Over the years I've wittnessed some unbelievable 'stunts' by pilots & sadly it boils down to education I believe. And by that I mean no one was born with the knowledge to fly we all had to learn it from scratch & we all started out equal. The instructors of today have a huge responsablity to do their very best at grass roots level.(as they always have had) Today there are more & more pilot responsablities than ever. With 'see & be seen',(now a primary tool for visual separation) 'user pays' (where time is money in most cases) & things like GPS tracking resulting in even more time away from keeping our eyes outside the cockpit esspecially in VFR conditions down low where there's more uncontrolled activities.
The LTV accident although obviously very sad is something that we can learn from even if for a short time 'till the event fades & where professionalism is everything in aviation. We can never hope to stop accidents/incidents entirely but we can all just simply do it better !:-)

Capt Wally :-)

Discussing this accident yesterday, I was given a tip from beyond the grave from a friend of the late, great, Ian Mc Ritchie, who said, and I quote,...

"On a number of occasions, my life was saved by seeing the shadow of another aircraft alongside my shadow on final."

Ah well sunny, you cant rely on the shadow principle in Victoria, its always cold, dark and gloomy down that way. Might be more usefull in Sydney however! :)

There is officially more rain in Sydney than Melb, it just rains more often in Melbourne! (ABS)

It has been reported in the media that the student had 2.8 hours solo.

I now ask the question. How long does "supervised" include the instructor standing on the field watching his/her student to intervene in situations such as this? What is the "norm" for those of you who are instructors? I've heard of an RA school supervising for 3 hours (hence charging for it). Is there a rule on this? Does supervised solo include the instructor flying in another aircraft (with student) whilst "watching" the solo student?

It has also been reported that the two were in contact with each other.

I don't believe for a minute as some of you have suggested that increased radio use and or awareness will stop this from happening. It's the aircraft that you don't know about that is the biggest danger, the one that just "appears" in front of you. I believe based on the circumstances that even a CTAF(R) wouldn't have helped in this instance.

It was also reported that the deceased's aircraft was fitted with BRS - Ballistic Parachute System.

The C172 also taxiied in with Avid aileron still hanging off wind.

Terrifying flying for anyone, let alone a 16 year old with less than 3 hours solo time.

generally charged a Dual rate until passed GFPT, which means the instuctor sitting on ground waiting for said student to get back. After the GFPT is passed, then still needs to be signed out, but instructor not waiting on ground for student to get back and charged at solo rate.

I think EVERYONE is missing the point here. How could this accident possibly happen??

If you hear another aircraft in the circuit, you LOOK FOR IT.

If you see another aircraft in the circuit, you KEEP AN EYE ON IT.

Flying a plane means more than using the primary controls.

A terrible occurrence has happened here because someone has fcuked up. Not on purpose obviously, but from a bad habit or bad training.

This is not an accident that we, as a specialized industry, look at as just bad luck.

This is an indication of a major flaw in our respective occupations / past times.

This is a terrible reflection on us all.


VB

Quote - This is an indication of a major flaw in our respective occupations / past times.
This is a terrible reflection on us all.


Victa Bravo,

best wait for the accident investergation to finnish before you make connections.