AUSTRALIAN Feb - Mar 2017 Vol 70 No 1 Price $7.75 incl GST
The Mighty STEARMAN
Legend’s Fantastic
Super Cub Avionics -
Black Arts Explained
DIY Airfields
» MEET AOPA’S YOUTH AMBASSADOR » CASA’S MEDICAL DISCUSSION PAPER AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIAN WARBIRDS ASSOCIATION • HELICOPTER FRATERNITY
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Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association of Australia MISSION STATEMENT AOPA stands for its members’ right to fly without unnecessary restrictions and costs. PRESIDENT Marc De Stoop mds@aopa.com.au IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Phillip Reiss 0418 255 099 phillip.reiss@aopa.com.au VICE PRESIDENT & SECRETARY Spencer Ferrier 0437 747 747 ferlaw@ozemail.com.au VICE PRESIDENT & TREASURER Dr Tony Van Der Spek tony.vanderspek@aopa.com.au DIRECTORS Allan Bligh 0408 268 689 allan.bligh@aopa.com.au Peter Holstein 0418 425 512 peter.holstein@aopa.com.au Robert Liddell robert.liddell@aopa.com.au Neill Rear neill.rear@aopa.com.au Ben Morgan ben.morgan@aopa.com.au Bas Scheffers bas.scheffers@aopa.com.au Mark Smith mark.smith@aopa.com.au Peter John peter.john@aopa.com.au MAGAZINE EDITOR Mark Smith editor@aopa.com.au ART DIRECTOR Melinda Vassallo 0413 833 161 melinda@aopa.com.au Advertising 02 9791 9099 advertising@aopa.com.au AOPA OFFICE Phone: +61 (0) 2 9791 9099 Fax: +61 (0) 2 9791 9355 Email: mail@aopa.com.au Executive Director Ben Morgan 0415 577 724 Membership 02 9791 9099 mail@aopa.com.au Accounts 02 9791 9099 accounts@aopa.com.au Address Hangar 600 Prentice Street Bankstown Airport NSW 2200 All mail: PO Box 26 Georges Hall NSW 2198 www.aopa.com.au ©AOPA Australia 2017. This work is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without permission from AOPA. Printed by Graphic Impressions. AOPA by resolution of the Board has adopted database management practice that will allow selected and qualified aviation commercial interests access to the membership database for aviation promotional use that the Board deems acceptable as being informative to its members. The Privacy Act requires that members have the right to opt out of this marketing. Please advise the AOPA office if this is your desire.
Reporting Point Discussion paper concerns. The release of CASA’s discussion paper about Class 2 medical reform can be seen as a slap in the face to the three aviation groups who have been campaigning about the issue for years. What noteworthy is the incredibly general nature of the document which asks many questions that seem to give a glimpse into the direction CASA is heading in. It now brings Class 1 medicals into the mix. Why? In my two years as AP editor I haven’t seen a single word written about reforming the professional pilot medical standard. The cynic in me suggests it simply helps broaden a debate when the issue has always been about private operations. AOPA and RAA have formulated comprehensive policies that answer nearly all of the questions posed in the discussion paper. The SAAA supports our initiative. It is important that both policies are viewed as complementary and not mutually exclusive given they cover different areas of operations but have the same goal of getting more people flying. Including these policies for discussion wouldn’t have been seen as CASA endorsement of either policy, but would have given a good framework to help move the discussion forward. Basically the discussion paper is asking industry to start the whole process again, possibly in the hope the debate becomes fragmented and easier to quash. I think two of the key questions being asked, which seem to ignore present data about incapacitations in private aviation, are whether there is an appetite to accept a higher level of risk to participants and third parties, and whether an elevated rate of occurrences is acceptable. Given the lack of incapacitation events recorded in more than 10 years of RAA operations, the assumption this question makes is fundamentally flawed. Inclusion of the question about whether an assessment of risk, as used by overseas regulators, is appropriate for Australian pilots and conditions, seems to be an attempt to muddy the waters. Is that a question CASA really needs to ask? The US changes its risk profile involving 175,000 private pilots, plus they also already have a version of the RPL that allows a pilot to fly an 172, Warrior, or any number of singles with a 180hp engine with one passenger, outside controlled airspace and the regulator asks if using that risk profile is appropriate for Australia? I suppose it’s understandable since CASA have worked for years under the assumption that Australian air is somehow different to American and needs unique rules to govern it. One of the options that scares me the most