onetrack

No, the PA-34 has a long history of nosewheel collapses. The actuation mechanism is extremely complex, and it must also be rigged precisely. See Pages 36-38 (page 2-4 of the PDF file) in the following U.K. crash extract.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5422f339ed915d1374000453/Piper_PA-34-200T_Seneca_II__G-BTGV_07-11.pdf

The aircraft involved appears to be VH-MRY.

I don't know where else you'd have a nose wheel, but at the front. At least it wasn't described as a Cessna, so some education must be getting through.

The Pipers seem to have the most nosewheel collapse problems of all the retractables. 

Yep, if you're a Canadian, and you're looking at buying a new aircraft, or a luxury yacht or luxury car, the news is all bad.....

https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/08/01/tax-the-rich-canada-imposes-new-levy-on-luxury-cars-yachts-and-private-jets

OME - Are you saying you downloaded a WAC off the 'net for free? All the sites I've found want $$'s to supply a WAC. Did you acquire one as part of a site trial?

There's a useful and informative discussion on Aviation Stackexchange regarding WAC's. Did you know that the FAA ceased production of WAC's in 2015? I would imagine a 2015 WAC chart would be somewhat out of date today.

https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/2538/where-can-i-find-ga-vfr-maps-for-australia

You can acquire 1:1 Million Scale General Reference topographical Maps for free from Geoscience Australia - and these are based on WAC charts. Instructions for printing these maps are on the Geoscience site.

https://www.ga.gov.au/scientific-topics/national-location-information/topographic-maps-data/topographic-maps

I wonder how long before someone loses a limb in one of those knee-level horizontal unguarded large propellers?

The whole design is seriously deficient, lightweight ducting around the fans would provide an improved level of thrust/lift, whilst providing a major increase in the level of safety to bystanders (or the pilot!). 

.....thing, Cappy found himself wearing a Blue Ribbon medal with "1st Prize" on it, and being paraded around the crowded ring. But then, his enjoyment of the limelight turned to concern as the fightmaster announced.... "ROLL UP!! ROLL UP!! .... LADEEES AN' GENNELLMEN!!! ... WHO WANTS TO TAKE ON THE FIGHT WINNER?? A GRAND PRIZE OF $250 IS ON OFFER TO ANYONE WHO CAN TAKE DOWN THE KING OF THE RING!!"

Cappys increasing concern wasn't without reason, as the biggest and blackest bloke he'd ever seen, suddenly stepped out of the crowd. "I'se yo MAN!!", the big black cried out loudly. "I wanna have a  crack at takin' down da KING!! Ah've took down Mike Tyson, and ah reckon ah kin take down dat braggin' guy!! ......

Cappy went pale. This wasn't something he'd envisaged happening in a backwater like Dubbo. It was time to start using.........

......greasy sheep, pig manure, cow manure, shearers sweat, blood - and a faint overhanging whiff of fear and trepidation.

But none of this deterred our fearless Cappy, who had landed with the tailwheel missing, a jammed elevator, and a pile of torn fabric on the horizontal stabiliser. On top of that, he'd also broken the speed record for the Dubbo trip, in that type of aircraft.

He was well pleased with himself - until he sighted the bloke he had arranged to fight. Not only was he huge, with bulging muscles that made Arnie look like a 97-pound weakling, the fact that his eyes were like.......

The bottom line is that there needs to be something worthwhile come out of a Coronial Inquest and an ATSB report that ensures there's minimal chance of a similar repeat event. We're still getting regular CFIT's under VFR flying.

We have to remember this pilot could have been carrying 9 passengers - and in that case, this could have been a level of 10 fatalities, which would have reverberated around the nation for decades.

This statement by the Coroner is puzzling to me.

"Why she flew into the Western Portal is not something the evidence enables me to determine with any real certainty".

It's pretty obvious even to Blind Freddy, she left VMC whilst operating under VFR, blundered around in cloud, and ran into a mountain top she couldn't see.

This goes against all her training and instruction, and for someone consistently lauded as a "competent and professional pilot", indicates a major deficiency in her level of piloting judgement.

This crash also reflects badly on the aviation company and its policies and training, and employee selection, and I see nothing in the Coroners report that completely clears the aviation company from any deficiencies in those areas.

We repeatedly see pilots taking serious risks under VFR, and for someone tasked with the major responsibility of a lot of other peoples lives during a planned flight, then it behoves the company operating those flights to make sure that risk-taking and risk-taking employees, are eliminated from operating in areas where they can place others lives at serious risk of injury or death.

In the construction, mining and building industries, directors of companies are now personally responsible for deaths where there has been a failure to initiate and follow good OH&S procedures.

In this aviation crash case, I would have expected the Coroner to examine the entire situation to see where the companies OH&S policies were adequate to prevent the crash, and whether there were adequate procedures to address risk-taking behaviour by employees.

In every industry, unnecessary risk-taking by employees, carried out by employees who are readily prepared to indulge in risk-taking behaviour, and to not observe established safety procedures, is the major cause of injuries and fatalities.

