turboplanner

CJ - two good posts from Andy and CFI - there are no daredevils in those services because first priority is everyone gets home and a lot of other things which mean much bigger aircraft with the specifications to handle it and much better trained pilots to survive it.

Locations of PLB's are often fixed by high flying passenger aircraft with stage 2 being a controlled overland rescue team.

Just think of simple things - the KIS principle, and before getting too excited go talk to someone like the SES senior officer.

Well there's no point using a motor bike to pull stumps, its horses for courses.

You're a bit too deep for me there CJ.

Historically there are cases of notable private searches and rescues, but realistically things need to be organised.

If someone's lost the command generally goes to Police automatically

Same usually applies to Police, and in Victoria where the old Displan system seems to have been replaced by Municipal Emergency Management Plans for each town, the most senior Police Officer becomes the Commander.

So immediately an emergency occurs, no one is in any doubt who is in charge of the situation, and the Commander then calls on his Police, Fire officers, Council and SES.

My logic in suggesting the SES is that the Police would usually be too occupied to consider the lateral thinking of calling up a local trike pilot, by the SES Commander is not under as much pressure, their structure is more volunteer based, and there's a chance you could operate under his sub command.

It's more a matter of structure than politics.

Regarding the two ladies mentioned by TP, I believe that a well planned flight would not have put them into a valley with insufficient room to turn around, whatever the weather. To say they were "just aviating" is incorrect, IMHO. Sure, they were controlling the aircraft, but I don't think they were exercising judgement and airmanship with regard to their location, future course and possible scenarios .... including engine,fuel, electric, as well as weather.

I agree with Kaz and your first para at the time the crisis does occur.

or if you do go round at the first bounce

Good idea but be ready for the dumbest politics you'll ever see.

I would suggest you write up an A4 Information Sheet with:

Your name and contact details

Typical elapsed time from phone call to take off

Range in km

Cruise speed in km/hr

Endurance in time

Refuelling Requirement

Payload in kg (pax or equipment)

Landing requirement

Rules you operate to (and a copy of them)\

Amount of Public Liability Insurance cover, and expiry date

Regulation showing you are not permitted to charge - voluntary only

If it was in Victoria, I would then take this to the Commander of the local SES and see what reaction I got

Not so, Kaz - that superficial advice has led to many of the accidents other than the macho ones. The first difficulty is in recognising what is going on with weather conditions experienced for the first time (which may be years after training has finished). The second difficulty is recognising the point of no return where fast action needs to be taken.

One of the saddest reports I've read is of the two women who were aviating up a valley clear of cloud towards the Dom Dom saddle in Victoria and by the time they saw the valley was socked in it was too narrow to turn around. There were several easy things for them to havbe done, but they were just aviating as they'd been told.

DCA's etc etc etc to CASA advice of never get into cloud is fine, but the only real step forward I've seen over the last few decades is the minimum horizontal separation we work to today compared with the previous vertical separation.

At least with today's method, if you are simply following the rules you will be normally be starting a 180 turn several kilometres away from trouble

PS I've got a scan off the Dom Dom incident to post, just trying to find a way of getting the memory down small enough to post it.

................... cficareless flew his Aircoupe down the Tamar Valley to deliver a coupe-de-gras to Brownie, however cficarefree had to get a bucket of water, as Brownie was coupled with in the back seat of a coupe (but it was OK, as the coupe was a Lexus hybrid), so cficaress went over the top by ............

"Prius!, it's hot in here" said Brownie "I don't need any more grass thank youCficareless", and looking across at Cfi careful added "Are you ambidextrous?

............. which resulted in cfipaliativecare being invited onto the Board of Gunns.

"I know all about Gunns" he said "As we do it to our engines every time we make a call that we are rolling. Well ............. that, and there will NOT be an election while I have my hand up Julia's back ..................... and .................................

"....and .......and..... Just a minute!, Who pulled Chapter 3 of David the Great's story?"

And so began one of the great mysteries in Australian aviation. In a daring electoral coupe.......

