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Ian

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Everything posted by Ian

  1. Ian
    Back to the topic at hand. Not everyone is as perfect as they might want to be in assessing their ability to assess risk and mistakes will continue to be made across the aviation industry. So we can assume that despite the best possible advice people will continue to fly into IFR conditions. I was told a story by a pilot who was far more experienced that me who flew into a situation of low cloud and icing weather. He was a qualified IFR pilot however familiarity with the route made him make a couple of dumb decisions. Does anyone know of a resource which points out the pros and cons of the 180 back out of the cloud or straight and level increasing altitude. VFR flight above the cloud also poses risks in this area as it's often easier to see breaks in the cloud to climb through rather than finding holes to descend through. It's always nice to see your destination cloud free when choosing this route.
  2. Ian
    I've had to deal with far too many types of legacy units during my working life. Chains, links, yards, feets, inches, decimal inches, knots, furlongs, miles, gallons, pounds, quarts, pints, stones, ounces, troy ounces, cooling tons and while there is a bit of a sting initially everyone breaths a sign of relief when SI units are in common use. Aviation and the associated industry has just been a bit of a retard with respect to this. Everyone knows that a single system used on a universal basis would produce fewer errors and reduce human factors. Instead we persist with system that no-one uses in their education or in industry. I know that lots of people will make light of this however every time we fill planes we need to deal with converting quantities which are no longer acceptable in any other industry. Every time we do weight and balance we need to know how many pounds a person weighs. Does anyone under 80 know what their weight is in stones and pounds? And should they? Otherwise intelligent people froth and scoff simply because they don't want change rather than accepting a common good. But you know I'm right. 😉
  3. Ian
    Personally I'd like to see all units and airspace management changed to metric however that process has been put on the back burner. If Europe ever has a crack at this I'd love Australia to follow.
  4. Ian
    There are two issues which are summarised by the below. All people make poor decisions at times. Yes try to do better. I'm very interested in the best recovery technique and the pros and cons of the two mentioned below.
  5. Ian
    Trying to bring this vaguely back in the direction of a flying forum rather than the relative merits of subsidies to support a education system for the wealthy. As I see it. Canberra has no GA hangars available at a reasonable so unless you want to keep your plane exposed to the elements its not an option Goulburn's ownership is under a bit of a cloud at the moment. Currandooley airstrip near lake George is going to be covered by solar panels. The ACT Government doesn't see opening a second airport at Williamsdale as a public good and there's a dearth of alternative options in the ACT. The Federal Government doesn't see any strategic imperative to open a second airport. The Kennedy airstrip in Adaminaby appears to be a nice group, however it's a bit of a hike along a goat track to get there, or longer on bitumen. Tumut also seems like a nice place but the comments about goat tracks and distance also apply. There appears to be a short private strip between Lanyon Homesteam and Tharwa. If there are people who have their own airstrips, there doesn't appear to be a great incentive or appetite to encourage their use by the public.
  6. Ian

    Hi Mark, where's you airstrip if you don't mind me asking.

     

    1. Markdun

      Markdun

      S35 11.5 E149 38.8

       

      I have data for a GPS ‘ILS’ precision approach on runways 14/32 if you need them.

    2. Markdun

      Markdun

      Forgot to mention there is no Y designation and as its post 2000 not an ALA which is a last century thing. We call it Wombalong International Aerodrome, as we have had several foreign citizens flying from here.

    3. Ian

      Ian

      Apologies for the tardy reply, I've been dealing with a few unexpected heath issues with my parents who live on the north coast of NSW and it's a busy time for work.

      Good to see that you're giving Canberra Airport some competition. 😉

       

      I'd love to come out and have a look at some point and have a chat.

      The Defiant generally likes long and very flat pieces of ground to land on.

