Doug Evans

Our s is free just have to help out with strip maintance eg : mowing , painting cones helping out here and there

Lakeside .

Great good when the other half keen now ya have to get her some flight training , mine is just to be able to land if some thing should happen to me ?

Only a small bit on one of her tail plane all replaced with new ones now

Yes Noel own her 19th oct 1992 till 26th oct 1993

She's coming along nicely put new skins on over the next few weeks and a fresh coat of paint will follow soon hope. To be back in the air next two months !

Didn't even know Ford raced...

FORD WILL WIN:beg:

Good luck mate

Douglas with respect I was one of the pilots that left about 7.30am with a Jodel in front and another Savannah behind me all heading for YCAB. I got the weather 3 times in the preceding 12 hours and the forecast was well within VMC to track direct but a lingering complex trough was slow to move through. If you saw the ARFOR on Sunday pm then there was a line moving through and forecast for 0330z to be through YGAY and moving coastal with scattered SC and CU 3000-6000 behind and clearing the coast by 2200-2300Z on the Monday. The SUnday forecast had TEmpo,s with CB and lots of activity ahead of the trough, many pilots including 3 trikes flew Sth and Sth west on Sunday pm and on forecast I decided, as I,m sure did others to wait over night for the improving weather.The track south to Gayndah was uneventful but a hemispherical of 5500 was difficult to hold after Gayndah, and I decided to move to 3500 to confirm a clear track near Tansey. As we descended I assessed the biggenden and Mary valleys and the coast was very hazy and an undefined base suggesting the trough indeed was still clearing to the east. I couldn't clearly identify Gympie from abeam Goomeri but to the west the base and horizontal vis looked much better.

 

THAT IS WHERE I MADE A DECISION- no hesitation, no pressing on, no chancing it, only alternates west were considered and assessed and we picked up the Bjelke Petersen dam and tracked towards the lower and clearer area then continued to evaluate until we were able to establish a clear but detiorating track to Nanango. Even with this decision I still had preselected areas every minute and kept all alternates open and the back door as well and with the assistance of my pax we constantly assessed LSALT criteria while I stayed 100 percent focused on VMC changing conditions. We safely and successfully made Nanango where we stayed for the rest of Monday.

 

Was I foolhardy, cavalier,macho or naive to leave Monto- IMHO opinion absolutely not, and to suggest any other pilot who did that morning is absolute rubbish. Did the conditions deteriorate as we got closer to home? ABSOLUTELY.

 

Was an alternate, particularly to the west in better weather a good choice-YOU decide! I KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT.

 

I have flown, taught and rode dirt bikes in this area for 30 yrs and know every hill and track intimately. Was I going to chance it when things changed.NO WAY!! The Jodel pushed on to Kilcoy and had to land at a private strip, the other Sav made it back to YCAB- how I don't know!

 

Six hours later I heard about Des and the Dragon. As a friend I shared an adjacent hangar at YCAB next to Des as he finished the resoration , I was, and still am gutted by all of this. When the search hadn't located them on Tuesday when I finally got home I rang AMSAR SCC and tried to suggest they extend the search area west, my hunch was on the western boundary of their established search area and it appears that the refined search yielded the unfortunate recovery not a rescue, at least it appears they didn't suffer.

 

Doug, keep the constructive comment coming mate, but be careful where you point that chicken bone cause there is always one

 

pointing back as well.

In no way was i pointing a bone,

just my apinon I felt the weather was not worth the risk as a pilot I would not have flown puttin myself and wife and aircraft at an unessay risk for a day seating on the ground would suit me better as it was we were on a motorcycle and I still chose to wait a day for better conditions '

I was Marshing aircraft in and out all morning so I had a radio and was listing to others that did have a go and returned saying that the weather was pretty bad !

In saying that I had friends that did fly but where heading north they also had an interesting flight north stopping at emu park .

So I was just saying from my acount of conditions of the day I would not have flown !

We are all able to make our own choices as u did ..and others

cheers Doug

Damn their timing! This Sunday I have an all day date with 29 V8's, a mountain & a wide screen TV.

a NSW location, close to Sydney.

Something to do at night

Threads Don't kill " people people kill people "

Threads are here to enlighten and inform others of thing that other have done whether right or wrong it. Merely a tool to try educate or warn of problems out there what people do with information is entirey up to the person reading them and how they inturb the information listed .

come to think of it, if there were a place like this, i'd be happy to pay a landing fee!

That just some of thing s we had at ace airfield before Bill Starke past on .l...

Room to let with Aircon / wifi. Fuel food aircraft hanger / great people flying actively such as ribbin cutting / balloon chasing / bobcat bombing with flour .. Short field take off & landing competitions / spot landings just to name a few activity s :-)

Another "coincidence" perhaps is that often accidents like this occur when flying home from an event... food for thought.

Speaking for my self I always plan an IFR route "I follow roads" that was the way I was told too stay alive alway keep a field or road close bye as an engine will stop just a matter of when ! So far in my 12 year behind a two stroke I have never had a engine fail me but I still fly as it will stop at anytime . " seem to work for me "

Just another thought.Ok, what happened happened.

 

*IF* I was in a situation like that and had a "cheaper" EPIRB, or even maybe one with GPS....

 

If I knew I was going in, I would activate it and let the rest take its own path.

 

WRT "the EPIB being destroyed on impact". Well, ok, maybe. And if so as was said: It would be accademic how fast they were found.

 

However: If it was understood we were "going in", I would maybe entertain the idea of throwing the EPIRB out the window before we hit the ground.

 

Although we won't be CLOSE to the EPRIB, it would survive and would be close enough to at least help expediate closing the question to "our" condition/status/situation.

welcome mate:welcome:

I would not see a problem with taxi to fuel depot as long as it safe to do so

Remember when you turn on a GPS Epirb it has a cold startup and could take a couple of minutes to get a fix. Also it would need a good look at the sky to get as quick a fix as possible. The benifit of the Spot is that it is on while traveling and already knows where you are and will send an immediate fix at the push of the button. Does the Spot product satisfy requirements to carry PLB/EPIRB ?

not shore if this may exsplan the difrence bewteen the units ?

I am trying to get more information on both as I have to get a unit for my aircraft soon

Ok, I am getting in late. But days ago I heard on the news that the EPRIB was triggered then turned off. Well, ok it was turned off. But when it was triggered, wouldn't they have got a fix on it and known where to look? Shutting up now.

Thats may be why they where unable to get a lock on the unit ?

U make that jab look big maj !

good to put a face to the "avatar "