Centaurus wrote:

"With all the good will in the world, I very much doubt a CD of all the ASD series would sell to a new generation of pilots. Sad really but a fact of life."

I reckon that you're right, Centaurus. They would need an 'app'. (CDs are so old fashioned, after all.) And with no G1000 or EFB info, they'd become rapidly bored?

So there will continue to be wealthy; young; low hours pilots that have access to high performance aircraft such as the Cirrus. But sadly, a few will still make the same fatal VFR into IMC mistakes that Mac Job wrote so well about.

In reality once they're PDF'd onto a CD, they will end up in the net unfettered eventually. So keep it easy and circumvent that step.

What's needed is just each year scanned as a PDF file and just put on a website somewhere. Or just collated in a zip file that can be emailed around.

If someone can sort out copyright, or permission for this with the now ATSB, I'm happy to scan some. If we all pick a few years each then it will be easy.

How I wish I had a complete collection of ASDs, even as .PDFs. The few hardcopies I have (they've followed me around the world) I've used here in the US to show things to students and instructors, and the articles are universally applauded.

As for FSA: a piece of crap from it's very first issue in 199x.

I'll buy a set on CD

But then I'm an old fart who would probably print them off to read with my morning coffee

I would also volunteer to scan some if anybody or group wanted to do this.

Count me in - I'd buy a set

I would suggest that they would be worthy of inclusion in the National Archives. In fact, I am surprised that they are not there already.

Also, i'd buy a cd set.
Surprised they have not been digitised so as to preserve them in case of loss of the reference set in CASA.

What make you think CASA still has any? Way too informative for CASA to want to keep.

The full set from issue 1 to issue 150 is held in the National Library of Australia. With any luck, they'll have them digitised and online soon-ish.

I had a look at doing this last year. Came to the conclusion the easiest method would be to have a set where the spine of each digest was cut so they were loose pages and then put the loose leaf pages through a document scanner with a sheet feeder. Centaurus you may recall our discussion on this matter.

Obviously this method requires a sacrificial set of ASDs. The other option would be to get them done professionally.

I sent an email to both CASA and the ATSB seeking a contact for copyright approval and did not receive a response from either organisation.

The best way to get the old Safety Digests online would be through the Australian National Library's Trove service.
Home - Trove

I agree Kooka. Just logged an online request asking Trove if and when they may plan to digitise the ASDs. Also asked if they could provide details of the holder of the copyright.

I would be willing to assist in scanning if Trove is not an option in the foreseeable future and copyright can be sorted.

Struth!! Looks like I might have started something!!:eek:

Just to give further info re my original idea; What would have happened is that each and every edition of the ASD would have had the staples holding the pages carefully removed. Each page would then have been carefully and properly scanned to copy an identical page.

This would then have been collated to be put on disc with each page in its correct order. The Person I had/have in mind to carry out these operations is a personal Friend who has the necessary equipment and archival experience.....and myself! (I'd be removing the staples etc:O)

The above would have been done at NO COST! The only costs involved in the final run would have been the cost of the CDs, printing of suitable labels/dust jackets etc and eventual postage. ie the operation would have been essentially, revenue neutral!

However, I am yet to discover and obtain a full set of the ASDs. But with any luck, as previous posters have alluded to, all my plans may yet become unnecessary!:ok:

I did one as a test a while ago on a flat bed scanner. They are thin enough that you don't need to remove staples, just fold them back over and scan each page without any obvious damage.

If the pages are scanned in order they are in order in the PDF created. I did them in colour both 200 and 300dpi. They get a bit chunky. Dropbox could be an option.

"Loathe the FSA magazine and really miss Mac Job's Aviation Safety Digest".
I agree!
The problem is that the digest was written dispassionately, accurately and with the intention to educate. FSA is a trite diatribe of ATSB/CASA sentiment published because they can [and probably ticks a box in their education policy].
Waste of money.
Waste of resources.
Waste of time [for both reader and publisher].

Rearranging PDF pages is easy with the full version of Acrobat, and no doubt other PDF creators.

Instead of a flatbed scanner there is the option of using the scanning app in a smartphone. With practice the result can be almost as good as the flatbed scanner and each issue can be scanned to a single PDF. Once you have the scanned PDF, they can be converted to various formats for the variety of tablets and readers like the Kindle, iPad and Android powered ones.


The finished files can be uploaded to Dropbox or other Cloud storage sites for downloading. Depending on the finished size, they could be spread over several site. I have 15GB of unused Cloud storage if that would be of use.

It sounds like a job for our grandchildren..:)

Below is a condensed version of Trove's response to my enquiry:


"Thank you for contacting Trove about digitisation of the Aviation Safety Digest.

At this stage the National Library has no plans to digitise this publication under the selective digitisation stream.

The National Library does also work with external parties who wish to fund digitisation of selected materials from the Library’s collection - more information on this is in section 6 of the Policy.

I did a search in Trove’s Journals, articles and datasets zone to see if another institution who contributes to Trove has digitised it but the only records in Trove for this publication seem to be for the print format"

I suggest there are now three options:

- Hope a benefactor engages Trove on a fee for service basis to digitise the ASDs.

- Resolve copyright and scan the ASDs via volunteers as mention in previous posts.

- Do nothing.

I might have another go at trying to sort out copyright unless there are any better ideas.