planedriver

I'm considering Dave's flying school.I have done two trial flights - one with Basair and one with Sydney Microlight centre (airborne Microlight)

Having been a visitor to The Oaks for many years, and flown with Dave a few times, I have always found both Dave, John and everyone i've met there, very friendly. Apart from the fact that it is cheaper than training at Bankstown, you don't have to waste sometimes 10 minutes or so of every hour taxying and getting clearance.

Good luch with your training, wherever you decide to go.

ha, ha, tried it too in an A30

You're not alone there, so did I , hence I still have the crook back.

Started teaching my wife how to steer, from London to Brighton and back with me operating the A30 pedals fromthe l/h seat.

Finshed the diff off while teaching skid control techniques at a skid pan at Biggin Hill, and there endeth my 19 pound car (5 for the car and 14 for the oustanding rego.

Thats enough of my memories, now back to topic.

Good post Ian, any post that may possibly save someone from potential grief, has to be a good one in my eyes.

I'm sure you will get responses from others after they've checked their aircraft.

Kind Regards

Planey

G'day Gareth and .

This is a great place to mel out and get the good oil from those that are more expierienced than us.

Sounds like we are are of similar vintage.

Good luck and keep us posted with your progress.

Kind Regards

Planey

Nothing wrong with that video clip in my eyes, well done!

Hey Tomo, I promise not to tell anyone that you're becoming a "back seat driver"

Kind regards

Planey

Thoroughly enjoyed that. It brought back many memories for me.

Thanks for posting.

The unique structure called the Wing House, has been built on the top of a mountain in Malibu, US, using a commercial Boeing 747-200 jet.

 

Read more:

 

 

 

http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/house-the-ultimate-crash-pad/story-e6frfq80-1226063253701#ixzz1OnGlpLCT

Hopefully, when the the Rump-Capacity frames are introduced, like those checking the size of carry-on baggage, the mother-in law can be tagged and travel in the baggage hold so I dont have to try and eat as if my both my elbows were cable-tied together.

I was sent this email ages ago and only just got around to reading it ...However, I thought i'd post it for the benefit of those that haven't seen it, as some may feel it's worthy of additional discussion.

portrayed in the media.

The media is being

manipulated to achieve their ultimate goal.

Senator XENOPHON (South Australia) (19:37):

. The Senator says it all.

then split and sell-off the separate divisions.

I rise to speak tonight on an issue that is close to the hearts of many Australians, and that is the future of our national carrier, Qantas. At 90, Qantas is the world's oldest continuously running airline. It is an iconic Australian company. Its story is woven into the story of Australia and Australians have long taken pride in the service and safety standards provided by our national carrier. Who didn't feel a little proud when

Dustin Hoffman uttered the immortal line in Rain Man, 'Qantas never crashed'?

While it is true that Qantas never crashes, the sad reality is that Qantas is being deliberately trashed by management in the pursuit of short-term profits and at the expense of its workers and passengers. For a long time, Qantas management has been pushing the line that Qantas international is losing money and that Jetstar is profitable. Tonight, it is imperative to expose those claims for the misinformation they are. The reality is that Qantas has long been used to subsidise Jetstar in order to make Jetstar look profitable and Qantas look like a burden. In a moment, I will provide detailed allegations of cost-shifting that I have sourced from within the Qantas Group, and when you know the facts you quickly see a pattern. When there is a cost to be paid, Qantas pays it, and when there is a profit to be made, Jetstar makes it.

But first we need to ask ourselves: why? Why would management want Qantas to look unprofitable? Why would they want to hide the cost of a competing brand within their group, namely Jetstar, in amongst the costs faced by Qantas?

To understand that, you need to go back to the days when Qantas was being privatised. When Qantas was privatised the Qantas Sale Act 1992 imposed a number of conditions, which in turn created a number of problems for any management group that wanted to flog off parts of the business. Basically, Qantas has to maintain its principal place of operations here in Australia, but that does not stop management selling any subsidiaries, which brings us to Jetstar.

