turboplanner

9 hours ago, trailer said:

This extract  from the RAAus CEO is somewhat concerning...
'As part of our ongoing Part 149 obligations, RAAus must provide CASA with a range of statistics, including safety and compliance data. For this first quarter of 2023, we’ve continued to see the same kind of non-compliances occurring, which is disappointing. As an example, we identified two aircraft flown without current registration, eight instances of Instructors operating with expired medicals, six instances of pilots operating without a current BFR, and the list goes on.'

8 hours ago, jackc said:

And yet, they do not do incident/crash investigations now?

 

And yet they have the duty of care to ensure there is no accidental negligence in the operations they administer.

Hand wringing isn't going to reduce the problem.

A compliance and enforcement component will

53 minutes ago, coljones said:

It would be nice if more journos had a better education at uni in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

For this case, yes, but 30 minutes later the newspaper may get onto a story about the defacing of a statue in the town park, and a history buff will he cursing him her for not getting the spelling correct in the name or giving the wrong birthplace  of the person represented in the statue, as informed by the Mayor or the following day at a flower show reporting the colourful blooms of Mayberries based on the interview with the President of the Gardening Society only to be lambasted by exhibitors who all knew they were Cape Southwick pansies.

The point is that you can't expect the Journalist to be the expert; you have to get the expert talking to the Journalist, and that's when you get traction and advance your Industry/Association/Club.

31 minutes ago, kgwilson said:

More and more younger people are turning to social media for their news even though it may be inaccurate, sensationalist or completely false. I think this has been a major contributor to the rise in conspiracy theorists (Cookers).

 

Almost everyone carries a smartphone and a large portion of the younger demographic are busting to get their 15 minutres of fame.

 

In this case the student realises he's is OK and starts videoing everything, especially his injuries and the crash site while making sensationalist statements and uninformed opinions. Uploaded directly to social media and then he decides to help the instructor. No-one had seen the accident and they first found out when Instructor & student were walking back towards the flying school.

 

I then assume the student rings 7 News & they get the video. The instructor is taken to hospital but the student still high on the adrenaline of his 15 minutes of fame drives himself to hospital.

 

This is gold for 7 News and accuracy is not a consideration, the more sensationalist the better, hence the statements of "pools of blood" and "aircraft plumetted from 2000 feet" which we know is complete BS.

 

The level of journalism has descended in to the abyss in the last few years because sensationalism sells.

I'd say this post is a good example of unsourced social media rubbish.

......Turbini Island, refused to be swamped by the IPCC Ocean level dictated by the United Nations which wouldn't be quite so united if they knew what was going on.

For an IPCC licence fee Turbini Island was included in the World Ocean Recording System Tippingpoint. (WORST).

In 2005 the IPCC had installed Measuring Poles around the coast to a height where the ocean would cover them in 2019, but ................

bum. That was in the day when they were sending people into space and people took notice of them, and Turbine then focused on selling space technology to rich people, and today there is a Turbine takeoff somewhere around the world every 47 minutes. Many of them just drop back to earth, but hey, it's a numbers game and .................

22 minutes ago, Thruster88 said:

Was the media coverage of this accident,  including the factual video of the passengers experience, a help or a hindrance in RAAus campaign for a pilot in every home? 

The first report on this site was the ABC report, and I would say it helped because it showed an engine failure followed by much the same level on injury you'd get in a car that didn't quite hit a tree dead centre.

If you then asked the question of all the serious RA accidents over the past 15 years, the process is usually:

1. First on the scene are civilian witnesses, property owner.

2. Someone phones emergency services  and Fire, Police, Ambulance are on the scene.

3. The local newspaper gets a call and sends a reporter out.

At this point in most cases none of the people on site are aircraft/flying professionals; this sequence of arrivals occurs at every incident in town from a fuel spill to a car accident, an escape of stock onto a road, a fall on the footpath by one of the town treasures, an outbreak of a virus at the hospital, and so on.

The reporter these days goes through 5 years of Uni studying processes, sourcing, editing, etc., so starts asking questions, getting the vital details, time, location, how the incident started.

Not surprisingly the available interviewees providing the answers are not going to have industry knowledge e.g. they know a truck has crashed, but they don't know it's one of the new K220s, however the story is sourced, the source stacks up and the Editor approves the story for release. The next stop is the hospital to see how the people are doing and a new set of non-aviation people are now talking.

It's the same process when someone breaks their back falling off a horse; who among the first responders and the newspaper reporter would know it was a Palomino cross and that particular cross is known for getting rid of riders?

