore Gap, then direct to Mildura, direct Port Pirie and then finally direct Ceduna which would be the first overnight.

I discussed my planned route with Brian, which in principle was fine, but he queried why I was planning to track Mildura direct Pirie. “Shortest track” was my response but he suggested that I look carefully at the terrain along that section of my trip and asked where I intended to land if I had an engine failure. He pointing out that if I chose a route a little further south then I was giving myself a whole range of options. Mmmm, good thinking 99.

Flying can be an unforgiving pastime on occasions and I am of the view that

we need to put as much in our favour as possible and something as simple as route selection is a great start. Regardless of whether we fly in rural areas or around the suburbs it is still an important consideration and we should always have an option of where we can put the aircraft in the event of an engine failure or other emergency requiring a forced landing.

I often travel north from home base at Kyneton and other than airspace restrictions at Puckapunyal I can pretty much go where I like in a straight line from home. But does that make sense? Look at a short trip to Shepparton, which Avplan tells me is 40 mins in my Corby Starlet and other than being sure not to clip the Pucka airspace it’s a pretty easy track.

But probably a third of the direct track is over low scrub which would be totally unusable in the event of an emergency necessitating a forced landing.

Yet if I adjust my track further toward the west, via say Toolleen, I have opened up a whole range of emergency landing options and Avplan now says 44 mins – yes a mere four minutes penalty for all of those extra options.

Flying around suburban areas it becomes even more critical as the urban sprawl does its thing over time. I learnt to fly at Tyabb in the 1980s and back then the Mornington Peninsula was still a sleepy tourist region with an abundance of places to put the aeroplane if need be.

Indeed in 1994, heading home from a trip away, I was forced to land in a convenient cow paddock near the Holden factory at Dandenong as the vibrations coming from forward of the firewall sug-

The red line is over some rough ground. The purple line is over much safer terrain.

gested that I wasn’t going to make either Moorabbin or Berwick which were the closest airfields.

Now it’s a very different matter and to get from Tyabb to, say, Point Cook ivolves flying mostly over houses and water neither of which are great for emergencies and that cow paddock is now overgrown with houses and I would struggle to find it.

I was talking with one of the Tyabb -based vintage aircraft owners just recently about this topic and he showed me his carefully thought out flight plan to get from Tyabb to Point Cook in his WWI replica biplane.

Essentially it followed all of the golf courses and then the beach which sounds pretty straightforward, but the important point here is that he has considered the limitations of his aircraft and its reliability then planned a route accordingly with sensible forced landing options all along the route.

It doesn’t require much effort to hedge your bets in this regard and those modern wonders Avplan and Ozrunways make it dead easy.

Simply plan your tracks using an appropriate aviation map and then change the map to a satellite image and review the terrain that way. Where the terrain is unfavourable drag the track to an area that gives better options and see how little impact it has on the flight planned time.

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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FEATURE

RED THUNDER: WATTS BRIDGE EXCELS AGAIN John Yates gives a colourful review of the Red Thunder Show at historic Watts Bridge

I

t’s early 1943, at the height of the Pacific campaign, and the growl from the 600hp Pratt and Whitney Wasp engine echoes off the D’Aguilar range as the Wirraway claws it way up in to the early morning sky.

This has become a common sound in the peaceful Brisbane valley since No5 squadron relocated to the recently formed RAAF Toogoolawah airfield.

Fast-forward 75 years, that airfield is now known as Watts Bridge and this poignant moment is not lost on those that know the history as once again a Wirraway, piloted by owner Ross Parker, barks its triumphant return and climbs skyward to prepare for its display at the Watts Bridge Red Thunder Airshow. This time the engine roars to the delight of

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more than 10,000 spectators.

Watts Bridge aerodrome looks an absolute picture with freshly mown taxiways, recently re-turfed parallel runways, the VIP tent buzzing with activity, aircraft and vehicle static displays, a food market and thousands of young and old aviation enthusiasts.

But it had not always been this way.

