Week in brief June 10 2011

Back in ‘Week in brief April 1’ we reported that Warwick, Queensland aviator, glider, historian and tireless pioneer, 88-year-old Gus Mauch, had a road sign unveiled in his honour after spending much of his life promoting gliding and flying in the Southern Downs community. Yesterday Gus’s grandson Peter Mauch sadly informed us that Gus passed away only weeks after the road sign was unveiled in his honour. Born in Yangan, Mauch served as an RAAF instructor during WWII and helped establish the Warwick Aero Club in the 60s. Widely recognised as Queensland’s top gliding instructor, in 1994 Mauch was awarded the Order of Australia for his role in aviation and gliding, and a year later he was named Warwick Shire’s Citizen of the Year. In 1983 the Gliding Federation of Australia awarded Gus the Hoinville Award for his service to gliding. Mauch suffered from emphysema and had to give up flying three years ago. Our condolences go out to the Mauch family and everyone in the aviation community who had the pleasure of knowing Gus.


Defence has released an update on that RAAF Pilatus PC-9/A forced landing at RAAF Base East Sale that we recently reported on here. The ongoing investigation into the incident has revealed the crash was caused by loss of engine power as a result of the failure of a component in the aircraft’s fuel system. The Aviation Accident Investigation Team (AAIT) will continue to analyse the aircraft to confirm there were no other factors that contributed to the power loss. The RAAF will now work with its contracted maintenance organisations, and engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, to establish the cause of the component failure. This will inform any further engineering and maintenance work that may be required to the component. Once this is completed, and no other factors are found by the AAIT, the PC-9/A will be cleared to return to flying operations. Both pilots involved, Squadron Leader Collenette and Flight Lieutenant Andrews, have now been released from hospital.


Lieutenant Marcus Case, who sadly died when an Australian Army CH-47D Chinook helicopter crashed during a resupply sortie in southern Afghanistan on May 30, has been remembered by his RAAF and Australian Army aviation colleagues as a talented pilot. “Marcus embodied what it is to be an aviator,” Commanding Officer of the Rotary Wing Group, Lieutenant Colonel Neil Monaghan, said. Commander Joint Task Force 633, Major General Angus Campbell, added that, “For Lieutenant Marcus Case, a life in aviation was laid out before him. He was already an accomplished Kiowa pilot and he was taking on the new challenge of a different kind of flying, operating a Remotely Piloted Aircraft with the Royal Australian Air Force.” A solemn Ramp Ceremony for Lieutenant Case was conducted on an air-bridge next to Kandahar Airfield, one of the busiest single strip airfields in the world.


There’s an interesting story in The Age about University of Ballarat IT lecturer William Harvey, who has spent the last seven years developing a low-cost flight simulator to train private pilots as part of his PhD. As a student pilot in New Zealand, Harvey had wondered why GA student pilots didn’t have access to an approved simulator such as those used to train airline and military pilots. Harvey carried out initial experiments in which pilots with a range of experience tested his software and compared the experimental results with a real flight. The data was studied to see how well the laboratory set-up could compete with training in a plane and whether the potential was there to build a fully operational simulator. His long-term goal is to develop his ideas into an industry-based simulator that might be commercially viable. To read this story in full click here.


The ABC reports this week that an unnamed 31-year-old pilot used the Stuart Highway as a makeshift runway this week after her Cessna 210 Centurian suffered engine trouble shortly after take-off on a flight to Western Australia. In her emergency landing, the pilot pulled the Cessna up in scrub about 200 metres from the highway. Police closed the Stuart Highway for several kilometres and, with the help of firemen at the scene, pushed the aircraft back on to the bitumen. From there, the pilot and her uninjured passenger took off from the highway and returned to Alice Springs Airport.


General Aviation News reports that San Antonio-based Enhanced Aircraft Systems has unveiled two new aircraft engines that incorporate Formula 1 auto racing technology to develop advanced components such as crankshafts, connecting rods, pistons, and piston pins. The O-408 and IO-408 engine’s main design goal was to move weight from the reciprocal parts (connecting rods, pistons and piston pins) to the rotating part (crankshaft), reducing stresses and vibrations, according to company officials, noting that the 408 engine, while producing 230 hp, generates lower vibrations than an O-320 at a similar power setting. For more info click here.


A while ago we bought you the story of Texas-based Kosovo native James Berisha and his mission to visit every country on the planet in his Cessna 172 to raise awareness of his beloved homeland, which had proclaimed its independence a year earlier to Berisha commencing his quest. Well, AFP reports that the 39-year-old pilot’s crusade nearly came to an end last week when his 172 blew an engine cylinder at 8500 feet over Africa, forcing him to crash-land in the Sudanese desert. While he conducted an uneventful forced landing, the 39-year-old pilot admits that he got “a big wake up call” about one hour and 20 minutes into his journey from Port Sudan to Khartoum last weekend when his engine stopped, probably due to heat and the aircraft’s age. But Berisha is undeterred and will forge on with his mission, despite the logistical challenge of getting a new engine shipped to Sudan, funding constraints and the possible dangers ahead. “If I die from what I’m doing, it’s just me,” he told AFP. “Who is benefiting is two million people. That’s what is important for me. I love my country, I love my people and I want the world to know about it.” Inspiring stuff!


Central Western Daily reports that the local council that operates Orange Airport has allocated $800,000 to upgrade infrastructure to cater for impending growth. And while aircraft movements at Orange are on the rise due to increasing mining charter traffic and Regional Express increasing services, Orange Aero Club President Phil Robertson says that an increase in recreational aviation has also played a part in securing the council funding. “It’s purely an observation, but one thing that has prompted it has been an increase in recreational aviation,” Robertson said. Three flying schools are based at Orange, where total annual movements currently sit around 21,000.


Minister for Defence Materiel Jason Clare has announced that a Royal Australian Navy Sea King, call sign Shark 07, will be preserved at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Nowra in recognition of the significant role the Sea King has played in Naval Aviation over the last 36 years. Clare said the Sea Kings, known as the workhorse of the RAN, are large enough to pick up loads heavier than a Land Rover and have flown more than 60,000 hours in a range of operations at home and abroad. Nowra was chosen to receive the Sea King because it has been the home base for the Navy’s Sea King operations with 817 Squadron since 1974. A Sea King will also be offered for display at the Australian War Memorial near Canberra in recognition of the Sea King’s role in combat operations in Timor and the Middle East. The RAN’s Sea Kings will be withdrawn from service in December. The remaining aircraft and associated support equipment will be offered for sale by tender; anyone interested in receiving notification when the tender is released should email disposals@defence.gov.au or phone (02) 9393 2914.


The firth instalment of the three-day Cannes Airshow on the French Riviera kicked off yesterday, and two pilots were planning on arriving in particular style by setting a new record – flying from New York to Cannes in a Mooney Ovation2 GX in under 24 hours and without supplemental fuel equipment. Jacques Callies and Gilles Khaïat were to depart Bridgeport, New York on Wednesday June 8 at 0500 with (considering the least favorable scenario) a stop in Greenland, for an arrival in Cannes prior to event’s opening at 1000 yesterday. If favorable winds helped the pair, two stops (Goose Bay and Reykjavik) would be sufficient. The pair set another record upon departing from last year’s Cannes Airshow by flying to Tel Aviv non-stop in 9 hours and 58 minutes, in a Mooney M20J.