And in the course of a year in most towns there are probably  a couple of hundred similar incidents requiring a couple of hundred streams of personal knowledge stretching back decades. Neither the First Responders nor the journalist are expected to have those decades of knowledge on 200 different subjects.

But that doesn't stop the people that do have the detailed knowledge airing their expert views on the quality of the story, whether more than three readers would actually read a flying story or not so life goes on.

So let's look back over the reports of serious accidents which made the news over the past 15 years and featured on this site. In how many cases did you see a correct (for the unfolding situation) assessment from the RAA as part of the story, injecting that missing industry knowledge?

In Planning, I've had plenty of journalists phone me with what they've managed to get, and ask for a comment, and when I've asked what the deadline was so I could research it, the deadline was 40 minutes away, but I've still made the effort to get a few words in, and they've never been left out of the report, and that covers a lot of years.  For the 6 pm TV news that's usually no more than 7 words, but it balances the story.

Beat me to it.

Without making any comments,the above two links are a comparison of a Coroner's report, through AAP, and the ATSB Report on the same fatal crash.

Self Administering Organisations generally get the former.

6 hours ago, skippydiesel said:

I don't think that the main stream "media" has ever set out or claimed, to report anything other than sensational events (check out The Donald).

 

The "news" is just a collection of sensational stories & propaganda - that's what we the proletariat want. ("bread & circuses"?) If we didn't, the journalists would be out of a job and the "media" they work for would not be getting the attention the advertisers and other vested interests are willing to pay for, so they would go broke (the market rules - or so say economic rationalists) .

 

Even historians are prone to "slanting" facts to suit a particular mindset - if they tell of unpalatable truths or challenge the accepted /officially promoted version, they don't get funding/grants - they are out of a job.

 

You want factual, unbiased, accurate, reporting of important/relevant events - are there sufficient like minded persons, willing to fund such a revolutionary idea?🤣

A novel thought. You're saying the press should not report the first ex President of the United States showing up to be indicted on criminal charges because that isn't news?

.....GOC to BVA.

This was getting out of the blonde's comfort zone; a bit like the average Tesla driver on Autopilot when she realised the car has been driving up the nature strip for the last 30 km and has driven through 27 red lights.

Elon turned his attention to the rapidly expanding Turbine TASUMANIA LTD. "I can build you a Big Battery to power all your production" he said.

"You mean like the BIG battery that powers South Australia for 40 minutes" replied Turbo.

"Yes" said Elon nervously wondering if Turbo had found out about him buying 6,000 AA batteries from Coles North Adelaide, then just connecting them in series.

"I know about the Coles deal" said Turbo ......................

39 minutes ago, skippydiesel said:

How myths persist - we have known for many many years now, that ULP stored in an airtight container, with a minimum  75% full, will stay "fresh" for 6 or more months (this includes 98 RON) despite this being common knowledge, there are those who continue to say that the fuel will go "off" in a week or two.

I'd suggest you bring yourself up to date. I wouldn't say two weeks  but it's not a lot more. It varies by engine.

1 hour ago, RFguy said:

I want to investigate buying drum or drums  of ULP98.  Anyone here much experience with buying drums? I bet there are.

 

IE not necessarily premium unleaded with all the fancy additives, just ULP98, which is listed in a few of the available products.

 

Is a single drum on a trailer and approved screw into drum pump/ filter reasonable or is it better to have a bigger - say 600-100 ltrs  fuel trailer and fill that up from a truck ?  I dont really want to encounter / infringe on needing large volume storage permits etc.  And a drum a week would be plenty.

-glen

 

You'll need to do some research; it goes in layers.

You can't carry petrol in a 4WD Wagon or the boot of a car, I think, starting at 20 litres, so it's a ute or trailer or external 20 litre jerry can rack.

The next step up is the 200 litre drum and 20 years ago in Victoria you could carry that in a trailer, ute or tray, suitably strapped down.

Then about that level, there's a requirement to have a fuel haul kit.

So you need to check those levels.

However, Canberra area is likely to have a fuel distributor with a farm delivery tanker complete with fuel haul kit which will dispense bulk fuel into your tanks or drums, or will deliver 200 litre drums and change them for the empties on the driver's regular rounds. This is how property owners get their fuel.

Most medium size town airstrips get it by the drum which would suit your thoughts.

Re your ULP98 and the fancy additives, I would talk that over with a fuel company engineer. Your fuel isn't going to go off in a week, and if you have to measure the volume of aromatics per amount you pump into the arcraft, you're open to mistakes or forgetting, so the engine won't start.

....was sceduled to land there, but as usual Elon had got it backwards, and during the first trip (Elon does secret trials for everything now)  one of the Elonaughts [newAVREF] boinged up to Jupiter; Elong should have supplied them with suction cups or..................