Qantas has systematically built up the low-cost carrier at the expense of the parent company. I have been provided with a significant number of examples where costs which should have been billed back to Jetstar have in fact been paid for by Qantas. These are practices that I believe Qantas and Jetstar management need to explain. For example, when Jetstar took over the Cairns-Darwin-Singapore route, replacing Qantas flights, a deal was struck that required Qantas to provide Jetstar with $6 million a year in revenue. Why? Why would one part of the business give up a profitable route like that and then be asked to pay for the privilege? Then there are other subsidies when it comes to freight. On every sector Jetstar operates an A330, Qantas pays $6,200 to $6,400 for freight space regardless of actual uplift. When you do the calculations, this turns out to be a small fortune. Based on 82 departures a week, that is nearly half-a-million dollars a week or $25½ million a year.

Then there are the arrangements within the airport gates. In Melbourne, for example, my information from inside the Qantas group is that Jetstar does not pay for any gates, but instead Qantas domestic is charged for the gates. My question for Qantas management is simple: are these arrangements replicated right around Australia and why is Qantas paying Jetstar's bills? Why does Qantas lease five check-in counters at Sydney Terminal 2, only to let Jetstar use one for free? It has been reported to me that there are other areas where Jetstar's costs magically become Qantas's costs. For example, Jetstar does not have a treasury department and has only one person in government affairs. I am told Qantas's legal department also does free work for Jetstar.

Then there is the area of disruption handling where flights are cancelled and people need to be rebooked. Here, insiders tell me, Qantas handles all rebookings and the traffic is all one way. It is extremely rare for a Qantas passenger to be rebooked on a Jetstar flight, but Jetstar passengers are regularly rebooked onto Qantas flights. I am informed that Jetstar never pays Qantas for the cost of those rebooked passengers and yet Jetstar gets to keep the revenue from the original bookings. This, I am told, is worth millions of dollars every year. So Jetstar gets the profit while Qantas bears the costs of carriage. It has also been reported to me that when Qantas provides an aircraft to Jetstar to cover an unserviceable plane, Jetstar does not pay for the use of this plane.

Yet another example relates to the Qantas Club. Jetstar passengers can and do use the Qantas Club but Jetstar does not pay for the cost of any of this. So is Qantas really losing money? Or is it profitable but simply losing money on paper because it is carrying so many costs incurred by Jetstar? We have been told by Qantas management that the changes that will effectively gut Qantas are necessary because Qantas international is losing money but, given the inside information I have just detailed, I would argue those claims need to be reassessed.

Indeed, given these extensive allegations of hidden costs, it would be foolish to take management's word that Qantas international is losing money. So why would Qantas want to make it look like Qantas international is losing money? Remember the failed 2007 private equity bid by the Allco Finance Group. It was rejected by shareholders, and thank goodness it was, for I am told that what we are seeing now is effectively a strategy of private equity sell-off by stealth.

Here is how it works. You have to keep Qantas flying to avoid breaching the Qantas Sale Act but that does not stop you from moving assets out of Qantas and putting them into an airline that you own but that is not controlled by the Qantas Sale Act. Then you work the figures to make it appear as though the international arm of Qantas is losing money. You use this to justify the slashing of jobs, maintenance standards and employment of foreign crews and, ultimately, the creation of an entirely new airlines to be based in Asia and which will not be called Qantas. The end result? Technically Qantas would still exist but it would end up a shell of its former self and the Qantas Group would end up with all these subsidiaries it can base overseas using poorly paid foreign crews with engineering and safety standards that do not match Australian standards. In time, if the Qantas Group wants to make a buck, they can flog these subsidiaries off for a tidy profit. Qantas management could pay the National Boys Choir and the Australian Girls Choir to run to the desert and sing about still calling Australia home, but people would not buy it. It is not just about feeling good about our national carrier-in times of trouble our national carrier plays a key strategic role. In an international emergency, in a time of war, a national carrier is required to freight resources and people around the country and around the world. Qantas also operates Qantas Defence Services, which conducts work for the RAAF. If Qantas is allowed to wither, who will meet these strategic needs?

