Innholdsfortegnelse for November-December 2018 i Australian Flying

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The Col Pay Award for a Lifetime of Service to General Aviation Ray Cronin Ray Cronin started flying in 1976, over time becoming one of the most respected people in the Australian helicopter industry. He has been CFI and Managing Director of Kestrel Aviation for over 30 years. Since 1989 his company has been operating Mangalore Airport north-east of Melbourne. Cronin also introduced the first helicopter simulator to Australia and as the helicopter specialist on the first CASA flight training panel, instigated the helicopter CFIs conferences. He was also a founding member of the Aviation Safety Foundation of Australia and spend six years as a Flight Service Officer. Cronin holds one of the most extensive array of CASA training and checking approvals in the industry and is qualified on a…

Technology is one of the great temptations of aviation, especially when it comes to avionics. Having worked hard for years interpreting the signals given out by analogue systems, the new digital age of incredible capability and function can be a lure that’s hard to resist. So why would you? Technology inevitably eases cockpit workload whilst simultaneously presenting pilots with more information at their fingertips than they’d even had before. It increases safety, makes flight more efficient and looks very impressive to boot. But there is one setback: although new avionics are state-of-the-science, the aircraft the general aviation community are wanting to fit them into are state-of-the-antique. Many general aviation aeroplanes are approaching 40 years old, with the bulk of the world’s fleet having already had careers spanning more than 20…

Stand at any training airfield anywhere in the world and you will see pilots practicing circuits. It is a truism that take-offs and landings are the most dangerous phases of flight, and circuits provide an efficient way of practicing important skills. In fact, circuits encapsulate much of the pilot training syllabus: take-offs, climbs, climbing turns, medium level turns, straight and level, descending, descending turns, slow flight and landing. We might start with a definition: a circuit is a standard airfield traffic path followed by aircraft when taking off or landing. In non-Commonwealth countries, circuits are called “patterns”. The use of a standard circuit is principally for safety; the risk of collision is reduced. There are two common types of circuits: rectangular (or square) and oval. Rectangular circuits have six (or…

Recreational Aviation Australia will hold its annual general meeting in early November. As part of this process we review the financial year that concluded on 30 June 2018 and present our members with our annual report. This year’s report will focus on three key areas, a summary of these areas is explored below. We are all familiar with the phrase "power + attitude = performance". At RAAus our power comes from our total members and registered aircraft. I equate our attitude to our overarching financial performance. Combining the strength of our membership with our hard work in managing our finances gives us our overall business performance. And as with every flight, flight planning and our ultimate destination is also critical, which I equate to our safety planning and our destination,…

The 2018 Outback Air Race (OAR) held in August raised $514,000 for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS), surpassing the target of $500,000. Running from 19-30 August, this year's event took a fleet of 28 aircraft and 90 competitiors from Archerfield to Broome via Bundaberg, Longreach, Mt Isa, Adels Grove, Daly Waters, Katherine/Tindal and Kununurra. "The event has been a great success for this our 10th Outback Air Race, in this special 90th birthday year of the RFDS," Race Manager Stuart Payne told Australian Flying. "Race participants, about half of which were new to the event, quickly found new friends with whom they could enjoy the special places, scenery and wonderful people you meet in Outback Australia. "We are thrilled to again deliver a safe and enjoyable event that delivers…

“The air is to share”– Darren Swain, ATC Bankstown and Camden Early last year, I took my new partner for his first flight in a light aircraft, hiring an SR22 and flying him to Mudgee for lunch. Upon landing, I could tell by the look on his face he’d loved the flight, and I asked him whether he’d be interested in learning to fly. His answer surprised me: “I think I could handle the controls, and I know I’d love landing, but I don’t think I could get my head around all that talking on the radio.” “But that’s the easiest part!” I retorted. Turns out, for many, it isn’t. After speaking to friends, students and pilots milling around various flying schools, I discovered that for many students, and for…

When Bruce Stark of Tecnam Australia invited Australian Flying to review the latest model of their P2008, we never thought that the weather would be a factor in organising such a review considering the recent clear skies and absence of bad weather as a result of the eastern Australian drought conditions. But no, just when the aircraft had arrived from Italy, been assembled, registered and initial first flight tests completed, the overcast conditions and rain arrived in South-East Queensland. Luckily, between showers, we managed to fly the latest iteration of Tecnam’s P2008 model from the Southport Flying Club’s Mason Field. The Tecnam P2008 was last reviewed in Australian Flying May/June 2011 and was then a relatively new type to Australia and a fairly new aircraft in the then new LSA…

It is hard to imagine anyone who has ever learned to fly or lived near an airport where flight training takes place, who doesn’t instantly recognise Mr Piper’s Cherokee aircraft. The ubiquitous low-wing plane with its wheels permanently down, ready to land, is one of the most widely used training and cross-hire aircraft in the world. And why not? They are a strong, reliable, relatively simple plane to fly, with excellent flying characteristics that offer no nasty surprises close to limits. But the small Cherokees–generally referred to as Warriors and Archers with a number of variants across the range–simply couldn’t compete with the Cessna 205/206 which was released in the mid 60s as a big single with seating for six. In response, Piper developed the six-seater PA-32-260 Cherokee Six. Essentially…

