rural aviation newsletter

8/11/2019 Rural Aviation Newsletter

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JANUARY

2006

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL

AUSTRALIA IS CERTAINLY A LAND

OF EXTREMES OF CLIMATE, EVEN

IN ORANGE, WHERE THE SUM-

MERS ARE USUALLY FAIRLY MILDWHEN COMPARED TO OTHER

PARTS OF THE COUNTRY.Early Summer rains and cooler temperatures gave wayto searing heat in late December, giving rise to a spateof fires in the surrounding area.

The fire risk has prompted the NSW Rural Fire Serviceto establish an on-going presence at Orange Airport, andat times there have been up to six fire bombers onstandby or working out of Orange. Orange AviationsPartenavia has also been called in to service on severaloccasions as a spotter aircraft.

We have been fortunate in the tablelands area not tohave had any fires this year, posing a significant threatto life or property, but of course this could change with-out notice. As this news is being compiled, stories of majordestruction and one firefighter death are coming in fromVictoria. Hopefully the weather conditions will ease andallow the firies to get the upper hand.

The Airtractor fitted out for fire bombing has become a famil-

iar site at Orange Airport, supported by the retardent mixing

trailer and bulk supplies of Phos-Check. As well at this air-

craft, there have been two turbine Dromaders, a Thrush and

another Airtractor regularly on site.

Comp. in Coffs

Round One of the 2006 NSW Interclub

Flying Competition will be held in Coffs

Harbour on Saturday 4 March, hosted by

Coffs Harbour & District Aero Club. Over-

night accommodation & dinner, brekka

along the usual lines.

Intending competitors please contact the

secretary for further details.

Clean Up Australia Day 2006is on March 5, and

Orange Aero Club will

again be participating.Details Soon

D u t y R o s t e r To B e R e v i v e d

A little while ago your committee called for interestfrom members prepared to be part of a duty roster.

Initially this will involve Saturdays only, between 10.00am and 2.00 pm, at this appears to be the most use-ful time in terms of visiting crews.

Duties will include welcoming visitors and offeringthem a cuppa and use of the clubhouse, cleaning,tidying and grounds maintenance as necessary.

Please contact the secretary if you are prepared tobe part of the scheme.


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9th Annual Great Air RallyTimes running out for anyone interested in taking part in the

Great Air Rally 2006, this year to be held in the east Victorian

Gippsland Region.

How do houseflies manage to land on the ceiling upside down?Think about this one...When the fly is heading for the ceiling, its flyingright side up. When it lands on the ceiling it is upside down. At somepoint along the way it has to flip over. But when? And Where? And How?

Scientists dispelled the prevalent theory, that the fly performed a fighterpilot-like barrel roll just prior to land-ing, by capturing this momentousevent on film.

Freeze frames, from the high-speedcameras scientists used, proved that flies do not flip, but flop, as theyland upon the ceiling. Prior to impact, the fly extends its forward legs overits head, makes contact, and uses the momentum it has gathered in flightto hoist the remainder of its body to the ceiling. Thus, the fly proves to bemore of an acrobat, than of a fighter pilot practicing his maneuvers.

Once the fly reunites all six feet on the ceiling, it keeps things dizzilyexciting, by gracefully tiptoing across the ceiling, securing itself by usingsticky pads found under the two claws attached to each of its feet. It isbecause of these sticky pads and the hairs on the legs that the fly is such

a carrier of disease germs.

Did you know? The entire life of a house fly is spent within a few hundred

feet of the area where it was born.

At this stage, VH HIR is booked and will be vari-ously piloted by Stuart Porges, John Pullen andKen Pidcock - the award winning team from 2005who took out the (Northern Division) Trophy for....well, for doing something better than all the oth-ers!

Theres possibly a seat for a lightweight fourthperson - if interested please contact Stuart.

The rallys not on till late February, but the dead-line for earlybird bookings is the end of Janu-ary. After that it becomes a bit more expensive.

There are application forms on the table in theclubhouse if another crew wants to get togetherand enter.

DOTARS LATEST SCHEMEThe latest scheme in the Make Life Difficult for Private Pilots depart-ment was spelled out in a letter to pilots issued 3 January, almost as anafterthought.

The letter appeared to confirm the requirement to obtain an ASIC to access the 181 security controlled airports, andthe extension to the deadline of 31 March 2006, provided an application had been lodged by the original date of 31

Dec last. It would seem that applying now for an ASIC doesnt qualify a person for the time extension.The sting is in the tail, however, and it will most severly affect those pilots who made a conscious decision not toobtain an ASIC as they had no need to visit any of the prescribed aerodromes. The last paragraph casually mentionsit is also an offence... if you fly an aircraft in Australian Territory... without having applied for an aviation security statuscheck. Penalty $2,200 each flight!

There are exceptions - it appears not to apply to those flying on a RAAus, HGFA or GFA licence, and those under 18.


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OUC ORDERS NEW J160Orange Ultraflight Centre

has placed an order with

Jabiru Aircraft for a newtraining aircraft - the

Jabiru J160C, similar to

that pictured at right.Ordering is one thing, however, delivery isanother thing entirely! With forward ordersfor the next six months, its likely to be July before we see the new training aircraft working in Orange skies.

This aircraft is a fully certified aircraft which has been developed with both the General Aviation and the

Recreational Aircraft markets in mind, and has a number of features which will give it more appeal to thetraditional GA training market.

Our present aircraft, Jabiru 3256, has had a fairly full life, and now has about 3000 hours on the airframe,and some 2700 on the engine, over 2000 since last major overhaul. By any aviation standards, this is anexcellent performance from the Plastic Parrot, however it is at the stage of needing a full exterior re-finish,and an engine overhaul or replacement. Its owners have taken the decision to replace the aircraft ratherthan refurbish.

