oops two in flight test ..... forgot about david hooper

plus the Tenterfield accident.

"A Nomad on a single engine takes you to the scene of the accident."

That said, I did a lot of skydives out of N22s and was glad I had two prachutes and no intention of staying inside. Once the tail-mods were done the horizontal stabiliser just sat immobile and the pilots reported it "didn't wag its tail any more" which I think speaks volumes for all the corners which were cut on a design that could have offered so much more. Definitely built by GAF on the "no expense spared to keep the costs down" principle. Good airframe for skydiving though, pity about the engines.

I wish Gippsland Aeronautics every success with the new Nomad, but with Viking now pushing the 400-sries Twotters, it may be an uphill battle.

Tenterfield? did not know that one

I made lots of money working on Phil's Nomads. Fly them on the weekend and work on them all week.
They were continually falling apart and the engines just could not handle the stress of long climbs in hot weather. Every week we recieved new ADs ASTA.
Gippsland have a big job ahead of them to get it to a quality product that will be able to compete against similar aircraft.

fencehopper,

Why did Phil do away with the Twotters? I noticed one in the hangar in December but it's gone now too.

As far as I know there are only two Twotters flying in Australia, Karratha Flying Services and FMG in Port Hedland.
The Pievan was a good aircraft, I beleive Fugro in Perth have one for sale VH-WGT. They are very quirky but a good solid honest aircraft for the job they do.
The -400 Twotter will certainly be the pick of the bush aircraft, Zimex have got one I know of and an operator in Nigeria has one too. So far I have not heard any negatives about them.