turboplanner

........they fly [avref] around the desert on their horses.

"There shoould be a separate thread on horses" wrote someone.

So a new thread entitled "horses" appeared, but no one wrote anything............................................

30 minutes ago, Ian said:

Yes but while artillery tables could be calculated manually this is the type of thing that can be automated and parameterised pretty simply. Sites like windy provide far more granular data than a WAC chart, where every pixel colour is a speed associated with a vector. While some people have fond memories of slide rules they're an anachronism in the present day and age.

I know that someone mentioned that "Fuel and airframe time" were the most important thing in aircraft operations, and yet we're counselling people to optimise with a bit of paper and a slide rule?

Yet we are having this discussion now; we are looking at lost knowledge of how to achieve the result; we are looking at a majority of people actually in command of aircraft not knowing there was a result to achieve.

Of course you can build an algorithm so optimise the result, but how silly is it that the Captain of a ship in the 1700s knew how to optimise a voyage but a Pilot in Command doesn't know he can.

........to separate upper case from lower case. "Where is the Hard Case"? asked OT and this sparked a 16 day 57 post debate on the best way to find it from heating the keyboard with a cigarette lighter to joining the Navy until the thread moved on to catching rabbits with ferrets.

Finally someone who'd just joined the thread pointed out the obvious "All the keys are upper case" he said and everyone had to agree except ........... 

3 hours ago, Ian said:

Hi All,

 

Given variations in wind speed at altitude the "shortest" path between two points is may not be a direct route especially on longer flights. Does anyone know of software or other tools so optimise flight paths, engine time and fuel use?

 

 

Yes, a Kane computer and  a WAC Chart.

There are alternatives to flying straight into a head wind, and in some cases on some days a CTA obstruction becomes less of an obstruction. You don't have to do too many trials to get a reasonable optimum.

.......we can both have a new experience. Someone chimes in with “short for Tim Tams with no Tams” and the group of aviators nodded in unison. “SITREPS are what you do at the gym” said Oney, and that surprised Turbo because every time he was there OT was seated near the Lycra girls wearing an oxygen mask and covered by a blanket. Finally CT who’d had more education than the others said  METARS means the weather is so bad you’d need a tin bum to last the distance, and again they all nodded. “I think I’ll go down and buy an Epaulette” said the new pilot and they all......

.........bull session every hour with different speakers explaining the history and custom of the peoples, their ancestry and the movements and speech of the .................

....compass swinging to the north.

Cappy ............

......waited expectantly, but Cappy had slippped a disc and it was a case once again of so close, yet so far away. To make matters worse, Ratty McRat came out on deck in his kilt and the attention turned from Cappy to ..................

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

Here's a question:

 

A person has a doctor (DAME or GP depending on the class of medical) complete a medical examination for a licence renewal and fill out the CASA form and the doctor says that the person is medically fit to pilot an aircraft and hands over the signed paperwork for the person to forward to CASA The person on the same day delivers the paperwork to CASA. 

 

How does that person exercise the privileges of their licence if CASA is slow in processing the renewal?  If subjected to a ramp check, could a pilot produce the signed medical examination report and tell the CASA inspector that the pilot doesn't have the response from Medical Branch because they haven't processed it yet?

There's an argument for that if the DAME has approved it; liability issue for CASA before that.

Denso used to be called Nippon (Japan) Denso and the Japanese quality was high. Still might pay to run some searches in Japan to see if there's a parts match and where the part is now made.

8 minutes ago, Geoff_H said:

Done that but the definition on the drawing has been lost.  I actually know the wing span so I printed the drawing to fit on an A4 sheet, found the scale then scaled most dimensions.  It is 8ft wide with wings folded up, found most other major measurements same way. So can guess the amount of aluminium needed, the website says "6061 or 2024" suggesting the craft could be made of 6061.

The two materials might require different interior material thicknesses, rib centres, number of supports etc.

21 hours ago, Geoff_H said:

I have been trying to get building information on this aircraft.  I have searched the website but there is no information such as build materials, build time, pictures during construction etc.  To buy plans to find out information would cost 400Euro.  Id anyone building one or have a set of plans or bill of materials?

That's the dimensioned layout drawing.

Pick a file format that allows you to blow it up and if the dimensions are legible, take the file to officeworks, who can print a D Size drawing. (Can't rememer the exact dimensions of D Size - about the size of a big Drawing Board.

.....extremity, and fell out onto the deck of a 50 ft yacht being sailed by Chuck McRatt Cook from Boston. Who would have believed it. 

We've all heard how General Custer was butchered by the Sioux led by Sitting Bull at Little Big Horn.

CMK's great grandfather was Chuck McRatt II and not many people know that he defeated the Sioux, at the full size Big Horn, because although the Sioux outnumbered his troops, they were flogged out by the time they had climbed the 8 miles to the peak of Bog Horn.

The Chuck sailing the yacht had never done a day's work in his life and he realised Ratty McRatt was a relative, quickly gave him sailing duties such as ...............

....you described as Patties."