2 hours ago, Student Pilot said:

SWER lines are very hard to see.

I guess in your business you get the opportunity to know where you'll be flying for each run.

I would imagine trying to herd cattle where most will be running in a single direction, but one or two will always make a run for it in the other 359 degrees would add to the risk.

1 hour ago, RFguy said:

As I have mentioned before.. There are a few things , IMO,  that Jabiru Engines SHOULD HAVE been alot more proactive of fixing  / SB issue.
Someone in the company, IMO, made a judgement call (which i disagree with) that IMO, they considered the reputational loss was acceptable and allowed parts and systems to fail in airborne aircraft. (or were not sufficiently competent and didnt understand the rather basic problems) . 

However I think an equal number of Jabiru engine failures are due to, let's call it...  "Variable maintenance practices".

There is half of me that's had about enough of the Jabiru company mindset, and makes me want to sell my J230..... but the other half of me knows  that the J230 airframe is one of the best flying options around.  Economy, speed, performance.,- that wing is gorgeous to fly with compared to GA trucks.  Putting aside I have bought an Archer1 and am studying for my Instrument Rating - that is a separate pathway - the J230 and the Archer are two completely different mission providers.

 

You need to be a bit more specific. You've covered a lot of work you've done but from my memory it was on older model product. It's usually cost prohibited for engine manufacturers to redesign old engines for parts sales.  In one case I had to import a Holden engine from New Zealand for a client's 4 year old car because manufacturing for that engine series had ceased. The only viable option, which I pushed for and which was accepted was to do a deal with an accessory manufacturer to manufacture and supply parts to the company, and that was a fully developed design with no issues. Supplying new model engines as a replacement is a good policy because it removes the issues and the cost is not that much more than a rebuild.

9 hours ago, onetrack said:

Alan Acton (65), a "giant" of the Queensland cattle industry and owner of Wilpeena Cattle Co., was killed just before midday today, when the Robinson R44 helicopter he was reportedly using for mustering, was involved in a "collision with terrain" on his property, about 140 kms West of Rockhampton..

 

The ATSB has initiated an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash. There are reports that properties in the area were without power after the crash, seeming to indicate a collision with a power line may have been a factor in the crash.

 

Incredibly, Alans brother, Graeme (63) died from injuries resulting from a fall from a horse, in a campdrafting accident in 2014.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-04/central-queensland-alan-acton-dies-bingegang-helicopter-crash/102186060

 

https://www.beefcentral.com/news/cq-cattleman-alan-acton-killed-in-helicopter-accident/

 

You can just see a pole through the trees in the top photo and a pole with dangling wires in the second photo. 

....so the Captain in his own nefarious way had managed to disclose publicly the new Turbine Aircraft Safe Undercarriage (TASU).

Designed specifically for the recretional market which, as we know, can't make forced landings to save themselves this undercarriage [avref]  will save you if your engine cuts out and you decide to glide to the only tree in the paddock; just slap it down hard and it will bounce over the tree. Fences aren't a problem, just slap it down hard and you're over the fence. Rough landings aren't a problem, it just bounces off again, and there are four legs eliminating the tiresome old farts that still long for the days when they could weathercock off the runway and into a ditch. Pilots who had been telling everyone how smooth and precise they were for years were placing advance orders in the hundreds, but .....................

57 minutes ago, flying dog said:

(And to digress to the part of "busy circuits" and go arounds)

 

When I was low on my hours I got back to my "home base" (Hoxton Park) and the circuit was BUSY.

(Relative term I know)

I overflew and was trying to get in to the circuit.

 

I asked how many planes were in the circuit to try and improve my awareness.

When I got down I had a new hole ripped in me by the person renting the plane because I asked.

Yes, maybe not a "PROFESSIONAL THING TO DO", but why was it SO wrong?

I get it was busy.  I was trying to work out how many people were in the circuit - and I was low on hours.

To me it was the person's ego not wanting to be "shown up renting the plane to a stupid person who can't handle a bit of traffic".

 

Anyway, sorry.