Nice work David, thanks! I agree with Nev, send it to the Safety Mag, you'll get the 500 quid easily - not only that but it's a really great story for us others to certainly learn from.It's interesting you say about the of submitting flight plans (that it used to be the case that you filed one for a flight) - because for my x-country flying I usually submit a flight plan to Airservices, with SARtime. I find it easy to do, and there is always a comfort knowing someone will come looking for you if something bad happens. You can submit one with naips on your phone, or even via a phone call. I don't do it all the time, but certainly if the flight is over suspect terrain.

Another great chapter!

...... which she had learnt to use to give added ............................

My Aunt, out in the garden, has requested that I ask cfidon'tcare to prove that he actually isn't Bob Brown in avgas burning mode.

...depth.

The comments of Captain (alias My Aunt), have been modified to eliminate bad language and his colourful description of Bob Brown, and also to protect cfican'tcare from himself.

However it can be revealed that CFICC actually did say that he never blows his nose.

"I do this because I'm an eco-centric metro-sexual" he explained.

" When you stop to consider what it takes to make a hanky, in all conscience you can't use them.

"First the Chinese have to turf genuine brussels sprouts farmers off the land in order to grow cotton.

"Then, as we know the cotton crop has to be sprayed, and this is done by thousands of Chinese using modified bagpipes

"This scares off the Ibis who normally eat the grubs, so they have to spray a second time

"Thousands of tonnes of stone has to be carted to make houses

"The sprayers then scavenge along the rail lines for coal and burn it to keep warm

"This is why there's a global fog centre over China, which NASA has kept from the people for years

"Then they needs heaps of water, and that means they have to buy their fish from Vietnam, so everyone's always having sickies

"Because they pinch the coal from along the rail lines the Chinese Railways have had to import shiploads from Australia

"They use the cheapest ships and this increases CO2 output

"The cotton mills are also coal fired and you know what that means

"The hankies have to be shipped to Australia, where once they were made in Geelong, so at least Geelong's cleaner

"The ships are the cheapest, and you know what that means

"When they get to Australia they need to be shipped in trucks, so there's no room on the road for cars any more, especially minis driven by crazy women

"They have to be sold in bulk through Target, which means more CO2 is produced for packaging, and for 17 yo staff in short skirts standing outside the store smoking

"Then they have to be washed which means I need a power station, which is coal fired

"So", CFI concluded "I realised every time I blew my nose, I was producing a tonne of greenhouse gases and wrecking the forests of Tasmania."

It was agreed by all that this was probably CFI's longest speech, and probably the longest for any Tasmanian in history.....

docjell, if you have a marine guy in town, you could get him to do a pressure test.

They usually have the fittings to do this either through the filler or the sender hole.

This will show conclusively where the leak is.

The next question is whether you can see the evidence or not with the tank in place - you might be lucky

If not you can move in stages of desperation/time/cost a step at a time, retesting as you go

I've found with race cars and boats that if the tank is aluminium, rewelding is usually what you have to do to avoid repetitive leaking after a time

Bubbleboy has to learn to be a bit quicker.........Mavis can help you

"No ***** way" said Mavis, who'd been around with Fat Rat and the other cons, "I'm not having a bubble bath with him"

"Why not?" asked Locks

"He likes Pietenpols (aviation term?)" she said uneasily "I like CFI because since he's come in here we can't shut him up"

And she gave him a huge smile exposing bright pink gums....

David, I'm afraid you're in the wrong business, you should be a writer - now we're in suspense again.

A few things in this flight have prodded me.

I had some very good instructors, and some of the points drummed into me were:

• Always leave cross country with a full tank
   
   
  
• Always use the full length of the runway even if you don't need to
   
   
  
• Get your theory done first - you might need it one day
   
   
  

I flight planned in Victoria one day for about a 2.5 hour flight, but the weather was so bad that I was dodging around the State diverting through low corridors most of the afternoon, but the one factor I knew I didn't have to worry about was fuel.

The theory saved my life shortly after the solo stage, but that's another story.

Steady as you go lads, there's no need to take after that bunch of louts on the outside, the thread has shattered into splintered shards of ..

