martinc Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 AAP April 12, 2009 12:14pm A MAN remains trapped in an ultralight plane that crashed while trying to land at Benalla airfield in Victoria. Police say the plane, carrying a flight instructor and his student, flipped during landing shortly before 11am (AEST). One man believed to be the flight instructor remains trapped. Ambulance Victoria spokesman John Mullen said the man suffered a head injury and would be taken by air ambulance to a Melbourne hospital. A 25-year-old man, understood to be the student, suffered neck and chest injuries and was likely to be taken to a local hospital, Mr Mullen said. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agrajag Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 Poor buggers. Hopefully the hospital trip is just precautionary. I have read that the number of accidents has been going up with GA/RA aircraft although I also read that the number of serious injuries is down. I had my first short-field landings practice a couple of weeks ago, they are the only thing I wasn't looking forward to. Most of them were ok but on my second last landing I forgot that I didn't lower the nose when I cut the throttle to idle. Well, with full flaps I know it drops like a brick so I put the nose down then flared too high (I was in a bit of a panic at that point so my normally smooth inputs went straight out the window). It was all over in like two seconds but I have never bounced her that hard before and hope never to again. When we hit the ground after the first bounce I was facing about 45 degrees off the runway, swearing like a trouper and thankig lady luck I had only git the ground with the mains. If it had of tipped or nosed over we would definately have had a broken aeroplane and been sore. It then really sunk home that even if you have an instructor with you they cannot possibly prevent an accident in all situations. There were no injuries and the plane was ok after my event but it yet again gave me an appreciation for what a good aircraft can put up with! This is where flight sim and real life are _very_ different! Steven. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxter Posted April 12, 2009 Share Posted April 12, 2009 Thanks for the personal viewpoint mate. A salient lesson for us all. Cheers and thanks for the comment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
divad_strebor Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Now I'm angry! I don't know if there's been another crash at benalla, but I doubt it.. I just saw images on the local news of a Piper Pawnee on its lid! It is NOT an ultralight, and it does NOT have two seats!! The bloody media jumping in and filling in bits of the story before the facts become available!! I can't wait to hear the facts on this one.. My personal searching of all the news sites had the learner pilot aged between 19 and 25... And now ultralights have even more of a bad name! Incidentally, rant aside, I've been towed up behind the pawnee I saw on the news.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotspot Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Hi Dave, There may be some two seat pawnees around - the missus tells me she did a Pawnee endorsement at Benalla gliding club in a two seat 235HP pawnee years ago, and used it as a tug when not gliding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
divad_strebor Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Yeah, I watched the full news report, and I think your right.. But it still isn't an ultralight! And ultralights will cop the full brunt of public fury for it thanks to mass media brainlessness! I'm sorry, but these things bug me a bit.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agrajag Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Yeah, I watched the full news report, and I think your right.. But it still isn't an ultralight! And ultralights will cop the full brunt of public fury for it thanks to mass media brainlessness! I'm sorry, but these things bug me a bit.. Yeah. Us ultralight flyers get a bad rap. I regularly hear reports of how we are not-so-well-trained and yet many of the incidents reported as ultralight incidents are actually GA aircraft. Sometimes it is people not knowing any better, other times it is snobbery, it is pretty easy to tell there are some GA elements that aren't happy with how much RA has taken off (pun indended )) and feel an that there is an erosion of the GA scene. The erosion isn't _because_ of RA of course, it is because GA is so darned expensive! Also, when you factor in all the endoresments we need to have the same privileges as a GA pilot we would do just as many hours of training as a GA pilot so it isn't that different, it is just we can do our in steps. I have done two exams so far and have 5 or 6 to go (in the next week or two!) plus the check-ride. You don't pass em if you aren't trained! heh. I guess to the media anything smaller than a 737 is an ultralight these days! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agrajag Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 For those generally interested in air safety, I just noticed that the ATSB have a weekly summary. It includes RA, GA and RPT incidents. It is amazing how many incidents there are a week in Oz. For the week ending 20 March 2009 there are 12 pages of it! There are a lot more bird strikes than I imagined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
divad_strebor Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 There are a lot more bird strikes than I imagined. Yeah, I was talking to a mate of mine a few months ago, and he flew cropdusters for a lot of years.. He casually mentioned something along the lines of "If I never have another birdstrike in the rest of my years of flying, it'll be too soon". I replied "Had a couple then have you?" genuinely expecting to hear 5 or 6, and his reply was "Lost count well into the hundreds." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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