Certainly a weekend to remember, albeit with some mixed experiences..
The
good first: Great static and flying displays, heaps of friendly and knowledgeable people to meet, be it fellow pilots, industry figures, or RA-Aus/CASA officials, good food, long long rows of diverse fly-in aircraft, some superb flying there and back; the sunrise flight there with a 25 knot tailwind and almost 150 knot GS in the Archer was fab, complete with calm winds for the arrival Friday morning at 7.30
going back NVFR was even better, not a cloud in the sky, dead calm, thanks to the controllers for clearing me straight over MC and BN
and cheers again to the RFDS pilot who gave me a lift in his vintage Ford on the way back to the airport from the campsite on Sat
The
bad:
communication: no-one seemed to know how the camping for fly-in pilots worked, first it was complimentary transfer and camping with tents provided, then it wasn't free, no tent provided, plus ridiculous $25 bucks for what turned out to be a one mile drive up the road.. thanks EUROPCAR for fleecing me $15 additional bucks for a non-existing road closure and dropping me off at the wrong side of the camping ground, ended up walking more than driving
won't be renting from you in the near future
)
tech: the speakers airside in front of the main spectator area weren't switched on before mid day, so most of the commentary of the displays couldn't be heard by a big proportion of those present..
ground safety: additional 'barriers' (really another row of advertising) between the spectator area and the speakers made the space next to the main runway very tight in places for the larger aircraft taxiing, and one taildragger promptly took out one of the stakes trying to maintain forward visibility, damaging the underside of their wing and probably the aileron
the silly displays were duly removed shortly afterwards, the chat the insurer will no doubt have with the organiser about the sense of these particular contraptions should be interesting
..
The
ugly:
display of much more work to do for the RA-Aus guys re training standards: The Cheetah pilot that came unstuck on the generous and well-maintained grass cross strip after giving up on the bitumen due to excessive cross winds, coming in far too fast (yup, we've all done it, welcome to the club
) and then foolishly deciding after floating more than half way down the strip not to go around again and watch the speed that time, but to try to push the nose down with the obvious hard impact of the nose wheel and following balloon, only to still ignore the obvious excess energy and to repeat the same violent maneuver until the nosewheel gave up and he buried his prop and came to a rather sudden stop
I watched in horror from the tie-down area and just couldn't believe any licensed (or in this case a confirmed 'certificated' RA-Aus) pilot would push the front wheel onto the ground that hard that many times -- at least three of four hard impacts I could see from where I was.. mate, I hope you didn't hurt yourself and/or any passenger, and please make sure you address the issues that this unfortunate incident has thrown up, not only the speed/energy/handling problems, but also the likely stress/get-her-down-itis involved
BTW there was much chatter about the
RA-Aus CTA endorsement being only weeks away, anyone have the inside track on that one? Some of the GA figures I spoke to said there was much chatter between airlines going into uncontrolled aerodromes and ASA/CASA about this, and some fervent opposition.. most of the recreational folks seem very confident it'll happen very soon, most of the GA folks equally confident it won't happen anytime soon at all..
