A37575,
"It is less money paid out to operate single pilot, isn't it?"
Pilot wages are small compared with other costs, the reality is that with 2 pilots you would be restricted to 1 patient.
1 patient per aircraft, means more aircraft, more nurses, more doctors, thats where the real cost are. Think a pilot earns 1/2 of what a nurse does, and about 1/5 of a doctor, and 1/10 of the aircraft cost.
RFDS conducts specialised training for operation in remote areas at night. I am not aware of any other operator, apart from the military that do similar.
RFDS encourage the use of breaks, and no pressure is placed on crew to get the job done. The pilot would not have accepted the task if he felt in his professional opinion that he was okay for it.
Having not landed at a strip before would be of little concern, you could do several years in the RFDS and still come across new strips.
"Reports from pilots familiar with Mt Gambier T-VASIS revealed that the indications were often very misleading with unreliable glide path signals."
You get that anywhere not just Mt Gambier with shallow fog, mist, or rain.
"The ATSB for various reasons were never aware of this until after their report was published and new evidence came to light about the state of the VASIS. "
Hogwash...visual problems in shallow fog, mist, or rain have been know for years, was in my text books back when I did my licence. Even remember doing diffraction of light back in school.
"That is one hell of a long flight for a single pilot operation."
Anyone that has done the job will tell you the flying is not where the problem is, its all the stuffing around you do on the ground.
Even though the operation is
single pilot, it is still
multi crew the team in the back keeping the customers alive also looks after the pilot, its was very civilised to get a hot cuppa from down the back, or chat away to keep alertness levels up in a long cruise.
