What's in a name?

Firstly apologies for not writing much recently. I look at my annual flying hours in my little drifter and think that maybe my priorities are a little skewed. Speaking of drifters, Greg, my boss is now the proud owner of a drifter and joins the vintage ultralight owners brigade. I look forward to posting photographs of slow journeys to the Tiwi islands and beyond.

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15 dollar Flight Planning Kit from CASA

Vince, a good friend and member of the club here in Darwin posted via email a link to a great flight planning package from CASA for low hour VFR pilots.

'Plans are nothing - planning is everything'

Safety Promotion as part of its range of aviation safety information materials has just released a Flight Planning kit.

It costs 15 dollars which basically just covers the freight and contains

The Flight Planning Kit is designed to assist low-hour VFR pilots with good flight planning habits. Includes a handbook outlining eight stages of a flight; kneeboard; flight planning notepad; personal minimums card; time in your tanks card; durable A3-sized manoeuvring maps of Archerfield, Bankstown, Camden, Jandakot, Moorabbin and Parafield; and more.

The Flight Planning Kit is available to industry via the CASA online store http://casa.cart.net.au/details/3383840.html 

I reckon that a box of these at Natfly for giveaways to attendees (okay - a really big box then) would be a fantastic idea and I hope our office team in Canberra can make the call to organise some of these kits. But in the meantime, jump online and check out the kit and order one - I am going to.

Thanks Vince

Because this should also be about what we love... here are some shots taken recently over Fogg Dam in the Northern Territory. The aircraft is our training drifter flown by Greg with photos taken from my drifter.

 

 

From Drifters

Darwin CASA Aviation Safety Seminar notice 22 Sept 2010

Your CASA Aviation Safety Advisors will be presenting an Aviation Safety Seminar;
Where; Darwin Airport Resort
When; 6.30pm on the 22nd of September 2010.
The main topic will be "Weather- flying in the wet season"
There will also be a briefing from a Bureau of Meteorology forecaster.

A light meal and refreshments will be provided.

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Ageing Aircraft study meeting

From Peter Ball at CASA

As you may be aware, CASA has recently initiated an Ageing Aircraft study.

The aim of the study - The Ageing Aircraft Management Plan (AAMP) - is to scope the magnitude of the ageing aircraft situation in Australia.

The AAMP will determine if there are any safety consequences associated with the continued operation of ageing aircraft, and if so, what actions might need to be taken to ensure appropriate levels of airworthiness are maintained.

As part of the AAMP study, CASA is conducting a series of Industry Consultation visits around the country.

The AAMP Project Team will be visiting Darwin Airport on Wednesday 1 September 2010 where they will be providing a presentation to an invited forum of industry professionals such as yourself and then seeking comments from the floor that will be directed back into the AAMP plan.

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Training opportunity in the Top End

Peter Ball from CASA sent this through - apologies if you have already received it.

Top level training opportunities usually combine the need to send staff away for long periods with associated high cost involvement.
Thankfully this is not always the case;

I have been approached by the International Society of Air Safety Investigators(ISASI) to determine the level of interest in running one of their
"Reachout" courses in Darwin in the October/November period.
You can research "ISASI" and "reachout program" on the ISASI website;
http://www.isasi.org/reachout_tp.html

This would be an excellent opportunity to obtain targeted training delivered locally for minimal cost. ISASI are a not for profit organisation,
as a result the cost of the training will be between 300 to $400 per person depending on number of participants.
This money is used to cover costs of air travel and accommodation for program staff and cost of venue hire.
A draft copy of the course content is attached, the course could be shortened to three days without a dramatic reduction in content.

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Just in case you missed it - we are a RAAO

 Which stands for Recreational Aviation Administration Organisations (RAAOs). CASA has been very busy getting all twenty something of these organisations under one roof and ensuring that our governance procedures are up to scratch. For those interested in reading John McCormick's speech. (John is the boss of CASA - formally is the Director of Aviation Safety. I have in this post a couple of very useful and important links that help understand the way the relationship between CASA and RA-Aus is heading.

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New procedures for non-towered aerodromes

I went to a CASA safety presentation the other day. John Bradley, Steve Allen, Vince Cassaniti (late again), Ron Lawford, Skippy and myself made up the TEFC representation at the presentation, again hosted by the extremely professional Peter Ball who chaired a great presentation by Mark Richardson (Richo) who is no stranger to Darwin or these presentations.

Follow the more link to find out how to access their eLearning material...

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Non-towered Aerodromes Seminar

CASA will be holding a free seminar in Darwin on Wednesday 5 May.

It will cover the changes to rules at non-towered aerodromes, effective 3 June. Also the GAAP to Class D changes, too.

The schedule below is copied from the CASA website, complete with type ( can you find it )

To register, visit the following link...

http://www.casa.gov.au/scripts/nc.dll?WCMS:STANDARD::pc=PC_100087

 

Northern Territory

Day Date Session Location Venue
 
Wednesday 05/05/2010 7.00-10.00pm Darwin Darwin Airport Inn Henry Wrigley Drive Eaton
Friday 07/05/2010 6.30-9.30pm Ayers Rock Ayres Rock Resort Yulara Drive Ayres Rock
Wednesday 19/05/2010 10.00 -1.00pm Gove CASA Office Gove Airport
    2.00-5.00pm Gove CASA Office  Gove Airport
Thursday 20/05/2010 6.30-9.30pm Jabiru Gagudju Crocodile Holiday Inn 1 Flinders St Jabiru

 

CASA's presentation on Sport Aviation

A couple of weeks ago I attended the board meeting for RA-Aus in Canberra. This meeting saw our new CEO Robbie Costmeyer involved in the board meeting. Most of what can be published will come through the magazine, but there are a couple of items that are worth sharing here.

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CASA Safety Seminar in Darwin a big success

This evening I attended a CASA safety seminar organised by Peter Ball of the Darwin Office of CASA. I think we were all surprised by volume of people who attended and refreshingly the youthfulness of the attendees.

It was interesting to note that the younger pilots in the main were the GA pilots flying possibly older aircraft and the RA-Aus contingent were older pilots flying newer aircraft.

There were at least 73 attendees there as that was one of the numbers drawn out of the lucky door prizes - More on that later. We had Barry H, Barry S, Michael C, Alan and Dianne, Ron and Annabelle, Greg, John B, myself and Joe representing TEFC membership.

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