Chartair – Aviation Historical Society of Australia

DerekB06/03/202303/06/2023

Aviation Heritage Vol. 54 No. 1 (March 2023) Contents Listing

The latest quarterly edition (March 2023) of the AHSA journal – Aviation Heritage – has recently been posted to members. The full contents are...

1987 Pilot John Wattis made an escape when Cessna U206A VH-RPZ suffered damage during a flight to drop six parachutists from the Commando Skydivers Club near Pakenham, Victoria on 4 January 1987. Two of the parachutists were preparing for a jump in which one pulled the other from the aircraft. During the final stages of the preparation, the reserve parachute of the front jumper prematurely deployed. Both persons were ejected from the aircraft, and the leading jumper struck the tailplane. A portion of the horizontal stabiliser was torn off and the aircraft pitched down beyond the vertical. The pilot was unable to regain any control, and, with some difficulty, abandoned the aircraft. He deployed his parachute at about 500 feet above the ground, and landed safely. The parachutist who had struck the tailplane was initially rendered unconscious, and had suffered a broken right arm. She recovered sufficiently to deploy her main parachute and control her descent when close to the ground. The aircraft was destroyed when it impacted the ground in a steep nose-down attitude at high speed. The inadvertent deployment of the reserve parachute was probably caused by the body movements of the parachutist as she moved to her jump position outside the aircraft. The most likely explanation for the inadvertent deployment was that either the securing pins were not engaged correctly or that the rip chord was too short. The rip chord was not recovered. Wattis stated "I instinctively struggled with the controls for a few seconds, but realised it was useless. I knew almost straight away my only option was to get out - it was either that or die. The plane was upside down and I was being thrown around inside - it was extremely difficult to get out of the plane. It wasn't until the parachute opened that I felt relieved. I've never jumped before and realised that if I hit the ground hard, I could easily break my leg. But I knew that at least I would be alive and a broken leg was a much better prospect than death". Source: ATSB Aviation Safety Investigation Report 198701414; The Age 5 January 1987.

Photo credit: Roland Jahne

2020 Urgent approvals for firefighting aircraft were announced on 4 January 2020, as Australia grappled with a devastating bushfire season. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that the Government was preparing to lease additional waterbombing aircraft for the states and territories to deploy in firefighting efforts. The additional units would comprise two long-range fixed-wing aircraft (DC-10s) with 36,000 litres capacity, and two medium-range fixed-wing large air tankers with 11,000 litres capacity. Source: transparency.gov.au website