is reassessing risk tolerances which inform medical certifications standards in the context of industry and community expectations, because it introduces a variable that is easy to hide behind in the decision-making process. Community expectations draws the wider community into a debate they are ill-equipped to participate in. Ask the public if they would be happy with airline pilots having lower medical standards and you’d get an almost unanimous no. Fair enough since the public expect airlines to be as safe as possible. If there was a push to lower Class 1 standards CASA could quite happily say we can’t change them because the community expect us to hold the line. But ask the public if pilots’ medical standards should be lowered, without informing them about the different classifications of medicals, and chances are you’ll get the same response. Ask them first about Class 1 standards and then Class 2 and, given they have no idea about the difference I imagine they’ll just want the status quo. Without the wider community being fully educated about the issues involved, their opinions have little relevance in the discussion. It has never been more important for pilots to educate yourselves about what is being achieved overseas and make an evidence-based submission. Include a copy of AOPA’s medical policy with your submission to reinforce that private pilots support what we are trying to achieve. Clear prop. Mark Smith, Editor www.aopa.com.au I AUSTRALIAN PILOT
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Contents » AOPA At Work
Columns
A Runway of Your Own............................. 34
President’s Report.........................................6
Bureaucracy – Rob Akron......................... 19
Captured in Mid-Air..................................... 38
AOPA’s Young Ambassador...................... 14
Legal Eagle – Spencer Ferrier................. 20
80% Spitfire.................................................. 46
Avmed Disscussion Paper......................... 12
Flight Planning – Mike Dalton................. 33
Rylstone Airpark.........................................50 The Bat Hawk is Watching......................... 52
Calendar of Events
Cover Feature
Events................................................................8
A Tale of Three Boeings............................ 42
News
Features
Hover Board Becomes Reality................ 32
VFR Weather................................................. 16
The Dreaded Annual.................................. 56 The Aeronca Chief......................................60
Legend Super Cub .................................... 24
Letters
Avionics......................................................... 28
Letters to the Editor................................... 22
Engine Cooling............................................ 32
68
A Trojan Across Australia
46
80% Spitfire
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AUSTRALIAN PILOT I www.aopa.com.au
AUSTRALIAN Feb - Mar 2017 Vol 70 No 1 Price $7.75 incl GST
The Mighty STEARMAN
Legend’s Fantastic
Super Cub Avionics Black Arts Explained DIY Airfields
Warbirds
» MEET AOPA’S YOUTH AMBASSADOR » CASA’S MEDICAL DISCUSSION PAPER AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIAN WARBIRDS ASSOCIATION • HELICOPTER FRATERNITY
Training in the Chippy............................... 63
COVER: The Boeing Stearman, flown by Steve Curtis. Camera ship flown by Kenny Love. Photo: Mark Smith.
A Trojan Across Australia......................... 68 Mustang Takes Flight..................................72
Membership Marketplace Classifieds......................................................77
AOPA Membership Form Join AOPA for Great Benefits.................. 81
Short Final Simply Amazing.......................................... 82
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Simple Flying Fun
42
A Tale of Three Boeings www.aopa.com.au I AUSTRALIAN PILOT
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AOPA AT WORK
President’s Report
Past, Present and Future For the first President’s address of 2017, I thought I’d recap on 2016 and set out my aims, challenges and expectations for 2017. On the scorecard for 2016: 1. Our best financial result for many years. Our financial year is a calendar year, which ended December 31. The auditors will confirm the Dec 2016 result by the AGM. On management accounts it’s a great result brought about by prudent cost control and increasing revenue.
the holiday period, is not serious about the process. However we need to give them the benefit of the doubt. Let’s just make sure there is a huge response to what is a very critical reform. We need to return many GA pilots to the skies. We all know the revitalisation of GA relies heavily on the reversal of the steep decline in flying numbers.
