AUSTRALIAN June - July 2017 Vol 70 No 3 Price $7.75 incl GST
MEET OUR FREEDOM TO FLY TEAM
! N I W year
a s Win unway n o Oz Rscripti sub
Piper M600: Turbine Luxury The Aviat Husky: Bush Flying Fun
» AOPA BOARD: MEET THE NEW DIRECTORS » AOPA PRESENTS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 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 Catherine Fitzsimmons John Glynn Aminta Hennessy Dominic James Ben Morgan ben.morgan@aopa.com.au Neill Rear neill.rear@aopa.com.au Mike Smith Phillip Yates
AOPA Youth Ambassador Michelle O’Hare youth@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 This morning, just after the sun rose, I got out of bed. I have polished timber floors so there is always a slight risk I’ll slip and fall through the large bedroom window that’s about a metre from the bed. But it was a nice morning so I considered the risk of being cut to pieces by plate glass worthwhile since I was hungry and I’d given the butler the day off! After breakfast I had to drive into town. I live near a piece of major highway that carries a lot of large trucks and so I had B doubles passing my driver’s window at 100kmh. But I decided the risk was justified because I needed some aerospace supplies from Bunnings and you can’t land your helicopter in their car park, especially when you don’t have one. (The butler was using it!) Later in the day I went to fly my Corby Starlet. It’s a home-built, not by me, and uses a converted VW engine. It’s maintained by a LAME even though it’s in RAA, and while I’m sure the engine is reliable I won’t fly over any tiger country anytime soon. Again, there’s a risk, but I’m a big boy and I can make the decision to accept that risk and decide how to mitigate it. What am I on about? Society, and in our case CASA Avmed’s drive to completely rid the world of any risk someone can evaluate what they perceive is dangerous and are prepared to accept responsibility for their actions. It’s interesting that CASA had a brief foray into letting people decide if something was risky or not when they claimed Jabiru engines were in danger of failing at any second. After the furore that followed, they allowed people to continue to operate them provided they accepted there was a (supposedly greater) risk and put a few operational limitations on the aircraft. It’s the same with medicals. In New Zealand a pilot on an RPL with a drivers licence medical is required to tell his passenger that his certification isn’t up to the same standard as a regular PPL. The pax can make up their own mind if they are happy with the risk. It’s the same involving adventure flights with Australian Warbirds. The passengers are warned the aeroplane doesn’t meet CASA certification standards. The fact hundreds of these flights happen every week without incident shows the risk is pretty low, but CASA is happy to relax their vice-like grip and allow a slightly lower standard of certification providing the passenger and pilot accept there is possibly a slight increase in risk over what a passenger on an airline expects. CASA are examining the results of the discussion paper process regarding medical certification. Since I’ve edited Australian Pilot I’ve seen Avmed run a policy that tries to completely eliminate risk from the process of deciding if a pilot is fit to fly by ignoring what they fly and how often. That has to change. If the risk of a person being incapacitated while driving their private car on an Australian road is low enough that they are allowed to drive, they should be allowed to fly a simple, single engine aeroplane, regardless of weight, over open ground. If they are allowed to accept a permitted risk to fly a Jabiru or ride in an ex-military jet, they should be allowed to take the risk to fly solo over open ground. I have nothing against Jabiru engines and I’ve written about my thoughts on the CASA action in previous editorials. It’s the fact that one part of CASA allows people to decide risk for themselves, and another fiercely protects its turf and seems to be on a crusade to save people from themselves. Interestingly the most dangerous form of transport people use is motorcycles. Much like pilots, people who ride have a passion for their machines they have a hard time explaining. Imagine for a second if the government tried to impose risk mitigation policies that eroded a motorcyclist’s freedom to ride, like we are limited by regulation in our freedom to fly. It’d get very interesting, though there are lots and lots of bike riders, some with colourful arms and names like Slasher and One Hit Harry. They alone would make an interesting lobby group! It’s time to release the shackles that bind private pilots and let us decide whether we are fit to fly on the day. It’s time to let DAMEs make decisions about Class 2s and it’s time to introduce an RPL that CASA Avmed has no say in. Are Canada, New Zealand, the US or even the UK wrong in having a graduated medical system? This shouldn’t be so hard, and it shouldn’t take so long. Let’s get this medical farce fixed, otherwise we’ll keep losing pilots to other pastimes like motorcycles or sailing. I wonder if my wife would let me have a tattoo? Clear Prop. Mark Smith, Editor www.aopa.com.au I AUSTRALIAN PILOT
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Contents » AOPA At Work
Features
Aircraft Review
President’s Report.........................................6
Safety - Emergency Manoeuver Training.......24
Aeropro EuroFOX....................................... 36
Badgery’s Creek latest...............................10
Ron Dickinson – Age is no Barrier..........27
Aviat Husky................................................... 48
What is General Aviation?......................... 12
Aero 17........................................................ 28
Welcome Members..................................... 16
Propellers - More Than Just a Fan
Piper M600................................................... 58
out Front.....................................................32
Calendar of Events
Woman Of Aviation Soars Again......... 40