I pay tribute to the 35,000 employees of the Qantas Group. At the forefront of the fight against the strategy of Qantas management have been the Qantas pilots, to whom millions of Australians have literally entrusted their lives. The Australian and International Pilots Association sees Qantas management strategy as a race to the bottom when it comes to service and safety. On 8 November last year (2010), QF032 experienced a serious malfunction with the explosion of an engine on an A380-800 aircraft. In the wrong hands, that plane could have crashed. But it did not, in large part because the Qantas flight crew had been trained to exemplary world-class standards and knew how to cope with such a terrifying reality. I am deeply concerned that what is being pursued may well cause training levels to fall and that as a result safety standards in the Qantas Group may fall as well. AIPA pilots and the licensed aircraft engineers are not fighting for themselves; they are fighting for the Australian public. That is why I am deeply concerned about any action Qantas management may be considering taking against pilots who speak out in the public interest.

A lot of claims have been made about the financial state of Qantas international but given the information I have presented tonight, which has come from within the Qantas Group, I believe these claims by management are crying out for further serious forensic investigation. Qantas should not be allowed to face death by a thousand cuts-job cuts, route cuts, quality cuts, engineering cuts, wage cuts. None of this is acceptable and it must all be resisted for the sake of the pilots, the crews, the passengers and ultimately the future of our national carrier.

A woman asks her husband at breakfast time, "Would you like some bacon and eggs, a slice of toast, and maybe some grapefruit juice and coffee?"

He declines. "Thanks for asking, but I'm not hungry right now. It's this Viagra," he says. "It's really taken the edge off my appetite."

At lunchtime, she asked him if he would like something. "How about a bowl of soup, homemade muffins or a cheese sandwich?"

He declines. "The Viagra," he says, "Its really spoiled my need for food."

Come dinnertime, she asks if he wants anything to eat. "Would you like a juicy rib eye steak and some scrumptious apple pie? Or maybe a rotisserie chicken or tasty stir fry?"

He declines again. "No," he says, "it's got to be the Viagra. I'm still not hungry."

"Well," she says, "Would you mind getting off me? I'm bloody starving."

A fellow walked into a pet store and was looking at the animals on display.

While he was there, a Chief Master Sergeant from the local Air Force Base walked in and said to the shopkeeper,

"I'd like a line service monkey, please."

The clerk nodded, went to a cage at the side of the store and took out a monkey.

He put a collar and leash on the animal and handed it to the Chief, "That'll be $1,000." The Chief paid and left with the monkey.

Surprised, the fellow went to the shopkeeper and said, "That was a very expensive monkey.

Most of them are only a few hundred dollars. Why did that one cost so much?"

The shopkeeper answered, "Ah-----that was a line service monkey. He can park, fuel, and service all Air Force aircraft,

conduct all required ground ops testing, rig aircraft flight controls, and all with no mistakes.

He's well worth the money."

With his interest peaked, the fellow looked around and spotted a Monkey in another cage with a $10,000 price tag.

"That one's even more expensive! What can it do?"

"Oh, that one is a "Maintenance Supervisor" monkey. He can instruct at all levels of aircraft maintenance, supervise all corrective and preventive maintenance programs, supervise a crew of maintainers, and even do most of the paperwork.

A very useful monkey indeed," replied the shopkeeper.

The guy looked around a little longer and found a third monkey in a cage. The price tag read, "$50,000". "Holy crap!

What does this one do?"

"Well, the shopkeeper said, I've never actually seen him do anything but drink beer, have his way with the girl monkeys, and play with his pecker, but his papers say he's a pilot."

Not only Jets, I've had the same happen to me when I was in the aircraft and one of those damn powerfull Drifters taxiing in front of me applied full power.:cops:Alan.

If it was, I missed the write-up and great photo's.

1) No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified,

and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.

2) There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total - 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.

3) Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical).

This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house.

Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75-1/2 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc.

This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man- made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.

4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight.

On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that 'flying reindeer' (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine.

We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload - not even counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison - this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.

5) 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance - this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each.

In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second.

Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.> In conclusion - If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's either dead now, or a superhuman……….you decide.

