Posted by: Hitch
on 04 Nov 2009
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Victorian pilots will remember Saturday 31 October: it was a muggy, hot day with towering CU and CBs forecast for some parts of the state. It was a forecast that was not so encouraging for aviation, but the reality was a bit different. No CBs, but certainly hot and heavy. On days like this aeroplanes don't like to fly, and pilots can be just as reluctant.
Posted by: Hitch
on 16 Jul 2009
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Posted by: Hitch
on 07 Jul 2009
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GAAPs have come under a bit of fire lately, with two inquiries rummaging around trying to solve the ongoing problem. A CASA report was tabled in May 2009 looking at the way GAAP is taught in the schools; the other one is underway by private firm Ambidji, targeting the procedures themselves. All this has been brought on by two mid-air collisions at GAAPs last year.
Posted by: Hitch
on 19 Jun 2009
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Posted by: Hitch
on 17 Jun 2009
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Posted by: Hitch
on 16 Jun 2009
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In which Hitch and co-aviators head inland.
Posted by: Hitch
on 20 May 2009
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The flying school gave me some horrible news the other day: my medical expires in a couple of weeks. There once was a time when it wouldn’t have fazed me, it only came around every five years and it was a good opportunity for a check-up. Haven’t things changed! Now it’s every two years (over 40 CASA considers that you are a greater risk of dying at the wheel and killing everyone on board simply because it’s the 40th anniversary of the day you were born) and we now have to participate in their money-grab or we can’t fly.
Posted by: Hitch
on 18 May 2009
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Group Captain MS "Dick" Humphrey DFC is a legend of the RAAF. An EATS man who flew Blenheims and Hampdens with 455 Sqn in Coastal Command, he taught the Russians to fly Hampdens and later flew the first POW repatriation flight out of Korea. After his retirement he taught flying training for the hell of it. That's where I met Dick in the mid 1980s. His skills with an aeroplane were a cut above anyone I'd ever seen, or have ever seen since. Clearly a pioneer in his art, his opinion carried a lot of weight.
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