After the end of WWII the airfield was decommissioned and left to return to cow paddocks and pasture, just a forgotten memory and so it remained this way for some 40 years. In 1985, after obtaining a lease on the property, two young men Ross Stenhouse (QLD Vintage Aircraft Group now known as QWVAA) and John McCarron with some help from the SAAA, had a

dream to not only resurrect the old runways but to return the airfield to its former glory.

And so, some 33 years later, the dream has been realised. It was certainly a fantastic weekend with aircraft of all descriptions from the smallest ultra-light to a high speed beat up by a RAAF Hercules, the most impressive and polished Russian Roulette formation aerobatic team, the Australian aerobatic champion and the VIP tent pumping out live music late into the Saturday night.

Still an active member of Watts Bridge, Ross Stenhouse was there and I’m sure I observed him nodding in tacit approval as the show-stopping rare formation of a Spitfire, Mustang and two Yak3s roared overhead.

PHOTOS: MARK GREENMANTLE

The TAVAS Bristol fighter and Fokker triplane

Steve Death gets ready for a Spitfire sortie

Ross Parker Wirraway

Nigel Arnot with the Yak 9

Spitfire glamour from another era.

Four WWII fighters from different countries

Russian Mirror flypast.

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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COLUMN

LEGAL EAGLE WE NEED REFORM AND IT ISN’T JUST OF CASA

Y

es, but. What a great way to come into a conversation about aviation.

Have you ever noticed that when you talk about your flight, it won’t be long before someone points out some rule or another that turns the flight to talk about rules.

When I became interested in learning to fly, it was because flying was exactly what I wanted to do. What about you? Did you begin to learn to fly so that you could be expert in telling people what you couldn’t do, what height limits, the places where you couldn’t go? Of course not.

You started to fly so that you could leave the ground and look at the world through different eyes. Pilots are special and are different. We have taken Leonardo da Vinci’s great statement to heart. “Once you have flown, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you long to return.” (I thank Michael Coates for finding me that quote).

Yes, but now we are on the ground and reading a magazine, or in my case writing for Sport Pilot with its roots in practical, actual, do it yourself, leave-the-ground flying. While it is good to talk about aviation, because knowledge and safety are advanced in that way, that talk and all things going with it are secondary – important, but secondary to actually going flying. My longheld view is that RAAus is on the right track.

We are in this organisation because we fly aircraft. To talk is secondary.

Can you recall when the first gentle tendrils of rules, laws, protocols and limitations began slowly to wind themselves around your legs? You probably didn’t notice these little vines that can and do ensnare us. It probably first occurred to you by about lesson three or four when you found out that in addition to just going flying, there were rules for taking-off, turning, landing, traffic etc. Until then, the awe of being able to leave the ground under what came to be your control was still foremost in your mind and the experience of being free in space was something to come to terms with.

52

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

It is easy to lose sight of the main game when aviation is your interest. I hope I never have and for that reason have gone to lengths to be a current pilot and to remind myself that aviation is flying and talking about it is not. But here we are, and there are a few things worthy of comment to understand the overlying rules that apply in today’s recreational aviation world.

For a start, it didn’t take long for laws to intrude into flying. When the Montgolfier brothers began their ballooning flights in 1783 with the historic flight of de Rozier (the first human to go aloft), within a year the French had passed laws limiting what they could do. And so it has been from then on. The Wright Brothers didn’t have a CASA when they built their first machine – the structure was secured with twisted piano wire. That’s not the case for the replica at Narromine, NSW; there CASA required proper spec wires and fittings. That’s ok, but it does show how intertwined we are with rules.

On January 1, 1901 Australia began our Commonwealth - a remarkable feat of co-operation between far-flung states. The Constitution splits up powers between the states by the Commonwealth being given listed powers, such as defence, customs, interstate trade, international relations and the like. All other powers remained with the states. When flying began on the other side of the world some two years later, it had not crossed the minds of our Founding Fathers that management of aviation would better be in the hands of the Commonwealth.