  7. Ian
    While it's a long way off topic I tend to support skippy in relation to the funding of education to an extent. Education is a common good which should be accessible to all and funded by Government on that basis. Merit is only visible when the playing field is level, and we should want to be able to discriminate merit rather than some other process. While I understand some that people want to sent their children to be taught by people who believe in X, however this shouldn't be on taxpayers dime as it's not a common good.
  8. Ian
    4k might be reasonable if hangars were available. I haven't seen any become available for decades. This is the reason so many planes are parked on the grass. There are virtually zero GA businesses left at the airport. If a hangar was available for $10000 per year plus another $4000 per year you're looking at about $270/week which is a bit of a joke for GA. Canberra airport has been treated as a real estate asset, and it has monopoly power. It is exempt from the majority of ACT Government's planning allowing the rapid development of non-aviation infrastructure. It is too late to fix this mess, however a secondary airport would at least provide some competition. Not really, it's simply too far away. Canberra is the centre of economic activity with associated remuneration, Goulburn unfortunately isn't. Government is a business like any other and it has an epicentre. Reading through the proposal it appears a thorough analysis was done in the case of the 2nd Canberra airport including an analysis from Deloitte Access Economics. https://www.cmd.act.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/420625/Released_Documents_-_Williamsdale_GA_Airfield_-_DRAFT_Brief.pdf The ACT is limited in actual areas where aircraft can operate due to terrain and the controlled airspace.
  9. Ian
    Actually the main issue is the inability for a relatively affluent slice of Australia's population to access an airport. Goulburn being about an hour away is the closest facility. Given that aviation policy is formulated in an area without access to General Aviation facilities it seems that GA in Australia is pretty much doomed. MPs only have the choice of flying in the RPT. Imagine the increase in traction for GA if your local member used GA resources to commute to Canberra and back. Does anyone want to give their local member a lift?
  10. Ian
    I might be a bit dim but I don't really understand this. You might have to spell is out. I'm also not naive, having worked in and around Government for a few decades and now own a business which primarily deals with Government.
  11. Ian
    Are any of these people still around, one thing that I have learnt from Government is that nothing happens quickly. Tying it around some Governments head like a bag of dead fish is often the best approach. I'd very much be interested on how much the ACT Government has spent with Terry Snow to house their Aviation fire fighting infrastructure there. This probably would have paid for the Airstrip 10x over.
  12. Ian
    This is ACT Government. There is no local Government in the ACT, just the state/territory Government which means there is a single PoV across all areas. It is made up of a combination of Labor and the Greens coalition. The person in question was Michael Pezzullo head of the Federal Government Department of Home Affairs which is a very different beast. This is the entity responsible for your ASIC.
  13. Ian
    But that's what I was saying. It's already an industrial power generation site. It's in the corner of the ACT. To the east is NSW who are in a totally different electorate. To the south is NSW. So the nimbys shouldn't have anyone with decision making powers to complain to. I had a browse through the website and it looks like it progressed a fair way before going off the rails. Someone spent a lot of time trying to make this work, but it might be marginally healthier than a Norwegian blue.
  14. Ian
    Williamsdale looks like it now has solar farm infrastructure surrounding it. Would that impact the utility of this site or does a new site need to be located. One thing that might go in favour of the site it that it has a different state on 3 sides. No much in the way of voter backlash. https://maps.app.goo.gl/QwHZSDndVofHEAMU6
  15. Ian
    What is the Goulburn council court case?
  16. Ian
    I'd heard rumours of his excellent treatment of aviators and other people. Given the fact that he never achieved the requirements for the transfer of title it seems odd that it was transferred. But that probably just local Government. Does Goulburn remain the best option for Canberra fliers? Is there any intention of Canberra airport, or anywhere else to cater to general aviation at all? Is anyone who was involved with the Williamsdale site left around?
  17. Ian
    I actually met a pilot in Cowra who was adamant about chem trails. When I laughed and told he he was a fruitcake he told me all about the UN conspiracy to take over the world. His conversation revolved around Chemtrails Covid Vaccines A UN conspiracy to take control of all Governments My view is Politicians are occasionally corrupt but it about money. Public servants and bureacrats are often individually smart but collectively stupid.
  18. Ian
    Hopefully Goulburn council or the Government buys it back at the same price they sold it for.
  19. Ian
    For those of you who want to fill more than a jerry can. A 200L drum attached to a boat might provide a handy alternative. You can't fill more than a 25L container however there's an exemption for boats.
  20. Ian
    Everywhere has challenges which pilots need to remain aware, many incidents and accidents occur due to far more mundane things. But before this you need somewhere to take off an land from. Sydney at one point had many more aerodromes, however real-estate developers had other ideas. The current owner of the Goulburn airport may had hoped that the high speed train was going to be routed through this area at some point allowing a significant profit. This never occurred
  21. Ian
    The Goulburn airport owner wants to sell the airport. I'm not sure if this has been the happiest of relationships and has been as conducive to GA as the sale of Canberra airport to Terry Snow. https://the-riotact.com/goulburn-airport-owner-wants-to-cash-in-properties-and-retire/742379 The historic Currandooley private airstrip which once had 3 operational strips during and after WW2 is soon to be glazed over with solar panels https://www.blindcreeksolarfarm.com.au/ Any thoughts about where to hangar aircraft in the region would be welcome. I'm still amazed that the national capital only has a single airport within about 100km.
  22. Ian
    The whole paper based licence system is archaic, and having instructors tack rating on the back just dumb. One step removed from stone tablets.
  23. Ian
    As I've stated, I don't mind obtaining and carrying one if they create something useful. A smartcard that works as a long term credential containing photo id Your licence with ratings etc Provides access to all airports instead of the stupid pin codes. It should be cheap or near zero cost and last for more than two years. I've worked in industries with many processes of differing efficacy over the years. I am willing to put up with processes that work to control dubious risks if they're lightweight, however heavyweight processes which don't actually work at all are a different matter. ASIC in it's current form is just that. Either make it useful or ax it. I'd encourage everyone to knock on their local members door with an ASIC to explain why they are shit.
  24. Ian
    There is a risk. Airplanes have been used as weapon by terrorists. As a control, whether strong identity checks around airports actually mitigates this risk is up for debate. It does have some appeal. With strong identity checks and other processes you can minimise interactions between high risk individuals and groups and your critical infrastructure. What I'm saying is, in it's current form the ASIC card is pretty much worthless, it doesn't provide a strong identity check, is costly, burdensome and the other processes are missing. I suspect that the main driver for the ASIC card was simply customs, border protection and drugs at major international airports. The rest is just collateral damage.
  25. Ian
    Actually a birth certificate in an of itself is not veracious. It is easy to manufacture one. It is the fact that it can be referenced against an existing Government database which provides the strong binding to an identity. But that is a slow and cumbersome process. Similarly an expired ASIC card can be used to verify someone's identity, it just depends upon what you're trying to achieve and the level of assurance you require. However a smartcard, through cryptographic operations can be veracious through real time cryptographic operations. That is a claim relating to identity can be verified in real time by anyone with a device such as a mobile phone. An ASIC card is a dumbcard, it has a couple of holograms that can be cloned, is issued by groups which don't have great physical or electronic security. There are multiple levels though which the process could be compromised either electronically or through social engineering. I think that in a risk assessment it would be probable that one of these issuing authorities has already been compromised or will be compromised and the identity documents exfiltrated.
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