T510

Blazecut and Ferrosticker make automatic deploying fire suppression devices for confined spaces. I know a few people who use them in marine and earthmoving applications. Not sure how they would go in an aviation scenario, I guess you need to determine which is the lesser of the two evils. The fire or the suppression system

No offence taken Skip, it would take a lot more than that to offend me. Interesting appraisal, those who actually know me know I am constantly looking to expand my knowledge/skills and experience new things. I am the opposite to you, I used to give everyone time, now I have realised that time is the most valuable commodity and refuse to waste it. There are plenty of people whose opinions I value, regardless of whether I agree with them or not, and they come from all walks of life. At the end of the day life is short, why waste time on irrelevant people.

Don't worry Skip, I haven't blocked you... yet 😉 It's not censorship, it's not about a lack of respect, which I believe should be earned, not just given because we happen to use the same forum. I don't want to read or hear their opinions, I have determined they have nothing to add to my forum experience so they are on my block list because I don't want to waste my time with their comments. It's no different to meeting someone in real life and having no interest in building a friendship or not reading the "The Never Ending Story" thread because it doesn't appeal to you. I haven't found a negative impact on the flow of information, I communicate with people whose opinions I value and I want to communicate with , much like in the real world, and I don't communicate with people I don't. If you think that is sad you are entitled to your opinion. I worked out many years ago that I don't have time to waste on people I don't wish to interact with.

The block function is brilliant, it allows you to separate the wheat from the chaff and makes the whole experience a lot more enjoyable

Once the CASA Part 43 instrument is released (Don't hold your breath, was supposed to be earlier this year) there will be a pathway for owners of VH Exp aircraft they did not build to maintain them. You will need to complete the SAAA MTC course that supports the CASA instrument

From the RAAus website: Who will be able to maintain an amateur built or Experimental Group G aircraft? A CASA Part 66 licence holder (LAME) or the builder of the amateur built or experimental aircraft, who meets the requirements of CASA instrument 18/22. So if you are the builder and have 18/22 you are good to maintain your own aircraft.

According to the article the pilot only intervened once because of weather over 12 hours of flying. Apart from that the flight controller handled the whole flight. Wonder what flight controller it is using? It has been proven time and again in the drone world that the flight controller more often than not does a far better job than a human pilot.

Great App John, Thanks for letting me be part of the Beta testing, looking forward to where it ends up with input from the flying community.

2 out of my 3 aircraft don't have ads-b, one doesn't have a battery or radio but I carry a handheld airband. I always make radio calls but I hear a lot that don't identify the registration since AvData got involved in collecting fees. Last I heard several US states including Florida, Montana, and others have passed or proposed legislation that prohibits airports from using ADS-B data to collect fees from general aviation aircraft. On a federal level the Airports Association is pushing back against proposed legislation stopping them using ads-b for fee collection, which is hardly surprising

It must be a profitable business model as Avdata have competition now. https://www.aerodromeit.com.au/simple/landingfees "Aimm automatically detects the movements at an airport using ADSB for most aircraft, and Pilot Voice calls only need transcribing for the remainder. This greatly reduces the cost of Movement Detection. It produces a monthly invoice file for import directly into an Airport's or Council's existing billing system with no deductions or collection fees."

Lucky we have the ASIC to stop people accessing aircraft and secure areas https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/jetstar-flight-delayed-after-man-boards-without-ticket-afp-called/news-story/50db75c26f883acf35c364471bab786a

This is a bucket list event for me, hope to get over there in the next coupe of years

I use them because they are light in unmanned aircraft, my race car, my classic cars, my dirt bikes and ebike. I have also used them as a backup battery for the airband in my old Supa Pup which had no built in electrics. I'll be fitting one to my daily driver if the battery in it fails. I have probably used over 1500 individual battery packs making up many different configurations from 4.2 volt up to 64 volt

I think more often than not the charging system and BMS (or lack there of) are the issue with Lithium batteries. I have used lithium batteries for the last 15 and the only one that has ever blown up I shot with a 223

My understanding is they are not being held responsible for his foolish decision to take off in bad weather, the issue is the Coroner stated he should never have been issued with a licence. The coroner stated "his accelerated training was rushed and ineffective" with only "14.7 hours of training and 3.6 hours solo time". Jill Bailey saying she was concerned she “may have inadvertently” issued the certificate in contravention with the operations manual in messages to Matt Bouttell leading the coroner to conclude RAAus “engaged in a deliberate strategy to hide these key issues from the court” and “Bailey gave evidence which was false in material respects, which also served to hide these key issues,” does nothing to help RAAus or Jill Bailey. The interesting part was the SAFA safety manager testifying "“Mat was particularly arrogant when it came to being honest about his decisions, denying there was a problem and refusing to recognise that he had made errors in judgment. His belief in his invincibility was a great worry,”. This is particularly evident given the conditions he took off in. The end result is the ambulance chaser lawyers putting this up https://www.mauriceblackburn.com.au/blog/public-place-injury/is-it-safe-to-fly-licences-being-issued-despite-inadequate-training/ It gives a pretty clear indication of their intent in civil litigation. That is alongside the Victorian Coroner Paul Lawrie officially referred RAAus and key personnel to the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) due to withholding critical documents. If his instructor, Geoff Wood, had not passed away I imagine he would be in the cross hairs too. Regardless of the outcome it's not good for aviation in Australia