The advent of the long haul WWII bomber signalled that international air travel would be routine. Nations agreed on international rules for air transport, signed in Chicago, known as the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Australia’s Commonwealth Government, using a power in the Constitution to enter into treaties, was an early signatory. In the meantime, the states had been busy making aviation laws while the federal parliament made laws concerning interstate air travel (but not in-

ternal state air travel).

It is worth taking a moment to deal with an aside: when Australia enters into an international agreement, it does not come into force in Australia until parliament passes Commonwealth laws to give it effect.

Without that local law, the subject of the convention is not implemented. When the federal government makes laws concerning ICAO it is the local Australian law that applies in this country, not the exact terms of the international treaty.

So we had a mishmash and with one reform, change or review after another, a subject that really ought to be a wholly federal government managed industry was beset with legal complications that could almost make you weep. Curiously, the same problem arose with corporate law but ASIC emerged, with developed laws for companies that exclude parochial questions and arguments about competing state laws.

That ought to be done for aviation too. We do need something better.

Australia has quite a number of Commonwealth statutes that are based on the entitlement to make laws coming from ICAO. The Civil Aviation Act 1988, is the one with which we are most familiar, as it generated CASA and its suite of rules and obligations. They relate to air safety.

ICAO, which is now based in Montreal, Canada, developed rules for aircraft construction, operation and traffic management. These rules were taken up in Australia. Using the air safety mantra, they insinuated themselves into the CASA’s portfolio. Some years ago, those who had sport and recreational flying as a primary interest found that these international laws were not suitable for small, local flying. CASA agreed by yet another roundabout route and Recreational Aviation Inc, an ACT semi-company, was formed to manage this sectional interest (of which we in RAAus form part).

Well, the lawnmower-powered flying deckchairs became free of the heavy constraints of the ICAO rules. There really were less laws. A remarkable change took place,

the most outstanding in Australia being Rod Stiff’s Jabiru, a truly amazing aviation enterprise with the highest levels of safety, design and range. Others followed as similar freedoms in other countries emerged. Slovenia, Czech Republic, Germany, and of course, the US took to this freedom with gusto and the payoff has been the emergence of innovative lightweight aircraft.

But the darkness was still falling. The stultifying rules have resulted in personal transportation being over-regulated. Interest dropped away. The laws were excluding, other than in this very lightweight category in which we continue. To develop a better, heavier aircraft and engine was so difficult with so many laws, so many bureaucratic decisions and ferocious litigation, particularly in the US, that development stalled.

Cessna’s current line of aircraft now has abandoned its only fresh design in single engine aircraft. It is too hard. People have turned away from having an all-weather

long distance personal aircraft. Doing that is pretty much like trying to operate your own railway engine and carriage. No-one even thinks of it and the first word of authority is no.

In parallel, airports are being shut down and the landing grounds are slowly disappearing. Local councils charge the fees they think fit. Charges are often out of proportion to the use of the airfield. Zoning regulations are operated by councils which can reach into the construction and use of one’s own airfield, let alone a community airport.

There is an answer. The solution lies not in the hands of CASA, which is a commonly misunderstood state of affairs. Aviation in Australia is divided into three segments – safety, aircraft separation and management, and the fostering and encouragement of aviation.

What was that last bit? Foster and encourage? Australia has adopted the ICAO rules and there, in that document, is an

obligation to foster and encourage aviation.

That is the third leg and nothing is being done about it. It’s not the job of CASA, it is the task of the Department of Infrastructure, which has the duty of administering the Air Navigation Act which adopted this duty.

How should that take place? Well, right now, there are several important issues.

RAAus is taking its place as an up-to-date organisation focussed on air transport for personal use. Government, not simply CASA, but the Department of Infrastructure should be called on to do what is needed – promote airfields, reduce charges for landing grounds, manage landing grounds as a national asset and not a money till for local interests. Use, training, travel must be encouraged. RAAus is there to do it and it is up to the minister in charge and the Department of Infrastructure get on with reform.

