Jerry_Atrick

@Flying Binghi - I agree that we don't know whether or not the 21 year old had underlying issues or not - however, how many people aged, say 18 - 50 have or don't have some underlying issue that will allow the virus to take hold and kill them? We don't know. Regardless, in today's western societies, it is unacceptable that we do not apply our medical knowledge to save lives of people even wuth unknown medical conditions and the problem then becomes, if we allow too many beds to be occupied by people and have to start making decisions about who to give those beds, the percentage and number of deaths will rise - possibly exponentially - and many of those will have been preventable deaths but for the lack of resources to cope. The question then becomes somewhat qualitative - how far to we go to protect what could go well beyond the average mortality rates caused by the flu to preserve our individual freedoms. It's highly subjective and I think comes down to something like this: Do we prevent the spread to keep the infection rate curve shallow so that the herd builds up its immunity but preserving all but those that would succumb to it regarldess of treatment - but maybe even stop many of those from even contracting it, or do we allow it to spread like wildfire and take out those we could normally treat, but make the herd stronger as a result? They are extremes but this is the sort of questions it boils down to. At present, governments on the east and west divide seem to be going for the former and I personally am not uncomfortable with that. @SplitS: I am by no means even knowledgeable on the Aussie constitution and don't have the time to do research. But the article you presetned about declaring an emergency, although not seemingly enshrined in legislation has common law roots - possibly inherited from the British legal doctrine of Royal Prerogative. In the judgment of Pape cited in the article, the majority of the HCA ruled: ‘The Executive Government is the arm of government capable of and empowered to respond to a crisis be it war, natural disaster or a financial crisis on the scale [of the Global Financial Crisis]’. In that case the executive government (the Prime Minister and Cabinet) can act to take control of the disaster even without legislative authority. ' There was a strong dissent by Brennan, but notwithstanding, there was no legal authority cited that overturned or substantially modified the decision in Pape. So, while there is no legislative authority, there appears to be a legal authority. It is conceded the question of fact wasn't tested in the case - but that comes down to whether or not the GFC is sufficient to be called a disaster, emergency or whatever the terminology is. On section 92, the Wikipedia entry is illuminating - basically it is not black and white as people are asserting.. In fact, it seems to come down to as long as there is no discrimination amongs the people of all states, the barrier may well be legal. Under Nationwide News v Wells, cited in the Wikipedia article, the tests of the barriers are, and let's face it, if you are immobilsing people for 14 days for entering, it is in effect a barrier: whether the law is enacted for the purpose of burdening interstate intercourse. [JA: Not technically - they are enacted to stop the spread of Coronavirus] if the law is enacted for some other purpose, whether it is appropriate and adapted to the fulfilment of that other purpose, but a law may be found to be enacted for the prohibited purpose by reference to its meaning or effect. [JA: Tough question - see below] where a law imposes a burden by reason of the crossing of the border, or it has the effect of preventing or impeding the crossing of the border, it will be held invalid if that is its only or chief purpose. [JA: Definitetly not its chief purpose. I like to think the days of rivalry between Vics and NSW, for example, are long gone and only held by a few relics, or those at high risk to COVID-19] the above are subject to permissible regulation which might take the form "of excluding from passage across the frontier of a State creatures or things calculated to injure its citizens", but the severity and need for such measures must still be assessed. [JA: The first part is met and the second part seems to talk to appropriateness above] The bits in [JA...] are obviously my take on it; others may have a different view. The question of appropriateness is probably subjective; why state borders and not local council borders, etc? I can only think that (at least the time of me leaving Australia) is that the states are responsible at least for the administration of the public health systems and therefore, going back to the idea is to slow and hopefully stop the spread so the state health systems can cope, this would seem sensible. I am not a lawyer, and am certainly not a judge.. so my 2 cents worth more than anything. Bu s. 92 appears to be anything but cut and dry.

@gareth lacey - thanks! Hope they have changed names or something...

