Hi Brian, These accidents have been terrible. The article is clearly going to make some people say "we should just ban these dangerous things, I don't want one crashing into my house". The problem is, a lot of the points made in this beat-up apply to the GFA as well.
*Pilots can fly with a minimum 20 hours' experience and, according to Recreational Aviation Australia, which is responsible for matters relating to ultralight aircraft, students have to pass only two multiple-choice exams and a formal flight test before receiving an RAA Pilot Certificate. No medicals are conducted.* As we all know, the GFA doesn't require medicals either. The multiple choice exams aren't rocket science but were much more difficult then the GFA's - the GFA even gives out the exam beforehand, so it's just a simple memory test. I don't remember ever doing a "formal flight test" to fly gliders. Several accidents are mentioned in the article. From memory, I think some of them involved (please don't sue me if I'm incorrect, I'm only going by what I've read on forums) *A private pilot, possibly with a medical condition, illegally taking up paying passengers *Illegal aerobatics in an ultralight *An unregistered, illegal, thirty year old ultralight whose pilot refused to disclose his identity *A birdstrike The Recreational Flying Forums, http://www.recreationalflying.com.au/forum/ , has a section on incidents and accidents that list many of the above tragedies. An easy way to minimise the number of ultralight accidents would be to require 200 hours of experience before granting a license. That way, most people would say "bugger this" and quit. Not a practical solution. More training could be put in the syllabus, but then you may as well get a PPL (aside from higher costs). Best regards, Al On 9/7/08, Brian Wade <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > There is an article in the Brisbane Sunday Mail today, titled "Dice with > Death" and "Thrill-seekers die as ultralight trend takes off", which cites > seven ultralight accidents. > > It also talks about the recent YAK and the Motor Falke fatalities, but the > emphasis is overwhelmingly on the "minimal" RAA pilot qualifications, and > states that there have been 10 deaths in ultralight crashes in the last 16 > months. > > Food for thought!!! > > Regards > > Brian Wade > > _______________________________________________ > Aus-soaring mailing list > [email protected] > To check or change subscription details, visit: > http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring >
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