Innehållsförteckning för January/February 2020 från Australian Flying

Garmin International introduced the world’s first auto land system for general aviation aircraft in November last year. The Autoland technology will be made available on select aircraft fitted with Garmin 3000 avionics and has already been confirmed for the Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet and Piper’s M600 single-engined turbo-prop. In the event of an emergency, the pilot or passengers can activate Autoland to land the aircraft. Once activated, the system calculates a flight plan to the most suitable airport, initiates an approach to the runway and automatically lands the aircraft. The system takes into account several factors in identifying the most suitable airport including weather, fuel status, runway surface and length, terrain, obstacles and more. “The vision and development of the world’s first Autoland system for general aviation was a natural…

The Federal Government will develop a Regional Aviation Policy as part of what it says is a commitment to growing regional Australia. Addressing the Regional Aviation Association of Australia (RAAA) convention on the Gold Coast in October last year, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development Michael McCormack said the government would develop the policy in collaboration with airlines, regional airport operators and local and state governments. “Affordable and accessible air services are crucial to connecting regional Australia in terms of tourism, travel, business, health and education and it underpins our economic development and delivery of critical services,” McCormack said “This policy statement will canvass strategies to ensure regional aviation remains competitive and viable into the future and we will also be listening closely to the…

The commencement of business aviation in the 1920s and 1930s was featured in the November-December 2019 edition of Australian Flying. 1940s to the 1970s. Manufacture of piston powered business aircraft continued after the war with Beech introducing the single engine V-tail Bonanza in 1947 and Twin Bonanza in 1951, to be followed by the very successful Model 65 Queen Air in 1960 and Model 90 King Air in 1964. These business aircraft were direct descendants of the Model 50 Twin Bonanza. Meanwhile, many other manufacturers including de Havilland, Cessna, Piper and Grumman produced piston powered aircraft in the 1940s and 50s and in some cases well beyond. A major change occurred in the late 1950s with the introduction of the twin engine turbine powered Grumman GI, named the Gulfstream GI,…

As part of the US Army’s innovative Aviator Training Next (ATN) programme, award-winning Queensland aerospace company Ryan Aerospace has been awarded a contract to supply 30 HELIMOD Mark III helicopter virtual reality (VR) simulators for the US Army’s aviation Centre of Excellence at Fort Rucker, Alabama. The simulators will provide ab initio pilot training using the latest in VR technology combined with high-end commercially available helicopter simulators. Managing Director of Ryan Aerospace, Chris Ryan said he was “delighted to partner with the US Army, and prime contractor Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) to work on this ground-breaking project.” The system features an after-action review software package that automatically assesses, grades and logs the student’s progress. A team from the United States Military Academy at West Point is conducting a thorough…

The 25th anniversary of the tragic Seaview accident was marked on 2 October last year. Together with the Monarch tragedy, this led to the establishment of the modern CASA in 1995. Investigations into those tragic accidents concluded that the then CAA (CASA’s predecessor) had failed in its safety responsibility by placing commercial considerations of operators ahead of the safety of passengers. It is an important point that remains very front of mind in CASA these days – the primacy of safety and making sure that we are not captured by industry relationships, ensuring that possible conflicts of interest are identified and managed and that we do not become too close to those we are responsible for regulating. CASA was established on 6 July 1995, as Australia’s aviation safety regulator with…

Last month, while having dinner with a friend who is also a pilot–and, indeed an aircraft owner–I heard the words I’d been waiting to hear for nearly 10 years: “Hey, I’m not flying my aeroplane enough. I’m looking for someone who’d like to fly around 50 hours a year and just share the costs.” After putting my tongue back in my mouth and giving a salute to the aviation gods of great fortune, I took him up on the offer immediately, in case he was one wine too many in and liable to forget. The very next day, he took me for a fly in his aircraft, a two-seat RAAus-registered low wing Rotax-powered single (with auto pilot!). I loved it immediately, but I couldn’t fly it immediately because despite having…

Editor’s Pick Instructors should inspire not scare Dear Steve Those recently published tales of instructors deliberately scaring ab initio students witless are indeed shameful. Clearly I was much more fortunate. Those who took me through my early stages to UPPL and later gave me endorsements all had different approaches. Some were better teachers than others but all were conduits of knowledge. They also inspired me to read and build experience from the knowledge of others. That’s the essence of good teaching in any discipline. In one’s newbie days the best instructors let you fly the aircraft pretty much all the time, only taking control to demonstrate techniques, or when something is about to go wrong that he or she can still fix but you can't. My most memorable lessons were…