I am sure younger, fit or otherwise healthy people who contract it and the succumb are not in the same category of numbers as those who have underlying issues or at risk age group, etc, however, here is, sadly, another: Coronavirus victim, 21, 'had no health issues'. Now, what happens if it is your daugher, sister, niece or that of a close friend. A lady in the village lost both her Aunt and Uncle to COVID-19; both well into their 80s, but it doesn't make the pain any less for the survivors.. and they were reasonably fir for their age, too. I happen to live next door to a couple who are both specialists at the local hospital; I have to say, until the conversation I has with them, I was a little, "this is over the top - as even if we all isolate, it will lay there dormant until we start mingling again".. Yes, it will if we don't wait at least 2 or so more weeks after there are NO MORE reported cases. But, as one who is an epedemiologist pointed out to me, once it dies; it dies... I agree the flu kills many 10s of thousands of people a year; I agree that life is not a guarantee; But this is a beast that doesn't appear to only pick off the weak.. the problem is, it is unpredictable in its impact and many more people require intensive care to get through than the flu... And if we allow the infection rate to get up, we won't have the resources to handle the demand and the death rates will rise above what they are now.. It is not a great picture. The next door neighbours live in fear that they will have to decide who gets the ICU bed and who doesn't... You can bet your bottom dollar, when it gets to that, the "at risk" groups will cover a lot more people.

@gareth lacey - yes - I bought them direct from the company. I have searched the internet - the site - microlight.com.au doesn't exist and the last FB post (I joined just to be able to see it) was from 2017 or 2018... I take it there has been nothing in the local press over the last couple of years?

I have a pair of EQ1 headsets and was wanting to get in touch with the manufacturer. It was previously manufactured/distributed by microlight.com.au (I think).. Have they gone bust? Have they sold the rights to Lightspeed (I notice they have a wireless headset now)?

To give you a flavour of whay is happening in the UK, have posted a link to a non-competing forum thread: GA airfield closure - FLYER Forums

Well, the UK is in lockdown... I last flew on Septemner the 14th. A short flight with my son from Blackbushe to Sandown on the Isle of Wight for an organised fly-in/Wings and Wheel day. Couldn't have asked for a better day.. A short clip shot by my son is attached. It was only my second PIC flight in the TB20. We had planned flying from Blackbushe to Sandown, then to Dunkeswell and finally back to Blackbushe, but a late start and overly cautious pre-flight meant we were going to cut it fine, so elecgted to do the 20-odd minute there (and anouther 20-odd minute flight back) and kick back and enjoy the airfield event. The weather was perfect - few cloudsl; light winds and vis was excellent (sometimes it can be really soupy). I throttled her right back as speed was not of the essence. Even so, we were pushing 130kts and it is a different world to the 105kts flat out the Warrior did (I know it can go slioghtly gaster with the nose down - say 110kts). When I throttled back the Warrior to enjoy the sights, it was 90kts.. .So, we arrived a little quicker than I was used to, and I had not yet done my join preparation.. so out to the English Channel a bit and an orbit or 2 as I worked everything out, and then headed in.. I called Sandown's air ground service, which wasn't active, so blind calls were the order of the day. It had a standard overhead join (these didn't exist when I was in Aus), so I did that.. The first approach was sloghtly high and fast, so I broke the approach early and went around.. The second approach was spot on.. I thought it was going to grease it ontoi the grass runway and enjoy golfing green like smoothness until slowing enough to taxi off (there is no designated taxiway - just come off when you want). But, it was rougher than a bogan convention to the point I though the retractable undercarriage was going to be left behind at some stage. But all ended well. The Take off was just as bumpy and in my haste to relieve the nosewheel of the loads, I pulled it off too early and it wheelied down the runway, of which the trees beyond started getting too close for my liking. So I relieved the back pressure slightly and amidst bumps, the beast lifted off and climbed into the wild blue yonder. We orbited around a hot air balloon on the way back (as it was getting late, the traffic has died down a bit) and arrived back at Balckbushe in time to close her down and get home for a late supper. All in all, a good day to be had. At the beginning of October, N20TB went in for a 100 hourly and a bare metal respray - should have taken a month.. Certificate of Release to Service was signed on Monday! I need a check ride and that isn't happening. Today, all GA aerodromes are closed... I guess I may be lucky and get to fly again before the year is out. On the grpahic, the red recantgle is mine to highlight the route in the bord cage airpsace in South East England.

Where you you hail from, squire? Also, note, the weight answers are likely to be in KG, not lbs...