2. Membership is growing. It’s pleasing to see a significant number are old members re-joining. Increasing new youth membership is the challenge. More about that in the 2017 section.
9. AOPA forced a partial victory to push back the ADSB-out implementation date to 2020 for small business. I’m bitterly disappointed this only applies to private operations. CASA has really disappointed me on this one. Politics galore! I’m very proud we came out very strongly and publically expressing our disappointment.
3. Australian Pilot has had a great year with increasing circulation, advertising revenues and sponsorship deals. Licencing our Airports Directory has significantly increased our revenue. Our editor Mark Smith continues to produce a very high quality magazine. 4. We firmly established AOPA in 2016 as the leading industry association that holds the government to account. 5. We delivered Project Eureka to government to demonstrate how to revitalise the GA industry. We provided positive solutions to fix the problems. 6. We have established credible advocacy relationships with the mainstream media. The Australian and ABC are in regular contact with us for our industry opinions. 7. We have begun marshalling the cross-bench senators in to a unified support block to back an AOPA-generated general aviation reform policy agenda. We will use the leverage of the senators, through Senate Estimates Hearings, to hold CASA and ASA to account for their action or inactions. 8. AOPA, with close cooperation of the SAAA, has forced CASA to review Class 2 medical reform. CASA, released an industry discussion paper on the 21/12/16. Not great timing for submissions. I urge you to respond and call for the incorporation of the new AOPA Class 2 policy. For those who have not reviewed our policy please visit our website for details. I could be cynical and say CASA in releasing the review right on Christmas and asking for submissions over
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AUSTRALIAN PILOT I www.aopa.com.au
What are my thoughts and goals for 2017? 1) Our number one goal is to increase AOPA youth membership. To assist this aim I was very pleased to pick up a generous $30,000 donation from long-standing member Dick Smith in December. Dick donated the sum from the sale proceeds of his Citation CJ3. AOPA, along with many other worthy charities, shared in the multimillion dollar sale. It’s sad to see another quality aircraft leave the VH register but we must publically thank Dick for using the funds to support GA and a long list of very worthy recipients. Dick and I both agreed on the day that AOPA would use the funds to sponsor and encourage youth membership of the organisation. 2) Establishment of the Australian Indigenous Aviation Foundation (AIAF). A small group of businessmen and I, who together sponsor an indigenous car in the RFDS Bash, have incorporated the Australian Indigenous Aviation Foundation to support the flight training of indigenous Australians to ATPL level. We are working with indigenous training group Tribal Warriors and the RFDS. On the last RFDS bash we discovered that more than 60% of RFDS customers or patients are indigenous, however not one of their current pilots is indigenous. We decided with the CEOs of the three RFDS regions we need to do something about that. We expect first intake will be mid-2017. We are developing
AOPA AT WORK
Marc De Stoop AOPA President mds@aopa.com.au
a comprehensive training model which includes early intervention at high school level to encourage and incentivise suitable candidates. AOPA and member flying schools will be involved with pilot aptitude selections. The program will commence in NSW. If it proves successful we will roll it out in all states. 3) Promote GA flying as a fun activity. We need to avoid projecting to Gen Y that aviation is a totally adversarial or in some way an unpleasant experience. We need to project GA as an enjoyable experience and make aviation an activity that they want to spend their discretionary dollars on. We need to better engage with this demographic group through social media, apps or whatever medium it takes to connect with the next generation of fliers. Our recent AOPA fly-in at Rylstone had some interesting discussions from the floor about the subject. I came away thinking the audience were spot on.
JOIN AOPA Fighting for your right to fly, free from undue regulation. www.aopa.com.au Aircraft Owners And Pilots Association Australia
4) Continue our strong advocacy, along with the other peak bodies from the TAAAF, for major regulatory reform. We have many things to do. I look forward to working with the board and the executive on the challenges this agenda presents. Marc De Stoop President
www.aopa.com.au I AUSTRALIAN PILOT
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