Events................................................................9
Bobby and the Jets................................. 54 Flying the Sonex...................................... 56
Columns Are You Safe? – Mike Dalton.................... 19
Cover Feature
Two PPLs and aYear with No Flying..... 20
AOPA Aero Team..................................... 42
Letters
Travel Feature
Letters to the Editor................................... 22
Flinders Island, SA....................................52
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Aviat Husky
46
AOPA Aero Team 4
AUSTRALIAN PILOT I www.aopa.com.au
AUSTRALIAN June - July 2017 Vol 70 No 3 Price $7.75 incl GST
MEET OUR FREEDOM TO FLY TEAM
Cover: Nigel Arnot in the SU 26. Photo: Mark Smith
Warbirds
! ar WinIN a ye ays
W nw n Oz Rucriptio subs
Piper M600: Turbine Luxury The Aviat Husky: Bush Flying Fun
» AOPA BOARD: MEET THE NEW DIRECTORS » AOPA PRESENTS LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA AUSTRALIAN WARBIRDS ASSOCIATION • HELICOPTER FRATERNITY
The S.E.5a – WWI’s Spitfire..................... 63 Inside Doug’s Big Shed............................. 68
AOPA – Meet Our New Directors...........72
Membership Marketplace Classifieds......................................................77
AOPA Membership Form Join AOPA for Great Benefits.................. 81
Short Final A Very Memorable Ferry Flight.............. 82
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Flying the Sonex
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The S.E.5a – WWI’s Spitfire www.aopa.com.au I AUSTRALIAN PILOT
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AOPA AT WORK
President’s Report
After the AGM, Its Back to Business Our AGM was held on May 28th at the Sydney Flying Club at Bankstown Airport. A very big thanks to the club’s general manager, Joseph Pilo, and all at SFC for allowing AOPA free access to their facilities. Holding the AGM at an airfield was a good move as it was more convenient for members to fly in. Those who attended the AGM witnessed, in my opinion, a very professionally run event. It was very well-attended compared to previous year and a marked improvement from previous AGMs. We can thank the AOPA team lead by executive director Ben Morgan and very ably assisted by Kristina Brown and Virginia Thornburg for the successful event. I’m pleased to report for the first time since I’ve been associated with AOPA there were more nominations for board positions than seats available. To avoid a formal ballot three of our standing directors retired to make way for new members. I really appreciate their selfless assistance in avoiding a ballot. The new members bring gender and demographic diversity, as well as youth to the board; three important things that have been my priority since taking on the presidency. The retiring directors were Mark Smith, Dr Robert Liddell and Allan Bligh.
Dr Rob Liddell, as a DAME, has brought considerable medical expertise to our board. As a previous principal medical officer at CASA he was without doubt the best head that organisation has had, and was the pioneering doctor who worked through the protocols that now allow many pilots to fly with medical conditions the would have once led them to being grounded permanently. Rob was instrumental in issuing Bob Hoover an Australian Pilots Licence Medical after two FAA officers grounded him on spurious grounds. The FAA’s actions were later overturned in a court case. Bob, regarded as the greatest “stick and rudder man of all time” went on for several more years flying his iconic airshow routine safely and with great precision.
I have asked director, current secretary and past president Phillip Reiss, who has a lot more history on the AOPA Board than I, to formally thank the retiring directors for their service. Thanks Phillip.
Rob has had valuable input into our medical advocacy and the medical policy that we have now put to CASA. He has an extremely busy medical practice in Perth, and at Jandakot Airport, as well as being a very experienced pilot who flies Lear jets and Citations on medical evacuations.
Long serving board members Allan Bligh, Rob Liddell and Mark Smith are standing down at this AGM. Serving on the AOPA Board is a big commitment in time and energy and they have gone above and beyond in their efforts making significant contributions to AOPA during their tenure, and they will be missed.
Finding it increasingly difficult to devote the time necessary to AOPA board duties, he has decided to stand down at this AGM. Rob has served on AOPA board for five years and we have been very fortunate to have has his expertise on tap. His contribution to AOPA has been invaluable and thankfully he will continue to give advice to the association and its members.
Allan stepped into the role of temporary general manager when previous CEO Tim Blatch resigned due to health issues. Allan served in that GM role for six months until a new CEO could be recruited and then joined the board in 2010.
Mark Smith, as editor of our magazine Australian Pilot, has made a good magazine into a great magazine. Arguably the best general aviation magazine on the newsstands and that includes international publications, Mark manages single-handedly to put together an eclectic mix of articles that cover every aspect of GA from certified and sophisticated aircraft to warbirds, antique and light sport plus articles covering advocacy and flying activities.
Coming on board at a difficult time, Allan did a great job assisting us to restructure the office with his background, knowledge and experience of the industry honed by many years in aircraft sales. Allan’s long aviation career heading up the Piper dealership in Australia, and more recently as president of Schofields Aero Club (now Sydney Flying Club) and vice president of The Royal Federation of Aero Clubs (RFAC) in GA, was recognised by his OAM award for services to general aviation. He has been on the AOPA Board for seven years and served as secretary with great humour, which is very necessary at times.