You may have to take them to drone obedience school, Spacey ;-)

UK in lockdown = airfield closed = no flying. With the plane just returned to service after almost 6 months, I was not going to be flying for a while as I need a check ride and they were effectively self-imposed banned anyway.. More time for posting stuff on here.

I agree with FlyingVizsia.. Forcing subscription will eventually constrain your numbers and if that happens, it may not be so appealing to those who subscribe. A members only area, which can be anything from closed forums to additional content or ability to real-time message may be a better option. I am in a similar boat to you; only slightly younger and never developed my own PM methodology, I have been out of contract for only 3 weeks.. But not too much on the horizon and thanks to COVID-19, the new work planned has been delayed at best... Rather than doggedly sticking to looking for work (or worse, having to move back to working in London), I am looking for alternatives - plan B. As I mentioned before, it is probably time to put the PM hat on and develop/execute a plan B. In your shoes, is the site enough to warrant having a go at making it a commercial operation - not to elevate you to Gates of Zuckerman status, but keep the wolves from the door at least. Does the site generate enough traffic that may make sense partnering with other companies. I know you do clear prop, but maybe partner with say a couple of schools and other suppliers to provide special members only discounts to drive up your subscriptions? Obviously, advertisements should be looked at.. they don't have to be intrusive.. per click or advertising space.. Don't over-do it, though. Re clear prop, a $5 margin doesn't seem like a good business model to me.. As soon as you get a return, the cost to handle it has wiped out any profit on that item. I just did a random check and you are $26 cheaper than flightstore.com.au for an ICOM AC-25E transciever and it looks like they add shipping costs on afterwards. You sell ASA-HS1A headsets for $36 less than Skylines at YMMB. And you are selling the Flightcom V30SP $120 cheaper than skylnes!! If you are making money on this (and better still, don't have to carry stock), then you should be being more aggressive with your marketing... and you can still narrow the difference and make a bit more.. In the headset range, you don't have the big names, but still... Now is obviously not a good time to invest a lot in a discretionary consumer goods item in a specialised field, but longer term, you look pretty competitive and you may want to start your planning.. And FFS, you chould have a clear link/ad to clearoprop from the home page of recflying... Are there other GA community/forum sites in Aus that aren't direct competitors - cross reference each other by putting links in and things can improve. Just a few ideas hastily thought.. sure they can be refined.. JA

Yeah, can the person who started this thread, pleae rename it to a more accurate title??!??

If you add 2% vy volume of water to a full glass, it will overflow... Although manmade sources of carbon dioxide are low, they have been spewing it since the industrial revolution and the rate of how per volume we add is increasing. I am not a scientist, but the consensus is that it has been a delicate balance and we are tipping the scales. But even if it wasn;t the case, and mother nature ran rampant, then wouldn't it be in our best interest to use our efforts to preserve our way of life than accelerate destroying it? I guess lots of people have a death wish for themselves or their generations to come. Whn you combine that with the gradual deforestation that further limits the earth's ability to absorb our folly, well, you get the idea. Or do you know more than almost every scientist looking at the evidence and data. Bindi - more carp.. I haven't disputed China and given you evidence that the rest of the world (India excepted) are moving away from coal. But all you come up is with the same crap. China manufactures stuff and is increasing the use of coal. Great - tell us something we don't know, like how the rest of the world is on a net basis embracing coal further (because, it isn't). Oh, of course, it must be the ABC's fault, too.. Very tough and convincing words. Nothing to rebuke the distoritions in the Chinese market, economy or politics, not the fact that most if the new coal plants largely lay idle as it is to keep short term jobs going.. Oh.. and criticising the ABC - or me as getting my sources from the ABC, I don't recall quoting anything from the ABC, but if they presented the facts or I came across them, I would have no shame in doing so. Bashing the ABC (or the BBC) are simply easy words when they present the facts that disagree with you. And, I can't recall the ABC to have to fomally apologise for getting things wrong too many times amid the flurry of accusations of false or bias reporting they get on an almost per second basis. Unfortunately, pollies, trolls and those who incorrectly assert the ABC get it wrong most the time are not held to the same level of accountability than the ABC.. I guess it is a blessing in disguise as the resultant formal apologies to the ABC would be adding to CO2 at an alarming rate. Mike, are you saying the way to go is nuclear? Then it isn't coal... Excellent! As I mentioned, should Australia decide to go nuclear, I will be there as Lucas Heights just didn't have enough jobs going and is the reason I left Australia (after a couple of years in Coal generation at Hazelwood and Morwell and in mining before that);. Worked in the nuclear industry for 15 years and about to re-enter it (hopefully). The newest technology is better than the previous (as you mention); as is renewables technology ... I guess its called progress! Mind you, it aint all that clean.. even if you go SMR, you need oodles of concrete... But there is no such thing as a free ride and all forms (even renewables) have a carbon footprint of some kind.. the point is, like internal combustion engines have developed largely led by EU requiring less and less emmissions, they squeeze more out of using less.. isn't that what we want to do - in this case using less coal and more CO2 efficient technologies? Cheers guys, fun talking with you..

