Light plane crash at Ball Bay, north of Mackay Qld 24/12/2021

[BurnieM]

I thought they were AFRs for the RPL/PPL that he did not have 😀

 

[facthunter]

Even More  frequent. Nev

[BurnieM]

A few anomalies;

- why is he charged with not surrendering his pilots license when they state he did not have one ?

- if he believed he could sign off his annuals/100hr (and he did this at least twice) why did he not continue doing this annually ? This would have supported any future legal arguments. Not a smart guy.

[Blueadventures]

2 minutes ago, BurnieM said:

A few anomalies;

- why is he charged with not surrendering his pilots license when they state he did not have one ?

- if he believed he could sign off his annuals/100hr (and he did this at least twice) why did he not continue doing this annually ? This would have supported any future legal arguments. Not a smart guy.

The outcome will be an interesting read; a very sad event for the family of the deceased.

[skippydiesel]

1 hour ago, BurnieM said:

A few anomalies;

- why is he charged with not surrendering his pilots license when they state he did not have one ?

- 

Since when did you have to "surrendering his pilots license"??

 

Subject to not misbehaving, to the extent that my license is actual taken from me, I expect to depart this mortal coil, some time in the distant future, as a licensed (not current) pilot.😈

[BrendAn]

5 hours ago, skippydiesel said:

By "reviews" you mean BFR's ?

If so, you have verified & validated your license every two years.

An active, unregistered/lapsed license holder, should be obvious, to at least instructor's/CFI's, as it would eventually become known that they were not being assessed at the BFR intervals.

The above may take a while - 1-3 BFR's, say Max 6 years. It appears the pilot being discussed has been flying unregistered for something like 10+ years😈

There are lots of blokes flying that haven't done a bfr for years.

All good experienced aviators that fly on their own. Maybe not near the big smoke .

Not saying it's the right thing to do but it happens.

[Jayeh]

2 minutes ago, BrendAn said:

There are lots of blokes flying that haven't done a bfr for years.

All good experienced aviators that fly on their own. Maybe not near the big smoke .

Not saying it's the right thing to do but it happens.

Til there's an incident and now you're facing gaol time. If they keep doing things like that then it will result in more oversight. One or two extra incidents of unlicensed pilots and next thing you know there's more casa ramp checks

[Love to fly]

4 hours ago, Blueadventures said:

Maybe they should link BFR data with AvPlan, OzRunways and Skyecho flight info as that would allow watching what we do (eg anyone flying unlicensed etc) then follow up with maintenance checks of the aircraft.🙂🙃🤪

More than one pilot may fly the same plane on different occasions , and one pilot can fly different planes on different days. Unless everyone has to lodge a flight plan there would be no way to match the data. 🤷‍♂️ 

[BrendAn]

21 minutes ago, Jayeh said:

Til there's an incident and now you're facing gaol time. If they keep doing things like that then it will result in more oversight. One or two extra incidents of unlicensed pilots and next thing you know there's more casa ramp checks

Never heard of anyone going to jail for killing themselves . I do agree with you if they were carrying passengers, that is when the sh## hits the fan.

They would not do that.

[Blueadventures]

53 minutes ago, Jayeh said:

Til there's an incident and now you're facing gaol time. If they keep doing things like that then it will result in more oversight. One or two extra incidents of unlicensed pilots and next thing you know there's more casa ramp checks

Agree, I have no issue with a ramp check, whether it be Rego, certificate, bfr, maintenance record, release etc.

Edited December 29, 2025 by Blueadventures

[Jayeh]

This case begs to differ

[facthunter]

Just something else to deter People from taking up flying.  Nev

[BurnieM]

It would be easy to get away with no maintenance release and no AFR and even no license and this case proves it.

CASA does SFA checks.

First arse to be kicked should be CASAs but we know that will not happen.

 

[Love to fly]

19 minutes ago, BurnieM said:

It would be easy to get away with no maintenance release and no AFR and even no license and this case proves it.

CASA does SFA checks.

First arse to be kicked should be CASAs but we know that will not happen.

 

Why is it CASAs fault? If you're in a shop and no one is watching is it the fault of the police if you steal something? 

[facthunter]

Be careful what you wish for. Nev

[facthunter]

All it takes is a few IDIOTS to muck it up for everyone. Nev

[JMLIS]

I can imagine an unlicensed pilot at Ballbay, or any small town with an airstrip, would have no reason to make contact with an instructor or use an electronic flight bag if they did not want to. It is a big country and few people ask questions unless you stand out from the normal. Generally when visiting small airports local pilots are treated with respect by most visiting pilots.

[Blueadventures]

I haven’t read story but looks like progress on an outcome.

[onetrack]

Blueadentures, I can't get any details of the case, it's all behind a paywall. Do you have a summary?

Seems to me that the drugs charges are just a minor part of the aircraft crash story, I believe he's yet to face 17 charges related to aviation offences?

 

Edited February 13 by onetrack

[Jayeh]

22 minutes ago, onetrack said:

Blueadentures, I can't get any details of the case, it's all behind a paywall. Do you have a summary?

Seems to me that the drugs charges are just a minor part of the aircraft crash story, I believe he's yet to face 17 charges related to aviation offences?

 

I can't get access but I think it might just be related to drug charges and not the aviation charges

[Moneybox]

I think it's a bit like driving without a license. If you're in a remote location and doing the right thing then it's just a case of gaining the necessary skills and nobody needs to know about it.

 

When we were kids we had two miles, over three kilometres, of dirt road to travel to school. We used push bikes or walked until we got to high school age when my grandfather gave us his old Austin A40 panel van so that we could drive down to catch the bus. Obviously nobody had a license but we travelled safely for those couple of years until my oldest brother got his license. 

 

My family were law abiding citizens but this little misdemeanour was overlooked for the sake of convenience. The use of drugs and alcohol changes things. We never experienced either when growing up. I'm talking 60 years ago so I guess some things have changed a bit. 

[onetrack]

Moneybox, unfortunately, this pilot hasn't done the right thing by anyone, and especially his mate that he killed.

He purposely chose to fly without abiding by any aviation laws, and he especially chose to fly without a licence, as he deemed no Australian laws applied to him, as he claims to be a "sovereign citizen" and above all that.

He also ignored a directive that required seatbelt tongue replacement - which was supposed to be carried out a couple of decades ago.

As a result, CASA is taking him to court on multiple aviation offences, and the charges are yet to be heard, so it's better to keep comments to a minimum until the legal outcome is known.

[BrendAn]

5 hours ago, onetrack said:

Moneybox, unfortunately, this pilot hasn't done the right thing by anyone, and especially his mate that he killed.

He purposely chose to fly without abiding by any aviation laws, and he especially chose to fly without a licence, as he deemed no Australian laws applied to him, as he claims to be a "sovereign citizen" and above all that.

He also ignored a directive that required seatbelt tongue replacement - which was supposed to be carried out a couple of decades ago.

As a result, CASA is taking him to court on multiple aviation offences, and the charges are yet to be heard, so it's better to keep comments to a minimum until the legal outcome is known.

Keep comments to a minimum. 

After 5 pages of comments 😁