He shouldn't have said that because he wasn't giving you the tools to handle it. While there are several places to join the circuit, by far the best is joining mid downwind because  as you come towards upwind at 1500 feet you can see the whole circuit 500 feet below you. It's not enough difference to hide the aircraft and as you get closer to can take in what the aircraft are. If the circuit is jam-packed you can keep going at 1500' and come back later; if there's a Baron just turning downwind you can join further down the downwind leg allowing enough room to stay ahead of him all the way down. If he's already turned and coming down downwind, you can aim to join right behind him because he'll be going away from you. If you sum up the situation in that spot just before you cross the upwind leg, you'll soon be able to make a leisurely judgement and come down onto downwind every time without crowding the ones in front of you or upsetting the ones behind. As you get down towards 1000' and downwind, you still have the option to turn early or late to tweak your position, and as you approach the Base turn you have another early/late tweaking option and as you turn final you have another one.   I mentioned a peak of 12 planes in the circuit a while back. Of these around half will not be in your decision-making area, but offsetting that are the mistakes others make running up behind the aircraft in front of them, only to find no one's allowed to touch down until the first one departs the runway and that's usually the most difficult part because you could be bumped into a go round, so final is another spot to be watching when you're on base.

1 minute ago, BrendAn said:

only 2 in the last 3 weeks. the 3 before that were pilot error.

I don't think they were 4 Series for a start, and you need to go through the RAA material for at least that last two years to get anything meaningful.

Engines are complex; any part or any sub-design process can fail or perform poorly.

Engines are rated by failures per 100.

4 failures per 100 in automotive use is reasonable, usually covered by warranty; the car just rolls to a stop and people get upset by the wait and inconvenience.

In flying there's the change of serious aircraft damage, injury or death so it's a bit more personal.

When failures start to occur a team usually swings onto the issue trying to find the cause.

Where the issue is consistent, e.g. valve seat failure at x hours, manufacturers issue a Recall before that time and replace them, with a lucky development programme, with new seats that don't fail.

A lot goes on that you don't know about.

Cummins designed a new lightweight 259 hp engine and promoted it with a Sanfrancisco-New Yorke semi trailer trip at full gross achieving 10 mpg. Existing trucks were doing 6. It had all the Cummins duraility built into it, so I pre-sold a lot to some of the bigger fleets. Shortly after they went into service, my most aggressive fleet manager started to come after me about trucks staying too long off the road being repaired. They were warranty repairs but time is money. So I made an appointment to see the service manager. I should have known as I drove into the yard and saw pallets stacked with pistons all over the place, but just put them down to scrap going back for recycling. As I walked in one of the girls got up and escorted me into the board room, sat me at the head of the table, and offered me fresh scones and coffee, the penny still didn't drop. Shortly after the Service Manager, State Manager, an Engineer and about four Service guys sat down. I tightened up as I realised I was the only outsider there; this meeting was aimed at me!. One of the victims/service guys stood up and showed the first slide; a list of 141 faults with the pistons. All I could think of was the time my client had looked out of his office and said: "Are you still there Mary????!!! and a timid little voice said "Yes" and he replied "Well go home so I can tell this bastard what I really think of him."

The presentation went on item by item - about 80 items already fixed, and the plans for each of the others, and we worked out a plan which I thought would bee acceptable t the Fleet Manager, and we all survived including the Fleet Manager who had to deal with the drivers.

That's been the worst engine problem I've ever experienced, but we all got through it and the engines went on to become routine.

The Jabiru issues followed the same pattern. Issues started to occur, changes were made and today it will be a different situation. RAA, I presume, is still pumping out the monthly statistics, so it's not that hard to see what today's performance is like. From the lack of news reports, I'd guess going well.

10 minutes ago, facthunter said:

I'll ignore that. It contributes nothing.  Nev

Don't fly into a busy airport then, because you won't be ready for the traffic density.

In the Seaworld helicopter collision there were two slow moving helicopters.

When I was there and sent my daughter up in one the  helicopters were operating from two pontoons, and flying a circuit. So one would take off and head directly south and the other would be out some distance and flying directly north then coming in to land behind the departing helicopter. Two aircraft, simple radio.

When you look at the track of the colliding helicopters, it wasn't in that circuit pattern.

In one of the helicopters a passenger saw the oncoming helicopter and spent some time getting to pilot to look out, but too late, so see and be seen is involved, but a head on situation for two company pilots at a company facility where at other times they were operating a circuit is also an issue.

36 minutes ago, facthunter said:

If 40% had to go around that is hardly satisfactory either because they still clutter up the circuit because they still have to land..  Nev

So what? You're going to have a cry on the radio and tell some of them to go away?

5 minutes ago, spacesailor said:

Well !.

The trainee did say that the tail hit the trees & flipped it, 

But did it invert or nosed in . If nosed in , it is well built to have saved the occupants ..

spacesailor

Have  a read back a few posts; it was described.

That's hilarious. Try 12 in a circuit all using correct terminology if you want to fly in to the cities. I've been up to No 5 on final, 3 got down, 2 went round. You need to be up to the task.

.........."Gotcha!" but she went off with bull and his bulging arm muscles ......................