Spencer Ferrier June, 2018

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

53

AVIATION CLASSIFIEDS

5039 RANS COYOTE II S6ES

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 Bailey 0409 348 293

5140 PARADISE P-1

5326 JABIRU J230C (24-5013)

286 Airframe Hours, 286 Engine Hours, P-1 PARADISE P-1 PRICE: $85000 CONTACT: John Darby 0402 210 913

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). $70,000 or nearest offer. Phone (after-hours) 0438 66 3371.

PRICE: $70000 CONTACT: Gwenith Tyburczy 0421 322 618

5224 BRUMBY LOW WING

5334 JABIRU J200 19-5073

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.

PRICE: $55000 CONTACT: Peter Gilbert 0428 719 639

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

5225 THATCHER CX4 FOR SALE

5335 TYRO MK 2

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

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

45 Airframe Hours, 500 Engine Hours, XC4 Airframe hours 60, Jabiru engine 500 hours, cruse 110 knots. Lovely aircraft to fly. I’m just too old to get in and out of it.

PRICE: $20000 CONTACT: John Edwards 0408 891 159

5309 SHARE IN AEROPRAKT A32 VIXXEN AT CABOOLTURE QLD

5139 DAKOTA HAWK

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. Located in South East Tasmania.

PRICE: $7500 CONTACT: Les Skinner 0438 017 256

5397 BUCCANEER2 ULTRALIGHT FOR SALE

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

54

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

400 Airframe Hours, 400 Engine Hours, A32 Vixxen 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

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 EMAIL: bluepeace24@yahoo.com.au PRICE: $29000 CONTACT: Evan Lizarralde 0409 660 716

5415 HANGAR FOR SALE - HUNTER VALLEY

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: $POA CONTACT: Geoffrey Pinfold 0429 810 008

5422 JABIRU 230D

5458 HANGARS HOLBROOK AIRFIELD

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

5461 JABIRU 430

5479 KITFOX PROJECT 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

5486 PIONEER 300 KITE

545 Airframe Hours, 545 Engine Hours, J230D J230D. Excellent Condition, true 120kt cruise,Nil Accidents, Autopilot, plus many more, All AD,s current, 545H Airframe and Engine, Factory built, Customised Leather Seats, great for touring, Located GCSFS Jacobswell Qld PRICE: $69500 CONTACT: Colin Worthy 0403 669 564

5428 CESSNA SKYCATCHER 162

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

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 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 0419 859 085

5488 RANS S-6ES

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 EMAIL: alank454@hotmail.com PRICE: $95700 CONTACT: Alan Kirwan 0439 805 540

5454 WANTED - WIZARD 3 HANG GLIDER WING FOR TRIKE, ANY CONDITION

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 WITH LEASE ON HANGAR

32 Airframe Hours, 73 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: $49500 CONTACT: John Lindner 0448 497 989

5491 AIRCRAFT FOR SALE

nil Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, nil Wanted - Wizard 3 hang glider wing for trike, any condition.

PRICE: $1234567 CONTACT: Glenn Stallard 0434 558 038 1199.8 Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, Bravo Tecnam Bravo with low hours,(maintained by LAME and L2). We also have a 3 x 3 x3 lease on a hangar with Office area and accommodation all renovated.

Additional we are also selling our family home.

Offers over $219,000.00 PRICE: $219000 CONTACT: Wayne Dillon 0438 551 198

140 Airframe Hours, 140 Engine Hours, Vm1 Esqual Vm1 PRICE: $65000 CONTACT: Walter Hudson 0428 469 416

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

55

AVIATION CLASSIFIEDS

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

5494 J6C KARATOO

149 Airframe Hours, 149 Engine Hours, J6C Home built Karatoo, side-by-side 2 seater, 149 hours total 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

5502 2014 WEDGETAIL AIRCRAFT COUGAR (FORMALLY MORGAN AEROWORKS)

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: $82000 CONTACT: Frankie Bailey 0468 713 545

5524 JABIRU SP-T 3300

773.1 Hours Airframe Hours, 773.1 Hours Engine Hours, Unique SP-T 3300 Tail wheel Jabiru. 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

5528 AIRBORNE XT-912, ARROW S WING LSA

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 (phone no. not provided)

