BurnieM

A group representing 10,000 pilots should be able to have a discussion with one of CASAs 800 staff at any time, particularly when they are doing work that really should be done by CASA. The controlled airspace is only an issue because of Western Sydneys proposed opening in December 2026. I estimate that the current instructors in Newcastle, Sydney metro and the Illawarra would take 2 years to train up pilots wanting this endorsement. Yes, we already have a problem.

Yes, group G was about 2 years too late to make a difference. RAAus spent a lot of time doing group G paperwork/manuals and med class 5 took the main driver away from pilots. Would really like to hear what RAAus are doing to drive the Controlled Airspace endorsement. Waiting for CASA sounds hollow. They are in the same city, drive 20 minutes to their office and talk to them, every day. Drive it.

What happens if you land without $35M hull insurance ? What happens if you take off again ? Seems only a civil court action would resolve this and the aerodrome manager would have to show a loss (or potential loss) by you breaching their conditions. A court may decide that the potential loss was very low (say $5) and not award costs to the aerodrome manager. A decent lawyer may advise of the potential outcome and recommend again a civil action. I could not find any examples of action so I presume these aerodrome managers are already aware of this. All conjucture of course until we see a court action.

While you need this for your RAAus cross country (or a RPL Nav) will you use it after you have the endorsement ? Most likely you will only use a EFB as most (with an internet connection) can get the winds and if you setup your plane profile correctly will also give you likely fuel consumption. Plus an iPad with a GPS can also give you updated times to next waypoint etc. I have an ASA E6-B which I used to calculate heading/speed. For everything else I used the calculator on my phone.

I did not say availability and yes how do you know what the rescue time will be ? I think you need to do some research.

Pan Pan is an urgency call not an emergency. Mayday is when your aircraft is in grave and imminent danger (in the judgement of the PIC). What is grave ? whatever the PIC thinks it is. What is imminent ? It is actually the time it would take a rescue resource to reach you. In the Sydney metro area this would probably be 2-5 minutes. So legally to make a Mayday call a grave danger would need to be likely to occur (in the judgement of the PIC) in the next 2-5 minutes. If it is already occurring then you are covered. The idea is you do not wait until it occurs and what is a reasonable time ahead to call. In Central Australia this may be 6-8 hours.

It is not about a life being at risk. Mayday is used when your aircraft/vessel is in grave and imminent danger. In most urgent situations Pan Pan (x 3) is correct. If, for example, you see a mid air collision between other aircraft the correct call would be Mayday Relay (x 3). However... .... a lot of people do not understand Pan Pan or Mayday Relay so I would probably use Mayday in most situations.

And you dont have to run ADS-B either but maybe both of these are a good idea if you want to stay alive.

Yep, thats not bad but it only gives the vendor declared prices at 6am today and 6am tomorrow. NSW Fuelcheck app (government owned) gives realtime pricing updates and I have seen updates appear less that a minute after the price changes. Then again NSW servos can change their pricing at the drop of a hat. Looks like WA has regs saying only daily changes.

Anybody have a fuel pricing app for SA and WA like Fuelcheck NSW ?

I good way to see how the world judges Chinese quality control would be to list non-Chinese companies and countries who have purchased Chinese aircraft and miltary equipment. Please also include whether those companies/countries are using Chinese finance for these purchases. Yes, China will get there but they are not there yet.

I believe many (most?) Chinese goods are of high quality. However, except for the most simple products, all products use components from multiple suppliers. All you need is a single sub-supplier trying to save 1 cent on a 50 cent component and you destroy the reliability and reputation of a $30,000 product. While some Chinese manufacturers understand this, a significant number do not. An engine gets a bad rep and 5 years later nobody wants to buy it. Rebrand it, make small changes to its appearance and you are good for another 5 years. Chinese motorcycles have a poor reputation in the Australian market but they are cheap so some still sell. I would really like the Rotax clone to succeed but it comes from a high volume engine/motorcycle manufacturer. Their product may be good but I do not know. My western mind says if they do not want to prove it in Australia then there is probably something that they know that I do not. Like I said, China will eventually get there. I was in China in 2012 and I thought China will be a force in 20 years when they sort out their quality control. Now I am thinking 50 years. Undoubtedly others are thinking this also. Probably why nobody seems too fussed about the buildup of Chinese warships who have not been tested in any battle. This is not to say that you cannot inflict a lot of damage with a large number of men and warships. I would not like to be Taiwan.

PS How are those Rotax clones going ? and why do they not understand they need to prove them in a western (read transparent) environment ?

Yes, I have been to China and ridden on a bullet train. Also stayed in a 5 year old 20 story hotel that had major plumbing problems (leaks inside the walls) and needed to be pulled down. Custom king sized beds and decor was great. Structural integrity not so much. China will get there but there is still way too much 'copying' of western goods without really understanding what needs to go into them.

Not a dark art just a quarter wave (middle of the frquency range) radiator roughly vertical with a ground plane (you can even get away with a 15cm x 15cm alu square). You want your quarter wave radiator outside any metal frame. Do NOT connect your ground plane to your electrical ground. You can even have your radiator pointing down (again outside any metal frame) but your strength will be poor on the ground.

Finland, Finland, Finland ...... Yep, Nokia has been dead for yonks. Keep up.

I am currently on Vodafone because I am mainly in metro areas and the pricing is better including international calls. Yes, the combined VF/Optus coverage is better than the VF coverage previously but I think it is misleading to say it is better than Telstra. In pretty much every area the Telstra coverage is better and if you regularly travel in rural areas you still want Telstra.

Loud and clear came about people got confused with '5 by 5' or '5 by 9' none of which is that complicated. I recommend you only use 'loud and clear' or a short plain language description ie "muffled", "understandable but lot of background noise"(borderline too long), "weak but clear" etc

I do not know the panel layout of this particular plane but it surprises me the number of critical switches on all type of planes that are not guarded.

In Australia credit card charges are generally not more than 1.5%.

He was as shonky as f*ck. Gladys was not stupid and knew this. What does this say about the rest of the party if he was a good option ?

Just a bit of a clarification on the Magna Carta; this was not bought about to make the peasants equal to the Lords. This was bought about so the King could not rip off the Lords. These same Lords did not give a damn about the peasants.

Maybe we could merge the 2 threads ?