Plane Down at Rottnest
I was due to take a few friends to Rottnest on a Monday morning, but the day before, there was a crash on the island. Fortunately nobody was killed, but it was a pretty bad prang. Completely wrecked a Partenavia.
I cancelled the Monday flight. The wreckage would still be in the shallow lake, while it was being investigated and cleaned up.
I don't think any passengers really want or need to see a torn-up plane wreckage adjacent to the runway as we're coming in on final approach.
I'll be fascinated to see the eventual cause of the crash, if it ever comes out. I read somewhere that because there were no fatalities, this may not be formally investigated.
Red Bull Air Race in town
The Red Bull Air Race came to Perth, for the first time ever.
The city of Perth happens to have a spectacluar river front , just in front of the city. This whole area is accessible to the public, and is used each year as a location for a big fireworks display. You can fit thousands and thousands of people along it.
So it's an ideal location for the air race, with the course set over the river, viewed by the crowds on foreshore. Apparently Perth will be staging this race for several more years. I hope it was successful, and will be kept here in the future. It's an exciting sport - when I see footage of it, I just can't believe the bank angles they get, at that speed, that close to the ground. I get scared just watching how close their wingtips are to the ground.
Unfortunately I didn't get to see it live. We happened to be away over the weekend. The closest I got to the event was going out to Jandakot Airport the Friday before. There were aircraft everywhere - parked in places I'd never seen them parked before. I was worried I'd lose my bay while I was away. Most of them were visitors from all over Australia, who had flown here to watch the race.
This meant that there were lots of pilots rolling in all day, who were not familiar with Jandakot. So it was interesting listening to everyone arriving on the radio. I'll bet the controllers were exhausted by the end of it.
I wonder if this would boost interest in flying. It would be interesting to know whether flying schools got any more enquiries in the weeks following the race.
RV Finished
I mentioned some time ago that Simon, the previous owner of SQB, was building himself an RV7.
Well, now it's complete - check it out.
Simon writes:
"the RV7 is fully operational now and flies like a dream. It is fast and maouverable and tricky to land. Quite the opposite of SQB. The photos were taken by my mate by us forming up on a 172. The tricky part was flying slow enough. The RV does 120 knots at 2000 rpm and 155 at 2450."
More photos, including construction photos, are at http://brommers.bigpondhosting.com/album_1.htm
Congratulations Simon! Building your own aircraft must be a massive undertaking. Now you can reap the rewards of all your effort - happy flying.