Sir Baanard's failing eyesight also missed the message from one of Cappy's cousins "Ratty" McRat, who'd announced he was flying in on his electric Drifter.

The McRat family were the Scottish branch of the Captain Cook lineage.

The McRats had fought the Cooks at the Battle of Culloden, and all had returned allive, thanks to the family trait of poor eyesight. No one scored a hit.

Old Captain James Cook McRat had said to them "Ye'll go blaind if you keep doing thart", but they didn't listen to him.

"Ratty" called on the radio that he'd run out of range in the Drifter 17 miles out to sea, so................

49 minutes ago, RFguy said:

Best to do some Instrument flying training.   I think that S&L and Rate 1 turns can be effectively  taught in a hour of work if the right clouds are abound. I mean clouds, not under the hood. real cloud time is  priceless. and a little bit of a situation/serious reality brain state  goes a long way for future flying.

 

A  good  simulator seems pretty good to maintain those basic , IMC back into VFR skills , recency recency recency ! flying the aircraft from the 6 pack scan needs to be inate.

I am a firm beleiver this should be part of basic syllabus for the XC rating of a PC/RPL/PPL  (but requires an IR aircraft)
 

as----If that is your first 180deg  turn in IMC, I'd put real money on it that you will put it into a spiral dive, and if you are lucky, you will fall out of the bottom of the cloud before Vne ensues or your run out of altitude...

 

yeah yeah dont go near clouds ? I dont buy it. I have been flying around the western edge of the tablelands in what looks like benign weather  (FEW) suddenly to be surrounded by puffy cumulus that seems to appear out of nowhere and become BKN and in cloud. The real cloud time (IE you are looked into the white)  instead of under the hood drives home  just how wrong your perception and brain can be  in a white out !!!

Well in GA you get three hours which is usually enough to show you the benefits to life of staying away from it without training.

There are two reasons not to just do a few more hours and think you are OK to fly IFR out of an inadvertent entry into cloud.

1. There is a lot less cost involved throughly learning MET so you can understand the MET report and identify the clouds ahead and not get caught.

2. In the three hours it's not hard to learn the scan process and fly level.........in calm air, but usually if you've flown into weather you didn't identify          you will be bouncing, the instruments will be bouncing, the stress level will be through the roof, so you will be pushed out of the stable position          and have to get back in by reading the instruments. A lot of ATSB reports find that a deceased pilot has been making a habit of a few little          excursions into IMC and getting away with it. If you look at the IFR syllabus you find not only a lot more than three hours, but a mandatory x hours per year once you get your rating, so your cost of flying is exponentially higher if you need to do business without sitting out a day or two at the other end.

3. An important factor in IFR flying is the rock filled cloud. You can be flying towards rising ground and you don't know there's a cliff there. 

    In IFR flight planning you idenify a much wider corridor on the route and have a lowest safe altitude for each sector. That involves searching within the corridor for all the hills and mountain peaks, high tension power lines and towers. You can still do this in flight but the quality of the search is less, and if you've inadvertently flown into could, you're pretty much in a raffle.

In Victoria we had six skydivers flying IFR from Perth smash into the only mountain in their way. For a casual fly in one pilot decided to fly IFR - straight into the side of a hill. At another fly in, with a clear (except for the thick cloud he was in) run available to the coast, the pilot, knowing he was near mountains started climbing......straight into one.

Yet with the correct training syllabus, correct currency, correct MET interpretation, correct flight planning, commercial pilots are doing it with an exceptional safety record every day.

35 minutes ago, old man emu said:

So why does my Basic Class 2 have these restrictions as pointed out below?

 

The thread drifted into another direction; access to CTA, and I pointed out that several City schools taught both GA and RA in CTA with the training required plus aircraft modifications.

As the guy says, the RA student got a full Class 2 the same as the GA student.

21 minutes ago, old man emu said:

Not to knock the sensibly thought out contributions being made in this thread, but it's getting to be a May Pole dance with no sign of the threads finally weaving something.

Perhaps that's because of thread drift.

The thread is about a delay in CASA making a decision to give RAA a 25% weight increase. That's what I started to research a couple of days ago.

21 minutes ago, old man emu said:

AusRoads medical because I hold a heavy vehicle licence and a Public Vehicle Driver's Authority. Over the years this medical has become less stringent, yet CASA demands the original format.

CASA accepts the Unconditional Commercial Vehicle licence.

If you have a medical condition the Commercial Vheicle licence has a series of pathways similar to CASA.

Basic Class 2 is good for a person with no medical conditions because it costs less. but Class 2 gives you access to a Dame decision, and managing a condition.

 

2 minutes ago, jackc said:

I have just bought a house in town, so just something crazy to do, I walked to the Post Office for my mail, a round trip of 6.5km up and down many hills. I did the walk with one stop, at the Post office and drank 500ml of water and went home.

No problems doing it and when I have time might do it more often. 

Now, I am 71 and fast become a target of medicals.