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: $POA CONTACT: Mustafa Bozkurt 0408 516 816

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

5521 FLIGHTSTAR II-SC

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 White 0408 690 523

5501 AIRCRAFT 23-8806

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

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

5536 FOR SALE - JABIRU J230. PRICE: NEGOTIABLE. PRICE: REDUCED BY $10000

5523 RAND X-AIR

350 Airframe Hours, 350 Engine Hours, J230D For Sale Jabiru J-230D PRICE: $97000 CONTACT: Bill Haynes 0429 054 205

56

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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 Kille 0402 401 566

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

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

Aeroprakt A32 Vixxen www.foxbat.com.au

When you are up here you need to know what is happening at a glance.

Glance EFIS

Search for Aeroprakt A32

Cruise 115+ knots Stall 27 knots Carry 210+ kgs after full fuel Average under 20 litres an hour Believe it!

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

57

AVIATION CLASSIFIEDS

5539 AIRBORNE EDGE X

5546 JODEL D-18 ( 2-SEATER)

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

5559 TECNAM 24-4651

642.0 Airframe Hours, 30 Engine Hours, Edge X Classic New engine and prop always kept in hangar PRICE: $10000 CONTACT: Andrew Richard Foster 0404 236 067/ 0439073091

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

5547 GT PROPELLER

5540 BRM BRISTELL

17 Airframe Hours, 17 Engine Hours, Bristell 2017 Bristell - 17 hours only as new - under warranty suit 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

5563 2015 FOXBAT A22LS ( ITALIAN BUILT- WOOD/ COMPOSITE)nil Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, nil TT 24 hrs. Cruise prop, fits 3300 Jabaru engine. As new. Have receipt for $1500. Sell for $850.

EMAIL: morrisbeattie@bigpond.com PRICE: $850 CONTACT: Morris Beattie 0409 540 180

5551 AIRCRAFT FOR SALE

5542 TRIPACER PA22 - 135, 24-5344

3580.4 Airframe Hours, 375 smo 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

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

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

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

5564 DRIFTER WB 503 19-3763

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 Michael Bruce Holloway 0402 935 017

5567 EUROPA 19-7903

5554 JABIRU 230 D

465 Airframe Hours, 465 Engine Hours, 230 D

58

1066.6 Airframe Hours, 1050 Engine Hours, A22LS 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: $88500 CONTACT: Sheldon Jones 0427 102 540

5553 AVID FLYER MK4

5545 FOXBAT 22LS

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.

EMAIL: andyski@antmail.com.au PRICE: $72000 CONTACT: Andrew Sieczkowski (02) 6644 8110

1896.9 Airframe Hours, 258.4 Engine Hours, P2002 Sierra Tecnam Sierra P2002 PRICE: $115000 CONTACT: Douglas McCullough 0403 255 575

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 Clark 0400 133 686/ 0427 248 511

5568 WANTED

123 Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, Amphibious Wanted Amphibious Aircraft, 2 or 4 Stroke engine.

Minimum 2 seater. Consider any make.

PRICE: Up to $60000 CONTACT: Margaret 0401 365 989

5569 ZENAIR 750

0 Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, 750 ZenAir750 130hrs Rotax914Turbo widebody bubledoors tundra tyres 10”Dynon Skyview 100ltr fuel Amazing short field take off.

PRICE: $95000 CONTACT: Nat Jaques 0417 073 046

5570 WORK BENCH

Stacked_CMYK

5580 JABIRU J200 + 1/2 HANGER AT HECK FIELD

5593 MTO SPORTS GYROCOPTER

480 Airframe Hours, 480 Engine Hours, J200 480 hours, 6Cyd, 3.3Ltr, 120 HP, Solid valve lifter, head done at 450hrs, Temperature gauges, GPS, Transponder, Auto Pilot, Disc Brakes, Fuel Filter, Radio, comes with ½ hanger at Heck Field QLD. $50,000-plane $40,000-1/2 Hanger.