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Angel Flight Director Bill Bristow has retired from the organisation he founded 16 years ago, the charity announced this week. Bristow founded Angel Flight in 2003 after identifying a need to support rural Australians having to to travel to major cities for medical diagnosis, treatment and follow up visits. His life-long passion for flying led him to recognise the benefits pilots and their private aircraft could offer to rural and remote Australians. “Mr Bristow set up a remarkable system of linking health professional registrations and referrals between all large city hospitals, to outback clinics, remote area nurses and specialist institutions, as well as a network of essential skilled volunteer pilots and drivers,” said Angel Flight CEO Marjorie Pagani. “All services are free and at no cost to any person needing…

It was like Beyonce had come to town. Waves of excitement and anticipation rippled through the local aviation industry; something very special was on the taxiway at Moorabbin. They said it was sleek, they said it was fast and and they said it was sexy. It was something never before seen except in mock-ups, pictures and You Tube videos. People flocked to the airport to see it in real life and I joined the migration. When I walked into the hangar it was the only thing in the spotlights, surrounded by tittering admirers pointing and grinning. After being promised to us for 12 years, we could finally reach out and touch a genuine, operational Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet. Still with N registration on its side, this blue-and-white beauty was due…

This was one of the few times I went against Zingi’s advice – and survived. I remember him telling me how one of the top South African Air Force chopper pilots had killed himself while evaluating a Minicopter. Not only that, he said that Rusty Russell disassembled one at Tempe by doing a steep turn off the deck and sticking a blade into the ground. Zingi used these two points to illustrate the dangers of going anywhere near a Minicopter – a South African made autogyro. I refrained from expressing the opinion that SAAF chopper pilots know as much about autogyros as I know about the moons of Jupiter. I also resisted the temptation to suggest that if Rusty had stuck the wing of a Piper Cub into the ground…

Dick Smith’s Wikipedia entry contains a long list of awards and honours that mark his greatest achievements. It mentions his Companion of the Order of Australia, Australian of the Year, Centenary Medal, Lowell Thomas Award, Father of the Year, induction into the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame and even Dick’s little-known Academy Award nomination. But Wikipedia has completely missed his Oswald Watt Gold Medal. You can’t really blame a do-it-yourself encyclopaedia for missing things occasionally, but the Oswald Watt Gold Medal just happens to be the highest honour awarded in the field of Australian aviation. That such an honour should go unrecognised should raise the ire of everyone in the industry, but the Oswald Watt has become a somewhat forgotten award that deserves to be remembered, even within the greater…

Well if you have gotten over Australia’s worst flu season through Winter and Spring and are now ready to head into some Summer flying without the associated allergies, then perhaps it’s a good opportunity to look into the big weather picture in Australia and particularly the effects that ongoing drought and climate change are having on the air we fly in for recreation. «his can often manifest itself in stronger winds, increased turbulence, a higher risk of dust storms and generally rougher flying conditions.» Anyone who flew into AirVenture 2019 at Parkes or Ausfly 2019 at Narromine can attest to the dramatic effects that aggressive pressure fronts combined with the driest conditions most of the country has seen in over 10 years can have on our flying activities. So let’s…

This discussion contains extracts from the SACAA’s accident report. It is compiled in the interest of promoting of aviation safety and not to establish legal liability. Aircraft Registration: ZS-OCS Date of Accident: 19 December 2007 Time of Accident: 1321Z Type of Aircraft: DH-82A Type of Operation: Private Pilot-in-command Licence Type: Private Age: 41 Licence Valid: Yes Flying Experience: Total Flying Hours 139.1. Hours on Type 14. During the past 90 days 0 hours. Last point of Departure: Bethlehem Aerodrome, Free State Province Next point of Intended Landing: Nottingham Road Aerodrome Kwa-Zulu Natal Location of the Accident site: Near Bethlehem Meteorological Information: Wind 060°/14, Temp 19°C, Dew Point 8°C, Cloud cover FEW at 3500 No. of people on board: 1+ 0 No. of people injured: 0 No. of people killed: 1…

The pool of Grade 1 flight instructors that are suitably experienced and qualified, current, medically fit and willing to assume senior roles is rapidly drying up. Why? There are various culprits and, whilst the blame certainly can’t be laid on any one party, it appears that the CASR Part 61 Flight Crew Licensing Regulations, along with the salary provisions in the Air Pilots Award 2010, are inadvertently conspiring to cause a growing shortage of G1s in the general aviation flight training sector that will potentially impact upon the wider industry for years to come. The Award’s salary provisions are factored on aircraft All-up Weight so pilots flying GA training aeroplanes get substantially less than those flying jets. Furthermore, no consideration is given to the difficulty, complexity, responsibility, risk or nature…

The Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee (RRAT) will conduct a two-year inquiry into the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to gauge the effectiveness of regulation it has applied to general aviation in the past 10 years. RRAT Chair, Nationals Senator Susan McDonald from Queensland made the announcement in December last year, saying the aim of the inquiry is to establish how regulation imposed on GA had achieved CASA’s stated aim of balancing safety, relative risk, and economic costs. “[the inquiry] will look at the social and economic impacts of CASA decisions on charter businesses, helicopter mustering, agricultural operations and maintenance operators across regional, rural and remote Australia,” she said. “We want to examine the relevance of the Civil Aviation Act in relation to maintaining the highest…

Airservices Australia will test remote digital control tower technology next year after signing a contract with Searidge Technologies last November. Digital tower technology enables runways to be controlled from remote locations rather than the on-site tower. Searidge will initially provide a prototype contingency system for Sydney International Airport. “Digital Aerodrome Services will allow us to optimise our future service delivery and improve safety outcomes for the industry and travelling public,” Airservices Executive General Manager of Air Navigation Services Peter Curran said. “It also means we can support greater resilience at our major airports and be responsive to service level requirements.” The SYD prototype will showcase the Ultra High Definition (UHD) views of the main operating areas and create a facility for controllers and the regulator to experience the extensive benefits…

It has been said before that you should never meet your heroes. The inference is that you'll find out they are ordinary people with a less heroic side to them that may extinguish your adulation and have you wondering why you ever worshipped them in the first place. It’s a philosophy that could be applied easily to aircraft. What if the aeroplane you lusted after so much in your early days turned out to be a dream-busting disappointment? One of my own hero aeroplanes has always been the Cessna C208 Caravan. Introduced in 1984, only one year before I logged my first flying hour, it was seen as a radical departure from the established charter and short-haul airline paradigms. One engine, high-wing, turbine; it couldn't have been more different from…

In Australia, the pilot licence system changed extensively on 1 September 2014, when the Part 61 rules came into effect. Part 61 refers to the part of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations (1998), which is a 638-page monster of a legal document. Most private pilots were probably not impacted greatly, as licences from the previous CAR Part 5 system were transferred to Part 61 at the pilot’s next biennial flight review. For some pilots with more obscure licence ratings, approvals, instruments and endorsements, Part 61 created some hiccups. For flying school operators, aviation businesses and flying instructors, Part 61 was 638 pages of fine print. To expand on parts of the regulations that were open to interpretation, CASA issued a Manual of Standards (MOS), but the MOS is also difficult…

CASA describes an air show as organised flying performed at a public gathering or with public invitation. It does not include club events where there is no invitation to the public. An entry fee does not have to be charged, it must merely be a public event. Included in the definition, as detailed in CASA’s Air Display Administration and Procedure Manual, are: an air show or pylon race, being an organised event with multiple acts to demonstrate aircraft capability for the enjoyment of the general public a single-ship display conducted for an organised event based on a general public invitation a flypast, being one or more aircraft overflying a public gathering for a non-aerobatic demonstration a fly-in, competition or cross-country event. The first international air show was held in 1909,…

When Anna* suffered a period of depression and anxiety brought on by her divorce, she simply stopped flying. A private pilot with a Class 2 medical, Anna had made the assumption that no doctor would permit her to fly while taking Lexapro–an anti-anxiety medication–and so she grounded herself. A year later, she ceased the medication–slowly, through ever decreasing doses–renewed her medical and resumed flying. Unbeknown to Anna, she made two errors. Firstly, Anna may have been able to continue flying on her medication all along; and secondly, she may have been better off, psychologically speaking, staying on her medication under the watch of her DAME. Like many pilots with mental health concerns, Anna was uncertain of how to proceed and made a decision to ground herself. As it turns out,…

Narromine, midway between the NSW coast and NSW outback, has broad sweeping plains populated with cotton and grazing. It’s big empty skies make for great flying and so it’s no wonder that Smithy, Nancy Bird and Chuck Yeager all found their way to Narromine at various times. From 17-20 October last year, the Sport Aircraft Association of Australia (SAAA) held their annual fly-in event, Ausfly at Narromine. With its long history of flight training in both powered and gliders, both the Narromine Aero Club and Gliding Clubs again opened their doors to the SAAA for the Ausfly weekend as the first of about 170 people arrived for the welcome barbecue held jointly with AOPA. The weather, of course always the hot topic among pilots, was uncomfortable with strong winds but…