Sir, you are too kind, spas-yee-bah ;-)

Welcome, K-D.. pardon my spelling, but Kag-di-la? (I dated a Russian girl sometime ago - she didn't teach me to spell Russian).

Again Bindi, show me that the rest of the world are not moving away from coal... China aso has cheap and slave labuor and state subsidised (including oal) indistries... I ask again, show me the numbers - like I have shown you.. Until then, you can "where shall we start" or "aht to say" as much as you like - you haven't proffered anything up that globally, the world is moving on... not that coal is cheaper - we know that because it's price is continually dropping in real terms.. And you try and discredit my sources of info??? Here's the report on notrickszone: NoTricksZone - Media Bias/Fact Check [edit]I guess Murdoch eis eyeing them as a potential takeover target ;-) Don't expect too many reposnses from me.. this is becoming a waste of my time...

Yes - EASA - a part of that bastion of free markets called the EU - were exposed by Pilot magazine as stonwalling the certification in EASA land of the R66 helicopter as they knew whatever European manufacturer it was that had a competing model that was way more expensive: https://www.pilotweb.aero/news/easa-certifies-robinson-r66-1-3590306. And of course, this would have been a threat to the particualr European manufacturer. I am sure EASA and other European manufacturers work out deals in backrooms when required

Is that really the best you could come up with? If you can disprove the source's data, then happy to hear it, otherwise, a thin attack is, well, not holding well..Let's face it, it's not like other media organisations aren't activists in their camp... Personally, I am happy for Aus to become nuclear - I had to leave Aus as I was (and am about to reenter) nulcear generation... Could happily see out my retirement.. Oh yeah - China - forgot about that.. Reading one of the articles above, despite adding something like 75% of total global elecrticy generation, coal as a global geneation source fell (not much, from memory c. 8GW/h).. So yeah, according to you, China is the measure of what the world is doing... I can't reconcile that.. And I think you are mixing up the terms of reality and propaganda.... But, hey.. I never said even today one can't amke a quick bick from coal.. But in the long term, coking coal will still probably be around in the RoW (except emerging markets, which like to play catch up)... Oh, and you forgot to mention if you read the articles I provided, a lot of the new [edit] Chinese [/edit] plants are largely idle and are being build for short term political aims to distort the market to provide jobs.... edited...mod

I would add the Donate button and in red either above or below have a hyerlink saying "Read this before donating"... Or hyperlink the donate button to this thread and have the real donate button at the top of each page (not sure the latter can be done for a single thread)

The base rate here is now 0.1%; was 0.25%.. One would be very lucky to get a card rate at 14%; 20% would be more like the minimum (except for time-boxed teaser rates). However, not to say they don't make money out of it, but they are continuing unsecured loans, under international agreements, they have to hold capital as if they were fully drawn and as unsecured loans, the recovery rates they use to calculate their losses in defaults are not going to be very high (meaning a hefty loss); they (used to when I lived in Aus) provided minimum of 30 days interest free and Mastercard I think used to give 55 days. Again, not sure about Aus, but the days of high fees for the merchants are long gone and the days where they didn't pay the merchant until the month had passed and can reclaim money paid to the merchant if the customer defaults are also long gone. There is a high default rate (compared to other forms of finance).. so when using a credit card, you are paying for all of this... Also, not sure about Aus, but if a merchnt doesn't fulfil their part of the contract, then the credit card company is liable to refund the money. So, we never buy anything online or airline tickets, etc without a credit card. Even if it is Nigerian Airlines and we use a dodgy website in Nigeria to buy the tickerts, if we don't go because of the airline or ticket site, we get our money back. Aus may be different, and they do make more out of it when the rates are low.. but it is not pain free for them. If you are not paying off your credit card each month, think of converting to a cheaper form of finance - personal loan (secured/unsecured), overdraft, etc.

