You’ve got to love those ever-positive and determined Queenslanders. The Queensland Government’s Minister of Tourism and Tourism Queensland recently organised the ‘Nothing Beats Queensland’ campaign – a roadshow promo blitz that this week saw 200 Qld tourism and events operators converge on NSW and Victoria in an effort to entice interstate visitors back to Qld after Mother Nature smashed the state for six with natural disasters. Bundaberg’s Wide Bay Australia International Airshow (WBAIAS) was part of the campaign, and we hear staff put in an heroic effort in flogging the forthcoming event (held from Friday August 19 to Sunday August 21) to the southerners. After all the effort they’ve put in, the least we can all do is chuck a sickie on the Friday and head up to the airshow and show our support. For more WBAIAS info click here. And if you’re in NSW, don’t let bitterness from the result of this week’s game one of the State of Origin stop you…
Bankstown Airport’s future planning is set to benefit from the Federal Government this week agreeing to extend the existing Tripartite Deeds. Over the past decade Tripartite Deeds have clarified the rights of financers in the event an operator of a federally leased airport to which they have lent money goes out of business or loses its operating licence – a regime which has given financiers the confidence to invest and operators the certainty to plan for the long term. Originally the regime was expected to last just 20 years, with the first of the Deeds expiring in 2017, however they’ve now been extended to cover the full 50-year duration of the leases held by their operators. As well as YSBK, all seven capital city airports as well as Gold Coast, Townsville, Alice Springs, and Launceston are covered by the Tripartite Deeds.
As part of the AWPA’s recent annual conference in Darwin, CASA has recognised female trainee pilots Tessa Gorman, Jacqueline Lew and Ashleigh Fergus for their outstanding academic performance based on theory exam results. Gorman, who received the top honour and $3000 in prize money, completed her seven aeroplane ATPL exams in two and a half months and scored highly on each including a perfect 100 per cent on her aviation law exam. Lew came in second and received $2000 from CASA, while Fergus took third and $1000. While we sadly don’t have any money to put up, we send our greatest of congratulations to these three talented pilots.
Kiwi company GrasslanzTechnology Limited has been recognised for their innovative efforts to minimise bird strike incidents at major airports. The NZ company was a category winner in the 2011 Du Pont Australia and New Zealand Innovation Awards announced recently in Melbourne for a natural fungus (endophyte) they’ve developed that lives in grass and produces chemicals that make birds feel sick when ingested, but does not harm them. This endophytic grass also reduces insect numbers, thus making the area less attractive to insect-feeding birds. The birds are deterred from flocking in those grassed areas airside and around runways, and it has proven effective in reducing bird numbers at several New Zealand airports thus minimising the risk of bird collisions with aircraft. This may not end up crossing over into GA airports, but it sure is interesting.
Next time there’s an incident at your local airfield and you think you’ll do the noble, selfless deed and jump to the rescue, authorities may warn you to keep clear. During a recent helicopter incident at Bankstown Airport, in which the aircraft crashed heavily and was destroyed by fire but the pilot was unharmed, some well intentioned tenants approached the fire with hand-held extinguishers to do what they could. However, the airport operator has warned that these would-be good samaritans may have put themselves at risk, and implied that they could have hampered the efforts of emergency services personnel. Whilst they probably have a point in saying that hand-held extinguishers don’t make much of a difference in putting out fires of this size and nature, we for one wouldn’t discourage proactive types from helping out. Surely that’s better than standing by, twiddling your thumbs and watching the show… .
The good folks at CASA have proven that they’re not luddites by moving into the world of Twitter. The safety regulator says it will tweet updates on the release of new documents, AvSafety seminars, events, new safety publications, important decisions and matters of interest to the broad aviation community. While none of this information will be exclusive to Twitter and will still be disseminated through more traditional channels, if you’re that way inclined, be sure to whip out your smartphone and follow CASA (‘@CASABriefing’) on Twitter.
Former Australian Flying Editor and our current Feature Writer, Shelley Ross, has launched a new website through which she is spreading the good word about all her flying adventures as she gallivants around the country in light aircraft. While content on the website differs from that which Shelley currently contributes to Australian Flying, you can have a look at her website by clicking here.
We hear this week that a pilot in the US was left red-faced after taking off with a tow bar still attached to his Cessna 182. Apparently he forgot to detach the two bar after using it to pull the aircraft on the ground, but he landed safely without incident. While we’ll fight anyone to the death who says pilots aren’t pretty clued up, we’re only human and everyone makes mistakes, after all.
Despite the utter idiocy of the act, the threat of pretty severe jail terms and the fact that it’s highly dangerous for pilots, we still here stories of muppets shining lasers at aircraft. The Sunday Mail reported last weekend the Brisbane arrest of a New Farm man for allegedly aiming a laser at a Channel Nine helicopter. And this was no stupid teenager getting his rocks off or impressing his mates – this bloke was 35. He’s been charged with, “endangering the safe use of a vehicle by directing a beam of light from a laser” and will front Brisbane Magistrates Court on June 7.
US Flying reports that a New York federal jury has this week found Cirrus Design does not bear any blame for an October 2006 crash involving an SR20 that killed New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle and his flying instructor. The pair crashed into a high-rise apartment building as they attempted to make a turn in the tight confines of Manhattan’s East River Corridor, and their widows were suing Cirrus for US$100 million, saying a binding problem with the SR20’s flight controls prevented the men from making the turn. However the jury of four men and two women took just three hours to decide that that theory ran counter to the NTSB’s accident findings that pilot error was to blame. Lawyers for the widows plan to appeal the decision.