Some of the features which will make the new aircraftmore appealing are a wider cabin, electric flaps, panelmounted throttles, cabin heat (hurrah!), wet wings withdouble the fuel capacity, greater baggage area and agreatly increased maximum range. Ours will be RAAus

registered, so it will be available to all current RAAuspilots (after a brief dual check period).

The J160 is still powered by the 2.2 litre Jabiru air-cooled flat four, but this has now been equipped withhydraulic tappets, and re-designed induction plenum

chamber which has improved performance, although still rated at 80 horsepower.

The downsides? Theres always a downside, I guess. To justify this new aircraft we will be restructuring thebusiness and will have to start charging GST, since one aim will be to increase the training usage. Wevealso absorbed fuel increases so far, which have risen by more than 50% since the current rates were setabout three years ago. At $110 dual and $80 private hire ($70 to OAC Members), were one of the cheapestin the business at this stage. One aspect well be looking at immediately is increasing the rate for private

hire for business use to a more realistic figure, and this will help to keep the cost down for the true recrea-tional flyers.

If youd like more information on the Jabiru J160, visit the website at www.jabiru.net.au

A year or so ago, the committee was

forced to accept the probability that

somebody was stealing money from the

cash tin in the clubhouse.

It was difficult to quantify, but occasionally the tin wouldbe short by $50 or $100 after it hadnt been cleared for acouple of weeks.

This was addressed by putting a lock on the fridge, andkeeping the cash box in the fridge.

Sadly, last week the cash box, including cash, disap-

peared from the lockedfridge.

From now on, well likelyhave to replace the lockwith a keyed type with lim-ited key distribution. Nocash will be kept in theclubhouse, - it will have to

be passed on to the treas-urer.

This will unfortunately inconvenience a lot of people, andcost the club some of its income.


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DIARY DATESPatron: Max Hazelton

President: John Gordon

Secretary: Ken Pidcock

Treasurers: Bob Nash

Vice President: John Ellis

Committee: Bryan Clements Laurie Chapman

Wade Mahlo

Sam Cook

Hayley Coles

John Martin

Mick Robertson

In addition, Stuart Porges and Ken

Hazelton are ex-officio committee

members in their capacity as

DAMEs

Newsletter Editor: Ken Pidcock

Orange Aero Club News is pub-lished monthly, and distributed as

a PDF file by email to members and

supporters. Back issues are avail-

able from the club website:

www.orangeaeroclub.netwit.net.au

Contributions are welcome, prefer-

ably by email to:

[email protected]

Sat 28 & Sun 29 Jan Temora Aviation Museum Flying Days

Tue 14 Feb Committee Meeting, Orange Aviation 6.00 pm

Sun 19 Feb Club Day and Round 1 of the 2006 Pilot of the YearCompetition. (Round 1 didnt happen on 22 Jan)

Fri 24 to Sun 26 Feb Great Air Rally in south-eastern Victoria

Sat 4 & Sunday 5 Mar Temora Aviation Museum Flying Days

Sat 4 Mar Round 1 of Interclub Flying Comp at Coffs Harbour

Sun 5 Mar Clean Up Australia Day

Tue 14 Mar Committee Meeting, Orange Aviation 6.00 pm

Sat 18 Mar Fund Raising BBQ at Bunnings Orange (Tentative)

Sun 26 Mar Club Day and Round 2 of the 2006 Pilot of the YearCompetition.

Fri 14 to Mon 17 Apr Easter - Annual RAAus Natfly Fly-in to Narromine - the

place to go to check out the wide range of aircraft avail-able. Also the National Aerobatics Championships atParkes, and the Sat and Sunday are Flying days at TemoraAviation Museum. Also Warbirds over Wanaka , NZ.

Fri 21 to Sun 23 Apr IFFR Conference and Fly-in at Temora, hosting Wheel-ies with Wings - wheelchair pilots.

Sat 22 & Sun 23 Apr Antique Aircraft Association of Austral ia fly-in atNarranderra

Sun 29 Apr Club Day for social flying.

JANUARY CLUB & COMP DAY PRETTY MUCH

PASSED UN-NOTICED, WHICH INDICATES THAT

THERES NOT MUCH POINT IN HAVING ACTIVI-

TIES DURING THE COUNTRYS MAJOR HOLIDAY

PERIOD.Apart form that, the weather was pretty hot and not very comfortable inthe air, and Tim was tied up on RFS & Charter work.

Two of our Junior members flew in Round 1 of the Ultralight Division, andtheir scores will be included in the rest of the results for the re-scheduledround to be held on 22 February.

The U/L Division this round takes the form of a mini- Navex, which will betaking in the territory to the south of Orange. As in Round 3 last year, theemphasis is in sticking to the flight plan, allowing for wind drift, estimat-

ing times overhead check points and familiarity with some of the newprocedures!

Not sure what the format for the GA Division will be.

Two today - one for entertainmentand the other for enlightenment!

The formation on the left is causedby a rotating mass of moist air, andwas taken in the Sierra Nevadamountains in the USA.

The other? Well its just included be-cause its cute!

W I E R D C L O U D S

Orange Aerodrome was hon-

oured with a visit this weekby inspectors from DOTARS.

They were apparently look-

ing at unattended aircraft

parked in the open and un-

secured, ASICs being worn

(or not worn!) and at some

of Rex Airlines security ar-

rangements.

Dont know if any fines re-

sulted, or if this was a warn-ing.

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