AirMed PA-31 VH-HJE down south of Archerfield

[morno]

Originally Posted by outnabout

morno

You say:

why these old POS pistons are flying aeromedical flights in 2023 is beyond me. Should not be allowed.

You ask why, morno?

let’s look at all the factors as to why piston twins are still working in Oz, and are commercially viable.

here is a fun (autocorrect) heads up.....because these are government issued contracts. Because the gubmint contribute to the drive to the bottom in GA by accepting only the cheapest tender. Usually the cheapest tender is provided on the basis of providing cash flow to the tenderer, not an actual profit.

At the same time, the gubmint are quite happy to find retired politicians, and artworks that look like ****e, and broken furniture in Parliament House caused by pollies dancing on marble coffee tables (here is looking at you, Joe Hockey) and steam cleaning ministers couches due to sex acts....shall I continue?

if this turns out to be fuel exhaustion, then we should be looking at three people - the PIC (who did not put an extra few litres for good luck) and the CP who put the fear of God into the PIC to take fuel minimas...and the clueless dickwad in Govt who accepted the cheapest tender without wondering WHY that tender was so cheap.

The Younited Staytes of Murrka have a reputation for electing some pretty strange peeps as their President, they have a gun ownership rate that frightens the pants off me, wages that truely suck, no healthcare........but by God, they look after GA. No ASICS, for starters. It is one of the few areas where they do beat Australia, hands down.

let’s look at the other factor.

without a piston twin, the stepping stones in GA are C210, C208, B200. Turbines are fantastic...right up until the point where some newby cooks them. Which can be done oh so quickly.

piston twins remain a viable, valuable step in GA progression.

You raise a lot of good points, which is unfortunate that they are true.

When you’re carrying people who have no choice in the type of aircraft that they’re going in (patients), then I’m a firm believer in that you should be carried in the safest option that is currently out there on the market in terms of aircraft, and you should also have a minimum experience requirement for the person operating that aircraft.

So basically it should be a pressurised twin turbine, with a pilot who has at least a few thousand hours (which is a whole other discussion in times like now when those pilots are getting harder and harder to find).

They don’t have learner drivers in the front of Holden Panel Vans doing patient transfers on the road, so the equivalent shouldn’t be doing it in the air.