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We have been fortunate to have Allan represent AOPA on a number of government committees and he has been instrumental in raising our profile with all levels of government. Allan’s RFAC commitments and board position with the Sydney Flying Club, the largest flight training school in NSW, is a busy one with increasing responsibilities and we are grateful for the time he has given us and his assurance he will continue to support AOPA.
AUSTRALIAN PILOT I www.aopa.com.au
The added workload of AOPA board activities has increasingly meant that Mark has had to give up weekends and time with his family. He has also has had to divide his time between board and magazine duties. After serving on the AOPA board for two years he has decided to stand down to make way for directors who can devote more time to purely board activities, so he can apply his full concentration to the magazine where he feels best placed to continue his advocacy role on behalf of AOPA.
AOPA AT WORK
Marc De Stoop AOPA President mds@aopa.com.au
Mark is a dedicated advocate for GA in all its forms whether flying his Beech Musketeer with his wife or in his RA-Aus aircraft. He is a keen member of the Antique Aeroplane Association of Australia, RAA and Australian Warbirds. He will continue to attend airshows and club events all over Australia finding stories for our magazine, so his contribution to AOPA will continue. These brief summations of our retiring board don’t do full justice to the efforts that they have made on behalf of AOPA and GA, however they have been and will continue to be part of the AOPA family of aviators who give up their time in a voluntary capacity for the benefit of not just AOPA members, but the whole of GA. We thank them for their service to AOPA and GA. Thank you Phillip for the informative tribute to Allan, Rob and Mark. Going forward I warmly welcome to the board our new directors Aminta Hennessy, Catherine Fitzsimmons, John Glynn, Mike Smith, Dominic James and Phillip Yates. I look forward to working with all new and past directors, for the good of the membership and the revitalisation of general aviation in Australia. The CVs of the new directors are in this edition of AP I have called the new board together in June for a two day conference to develop an AOPA business plan covering the next two years of operations. . The aim is to give the executive a clear set of policy deliverables with guidelines and expectations. The board, along with its traditional governance and fiduciary duties, will monitor the effectiveness of the AOPA Executive delivering outcomes in accordance with the business plan. My plan is not to have the board micromanage the executive. The board must set the agenda and monitor the effectiveness of the executive on delivering that agenda. In previous years our finances were so strained that we could not afford any full-time employees. Thankfully that has now changed with increasing revenues and membership. Don’t get me wrong, we are not flush with funds as yet. We continue to need prudent control of expenditure. We are not out of the financial woods as yet, but we are making a comeback. We have a much improved financial position now than when I started and that is helping us make AOPA a more effective advocacy body. The big issue for me remains regulatory reform. I pulled together our policy agenda in Project Eureka before the last election. Despite a lot of nice Canberra rhetoric we, along with the TAAAF have failed so far in convincing the Coalition to adopt any suitable policy reform. All Minister Chester has done is called
for bureaucratic studies to see if there is a decline in GA activity in Australia. I am however pleased to report that Ben Morgan has managed over the past two months to meet Bill Shorten, Anthony Albanese, One Nation, Team Xenophon, The Greens and also a senior Minister in the Liberal party ( who wishes to remain anonymous given that the Nationals hold the portfolio) . The only political party that refuses to meet Ben are the Nationals. All people or parties Ben has met are considering taking up varying amounts of the Eureka policy framework. Some are cherry picking and some are looking at it in its entirety. But it’s a slow frustrating process where the feeling at times is that you are just getting lip service. It’s basically typical Canberra, filled with red tape, with no sense of urgency whatsoever about the huge problems we face. What is a very common theme from the meetings we’ve had is that AOPA’s high profile media campaign has the potential to deliver votes to each of the parties. Cynical but true. These are their words not mine. It would appear it’s the only way we can get attention and we’ll do whatever it takes to get the decisionmakers to realise these are problems that need addressing now, not in 12 months after three more studies and white papers. One of the most important tasks I want to hand on to new board member Mike Smith is to review and improve Eureka before re-energising our regulatory reform efforts in Canberra. Mike, unfortunately, was recently culled from the CASA DAS/ CEO position. He has an outstanding pedigree of regulatory reform (see his CV). I’m really surprised the CASA Board, who keep saying they’re looking for a reformist DAS, could cut him out so early in the selection process. Even though this is a sad outcome it’s good in one way. It has allowed Mike to sit on our side of the table in Canberra. It will be an interesting time ahead. In closing, I wanted to share an article I read in the American Business Aviation Insider Magazine how the FAA has reformed its culture and dealings with industry. It’s a couple of pages but I urge you all to read it. I hope the DAS interview/selection panel, as well as the CASA Board, read it and I hope one day we have a CASA culture that harmonises us with the FAA.
Marc De Stoop President www.aopa.com.au I AUSTRALIAN PILOT
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