I didn't mean this to be a Labor/Liberal thing, but I can appreciate how it was construed that way. As a matter of record, I am a swinging voter (in the poltical sense) if I can be bothered voting given the current crop of domwits. Agree, it was a fallacy that Aus could compete on the world stage and I do recall a speech or answer to a journo's question basically saying Auatralia was leading ghe world at breaking down trade barriers. I deapaired on hearing Abbot was removing the subsidies for the car industry. Yes - I know about Germany; and the US - remember in the GFC how the US government bailed out the car companies, even tthough their execs flew from Detroit to Washington in private jets to emerge with their caps in hand. Again the EU, that bastion of free of subsidies markets allows it to go on... The point I was trying to make is that the problems with Aussie manufacturing and ites decline were not alone linked to the float of the AUD; in fact, with the exchange rate plumeeting at the time, the opposite effect should have happened. But, it highlights that the market is full and free, where the structure is controlled by a realtive few businesses and the government is less that integral in its dealings.. [edit] I am not sure Labour has been in power since Abbot - so not sure how they could have done much unless they controlled the senate and the withdrawal of subsidies was linked to a change of the law [/edit]

Ian, First and foremost look after your personal matters... Although this appears to be a hobby in which we have benefited (why would UK and US aviators patronise this site otherwise?), you should be open to accepting our support! It is not defrauding us - you have been up front all the time and stated the problems; if we decide to kick in, that is our decision. And if you make a bit of money on the way, kudos to you. Subscription shouldn't have to be mandatory as that would kill growth in numbers, but separating/developing a members only section over the longer term would help.. We are all happy to chip in it seems. It is time to that PM hat on and develop a plan (and then execute) to get it on a sustainable footing... PM me your server spec.. I am sure we can think of something to decrease the cost in the short term. JA

The AUD dropped massively after the float in 1983... see here: The Exchange Rate and the Reserve Bank's Role in the Foreign Exchange Market. That would have had the effect of making our exports cheaper... although this would be ameliorated as to cushion the inflationary effect, as I recall wages did rise increasing the cost of inputs to secondary production. On the domestic market, the increased price of imports would have also made Aussie made more attractive (again, this would have been ameliorated by the increase in wages - but there would have been a lag and Aussie manufactured products should have increased. As most of our secondary products have always been imported - in 1965 Aussie manifacturing peaked at 25% GDP.. this is not a strong manufacturing economy: Manufacturing in Australia - Wikipedia. If I recall, Keating and Hawke were the ones to bring in the 150%R&D tax break which at least prolinged some manufacture in Aus.. However, it was Abbot who decided that car manufacturing should stop (you cannot tell me he didn't know the consequences of his actions)... And manufacturing was killed because of the rise of ultra cheap imports from Asia.. the clothing manufacturing industry first and then the rest... Also, the wholesale model if Australia was a buys shop - remember when Whitlam removed a lot of the customs duties to decrease the prices - not much compeition at the wholesale level, prices stayed the same and wholesalers got very rich. Nothing to do with the float.. or at least very little.

And space and cybersecurity and all sorts of other stuff...

A bailout can come with conditions, including limiting pay and bonuses of execs and ring fencing what the money is used for.. Unf, the greasy pole often extends outside the corporation. Also, let's not forget... Airbus have been found guilty by the WTO of being illiegally propped up bu the EC - by no less than those gladiators and defenders of markets free of subsidies.. Of course, Boeing has been the recipient of such indirect subsidies as well.. My point is they both (and no doubt others) get effective handouts to survive and prospoer. I think the world needs at least two competing airliner manufacturers (they both do a lot more) to keep development going. Once the competition is taken away, the other rests and development such as hybrid transporters stop.. as R&D is a high risk cost. (changed "nor less" to "by no less than")