I am quite fit for age as I lead an active life BUT, I could walk out the door tomorrow  and have a Aortic Dissection and drop dead on my lawn 😞. 

Would a medical have found impending disaster?  No, but a full CT/MRI would have,  more probably than not.  How far do we go with medicals for anything?  Car, Truck, Employment etc etc?  

Medicals need to be unworkably intense to catch many impending Medical events. Still, there can never be 100% success.

But our regulators are too fcking dumb to see the woods for the trees.  Nothing can ever be perfect……  

I take it you didn't have the time to read what our regulators actually say; no point getting wound up if there isn't a problem.

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

Therein lies the stupidity. When will CASA come back down to earth and accept that, apart from some blatantly obvious physical and mental conditions, a medical examination will not disclose the conditions that cause sudden unexpected death. How many examples  of otherwise apparently unaffected people dropping from heart attack, stroke or aneurysm? 

 

I think that we should rise up and demand that every CASA employee undergo an annual medical, at their own expense, to maintain their position. Let them walk 1609.344 metres in our shoes.

Hit the books like I did; you will quickly see that very specific medical conditions, stages, medical terms determine different pathways. You will also see very similar conditions for drivers which from my first readings have been changing almost yearly from 2016. I haven't found anything so far about dropping dead from a heart attack.

35 minutes ago, jackc said:

Self compliance is up to the aircraft owner/pilot themselves?

Yes, you're a member of a Self Administering Organisation (SAO)

Flying as an SAO became possible when governments started shedding unnecessary legal liability in the mid 1980s.

You have to eliminate any reasonably forseeable risk.

CASA GA pilots still operate like road users; under the statutory system.

On the roads, Police are inspecting for breaches, Flight Operations Inspectors are inspecting for breaches in the sky.

When SAOs are flying in CASA sky they are operating under both systems.

35 minutes ago, jackc said:

Being a realist, who is going to catch people breaking rules anyway?

You are responsible for complying with SAO self administering rules. Why would you want someone in a uniform with his name on it hiding behind trees at your expense?

35 minutes ago, jackc said:

ONLY if something comes to light by way of an in incident

Possibly two things.

1. If you have breached your duty of care, maybe a payout of $1m to about $15m.

2. If the even is judged as Culpable Negligence depends on the Crimes Act in each jurisdiction, but can be a manslaughter charge, which makes your behaviour in relation to the regulations very important.

35 minutes ago, jackc said:

 

 

OR someone snitches on the rule breaker?

Probably nothing in a Self Administering Organisation which has no C&E system in place, or unless they have given themself Powers to sanction behaviour.

3 minutes ago, old man emu said:

Therein lies the stupidity. When will CASA come back down to earth and accept that, apart from some blatantly obvious physical and mental conditions, a medical examination will not disclose the conditions that cause sudden unexpected death. How many examples  of otherwise apparently unaffected people dropping from heart attack, stroke or aneurysm? 

 

I think that we should rise up and demand that every CASA employee undergo an annual medical, at their own expense, to maintain their position. Let them walk 1609.344 metres in our shoes.

I've been, in my spare time trying for two days to research some of these instant answers. After what I've done so far I would caution people not to give simplified answers to such a complicated subject. It's clear to me that some of the people who've given medical statements in the past haven't read the disclaimers and followed the channels that anyone with a medical condition must follow. The Unconditional Commercial Vehicle Medical, is also very difficult to follow. Neither will be a problem for most people under 50, but when some of the long term conditions set it it's complicated so best to read all that's on the sites before jumping to conclusions.

31 minutes ago, jackc said:

But, the RAA audit does not publish the complete audit  list it has compiled? 

Put yourself in the shoes of the President.

You have to do something, you can't do everything at once, even though you're exposed for every forseeable risk.

You don't have the money to fix everything at once.

Not having the money is no excuse.

What I've done is fix issues systematically; the word soon gets around and a lot of the others have fixed their non conformance before you get to them.

The 2013 Audit is a good example against boasting that no one operates legally, people shouldn't bother to get licences etc. because one of those, with no visible number and no licence and very little flying skill triggered 186 people to spend months in some cases getting themselves and their aircraft up to scratch, and perhaps 40 to 60 never flew again.

.......fell asleep, and he would wake up to find fries all over him, patties down his shirt, and a pickle ..................

53 minutes ago, jackc said:

I wonder what is on the rest of their ‘list’ ? We are only getting half the story? 

No reason to believe that's not the total of the Audit or believe nothing is happening.

A CASA report on a 2013 audit showed 186 cases on another subject.

27 minutes ago, Roundsounds said:

That’s easily fixed, stop auditing. 

RAA is a self administering authority; auditing is an efficient way of administering without assuming liability.

The next step is how to deal with the non-compliance.

If one of those instructors had a medical episode with a pre-solo student RAA has a liability problem, so the gap needs to be closed as quickly as possible. I've previously used C&E sanctions. If you have that system installed in the constitution, you can suspend the instructor's rating until the Medical Certificate is propduced. For Natural Justice the instructor can appeal.