Now here’s a story – earlier this week a new Piper Seneca that had vanished on a ferry flight from the US to Australia on January 18, 1989 was located, submerged under 50 metres of water off Santa Ana, Makira/Ulawa in the Solomon Islands. The story goes that the lone Italian ferry pilot made an over-night stopover in Honiara on January 17, 1989, and departed the next morning for Brisbane, only to never be seen again. An extensive search that included aircraft and personnel from the RAAF and Civil Aviation Authority of Australia (now CASA) found nothing, but lo and behold an employee of the Solomon Islands’ Civil Aviation Authority was on leave in Santa Ana earlier this year and inadvertently solved the case. How’d he do it? He saw one of the villagers in the area in possession of a knife whose handle was made from part of an aircraft. We know, crazy, right? Jump over to the Solomon Star News website to read this incredible story in full.
Here’s an aviation-related, post-Halloween tradition with a difference out of the US. Last weekend Santa Cruz Flying Club and Ocean Air Flight Services teamed up to host the annual Pumpkin Drop at Watsonville Municipal Airport. The event is geared towards highlighting the joys of flying and allows people a free flight in a small plane to hoist a pumpkin out the window from 200ft in the hope of hitting the ‘bull’s eye’ – a trash bucket centred on a bright blue 5ft by 5ft tarp near the runway below. For the record, they all missed. But you can read the full, and rather bizarre, story here.
We should’ve guessed that when revered US aircraft designer Burt Rutan revealed earlier this year that he was retiring after designing an impressive 40 aircraft over the last 45 years he was telling us porkies – after all, he did make the announcement on none other than April Fools’ Day. Flightglobal reports that the word is that the man who envisioned such singular designs as the SpaceShipOne, VariEze and Voyager is now working on a “small, light thing”, currently named Model 372-3. Most of us will remember that back in the 1970s Rutan made his name building light aircraft, before exploring more extravagant visions, so these could be interesting times for Rutan fans and GA pilots. Watch this space…
The Fraser Coast Chronicle reports that veteran local pilot Janet Neisler is working with the powers that be to establish a new gliding club at Maryborough. The Grandmother, a member of the Fraser Coast Aviation Group who learnt to fly back in 1974, said it’s been 12 years since the former gliding club operated in Maryborough. Here’s hoping she gets the support needed to get the new club up and running.
Earlier this week the RAAF received its third Airbus Military A330 MRTT multi-role tanker/transport, with the formal handover happening at RAAF Base Amberley. Designated the KC-30A in Australian military service, the advanced air-to-air tanker converted from an Airbus A330 commercial passenger jet to a military tanker/transport by Qantas Defence Services, as was the first two KC-30As the RAAF received back in June. The RAAF expects to receive a fourth KC-30A in December and a fifth and final (in the current order) in 2012.
Boeing has pledged to keep rudder pedal work for the RAAF’s Super Hornet fleet in Australia following the signing of a new contract with Brisbane-based Ferra Engineering. Boeing had been working with Essendon-based Production Parts to provide rudder pedal kits as part of Boeing’s global supply chain for the Super Hornet, but the 60-year-old aerospace manufacturing company sadly went into receivership in August. Under the new contract, Ferra Engineering will produce the remaining kits that Production Parts were contracted to produce as well as 123 additional kits as part of the Super Hornet program.
Avweb reports that US aviation companies Redbird Flight Simulations and King Schools have partnered to open Redbird Skyport – an FBO/flying school venture with a difference. At Redbird Skyport, students complete the entire curriculum in a simulator first, and once they master the sim they move on to lessons in an actual aircraft. The key advantages here are obviously unlimited practice time in the simulator coupled with automated lessons, and they claim a new student can gain their private certificate in as little as three weeks (full-time, we’re assuming) for a fixed price of US$9500. Time will tell how beneficial this will prove overall…
Want to work for the Australian Transport Safety Bureau? The ATSB currently has a vacancy for a Senior Transport Safety Investigator within its Aviation Safety Investigations team. The role can be based in either Canberra or Brisbane, and they’re offering a pretty penny. Interested individuals can find more details by visiting the ATSB website.
The RAAF's third Airbus Military A330 MRTT. (Airbus)