PRICE: $90000 CONTACT: Bruce Smallacombe 0410 524 040

170 Airframe Hours, 170 Engine Hours, MTO SPORTS Services and Log Books Complete, ASRA Certified Always hangered, comes with Garmin 695 PRICE: $65000 Gregory Sikkens (phone number not provided)

LOGOTYPE

5594 LIGHTWING GR-912S

5588 PACIFIC IBIS

STACKED 900 Airframe Hours, 900 Engine Hours, GS700 magic Pacific Ibis GS 700 for sale PRICE: $55000 CONTACT: Craig Hardy 0409 581 278

5590 WANTED - CHIEF FLYING INSTRUCTOR

2660 Airframe Hours, 760 Engine Hours, Light Wing Gr-912 Lightwing GR-912S with 760hr on the engine and 2660hrs on the airframe. Fitted with Kiev 3 blade carbon prop, fibreglass cargo pod a has a vertical card compass installed. Fresh 100hrly completed.

PRICE: $25000 CONTACT: Vaughan Peake 0437 287 450

5596 WHEELS AND TYRES

nil Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, nil Join the team at the Sunshine Coast’s fastest growing flight training facility.Our CFI is moving to the USA so we have an exciting opportunity for an experienced CFI, or Snr. Instructor. Please apply to: colin@sunshinecoastaeroclub.com.au EMAIL: colin@sunshinecoastaeroclub.com.au CONTACT: Colin Appleton 0414 430 647

Stacked_804C Stacked__MONO

Stacked_CMYK

10 Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, 001 Very presentable Work Bench PRICE: $600 CONTACT: Leon 0412 372 122

5591 AIRCRAFT 19-7187

5576 LYCOMING 0235-C1 ENGINE

n

services

07 339 451

eurofox AircrAft:

Built ing design ified to 750Kg & landing

5597 JABIRU J230C

219.3 Airframe Hours, 219.3 Engine Hours, VG Savannah VG 912 ULS Good Condition Low Hours.

PRICE: $46500 CONTACT: Mervyn Underhill 0407 271 509

Stacked_804C

Products:

pilot capability 1422 Airframe Hours, 1422 Engine Hours, 0235-C1 ors Lycoming 0235-C1 engine complete. Complete

nil Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, nil Matco MH6B rims,disc brakes,axles,upright master cyl.,all fittings. 2 x 800-6 8 ply condor tyres near new.

PRICE: $900 CONTACT: Rodney O’Garey 0421 679 651

605.9 Airframe Hours, nil Engine Hours, J230C Jabiru J230C. 2008. 605.9 Airframe & engine hrs.

Engine overhauled at 403 hrs. Wooden Jabiru propeller. Garmin GPS 296. Microair Txpdr. Hangared at Rockhampton. Deceased Estate. $51,000 +GST if applicable.

PRICE: $51000 CONTACT: Lyn Finney 0428 788 910

Stacked_801C

logbook history since new. sIncludes Mags, Plug HorsHam aviation ervices ABN: 65 007 339 451 leads, Carby, Starter and Alternator.

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overEditor only the plane.

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COLUMN

BONNICI ON FLYING SELF-DOUBT IS ALL PART OF THE LEARNING PROCESS David Bonnici says introspection leads to better flying

A

s pilots we often go through periods of self-doubt, ranging from feeling like you’ve forgotten something to a compete crisis of confidence. I’ve certainly felt the former, and have had a couple of episodes that leant toward the latter.

The first was my first flight after obtaining my RPC where I actually felt uneasy about flying straight and level for an extended period without having to practice something like steep turns, stalls or forced landings. I had trained so much for when things go wrong that I found it difficult to accept nothing would.

This unease lingered through subsequent flights until I took my first passenger along for the ride, my brother, whose presence allowed me to enjoy the view and not dwell too much on the what-ifs, beyond diligently checking gauges and keeping an eye out for traffic. That’s where a bit of selfdoubt can be healthy. It keeps you alert, but you don’t want it to completely erode confidence.