This is compounded by company directors and managers who fail to implement adequate safety policies and procedures in their company operations.

https://www.findlaw.com.au/articles/242/ohs-infringements-8211-directors-held-personally-l.aspx

Not happy is the understatement of the week. A veritable savaging is a better description. The ATSB had better sit up and take notice, this is pretty appalling on every level, that they would spend so much money on producing something described as "worthless" by a very senior legal investigator. Perhaps the ATSB needs to be thoroughly investigated as regards its procedures, investigators level of skills and training, and whether there is any measurable benefit in the results they produce?

......after a dreadful childhood that involved dragging himself out of the gutters of Wangaratta (he had to get a job cleaning drains to find enough money to eat, after his parents ran away from him), then saving and scrimping enough from his menial jobs to put himself through matriculation, then aviation school - where he still passed, despite his learning deficiencies caused by the......

So ... you didn't hear the Stealth aircraft, then? 

Here's the link to the manufacturer ...

https://www.ladeau.com/hinge/ms20001-3/

Is this machine simply a prototype? Their website says little about producing any aircraft for sale - but it's got some photos of some interesting machines, including that little gull-wing fighter copy.

There's no specifications, no build information, nothing of any value on their website? Perhaps you have to call them, and then they let you into their manufacturing secrets?

https://gairplanes.com/

And to introduce a bit of levity, seeing as the pilot is O.K. - after all this, it really was a Cessna that crashed?  

The prop is barely bent, he must have had the presence of mind to kill the engine as he went into the trees.

Gee, that blokes makes a terrible video, he's a total waffler. He sounds like he's apologising for the bloke in the C340. It's simple, the bloke in the C340 just barrelled his way in, no consideration for any pattern rules, no consideration for anyone else - and going hell-for-leather. It makes you wonder, what would have been the result if he'd missed the C152? A runway overrun at best, or he'd have still crashed?

There seems little doubt that he couldn't have continued on final for landing at that speed, he'd had to have done a go-around, anyway.

Doesn't the lower level aircraft have priority? Looks very much to me like the Cessna 340 driver was a regular cowboy, speed way above any stabilised approach, and the mindset he was going to land regardless, and everyone else had to give him priority.

The Cessna 152 was banking left and despite acknowledging the Cessna 340 was somewhere behind him, his high wing limited his rear right quarter vision - particularly as the 340 was coming down on top of him.

As one comment notes on Kathryns report, a 152 is more than likely to be a student, so more caution required from a supposedly experienced twin-engine pilot. 

http://www.kathrynsreport.com/2022/08/cessna-340a-n740wj-fatal-accident.html

Alan, some more information in your title would be helpful. I don't have any idea of what has happened here, and your title tells readers nothing.

.....which then drew a gasp of horror from Cappy, which was misunderstood by the others on board, to be a last gasp of a PIC who suddenly realised he couldn't......

This ATSB report on a Chipmunk crash in 2014 is interesting, in that it reproduces an issue of Aviation Safety Digest from 1960 - which describes the massive amount of testing that went into finding out how the Chipmunk spun and recovered.

The bottom line was, a huge amount of test-spinning revealed no deficiencies in the Chipmunk handling - but only deficiencies in pilot response.

https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/5768080/ao-2014-114_final_report.pdf

......bulging wallet - whereby Loxie smacked his hand away, leading to even more confusion in Cappys mind, as he couldn't figure out why Loxie was smacking his hand away from the trim wheel, unless it was because.....

....Cappy refused to take the premium-grade back seat offered to him in the Sopwith Bitch by Turbo, and wanted the drivers seat, because the SB had the biggest set of levers he'd ever seen - and a steering wheel as well - and Cappy was convinced that he could handle this Bitch better than anyone else on board. And besides, as it was his birthday to boot, he thought it was time he demanded concessions related to his age and his .....

HEIC files are a stand-alone Apple photo format. You can get assistance to open them with Windows programmes. JPEG is a much more versatile format.

https://www.howtogeek.com/345504/how-to-open-heic-files-on-windows-or-convert-them-to-jpeg/

Well, it appears that Pickles did a deal with the high bidder, and the aircraft has been sold. There's no way of knowing what the final sale value was, but it would have been between the high bid of $170K, and the reserve price set by Pickles and the W.A. Dept of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. Sometimes the high bidder is convinced to pay the reserve price, but most times the high bidder digs in, and won't raise their offer by much.

The 13.5% buyers premium would have been a "nice lil' earner" for Pickles, I have never seen such a high level of commission for an item that sold for that kind of money.

Usually, the B.P. is around 5% once you start getting up around $50K. A lot of auction houses only charge 5% commission for items once they get over $20K. I can't really see what Pickles did, to earn their money here.

https://www.pickles.com.au/general/item/-/details/AMERICAN-CHAMPION-AIRCRAFT---MODEL--Scout-8GCBC/1040392863

And here's the crew on their way home from O'Hare!

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/us/2018/05/11/truck-hits-light-poles-on-highway-wisconsin-orig.cnn