Innholdsfortegnelse for January-February 2018 i Australian Flying

1 Garmin delivers its One Millionth Certified Product 2 Helicopter Association gets New CEO 3 CASA proposes 105-hour CPL for Helicopters 4 Essendon Airport gets a New Name 5 TAAAF sends Three Policy Papers to Canberra 6 Graphical Area Forecasts go Live 7 Third Quarter Figures show Increase in Piston Shipments 8 Chester calls for Industry Unity 9 Goodbye Ben Sandilands 10 CAE Oxford leases Tamworth Training Base SIGN UP TO KEEP UP! The Australian Flying website is updated daily with the latest GA news stories. Visit us online now at www.australianflying.com.au to also check out our free classifieds section, photo and video galleries, blogs, flying tips articles and comprehensive Warbird coverage. And be sure to register for our FREE weekly electronic newsletter, which delivers the latest news FREE to…

Of the many fields within the world of aviation there are a few small niches that represent the road less traveled when it comes to career path planning by young and eager student pilots. Well-trodden are those paths towards the airlines, instructing, charter flying and corporate jets. What is it about the specialist niches out there and who are the pilots who chose this “road less traveled”? One such specialist niche which encompasses operations of a vast array of different aircraft types and applications is that of the aerial fire suppression industry. Increasingly, the arena of aerial fire suppression is one that uses a large cross-section of aircraft of both the fixed- and rotary-winged varieties. There are almost countless roles to be played by vastly differing aircraft within what, to…

There are any number of people in the aviation community happy to tell you what’s wrong with the industry, but very rarely does someone come up with a truly innovative solution that can genuinely be labeled as a “game changer”. Glen Buckley is one person who has, and he’s literally bet his house on the outcome. Buckley is the owner of Melbourne Flight Training (MFT), a small but flourishing school at Moorabbin. MFT had its niche, and with quality, smart training as a weapon, gathered new business purely through word of mouth. MFT was never going to rake in wads of cash for Buckley, but it did OK and provided employment for several flying instructors. Then came the day that the CASA threatened to wipe out all of that simply…

I’ve been with RAAus for almost four years now and in that time a lot has happened at both RAAus and in the aviation sector. Rather than go on a history lesson, as most readers are well schooled in recent history, I thought I’d look into the crystal ball and discuss what are the ingredients needed to better unify the aviation sector. One of those ingredients is something we’ve been practising at RAAus for almost six years now, and it is non-parochialism. Too often I’ve witnessed direct inter- sector criticism. People saying to potential new entrants to our sector things like “Don’t join RAAus, they are dangerous/ there is no career path,” or “Don’t fly gliders,” or “Join our group, we will fight harder for you and hold the regulator…

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) in November released its second report into the 2009 ditching of Pel-Air Westwind VH-NGA near Norfolk Island. The ATSBs conclusions found issues with the flight crew’s planning and decision-making, the in-flight weather information supplied, the operator’s procedures and CASA’s oversight of Pel-Air. The aircraft was on an aeromedical transfer operation from Samoa to Melbourne with six people on board, when inclement weather prevented the crew from landing at Norfolk Island to refuel. After four attempts to land and with not enough fuel on board to divert to an alternate, the crew elected to ditch the aircraft in the sea. All six on board were rescued. After the ATSB released its 78-page first report in 2012, the findings were directed more at flight crew failings,…

In 2008, three US car company chief executives became poster boys for the public perception of business jets as toys for over-paid captains of industry. Alan Mulally of Ford, Robert Nardelli of Chrysler and Richard Wagoner of General Motors flew in to a storm of controversy when they landed their company business jets in Washington DC to attend a House Financial Services Committee hearing where they would ask for a US$25 billion US Government bailout for their ailing companies. New York Democrat politician Gary Ackerman described the “delicious irony” of executives lobbying for government finance to help streamline their businesses when they had just spent around $20,000 on a business jet journey that observers estimated would have cost less than $900 in first class on a commercial flight. "It's almost…

