Other experienced pilots after decades of flying dangerous missions only come unstuck when a film crew are in the back seat.
Mick,
It wasn't a "film crew" in the back, it was a well known documentary maker hitching a ride home.
A mere curious question: Is it legal in Austraila to matintan/repair your own a/c?
Reely340,
The short answer is yes, if your are suitably qualified, or a pilot carrying out the limited maintenance allowed under Schedule 8 of the Civil Aviation Regulations.
In both legal and practical terms, Richard Green was suitably qualified. He had successfully completed a raft of courses at the factory, both theory and hands-on was required, he was passed out by the factory (in Germany) to their standards.
Based on the above, and on assessment of the record, the CASA AME licensing in Canberra issued him with all the necessary MAs (maintenance approvals) to maintain his helicopter. It has been said that Greg Vaughan issued the MRs, this is not true, the MRs Richard carried were as the result of normal CASA processes, even if opposed by the below.
Needless to say, this got up the noses of certain persons in a particular CASA office, who are apparently of the devout belief that a long and often meaningless apprenticeship, including cleaning lots of sparkplugs, and replacing lots of rivets in a C172, and torquing valve caps on your tyres to manufacturer's specifications, using a torque nutdriver with a current calibration certificate, is a prerequisite being allowed the privilege of putting your hands on an aeroplane.
Indeed, it might be said that the general position of the ALAEA is that pilots should not be allowed near aeroplanes, as every one that has ever crashed had at least one pilot on board (members of the Caterpillar Club excepted).
When Greg Vaughan resigned, said “certain persons” were instrumental in having Richard’s MRs summarily cancelled, he appealed this arbitrary bureaucratic decision to the AAT, represented himself, and won. The AAT found he was qualified to hold the MAs.
That’s when his troubles with CASA really started, and they have been on his case ever since. If you beat CASA in court, you are a “marked man”.
It is true that, many years ago, he had a very minor rotor strike in a very remote area of northern Australia, and carried out temporary repairs.
Based on his knowledge of manufacturer’s instructions for continuing airworthiness, he carried out the repairs to those requirements. What he didn’t do is comply with the CASA requirements of (in this case) having the damage assessed by a CAR 35 engineer, having the temporary repair carried out by a LAME, and getting a ferry permit.
He ferried the aircraft back to Sydney, where he changed to blades, and dispatched them to the factory for repair and overhaul. Without doing any further work on the temporary repairs, the factory assessed the repair as meeting their requirements and the temporary repair performed by Richard was signed off by the factory as a permanent repair.
His maintenance facility is most impressive, with no required tooling or test equipment lacking.
It always reminded me more like a hospital operating theatre, clinically clean and fastidiously well organised --- and, of course, CASA approved.
One of the things that impressed me was that he had the full deal equipment for maintenance of Ni-CAD batteries. When he bought the gear, something like 15 years ago, it was a bit over AUD $28,000, the reason few maintenance orgs. at Bankstown have one.
Richard Green was as far from being a reckless and negligent pilot, flying an incompetently, let alone illegally maintained aircraft, as it was possible to get.
He did regularly fly into difficult areas, which was the whole point of the machine, without it, his expertise in landscape photography would not have been possible. His long standing relationships with various Land Councils in northern Australia enabled him to get permits to enter areas most of us will never get.
You don’t get to have an exhibition in the Art Gallery of NSW without good reason.
Richard, originally a nuclear physicist, and an extraordinarily successful businessman was, in part, the victim of the “tall poppy” syndrome. Like many who have achieved as he had, he didn’t suffer fools gladly, or in the case of certain CASA persons, at all. As so many of you know, this only illuminates you as a CASA target.
I am absolutely disgusted at the scurrilous half truths and outright fabrications that are appearing in various media outlets, they didn't make them up, they have been briefed.
Tootle pip!!