SA - good for awareness about you, but you might kill someone back in the busy circuit because someone else couldn't get a warning out.

Well I should have been more specific and referred to CTAF and CTAF ® where the vast majority of RA pilots operate then we wouldn't have got into this confusion.

............, not that we need to tell any of you bunch of Plebs."

The meeting erupted into .......................

an orderly dispersal (as against the propaganda previously put out that half the members were bringing AK47's and grenades) to David the Great's compound where they...

The "All Stations" calls are interesting because these were superseded many years ago.

On the other hand the RAA website doesn't have to be upgraded just to put important information like this on permanent display for new members and for revision.

We do operate in GA airspace so the information needed on the site is:

How all the regulations nest

Where each one can be obtained (eg link)

And a good indexing system

........ scratched his map of Tasmania, took off both of his 4 gold striped possum skinned epaulettes, crossed himself, threw down some Talon pellets, held up the Koran, read through his check list, ordered all Board Members out of the room on the grounds that they weren't financial, looked at a photo of Peter Garrett in his wallet (or was it actually Slartibaldhead?), drew himself up to his full height (just over the top of the table) and said .................

"HOW BORING IS THIS THEN!!"

.......... and one of 'em gets voted onto the Board.

At the Board Meeting immediately after the AGM, El Presidente will say "You, the Muridae at the end, you aren't a member, so get out of this meeting."

 

The rest of the Board will then jump to their feet in indignation and say:

 

1. "Why are our feet constantly stuck in this dignation stuff?"
    
   
2. And leave that Muridae alone as he/she/it were elected by the ...........................
    
   

"Pope, and everyone knows he is a Catholic"

"But is he?" asked Turbo, and El Presidente ....

"Grasshopper, schmasshopper" said the RiverinaLass "We have a mouse (Muridae Musculus Bushpaddockus) plague down here at the moment that outnumbers the Hoppers, and the problem is that once they cross the border into Mextoria you won't be able to recognize 'em from the normal population."

"They even nibble us in our beds at night" added Nanna "And some of 'em are big too, with flash teeth, a tongue that is to to die for, and a technique that takes its time."

 

"The Muridae at RatFly (tee hee ... good one Tubb) were nothing compared to what will .....................

"happen in September when the buds start to open and the teeth of the Muridae reach their full extension"

"So what's different?" beeped Tomo, eh? "As he always looked a bit that way, what with his white Canberra skin (which sometimes looks like a pommy in winter), his poor ACT superior attitude ("Here, peasant, give this a polish" the BartPlug could be heard yelling in the background) and his sunburnt (or is that chafed?) little........................

"Normally us superior people in Canberra would not tell you peasants anything, but after what the rat's just been saying, and I know it's not the Korean Peninsula, I can let you into a little secret about the alleged grasshopper plague late last year in which the previous Victorian Government spent $17 billion on fly swats for each household, custom mesh for every car grille, meetings with stakeholder groups all over Victoria, and the others States, the USA, and Indonesia (in case tourists arrived and were scared into thinking this was a kangaroo plague).

"As we all know the so-called plague started in NSW, where they usually do. We in the ACT have to be eternally vigilant and keep our doors locked and phones turned off.

"However, while every Victorian was armed with a can of fly spray, and the Victorian National Guard had been recalled from repelling Queenslanders at the border, and while Premier Brumby had announced that the Melbourne Cup could be cancelled (apparently in case the grass hoppers beat the horses down the straight), the promised plague didn't eventuate.

"The Government was always breaking promises so the Victorians didn't take any notice, but" said PartyFarty there was a very good reason.

"Our nemesis Rattus Muridea had got on the turps at Ratfly 2009, and on the way home mated with a Mousus Upsideownus, and by a freak of nature a downside mutation began to occur until there were thousands of offspring determinedly tramping the roads of the Riverina.

"The problem was their bite. It was said that after a bite from a Mattus Riverinerus, people would bare their bums just to get the relief of a Murray Mozzie bite

At this point Bartyfarty, in a new tradition set by David The Great announced he was off on business and would continue the story later....

Damn! he's ruined the ending!