My desire to be a safe pilot sees me devour aviation magazines, websites, YouTube videos and podcasts, which have led me to discover America’s obsession with stalling and spins, and the countless advice pieces about avoiding them.

I know such content is meant to be helpful, but read enough of it and you start to question your own training. Instead of monitoring my airspeed at the business end of the circuit I became fixat-ed on the ASI, not allowing the aircraft to settle and coming in a little too hot; which is counter-productive to being a safe pilot.

If they’re not stalling, Yanks seem pretty adept at finding new ways to die in aircraft, like attempting aerobatics 100ft over a lake, taking off in zero-visibility and hitting powerlines, or colliding with another aircraft after making a straight-in approach without a radio call.

I’ve read, seen, and heard it all, but rather than learn from other people’s mis-

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Possible Tiger country

takes to avoid repeating them, I started worrying about exhibiting similar lacks of judgment – after all, it’s not like any of them set out to crash.

One Saturday, during my one-hour drive to Lethbridge, I was listening to the Aviation News Talk podcast whose main topic was go-arounds and included examples of poorly-executed aborted landings resulting in loss-of-control accidents.

I’ve done many a go-around and, while it’s an involved process, I never considered it a risky manoeuvre. But the self-doubt genie was again out of the bottle: “What if I have to go around today? Will I remember the flaps? What if I stall?”

A couple of other things were also playing on my mind. I hadn’t flown for a month, I had a bit of a headache and the weather, while flyable, had earlier prompted me to cancel the joyflight I promised my sister-in-law. Suddenly doubting my go-around prowess was the tipping point. I just didn’t feel right to fly, and promptly got back in the car.

Driving home part of me wish I had persisted, but I was satisfied I made the right call. There were enough holes in the Swiss cheese for them to align, and there’s always next week – I just hoped my mojo would make it.

Fast forward the following Saturday; CAVOK, a limp windsock and a cool 15 degrees keeping turbulence in the ground.

I kept my promise to my sister-in-law, and made a point of exuding confidence so she felt assured. This required a little acting to begin with, but ended up being self-fulfilling. I managed to inspire myself, and it was the first time I truly enjoyed being in command of an aeroplane, rather than simply hoping for the best.

Sure I had those nagging thoughts about stall speed, but I finally realised that being reasonably anxious about something is a good way to avoid it happening.

Yep, self-doubt has actually made me a more confident, and hopefully safer, pilot.

My main worry now is getting cocky.

RAAUS

AGM OUR FUTURE BOARD-TIME TO DECIDE Nominations have closed so it’s decision time

T

he ongoing governance of an organisation as big as RAAus is vital to the continued maintenance of the services and advocacy provided to members. This is why, when the nominees are presented in the August edition, it’s important to consider each one carefully.

As a reminder to members about the important role our directors carry out on their behalf, I’m reprinting some of the nomination pack that ran in full in the June edition.

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).

With almost 10,000 members, we are the fastest growing group of aviators in Australia. Our members range from 10-yearolds 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.

The Role of the Board RAAus operates under Section 198A of the Corporations Act 2001 that states ‘the business of a company is to be managed or under the direction of the 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.

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 Within your deliberations as to who you vote for, keep the following in mind as to the qualities you may wish to look for in your

directors.

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 board’s 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 they possess all of these skills, but for completeness and to allow you to make an informed decision we have asked nominees to address the above points in their statement.

Finally some key dates: Nominations Opened on Thursday 1 June 2018 Nominations Closed on 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.

Finally 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. SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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FEATURE

FIRST SOLOS Student Grant Charsley. Instructor David Jensen. At Moruya Airfield.

Jamie Voros who did her first solo on May 20, flying with Merit Aviation in Moruya.

Fred Nolen at Moree sent Lachlan Moloney solo on Friday June 8, telling him to expect the Jabiru 170C to lift off quicker and float longer without the instructor’s weight.

Lachlan is an agricultural student from Jerilderie who is working in Moree as part of his course. His father, Michael is also a pilot.

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Lone Eagle Flying School at Clifton has been busy sending people solo, with two pilots achieving the milestone on the same day.