In late 2003 in South Africa I took a Sunday afternoon ride in the back of an RV-4. I had to have one. The RV-4 had been superseded by the RV-8, which was perfect for me. It is only when you look at the pictures of the children that you realise how the project became a journey for the family, with “Dad’s RV” always in the mix and complicating things. I wanted to keep the aeroplane as simple as possible and to take me on VFR Day trips with the odd cross country to a distant fly-in. Aerobatics and IFR capabilities were therefore sacrificed. The choice of the Lycoming O-320- D1A combined with a fixed pitch Sensenich propeller was a personal preference to minimise complexity, weight and maintenance. The only…

Every three years in South Australian Jamestown, the smell of engine fuel lingers in the air and an exciting drone echoes throughout the region. It’s bold, fast and furious; it’s the Jamestown Air Spectacular and it truly lives up to its title, inspiring youngsters and giving the locals a taste of flight and skillful airmanship. What does it take to turn the concept of an air show into reality? How did the flying group evolve over a period of 30 years and grow to develop such a successful regional event? Life member and retired ambulance service officer Tony Leesong remembers the very first meeting of the Jamestown flying group. It took place in a shed, which was owned by real estate group Elders, comprising of only a few local pilots…

By any measure, 1956 was a big year. World War II had been over for more than ten years, ICAO mandated a new phonetic alphabet, which finally excised terms such as “Able, Baker, Dog” forever from pilots’ vocabularies; Qantas decided on the Boeing 707 and not the Douglas DC-8, TAA ordered Vickers Viscounts and Fokker Friendships, Elvis Presley was on TV and the Olympic Games were held in Melbourne. The year was no less important for general aviation. The United States continued to grow as a manufacturing powerhouse, and riveted aluminium structures were replacing the “wood, rag and tube” airframes of before. But the last few years of the 1940s were a disaster for aircraft manufacturing, as they competed for limited market share, and often against war-surplus trainers. Although the…

At a time when aircraft are becoming networked nodes in a world-wide chain; when digital is replacing analogue in nearly every field of aviation, the pool of engineers trained to fit and maintain the avionics equipment that drives modern general aviation aeroplanes is dwindling. Decreasing general aviation flight hours, training and licensing issues and low-maintenance modern technologies are combining to simply mean fewer units are landing on fewer benches less often, and spending less time there when they do. And that inevitably means fewer people at benches. “I know a lot of the avionics shops now have got probably 50% of the staff they used to have,” said Aviation Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Business Association (AMROBA) executive director Ken Cannane. “A lot of that is to do with the low…

Australian adventure tourism company Skydive the Beach Group has bought Cairns-based Great Barrier Reef Helicopters (GBR) for $20 million. GBR has been in business for more than 20 years and is the largest helicopter company in tropical North Queensland, operating tourist flights from Cairns and Port Douglas. Skydive will add GBR’s total assets, including its fleet of 22 helicopters to its growing list of purchases, which include Byron Bay Ballooning, Reef Magic Cruises and Raging Thunder Adventures. Skydive CEO Anthony Ritter said “Helicopter flights over the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree Rainforest are world-class experiences, and we are incredibly fortunate to add such a wonderful and exciting product offering to our portfolio of highly recognisable and respected company brands.” Helicopter Movement concern Ranges Locals Locals in Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges are…

Once I had my feet under my desk at CASA it quickly became clear to me there were some issues that had been on the agenda for too long. These were matters that could not be allowed to simply drag on. This list included thorny topics such as improvements to our aviation medical system, flight crew fatigue management and the best approach to the use of radio frequencies at low levels in uncontrolled airspace. Action has been taken on all these issues and a path forward has either been determined or is close to finalisation. I accept that not everyone may be entirely happy with all the outcomes, but progress is surely better than the alternative. Both CASA and the aviation community need clear air to focus on the main…

“So, Bankstown's going to close, then?" That’s the question many people have been asking me, and my answer is simple: “Oh, I don't think so.” The reason is because they've never met my customers. Some of the most vocal advocates of GA in Australia are at Bankstown Airport, and the airport is also a training ground for a great deal of the higher-level aviation in Australia. So, I think Bankstown Airport is pretty secure for a long time. I have been in the role of CEO for most of 2017 and what I find is that people in the Bankstown area either love or hate the airport; there doesn't seem to be any middle ground. I’ve also found that most of the community don’t really know that Bankstown Airport makes…