Kathy Mexted reports. Working at the Narrabri airport as a refueller in the mid-80s, a couple of Corby Starlets got Dan Compton’s imagination going. How great would it be to build an affordable little sport aircraft? The yearning to own his own aeroplane didn’t diminish and so when a 1955 Super Cub came up for sale Dan’s friends encouraged him to get it. Dan loved the Cub and after the friends delivered it from Caloundra in Queensland, he toured the whole of Victoria, slowly, as the Cubs are wont to do. Savouring the sights at 80 knots was great, but a young man with itchy fingers needs a project. Dan found Legend Aircraft, along with their kit Texas Sport Cub and started following them. The option of buying a kit Cub…

CASA’s regulatory reform program, commenced in the late 1980s, is slowly coming to its crescendo. Having trawled through multiple documents for each component of the next tranche of operational rules, it could be said that the rules as drafted are almost an anti-climax. The devil will be, I suspect, in the as-yet-unreleased detail. The operational regulations suite drafted by CASA has been released for comment and it was supposed to represent a massive effort to re-make the Australian GA regulatory landscape. Speaking with other business owners in the GA charter sector, there is no doubt it still portends a significant re-shaping of small businesses, personal investments and GA employment opportunities – not necessarily for the better. the new Part 139 Aerodromes is somewhat elusive The new rules come at a…

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) announced in September that it will implement a low-cost ADS-B option for VFR aircraft after consultation revealed wide industry support for the idea. All IFR aircraft must have certified ADS-B fitted by 2020, but owners of VFR aircraft were left to fit the equipment voluntarily. The cost and complexity of installing IFR-compliant technology proved a disincentive, ensuring a low uptake. “The visual flight rules community appreciates the safety benefits ADS-B technology offers," CASA CEO Shane Carmody said, "but has called for CASA to make the technology more accessible with avionics that are cheaper and less onerous to install. “The challenge has been to find the right solutions and incentives that will encourage fitment and uphold an acceptable level of safety.” Following feedback received through…

Aviation is one of those activities when practice can transform into reality in an instant. We practice forced landings in real aeroplanes, we practice spin recovery in real aeroplanes; these are only two. But in seconds the forced landing will become real if the engine fails to respond to the throttle at 500 feet, and you are headed for a sad end if you get your spin recovery wrong. The same is true of training for asymmetric flight in multi engine aeroplanes. A loss of control can still result in a crash and the performance of the aeroplane is still very much degraded even if you're just practising. There is no opportunity to press the reset button; the reactions have to match the real thing, or a very genuine crash…

Exactly what is an instrument rating and what does it enable a pilot to do? It allows a pilot to fly under the instrument flight rules (IFR). The instrument flight rules permit the pilot to operate an aircraft safely in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC), which are essentially any weather conditions less than visual meteorological conditions (VMC). In a nutshell, an instrument rating allows a pilot to fly by reference to instruments – that is to orient the aircraft attitude, control its speed and altitude; and navigate without reference to land or water. In Australia, there are two different instrument ratings: an Instrument Rating (IR, formally known as the Command Instrument Rating – CIR) and a Private Instrument Rating (PIR) previously known as the PIFR, a name which has stuck despite…

The ABAA has been working with CASA for the past two years in order to resolve some concerns we have, which directly affect many ABAA members and some other sectors of our industry. A breakthrough was recently achieved with CASA advising that current provisions that allow the recognition of instrument proficiency checks partially conducted by foreign authorised persons, which expired in August this year, are to be extended for two years to 31 August 2020. Consequently, pilots will be able to complete an instrument proficiency check overseas on the same terms they have been using since the commencement of the regulations in 2014. With respect to recognition of overseas training providers, CASA has said they are in the process of finalising a policy that will streamline the recognition of specific…

In what is seen by industry observers as a common sense move, Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has removed the requirement for basic instrument flight training (BIFT) for initial issue of a private or commercial helicopter license. The new rules, which took effect on 1 September, also make permanent the 105-hour commercial pilot license with helicopter category rating option. When Part 61 was modified to align with ICAO standards the BIFT was added, however it soon became apparent that most training helicopters in Australia are not equipped for instrument flight training. Consequently the Australian helicopter industry indicated that the issuance of a non-ICAO license would be acceptable. Pilots can also complete flight training for type ratings and the practical component of their instrument proficiency checks overseas for a further…

I started my tenure as head of CASA with the stated aim of addressing a range of long standing issues as quickly as humanly possible. Looking back over 2018, I think most people would agree we have made great progress on many fronts. These include the development and finalisation of new packages of regulations, introducing medical reforms, reviewing low-level frequency use, exploring low cost automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast and securing indemnity for fight examiners. In the area of regulatory reform alone significant milestones have been achieved. Key packages of regulations are finalised or nearing finalisation, the transition to other regulations has been completed and the way forward on the development of remaining regulations has been set out. In most cases the parts of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations that have been…