Tom Jessen from Toowoomba in Queensland went solo in a Jabiru 160 and Ben Whitby, from Greenmount, not far from Toowoomba, did his first solo in the Drifter, both on 5th May 2018 Both were extremely excited and jubilant upon their achievement.

On December 5, Paul D’Arcy from Warwick in Queensland went solo in a Drifter and has now purchased a Foxbat.

SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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COLUMN

FINAL APPROACH THE JOURNEY BEGINS From the editor Mark Smith

G

reetings. Many great editors I’ve worked under have said an editor can be a lonely person, having to make complex decisions about the suitability of a story that affect a writer’s self-confidence, while also treading a fine line between the reader’s expectations and just what is available to run.

In the time I’ve been the editor of an aviation magazine I thankfully haven’t found that to be the case. I spent three years editing AOPA’s Australian Pilot magazine and thoroughly enjoyed getting out and about meeting pilots and aircraft owners and either helping them become better aviation correspondents or doing the story myself.

Pilots and aviation enthusiasts are a funny bunch - passionate and driven because they are caught up in the majesty that is being in and around machines that fly. It’s a feeling I know well having held a licence for 33 years, and been an aircraft owner for 15 years. That’s why I don’t feel any of the ‘lonely at the top’ emotions experienced by some editors in mainstream media. Every time I arrive at an airfield, every time I do an interview, I am among friends.

Make no mistake about one thing though. While I am the editor and doing as much content as I can, I will need to hear other voices through stories. The unusual aircraft at your airfield, the kid chomping at the bit to turn 15 so they can go solo, or the member who finally found the way to fly through RAAus and is forging ahead on their pilot certificate; these are the inspiring stories that drive growth in RAAus, something that is vital as time moves on.

This is your magazine. It’s about you, the member, for you the member.

You need to be active in letting me know what’s going on in your neck of the woods.

I’ve prepared a guide to writing for the magazine including tips to make your pics better. Email me at editor@sportpilot.net. au and I’ll send it to you, or find it on the new Sport Pilot website.

Over the years I’ve been involved in aviation I’ve been lucky enough to take quite a few people on their first flight in a

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light aircraft. It’s always been a special part of being a pilot, not from the perspective of showing off, but rather trying to demonstrate that being in something smaller than a domestic jet is not only safe but a really pleasurable experience. I can count six of my friends who took up the challenge and became pilots themselves after a simple hour-long jaunt on a calm day.

I see a part of my job with the magazine as inspiring those who are on the outside of our great passion to take the next step and join us. But really it’s everybody’s job to present recreational aviation in the best light possible. Get on the front foot with friends and colleagues and explain what you do and why you do it. Take people flying at every opportunity, though with complete strangers to our world, make sure it’s on a silky smooth day. We need to show our much loved pastime is available to anyone who wants to move to a vastly different and better way to see the world.

I have also been given the chance by the board to expand the content slightly to include the odd warbird yarn and stories about aircraft on the VH register that will fit into our proposed 750kg weight limit.

At the end of the day an aeroplane is an aeroplane, be it a minimum two-stroke

powered Thruster or a Supermarine Spitfire. While I’m getting to know you and you me. I’ll work hard to create a magazine that embraces the broad church that is recreational aviation.

Joining me at the magazine is my wife Michelle as deputy editor. Her regular job is as a senior journalist at the local daily newspaper in Ballarat after a 24 year career at the Herald Sun in Melbourne. She also holds a PPL. Finally our designer, Melinda Vassallo, followed me from Australian Pilot and brings years of experience in creative publication design to the table. She is also the designer for the SAAA Airsport magazine and grew up in an aviation family.

After a career spanning 35 years in the overgrown sandpit that is daily news media. I’m now enjoying working on publications I can truly relate to, and where the subject matter, being my fellow aviators and enthusiasts, are as enamoured by all things to do with things that fly as I am.

I’m looking forward to meeting as many of you as I can as I search for great yarns with strong pics.

Clear Prop!

t a e r g Thsesie fly in Au SPORT PILOT | July 2018

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