After nearly 10 months PlaneTorque Australia has finally been issued UAV Operator’s Certificate (CASA.UOC.0604).
If you are interested in working together, send us an inquiry and we will get back to you as soon as we can!
A quick one day visit to Sydney as an Expert Witness this week was interesting.
A client sought my services for a helicopter valuation and then to attend the Federal Circuit Court in Sydney as an “Expert Witness”.
After much ado from both legal councils the judge decided I was competent/experienced enough to be considered an expert witness in so far as providing aircraft valuations.
The process was interesting in that the other clients council went to great lengths to discredit me. Given I was sitting but a few meters behind him with no ability to respond I found that part of the process quite stressful.
Then of course he came at me firing both barrels when I finally was seated in the witness chair.
Pretty much like you see on TV from time to time.
A VERY long day. Started in Perth at about 09:30 PM on Wednesday night, arrived Sydney at about 06:30 AM on Thursday morning. Into city on train. Attend court all day. Back out to airport and get back into Perth at about 11:30 PM on Thursday night. Boy did I sleep well.
Some test footage from a training session down at Esperance Stonehenge. Many thanks to Kim and Jillian for allowing us access to their very interesting site.
Esperance Stonehenge – Closer than you think – http://esperancestonehenge.com.au
RMB 4323 Merivale Road
Esperance, WA 6450
The Esperance Stonehenge is the only full size replica of the original Stonehenge in the UK. It appears as the original would have looked around 1950BC.
10 Inner Trilithon Stones form a horseshoe and weigh between 28-50 tonnes each with an 18 tonne lintel laying over each pair reaching a height of 8 metres.
Inside the Trilithon Horseshoe stands another smaller horseshoe of 19 blue stones.
Lying at the base of the tallest Trilithon Stone lies the Altar Stone which weighs 9 tonne.
Outside the Trilithon Horseshoe lies a circle of 40 smaller stones that are referred to as the Bluestone Circle.
The perimeter consists of 30 Sarsen Stones weighing 28 tonnes each with 8 tonne lintels lining the top. Together they reach a height of nearly 5 metres.
The Stonehenge was built to align with the Solstices in Esperance. On the morning of the Summer Solstice (22nd December) the suns rays align with the Station Stones and shine through to the altar stone. The sunset of the Winter Solstice (21st June) repeats the same alignment in reverse.
Well the journey continues. Both Alan & Alister gained their Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) Certificates (They don’t call them licences for RPA’s) in mid January 2016. Our CASA UOC application is now being processed by UAV Office.
PTA has commenced gaining both CASA Remote Pilot Certificates and Operators Certificate. Keep watching this space as we move forwards in the new market.
The audio isn’t the best – Vol up please. The video itself is average but watchable. Jupp’s Inc.
Taking off in any aeroplane the passenger often gives no thought to its ability to leave the ground and arrive safely at its destination, except to worry about the ability of the pilots. Apart from the glamorous jobs at the pointy end, achieving this owes much to the time, work and care committed by the ground engineers.
Today we have a brief look at the contributions made by a family of 4 aircraft engineers – father and 3 sons in a talk by member Alan Jupp. Between them they have about 140 years of combined aircraft maintenance experience around the world – see above.
The talk will cover how their careers developed in their task of looking after aircraft of all types, both civil and military. Also covered is when they joined, as what, where they served/worked (Military and Civil), medals awarded.
Having worked on many different types of aircraft they came upon the good, the bad and the ugly and Alan will cover some maintenance errors they are prepared to admit to.
This talk is illustrated by many photographs including the aircraft worked on, some broken, some not.
There is also a short Pathe News video taken in 1959 where Dad appears, doing what all non-comm types do, opening a door for an officer!
This is a behind the scenes view of the business of maintaining aircraft of many types in many places around the world and ensuring that you and I have the best possible chance of arriving in one piece
This popular tool is now at revision 28.
We are also working on an internet based version that will, when released replace the MSACCESS version. Development costs will though mean the end users will need to pay a small fee to use this application.