Don't get me wrong, I think we need RAAus in some form or another but it certainly seems CASA is setting itself up as an alternate with self declared medicals etc. If CASA adopts MOSAIC rather than allowing RAAus to administrate it it will upset the status quo even more. My understanding is Part 43 only applies to VH registered aircraft unless RAAus changes their Tech Manual or you are the builder and have done the MPC course. I own a RAAus registered aircraft and two VH aircraft, one amateur built and one experimental. I plan on doing the MTC course as soon as it is available and am currently working on my RPC to RPL conversion. I intend to keep the one aircraft registered under RAAus but if it becomes untenable I will move it across to VH reg

I made some time to watch the candidates live stream, I don't know why they bothered with a live stream given there was no avenue for the viewers to ask questions. Seems to be another case of RAAus missing the opportunity for proper engagement with their members. As of this morning the number of views was still under 200.... I agree that if they paid for someone to run that live stream they should be asking for their money back. It was pitiful. Our members fees at work...... One thing that struck me from Andrew was the talk of alternate income streams, class G, MOSAIC and CTA access. It seems the board is not listening to the members and is only focusing on their personal wants. Personally I think a regulator should focus on regulating, not selling crap and setting up deals with non aviation vendors, this seems to be an area they have lost focus on. There seems to be a lack of ability to self appraise and revue their performance. The scariest part for me where the numbers Shawn shared the member numbers, ~200 new members a year but 750 members not renewing. Surely this is ringing alarm bells for RAAus, it's a direct indication of member satisfaction. In an industry with an aging member base the number of non renewals seems destined to rise. It does not bode well for RAAus. Especially given their lack of any real significant achievements in the eyes of the members over the last few years. Adding complexity like the new renewal process requiring a heap of signatures to displace all liability only adds to pushing out member who are considering retiring from aviation, whether due to age or increasing expense. Here's hoping they can turn it around but I feel they need some fresh faces in management if they want any hope. VH experimental, a RPL and CASA self declared medical are looking more attractive all the time. I am looking forward to Part 43 getting released allowing owner maintenance.

Welcome Shawn, Unfortunately I rarely hear positive things about RAAus also. From my perspective RAAus should be focused on providing affordable access to aviation and advocating for it's members. I don't need a magazine, email newsletters are more than enough and I don't need discounts on booze, bedding, finance or travel insurance. Maybe they could offer a membership without any of the associated crap at a discounted rate. I agree with Skip that the ASIC is a completely unnecessary expense for recreational aviators. Group G requiring LAME maintenance is a massive failing, what advantage is there to moving to RAAus, at a membership cost of $335/year, when you can now do a self declared medical under CASA? Once the Part 43 Instrument is released you will also be able to maintain your own aircraft after completing the SAAA course. I think the biggest failing though is shown by the lack of member engagement, the recent livestream, "Meet your new chair and deputy chair", had less than 15 attendees live and still has had only 166 views 4 weeks on. I don't know what the fix is for this but if members don't feel that RAAus is representing their interests I can't see the dwindling member numbers changing.

As RAAus does not publish Board meeting minutes we have no way of knowing if any board members have acted against the interest of the members. Acting against the interest of members is one issue, benefitting commercially/financially from information available to board members is an entirely different issue. Board members should definitely have aviation/industry experience but not if it erodes the members faith in the Board to act in the members best interests. This is not meant as an attack on Andrew, I don't know him or how he runs his business. For all I know he may exclude himself already from discussions/votes that are within his conflict of interest. As we can't see the meeting minutes we do not know. As someone who runs a Not-For-Profit I know how important transparency and member perception is.

I agree. It is a conflict of interest because their fiduciary duty to the organization directly overlaps with their private commercial interests. There are corporate governance rules that apply to this scenario and he has met the mandatory disclosure requirements. The part I find interesting is that under standard governance laws, a director who has disclosed a conflict of interest must leave the room and cannot participate in discussions or vote on any matters directly or indirectly affecting the conflict of interest. In this case that would have to include flight training, flight training school operations, fee adjustments, training audit frameworks and potentially any regulatory changes that effect licencing and training. Add to this the perceived conflict of interest where the public or stakeholders might reasonably think private commercial ties could influence the director's judgment regardless of whether a bias exists or not. Surely this makes it hard for a director to have meaningful input if he is excluded from the discussions and votes relating to training.

FYI - The RAAus site says they have "received three valid nominations for the 2026 Board Election, where three Director positions are available" This is a typo, there are only two Director positions available...

Seems a bit of a conflict of interest owning a flight school and being on the board of the regulator James MacDonald works in telecommunications as a company director and has been flying since 2004 and an RPC holder since 2025 Shawn Donaldson in a flex wing pilot who has been flying for 18 months and is the CEO of an IT company

I remember flying out of the Geelong Model Aircraft Club with Aerosonde. Aerosonde also used a test facility out past Hamilton in Western Victoria. Their record endurance flight was done out there, just under 39 hours on one tank of fuel. Dave Hobby is a great RC pilot, 2 times world champion. Probably a bit too casual back in the day, we didn't even need licences in the early days of UAV's. All training was don in house

Hope they had their brown pants on......

Baron is a twin and will fly on one engine so unless both fans stopped it would suggest it may be something else