Just don't tell the grandkids

Sad video of what can happen if you do not use tie-downs in windy weather.

http://www.wimp.com/parkedaircraft/

An angry wife said to her husband on the phone:

“Where the hell are you?!!”

Husband:

“Darling you remember that Jewellery shop where you saw the diamond necklace and totally fell in love with it and I didn't have money that time, and said Baby it'll be yours one day?”

Wife, with a smile blushing:

“Yeah I remember that, my Love.”

Husband:

“I'm in the Pub next to that shop.”

I have heard about this dead-set georgeous young hooker, who only charges by the inch.Unfortunately I cannot afford her, but thought that i'd be kind to many on here that deserve a cheap night out.

WARNING!

There's also a fee for touch and go's

I have heard about this dead-set georgeous young hooker, who only charges by the inch.

Unfortunately I cannot afford her, but thought that i'd be kind to many on here that deserve a cheap night out.

Bet he gets wired later on....

I thought most parking tickets where produced by underpaid council workers ?

No wonder they have to walk around in pairs, or simply snap away from the security offered by the Council ute's:peepwall:

Hi Planey, David got back to me overnight he is evidently going to put a link on his site so that we can get it there and pay by Paypal, will see if he can do us a deal on freight and we can get some sent out, he did say he would email me back with details so will keep everybody posted when i know more as well. Eric

Dave Sykes who bravely flew his Microlight from the UK to Australia has released a book of his journey aptly called A Wing And A Chair, Solo Flight to Oz. look for it it promises to be a great read...

Looks like a must-have book, having had the pleasure to meet him at Bankstown.

Have Googled it, but can't find the publisher.

If anyone knows where to order a copy, probably others on here also, would like to know.

Kind Regards

Planey

Paddy McCoy, an elderly Irish farmer, received a letter from the Department

for Work & Pensions stating that they suspected he was not paying his

employees the statutory minimum wage and they would send an inspector to

interview them.

On the appointed day, the inspector turned up.

"Tell me about your staff," he asked Paddy.

"Well," said Paddy, "there's the farm hand, I pay him £240 a week, and he

has a free cottage.

Then there's the housekeeper. She gets £190 a week, along with free board

and lodging.

There's also the half-wit. He works an 18 hour day, does 90% of the work,

earns about £25 a week along with a bottle of whisky and, as a special

treat, occasionally gets to sleep with my wife."

"That's disgraceful" said the inspector, "I need to interview the half-wit."

"That'll be me then," said Paddy.

It is a slow day in a little Greek Village. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit. On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the village, stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night. The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher. The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer. The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel. The guy at the Farmers' Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the taverna. The publican slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him "services" on credit. The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note. The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveller will not suspect anything. At that moment the traveller comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money, and leaves town. No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole village is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism. And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is how the bailout package works.

Best friends graduated from medical school at the same time and decided that, in spite of two different specialties, they would open a practice together to share office space and personnel.

Dr. Smith was the psychiatrist and Dr. Jones was the proctologist; they put up a sign reading:

"Dr. Smith and Dr. Jones: Hysterias and Posteriors".

The town council was livid and insisted they change it.

So, the docs changed it to read: "Schizoids and Hemorrhoids".

This was also not acceptable, so they again changed the sign. "Catatonics and High Colonics"

No go. Next, they tried "Manic Depressives and Anal Retentives" - thumbs down again.

Then came "Minds and Behinds" - still no good.

Another attempt resulted in "Lost Souls and Butt Holes" - unacceptable again!

So they tried "Analysis and Anal Cysts" - not a chance.

"Nuts and Butts" - no way.

"Freaks and Cheeks" - still no good.

"Loons and Moons" - forget it.

Almost at their wit's end, the docs finally came up with: "Dr. Smith and Dr. Jones -

Specializing in Odds and Ends". Everyone loved it.

quote="pudestcon, post: 185992, member: 237"]Planey's mate!!!?? Jeezus, didn't know he had one:wink:

Welcome Greg, we have fun here.

Pud

Now Now Pud, Me mates edumicated, even if I aint:cops:

Anyway, thats another one on the forums from the UK and I welcome him as he's a top bloke, and it all helps the site go global.

Kind Regards.

Planey