– Steve Hitchen
No fatal aircraft accident is a happy event, but I find the crash of VH-ZEW to be particularly saddening. If the ATSB is right, this pilot lost her life simply because of the way the autopilot responded to manual control movement whilst it was still engaged. Such a simple thing that ended in tragedy. I find it hard to blame the pilot for much here: an RPL on her first solo nav who was clearly getting familiar with the autopilot; something she would have to do in order to be a candidate for the airlines. What caused the accident seems to have been a lack of understanding that manual control contrary to the autopilot mode would cause the trim to run in the opposite direction as it fought to correct the situation. We are taught in training that elevator trim–be it manual or electronic–is there only to remove control forces and not a means of setting attitude, but this accident shows that incorrect trim can have a massive effect on the aircraft in flight. The ATSB report says that the pilot had no warning of the way the autopilot would respond, to which Garmin used the "everybody knows" defence to decide no warning was needed in the handbook. The ATSB didn't swallow that, and neither do I. If there is any type of pilot out there that isn't completely familiar with an autopilot it would have to be an RPL on their first solo nav, and G1000s are being used by more and more just that type of pilot.
CASA's medical reform program seems to be generating more confusion with each step forward. The current points of contention are the conditions under which a DAME must refer the applicant to CASA. In a note sent to AOPA Australia, CASA's Rob Walker says that DAMEs need to refer only applicants with dementia, eplilepsy, psychosis, or have had a medical refused previously. However, information sent to Australian Flying shows that DAMEs are being given a list of 23 conditions that they must refer. This list comes from the CASA website. A DAME can over-ride the list, but only if they issue the certificate endorsed as CASA Audit Required by DAME (CARD). This is what AOPA Australia wants to kill. They want the DAME on the spot to be able to assess fitness-to-fly under all circumstances without CASA involvement. The CASA reply to AOPA Australia seems to concede that except for the few exclusions, but the website still says something different. It's a work in progress apparently, and there is still a lot of work to do.
An organisation called Your Central Coast Airport (YCCA) has risen to battle the local council over Warnervale, NSW. The airport there has been touted as ripe for industrial and aviation development for a few years now, and last year the council commissioned a report into the potential. But things have changed since then. Two councils merged to form Central Coast Council, and all of a sudden it seems the new municipal body is refusing to release the contents of that report. YCCA is campaigning to try to overturn that decision, claiming there's a lack of transparency, which is hard to argue given they've voted to suppress a report that ratepayers paid for! YCCA wants the aviation community to get behind them and their efforts to force the new council to come clean with the report and the reasons why they clearly won't support development. Have a look at www.ycca.org.au and decide for yourself.
You'll find the latest edition of Australian Flying ready for your collection. Sometimes an issue gels better than others, and this is one of those. If I was asked why, I doubt I could explain. Is it the cover shot? Is it the range and quality of articles? Possibly it is the combination of all of those things together that just work so well along side each other. Mind you, certainly good contributors right across the board help a lot, and those people deserve credit for so much of the success of every print edition we produce. To complement that, you'll also note the Flightpath, Australia's premier magazine on warbirds and antiques also has a new issue. Why not go out and get them both at once?
May your gauges always be in the green,
Hitch